We need to fundamentally change the way we police in America.

We have seen with our own eyes the violence and brutality too often inflicted on Black men and women by officers sworn to protect them. We cannot look away. It is one of the most insidious displays of the generations of oppression and injustice our Black community carries – and of a government complicit and complacent in their pain.

We cannot ask for peace until we are willing to provide justice.

Congress must tackle police reform now. We must:

• Demilitarize the police.
• Ban chokeholds.
• End qualified immunity.
• Appoint civilian oversight boards.
• Require body cameras at all times.
• Limit use of force.
• Independently investigate misconduct.

It’s not enough for Congress to say “Black Lives Matter.” We need to do something. Pass something. Fix something. That is the power in our hands – let’s use it for justice.

We need action. We need change. We will not let another generation of Black Americans suffer at the hands of those sworn to protect them.

In solidarity,

– Joe