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We’ve all watched helplessly as Mr. George Floyd was murdered in front of us on video. Some of us have taken to the streets to protest his death at the hands of a police officer, the very person that should have been saving his life, not taking it. We all agree with the horror and outrage of it, but not with the violence that has broken out at some of the protests, but one thing we do agree on is that we want change. We, as human beings and Americans, do not want to see another black man, woman, or child hurt because of the color of their skin, especially not by the police who are supposed to serve and protect us all. How do we bring about real change? First we protest, and then we vote for the change we want to make. We vote in people that will monitor the police and make sure an officer with as many complaints against him as, the policeman who killed Mr. Floyd would have been fired long ago. (I purposefully did not use the policeman’s name here, because I don’t want to put his name in the same sentence with George Floyd.)

I thought we’ll vote in better people to the senate and the congress, and of course the presidency. I mean those are the elected officials that will help us make sure this never happens again, right? Actually, that’s not right. In fact congress, the senate, and the president have very little impact on local police, or any local politics really. You know those little, local elections that most of us skip? Those are where the power to change city and county police reside in your city, my city, our counties, all of it. I was shocked to find out how much power aldermen have. If you already knew this, you’re ahead of me and you can skim for a bit, but for the rest of us, let’s learn together.

It’s the Mayor and aldermen, or a committee that they put together, that hires or appoints the Chief of Police, or Police Commissioner. If you want a committee to oversee police and race relations in your area, it’s the Mayor or usually an alderman who chooses the people that will review any complaints. In some cities the Mayor has almost nothing to do with the police and it’s mostly done by the alderman, but look up how your city and county are organized, because it varies.

There are some cities where you can vote for Sheriff, or Chief of Police, or Commissioner, but it’s more typical that we get to vote for the people that appoint them. Check how it works in your local area, so you’ll know where your vote can count the most to bring about the changes you want at a local level like city and county police.

We will be voting in our county municipal elections tomorrow, so if you live in St. Louis County this is your chance to vote for Mayor, alderman, municipal bonds that can help fund everything from schools to sewer improvement for your city. Please check your own city and county for the local elections so that you can help choose who is in charge of your local police, or who sets policy for them.

We’re voting as a family tomorrow, and we’ll be paying a lot more attention to our aldermen and all the smaller local politicians than we ever did before, because they are the politicians that will help us make sure that we don’t have to have slogans like, Black Lives Matter, because it will be a given, a surety that the color of a person’s skin will not matter to the police or anyone else, because we are all in this together, and together is how we can make the changes we all want.