The criminalization, brutalization, and mistreatment of Black Americans by police and justice systems nationwide is utterly deplorable and unacceptable. Split This Rock joins with the millions around the world demanding justice, accountability, and an end to racism with impunity.

We’ll be reading from the poems we received for the Virtual Open Mic on Police Brutality and Racial Justice and delivering them to the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division of DOJ.

You still have time for your poems to be included! Please send them as a Word attachment to info@splitthisrock.org, with “Virtual Open Mic” as the subject line. Want your organization to cosponsor and send a representative to read a poem? Contact us!

As poets we stand in solidarity with people of color organizing to bring an end to state-sponsored terrorism against Black and Brown communities. We echo the demands of activists, found online at www.fergusonaction.com/demands/:

• The federal government must use its power to prosecute police officers who kill or abuse people.
• Remove local district attorneys from the job of holding police accountable, and instead have independent prosecutors at the local level charged with prosecuting officers.
• Establish community review boards that can make recommendations on police misconduct, instead of allowing police departments to police themselves.
• Defund local police departments that use excessive force or racially profile. Instead of the DOJ indiscriminately giving more than $250 million to local police departments annually, it should only fund departments that agree to adopt DOJ best practices for training and meaningful community input.
• Demilitarize local police departments.

Cosponsors: Code Pink, Institute for Policy Studies, Youth Speaks – Brave New Voices, SolidariTrees, Washington Peace Center, and Baltimore Citywide Youth Poetry Team.

#BlackLivesMatter!