Charles believes that every community in our commonwealth deserves true community safety. We are reminded nearly every day of the failures that our current system produces – unarmed Black men and women shot by police, children caught in the crossfire of gun violence, mom and pop stores held up at gunpoint by a person who has only known poverty their entire lives.
To truly realize community safety, we must have leadership at the federal level that will provide the resources and ability to address the root causes of crime, and align policies and money with our hearts. This means we must stop criminalizing poverty and drug use. This means we must ensure families have financial freedom and security to pursue economic opportunities that don’t reinforce violent outcomes. This means that we must fully fund alternatives to policing when appropriate. As Senator, Charles will stand with the expanded Democratic majority to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, end qualified immunity, ban no knock warrants, and lead for investments in the social determinants of health to address violence as a public health crisis.
