John,

Tyre Nichols should be alive today. He was murdered by state-funded violence. Now his son, mother, and family are mourning his tragic death.

I shouldn't have to say this, but Tyre’s life mattered.

Multiple police officers brutally beat him to death. This horrific act of violence demonstrates that simply funding more policing does not make us safe. It actually feeds into a system that was built to dehumanize and criminalize our Black neighbors. U.S. police were initially formed as slave patrols, and they still function as a way to maintain control rather than safety or justice.

Despite many of my colleagues calling for so-called "reforms," they left the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to die in the U.S. Senate. This, while last year was the deadliest year of police violence on record, and trauma in our Black communities increases.

In Black communities, police officers target, intimidate, and harass people just for living. Out of fear of police terror, many Black people refrain from calling the police in times of need. When people do seek help, it can have deadly or traumatic consequences.

Clearly, this punitive, dangerous, and failed approach to public safety is not actually keeping us safe. Rather than our communities being safe, we are now living in fear.

We can change this now by investing in our communities, such as quality health services, public education, stable and affordable housing, clean water, nutritious food, and living wages. Right now in Detroit, for instance, we are spending hundreds of millions in policing versus less than $10 million for public health.

There are so many non-punitive, life-affirming approaches to public safety to invest in, as well.

Community-based harm prevention and violence interruption programs have proven effective, such as safe passage to school programs and peer support for students, unarmed emergency first responders and community-based crisis intervention teams, and civilian traffic enforcement.

So much can be done at the state and local level, and we have some examples of federal-level policies that would start to create true public safety that keeps everyone safe.

I’ve been proud to cosponsor the People’s Response Act and the Break the Cycle of Violence Act, which would provide needed resources for non-carceral public safety programs. I’ve also pushed to create emergency response teams made up of health and human services professionals to respond to instances where police presence may increase conflict.

Let’s invest in each other and take care of each other. That’s what creates safe and thriving communities.

We have a responsibility to one another to challenge the status quo of ever-increasing police budgets, to have conversations within our circles about reimagining public safety, and to hold policymakers at every level of government accountable. We need more than just words from elected officials; we need action.

Please sign the petition to call on policymakers at the local, state, and federal level: Rather than increasing police budgets, let’s increase funding for our communities. That includes investing in people's basic needs so people can thrive, and investing in community-based violence prevention programs.

Thank you. We will keep building a world where everyone is truly safe.

In care and solidarity,

Rashida