John,
Tyre Nichols should be alive today.
On Sunday, I joined CNN's State of the Union to discuss the horrific murder of Tyre by Memphis police officers, the pain my community is experiencing, and how we move forward. You can watch the panel interview here, or I've included my message below:
In Pittsburgh, this is a case we've seen before. We've seen families cry out in Minneapolis, Louisville, Baltimore, Ferguson, Staten Island, and so many cities, now including Memphis. Reliving this is not unusual, but it is painful every single time and never gets easier.
We know what makes communities safe. But every single time we stop short of investing in communities that have been underfunded. The weaponization of the term 'public safety' has meant that instead of funding public schools, making sure Black and brown kids have somewhere safe to go after school, and creating good jobs, we've poured billions into an increasing militarization of our police force. The result? Black people are not safe driving home or in their homes.
This is our time to look deeply to look into our culture and within ourselves and ask why we create policies that force Black and brown communities to relive this pain and trauma over and over.
Public safety does not begin or end with policing. In order to keep Americans safe, Congress must act to end police violence, abolish the carceral state, pass reparations, and invest in Black communities and power.
Protecting Black people from state violence should not be partisan or even political. It should be the demand of every American.
And to those who say we need to quiet down or tone police our call to save Black lives, I remember vividly the day during the summer of 2020 when I ate tear gas as the Pittsburgh police tried to cut our movement off at the knees. We won't be quiet — police violence is radical, not the movement to end it.
In solidarity,
Summer
