Your highest oath is to protect US citizens and the rights they are guaranteed under the US Constitution. You have a sworn obligation to disobey orders that put your own citizens in harm’s way or that deny their civil rights.

We therefore call on you to denounce and condemn as high treason, an impeachable offense​, President Donald J. Trump's sending in the U.S. military to Washington, D.C. in the last 24 hours and his threat to do the same to those governors who refuse to call in the National Guard in order to suppress people's right to protest.

People nationwide are engaged in their constitutionally guaranteed right to protest the disproportionate use of violence and deadly force being routinely visited on Black and brown bodies and communities by the police. George Floyd's murder in broad daylight at the hands of three Minneapolis police officers is just the latest atrocity in a disturbing pattern of racist, lawless behavior by law enforcement.

An FBI intelligence assessment—titled “White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement” and published in 2006—warned that white supremacist groups were “infiltrating law enforcement communities or recruiting law enforcement personnel.” In 2015, a classified FBI Counterterrorism Policy Guide, obtained by The Intercept, stated that “domestic terrorism investigations focused on militia extremists, white supremacist extremists, and sovereign citizen extremists often have identified active links to law enforcement officers.”

This white supremacist ideology permeating our police force represents a threat to you, our elected officials, to all Americans, and to the principles upon which this country was founded. It must not be tolerated. Rather than investigate and rout out these white supremacists, Trump is using the U.S. military as a "show of force" against those who resist this brutality in Washington, D.C., and threatening to do the same nationally.

We call on you to:

1) Condemn in the strongest possible terms Trump's use of the U.S. military against Washington, D.C. protesters and his threat to do the same nationally against all Americans as treason;

2) Conduct a thorough investigation into the over $5 billion in military hardware, software, and other military surplus that the U.S. military and Department of Homeland Security has donated to our police force, and immediately withdraw any military tools that are intended for use on a foreign adversary;

3) Launch a congressional inquiry into the FBI's claims that white supremacists have infiltrated the police force nationally with the goal of purging white supremacists from their ranks;

4) To the extent you are able, work to ensure that the funds used for over-policing and racial profiling in Black and brown communities are instead used to address the economic, educational, environmental, and health care disparities communities of color suffer;

5) Acknowledge and eliminate the routine devaluation and dehumanization of Black life at the hands of the police;

6) Engage in a national dialogue on how we can ensure sustainable solutions that affirm the prosperity, health and wellbeing of all Black lives.

Sincerely,