Demand Justice for Adam Toledo SIGN NOW

Dear Friend,

First, we hope you are doing whatever you need to do to take care of yourself during this time. As moms, parents, and caregivers, it is never easy to bear witness to the unending police violence and it is particularly difficult when it involves children. We know and hold that too often the invisible victims of police killings are mothers and the family members of those whose lives are taken too soon and under such violent circumstances. What we are clear on is that this is an emergency. No family should have to mourn a loss like that of 13-year-old student Adam Toledo. 

Stand with Adam Toledo’s family and take action to end police violence.

He was a child, one of many children killed by police whose families still await justice. Families like that of Aiyana Stanley-Jones who was just 7 years old, Tamir Rice who was only 12, Michael Brown who was 18, and Laquan McDonald who was 17. No one should ever be murdered by police, and this rings especially true when we consider children.  

→ The police officer who killed Adam Toledo (a beloved son, a child who was just 13-years-old, and a student at Gary Elementary School) must be arrested and charged for this crime, now. 

Join MomsRising as we stand with Adam Toledo’s family in demanding justice. The continued violence against Black and Latinx communities must stop. That the video’s release in Chicago happened during the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, as police officer Kimberly Potter was being charged in the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, and as more months tick by without accountability or justice for the police killing of Breonna Taylor underscores the urgent need for change. Not only are Black, and Latinx people forced to live in constant fear of police violence within their own communities, they’re also forced to relive their trauma on the news and social media everyday.

The epidemic of police violence must be stopped. Take Action Now!

We, and especially our elected leaders, must immediately invest in communities and shift resources away from policing, where a deadly mix of white supremacy and violence remains unchecked. It is clear that the current system cannot be reformed, that additional training resources are not the solution, and that body cameras cannot fix an institution founded to enforce the enslavement of Black people and which continues to enact terror in Black and Brown communities. 

Moving forward, the Chicago Police Department and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot must be held accountable not only for killing this child, but also for covering up the murder for more than two weeks as they refused to release the officer’s body camera video and a false narrative was spread.

→  The police officer who killed Adam Toledo must be immediately arrested and charged for their crime.

Only when there is real accountability, when Black and Brown people feel safe in their communities, when resources are used to create the schools, services, and care we all need, will there be real change. A radical reimagining of public safety is needed. This must include transformative change, real police accountability, and investments that address the root causes of violence and foster community-based alternatives to policing and incarceration.  

AND, we will continue to hold elected leaders accountable for enacting key components of the BREATHE Act to divest from policing and defund the continued assault on Black and Brown life, and invest in communities.[1]

Key Components of the BREATHE Act include;

1. Divesting Federal Resources from Incarceration and Policing & Ending Criminal Legal System Harms;
2. Investing in New Approaches to Community Safety Utilizing Funding Incentives;
3. Allocating New Money to Build Healthy, Sustainable & Equitable Communities for All People;
4. Holding Political Leaders Accountable & Enhancing Self-Determination of Black Communities.

The moms of America know it’s never okay for police to murder. We demand America’s elected leaders put an end to the days when police can act with impunity, violate rights, and take the lives of Black and Brown people.

→ We demand the police officer who killed Gary Elementary School student Adam Toledo be immediately arrested and charged for their crime.

Police violence against Black and Brown communities must be stopped. So please share this action link with friends and family-- and on social media. And if you are in a community where conversations about the need to end police violence against Black and Brown people don’t normally happen, then please spark those conversations. Polling is showing that conversation by conversation, change is happening. 

Let us never give up, let us keep rising, let us help make it so no family member and no child is ever a victim of police violence ever again. 

With gratitude for your engagement and continued action,

- Amber, Aryan, Beatriz, Beth, Casey, Christina, Claudia, Diarra, Diana, Donna, dream, Elyssa, Felicia, Gloria, Hanna, Jessica, Jordan, Joy, Julia, Karen, Keisha, Kelle, Kristin, Linda, Lisa, Lucrecer, Maggie, Marysol, Monifa, Nadia, Nancy, Nate, Nina, Ruby, Ruth, Sara, Shanette, Sheila, Sili, Sue Anne, Tasmiha, Taylor, Tina, Tola, and Xochitl

References:

[1] The Breathe Act

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