A'Brianna's testimony at March Against Police Brutality 6/6/20
My name is A’Brianna, and I’m the Mass Liberation Organizer with Reclaim Philadelphia. The murder of George Floyd was the spark that made a lot of you in this crowd realize that Black people are not safe and are actually a constant target of violence in this country. You only just scratched the surface of what Black folks have known to be true and have been trying to tell you for generations. With so many new people suddenly participating in collective resistance, I am not surprised to see conflicting messages, demands, and approaches. BUT LET ME BE CLEAR: we will not be satisfied just by seeing the 4 officers responsible for Floyd’s death behind bars. And we are NOT here today asking for weak reforms like changing the type of training cops receive and policies describing when it is or isn’t okay to shoot. That WILL NOT stop them from killing us.
We are here to fight for the abolition of surveillance, policing, and imprisonment. We are fighting to create new systems that center healing and accountability instead of punishment and control. We are here to create new and lasting narratives on public safety (both what it looks like and how we get it) and narratives that welcome, celebrate, and protect Black, indegenous, and queer lives. Narratives that break apart the lies white supremacy created, lies about which lives have value.
Now, I want to break some things down for you, so you understand what Reclaim Philadelphia and so many other organizations are fighting for. The problem isn’t just a “few bad cops”. The problem is that every institution in this country is built around white supremacy. It’s the cops, prosecutors, and judges that keep jails, prisons, and detention centers full. It’s the insurance companies that get richer through cash bail systems that punish people for being poor. It’s the racist algorithms and policies responsible for bullshit risk assessments and mandatory minimums. It’s the school district that prioritizes funding for cops and security guards instead of counselors and nurses. It’s SEPTA using cops to harass homeless and poor people. It’s UPenn funding the cops while refusing to pay property taxes to the city while simultaneously using their private police force as a tool to facilitate gentrification and the displacement of Black West Philly residents. It’s the white people that carry implicit and explicit bias with them into Board rooms, their medical practice, the hiring process, and onto juries.
Racism was a pandemic long before Coronavirus. And coronavirus is disproportionately impacting the Black community… WE CAN’T BREATHE. In the words of Rev. Al Sharpton, “What happened to Floyd happens every day in this country: in education, in health services, and in every area of American life. Because ever since 401 years ago, the reason we could never be who we wanted and dreamed of being is you kept your knee on our neck. It's time to stand up in George's name and say get your knee off our necks!”
In our pursuit of abolition, today we have 5 demands for city council, DA Krasner, and Mayor Kenney. We want to uplift the work of the Movement for Black Lives, Black Lives Matter Philly, and Philly Black Radical Collective; you are our north star fight. I encourage you all to read their full statements online. Right now, we call on our elected officials to:
Protect the Rights of Protestors: Philly police have viciously attacked us over the last week, using military equipment and chemical weapons. We demand that no harm come to any protesters. We demand that DA Krasner drop ALL charges against ALL our comrades who have been part of this uprising. And we demand that he stop criminalizing protest and rebellion.
Defund the Police: Mayor Kenney has proposed an additional $19 million, giving the police department a total budget of over $760 million for next year. We demand that city council VOTE NO on the proposed police budget, and instead reduce their budget by at least 10%. Our communities need safe and affordable housing, harm reduction, healthcare, libraries, childcare, and food, and $76 million taken from the police budget could certainly get us these resources. We call on city council to pass a budget FOR THE PEOPLE. Council President Clarke, we are looking at you for leadership. For info on how to contact city council, follow Philly We Rise on social media.
Give Control to the Community: We call on Mayor Kenney to abolish the Fraternal Order of Police and the Police Advisory Commission. We need direct democratic community control of the police department to ensure that communities most harmed by destructive policing have the power to hire and fire officers, to determine disciplinary action, to control budgets and policies, and to subpoena relevant agency information. Anything less will guarantee police will continue to commit atrocities without accountability.
End the War Against Black and Brown People: Since this country’s inception there have been named and unnamed wars on our communities. We demand an end to the criminalization, incarceration, and killing of our people. This includes: the removal of police from schools; an end to the use of past criminal history to determine eligibility for housing, education, licenses, voting, loans, employment, and other services and needs; an end to the mass surveillance of Black communities; and an end to the use of technologies that criminalize and target our communities; an end to the separation of Black families through the forcible removal of our children by the Department of Human Services; and and End to the City’s interaction with ICE.
#FreeOurPeople and Stop the Spread of COVID-19: Conditions inside jails, prisons, and detention centers have always violated human rights, but the current conditions are far worse. We demand the immediate release of all vulnerable people currently incarcerated. We have confirmed reports that our brothers and sisters on State Road have had to make masks out of bed sheets and they don’t even have soap! They are being confined to their cells for 23 hours, sometimes all day. Solitary confinement is inhumane. The inaction of Mayor Kenney and Governor Wolf is basically a death sentence for those who are not eligible for release and don’t have ANY way to protect themselves from contracting the virus. Call Gov. Wolf! Call Mayor Kenney! Urge them to protect those currently incarcerated and commit to freeing our people! None of us are free until ALL OF US are free.
While these demands are a start, they are not a complete roadmap to abolition. Abolition will require all of us to challenge the ways we think about public safety and justice. It will require us trust and follow the leadership of Black folk directly impacted by the current system. It will require us to be persistent and disciplined, not just latching on to the first set of reforms the Mayor will want to shove down our throats. It will require us to build trust so that we can love and protect each other along the way. To close out, I’d like to lead you in chant by Assata Shakur:
It is our duty to fight for our freedom!
It is our duty to win!
We must love each other and protect each other!
We have nothing to lose but our chains!