I’ve been trying to write this post for a week, but I simply can not come up with words that adequately convey the fury, sadness, and desire to do something - anything.

Like you, I’ve heard all the stories and seen all of the videos. I can’t take my eyes off of twitter and everything that pops up on my feed is worse than the last. I go to bed each night with visions of black men and women being murdered for no reason by a racist and militarized police force that do not have our best interests at heart, yet are buoyed and protected by a police union that wields entirely too much power and a government too afraid of true systematic change.

We’ve all seen signs and stories of systematic racism in our country and we all know that George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor are just the latest names in a very long list of people murdered due to the color of their skin.

When the protests began, I never expected the police to double down on their ways and crack down on protesters like they have been. Call me gullible, but I thought that a video that very clearly showed a white cop very clearly murdering a man for a very long 8 minutes 46 seconds, they may have realized the protests were justified and show a little humanity.

The system is so broken. The City of Seattle, and this country, need to rethink the current system of policing and social services. Is it appropriate to send an armed and uniformed officer whose training and skillset is completely out of sync with the requirements of their day-to-day job? The vast majority of calls dispatched to the police are non-violent and it is not unreasonable to conclude that officers primarily trained in use of force tactics and worst-case scenarios to reduce potential threats can result in accidental escalation.

Protest. Participate in local elections. Donate. Order a few pizzas and have them delivered to The Chop. Do something.

https://www.kingcountyequitynow.com/

https://blacklivesseattle.org/

https://www.joincampaignzero.org/

https://www.nlg.org/massdefenseprogram/