AMADOU DIALLO 23RD ANNIVERSARY OF HIS MURDER

 

Shaun King 

Today is the 23rd anniversary of the murder of Amadou Diallo in 1999. The NYPD fired 41 shots at Amadou, who was unarmed and broke no laws and was a model citizen. And not a single cop was held accountable. They didn’t even lose their jobs.⁣

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His murder was my entrance in activism against police brutality. I was a student leader at Morehouse at the time and we all saw Amadou as our peer in many ways. And when I was Student Government President, we organized and fought for justice every way we knew how back then. No social media and hardly even any functional Internet. Organizing was different. More relational.⁣

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In some ways it breaks my heart that has police violence is still so horrible after the 23 years I’ve been in this fight. Some of these images I shared could be from today. America is deeply resistant to change. And what’s ugly is that New York’s Mayor is actually bringing back the disgraced unit that did this and caused so much harm. ⁣

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Unlike 23 years ago, I’m grateful that we’ve now been able to convict cops across the country and finally have DA’s that stand up to their violence. But the violence shows no sign of ending. ⁣

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It has been one of the honors of my life to become friends with Amadou’s dear mother, Kadiatou, and even introduce her to my own family. She’s a queen of a woman. If you’ve ever been in her presence you’d understand.

Let me tell you what the news is not reporting

 

Let me tell you what the news is not reporting⁣

If you were to look in almost any news publication in the past year, they’d have you believing that murder rates are rising across the country and that to fix that, we need to invest MORE money in police and in prisons.

They would have you believe that policies aimed at harm reduction by getting rid of sentencing on low-level crimes are what’s causing this ‘lawlessness’.

That’s not true.⁣

First of all, murder rates were down, WAY down, in many large cities across the country in 2021. In Boston, they were down 26%. In St. Louis, they were down 25%. In Miami, they were down 15%. In Seattle, they were down 22%.

Second of all, a perceived increase in crime is EXACTLY what our opponents use to fuel a frenzy of fear to invest more money in a system that endangers the lives of poor, working class people — especially Black and brown people.

Instead of addressing the root causes of injustice and harm, their solutions are to increase funding for police officers, invest in opening new jails and prisons, and fuel the ongoing crisis that is mass incarceration.

Police won’t be able to solve the crimes we need to be solved — like murders. In fact, the rate of them solving these crimes are HORRIBLE.

It’s heartbreaking. We see this pattern over, and over, and over. As I’ve said before — it causes more arrests, more incarceration, more poverty, more despair, which leads to more drug use, which leads to a vicious cycle of mass incarceration that is inescapable.

We at Real Justice have to put a stop to this. And the good news is, the work we have done to combat this horrific harm has been working.

In the places where we have already elected good DA’s, we are succeeding in enormous ways. It’s not always perfect. But it’s progress.

Those DA’s are prosecuting violent cops who never would’ve faced accountability of any kind without those DA’s in office.

They are freeing the innocent, mostly Black men who have been wrongfully imprisoned.

They are overhauling what true public safety actually means in their cities.

And they are working hard to undo policies that contribute to mass incarceration.

We have big plans for this work in 2022. We are helping lay the groundwork for future wins, but we are also defending the progress we’ve made. District by district. City by city. All across the country.

We can’t do it without you. Please, I’m asking if you’ll make your best gift to Real Justice, to make sure we can hold our opponents accountable and elect justice champions who understand the root causes of crime and are doing everything they can to transform what justice looks like in this country.

Love and appreciate you,

Shaun

Pol. Adv. Paid for by Real Justice PAC, realjusticepac.org

Not authorized by any federal, state, or local candidate or a committee controlled by a candidate.

Email us: info@realjusticepac.org

⁣ A Long Beach Police Officer (@longbeachpd.ca) was driving drunk.⁣

Shaun King 

Let me translate this for you. ⁣

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A Long Beach Police Officer (@longbeachpd.ca) was driving drunk.⁣

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Ran into several cars. ⁣

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And then passed out. ⁣

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He was likely armed with a gun and had a visible knife on his lap. ⁣

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OK? Following me?⁣

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What happened next is why I say police RARELY need more training. They actually know what to do.⁣

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They just pick and choose who gets their best, who gets their patience and expertise. ⁣

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So….⁣

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I know of at least 25 Black men who’ve been shot and killed in this position. People called the police on them as they were asleep in their car. ⁣

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But here’s what the Long Beach Police did.⁣

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1. They went and got a spike strip to flatten his tires if the man drove off. ⁣

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2. They went and got a big bullet proof sheet to protect themselves in case shots were fired.⁣

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3. They went and got special less lethal weapons in case they needed them.⁣

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4. They went and got an officer that knew the man and could speak to him. ⁣

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5. Then they took him to a small police department and let him keep his job.⁣

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Here’s the thing….⁣

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THAT’S EXCELLENT POLICING. ⁣

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I’m not mad at it. ⁣

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It’s just that I’ve NEVER seen a Black man get this treatment. This patience. This care. This time. This precision.⁣

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Police investigate deadly shooting at northwest Atlanta apartment complex

 

Shaun King 

Dear @AtlantaPolice,⁣

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Your budget is the BIGGEST it’s ever been. Your union said it couldn’t stop murders and crime last year because police were defunded. ⁣

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Your union said “morale was low” because bad cops were held accountable. And that crime would drop when you got more money and improved morale.⁣

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Now you have the most funding of all time, and you still aren’t stopping them. ⁣

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Why? The ball is now in your court. ⁣

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You said if you had the money you would stop all of this. But here it is.⁣

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More police. Bigger budget.⁣

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Same shootings.⁣

Same murders.⁣

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Tell me how you could’ve stopped this. I’m waiting.⁣

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You all basically lied to voters about how you could stop crime.⁣

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Repeat after me: POLICE DON’T STOP CRIME. ⁣

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They just respond, mainly well after the fact. ⁣

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They are glorified documentarians.⁣

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97% of their time isn’t even spent on serious violent crimes. It’s spent on petty foolishness from traffic tickets on down. ⁣Google it. ⁣

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Stopping crime is actually WAY more complex than pouring a lot of money into police departments. ⁣

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But people fell for it anyway.⁣

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I love Atlanta. It was my home for 20 years. ⁣

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But pouring money into policing does VERY LITTLE to get to the root causes of crime.

The Philadelphia DA’s Office, led by @LarryKrasner, just exonerated their 24th wrongfully convicted person.

 

Shaun King 

BREAKING: The Philadelphia DA’s Office, led by @LarryKrasner, just exonerated their 24th wrongfully convicted person. This is right here is why we do the work we do. ⁣

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Willie Stokes, seen kneeling in this photo, has been in prison for 37 years for a murder he didn’t commit. He’s been in there since 1984. ⁣

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While his conviction has just been vacated, Willie might remain in jail for a few more weeks or months until everything is finalized. ⁣

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What’s so painful, is that the ONLY man that testified against Willie was later found guilty of perjury, for lying ABOUT WILLIE, but prosecutors hid this from Willie and his attorneys. ⁣

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It’s crazy. Every officer and prosecutor on this case should be penalized. They should lose their pensions and law licenses. ⁣

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Not only that, but it has been discovered that the @PhillyPolice were offering incarcerated men SEX with women they’d bring in, or offers to reduce their time, if they’d provide false testimony against men they didn’t even know.

A painful prediction for 2022 & A surge of support

 

This is a bit of a longer email, but it’s important. Please take a few moments to read the whole thing and my request at the end.

You may have heard me talk about this on my podcast ‘The Breakdown’ last week.

For most of my life, I have actually been an extremely optimistic guy.

But right now, I have a very painful prediction for 2022 and beyond — in some ways, it’s not so much a prediction because I already see it underway.

I want to prepare you for it and help you understand it, ok?

We are about to enter a horrible new era of extreme mass incarceration that will rival the worst periods in modern American history.

If you’ve ever wondered what it was like to be in the era of mass incarceration in the late 1970s, 1980s, into the early 90s, it feels a lot like it does today.

Jails are overflowing. Prisons are getting more crowded. There are even states across this country starting to talk — again — about building NEW jails, NEW prison, for MORE people.

Here’s the thing. As author James Forman Jr. says in his book “Locking Up Our Own”, during that era of mass incarceration, Black communities were grasping for straws on how to solve a legitimate problem of widespread crime.

But when Black communities try and find the answers, the police show up and try to say they can be the solution.

The problems that Black communities face — you can’t police your way out of those problems.

Rather than solve the violent crimes they need to solve, most of policing is completely reactionary and does not intervene with the ROOT causes of crime.

They are not normally the force that stops bad things from happening. They are built to be reactionary.

And when the media starts to frenzy about ‘rising crime’, people — good people — say we need more police. All that does is destabilize Black and brown communities.

It causes more arrest, more incarceration, more poverty, more despair, which leads to more drug use, which leads to a vicious cycle of mass incarceration that is inescapable.

What we are about to see in 2022 is an exploding rate of mass incarceration — and when that happens, police brutality explodes as well.

The crisis of police brutality is about having an extreme police presence and having millions and millions of police encounters, the math just says that you will also then have hundreds or THOUSANDS of brutal police encounters. It’s a simple math problem.

So, the goal of my life has been to reduce mass incarceration which will also reduce police violence — and finally allow for some stability in Black communities.

That way, we will have our communities present without mass incarceration interfering with everything we do.

Here’s what I know. Police won’t be able to solve the crimes we need to be solved — like murders, home robberies, and sexual assaults. The rate of them solving these crimes are HORRIBLE.

When cities pour money into policing, the police will continue to bust more people for more low-level crimes — and we’ll be off the races.

SO many people are arguing for a re-funding of the police. It won’t make things better.

But listen to me. WE at Real Justice have a way to help put a stop to this. We’re depending on a surge of year-end donations to make sure we actually can, heading into 2022.

We can do it by electing DA's who will hold the police accountable, who will fight to end mass incarceration, and who will put efforts into community care — not criminalization of our people.

In the places where we have already elected good DA’s, we are succeeding in massive ways. The progress is not perfect. But it is real progress.

Those DA’s are prosecuting violent cops who never would’ve faced accountability of any kind without those DA’s in office.

Those DA’s are freeing the innocent, mostly Black men who have been wrongfully imprisoned.

Those DA’s are overhauling what true public safety actually means in their cities.

In 2022, we want to continue this work. We want to not only till the soil for future wins, but defend the progress we’ve made. District by district. City by city.

Love and appreciate you,

Shaun

Pol. Adv. Paid for by Real Justice PAC, realjusticepac.org

Not authorized by any federal, state, or local candidate or a committee controlled by a candidate.

Email us: info@realjusticepac.org

Wow.

When I sent the email late last night about my prediction for 2022 — on how we will see a huge increase in mass incarceration and how we can work to stop it — I wasn’t sure what to expect.

But since then, we saw a HUGE surge of support. This community always amazes me and the way you show up for Real Justice and the fights we take on together. Thank you.

Here’s the truth. We’re still short on our year-end goal of $530,000, and in order to make sure we can kick off our 2022 plans to fight back, we need to make sure we hit this goal. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you,

Shaun

Pol. Adv. Paid for by Real Justice PAC, realjusticepac.org

Not authorized by any federal, state, or local candidate or a committee controlled by a candidate.

Email us: info@realjusticepac.org