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

They are using Black people as test subjects at disproportionate rates. They claim it is because these countries have high numbers of Covid-19, despite having European nations, and the U.S take the lead in Covid cases. This has been seen before in history. Look to the Tuskegee experiment. Look to the experiments performed on enslaved people in the U.S. History is repeating itself. Black people are not guinea pigs.

This is important because the City Council took a sacred site away from the historic aboriginal Tribe of El Dorado County and gave it to the Sutter County Tribe just as the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors did in 2004. The Upper Broadway site belongs to the Wopumnes Tribe with over 150 years of history in El Dorado County. This is their sacred site that they have been protecting for over 100 years. On April 16, 2020 the City of Placerville bull-dozed the site without CEQA review and without warning. The City claims they gave notice in their 2018 MND but the site was obscured from the construction activities so there was no need for the Tribe to reveal the site. On June 23, 2020, item 12.1 on the City Agenda, the Placerville City Council, in an unprecedented act of insensitivity and amidst much support of the historic tribe, decided to ignore the Wopumnes request to allow them access to their sacred site to monitor study and construction activities. Instead the City Council decided to give the Wopumnes sacred site to the Sacramento-Verona Band (who arrived in El Dorado County in 1980, owns Redhawk Casino and calls themselves (SSBMI)). The City did exactly what the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors did in 2004... they gave the Wopumnes' sacred site away to the Sacramento-Verona Band, an out of town group from Sutter County. The Citizens of El Dorado County say "Not in my town. Placerville City Council, give the Wopumnes back their sacred site so they monitor construction and study activities, and bring in UC Davis to do the dig, Collect, Study and Care for the Wopumnes Tribe's artifacts.

Stanley watson was wrongfully convicted for a murder he didn't commit. He was only 17 years old at the time and he deserves a second chance, also a responsible opportunity for release...There were truly a miscarriage of justice, witnesses were threatened and harassed to testify against Mr. Watson. All we want is for the courts. The governor Stitt and the state of Oklahoma to realize they have a innocent man in prison and to release him without prejudice. For he has already served 20 years of his life.. We need and demand justice..

Tom Tiffany is not a team player! He is concerned about Tom and what Tom wants ONLY. It is time to get rid of Toxic Tom and protect Wisconsinites. It is time to show FULL Support for the Governor Wisconsinites elected. It is time other politicians respect and work with the man WE the Citizens of Wisconsin elected. Mr. Tiffany is only one example of those who refuse to work with officials that Wisconsinites elected. This is unsafe for Wisconsin. We need a government that works together for it's citizens.

In the Kentucky primary election that occurred yesterday, several hundred voters were locked out of the KY Expo Center right at 6 pm, barring them from their right to vote. The only reason they were allowed inside is because both US Senate Democratic Nominees, Amy McGrath and Charles Booker, filed injunctions with the Jefferson County Circuit Court to open the doors and allow those waiting in line outside to vote. Charles Booker filed a second injunction to keep the polls open until 9 pm, and was denied. Kentucky's current election law states that polls are to be closed at 6 pm with the precinct election sheriff identifying the last person in line to be the last voter. This early closing time prevents many working people from getting to their polling place in time, especially if they work far from their home precinct. Restricting voting hours to end at 6 pm is voter disenfranchisement, aimed specifically at working-class citizens and people of color, who are more likely to be working in the service industries where there is little flexibility to leave one's shift to go vote. In the case of this last primary election, there was only ONE polling place for all of Jefferson County/city of Louisville -- where there are nearly 1 million residents. At 6 pm the traffic to get into the KY Expo Center was nearly an hour long. Voters were parking and running up to the doors to make it in time, only to find they had been locked out. With the coronavirus crisis continuing indefinitely into the future, we can only assume that our state and county will choose to have a singular polling place for the November general election. We MUST URGE our KY state officials, Governor Andy Beshear, Secretary of State Michael Adams, KY Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, and KY House of Representatives David Osborne to EXTEND voting hours to at least 7 pm, if not until 9 pm. That last hour is critial in expanding access for voters who cannot leave work in time to get to their polling place.

It's not just COVID and police brutality exposing racism in America. Black homeowners in Detroit are being overtaxed on top of these other injustices. We’ve all seen headlines about Detroit homeowners being overcharged $600 million dollars in property taxes. No community should be hit with such unjust bills and least of all a city with 40 percent of residents struggling in poverty. Detroit has one of the highest property tax foreclosure rates of any city since the Great Depression. A recent University of Chicago study shows that, even after Mayor Duggan tried to fix the problem, the City is still overcharging the lowest valued homes. These are deep, systemic problems that a task force should investigate, propose solutions to end the practice and help make the community whole. Governor Whitmer has proven that she can get the job done with COVID and is with us in the movement against police brutality. Now it's time to do the same for property tax injustice. We call on her to create a task force to investigate and stop unfair property tax practices and keep Detroit homeowners in their homes. Sources: https://harris.uchicago.edu/files/evalrespropertytaxasdetroit20162018.pdf https://scholarship.law.uci.edu/ucilr/vol9/iss4/3/ http://www.californialawreview.org/print/predatory-cities/#_ftn18 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/opinion/coronavirus-cities-property-taxes.html

We have been closely following the development of a large encampment of unhoused people in Powderhorn Park, and the attempts by the Minneapolis Parks Board to deal with the situation. We support the Board Resolution 2020-253 passed at their meeting on June 17, 2020 in which the Board committed to allow the encampment to remain temporarily while working to find housing for the unhoused people there; and called on local and State government to increase funding to address this crisis. During the June 17 meeting, it was clear that the Park Board has no funding or expertise available to address the crisis presented by a large encampment of unhoused people during a pandemic and in the wake of an uprising centered just a few blocks away. David Hewitt, the Director of Hennepin County's Office to End Homelessness, testified that it will not be easy to find housing for the residents of the Powderhorn encampment, that the County's resources are already maxed out by the rapid adjustments that were made due to the pandemic, and that there is little or no capacity to address the needs of this encampment. Al Bangoura, Superintendent of Minneapolis Parks, stated that he is attempting to work closely with the Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness, but also stated that that no state or local government agency has committed any funds to assist the Park Board to keep the residents of the encampment safe or to find them appropriate housing. Parks Commissioner Lionel French stated that he believes Governor Walz needs to get involved, and we agree. We therefore are petitioning you for your intervention in this matter.