By ACLU

In the wake of the killings by police of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others, 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.

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, towns and local leaders 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 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.

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.

To achieve substantive change, local officials need to commit to:

• 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;

• Decrease current policing budgets and, guided by community input, reinvest funds from policing into community services and programs;

• Limit or eliminate the role of police in situations where alternative interventions or responses would be safer and more effective.

ACLU affiliates have called on 42 elected officials – and counting – to publicly pledge their commitment to this vision.

By ACLU 

It’s been more than 50 years since Black and Brown trans women led the revolutionary Stonewall Riots, fighting back against police brutality and discrimination and launching a movement for equality. This week, we celebrated another incredible landmark in the fight for LGBTQ rights.

In a 6 to 3 decision, the Supreme Court affirmed that it is illegal for employers to fire or otherwise discriminate against someone simply because they are LGBTQ. Though more work remains to protect the rights of the LGBTQ community, this decision will go a long way towards affirming legal protections in education, housing, credit, and health care — areas where too many LGBTQ people, particularly Black and Brown LGBTQ people, still face discrimination.

Chase Strangio, the Deputy Director for Transgender Justice for the ACLU’s LBGT and HIV Project, joined the podcast to help breakdown this historic decision.

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A Landmark Supreme Court Decision Affirms LGBTQ Rights

It’s been over 50 years since Black and Brown trans women led the revolutionary Stonewall Riots, fighting back against police brutality and discrimina…

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By ACLU 

Journalists covering protests against police brutality across the country are facing an influx of violence, suppression efforts, and arrests by police. Since the George Floyd protests began, there have been more than 400 claims of aggressions against the press, according to the U.S. Press Freedom tracker. Violations include being assaulted with pepper spray and rubber bullets, dealing with damaged equipment, and even facing arrest. This week, At Liberty is joined by Jared Goyette, a freelance reporter who was hit in the eye with a police projectile while covering a protest in Minneapolis. 

“There’s always been a degree of tension between police, protesters, and media,” said Goyette of the protest at which he was attacked. “They are tense environments…But based on my experience in these types of events, this was markedly different than anything I’d seen before. It was different by the degree of the lack of clear communication. And it was different in the degree to which the projectiles coming from police seemed continuous, and to some degree arbitrary.”

Goyette is now the named plaintiff in a lawsuit the ACLU of Minnesota filed last week against the City of Minneapolis, seeking justice for the violence he and other journalists experienced covering the protests.

“There’s a feeling of just being in a historic and important moment and wanting to do as good a job as possible to document it,” Goyette told At Liberty. “And there’s just so much happening at once. As journalists, we’re doing the best we can.”
 

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Policing the Press: A Journalist on the Frontlines

Journalists covering protests against police brutality across the country are facing an influx of violence, suppression efforts, and arrests by police…

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