Keith Lamont Scott of Charlotte, North Carolina, had been waiting in his car for his son to arrive home from school, and Terence Crutcher, of Tulsa, Oklahoma had been waiting at the side of the road after his truck stalled. Both men are now dead, wrongfully gunned down by police. Both are Black men.

This is not a coincidence. More than 700 people have been shot and killed by police in 2016 so far. Studies show that, even though White Americans outnumber Black Americans five-fold, Black people are three times more likely than White people to be killed when they encounter the police in the US, and Black teenagers are 21 time more likely to be killed by police than White teenagers.

This week alone two families are devastated, and two communities are reeling. But have their shooters been arrested? No. They have been sent home with full pay.

*Join us in calling for the police officers responsible for Scott and Crutcher’s deaths to be brought to justice and indicted immediately, for the North Carolina General Assembly to mandate public access to body cam footage and citizen review committees to investigate police shootings, and for the federal government to do more to stop police brutality.

*Click here to take action now! http://action.momsrising.org/sign/scott-crutcher-police-shootings

No mom or dad, no son or daughter, should ever have to fear a loved one could come to harm at the hands of those charged with protecting them. Yet look at the headlines. Thirteen-year-old #TyreKing, as well as #KeithScott and #TerenceCrutcher, both fathers, were killed by police just this week. What's going on isn't right, it isn't fair, and it's not okay. It’s not only breaking our hearts, it’s breaking our nation. And it must stop.

Law enforcement’s standard response to police shootings of “paid leave” only raises suspicions of police obfuscation and obstruction, and heightens public mistrust. When people wrongfully lose their lives, the wheels of justice need to turn immediately, especially when their deaths were caused by police officers whose sworn duty was to protect them. We need a different response now!

Join us in calling for the police officers responsible for Scott and Crutcher’s deaths to be brought to justice and indicted immediately, for the North Carolina General Assembly to mandate public access to body cam footage and citizen review committees to investigate police shootings, and for the federal government to do more to stop police brutality.

*Click here to take action now! http://action.momsrising.org/sign/scott-crutcher-police-shootings

There is a pattern of racial profiling coupled with police brutality in our nation that has to end. Keith Lamont Scott, Terence Crutcher, and Tyre King join a long and unending line of African American and Latino youth and community members killed by police, including:

• Philando Castile of Falcon Heights, Minnesota, who was shot and killed by police during a minor traffic stop because of a broken taillight. 
• Alton Sterling, who was selling CDs when police tackled him to the ground and shot several times at close range. 
• Eric Garner, husband and father, who was choked to death in New York. 
• John Crawford, who was shot to death when he picked up a toy gun that was for sale in an Ohio Walmart. 
• Seventeen-year-old unarmed Jesús Huerta was shot to death while handcuffed in the back of a police car.
• Eighteen-year-old unarmed Ramarley Graham who was shot to death in Bronx, NY
• Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old black woman who was found hanged in a jail cell in Waller County, TX.
• Jonathan Ferrell, who was looking for help after being in a car accident in Charlotte, NC.

Enough is enough, and "paid leave" is a completely inadequate first response to these horrific deaths.

Keith Scott and Terence Crutcher’s deaths require a much stronger response than “paid leave” for those responsible. Join us in calling for the police officers responsible for Scott and Crutcher’s deaths to be brought to justice and indicted immediately, for the North Carolina General Assembly to mandate public access to body cam footage and citizen review committees to investigate police shootings, and for the federal government to do more to stop police brutality.

*Click here to take action now! http://action.momsrising.org/sign/scott-crutcher-police-shootings

We need to do things differently, including training all police officers to retreat and call for back up instead of resorting to firing their weapons as the default response.

Keith Scott and Terence Crutcher’s deaths require a much stronger response than “paid leave” for those responsible, including immediate indictment.

*Click here to join us in calling for swift justice for Scott and Crutcher now.

At the national level, we need higher standards of policing, strengthened accountability mechanisms, and critical reforms in order to end: biased racial profiling, police brutality, and militarized policing targeting African American and Latino youth, families, and communities throughout our country.

At the local level, police departments are all too often ineffective in investigating themselves. It is time for fair, outside, independent, investigation and prosecution of police misconduct. The more pressure we mount, the more voices we share, the stronger the call for justice.

Don't be silent. We can’t let these deaths continue.