This collective of Black organizers is composed of individuals and representatives of local grassroots organizations that are grounded in an abolitionist politic.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
This collective of Black organizers is composed of individuals and representatives of local grassroots organizations that are grounded in an abolitionist politic. As abolitionists, we are fighting and organizing for the complete dismantling of both the anti-Black police state AND all other violent institutions that keep Black people in literal and figurative cages. This includes but is not limited to: economic oppression, a lack of access to adequate healthcare, the denial of access to safe and healthy housing, uneven exposure to environmental toxicity, denial of community safety, an inadequate education system, and all other forms of carceral violence. The following policies and legislative action items are the demands of this collective that are necessary first steps toward making abolition a reality:
1. We demand the Repeal of Georgia’s Citizens Arrest Law,
2. We demand the Repeal of Georgia’s Stand Your Ground Law,
3. We demand an end to all wealth-based detention, the overall system of cash-bail, and we reject all attempts to strengthen it,
4. We demand that Atlanta defund and demilitarize the police.
Additionally:
1. We stand with activists and organizers who have protested tirelessly against the police state since the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Dreasjon Reed, and Tony McDade, just as we organize endlessly against the murders of Oscar Cain, Jamarion Robinson, Alexia Christian, Anthony Hill, and the many other Black people murdered by police in and around Atlanta,
2. We stand with activists around the nation demanding the abolition of every aspect of the criminal system,
3. As we are abolitionists, we stand in full solidarity with our comrades who, in response to the reformist “8 Can’t Wait” campaign, released the 8-to-abolition campaign. Those 8 steps being:
a. Defund the police.
b. Demilitarize communities.
c. Remove police from schools (which would and should include getting rid of APS’s police force)
d. Free all people from jails and prisons.
e. Repeal laws that criminalize survival.
f. Invest in community self-governance.
g. Provide safe housing for all.
h. Invest in care, not cops (a very similar demand to Women on the Rise’s “care not cuffs” demand that Atlanta allocate the $18mil proposed for ACDC to the care of the community).
Solidarity with Protestors:
Our single focus is on justice for all Black people dying at the hands of the violent white supremacist structure that murdered Indigenous folks on their land and kidnapped and enslaved Africans to build the wealth/empire that continues to oppress us. We wholly support the varying ways that Black and other colonized people choose to respond to violence against us by the police state, as this not only frees us but also avenges our Ancestors. This includes, but is not limited to: looting, rioting, occupying public spaces, and tearing down monuments. We understand that this is a response to over 400 years of organized violence and oppression against us, and that this fact therefore legitimizes all of the ways which we choose to obtain our freedom. We understand the overwhelming RAGE of our people—regarding not only our murders, but the many avenues through which the state chooses to abuse and otherwise harm our lives and livelihood. As this is the case, we believe in the holistic eradication of all tenets which work to maintain white supremacy, anti-Blackness, and the colonization of our folks. These are: police, prosecutors, judges, courts, borders, and all other structures created under this white supremacist ethnostate.
With Revolutionary Intentions,
Tamika Middleton
Da’Shaun Harrison, Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative
Hunter Shackelford, The People’s Response ATL
Dara Cooper
Cammie McKinney
Duke Virginia
Ali Ture, Communities Over Capitalism
Housing Justice League
Jalessah Jackson
Eshe Shukura
Jovan Julien
Jonathan Lykes, Liberation House
Leila A
Tea Troutman, The People’s Response ATL
Yolande Tomlinson, PhD
Julian Rose, BYP100 Atlanta Chapter
Britni Louise, BYP100 Atlanta Chapter
Michelle Sanders, BYP100 Atlanta Chapter
Isatou Jatta, BYP100 Atlanta Chapter
Jacklyn Izsraael, We Dream In Black Georgia
Reginold Kelley II, BYP100 Atlanta Chapter
Aurielle Marie
Eva Dickerson, BYP100 Atlanta Chapter
Quincy Gardenhire, BYP100 Atlanta Chapter
Bia Jackson, BYP100 Atlanta Chapter
Jill Cartwright
Gangstas To Growers
Tye Stephens
Kiana Clark
Quita Tinsley, ARC-Southeast
Toni-Michelle Williams, Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative
