Our hearts are heavy, and our heads are focused on taking positive action. We are sickened by our country’s leaders and their unwillingness to recognize our racist past and take action to redress centuries of racism. We are ashamed especially of Philadelphia’s Police, who over the weekend have escalated violence against protestors when they should have taken a knee with them and begun to carve a new path forward (See Camden’s example). Instead of protecting them, allowing them to protest, showing solidarity, the police continued with the same institutional response of confrontation, violence, and escalation.
[Ed. Note: See our essay “Disarm the Philadelphia police, invest in black lives and community” which was written after we learned about criticisms surrounding Camden’s move to defund the police.]
Despite having several mayors and police commissioners since the horrific MOVE bombing in 1985, Philadelphia has shown, once again, its failure to learn that Black Lives Matter, and that throwing money towards Police will not correct, but rather will escalate, the problem of institutional racism.
We are ashamed that during this same moment the Philadelphia Police are being gifted a 14% increase (nearly $12M) in Mayor Kenney’s proposed FY21 budget, while 100% of funding for the OACCE & PCF is zeroed out. Increased funding for policing and axing funding for the African American Museum and small, grassroots organizations, many of which are owned and/or operated by Black people, POC, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, is wrong.
What can we do individually and as a community?
We encourage you to:
- Donate to Philly Bail Fund & Minnesota Freedom Fund to support arrested protestors.
- Register to speak in the June 9th Budget hearing by emailing budget.hearings@phila.gov by 3 p.m. on the day before that Council session- (numbers 200285, 200286, 200287, 200288, 200289, and 200291 to speak against the Police budget increase; 200287 and 200307 to speak against the defunding of the OACCE & PCF)
- Donate to missing protestors, e.g. Find Justin Cosby – a 19 year old that was missing for over 30 hours after last seen being taken away by the cops in Chicago.
- Donate to and support decarceration organizations like The Youth Art & Self-Empowerment Project (YASP) and Decarcerate PA.
- If you are white, keep the conversation focused on saving Black lives, not your personal opinion on looting or destruction. (check out “In Defense of Looting” on The New Inquiry)
- Support Black voices.
- Support black owned businesses, during Coronavirus, during the protests, and always.
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