Civil Saturdays
What are Civil Saturdays?
Civil Saturdays are a weekly youth-led protest held every Saturday calling for the amendment of PA Section 508,the Use of force law in Pennsylvania.
What is wrong with Section 508?
The language of this law creates a subjective standard. Whether or not an officer is justified in his use of deadly force comes down to the question of what that particular officer believes. The problem with this standard is that it creates a permission structure for police to use deadly force whenever they see fit. Furthermore, it allows an officer’s personal biases into the equation of whether the use of deadly force is justified.
What we want?
We want this to be changed to an objective standard, that an officer has to have reasonable, so PA can take its first step to increase Police Accountability.
Civil Saturdays are a weekly youth-led protest held every Saturday calling for the amendment of PA Section 508,the Use of force law in Pennsylvania.
What is wrong with Section 508?
The language of this law creates a subjective standard. Whether or not an officer is justified in his use of deadly force comes down to the question of what that particular officer believes. The problem with this standard is that it creates a permission structure for police to use deadly force whenever they see fit. Furthermore, it allows an officer’s personal biases into the equation of whether the use of deadly force is justified.
What we want?
We want this to be changed to an objective standard, that an officer has to have reasonable, so PA can take its first step to increase Police Accountability.
Photo by: Shane Berman