ActionAid USA condemns the ongoing epidemic of police violence targeting Black people, as well as the explosion of police violence against protestors, the media and bystanders in cities across the United States in the wake of the recent, high-profile police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Tony McDade.
We support Black-led movements in their demand to defund the police. Instead of throwing more taxpayer dollars at police departments, we call for those funds to be redirected towards alternative emergency response programs and social goods including the right to food, safe housing, and universal healthcare. These basic protections will actually serve to protect our communities. Overly militarized, racist, out-of-control local police forces threaten many of our communities rather than protecting them. This type of policing goes hand-in-hand with generalized state violence against low-income and working-class people.
That this latest eruption of police violence is taking place during the COVID-19 crisis, which is disproportionately hurting Black and Indigenous communities, makes clear that white supremacy does not rest. Neither will we rest until the government puts policies in place to dismantle systemic racism and ensures the basic human rights of all people.
Just as we support communities on the frontlines of injustice around the world to organize to claim their rights from their governments, so we also stand with Black communities here to demand sustainable solutions that affirm and ensure their rights.
We encourage our supporters to uplift and donate to the ongoing efforts of Black, Indigenous and people of color across the country demanding justice.
Resources:
Additional BIPOC organizations to donate to (source: Black Visions Collective)
Community bail funds to donate to:
Los Angeles: People’s City Council Freedom Fund
Louisville Community Bail Fund
Other community bail funds via ActBlue
Petitions to sign:
Minneapolis City Council: Defund the Police NOW!
Color of Change: