GGJ Members Echo the Call of the Movement for Black Lives to Defund the Police and Pass the Breathe Act.
“The verdict is a start, definitely a game changer. It’s bringing us some hope in the moment. And yet, we’ve been here too many times before. We know that this guilty verdict will never be enough to heal our communities. Ultimately, we hold no faith in a system that is rooted in the control and oppression of Black people. Only the liberation of our communities—abolishing the system that killed our brother George—will be what brings us a sense of relief and true safety. We remain strong in our demands and visions for a free world. The entire policing system is guilty of murder.”
—Siwatu-Salama Ra, GGJ demilitaRISE Organizer on the guilty verdict of the trial of Derek Chauvin in Minnesota
Rest in power George Floyd. We extend our solidarity to his family and countless other Black and Brown people lost to a racist and dehumanizing police and carceral system, including most recently, the young lives of Ma’Khia Bryant, Adam Toledo, and Daunte Wright. We join the demands of Black movements from Minnesota and the Movement for Black Lives and echo their calls to defund and abolish the police. It’s time to reinvest in real solutions birthed by systems-impacted communities that keep all people safe and create conditions to thrive. We call on Congress to pass the Breathe Act and demonstrate their commitment to a complete transformation, not upholding an oppressive system that cloaks its failures in the punishment of an egregious example.
“Policing in the U.S. is rooted in the slave patrols and cavalry to maintain social control of Black and Indigenous people. We must stand firm in the quest for freedom. We don’t want reform. We want to transform. That means supporting defunding the police and abolition,” said George Galvis, CURYJ Executive Director and GGJ member. This historical context is critical as we examine a system that’s centuries in the making, deliberately designed to exploit, marginalize, and continue a long legacy of racialized and gendered capitalism and harm, manifested today in staggering inequities like the prison industrial complex and U.S. imperialism and neoliberalism beyond borders.
As a movement vehicle, GGJ commits to listen to and learn from the analysis and solutions of visionary Black-led movements like the Rising Majority (of which we’re a member), The Frontline, and the Movement for Black Lives, along with our members and staff whose accountability lies in the wellbeing and liberation of all Black people.
“While Derek Chauvin’s guilty verdict feels like relief, we as the Rising Majority stand firm that it is not the epitome of accountability and transformation. The truth is that as long as the police exist we will continue to live in fear, we will continue to see our families murdered, and we will continue to feel rage and anxiety while witnessing a trial for a murder that everyone saw. This is no more evidenced by the recent murders of 13-year old Adam Toledo, 20-year old Daunte Wright, and those whose names we don’t even know.”
Abolition is the only solution.