Special News Series: Rising Up For Justice! – Threats To Pull Federal Resources From Cities Because Of BLM Protests Are Damaging

Introduction To This Series:

This post is one installment in an ongoing news series: a “living history” of the current national and international uprising for justice.

Today’s movement descends directly from the many earlier civil rights struggles against repeated injustices and race-based violence, including the killing of unarmed Black people. The posts in this series serve as a timeline of the uprising that began on May 26, 2020, the day after a Minneapolis police officer killed an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, by kneeling on his neck. The viral video of Floyd’s torturous suffocation brought unprecedented national awareness to the ongoing demand to truly make Black Lives Matter in this country.

The posts in this series focus on stories of the particular killings that have spurred the current uprising and on the protests taking place around the USA and across the globe. Sadly, thousands of people have lost their lives to systemic racial, gender, sexuality, judicial, and economic injustice. The few whose names are listed here represent the countless others lost before and since. Likewise, we can report but a few of the countless demonstrations for justice now taking place in our major cities, small towns, and suburbs.

Threats To Pull Federal Resources From Cities Because Of Black Lives Matter Protests Are Damaging

By Amnesty International

September 21, 2020

Responding to reports that the Trump administration is threatening to pull federal resources from New York City, Portland and Seattle due to sustained protests for police reform, Justin Mazzola, Researcher at Amnesty International USA, said: 

“These threats are just another in a long line of abject failures by this administration to protect Black and Brown lives, refusing to do the job that is needed to address the inherent problems in our law enforcement systems.  

“Rather than denying that there are serious, systemic problems with law enforcement in the U.S., the Department of Justice and Attorney General Barr should listen to the calls of those impacted. Making threats to pull federal resources from these cities does nothing to help those communities impacted by police violence, and could be especially harmful to the safety of these communities which are already facing budget deficits due to COVID-19. 

“Rather than seeing advocates for police reform as enemies who must be punished, the Department of Justice should be working with these local communities, listening to the calls of the people impacted, and using the tools at its disposal to reform the police departments that violate the rights of Black and Brown people and those protesting against this police violence.” 

Read the full article here.

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