Friend,

Uprisings are surging around the country and the world in response to the horrific police killing of George Floyd—one of many heinous police killings of Black people.

As people are rising up to protest racist police violence, militarized police forces are instigating further violence, prioritizing property over human lives.

In the past few decades, our system of policing and mass incarceration has ballooned in size and scope. The U.S. now spends close to $200 billion per year on police and incarceration. At the same time, Black communities have faced chronic disinvestment and racist policies, which have only served to widen the racial wealth and health gap, leaving Black families behind. And the crises keep piling up. Due to years of economic injustice and environmental racism, Black people are now up to six times more likely to die from the coronavirus than white people.

Clearly, our country has failed Black people. It’s time to radically reimagine what will actually keep people safe. It’s time for transformative change.

Sign now to demand an end to the war on Black people.

As Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II reminds us: To truly achieve justice, we must focus both on “who” and “what” oppresses and kills Black people in this country.

Although our racist impeached president is fanning the flames and inciting fascism, we won’t solve our problems by removing him alone. Violent anti-Black racism has been built into our country since its founding. Initially formed as slave patrols, police have always existed to maintain control rather than safety or justice.

We’re seeing that all too clearly right now, as militarized police forces use expensive equipment and weapons to terrorize protesters across the country, exemplifying the lawlessness that only police can get away with. Meanwhile, cities are setting curfews to instill fear and criminalize our constitutional right to protest. All to maintain the unjust status quo and delay justice. Could there be a clearer demonstration that this system is rotten at its core?

Sign now to tell leaders at all levels of government: We must divest from police and invest in our communities!

Minneapolis, the site of George Floyd’s brutal murder, is a microcosm of what’s happening across the country.

For five years, the Minneapolis police department has spent millions of dollars training officers on skills like de-escalating situations and examining implicit biases. It wasn’t enough to save George Floyd’s life. Black Minneapolis residents are more likely to be stopped, harassed, and arrested by the police than white residents. And they are 13 times more likely to be killed by the police.

That outrageous statistic is not the only one that marks Minneapolis as home to some of the widest racial disparities in the country. As Ibram X. Kendi writes: “A typical black family in Minneapolis earns less than half as much as a typical white family—a $47,000 annual difference that is one of the largest racial disparities in the nation. Statewide, black residents are 6 percent of the Minnesota population, but 30 percent of the coronavirus cases... one of the largest black case disparities in the nation.”

Amidst all this, the police department takes up 30% of the city’s budget. That’s millions of dollars that could go to housing, education, healthcare, and community alternatives to policing that actually keep people safe.

Add your name if you agree: It’s time to shrink police power and budgets and instead invest in community-led health and safety solutions, as well as resources for Black people to survive and thrive.

We must listen to and uplift the voices of Black people. This week, the Movement For Black Lives has released a set of demands for leaders in our cities, states, and federal government:

• We demand an end to the war against Black people. We demand an end to the criminalization, incarceration, and killing of Black people. We call for not just individual accountability of officers after a murder, but entire police departments.
• We demand a divestment from the police and investment in Black communities. We call on localities and elected officials across the country to divest resources away from policing in local budgets and reallocate those resources to the healthcare, housing, and education our people deserve. More officers, guns, jails, and prisons are not a solution to longstanding problems of racial disparities, injustice, and police violence.
• We demand local schools, colleges, universities, and all public institutions cut ties with the police. We demand police-free schools across the country and an end to the use of police officers in public universities. All public institutions designed to serve the people must cut ties with the police in the interest of public safety.
• We demand repair for past and continuing harms. State actors like the police, immigration agents, and corporations that have caused harm to Black communities must repair the harm done. Police departments must acknowledge the harm their institution has caused Black families, make an apology, and commit resources to families and communities who have been forced to suffer.
• We demand immediate relief for our communities. We demand the federal government provide direct cash payments, rent cancellation, mortgage cancellation, a moratorium on utility and water shutoffs, and a cancellation of student, medical, and other forms of debt. We demand long-term economic solutions like a Universal Basic Income in order to address the immediate crisis and pave the way for a just recovery that doesn’t prioritize corporations and leave our communities behind.
• We demand economic justice for all our people. From Minneapolis to Louisville, our communities continue to be exploited by this economy from generation to generation. At this moment of economic crisis, we need to seize the opportunity to rethink the economy and move it toward one that serves the needs of the people and the planet, not the corporations and the wealthy.
• We demand the rights of protestors be respected. We demand that no harm come to protestors. Violations of property should never be equated with the violation of human life. We demand that local and state officials ensure that there are no abuses of power and no use of lethal force on protestors.
• We demand community control. The most impacted in our communities need to control the laws, institutions, and policies that are meant to serve us—from our schools to our local budgets, economies, and police department.

Please add your name now to sign onto these demands for justice.

In solidarity,

Rashida