Josie Duffy Rice offers a wide breadth of insight on what it means to defund the police, why that call is necessary and how it is still not enough in moving towards a more peaceful and equitable society.
Hashtags and protesting accomplishes nothing. I've been hearing this message a lot of the past two weeks we've rolled through the hot heat of July. The summer breeze is stale. Many are trying to figure out what to make of 2016. Seven months in it’s been a hell of year. We celebrated our Blackness and then watched it be beaten down. We’re fighting a war while resonating glory. We’re all exhausted, emotionally and physically. But we must understand exactly why we're exhausted. We grew up being told protesting already happened. Why are respectability politics so deeply ingrained? Because we believed MLK already did the
Sandra Bland was pulled over by Ofc. Brian Encina on July 10th, 2015 in Waller County for changing lanes without signaling. On July 13th, Sandra Bland was found dead in her jail cell. While many speculate the cause of Sandra's death, whether she really managed to hang herself with a trash bag or foul play was at hand, there's still much to be discussed before we even make to July 13th. Replaying the dash cam video, whether the hour long version or the clipped down 7 minutes, I realized the pivotal moment that forever changed the course of Bland's life