As the trial of former MPD Officer Derek Chauvin gets underway, we anchor ourselves in our vision of a world where everyone has what they need, where we honor our responsibility for one another knowing that we are all connected, a world where we all feel safe. We know that for everyone to be safe, we must usher out the rigged rules, attitudes, and practices that concentrate wealth and power in ever fewer white hands.
Last summer, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, community demanded transformation, real safety, and investment in the resources that keeps us alive, not those that kill us. In response to our calls for justice, the police brutalized protestors, the national guard occupied our city and terrorized us on our doorsteps. And now, months later, government leaders have only gotten better at protecting themselves, mobilizing millions of dollars to put up barricades and deploy the national guard, the opposite of what Black, Indigenous, and POC communities have been asking for.
We protect us. The police do not. We know this truth deeply within our bodies and intergenerationally. While we hope for a fair trial for Chauvin, the legal system cannot provide the justice George Floyd deserves or the justice Black and Brown communities need.
At Nexus, we stand firmly with our communities, in rage, grief, and love, and in our collective power. We will keep doing our part to usher in ways of living, working, and making decisions together that will nourish communities now and into the future.
We need safety for everyone, now. Residents of Minneapolis can sign the people’s petition, a petition to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a new Department of Public of Safety. Learn more and find more places to sign here: https://yes4minneapolis.org.