Friend,

Derek Chauvin -- the police officer who killed George Floyd -- is finally
standing trial in Minnesota, but in California, two of the strongest
fighters on the front line against police brutality are under attack.

Pro-police, anti-reform groups are pushing to remove two newly elected
district attorneys in Los Angeles and San Francisco in an attempt to stop
changes to a corrupt criminal-justice system. And if those groups are
successful, they could set back our justice agenda for decades.

Courage California helped elect these rockstar district attorneys, and
we’re partnering with local organizations to defeat these attempts to
overturn the will of the voters. Will you donate to help stop these
recalls?

[ [link removed] ]Yes, I’ll donate to Courage California and help stop anti-justice
recall efforts.

Last summer, Courage California joined Black Lives Matter L.A. to run an
ad in the Los Angeles Times calling out L.A. district attorney Jackie
Lacey.

Under Lacey’s watch, more than 600 people died at the hands of the police,
with only one officer held accountable. That’s just one of the reasons why
we endorsed George Gascón to defeat her. Gascón ran on a bold reform
platform, and we trusted him to help undo the systemic racism
proliferating the justice system in Los Angeles.

Gascón has been true to his word from his first day in office. He
committed to crack down on police misconduct, and has announced that his
office would stop seeking the death penalty, stop prosecuting first-time
nonviolent offenders of low-level crimes, and begin the process of ending
cash bail.(1,2)

Now there is a concerted campaign underpinned by police unions and the
state district attorney organization to not only stop Gascón’s reforms,
but remove him from office entirely.(3)

A similar effort is happening in San Francisco to District Attorney Chesa
Boudin, who was elected last year to reform the S.F. criminal system.
Since taking office, Boudin has gotten rid of San Francisco’s three
strikes sentencing rules, ended prosecution of cases where evidence was
obtained from race-based traffic stops, and stopped gang enhancements on
certain crimes.(4)

The coalition working to remove Boudin is spreading misleading crime
statistics and using racist rhetoric to turn the public against their
DA.(5)

Courage California has worked for years to foster the kinds of reforms
instituted by these district attorneys, and we’re not going to let racist,
so-called "law-and-order" organizations overturn the voters’ will and
remove these representatives from office.

[ [link removed] ]Will you donate to Courage California today?

Yours in the fight for our democracy,

Irene, along with Angela, Annie, Caitlin, Deepthi, Jay, Lindsay,
LisaMarie, Molly, Raquel, and Scottie (the Courage team)

Donations go to support all of Courage California's work for a more
progressive California and country. Follow us now on [ [link removed] ]Facebook or
[ [link removed] ]Twitter!

Footnotes:
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Courage California (formerly Courage Campaign) makes sure our democracy works for ALL of us by fighting corruption in California politics. We believe the solution lies in exposing and solving systemic problems through strategic organizing, enhancing coordination between progressive organizations, and mobilizing civic engagement from our communities, particularly voters of color, young voters, and self-identified progressives.

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