Statement: Minneapolis City Council Considers Disbanding Minneapolis Police Department Following Charge of All Four Officers in George Floyd’s Murder
WASHINGTON, DC – Advancement Project National Office has called for systemic change in our criminal legal system and may soon see a win as the Minneapolis City Council is heavily weighing disbandment of the Minneapolis Police Department following the charge of all four police officers involved in the racially motivated killing of George Floyd.
“True justice will only come in the form of systemic change. Advancement Project National Office is optimistic about the Minneapolis City Council’s consideration to disband the Minneapolis Police Department and will support our partners and the Council’s efforts toward reimagining public safety,” said Judith Browne Dianis, Executive Director of Advancement Project National Office.
“Black people need to see that the system is going to be very different. We have been here before, several times. There are so many empty promises of change, and people are fed up. Layer on top of this a pandemic, where people are already suffering. There’s just too much pain in our community for us to stand by and just let it happen and wait for the empty promises again,” Dianis continued.
Advancement Project’s Justice Project supports grassroots movements in communities of color that challenge racial criminalization and attack all aspects of the criminal legal system, forefronting police. We help local campaigns seeking not simply to reform, but to wholly dismantle systems that criminalize and incarcerate people of color in the name of “law and order.” Further, we aim to help impacted communities define the terms and control the means by which safety is realized in their streets and neighborhoods and to reimagine for themselves how “safety” is pursued.
“Advancement Project National Office stands with our grassroots partners, who demand that police departments across the country be defunded. We will continue to work towards transformational change to ensure justice for Black and Brown people and to eradicate the legacies of racial injustice that our country’s systems uphold,” said Thomas B. Harvey, Justice Project Director for Advancement Project National Office.
