Guest Opinion | Councilmember John J. Kennedy: ‘The George Floyd Development Plan for America’

Executive Order/Statement from the White House and or Laws Promulgated by the U.S. Congress or both –

Reform all policing agencies in the United States by:

1. Demilitarizing;
2. Rewriting general and specific orders and other policies in a manner where the sanctity and preservation of human life is paramount;
3. Making deescalation a core tenet;
4. Instituting comprehensive non-lethal equipment to arrest and or detain suspects, with use of deadly force as a last resort;
5. Requiring annual intensive and extensive proven implicit bias training;
6. Establishing appropriate protocols to release to the public the disciplinary records of all police officers; and
7. Establishing true civilian oversight (An analogous relationship, in part, is the civilian oversight of the Defense Department.

All children in the U.S are entitled to a free quality public education to the age of 22, encompassing Junior College, or Trade  School or 4-year Degree.

Payment of complete reparations to indigenous peoples in the U.S. and to the descendants of the enslaved Africans in the U.S. and it’s territories (Robert Johnson, former Chairman and CEO of BET, places that number at $17 Trillion USD.). (It’s a discussion point, even if reparations are not at the top of the list, it must be on the list. However, the number one priority must be education.)

Spending of $1 Trillion dollars of taxpayer money over a 5-year period investing in Black communities and communities of color:

1. No interest loans;
2. Establish the low and moderate housing trust fund to build safe, clean and affordable housing;
3. Land grants to descendants of African slaves, in similar fashion that white peasants and white indentured servants received; and
4. Federal law requiring that 30 percent of all financial services jobs, horizontally and vertically, be filled by African Americans by 2030 and graduated tax incentives to businesses who fulfill the obligation sooner.

Universal Voting option by mail-in ballot.

This would be an excellent start for AMERICA to deal with and overcome its Original Sin!  It would be emblematic and appropriate to name the effort in honor of George Floyd, who showed the world a snippet of the unfairness African Americans and other ethnic groups have endured over the past 450 years in the Americas and several hundred years in the United States of AMERICA.

Isaiah 53:5 World English Bible

But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.

John 14:12 World English Bible

Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father.

This we can, must, do in memory of George Floyd.