Thin Blue Lie Series - Sharon's Story

Editor's note: Thin Blue Lie is a series telling the stories of families who experienced the systemic police practice of coercively interrogating families moments after killing their loved ones, in an attempt to gain evidence to justify the killing. The series is made in support of new legislation AB 572 that would end this practice. In this episode of the Thin Blue Lie Series, we hear the story of Sharon Watkins from San Jose, CA.

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Assembly Bill 572 will require peace officers, prosecuting attorneys, or investigators, prior to interviewing the family of a loved one who has been killed or severely injured by a peace officer, to inform the family of their loved one's status and provide the family with information that could protect them from a coercive interrogation.

Moments after loved ones are injured or killed by police, families are often "interviewed" by police who intentionally withhold the information that their relative was dead until the end of the "interview." What was initially thought of as an isolated experience by families during some of the darkest moments of their lives turned out to be a police interrogation tactic espoused by a private company called Lexipol that trains police officers on how to squeeze information from families to protect police from lawsuits and criminal charges. The bill AB 572 comes directly from the experiences of SV De-Bug families who have lost loved ones to police.

For more information on AB 572 visit https://www.protectyourpeoplesj.org/a...