Incredible! Republican leaders who complain about “rigged elections” are trying to do exactly that in North Carolina by making it harder for Black people and students to use early voting. Dallas Woodhouse, Executive Director of the NC Republican Party, sent instructions to Republicans who hold the majority on all 100 county boards of elections to “make party line changes to early voting.” He specifically told them to close early voting sites on Sunday, remove them from college campuses, and open more in Republican areas, according to emails obtained by the Raleigh News & Observer. More than half of NC’s voters used early voting in 2008 and 2012; it was used most by Black and young voters. Closing sites and reducing hours will mean longer lines and discourage voters on Election Day. Fortunately, many Republicans are ignoring Woodhouse and obeying their oath to serve all voters. But in Raleigh, Fayetteville, Wilmington, and many other areas, they are opposing Sunday voting where it was used as recently as the March primary. Black churches organize Sunday “Souls to the Polls” programs which help church members with transportation to the polling place. The reduced early voting plans of these counties will come before the State Board of Elections later this month. The State Board has the power to restore them and repudiate the deliberate anti-Black, anti-youth strategy of Republican Party leaders. Sign the petition to ask Mr. Grant Whitney Jr., board chair, and other board members to restore early voting on Sunday afternoons and, on college campuses where those options were eliminated by Republican county election boards. Last month, the federal Court of Appeals overturned a state voting law it said would suppress voting and had discriminatory intent. We will not let local officials ignore the spirit of this momentous ruling by implementing weak and even discriminatory early voting plans for the November election.. Thanks for fighting for voting rights for everyone! Bob Hall, Democracy North Carolina

My name is Stephanie Findley and I am a longtime resident of Milwaukee. I just started a petition titled “ Support a Moratorium on Traffic Stops for Revenue”. As you probably know the Milwaukee police department stop black and hispanic drivers at a rate drastically higher than white drivers. When black people have interactions with the police violence can escalate quickly and as a Black woman the fear that I feel when a police car pulls up behind me is palpable. Black residents of Milwaukee should not have to live in fear of being unjustly targeted and pulled over by the police when driving. A moratorium will help to decrease the number of interactions Black residents of Milwaukee have with the police. In Milwaukee Black drivers are seven times as likely to be stopped by the police when compared to a white driver. The annual number of traffic stops conducted by police in Milwaukee has nearly quadrupled in the past four years, resulting in almost 200,000 stops last year. Police in Milwaukee stop black and hispanic drivers five times as often as white drivers and they are also five times as likely to be searched when pulled over by the police for a traffic stop. Unsurprisingly, black and hispanic drivers are also arrested at twice the rate of white drivers when pulled over by the police. These statistics further prove what Black Milwaukee residents already know to be true: that the police’s use of traffic stops has a huge racial gap, resulting in the over policing of black and hispanic communities. Black people in Milwaukee live in fear of the police and doing something as simple as driving to work or taking your kids to school can result in a negative interaction with the police. We know all too well that when Black people are stopped by the police during traffic stops violence escalates quickly, sometimes resulting in death as seen with Sandra Bland and Philando Castille. Please join me in demanding that Milwaukee city council introduce a moratorium on traffic stops for revenue.

On October 12th, 2014 Ronald “RonnieMan” Johnson was shot and killed by George Hernandez, Chicago police officer, on the city’s South Side. He was 25 years old and a father of five. On the night of the murder, witnesses have said that police officers did not identify themselves before opening fire on unarmed Johnson, killing him from multiple gunshot wounds. His death has been ruled a homicide. his murder by the hands of the state was captured on police dash-cam video. The lawyer representing RonnieMan’s mother, Dorothy Holmes, was forced to file a Freedom of Information Act request with the Chicago Police Department for the dash-cam video that captured the shooting after multiple attempts at retrieval were denied. Only after a lawsuit was filed by Chicago activists which forced the City of Chicago to release video footage of the murder of Laquan McDonald by CPD officer Jason Van Dyke, did the City finally release the video of the murder of Ronald Johnson. Immediately, following the release of the video, the former state’s attorney, Anita Alvarez, announced that she would not press any charges against police officer, George Hernandez. Alvarez represents the face of deep seated corruption that pervades every aspect of government in Chicago. Alvarez, CPD and the entire City government are guilty of covering up evidence of the murder of Ronald Johnson. The inept and corrupt handling of both Laquan McDonald’s and Ronald Johnson’s cases, reveal complicity in cover ups that go all the way to the Mayor’s and State’s Attorney’s offices. We demand the case be reopened. Why A Playground? RonnieMan was killed on 53rd and King Drive, in front of a playground at the entrance of Washington Park. To commemorate RonnieMan’s life, reclaim the land on which his blood was lain, and permanently memorialize his and all lives taken by police and state violence, we are are seeking to rename the park in his honor. For too long, those killed by police and state violence have been erased, invisibalized rendering their lives disposable. By reclaiming the land in which RonnieMan’s last breath was taken, we seek to disrupt the pattern of sweeping Black death into the annals of history, and instead will create a public permanent memorial to celebrate his life, Black life and our full humanity.

Since the nation’s inception, immigration policies have been used to maintain white supremacy, stifle dissent, and as a social control tool, silencing alternative voices seeking social, economic, and racial justice and equality. The 1990s brought us a wave of laws which pulled the rug out from under the advances made by people of color in the U.S., including immigrants, during the Civil Rights movement. As part of this attack on Black and Brown communities, Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (“the 1994 Crime Bill”), which re-classified less serious offenses, including drug offenses, as federal felonies, created long mandatory sentences, required state sex offender registries, and provided for $9.7 billion dollars in funding for prisons along with 100,000 new police officers on the street. Fresh off the 1994 Crime Bill, Congress passed the “1996 Immigration Laws”. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (“IIR-IRA”) and Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”), expanded the grounds for deportation by broadening the definition of “aggravated felony,” which was first defined in the 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act; establishing harsh sentences for numerous offenses and classes of mandatory detention; stripping away judicial discretion and the right to due process; and retroactively punishing those who already served time for their offenses. These laws also created a perverse incentive for local and federal law enforcement agencies to criminalize communities of color and created the private prison contracting sector. Amongst all immigrants, Black immigrants are nearly three times more likely to be detained and deported as a result of an alleged criminal offense. Moreover, many Black immigrants are ineligible for any form of relief, including a green card, executive programs such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or Temporary Protected Status, or citizenship as a result of criminal contact. As a result of these laws passed twenty years ago, and a political climate that marginalizes and promotes state violence against immigrant, Black, Brown, and poor communities, the number of immigrants deported has increased ten-fold, tearing apart millions of families. Moreover, the U.S. mass incarceration and immigrant detention and deportation systems have become the largest in the world.

This is an important cause because the death of Black mothers cripples the family unit and harms the child's quality of life. Mothers are essential to the nurturing and raising of the next generation and without them there's a void that will be hard to fill. Life matters and if we have the means and resources then these deaths are truly in vain. If you have a mom or lost a mom your voice needs to be heard concerning this matter.

"This was a nefarious act. This was an evil act,"..."Somebody murdered Rasheem Carter, and we cannot let them get away with this.

Deputy Sheriff Tu Tran fatally shot Joshua Johnson while serving a warrant to someone else. We, the signers of this petition, demand that the Houston Sheriff's Office permanently and immediately terminate Deputy Sheriff Tu Tran employment with the Houston Sheriff's Department, release all of the facts and information around the death of Joshua Johnson, and release Tu Trans personnel record. On April 22nd, 2020 Joshua Johnson was killed by Harris County Deputy Sheriff Tu Tran who was on a stake out looking for a capital murder suspect. Joshua was house sitting for a neighbor around 6:00 when he noticed a car near the light pole beside his neighbors house. Joshua approached an unmarked car where the Deputy Sheriff Tu Tran sat in plain clothes. J. When recalling the April 22nd shooting Joshua's father said “I saw this figure of a body on the ground, wrapped in a white sheet,” “I said, ‘That’s my son.’” Johnson laid under that sheet for at least five more hours, he said. These parents and the members of this community deserve justice.The sheriffs department and the deputy sheriff have lied about the events that happened that night and the facts of this case. Joshua's parents simply want answers and have not been able to get them from the sheriff's office. While sitting down with Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, Joshua's parents asked for Tran’s records but have not gained access to them. Reports show Tran killed another suspect back in 2015 and a grand jury chose not to indict him then. We want to ensure that Tran is not let off the hook for taking yet another life. We know that white supremacy and anti-blackness are ingrained in every level of society, and we must hold the enablers who allow the devaluing of Black lives accountable for their actions. We’re asking Sheriff Ed Gonzalez to take the following actions, to ensure that our voices are heard and that justice is won. Fire Harris County Deputy Sheriff Tu Tran, release all of the facts and information around the death of Joshua Johnson, and to make Tu Trans personnel record public.

This petition is inspired by the People's budget of LA but it needs to be enacted in Tampa. LA People's Budget History: For five years now, Los Angeles activists have been fighting to adopt a city budget that will provide care and resources for the people. And for just as long, Mayor Garcetti has increased the budget for LAPD, sacrificing funding for vital programs that actually create safe communities. With the coronavirus pandemic’s outsized impact on Black people, and the recent uprisings that echo demands to #DefundThePolice across the country, it has become nothing less than imperative that the City of Los Angeles decrease funding for police and increase investment in services that provide for our people: housing, mental health care, rent suspension and cancellation, funding for youth programs, and investments that directly benefit Black communities. As we experience the Covid-19 pandemic, Mass Unemployment, Black Lives Matter uprisings, and the upcoming eviction crisis we need to call for our city to re-invest in our communities. 37% of Tampa's 2020 General Fund Budget is spent on the Tampa Police Department. The city of Tampa spends 162,695,004 on its Police Department. We Demand that they reallocate this budget with the actual needs of citizens in mind. Under Chief Brian Dugan and previous police chief and current mayor Jane Castor's leadership there has been a 24% increase in use of force and a 223% increase in chemical agents like tear gas and pepper spray. This budget needs to be reallocated to support our community in crisis. We also call on Mayor Jane Castor to Fire Chief Brian Dugan for his complete lack of transparency surrounding less than lethal force and chemical warfare used on peaceful protestors. #JusticeForJonasJoseph #JusticeforJosiah #BlackLivesMatter

On July 20th, 2020, Bills A4369 & A4370 were reviewed by the NJ Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee at a "PUBLIC" hearing, not allowing individuals to provide testimony and not allowing people who had vested interest in these bills attend the hearing. The people of the Public, wanting to attend or testify at the hearing, had to enter their appearance 3 days prior to the hearing. The committee posted notice the morning of the hearing 7/20/20. The Assembly Law & Public Safety committee failed to properly notify the public in fair and timely way, as the Committees permit for all public hearings on Bills. As such, the Committee reported their biased decision, to pass the Bills A4369 & A4370, with amendments, agreed on before the hearing, referring them for second reading by the Assembly Appropriations Committee. The amendments made and approved by the committee at the 7/20/20's hearing, abandon the need to review the unfair sentences given to offenders convicted of the egregious "Leader of a Drug Trafficking Network, 1st Degree" charge. A charge the NJ Police and Prosecutors abuse, at their discretion, to charge defendants in cases of their choosing, to steal favorably desired convictions for themselves. The State uses the statute interchangeably with the Conspiracy to Distribute, Manufacture, Possess CDS statutes, as both statute elements to prove are reasonably the same. PLEASE REFER TO LINK BELOW TO READ ABOUT CASES , THAT BOTH STATUTES ARE USED (You will find NJ Police Operations that show Defendants' roles of a Leader involving their criminal enterprise, possessing all leader characteristics, charged with 1st, 2nd, 3rd degree Distribution or Conspiracy of Distribution of Narcotics only) HIGHLIGHTING NEW JERSEY'S UTILIZATION OF THE PICK & CHOOSE TACTICS FOR LEADER OF DRUG TRAFFICKING NETWORK CHARGING OF DEFENDANTS. https://www.nj.gov/oag/dcj/pdfs/2017_DCJ_Annual_Report.pdf Under the statute, a drug-trafficking network need not have any specific configuration or chain of command. Rather, it is to be considered as an organization of persons who are collectively engaged in drug activities. A person is guilty for the conspiracy of drug activities with another person/persons if, purpose of promoting or facilitating its commission, agrees with, such other person/persons, that they, or one or more of them, will engage in conduct, constituting the crime or attempt to solicit to commit the crime; or Agrees to aid other person or persons in the planning or commission of the crime or of an attempt or solicitation, to commit the crime. A conspiracy to commit the crime of Distribution of Narcotics is a crime in itself separate and distinct. THESE STATUTES ARE SO IDENTICAL IN NATURE THAT THE PROSECUTION USES THEM INTERCHANGEABLY FOR THE SAME CRIME ACTS COMMITTED, COMMITTED BY DIFFERENT OFFENDERS. HOW IS THIS A FAIR SENTENCING MODEL? The Leader of a Drug Trafficking Network statute is still the only statute that prescribes a mandatory minimum sentence for a nonviolent drug charge, concerted by NJ's destructive and racially disparaged, Attorney General's Statewide Narcotics Action Plan of 1993. New Jersey in 2020, still remains at the national forefront in drug enforcement, having the highest incarceration rate of black people in the nation, while having the largest prison population in the world. To enforce NJ law with this same approach, violates the constitutional rights of tens of thousands of African Americans and slighted the due process owed to all citizens, by the NJ Justice System. IN 2007, NJ STATE POLICE DETECTIVE FREDRICK HUNTER AND DAG RUSSELL CURLEY CHARGED MY SONS' FATHER, Gary Maddox, WITH LEADER OF A DRUG TRAFFICKING NETWORK. THEY OFFERED HIM A PLEA OF 36 YEARS w 18 YEARS PAROLE ELIGIBILITY. A very long time for someone who was selling drugs for himself. Not in a team organized and financed by him, according to the Detective and DAG's imagination. Gary plead not guilty taking his chances of going to Trial. Consequentially, Det. Hunter and DAG Curley created the narrative of him as the organizer of his brothers' and nephew's drug dealing that benefited themselves solely, not Gary. They did violate the statute of the Conspiracy and the Distribution of Narcotics individually. They talked to one another and hung out often as young guys do, with locker room talk. The State used their close bond to portray a conspiracy of a drug enterprise and Gary the leader of it. He wasn't even in the possession of any drugs, money, etc. when he was arrested. Realistically he was a crap talking, small time dealer, who thought he was lucky when States's CI aggressively requested large quantities of narcotics. He is now serving LIFE w 30 year parole qualifier, being convicted of "Leader of Drug Trafficking Network". Never No Guns, No Weapons, No Violence. He's served almost 14 years now and has seen rapists, murderers, pedophiles and violent individuals come in after him and leave decades before he can leave due to the disproportionate sentencing supported by the State of New Jersey. The NJ State Legislature is trying to get away with this unfair sentencing, by leaving the "Leader of a Drug Trafficking Network" charge out of Bills A4369 & A4370. Prosecutors violate the Due Process Clause and their ethical responsibilities when they present an inconsistent factual theory for different cases with the exact same act being committed. Purporting to be, nothing more than the Legislature's intent in creating certain crimes and prescribing the penalties therefor, an identification of the targets at which unfair sentencing is aimed. The integrity of the judicial system commands that citizens can rest assure that prosecutors are seeking truth and justice; and that when they find truth and justice they cannot seek a different truth and a different justice from the first.

The City Council seeks police reform of hiring, firing, and discipline of officers, as well as, the civilian complaint review practices in the Springfield MA Police Department. We want the Mayor to follow the law he is breaking and implement the Citizens Police Commission.

Heads up - it just became a lot, lot harder to find out if the police officers in your neighborhood are brutalizing Black and Brown communities. When Jim Kenney was elected mayor, he recognized the lack of trust between communities and their police, in a city with massive over-policing (1) and prosecution of Black and Brown people. So in 2017, he followed the lead of other major cities like Chicago (2) and New York, and signed an executive order mandating that data on police complaints would be published online every month - instead of just available to see in person at the Internal Affairs Bureau of the police department. But news outlet Billy Penn is reporting (3) that the Mayor has removed “grim or embarrassing” reports from the database, and that the database will now strip all identifying information about the offending police from the records, making it all but impossible for neighbors to know what cops are acting out - and for watchdogs and journalists to tell the story of police brutality in Philadelphia. Billy Penn reporters Ryan Briggs and Max Marin provided a harrowing example of the differences between the reports after their whitewashing - a Black man run off his bicycle by plainclothes cops in an unmarked car, then handcuffed and detained for hours before receiving medical treatment. See if you can spot the differences: "The complainant, TW, 36/B/M, states that he was physically abused by Officers W and G, 17th District. According to the complainant, on 5-24-15, at 10:10 PM, he was riding his bicycle near 20th & Wharton Streets when someone called to him from a car. He continued riding his bicycle and was struck him from behind by the vehicle. The complainant was knocked from the bicycle to the ground. He was then handcuffed and searched by the occupants of the vehicle before being transported to the hospital for treatment by two uniformed officers. The complainant maintains he did not know the operators of the vehicle that knocked him from his bicycle were plainclothes officers. He maintains they did not identify themselves to him as police officers, nor was he arrested or charged with a crime in connection with this incident." But after the whitewashing, the complaint looks like this: According to the complainant, on 5-24-15 at 10:10pm, they were physically abused by officers assigned to the 17th District. Summary reports of alleged police abuse in Chicago (4) are far more detailed than either style of report we have in Philly, with reports sorted into categories for analysis by watchdogs, press, and the public. But in Kenney’s new version of summary reports for Philly, we don’t have anything: the initials of the officers, the race of the person the police allegedly knocked off his bike, or any details of the brutal story that lets us even try to hold police accountable. In a city where at least 300 police officers were shown to be putting racist, violent, and homophobic content onto their personal social media feeds (5), we need more public accountability for police and their behavior to Black, Brown, queer, immigrant, and poor people, not less. Sign this petition to Mayor Kenney: move right now to restore all the data to the police accountability database. For more information: (1) “In racially diverse 14th District, Philly police target black drivers 3 times more than whites, analysis shows,” By Bobby Allyn and Maura Ewing, January 11, 2019, WHYY. https://whyy.org/articles/in-racially-diverse-14th-district-philly-police-target-black-drivers-3-times-more-than-whites-analysis-shows/ (2) Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), City of Chicago: Publications. https://www.chicagocopa.org/news-publications/publications/ (3) "After promising increased transparency, Philadelphia is redacting police complaint records." Max Marin and Ryan Briggs, July 26th, 2019, Billy Penn. https://billypenn.com/2019/07/26/after-promising-increased-transparency-philadelphia-is-redacting-police-complaint-records/ (4) COPA: http://copadev.wpengine.com/investigations/how-to-read-a-case-summary-report/, https://www.chicagocopa.org/news-publications/publications/summary-reports/2019-summary-reports/ (5) "13 Philadelphia Officers to Be Fired Over Racist, Violent Facebook Posts," by Alicia Victoria Lozano, July 18th, 2019, NBC 10. https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Philadelphia-Police-Officers-Facebook-Posts-512891921.html

Our hearts are heavy. We feel the pain of insult from our own President. In the interest of all our moral and emotional health, we ask you to reserve Presidents’ Day 2018, Monday, February 19, as a National Day of Mourning. We need one another. We need people who profess no particular faith in addition to religious community leaders. They may want to call attention to our psychic need to embrace our sorrow in your services on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Let’s all find time on that Monday to connect with people of all backgrounds, and including the most vulnerable, like Salvadorans and Dreamers, but not only them, because we are all hurting. You may want to share messages that inspire you on social media platforms. Perhaps even more powerful will be inviting people into your home, or creating larger assemblies for the purpose of lament. Let’s all pause at 2PM EST/11AM PST for a collective moment of silence.