STATEMENTS
TRUE JUSTICE FOR GEORGE FLOYD WILL COME FROM INVESTING IN BLACK PEOPLE AND DEFUNDING THE POLICE, NOT THE UNJUST CRIMINAL LEGAL SYSTEM
Today, a jury returned a GUILTY verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer who killed George Floyd. At Movement for Black Lives, we are working towards liberation for all Black people, because we believe all Black lives matter. We know the current unjust criminal legal system will not deliver liberation, let alone justice.
We are sending love to George Floyd’s family today, along with the people of Minneapolis and Brooklyn Center, greater Minnesota, and the millions of people who have acted to defend Black life in the past 11 months since George was murdered. We know many feel relief that the trial is over and see a possibility of hope in its outcome.
Yet, our communities need and demand more than a guilty verdict delivered through an unjust and racist system. We require real accountability for police and real safety for our communities. We are mobilizing to defund and abolish the police, because this is the only way we will stop police terror and bring about real safety. There is no ‘reforming’ this system—the time is now to divest from deadly policing and invest in a vision of public safety that protects us all.
Our righteous outrage at the death of George Floyd ignited a powerful movement that continues to create impact across the globe. Since the uprising began, we’ve seen growing defund and abolition efforts from Minnesota to New York to London to Los Angeles. We will renew our calls to defund the police and keep pushing for our bold Black, liberatory vision.
We will keep working in the community and with the families of George Floyd, Daunte Wright, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, and so many others killed by police. We will organize our neighbors and loved ones to build Black power and call on our elected officials to make real investments in our people. The investments we need include mental health services, universal healthcare, safe and affordable housing, quality education, living wage jobs, response to climate crisis, and much, much more.
Across the country, Black organizers and community leaders are not waiting for policymakers to do the right thing — they are building power through new community relationships; investing in radical mutual aid; creating jobs and opportunity through initiatives that center Black, trans, disabled, immigrant, and poor people’s needs; and establishing community accountability processes that offer alternatives outside of racist, ineffective policing.
We will continue to fight for transformation of public investments in the people, not the police. We’ll keep strengthening community-driven solutions to address violence and cultivate real safety. Join us.
In Power,
The Movement for Black Lives
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The Movement for Black Lives is a fiscally sponsored 501c3 at The Common Counsel Foundation.
