ELECTION SPECIAL: Kamala Harris

 “My mother had a saying: 'Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you're not the last.”

Slightly different, as I’ve never done a living woman on this page before. However, it’s nice to witness history being made so I thought for once why not make a first-hand account for future herstorians to work with.

CHILDHOOD PART 1

Kamala Devi Harris (born 1964) is an American politician, lawyer and soon-to-be vice president of the United States of America. In January 2021, she will serve alongside President Joe Biden of the Democrats.

Harris was born in California on 20^th October 1964. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was an Indian immigrant who held a PhD in biology and whose work on the progesterone receptor gene stimulated work in breast cancer research.  Her father, Donald J. Harris, is also a PhD, and works as an economics professor at Stanford. He arrived in the US from Jamaica in 1961. They had two daughters, and the family grew up in a significantly black area of California.

Harris joined kindergarten as part of Berkeley's comprehensive desegregation program to Thousand Oaks Elementary School, a public school in a more prosperous neighbourhood. Originally 95% white, the programme changed the school to 40% black. She regularly attended an African American Church with a neighbour, was also well-versed in Hindu mythology and often accompanied her mother to temple where she would sing. (1/10)

CHILDHOOD PART 2

“I believe that a child going without an education is a crime.”

As children, she and her sister visited their mother's family in Chennai several times. She credited her maternal grandfather with having a positive influence on her – he was a retired Indian civil servant whose progressive views on democracy and women's rights left a lasting impression.  Harris has remained in touch with her Indian and Jamaican family throughout her life.

When Harris was seven, her parents divorced, and at the age of 12 she moved to Quebic with her family mother where she attended a French-speaking school. She spoke of being segregated from white children in her father’s neighbourhood who were not allowed to play with her when she visited him.

Harris attended the historically-black Howard University in Washington DC. She simultaneously worked in a mail room, chaired the economics society, led the debate team and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. In 1986, Harris graduated with a degree in political science and economics.

Harris then returned to California to attend law school at the University of California. She served as president of its chapter of the Black Law Students Association. She graduated in 1989 and was admitted to the California Bar a year later. (2/10)

CAREER PART 1

“Don't pretend that you can just be oblivious to politics. You can't. What you never do is break your personal code. Have a code and keep it. You should never compromise what your priorities are.”

Harris was immediately hired as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California, where she was noted as being "an able prosecutor on the way up". In February 1998, San Francisco district attorney Terence Hallinan recruited Harris as an assistant district attorney. There, she became the chief of the Career Criminal Division, prosecuting homicide, burglary, robbery, and sexual assault cases. In August 2000, Harris took a new job in San Francisco running the Family and Children's Services Division representing child abuse and neglect cases.

In 2002, Harris prepared to run for District Attorney of San Francisco against Hallinan (the incumbent) and Bill Fazio. Harris was the least-known of the three candidates, but beat the competition. She was sworn in on January 3, 2011; she is the first woman, the first African American, and the first South Asian American to hold the office of Attorney General in the state's history.

On November 12, 2008, Harris announced her candidacy for California attorney general. She was the favourite to win from the early days of her campaign. In February 2016, the California Democratic Party voted at its convention to endorse Harris, who received nearly eighty percent of the vote. On July 19, she was endorsed by President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Harris faced congresswoman and fellow Democrat Loretta Sanchez in the general election. In the November 2016 election, Harris won, and immediately promised to protect immigrants from the policies of President Donald Trump and announced her intention to remain Attorney General through the end of 2016. At Trump’s impeachment in 2020, Harris addressed Senate at reminded them that no one should be above the law, even the president. Harris voted to convict the president on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, but alas was unsuccessful.

In January 2019, Harris formally announced her run for the Democratic nomination for president. She was seen as a forerunner in the race, and in the first 24 hours after her announcement, she tied a record set by Bernie Sanders in 2016 for the most donations raised in the day following an announcement. More than 20,000 people attended her formal campaign launch event. (3/10)

CAREER PART 2

“What's important for my daughter to know is that... if you are fortunate to have opportunity, it is your duty to make sure other people have those opportunities as well.”

During the first Democratic presidential debate in June 2019, Harris scolded former vice president Joe Biden for "hurtful" remarks he made regarding integration efforts in the 70s. Harris's support rose by between six and nine points in polls following that debate. In the second debate in August, Harris was confronted by Biden over her record as Attorney General. In the immediate aftermath, Harris fell in the polls following that debate. At a time when liberals were increasingly concerned about the excesses of the criminal justice system, Harris faced criticism from reformers for tough-on-crime policies she pursued while she was California's attorney general. On December 3, 2019, Harris withdrew from seeking the 2020 Democratic nomination, citing a shortage of funds. In March 2020, Harris endorsed Joe Biden for president, showing that their relationship recovered from their previous issues.

In late February, Biden won a landslide victory in the 2020 South Carolina Democratic primary. In early March, Clyburn suggested Biden choose a black woman as a running mate, commenting that "African American women needed to be rewarded for their loyalty." In March, Biden committed to choosing a woman for his running mate. In late May, following the death of George Floyd and ensuing BLM demonstrations, Biden announced that he had chosen Harris. She is the first African American, the first Indian American, and the third woman to be picked as the vice-presidential nominee for a major party.

Following the election of Joe Biden as President of the United States, Harris is expected to make history when she assumes office as the first female Vice President of the United States in January 2021. (4/10)

PROSECUTION AND CRIME

“I often advocate that we look at many sides of an issue, walk in someone else's shoes, and identify and reject false choices.”

-        Became the first person of color elected as district attorney of San Francisco – following which the conviction rate raised by 26%.

-        Obtained more than 1900 convictions for marijuana offenses but ensured jailtime for them was rare

-        From 2004 to 2006, achieved an 87 percent conviction rate for homicides and a 90 percent conviction rate for all felony gun violations.

-        pushed for higher bail for criminal defendants involved in gun-related crimes, tightened legal loopholes, sought minimum 90-day sentences for possession of concealed or loaded weapons, and charged all assault weapons possession cases as felonies

-        pledged never to seek the death penalty as she believed life imprisonment without parole is a better and more cost-effective punishment than the death penalty

-        worked against companies including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google in order to protect users’ privacy and online safety. 

-        cleared California's entire DNA backlog for the first time in history, winning the U.S. Department of Justice's Award for Professional Innovation in Victim Services.

-        signed an accord with the attorney general of Mexico to improve coordination of law enforcement resources targeting transnational gangs engaging in the sale and trafficking of human beings across the San Ysidro border crossing.

-        Issued a report titled, "Gangs Beyond Borders: California and the Fight Against Transnational Crime" addressing the prominent role of drug, weapons, and human trafficking, money laundering, and technology crimes employed by various drug cartels and offering recommendations for state and local law enforcement to combat the criminal activity.

-        led a cross-party delegation of state attorneys general to Mexico City to discuss transnational crime with Mexican prosecutors and chaired a summit focussed on technological ways to combat transnational crime.

-        broke up a massive identity theft and tax fraud scam perpetrated by Crips: 32 members charged with 283 counts of criminal conspiracy, 299 counts of identity theft, and 226 counts of grand theft, amounting to over $3.3 million stolen by an identity theft scheme and $11 million stolen by a tax fraud scheme.

-        wide-sweeping arrests of more than fifty members of the Mexican Mafia, seizing more than sixty firearms, more than $95,000 in cash, and $1.6 million worth of drugs. (5/10)

RACE part one

“I'm opposed to any policy that would deny in our country any human being from access to public safety, public education, or public health, period.”

In 2014, Harris introduced OpenJustice, a criminal justice data initiative making available statewide data on arrest rates, deaths in law enforcement custody, arrest-related deaths, and law enforcement deaths. These blew open revelations about racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

In 2004, Harris worked with civil rights activist Lateefah Simon to create San Francisco Reentry Division. The flagship program was the Back on Track initiative, a first-of-its-kind reentry program for first-time nonviolent offenders age 18–30. Those charged with non-weapon or gang-related crimes could plead guilty in exchange for a deferral of sentence. The program maintained rigorous graduation requirements including 220 hours of community service, obtaining a high-school-equivalency diploma, maintaining steady employment, taking parenting classes, and passing drug tests. After graduation, the court would dismiss the case and expunge the graduate's record. Over six years, the 200 people graduated from the program had a reoffending rate of less than 10%, compared with 53% of wider offenders. This became a model for reformation programmes, especially as it was so much cheaper than imprisoning low-level offenders. In 2009, a state law encouraged California counties to start similar programs. Subsequently, prosecutor offices in Baltimore, Philadelphia, LA, and Atlanta have used Back on Track as a template for their own programs. (6/10)

RACE PART 2

“This virus has no eyes, and yet it knows exactly how we see each other—and how we treat each other. And let's be clear—there is no vaccine for racism. We've gotta do the work. For George Floyd. For Breonna Taylor. For the lives of too many others to name. For our children. For all of us.”

In 2015, Harris conducted a 90-day review of implicit bias in policing and police use of deadly force. In April 2015, Harris introduced the first of its kind "Principled Policing: Procedural Justice and Implicit Bias" training, designed in conjunction with Stanford University psychologist and professor Jennifer Eberhardt, to help police achieve neutral policing and rebuild trust between law enforcement and the community. All Command-level staff received the training, though given recent events its clear this was a limited success. The training was part of a package of reforms that also included increased recruitment of diverse special agents, an expanded role for the department to investigate officer-related shooting investigations and community policing. The same year, Harris's  became the first statewide agency in the country to require all its police officers to wear body cameras. She also implemented a new state law requiring every police force in California to collect, report, and publish expanded statistics on how many people are shot, seriously injured or killed by peace officers throughout the state.

In 2016, Harris announced a patterns and practices investigation into purported civil rights violations and use of excessive force by the two largest law enforcement agencies in Kern County, California.

Harris was one of the most outspoken opponents of Trump’s “Muslim Ban” and she also questioned Mark Zuckerberg and Christopher Wylie on reports that Cambridge Analytica misappropriated the data from 87 million Facebook users to suppress the votes of African Americans and the extent to which Facebook violated the privacy of its users.

In May, Harris heatedly questioned Secretary Nielsen about the Trump administration family separation policy, under which children were separated from their families when the parents were taken into custody for illegally entering the U.S. In June, after visiting one of the detention facilities near the border in San Diego, Harris became the first senator to demand Nielsen's resignation. (7/10)

LGBT

“The bells will ring and the marriages will begin. And it's a great day in our state for equal protection under the law for all people.”

Harris created a Hate Crimes Unit, focusing on hate crimes against LGBT children and teens in schools. In 2006, Gwen Araujo, a 17-year-old American Latina transgender teenager, was murdered by two men who later used the "gay panic defense". Harris, alongside Araujo's mother, convened a two-day conference of at least 200 prosecutors and law enforcement officials nationwide to discuss strategies to counter such legal defenses. Harris subsequently supported A.B. 1160, the Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act, advocating that California's penal code include jury instructions to ignore bias, sympathy, prejudice, or public opinion in making their decision, also making mandatory for district attorney's offices in California to educate prosecutors about panic strategies and how to prevent bias from affecting trial outcomes. In September 2006, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed A.B. 1160 into law; the law put California on record as declaring it contrary to public policy for defendants to be acquitted or convicted of a lesser included offense on the basis of appeals to "societal bias".

In 2008, California voters passed Prop 8, a state constitutional amendment providing that only marriages "between a man and a woman" are valid. After being elected, Harris declared her office would not defend the marriage ban. In February 2013, Harris filed an amicus curiae brief, arguing Prop 8 was unconstitutional. In June 2013, the Supreme Court ruled, 5–4, that Prop 8's proponents lacked legal standing to defend it in federal court. The next day Harris delivered a speech in downtown Los Angeles urging the lifting of the banning of same-sex marriages as soon as possible. The stay was lifted two days later. In 2014, Attorney General Kamala Harris co-sponsored legislation to ban the gay and trans panic defense in court, which passed and California became the first state with such legislation. (8/10)

ENVIRONMENT

Harris prioritized environmental protection as attorney general, first securing a $44 million settlement to resolve all damages and costs associated with the Cosco Busan oil spill. In the aftermath of the 2015 Refugio oil spill, Harris toured the coastline and directed her office's resources and attorneys to investigate possible criminal violations.

From 2015 to 2016, Harris secured multiple multi-million-dollar settlements with fuel service companies to resolve allegations they failed to properly monitor the hazardous materials in its underground storage tanks used to store gasoline for retail sale at hundreds of California gas stations. In summer 2016, automaker Volkswagen AG agreed to pay up to $14.7 billion to settle a raft of claims related to so-called "defeat devices" used to cheat emissions standards on its diesel cars while actually emitting up to forty times the levels of harmful nitrogen oxides allowed under state and federal law. (9/10)

FEMINISM

“No woman should be told she can't make her own decisions about her body. If women's reproductive rights come under attack, I will be standing up for women.”

-        obtained a guilty plea and a four-year prison sentence from a stalker who used Facebook and social engineering techniques to illegally access the private photographs of women whose social media accounts he hijacked.

-        created the eCrime Unit within the California Department of Justice, a 20-attorney unit specifically targeting technology crimes.

-        In 2015, several purveyors of so-called "revenge porn" sites based in California were arrested, charged with felonies, and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. In the first prosecution of its kind in the United States, Kevin Bollaert was convicted on 21 counts of identity theft and six counts of extortion and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

-        In December, Harris called for the resignation of Senator Al Franken, asserting on Twitter, "Sexual harassment and misconduct should not be allowed by anyone and should not occur anywhere."

-        participated in questioning the FBI director's limited scope of the investigation on Kavanaugh regarding allegations of sexual assault. She voted against his confirmation.

“What I want young women and girls to know is: You are powerful and your voice matters. You're going to walk into many rooms in your life and career where you may be the only one who looks like you or who has had the experiences you've had. But you remember that when you are in those rooms, you are not alone. We are all in that room with you applauding you on. Cheering your voice. And just so proud of you. So you use that voice and be strong.” (10/10)