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Statement

Heartsick and Horrified

January 27, 2023
Police Reform

Lisa Lederer, 202/371-1996

Statement of leaders of MomsRising, the online and on-the-ground organization of more than one million mothers and their families, on the police murder of Tyre Nichols in Memphis earlier this month:

“America’s moms are heartsick and horrified by the brutal police murder of Tyre Nichols. No words can convey our deep, endless sorrow that a father, a son, a man who was simply driving his car in his own neighborhood was brutally murdered by the very people whose job it is to protect us.

“Firing the perpetrators from the police force and charging them with murder very quickly was the right thing to do. But it is not nearly enough. We must do more than react to police violence. We must prevent it and end the police terror that claims the lives of innocent people of color in our country, over and over and over again. We can prevent police violence, mass criminalization, and mass incarceration by investing in non-carceral systems of health, safety, and care; and moving away from policing and prisons.” 

-Statement of Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director and CEO, MomsRising

“2022 was the deadliest year of police violence on record. We are shattered by this murder and terrified by warnings about the brutality the video being released this evening will show. 

“We grieve with RowVaughn Wells and with all Tyre Nichols’ loved ones. And we call for meaningful, lasting change. The police murder of Tyre Nichols is not an isolated incident or an aberration. It is part of an unrelenting pattern of deadly police violence that keeps taking Black, Brown and Indigenous lives. Solutions will only come when we invest in schools, services, care and opportunities that will finally create the healthy, just communities we all deserve.

"Together with the official Black Lives Matter Memphis chapter in support of their coalition partner, Decarcerate Memphis, we demand that the city of Memphis:

  • Pass the Data Transparency ordinance;
  • End the use of pretextual traffic stops, unmarked cars, and plainclothes officers; 
  • Dissolve the Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods (SCORPION) unit, Organized Crime Unit (OCU), and Multi agency Gang Unit (MGU); and
  • End the use of task forces and remove police from traffic enforcement entirely."

-Statement of Monifa Bandele, Chief Strategy Office, MomsRising

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.