As of 2016, Norfolk police have killed twice as many people as any other agency in Virginia since 2010, according to a Virginian Pilot investigation. According to The Guardian newspaper, out of the 19 people shot and killed by police in the state of Virginia in 2016, seven of those were killed in the Hampton Roads area, with 5 of those deaths being in Norfolk alone. These issues are not "another place's problem." Members of Norfolk City Council have the ability to make concrete change and address the systematic abuse Black and Brown people experience everyday here in Norfolk.

The Chinese government is not only oppressing hundreds of thousands of members of the minority Uighur population in the Northwest Xinjiang region (placing them in concentration camps and under surveillance), it is also now being reported that they are forcefully sterilizing some of their women so that they may not grow their families and expand their population!! This gross violation of human rights and dignity is beyond shameful and heinous, but beyond any doubt, we as an individual consumers (and business leaders) can put an end to this by discontinuing our support of Chinese industry!! Money talks (and even more loudly among the wicked) and with enough pressure, The Ruling Communist Party will elect to liberate and end their persecution of the Uighurs rather than suffer severe economic hardship!! This boycott of Chinese products may be initially inconvenient and costly for us as consumers and businesses, but indeed, it will prove less costly than allowing evil and wickedness to continue to flourish throughout the earth!! We are all one one family, and as one body, none of us can reach our full potential and live our happiest and most fulfilling lives all the while ignoring the sufferings and hardships of our fellow brothers and sisters. Please be strong everybody!! Buy American, European, Japanese, or whatever, just don't buy Chinese, PLEASE!!

If we want reform we need to have police that are joining for the right reasons. A chief who’s not only a black woman herself but mother to a black son and grandchildren who’s spent most of her life in Richmond in the community making a difference is the leadership we need, not just in Richmond but in every goddamn community. Can you imagine what a police force full of Carols would be like? I can. George Floyd would be alive. Tamir Rice would be 18 right now. The chief of police should be a mother who’s children have grown up in a system that is racist and cruel. Someone who wants, “police need to change their mindset from warrior to guardian; it’s not us (police) Verses them (the people), we as police are part of the community, we are one. “ Richmond, tell Mayor Stoney we don’t need another macho man. We need a WOMAN who truly cares about the community as she’s part of it. We need a chief with a career like Carols. If we can’t truly abolish police then let’s change what sort of people become police. There should be no greater honor then serving your community, we’ve had enough of police ENFORCING their power, we need to flip that to truly serving and working for the people. We need kindness. We need selflessness. We need love. Tell Stoney Richmond should have a say in who is in charge of the folks who SERVE the community. And in my opinion it’s time for a woman to do the job men can’t.

This is important because People that don't have a Support System in Prison go without Justice This man needs to be released he has done his time and more than that .. please sign the petition

In January of 2019, H.R. 40 was introduced to members of Congress. The bill states its purpose is "to establish a commission to study and develop Reparations proposals for African-Americans" and "submit to Congress the results of such examinations." The Committee found that “as a result of the historic and continued discrimination, African-Americans continue to suffer debilitating economic, educational, and health hardships including but not limited to having nearly 1 million black people incarcerated; an employment rate more than twice the current white unemployment rate; and an average of less than 1/16 of the wealth of white families, a disparity which has worsened, not improved over time.” Now, in the wake of a national health crisis that disproportionately affects the Black Community and the continued public slaughter of Black bodies at the hands of law enforcement despite international condemnation, African Americans continue to be left behind economically. The time is now for this country to pay back the Black community for this economic chokehold. Join me in urging members of Congress to move forward with the findings of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s Committee to Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans and encourage Congress to demand Reparations for African Americans. Read H.R. 40 here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/40

The current state flag bill prevents the Confederate battle flag from being used in the new state flag. On the eve that the bill was voted on, Senator Melanie Sojourner asked if the bill prevented all Confederate imagery and emblems from being used on the new state flag. Senator Briggs Hopson then stated that it did not. Senator Sojourner then mentioned that Georgia’s state flag is based on another flag from the Confederacy (the “Stars and Bars”). Details on the Flag Bill Process: The nine-member commission must adopt a new flag by September 14th. It will then be voted on by people in November of 2020. In the 2021 session, the lawmakers still must ratify a final flag design that voters vote on in the November election. If voters reject the design, the nine-member commission gets back to work, and voters would weigh in on another design in November 2021. On the nine-member commission, there will be at least one member from the Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the Mississippi Arts Commission and the Mississippi Economic Council.Contact your state representative, state senator, the Mississippi Arts Commission, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, or the Mississippi Economic Council to express your views on what imagery the new flag should and shouldn’t include. Sources: Bill: http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2020/pdf/history/HB/HB1796.xml Article: https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2020/06/28/live-mississippi-lawmakers-take-up-state-flag-bill/3275024001/

The DAS extends police power to surveil nearly all New Yorkers 24/7. The system uses cameras, license plate readers, MTA trip data, and radiological sensors to create a real-time surveillance map of New York City. It also taps into private data feeds ranging from Wall Street banks’ security systems to private data brokers. Once the data is funneled into the DAS, it can be stored indefinitely. Even worse, NYC gets a sweet kickback commission from Microsoft any time another city or town buys the DAS technology. The DAS heightens the NYPD’s racist policing practice against BIPOC and immigrants. Not only can the DAS technology allow unconstitutional warrantless location tracking, it can also provide information for ICE to help deport people, too. We shouldn’t have to wait years for the Supreme Court to strike down the DAS. Microsoft should ditch it today. We’re calling on Microsoft to immediately end its partnership with the NYPD on the Domain Awareness System.

Unemployment levels for young Americans and minority workers are at levels unseen since the Great Depression. Furthermore, the economy is not rebounding fast enough to put millions of formerly-employed workers back to work before federal unemployment benefits end on July 31. Nevertheless, a necessary relief bill will not be enacted in Washington by July or even August. California already has the largest number of homeless workers in the U.S. Failure to provide economic relief will balloon this human disaster into a catastrophe.

San Francisco's Prayer Book Cross is a symbol that continues to glorify white supremacy. It whitewashes the narrative of colonizers, slave traders, rapists, and looters. It must be removed immediately. The maintenance of this religious symbol in a public park is a governmental endorsement of religion, which is illegal.

The Abington School District mascot “The Galloping Ghost” represents a white supremacist symbol. The original illustrations of the mascot depict a member of the KKK, a racist hate group that has been targeting black americans since the 1800s. For a school district that practices No Place for Hate ideals, this is unacceptable. Some of you may think that just because the school changed the depiction it is perfectly fine, but the history of the KKK still lies in years of yearbooks.

As long-standing members of the Triangle and Richmond climbing communities, we have been dismayed by the lack of action taken both recently and historically to elevate Black voices and experiences, as well as other marginalized groups. There have been small actions taken by Triangle Rock Club; however, these steps have been nowhere near strong nor vocal enough to truly create an inclusive and diverse climbing community. We are demanding immediate steps to be taken by both organizations to radically alter service provisions so that they can better serve our community. We are requesting Triangle Rock Club to do the work to reflect on the privilege of rock climbing and how rock climbing has historically been an elitist sport centering white men climbing on Indigenous land. Events prior to developing this petition: Concerned climbers protested in front of Triangle Rock Club - RVA on June 21, 2020. We received no engagement from staff at the protest. We posted about our action on Instagram, and tagged both @trianglerockclub and @trianglerockclub_rva. The next day, we noticed that the tags on our posts have been removed. We received no comment, direct message, or any kind of response to our action. We are reaching out to TRC publicly and directly to explain our list of demands. On the morning of June 23, 2020, Triangle Rock Club uploaded a post on their Instagram accounts in response to the concerns of the climbing community. They stated, “Black Lives Matter” and committed to taking steps to align themselves with the BLM movement. The climbing community commented on the posts concerned with Andrew Kratz’s donations to Donald Trump under TRC. Teresa Baker, founder of the Outdoor CEO Pledge, commented and said that she just found out about the donations and that she would look into it. A few hours later, the post was deleted/archived, and a new post was posted that had the same wording but without the Outdoor CEO Pledge. All of the comments were consequently deleted /archived as well. We are seeking long lasting and sustainable changes from Triangle Rock Club to help elevate BIPOC, LGBTQIA2+, and Disabled Climbers at all times.

Dear Representative Raskin, As residents of Maryland’s 8th district, we call upon you to use your position on the House Judiciary Committee to take real and concrete steps to address the systemic violence and racism that plagues every level of our criminal justice system. While the legislation you’ve supported thus far is an excellent start, the reforms we’ve tried in the past have not ended the brutality. At the moment, there’s no reason for us to believe the reforms in the bills you’ve supported will end the racist brutality now. We have moved past the time for moderate, reactionary reforms. The momentum to fundamentally change the system is here, and we call upon you to support legislation that puts the following demands into action. End the transfer of military-grade equipment to police departments, and eliminate funding for programs that supply these weapons to police departments. Require disciplinary action for officers who prevent body/car/street cameras (any and all recording equipment) from filming, even unintentionally. Require footage from all police interactions to be automatically uploaded to publicly accessible platforms to which police departments do not have editorial access. Oppose additional federal funding for implicit bias training, de-escalation training, or “neighborhood watches” that cities may create to replace police departments. End qualified immunity and allow for suits to be brought retroactively against officers (including federal officials) who have violated civil rights in the past. The Bivens Act must allow for retroactive suits to be brought. End suspensions with pay for officers who commit acts of brutality. Create police involvement and brutality databases, aggregated by race, gender, sexuality, etc on a publicly accessible and easy to use online platform (where police involvement means all police encounters with the public, including non-arrests; all stop and frisks, all speeding tickets, etc). Require disciplinary action for police who do not report their interactions with civilians, even unintentionally. Institute stronger federal protections for police whistleblowers, including but not limited to personal security (if so desired) and pension/benefits protection. Demand that the proposed Law Enforcement Identification Act must be coupled with disciplinary action for any officers who break it, whether “unknowingly” or intentionally. Ignorance of the law is no excuse for us; it cannot be an excuse for them. Fully legalize marijuana, remove it from level 1 status, and allow NIH grants to go to marijuana research. Release all nonviolent drug offenders in federal prisons (including non-marijuana charges), particularly those convicted under mandatory minimums. Federally decriminalize sex work, repeal SESTA-FOSTA. Demilitarize and defund ICE. We know this list of demands presents a challenge, but these changes are necessary to end the violence perpetrated against black, brown and poor people in this country. Note: “Disciplinary action” may include, but is not be limited to: suspensions without pay, firings, loss of weapons/firearms, losing the right to own firearms, pay cuts, demotions, press releases that include the officer’s name, photo, and specifics about the actions of that officer to local (and potentially national) news outlets