Imagine your child comes home from high school, letting himself in the door you left unlocked for him.  Moments later he finds himself surrounded inside his home by three police officers demanding that he put his hands on the door, when he’s done nothing wrong.  And then, when he insists it’s his home and he belongs there, the officers pepper spray him.  Inside his own home.

That’s the nightmare DeShawn Currie and his foster parents Ricky and Stacy Tyler of Fuquay-Varina, NC experienced on Monday after a neighbor saw DeShawn enter the house after walking home from school and called 911 to report a break-in. 

It never should have happened, but similar things do every day across our country.

Racial profiling by community members and police officers is real. We’ve seen it with Michael Brown, Renisha McBride, Trayvon Martin, and countless others. Time and again teenagers of color being assaulted and killed. Their crime? Being a young person of color.

This is a fear mothers of children of color face every time their child goes out the door.  Will they be profiled?  Will they be assaulted?  Will they be killed?

Enough is enough.  DeShawn had every right to be in his own home.  He and his parents should have the right to know that he can walk through this world –let alone his own home-without fear that merely existing while black is sufficient cause for suspicion and harm.

As a parent I want my child safe and treated fairly by the police. I want your child safe and treated fairly by the police.  I want all children in our country safe and treated fairly by the police.

Right now, national leaders are paying more attention to racial profiling and police brutality than they have in years. Will you join with MomsRising in calling on the federal government to implement critical reforms to end biased racial profiling, police brutality, and militarized policing targeting communities of color?

Sign our petition here:  http://action.momsrising.org/sign/federal_policing_reforms/