“Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors on Friday penned an OpEd in Teen Vogue calling for the next president to back the BREATHE Act, something she calls ‘modern-day civil rights legislation.’ Of course, the major backers behind the legislation are Squad members Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). Here’s what she said the legislation does: ‘It starts by divesting federal resources from vehicles of harm and punishment like policing and incarceration. That means slashing enormous police budgets. That means decriminalizing drug use and repealing other federal laws that have for too long been used to disproportionately criminalize Black women, children, and families. BREATHE will put us on the road to police and prison abolition, letting our loved ones out of federal prison and immigration detention facilities.’ According to the proposal, the BREATHE Act would: (1) Dramatically change policing by outlawing ‘tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper bullets, pepper spray, flash bangs, long range acoustic devices (LRADs), Stingrays, lasers,’ and any other ‘less than lethal’ forms of crowd control as well as drones, body cameras, tasers and facial recognition software. (2) Prohibit law enforcement agencies from having joint task forces (like drug enforcement, border enforcement and gang enforcement). (3) No law enforcement officers on public or private schools, colleges and universities, medical facilities, courthouses at every level, Social Security offices or Congressional district offices. (4) Reduce nationwide prison populations across the country by at least 50 percent in five years and ‘complete decarceration’ within 10 years.”
“BLM Co-Founder Calls on Biden,” Townhall, Nov. 21, 2020