• March 28, 2024

60 Groups Affiliated with BLM Issues Six Demands Including Reparations

blm

More than 60 groups tied to the Black Lives Matter movement have issued a list of demands.  The announcement is titled,  “A Vision for Black Lives: Policy Demands for Black Power, Freedom and Justice” lays out six demands and offers 40 suggestions.  You can file this under G for garbage.  Most of the demands are just a rehash of previous demands.

The first demand is that police presence during BLM riots be demilitarized.  I guess that is to make them more vulnerable to the bottles and rocks BLM throw at them.  I see this as a non starter.  We cannot send police into dangerous situations unprepared for the violence that accompanies these protests.

From IBT:

For example, the group calls for criminal justice reform and recommends ending militarized police presence in protests. Other reforms include free tuition and retroactive federal student loan forgiveness; rights for trans individuals; and ending the death penalty, mass incarceration and deportations. The organization is also requesting a bill be passed to create a committee to study reparations for those who descend from slaves.

“We seek radical transformation, not reactionary reform,” Michaela Brown, a spokeswoman for Baltimore Bloc, one of the group’s partner organizations, said in a statement. “As the 2016 election continues, this platform provides us with a way to intervene with an agenda that resists state and corporate power, an opportunity to implement policies that truly value the safety and humanity of Black lives, and an overall means to hold elected leaders accountable.”

The Black Lives Matter movement dates back to 2012 but it truly gained momentum in 2014 after Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown. The Michael Brown tragedy — coupled with similar incidents around the nation — propelled the movement, which spread quickly on social media with the use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. 

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