Tell our leaders in Tallahassee: pledge today to fight police violence in our communities

TAKE ACTION NOW

In the wake of the killing of George Floyd, we are seeing a massive popular political realignment around the role and scope of policing in the United States, led by Black organizers and Black-led movement groups. More than ever before, this movement is calling for divestment from police departments, and reinvestment into the life-affirming services that help communities thrive.

Modern police forces in this country can be traced back to slave patrols used in Charleston, South Carolina. From their inception, police have been tasked with protecting power and privilege by exerting social control over Black people. That racist history is the broken foundation that our modern policing institution is grounded in. The epidemic of police violence in this country is not an issue of “bad apples”. Modern policing is rotten at its core.

The issue at the heart of our broken policing institution is the broadening of the scope and responsibilities that are given to law enforcement agencies, which has led to the unlawful use of excessive force and the killing of Black men and women.

As the policing presence in Black communities has expanded, so have police budgets — with state and local governments allocating over $100 billion a year to law enforcement. While crime has been trending downward for years and violent crime and property crime have fallen significantly since the early 1990s, over the past four decades, the cost of policing in the U.S. has almost tripled.

Elected officials have the power to reduce the harmful abuse and harassment of impacted communities by police, by reinvesting into community-based services, resources, and alternatives to policing that are best suited to responding to actual community needs. We need to fundamentally reimagine the role police play in our society, and that role has to be smaller, more circumscribed, and less funded with tax-payer dollars.

There is no time to wait – our leaders must make these commitments now.

Message Recipients: John E. Dailey, Mayor of Tallahassee

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Your Message

Subject

It’s not enough for local governments to make small cuts, to invest in yet another set of flawed training programs, or to paint the streets with slogans. Cities and towns must undergo a reckoning; with the political power of law enforcement organizations which have a long history of vigorously opposing any reduction in police power.; the amount of money that has been stripped away from necessary and life-affirming public services in favor of militarized weaponry and surveillance technology; and violence by law enforcement that has been enabled by racist, invasive, and abusive police practices.

Message Body

The current spotlight on police violence provides a golden opportunity for local elected leaders across the country to take bold and swift action to reduce the footprint of police in Black communities and reallocate resources into alternatives to policing that keep communities safe and help them thrive.

As residents of Florida, we rely on our elected officials to step up to the plate when the people call for action. We look to you to show courage and leadership through difficult times. We are looking to you now.

Please sign the ACLU’s pledge and commit that you will:
1. Not accept any political contributions or donations from organizations or unions directly representing police officers if the organization or union opposes reducing the size, power or budgets of police forces.
2. Support decreasing current policing budgets, and reinvesting funds from policing into community-based and community-led life-affirming services and programs, guided by community input
3. Commit to limiting or eliminating the role of police in situations where social interventions are safer and more effective.

You can join other elected officials across the country by submitting your pledge here: aclu.org/divestpledge. Thank you

Sincerely,

[First Name] [Last Name]
[Your Address]

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Tell our leaders in Tallahassee: pledge today to fight police violence in our communities

TAKE ACTION NOW

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