John,

Last week, the Minneapolis City Council announced its commitment to defund and dismantle the city’s police department in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

This is a direct result of organizations like the Movement for Black Lives, and the thousands of people who have taken to the streets to demand an end to police brutality with local organizations like Juxtaposition Arts. But we cannot stop here, John, we need to call on cities and counties across the country to follow suit and defund the police.

Will you sign our Women’s March nationwide petition calling on every mayor and city council to defund the police and invest in our communities? Now is a key moment to keep the momentum to demand policy change.

More officers, guns, jails, and prisons are not a solution – they are part of the problem. The Minneapolis Police Department was considered by some as a “model” for progressive police reform. Even with implicit bias, mindfulness, and de-escalation training, body cameras, and early intervention systems to identify problematic officers, George Floyd was still murdered.

Add your name now to our national petition if you’re ready to be part of the movement to defund the police across the country and defend Black lives.

As the case of George Floyd makes clear, the presence of police even for the slightest thing can be a death sentence for Black people. The only way we’re going to stop this endless cycle of police violence is by defunding the police and investing in our communities instead.

After you sign, you’ll have the chance to split a donation with Juxtaposition Arts, a youth-led education non-profit in North Minneapolis, that’s working on the ground to build community alternatives to the police in Minneapolis.

There is no one-stop solution, but we know we need to immediately redirect funds away from the police and into emergency response programs that don’t kill Black people. That’s why we’re joining our partners at the Movement for Black Lives to call for divestment from the police and investment in Black communities.

We are at a crossroads in this nation and the moment is ripe for real change, but only if we keep pushing forward. Social transformation most often results from disruption, and we can’t let things go back to the way they were.

We can make this a reality, but only if enough people in our movement step up and demand it. Will you add your name and together we can put massive public pressure on mayors and city councils to act?

We know that investing in alternatives to policing is a feminist issue. By putting resources in education, health care, child care, and decarceration – not into police – we can support women and families and begin to address systemic inequalities and the legacy of racism.

We won’t let up.

Women’s March Team

P.S. To learn more about defunding the police and why it’s necessary, check out and share this op-ed in The New York Times co-written by M4BL strategist, Thenjiwe McHarris.