Statement on Police Brutality and Racism

We will say it again and again: The brutal murders and systemic oppression of Black people must end. We stand with the Black community in fighting for a future in which it’s safe to live and thrive as a Black person in America. 

We are saddened to acknowledge once again the heartbreak, pain, and frustration that our community — particularly our Black members — are feeling after yet another senseless murder by the police of a Black man, Daunte Wright.

This injustice comes mere days after the abuse of Army Officer Caron Nazario at a traffic stop and in the midst of Derek Chauvin’s trial for the murder of George Floyd. These most recent acts of anti-Black violence and brutality by police are only the latest in a longstanding history of systemic and deadly racism embedded in our country’s policing — a legacy that has caused generational trauma and demands meaningful accountability and new approaches to public safety.  

To learn more about and support the fight for social justice and an end to police brutality, here are a few resources:

Organizations:

• Black Lives Matter Boston
• Black and Pink Boston
• Families for Justice as Healing
• Haymarket People’s Fund 
• Louis D. Brown Peace Institute
• The Massachusetts Bail Fund
• Muslim Justice League
• NAACP Boston Branch
• New Beginnings Reentry Service
• Sisters Unchained 
• Violence in Boston  
• YW Boston

Further reading and info: 

• ACLU -- Reforming Police
• A Roadmap for Re-imagining Public Safety in the United States
• One City’s 30-Year Experiment With Reimagining Public Safety
• The Invention of the Police
• Resources to teach the history of policing in America that you won’t find in textbooks

[Last Updated: 4.15.21]

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