Statement from our Lead Mass Liberation Organizer
This week has been overwhelmingly difficult. Black people are angry; we are grieving; we are afraid. And we are so very tired.
As Black people, we are all robbed of our childhood by a country that sees our Blackness as a threat, something to be controlled, punished, and even killed. EVERY Black child becomes aware of this early in life. There isn’t always a specific moment, sometimes it’s more like a slow, unsettling realization. This country was built on the blood of Black people stolen from Africa, on land stolen from Indegenous communities. For the people complaining now about “black on black crime” or “looting”, just know we learned this violence from White folks. From racist cops and vigilantes killing Black and brown folks with impunity to the human rights violations carried out across the globe in the name of “American freedom”. The US empire’s sole purpose is to uphold white supremacy, capitalism, and heteropatriarchy. The exploitation and genocide of Black, brown, and indigenous peoples is a cost this government is all too willing to accept.
The criminal “justice” system is the ultimate expression of punishment culture and customs that uphold the social order of white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism – customs and cultures that extend far beyond jails and prisons. Every institution is failing us, and this fact has never been more clear now that this pandemic is amplifying what we already know. In Amerikkka, justice looks like: having more prison beds than hospital beds; it looks like a profit making prison industry that’s expanding prisons in areas hardest hit by economic decline; it looks like 70% of all jail populations being people who haven’t been convicted of any crimes; and it looks like insurance companies making millions of dollars from a cash bail system that punishes people for being poor. Our Mass Liberation taskforce is part of a national coalition that holds a vision for the liberation of all peoples – centering the liberation and leadership of Black folx, Brown folx, and others directly impacted by the punitive legal system. Our work is rooted in a vision of communities that are healing and thriving, where transformative justice is realized and reciprocity is truly alive.
In our vision for abolition, we know that we must build power to get people that share our values into every level of government, we must do the work of responding to and repairing harm when it happens in our communities, and we must create new and lasting narratives on public safety (what it looks like and how we get it) and narratives that welcome, celebrate, and protect Black, brown, indegenous, and queer peoples lives.
Join us now in this work by testifying at the public hearing on the proposed budget and sharing what you want to see our city invest in.
Sign up to testify at city council budget hearing Wednesday June 9th between 3-5pm
Speakers interested in giving testimony must send an email to budget.hearings@phila.gov by 3 p.m. on Tuesday, June 8th.
You must provide:
Full name
Callback number (you will be called at some point between 3pm and 5pm during the public testimony session)
The bill number you plan to address: reference Bill # 200287
Each speaker will have 2 minutes to speak. If you need help preparing testimony reach out to us at info@reclaimphiladelphia.org
You can also send us testimony that you’ve prepared and we’ll share on social media