Tyre Nichols should be here. Instead, a month ago, he was brutally assaulted by the Memphis Police Department and three days later lost his life due to those injuries.
Safety and justice will never come from a system whose foundation and DNA are fundamentally wrong. This is a system that cannot be reformed, that’s why we cannot have legislation like the Justice in Police Act (JPA) that would increase police funding by hundreds of millions dollars.
So today, the day of the President's State of the Union, we are joining the Movement for Black Lives and partners across the nation to make our demand heard: Safety means investing in Black communities, not the police!
Police have murdered at least 4 of our people in recent weeks, the largest police union in the U.S. is lobbying in D.C. today, likely asking for more protection, money, and militarization. The problem is not with a few "bad apples" in law enforcement but rather with the entire system — It's beyond reform.
In 2020 we grew a national movement to DEFUND THE POLICE and have proven that our communities are capable of keeping us safe, not more police! We will continue to grow the call to transform and redefine what safety means and remove the power and presence of the police from our communities.
