So what has protesting accomplished?
(I found this wonderful post that a friend of a friend sent on to me)
So what has protesting accomplished?
👉🏾Within 10 days of sustained protests:
Minneapolis bans use of choke holds.
👉🏾Charges are upgraded against Officer Chauvin, and his accomplices are arrested and charged.
👉🏾Dallas adopts a "duty to intervene" rule that requires officers to stop other cops who are engaging in inappropriate use of force.
👉🏾New Jersey’s attorney general said the state will update its use-of-force guidelines for the first time in two decades.
👉🏾In Maryland, a bipartisan work group of state lawmakers announced a police reform work group.
👉🏾Los Angeles City Council introduces motion to reduce LAPD’s $1.8 billion operating budget.
👉🏾MBTA in Boston agrees to stop using public buses to transport police officers to protests.
👉🏾Police brutality captured on cameras leads to near-immediate suspensions and firings of officers in several cities (i.e., Buffalo, Ft. Lauderdale).
👉🏾Monuments celebrating confederates are removed in cities in Virginia, Alabama, and other states.
👉🏾Street in front of the White House is renamed "Black Lives Matter Plaza.”
Military forces begin to withdraw from D.C.
Then, there's all the other stuff that's hard to measure:
💓The really difficult public and private conversations that are happening about race and privilege.
💓The realizations some white people are coming to about racism and the role of policing in this country.
💓The self-reflection.
💓The internal battles exploding within organizations over issues that have been simmering or ignored for a long time. Some organizations will end as a result, others will be forever changed or replaced with something stronger and fairer.
Globally:
🌎 Protests against racial inequality sparked by the police killing of George Floyd are taking place all over the world.
🌎 Rallies and memorials have been held in cities across Europe, as well as in Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand.
🌎 As the US contends with its second week of protests, issues of racism, police brutality, and oppression have been brought to light across the globe.
🌎 People all over the world understand that their own fights for human rights, for equality and fairness, will become so much more difficult to win if we are going to lose America as the place where 'I have a dream' is a real and universal political program," Wolfgang Ischinger, a former German ambassador to the US, told the New Yorker.
🌎 In France, protesters marched holding signs that said "I can't breathe" to signify both the words of Floyd, and the last words of Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old black man who was subdued by police officers and gasped the sentence before he died outside Paris in 2016.
🌎 Cities across Europe have come together after the death of George Floyd:
✊🏽 In Amsterdam, an estimated 10,000 people filled the Dam square on Monday, holding signs and shouting popular chants like "Black lives matter," and "No justice, no peace."
✊🏽 In Germany, people gathered in multiple locations throughout Berlin to demand justice for Floyd and fight against police brutality.
✊🏾 A mural dedicated to Floyd was also spray-painted on a stretch of wall in Berlin that once divided the German capital during the Cold War.
✊🏿 In Ireland, protesters held a peaceful demonstration outside of Belfast City Hall, and others gathered outside of the US embassy in Dublin.
✊🏿In Italy, protesters gathered and marched with signs that said "Stop killing black people," "Say his name," and "We will not be silent."
✊🏾 In Spain, people gathered to march and hold up signs throughout Barcelona and Madrid.
✊🏾 In Athens, Greece, protesters took to the streets to collectively hold up a sign that read "I can't breathe."
✊🏾 In Brussels, protesters were seen sitting in a peaceful demonstration in front of an opera house in the center of the city.
✊🏾In Denmark, protesters were heard chanting "No justice, no peace!" throughout the streets of Copenhagen, while others gathered outside the US embassy.
✊🏾 In Canada, protesters were also grieving for Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a 29-year-old black woman who died on Wednesday after falling from her balcony during a police investigation at her building.
✊🏾 And in New Zealand, roughly 2,000 people marched to the US embassy in Auckland, chanting and carrying signs demanding justice.
💐 Memorials have been built for Floyd around the world, too. In Mexico City, portraits of him were hung outside the US embassy with roses, candles, and signs.
💐 In Poland, candles and flowers were laid out next to photos of Floyd outside the US consulate.
💐 And in Syria, two artists created a mural depicting Floyd in the northwestern town of Binnish, "on a wall destroyed by military planes."
Before the assassination of George Floyd some of you were able to say whatever the hell you wanted and the world didn't say anything to you...
THERE HAS BEEN A SHIFT, AN AWAKENING...MANY OF YOU ARE BEING EXPOSED FOR WHO YOU REALLY ARE. #readthatagain
Don't wake up tomorrow on the wrong side of this issue. Its not to late to SAY,
"Maybe I need to look at this from a different perspective."
"Maybe I don't know what its like to be black in America..."
"Maybe, just maybe, I have been taught wrong."
There is still so much work to be done. It's been a really dark, raw week. This could still end badly. But all we can do is keep doing the work.
Keep protesting.
WE ARE NOT TRYING TO START A RACE WAR; WE ARE PROTESTING TO END IT,
PEACEFULLY.
How beautiful is that?
ALL LIVES CANNOT MATTER UNTIL YOU INCLUDE BLACK LIVES.
YOU CANNOT SAY 'ALL LIVES MATTER' WHEN YOU DO NOTHING TO STOP SYSTEMIC RACISM & POLICE BRUTALITY.
YOU CANNOT SAY 'ALL LIVES MATTER' WHEN BLACK PEOPLE ARE DYING AND ALL YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT IS THE LOOTING.
YOU CANNOT SAY 'ALL LIVES MATTER' WHEN YOU ALLOW CHILDREN TO BE CAGED, VETERANS TO GO HOMELESS, AND POOR FAMILIES TO GO HUNGRY & LOSE THEIR HEALTH INSURANCE.
DO ALL LIVES MATTER? YES. BUT RIGHT NOW, ONLY BLACK LIVES ARE BEING TARGETED, JAILED, AND KILLED EN MASSE- SO THAT'S WHO WE'RE FOCUSING ON.
🖤🖤🖤BLACK LIVES MATTER🖤🖤🖤
IF YOU CAN'T SEE THIS, YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.
*I do not know the original author*
= new reply since forum marked as read
Trump's approval ratings went down some more. 
To force some Supreme Court decisions and legislation at the national level.
But hey it gets the job done! 
Snippet from the mayor's letter:
"This week…
The Mayor’s Institutional Racism and Systemic Inequities Task Force announced that they will be forming a new non-profit alliance to set goals, promote and steward anti-racist policies- and measure progress. Their work was founded to accelerate the dismantling of institutional racism in our City. Since the time of their initial recommendations, much work has been done and there’s so much more to do. The launch of this association is a vital step in holding Austin accountable to address racism at its various levels: personal, institutional, structural & systemic.
I committed to implementing Campaign Zero’s 8 Can’t Wait policies to restrict police use of force. Austin currently has three of the eight in place. Item 95 on next week’s City Council agenda implements the remaining five.
I committed to President Obama’s and My Brother’s Keeper’s pledge to:
REVIEW police use of force policies.
ENGAGE our communities by including a diverse range of input, experiences, and stories in your review.
REPORT the findings of our review to your community and seek feedback.
REFORM our community’s police use of force policies.
I signed on to the Grassroots Law Pledge to Justice, committing to support policies that:
End police brutality and killings by restricting the use of force, creating non-lethal response teams, and demilitarizing police forces.
Hold law enforcement accountable by creating committees for oversight with subpoena powers, and eliminating exceptions for law enforcement such as qualified immunity
Next week…
The City Council will vote to reform police use of force, including the “8 Can’t Wait” policies.
- We will take action to prohibit tear gas and impact munitions on people exercising the first amendment. The right to protest and to disrupt cannot be fraught with fear of injury.
- We will take action to demilitarize the police, keeping with the Grassroots Law Pledge.
- We will strictly limit no-knock warrants & facial recognition technology and delay the new Austin Police Department cadet class at least until training curriculum is where it needs to be.
- We take action, similar to our second chance hire ordinance, to limit unconstructive barriers to housing for those formerly incarcerated or evicted as one measure to proactively prevent homelessness.
- We will set specific and measurable, zero racial disparity goals so as to hold ourselves accountable for progress and results.
- We should aspire and act to realize an Austin policing model that does not make addressing poverty and mental health the responsibility of our police. We should be investing elsewhere in services and support that are better equipped to deal with and resolve these underlying issues."
Kudos to Mayor Adler, who has had a long history of social activism and a great Dem leader through & through
Last edited Wed Jun 10, 2020, 10:06 AM - Edit history (3)
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/new-york-senate-50-a-police-misconduct-1012357/The New York State Senate Tuesday voted to repeal a 44-year-old provision that had previously shielded police officers’ disciplinary records from being released to the public, an early sign that the nationwide police brutality protests are advancing actionable change.
In 1976, legislators passed the provision, known as 50-A of New York’s Civil Rights Law, as a way to protect police officers who testified in court. “All personnel records used to evaluate performance toward continued employment or promotion, under the control of any police agency or department of the state … shall be considered confidential and not subject to inspection or review without the express written consent of such police officer, firefighter, firefighter/paramedic, correction officer or peace officer …. except as may be mandated by lawful court order,” the provision states.
On Tuesday, the senate overturned the provision 40-22, with all Republicans voting against the measure. Governor Cuomo has publicly said he will sign the bill once it crosses his desk. The bill is part of a package of various police reform bills the state senate has taken up this week.
#newrostrong
