As we mourn George Floyd, Mike Ramos, Breonna Taylor, and Tony McDade, communities across the country are rising up to call on those in power to stop killing Black people and to demand policies that truly value Black lives. Despite violent repression from the police in multiple cities, shooting protesters with rubber bullets, pepper spray and tear gas, and driving their cars directly into crowds, community members have come out en masse because we can no longer tolerate that Black people live in danger every day.

At Grassroots Leadership, we fight the systemic and social disposability of Black bodies every day. This is the same violence that lies at the core of mass incarceration, detention, and deportation—the idea that some people are disposable and unworthy of protection, in that systems were built to excuse and glorify state violence while criminalizing the ways that oppressed communities survive said violence. We know that we cannot win justice for anyone without confronting the rotten core of white supremacy in our policies, social norms, and within ourselves.

Last month in Austin, Mike Ramos was murdered by an APD officer, and in the death-in-custody report Austin Police Chief Manley defended the officer who killed him. Alongside 30 other Austin organizations, we joined this letter demanding that City Council instruct the City Manager to fire Chief Manley and other leadership that have actively resisted hard-fought policies and reforms pushed by People Of the Global Majority* organizations for years.

We know this is just the beginning. The Austin Police Department receives more than 40 percent of our city budget, draining resources for public health and affordable housing. Meanwhile, APD continues to criminalize, lock up, and deport our community members. We are acutely aware that even after the Freedom Cities Policy, the Austin Police Department continues arresting people for citation-eligible offenses, tearing apart Austin families. APD also has a documented history of responding to mental health calls in lethal and traumatizing ways. 

This continued pattern of violence and control of communities of color is unsurprising given the origin of Austin's police department in an 1865 city council meeting discussing “the fact that a large number of Negroes turned loose by their owners are congregating in and about Austin.” Shortly after, city council passed a vagrancy ordinance that (combined with racist zoning laws) effectively policed many of the then-thriving freedmen towns—places where newly freed Black people were building autonomy and safety—out of existence.

In this moment where communities across the country are rising up for Black lives, we must be willing to dig deep and root white supremacy out of our systems from the core. That means defunding the police, equitably funding public health and affordable housing, and creating alternatives that allow Black people to thrive.

Carried by Black folx since 1619, the generational fight for justice and abolition from Harriet to Bryan Stevenson has propelled us towards a more just and equitable society—one where no human being can be the property of another, where more people have a say in the policies that govern their lives, where more people can own property and receive an equal education. That remains true today. When we prioritize Black lives, we create the conditions for everyone to thrive.

The budget cycle is right around the corner. Take the pledge to follow the leadership of organizations made up and led by People Of the Global Majority that will guide us toward solutions that celebrate Black lives and defund institutions that harm and kill Black lives.

It's time to defund the Austin Police department. We take care of each other.

Join us for change rooted in transformation.