The Pacific Green Party of Oregon stands in solidarity with our brothers and sisters mourning for yet another member of the African American community dead at the hands of yet another callous police officer. These deaths and related targeting of communities of color and in poverty perpetuate deep trauma in the African American community and must stop immediately. The practices leading to those deaths need to end.
The Pacific Green Party also stands in solidarity with protesters demonstrating against police violence. We focus on the real issue: systemic racism reinforced by police violence against people of color and the marginalized.
“Greens value non-violence and social justice, so protesting police violence is a no-brainer; but it is clear to us that African-Americans, Indigenous and People of Color are subject to systemic racism. Death-by-Cop has to stop,” said Charles Newlin, Media contact at the Pacific Green Party. The recent murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin of the Minneapolis Police Department, and of Breonna Taylor and David McAtee by the Louisville PD, as well as the recent racially-motivated murder of Ahmaud Arbery must not continue going unpunished.
Between 2013 and 2019, police in the US killed 7,666 people, according to data compiled by Mapping Police Violence, a research and advocacy group - an unchanged toll of approximately 1000 “deaths-by-cop” a year.
Despite making up only 13 percent of the US population, Black Americans are two-and-a-half times as likely as white Americans to be killed by the police.
The picture of a white cop with his knee pressed on the neck of George Floyd is painfully evocative of Jim Crow lynchings conducted throughout the South in the Post-Reconstruction era. It perpetuates the continued traumatization of generations of young Black men and women in America. Simply revolting and unacceptable.
In the quest for social justice, the PGP of Oregon calls for
- Defunding and demilitarization of police forces nationwide, body cameras, funding for practices focused on de-escalation, addressing the mental health crisis and community involvement/empowerment
- Full investigation and prosecution of rogue officers, purging the force of persistently unaccountable and violent police
- Reparations for persistent, transgenerational and structural and cultural racism that underlie all these unnecessary deaths. This can start by slashing military spending and reinvesting those funds in the community for education, healthcare, and basic needs like quality housing, childcare and healthy food.
The Pacific Green Party of Oregon invites all who seek to end systemic racism in our police departments and across society to take up the Green banner, and work for political, social and economic transformation of society.
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