America needs to change its system of policing and focus on training and “implicit bias” in law enforcement, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris told a town hall audience in Sacramento on Thursday in the aftermath of the death of Stephon Clark, the 22-year-old unarmed African American man who was shot and killed by police March 18.
“There is no question that this was a life that should not have been lost, that this is a life that should not have been ended,” Harris told a crowd of about 650 people at Unity of Sacramento, a nondenominational church in the La Riviera area of Sacramento County. “I grieve with this community … My heart breaks for what has happened.”
Harris, a former prosecutor who served nearly eight years as California’s attorney general, called for “leadership” on criminal justice and changing America’s system of policing.
“There is a lot of work that needs to be done,” Harris said. “I think about it not only in the context of Sacramento but I think about it in the context of those people who are at the highest levels of leadership.”
