Before we get to today’s action, we want to invite you to attend our monthly meeting on July 1, where we are continuing our discussion of racial equity and police accountability by taking a deep dive into defunding the police with featured speaker, former NFL player and current political consultant Riall Johnson.
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1141010939588843/
SI Website Event: https://www.seattleindivisible.com/events-calendar/2020/7/1/seattle-indivisible-monthly-meeting
SIGNUP HERE: https://bit.ly/3hLqOBc
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Today’s action is adapted from the good folks at Transit Riders Union, which you can find here: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-pete-holmes-and-dan-satterberg-dont-charge-protesters/
The Decriminalize Seattle coalition, along with hundreds of organizations and over 35,000 individuals, have signed on to three clear demands:
(1) Defund the Seattle Police Department by at least 50%
(2) Reallocate those funds to community-led health and safety systems
(3) Release prisoners arrested during this uprising without charges
Today we want to focus on the third demand, which means that Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes and King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg need to hear from us loud and clear that all prisoners must be released without charges and their arrest records expunged. Please take a moment to send them a message!
Today’s Action: Tell the City Attorney and Prosecuting Attorney to Release prisoners arrested during this uprising without charges
Email both City Attorney Pete Holmes and KC Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg:
Sample script:
Dear Mr. Holmes and Mr. Satterberg,
I’m writing to ask you to file a statement on behalf of your office that no charges will be filed in the cases of protesters arrested this May and June in the uprising to demand justice for Black lives. Furthermore, I ask you to expunge the arrest records of all protesters so that they will not be tainted by these unjust arrests in future endeavors.
The Seattle Police Department has detained and charged protesters with crimes where members of the SPD have named themselves as the victims. It is not inconsequential that these arrests are made at protests of police brutality and that the arrestees are individuals who have directly challenged the hauntingly inhumane largess of SPD’s budget and SPD as an institution that harms rather than helps communities.
Protesters arrested by reactionary SPD police need your action, and quickly. Any ask of them, including a request to place the arrestees in a rehab or diversion program, misses the mark.
Your office should not be a passive spectator to the rote abuse of power exercised on our streets. The people’s response and resistance to militarized police violence and the executions of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and all victims of white supremacist state violence should not be criminalized.
Your office must denounce this behavior and seek justice by entering an intention not to file charges in the court docket and expunging the arrest records of protesters.
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
