One Year After George’s Floyd’s Murder We Continue The Call For Abolition

Since the killing of George Floyd, Black people across the US are leading uprisings demanding justice for the endless police murders of our loved ones. Around the country, we are organizing in the streets demanding a new vision of public safety that is not centered around policing.

Violence and racism pervades the policing and court systems. Black immigrants are disproportionately stopped, searched, arrested, and killed by the police. Like all Black people in America, Black immigrants are also over-represented from arrest rates to sentencing. 76 % of Black Immigrants are deported because of contact with the police. We are constantly forced to contend with the truth that we cannot address systematic racism without confronting the police in Black communities.

There have been some developments–including calling for a federal ban on police chokeholds and rejecting qualified immunity–but these do not go far enough to address the reason why we are in the streets. Many of the recent police reforms suggest that law enforcement needs more resources to do their work. They call for the hiring of more police officers, more police training, and more research into police “best practices.” These reforms are out of touch with the reality that policing is the problem in Black communities, not the solution.

BAJI will continue to demand that the investment of the millions of dollars proposed for more policing instead go to resources that will improve the quality of everyday life of Black people in this country. We support legislation, such as the Breathe Act, that is aimed at diverting funds from law enforcement and investing in anti-poverty programs that actually makes us safer.

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