On Sunday, August 23, another Black man, Jacob Blake, was shot in the back seven times in front of his three children, by police officers in Kenosha, WI while attempting to enter his car.
We are grieved by Jacob’s attempted murder and outraged that even after the global watershed of protest following the death of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Jayne Thompson in close succession, we have found ourselves here, again, demanding justice for the excessive use of force by law enforcement against a Black life.
We need to move away from a culture of punishment and terror and move towards a culture of care and dignity. We need less policing and more social services. Any person who will shoot someone seven times in the back is not shooting to slow someone down. They are shooting to kill.
Black people constantly live in fear and are faced with systemic, institutional, and individual racism every day around the world, but we must continue to galvanize these tragic moments into collective action. Blake and his family need us to lift his name up as he fights to keep his life.
We must continue to unite in defense of Black people and stand with those calling for the immediate dismantling of anti-Black racism in this country, which includes defunding the police and the racially charged agenda to overpolice and criminalize our Black bodies and communities.
We must honor the lives of Black people stolen from us by law enforcement. We say their names and continue to hold our government, elected officials, allies, and adversaries accountable to these murders and attempted murders until there is national legislation and policies passed that uplift Black folks and invest in our communities, so that we are all able to breathe freely.
About BLM Foundation
#BlacklivesMatter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Black Lives Matter Foundation, is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by state and vigilantes. By combatting and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives.
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