July 17th, 2020
For Immediate Release
[email protected]
April Goggens | (202) 250-4541
[email protected]
—
Washington, DC — Black Lives Matter DC and other abolitionists call for a mass show of solidarity to defund, disband, and replace the police with community care. Strike For Black Lives promises to bring Washington, DC to a grinding halt on June 19th. Also known as Juneteenth, the annual celebration of the end of slavery in the United States.
Why Juneteenth, Black Lives Matter, DC organizer April Goggons “Juneteenth reminds us that we can stop the systems, institutions and agents that actively harm black people and reclaim spaces where we create and celebrate Black liberation on our terms. We also recognize that everyone must stop replicating and investing in these things invest in Black communities”.
Strike For Black Lives watched a wave of grieving and rebellion take hold of the nation. We want justice for people killed by police in Washington, DC, especially Terrence Sterling, Jeffery Price, D’Quann Young, Marquees Alston, Alonzo Smith, Miriam Carey, and Ralphael Briscoe. We remember the hundreds of other people killed by MPD, ICE, or other agents of the state with badges and guns
For four months, we’ve seen Black, Brown, Indigenous, Trans, and working-class people sacrifice their lives as essential workers while the wealthy remain safely indoors. We strike to end the logic that anyone is expendable. We’ve watched our loved ones locked in DC Jail’s cages ravaged by COVID-19 at rates up to three times the rate of those outside the walls in DC.
More recently, police arrested thousands during the pandemic, exposing them to COVID-19 while activists risked their lives to make sure people had enough resources to stay home. Police have access to military-grade weapons while doctors and nurses still use garbage bags as personal shielding against Covid-19.
We mobilize June 19th to create police free zones.