John,

Sonya Massey should still be alive. Last month, after Sonya called 911 for help, a police officer killed her in her home. Too many Black Americans, including Black women and girls like Sonya Massey and Breonna Taylor and Detroit’s Aiyana Mo'Nay Stanley-Jones, have been killed by racist police in their homes.

To cover up their killing of Sonya, police at first lied to her family and others, blaming a neighbor and then saying she killed herself. A doctor’s homicide ruling and their own bodycam footage revealed the truth. Sonya’s father said: “If it were not for that camera footage… they would have lied their way right out of this.”

Police regularly lie to hide their state-funded violence and to coerce people into false confessions. For example, after police used coercive tactics to get false confessions from Black and brown teenagers known as the Central Park Five, the young people were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for years.

Children and adolescents are particularly susceptible to police coercion, leading to a higher rate of false confessions, wrongful convictions, and wrongful imprisonment. The practice of lying to suspects (even adult suspects) is illegal in many other countries. We cannot allow this cruel practice of exploiting children’s vulnerabilities to continue.

In my home state of Michigan, State Rep. Dylan Wegela introduced a law to prevent police from lying to minors during interrogations. Already the states of California, Delaware, Illinois, Oregon, and Utah have passed legislation. Now we need Congress to act to protect young people nationwide.

Will you sign now to call on Congress to take action and protect young people from coercive police interrogation tactics?

Thank you for standing up against state-funded violence at home and abroad. Together, we will keep demanding safety for all people.

In solidarity,

Rashida