“With the pandemic we’ve become ever more isolated from one another and I think that the more that we connect with each other and we interact with each other close ultimately indirectly the safer we are because we have better stronger connections to each other” said Kimberly Graham a Democratic Candidate running for the Polk County Attorney’s office.
During the summer of 2020 the Polk County attorney’s office gathered a lot of attention and made headline news for the events of 2020. Currently in office is John Sacrone who has been in office for 3 decades.
Within those 3 decades Sacrone gathered a lot of media attention after trying to take a Journalist of Color to trial. Andrea Sahouri, a Journalist who was reporting for the Des Moines Register, was arrested during the events of the protest.
“There were about 130 journalists arrested during all the protests last summer and only one only one went to trial in the United States of America that is far as I know and that was Andrea Sahouri” said Graham. Sacrone is not going to run for the Polk County Attorney’s office.
“That case should never ever have been taken to trial…” said Graham
Graham continued“…some parts of the trial and in the closing argument the assistant County attorney and I’m again paraphrasing, but said something like this to the jury ladies and gentlemen I know our evidence isn’t very strong and then to me I’m thinking then why are you standing there sir in front of a jury”
After Sacrones 3 decades of service Graham expressed what type of action there should be in this position
“This is an important position of public service and you need to be out and available to the public and be willing to listen to the public. It’s incredibly important that we protect People’s First Amendment rights to protest and so our office would be making sure that happened…” said Graham
Graham continues “…one important thing a lot of people don’t know unless they studying criminal law; a lot of people don’t understand that the other call district attorney in other states have an immense amount of unilateral power so they can decide what to charge, who not charge, what not to charge and they have the unilateral power to do that so the police can make an arrest and then those charges come to the county attorney’s office. ”
Graham sees a lot of importance in this position. The first thing Graham would do would be making sure that rapekits are being processed. There are currently 1,600 rap kits that still need to be tested in Iowa.
“The kits are literally sitting on shelves and they’re not being processed, they’re not analyzing the DNA and trying to match it to a National Database…” said Graham
Graham continued “…the reason that’s important is because if we do that then we can prevent future sexual assault because a decently large percentage of people who commit sexual assault are serial sexual assaulters rights they repeat that many times”
Graham’s priorities also want to immediately stop prosecuting low-level possession of marijuama.
“The overall trend in this nation is for it to be legalized and it’s certainly legalized and a lot of other developed Nation that’s just to me that doesn’t make our Country any safer” said Graham
Graham has been making a presence to several public events in the community. She would like to continue to make her presence known.
“The Polk County Attorney’s Office needs to do outreach to communities of color to make absolutely sure that the people in those communities understand that they are safe to come to the Polk County Attorney’s Office…” said Graham
Graham continues “…We just want to make absolutely sure that people [LatinX Community] understand that if they want to visit with the Polk County Attorney’s Office that they are going to be safe to do so.”
Graham wants to continue to show her visibility and be present in the community of Polk County. Planning Intentionally to be in the community and being present.
“My overarching goal is to help create more of a sense of community by creating this connection between the Polk County Attorney’s Office and all of these various communities in Polk County we’re actually an incredibly diverse County the most diverse county in the state…” said Graham
Graham continues “…We need to make sure that everyone feels safe and included in the Justice system and everyone still feels heard and the justice system and I think that we’ve got quite a ways to go to make that happen, but we can. We just need to have someone leading in the office to make that a priority”
To learn more about Graham’s campaign for Polk County Attorney’s office visit her website for more information.
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