4 Thursday, July 14, 2016 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com OPINION LARA MOEHLMAN EDITOR IN CHIEF JEREMY KAPLAN EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR BRADLEY WHIPPLE MANAGING EDITOR 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. The shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile have, yet again, sparked Black Lives Matter protests across the country, as well as in our own backyard. A candlelight vigil was held Thursday evening in the Diag for Sterling and Castile. As many as 200 community members marched through Ann Arbor Saturday afternoon and almost 1000 marched Wednesday night to protest police brutality and support the Black Lives Matter movement. The many voices crying out for justice have proven that police violence is an issue worth discussing to Ann Arbor citizens. As we see more of these voices of the Black Lives Matter movement and others speak out, we also see the formation of new policy platforms that hope to mitigate police brutality. For instance, “Campaign Zero,” which aims to create a world where “police don’t kill people,” has proposed a multitude of practical solutions. Among them is the notion of increasing community oversight of police officers. Policies like this one would greatly help to reduce the countless tragic, police-related deaths and should be enacted to ensure the safety and well being of all individuals. A proactive approach to police oversight FROM THE DAILY KEVIN SWEITZER Perez for VP W ith the conclusion of the 2016 presidential primaries, presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has turned her attention toward presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and the November showdown that awaits them. While the 2016 election cycle has proven itself to be anything but normal, America finds itself at a crossroads once again: one key milestone remains that still mirrors the bygone days of presidential election campaigning. The “veepstakes,” as they are so cleverly called by many a political pundit, is the mandatory process of choosing a vice presidential candidate to run and campaign with the nominee. As the name suggests, this process is more of a sweepstakes than it is about political clout, as the vice president rarely carries as much responsibility or respect as the president. In the early days of this nation, the vice president was chosen as the second-place finisher in the general election. As one can easily imagine, this did not work out well, and as the two party system emerged, the parties started nominating their own candidates for vice president. This election year is no different, and despite all of the calamity associated with the election, Clinton will choose a Vice President. Every four years, pundits across the nation talk about the benefits of every political player for vice president. However, at the end of the day, the role of the vice president is someone who can advise the president, serve in the cabinet and perform the duties of the president in the case of the president’s departure from office. The last thing that Clinton needs when campaigning against Trump is another boring white man from Ohio (sorry, Sherrod Brown) or another lifelong politician with a history of shady contributions (sorry, Tim Kaine). Additionally, she cannot afford to risk flipping a Senate seat to the Republicans in a swing state (sorry, Cory Booker). Even worse would be an inexperienced or potentially unprepared politician who may not be able to perform the duties of vice president (sorry, Julian Castro). The only person fit for the current political climate of 2016 is someone who can use economic experience to appeal to everyday Americans, while understanding the complex social identity issues that are present in our nation today. That’s why I urge Hillary Clinton to choose the Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez as her vice presidential nominee in 2016. The son of Dominican immigrants, the Harvard educated Tom Perez spent much of his young life in the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice, working primarily in the areas of migrant worker exploitation and hate crime prosecution. Once he jumped into the political landscape, he served as the director of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation before becoming the head of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. Perez isn’t simply a Latina/o person who will fire up the base, he is an avid fighter for civil rights and the rights of working Americans. As assistant attorney general, he led many investigations into police violence and LGBT access to education, both of which are extremely important issues in our nation today. As Secretary of Labor, he has been seen as a progressive leader, and has the support of many organized labor groups, including the largest congress of trade unions, the AFL-CIO. Clinton can work to repair any hard feelings with the Bernie Sanders camp by choosing a progressive labor leader as her running mate. Perez has spent his entire career fighting for what is right and what is just. This is the exact type of leadership that Clinton hopes to have and can work towards with Perez. By choosing Tom Perez as her running mate, Hillary Clinton will be cementing her candidacy as the candidacy of equality, fairness and the rights of all Americans. She already has the foreign policy and economic experience to be a great leader, and can use Perez’s experience in civil rights advocacy and labor relations to address the key social issues of importance to our country. Donald Trump is not a traditional presidential candidate, and the 2016 election is one of the most nontraditional elections of all time. If Clinton wants to win in November, she must do her best to ensure that her entire campaign is on the same page and has the same goals in mind. Clinton/Perez 2016 will do just that, and is the best team to defeat Trump in November. —Kevin Sweitzer can be reached at ksweitz@umich.edu. Baton Rouge, St. Paul, Staten Island and Ferguson. These are the names of cities that have suffered from extreme police brutality. But what about Ann Arbor? In the November of 2014, Aura Rosser, a 40-year-old Black woman, was fatally shot by an Ann Arbor police officer when she reportedly would not put down a knife aimed at the officer. The officer involved in the shooting, David Ried, was not indicted, though many local residents criticized the apparent lack of transparency of the investigation — similar to national speculation surrounding transparency in police misconduct cases. Though the details of the Rosser shooting contain far fewer egregious actions on the part of the police compared to these other cases, lessons can still be learned from the judgment of the police. One of these lessons should be that civilians must be involved in the response to incidents such as this, just as “Campaign Zero” recommends. In March, the Ann Arbor City Council voted to consider a set of recommendations put forth by the Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission. One of the recommendations — to increase civilian oversight — has been opposed by Police Chief Jim Baird, for the time being. One of the Human Rights Commission’s recommendations was the use of an independent auditor to review the Ann Arbor Police Department’s policies and practices regarding misconduct — a process Baird would like a report from before enabling civillian oversight. As the current conversation stands, the civillian oversight committee would — independently of the Police Department — review complaints against police officers. Shooting after shooting has proven there is no time to wait. While we understand the desire to table the topic of a civilian oversight committee, the wellbeing of citizens should be a proactive matter, not a reactive one, and discussion on how a potential oversight committee would function should continue. Police brutality has happened and will continue to happen in every city across the nation, including our own, until we take a stand against violence. Let’s have this conversation now, in our own town, to ensure these tragic shootings do not continue to occur in our communities in the near or distant future. Ensuring safety and justice under the law for all citizens demands a call to action. Let Ann Arbor be the example the nation so desperately needs; let’s be the change. Roland Davidson, Caitlin Heenan, Elena Hubbell, Jeremy Kaplan, Madeline Nowicki, Kevin Sweitzer, Brooke White. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS