The Minneapolis police department has spent millions of dollars training officers on de-escalation and implicit biases. It didn’t stop four officers from murdering George Floyd—one of many heinous police killings of Black people that reflect the institution’s systemic racism.

Initially formed as slave patrols, police have always existed to maintain control rather than safety or justice. This gets harder to deny as militarized police instigate violence at protests about racist police violence.

In the past few decades, the U.S has drastically increased policing’s scope, now spending close to $200 billion/year on police and incarceration—while chronic disinvestment in Black communities further widens the racial wealth and health gap.

We must shrink police power and budgets and instead invest in community-led health and safety solutions, as well as resources for Black people to survive and thrive.

Add your name now to sign onto the Movement For Black Lives’ demands. Tell leaders in our cities, states, and federal government:

• We demand an end to the war against Black people. We demand an end to the criminalization, incarceration, and killing of Black people. We call for not just individual accountability of officers after a murder, but entire police departments.
• We demand a divestment from the police and investment in Black communities. We call on localities and elected officials across the country to divest resources away from policing in local budgets and reallocate those resources to the healthcare, housing, and education our people deserve. More officers, guns, jails, and prisons are not a solution to longstanding problems of racial disparities, injustice, and police violence.
• We demand local schools, colleges, universities, and all public institutions cut ties with the police. We demand police-free schools across the country and an end to the use of police officers in public universities. All public institutions designed to serve the people must cut ties with the police in the interest of public safety.
• We demand repair for past and continuing harms. State actors like the police, immigration agents, and corporations that have caused harm to Black communities must repair the harm done. Police departments must acknowledge the harm their institution has caused Black families, make an apology, and commit resources to families and communities who have been forced to suffer.
• We demand immediate relief for our communities. We demand the federal government provide direct cash payments, rent cancellation, mortgage cancellation, a moratorium on utility and water shutoffs, and a cancellation of student, medical, and other forms of debt. We demand long-term economic solutions like a Universal Basic Income in order to address the immediate crisis and pave the way for a just recovery that doesn’t prioritize corporations and leave our communities behind.
• We demand economic justice for all our people. From Minneapolis to Louisville, our communities continue to be exploited by this economy from generation to generation. At this moment of economic crisis, we need to seize the opportunity to rethink the economy and move it toward one that serves the needs of the people and the planet, not the corporations and the wealthy.
• We demand the rights of protestors be respected. We demand that no harm come to protestors. Violations of property should never be equated with the violation of human life. We demand that local and state officials ensure that there are no abuses of power and no use of lethal force on protestors.
• We demand community control. The most impacted in our communities need to control the laws, institutions, and policies that are meant to serve us—from our schools to our local budgets, economies, and police department.