Demand RightsNow!

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Dear, John

“I can’t breathe.” Those were the last words George Floyd uttered before he was
killed by a police officer who kneeled directly on Floyd’s neck for seven
straight minutes while he lay prostrate on the ground with his hands handcuffed
behind his back, in broad daylight.

Floyd’s death comes in the wake of a series of acts of racist violence against
Black people that remind us of the astounding levels of violence and
discrimination in the USA that Black and brown communities face. This includes
the killing of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was shot in her sleep by the
police who broke into her apartment, and the killing of Stephon Clark, who was
shot and killed in his grandmother’s backyard with nothing but a cellphone in
his pocket, and so many more we may never have the chance to hear their names.

There are approximately 1,000 people killed by police annually in the US, and
Black people are more than twice as likely to be killed by police as white
people. But those aren’t just numbers. Each represents a person’s life:
someone’s parent, sibling, cousin, nephew, spouse, child. The core principle of
policing is to respect and preserve human life, yet our laws clearly do not
reflect this principle.

The U.S. system of policing needs systemic reform to root out racism and
radically change its approach to law enforcement and human rights. Take action now and tell Congress to restrict the use of deadly force by
police, advancing the PEACE (Police Exercising Absolute Care for Everyone) Act.
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When interacting with police we all have a right to be safe, be free from
discrimination, be equally protected before the law and survive the encounter.
Anyone whose rights have been violated has the right to remedy. In a case when a
person is killed as a result of a law enforcement officer’s unlawful use of
lethal force, the family has the right to an effective remedy. Our current body
of laws regarding police use of lethal force makes that incredibly rare.

Until we reform laws governing the use of lethal force by police, tragedies will
continue to occur. The PEACE Act proposes a major step toward protecting
individuals and families most impacted by unlawful killings and excessive use of
force by police. Not only would it change the standard around use of lethal
force to help prevent deadly confrontations, it also would hold officers
accountable for unnecessary force resulting from gross negligence.

Urge your U.S. representative to support the PEACE Act (HR 4359), and call on
Congress to advance this potentially life-saving legislation.
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In solidarity,

#BlackLivesMatter

TAKE ACTION
[[link removed]]In solidarity,
#BlackLivesMatter

Kristina Roth

Senior Program Officer Criminal Justice
Amnesty International USA

DONATE NOW
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