Friends,

George Floyd should be alive today.

He was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer who took an oath to protect and serve — and instead put his knee on his neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds, taking his life and robbing his children of a father.

Our community here in Minneapolis is still heartbroken, exhausted, and angry. Because yes, 365 days after he took his last breath, we have seen a conviction for his murderer — a necessary condition of justice — but not true justice.

True justice for George Floyd and all Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) is living up to our country’s creed of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s words from decades ago still ring true: “It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned.”

But we can move toward fulfilling this promise for everyone, no matter the color of their skin or their ZIP code, and achieving true justice.

First, we must recognize what true justice is. It is making a true commitment to ending police brutality. It is putting an end to systemic inequalities in the form of housing, income, and education — and our justice system that so often does not live up to its name. It is making our communities safer and healthier.

What justice is not is a single verdict or words with no action behind them. It is not falsely calling failures in our system of policing the result of a “few bad apples” and giving law enforcement more money — rather than investigating the failings and holding those responsible accountable, and investing money back into our communities.

This cannot be achieved with a press release or one or two laws. We must enact a broad anti-racist agenda to root out the inequalities that have plagued BIPOC for far too long.

This means, among dozens of other measures, establishing an independent agency to investigate police misuse of force, demilitarizing police departments, disbanding and deconstructing failed police departments, ending the school-to-prison pipeline, legalizing recreational cannabis nationwide and expunging records, and investing in a public health approach to the addiction crisis.

It means creating a country and world where Black mothers like me do not have to worry about whether or not their children will come home. That every time a Black man is pulled over at a traffic stop, he does not fear for his life.

That is how we can begin to move toward true justice.

I hope you will commit to moving toward true justice with me — in Minneapolis and Brooklyn Center, and across the country and around the world.

In radical solidarity,

Ilhan Omar