We Support Black Lives Matter
We are actively supporting these causes through financial donation. For ways you can help, please donate below:
https://action.aclu.org/give/now
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/naacp-1
Support Black leadership nationally: it is critical that Black voices be amplified and allowed to lead the movement towards a world without police brutality.
Contacting local government officials
https://defund12.org/
The murder of George Floyd has outraged all of us at Shop Task, but we recognize that circumstances that lead to his death were not unique or novel. The actions of the Minneapolis Police Department are mirrored all over the country by police responding to demands of accountability with increasing violence. George Floyd is just the latest of the many Black people who have been taken from us by police brutality. It has become necessary for everyone to use their voice to demand change and act to ensure it happens. It is especially our responsibility as people in positions of privilege to demand that what happened to George Floyd never happens again. The American culture of White supremacy that allows police to continually target and abuse Black people without accountability was built for the benefit of White people and now it is our duty as Americans with privilege to dismantle it. In this effort we have consolidated demands advocated for by Black organizers across the country.
1. Defund Police. American police have proven over and over that their role in our communities is not to protect us and have used their power over and over to abuse and target the most marginalized among us. They have taken resources from our cities and towns and used them to buy weapons to use against the people they swear to protect.
2. Invest in community building and alternatives to policing. We have a responsibility to protect ourselves and keep our communities safe for minority populations. Restorative justice services, social work, public education, food aid, public housing, public health resources, and employment resources all have the potential to make violent policing obsolete and need our support.
3. Immediate increases in accountability for police. Since the start of protests around the country, thousands on thousands of videos have emerged documenting flagrant disregard for the law by police. These officers need to be permanently removed from law enforcement positions immediately and charged for the crimes they continue to commit. The use of qualified immunity to shield officers from the law must end.
4. Protesters have been incarcerated for exercising their First Amendment rights and need to be released. The use of curfews to make protesting illegal and charge people for protesting has become widespread and is a flagrant violation of human rights.
5. We support the creation of a national task force to end racial violence and increase accountability as requested by George Floyd’s family.