If you’re one of those “All lives matter, it shouldn’t be about race, what about white people” etc people, take the time to read this.
Whether you like it or not change is happening directly due to the actions of protesters.
Do I agree with violence against police? No, only in self defence. Do I agree with violence against protesters? No, only in self defence. Do I agree with looters? No, but I’m not in their shoes so I can’t imagine the anger and frustration. Do I support anti-fa? Fuck yes, fuck fascism and the hateful far right.
So what has protesting accomplished?
Within 10 days of sustained protests:
👉🏾Minneapolis banned the use of choke holds.
👉🏾Charges were upgraded against Officer Chauvin, and his 3 accomplices arrested and charged.
👉🏾Minneapolis City Council voted to defund the police and invest in a community-led safety model.
👉🏾Dallas adopts a “duty to intervene” rule that requires officers to stop other cops who are engaging in inappropriate use of force.
👉🏾New Jersey’s attorney general said the state will update its use-of-force guidelines for the first time in two decades.
👉🏾In Maryland, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers announced a police reform work group.
👉🏾Los Angeles City Council introduced a motion to reduce LAPD’s $1.8 billion operating budget by $150 million, reversing a decades long trend of growing the police budget.
👉🏾LA Mayor Garcetti has pledged to re-invest the money from the LAPD budget in community improvement measures to reduce crime. Also, effective immediately: a moratorium on the gang database, and sharper discipline against abusive cops.
👉🏾Police brutality captured on cameras leads to near-immediate suspensions and firings of officers in several cities (eg – Buffalo, Ft. Lauderdale).
👉🏾In Atlanta, 2 officers were fired, and 4 other officers charged after they pulled a young couple from their car at the protests and tasered them.
👉🏾A federal judge in Denver issued a restraining order barring Denver PD from using tear gas or projectiles against protesters.
👉🏾In Denver, an officer was fired after tweeting encouragement of violence against protesters.
👉🏾Louisville mayor suspends “no-knock warrants” of the kind used when police killed Breonna Taylor.
👉🏾FBI opens investigation into the killing Breonna Tayor.
👉🏾Monuments celebrating Confederates are removed in cities in Virginia, Alabama, and other states, including a prominent statue of Robert E Lee in Virginia’s capitol.
👉🏾Philadelphia permanently removes the statue of ex-mayor Rizzo (who famously told residents to “vote white”).
👉🏾CA prosecutors launch campaign to stop DA’s from accepting police union money.
👉🏾Tulsa Mayor agrees to not renew Live PD contract.
👉🏾Louisville police chief fired after police kill David Mcatee at a BBQ joint on 6/1.
👉🏾Street in front of the White House is renamed “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”
👉🏾Military forces begin to withdraw from DC.
👉🏾Bipartisan effort in congress begins to shut down a Pentagon program that transfers surplus military weaponry to police.
👉🏾Minn AFL-CIO calls for the resignation of Bob Kroll, the president of the Minn police union and a vocal white supremacist.
👉🏾Civil Rights investigation of Minneapolis PD launched.
👉🏾University of Minnesota, Minn public schools and Minn Parks and Rec have canceled their contracts with the MPD. Minn Institute of Art, First Avenue, Walker Art Center end use of MPD for events.
👉🏾San Francisco DA announces resolution to prevent law enforcement from hiring officers with history of misconduct.
👉🏾Richmond, VA Mayor Stoney announces RPD reform measures: establishing “Marcus” alert for people experiencing mental health crisis, independent Citizen Review Board, an ordinance to remove Confederate monuments, and implementing a racial equity study.
👉🏾Bus unions in multiple cities including Boston, Minneapolis and NYC agree to stop using public buses to transport police officers to protests or to transport arrested protesters.
👉🏾Seattle changes mind and withdraws request to end federal oversight/consent decree of police department.
👉🏾Portland schools superintendent ends use of armed police officers in schools.
👉🏾King County Labor Federation issues ultimatum to police unions, to admit to and address racism in Seattle PD, or be removed.
👉🏾Two Buffalo PD officers were arrested and charged for violently shoving a 75-year old man. The union has suggested not paying their legal fees.
Then, there’s all the other stuff that’s hard to measure:
💓The really difficult public and private conversations that are happening about race and privilege, many for the first time.
💓The realizations some white people are coming to about racism and the role of policing in this country.
💓The self-reflection.
💓The internal battles exploding within organizations over issues that have been simmering or ignored for a long time. Some organizations will end as a result, others will be forever changed or replaced with something stronger and more just.
💓America has never truly reckoned with the continuing aftermath of its original sin–as South Africa did with its Truth & Reconciliation Commission after Apartheid–but the conversations are starting.
💓Similar to #TimesUp and #MeToo, there is a greater recognition and reduced tolerance for racism. Fewer are being silent when they see it.
Globally:
🌎 Protests against racial inequality sparked by the police killing of George Floyd are taking place all over the world.
🌎 Rallies and memorials have been held in cities across Europe, as well as in Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand.
🌎 As Wolfgang Ischinger, a former German ambassador to the US, told the New Yorker: “People all over the world understand that their own fights for human rights, for equality and fairness, will become so much more difficult to win if we are going to lose America as the place where ‘I have a dream’ is a real and universal political program.”
🌎 In France, protesters marched holding signs that said “I can’t breathe” to signify both the words of Floyd, and the last words of Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old black man who was subdued by police officers and gasped the sentence before he died outside Paris in 2016.
🌎In London, demonstrators tore down a controversial statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston and tossed it into the bay.
🌎 Cities across Europe have come together after the death of George Floyd:
✊🏽 In Amsterdam, an estimated 10,000 people filled the Dam square on Monday, holding signs and shouting popular chants like “Black lives matter,” and “No justice, no peace.”
✊🏽 In Germany, tens of thousands of people gathered in multiple locations throughout Berlin to demand justice for Floyd and fight against police brutality.
✊🏾 A mural dedicated to Floyd was also spray-painted on a stretch of wall in Berlin that once divided the German capital during the Cold War.
✊🏿 In Ireland, protesters held a peaceful demonstration outside of Belfast City Hall, and others gathered outside of the US embassy in Dublin.
✊🏿In Italy, protesters gathered and marched with signs that said “Stop killing black people,” “Say his name,” and “We will not be silent.”
✊🏾 In Spain, people gathered to march and hold up signs throughout Barcelona and Madrid.
✊🏾 In Athens, Greece, protesters took to the streets to collectively hold up a sign that read “I can’t breathe.”
✊🏾 In Brussels, protesters were seen sitting in a peaceful demonstration in front of an opera house in the center of the city.
✊🏾In Denmark, protesters were heard chanting “No justice, no peace!” throughout the streets of Copenhagen, while others gathered outside the US embassy.
✊🏾 In Canada, protesters were also grieving for Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a 29-year-old black woman who died on Wednesday after falling from her balcony during a police investigation at her building.
✊🏾 And in New Zealand, roughly 2,000 people marched to the US embassy in Auckland, chanting and carrying signs demanding justice.
💐 Memorials have been built for Floyd around the world, too. In Mexico City, portraits of him were hung outside the US embassy with roses, candles, and signs.
💐 In Poland, candles and flowers were laid out next to photos of Floyd outside the US consulate.
💐 And in Syria, two artists created a mural depicting Floyd in the northwestern town of Binnish, “on a wall destroyed by military planes.”
All around the world, people are united in recognizing
🖤🖤🖤BLACK LIVES MATTER🖤🖤🖤
They’ve always mattered.
The changes we make now can create the society that reflects that truth. If we keep working, if we keep our foot on the gas.
There has been a global shift, an awakening. Much has changed in just a couple weeks. And there is still so much work to be done.
We are now balanced on the point of transformation and we determine where it goes from here.
Keep protesting.
Keep educating yourself.
Keep speaking out and shining the light on the racism you see, even within yourself.
This is difficult, messy work, and we as a country have been avoiding this reckoning for a long time.
For George Floyd, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray Jr., Walter Scott, Oscar Grant III, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Botham Jean, Atatiana Jefferson, for all the voices crying for justice over centuries, and for the soul of America itself:
It’s time.
Original author unknown, fact-checked and substantially updated and edited by Paul Lazear.
