ALLIANCES
TESTIMONIALS & ENDORSEMENTS
Alan Dettlaff, upEND Movement
"If we truly wish to build a society free of injustice and oppression, our work will not be done until we are free of the systems that perpetuate and maintain injustice and oppression. Ten Demands provides the path forward that we all should be calling for – a path free of the harm and trauma that result from prisons and policing, and a path toward healing and accountability that does not rely on violence and punishment. Because Ten Demands understands it is not the police that keep us safe, it is the police that put us in danger. I fully endorse these strategies and commit to the work to make them a reality."
Alexandra Hunt
"The prison industrial complex is a black hole that devours the marginalized in our society for the purpose of exploitation and profit. It is a patriarchal system that tells us punishment is justice and policing is public safety, yet justice is love and public safety is community. Ten Demands offers a road map to abolition and demilitarization, breaking down the carceral state to digestible pieces for the everyday American. As a survivor, advocate, and abolitionist, I understand that our country's path to a brighter future and a viable world is down this road."
Angel Tueros
"I support this campaign for several reasons. The violent nature of the militarized police forces contradicts fundamental American values. We have witnessed the "long train of abuses" perpetrated by police against Blacks. From its origin, the police has been a messenger of misery and death--neither of happiness nor of life. Who's happy about the death of a man pleading for breath, calling for his mother, giver of life?"
Anthony Beckford
"I am the President of Black Lives Matter Brooklyn and a 2021 City Council Candidate. I fully stand by the Ten demands and will work towards making sure that there is Justice for the people."
C. Dreams
"True justice should not only punish wrongdoing, but also seek to rehabilitate and heal the harm caused. We must strive for a rehabilitative justice system that empowers individuals to make amends and reintegrate into society as productive members, rather than perpetuating cycles of punishment and recidivism."
Christian Smalls
“As a worker’s movement leader and Black American I understand the importance of a unified approach to dismantling the dual systems of economic and racial injustice in this country. That is why I endorse Ten Demands for Justice.”
Chris Sosa
"Ten Demands for Justice understands that the road to racial justice is never paved through mass incarceration, state violence or militarized police forces. I'm proud to work with grassroots organizations like Ten Demands to create a better world through evidence-based solutions that respect the dignity of every person."
Collegiate Freedom & Justice Coalition
"Our home, Oklahoma City, OK, has one of the deadliest police departments in this country when it comes to killing taxpayers per capita, and a large number of those people are disproportionately Black or brown and/or disabled. We believe that these Ten Demands would make the necessary changes and bring about the opportunity for more equitable resources in our community, which would be potentially lifesaving while drastically changing the demographics and lowering the barriers to success of the most impacted and marginalized communities over time. We stand with Ten Demands!"
Compton Jay
"The Ten Demands is about Real Transformative change to policing in America."
Dylan Rodriguez
"We should note that the driving purpose of the #TenDemands is to 'END POLICE VIOLENCE.' This is an abolitionist, Black liberation, anti-colonial, revolutionary purpose. I ask people to embrace these demands as urgent opening tactical moves that help create practical momentum, cultural traction and collective commitment to a world where there is not one more casualty from this ongoing, normalized, one-sided domestic war."
Eileen Leonard
"Ten Demands for Justice provides a road map for us to confront and transform the interconnected problems that are deeply embedded in our criminal justice system. It imagines and demands the kinds of profound and systemic changes that are required if we, as a society, are to finally address the injustice and inequality rampant in our current institutions."
Elias Cepeda
"The TEN DEMANDS plan offers a clear, easy to understand path towards abolishing our unjust, racist and classist carceral system. It is important that we develop cultural imagination sufficient to reimagine society as something that can prioritize justice and equality, and the TEN DEMANDS can help people do just that regardless of where they are. I am proud to endorse and support the TEN DEMANDS."
Emily Galvin-Almanza
"Building a world in which violent responses to transgression end, and in which we can create restorative, pro-safety cycles of growth, is an essential, all-hands-on-deck project. It will demand creativity and collaboration from all of us. These are steps toward that goal, and I'm happy to lend my voice and work to this effort."
Gary Crispin
"Policing in America has become, more and more, an unchecked system of abuse and oppression. Our demands for justice must be met to ensure a positive path forward for all Americans and of our guests."
James Fauntelroy
"The improvement of the material conditions of people will make communities safer. Over policing them only makes things worse."
Janos Marton
"Our current systems of policing and incarceration generate more harm than they solve for. We need to completely re-imagine our approach to accountability, justice, and healing."
Jasi Robinson
“In today's climate for change there needs to be bold and progressive measures to dismantle systemic racism. Black, Brown and working class folks wear the generational scars on the War of Drug and Crime Bills. It is time to INVEST in communities, schools and people. It is time to DIVEST from a system that hurts the most vulnerable racial and ethnic groups. It is long overdue that folks take a real stance and say no more. These measures are necessary and needed. These measures were created for us and by us.”
Jason Call
“When boiled down to its core kernel of purpose, policing in America exists to protect the ruling class, both their lives and their property. The entire legal system is tiered in support of that conclusion. The biases of the law and its operators, from beat cops to prosecutors to judges to the cash bail system all act to oppress people of color, the working class, and other marginalized groups with no systemic power. Today we demand an end to this brutality.”
Karishma Mehta
"Abolitionist thinking requires the courage to work towards a completely different society, one that is based on justice for all people. Economic justice, racial justice, social justice, environmental justice all depend on whether we are willing to fight for a better world, even when we don’t know exactly the road we’ll take to get there. Ten for Justice centers Black abolitionists and community leaders who have been brave enough and bold enough for generations. It’s our turn to take the torch and pursue a vision of society that works for all of us, not just the wealthy few."
Kiese Laymon
"I'm endorsing because our elders and our children deserve a yesterday, today and tomorrow where we prioritize tenderness, accountability and justice. Radicalism is the basic belief that humans should not have to beg to have all our needs met equally. This 10 point plan is radical and I want us all to live."
Kristin Richardson Jordan
"I’m a survivor who when given the choice chose not to send my ex to jail. I know the nature of violence. I know that state violence will never cure interpersonal violence. I know that vilification will never erase the painful root causes of violence. We have a lot of work to do to make the kind of world we want to see. I call for defunding... down to zero, and instead funding education, community care, and restorative justice models."
Louis Reed
"We need all hands on deck to work overtime to frame a new American criminal legal system, and this is a step in the direction of that change."
Matt Rogers
"Many of these proposals are already on my criminal justice reform agenda, but so many of them need amplification. We've got to fundamentally reform policing in this country. No, we aren't going to immediately and completely defund police, but we need to reallocate resources so that people who have the wherewithal to handle drug addiction, mental health crises, family violence, etc., are the ones who actually show up on the scene, and we don't further traumatize people."
McKayla Wilkes
"The [Ten] list of demands is spot on. This is the change we need to see if we are to enact transformative police reform. It goes beyond the performative actions being taken by elected officials in its boldness. We have nothing to lose."
Mr. Five Mualimm-Ak
"The Incarcerated Nation Network supports the abolition of the prison industrial complex entirely, as human rights defenders we call for steps to begin the growth of addressing cruel and unusual punishment. 10 steps to abolition is a road map to deconstruct systems of national oppression."
Nathaniel Mulcahy
"It is time to address the errors of our past and we cannot do so while continuing to commit the same errors over and over again. I am proud to endorse the Ten Demands For Justice for everything they have committed to and are pursuing. We cannot say we've abolished slavery when a loophole in the 13th amendment was created specifically to perpetuate it. We cannot say black lives matter when our police, justice system and healthcare system are racially biased. We cannot say we live in a free nation when we have the world's largest prison population. We cannot say we believe in equality when our prison population is disproportionately made up of people of color. We cannot say we oppose terrorism when police act as state funded racially biased domestic terrorists. As long as corporations can own private prisons and exploit slave labor for profit we cannot say that we, as a nation, are free at last. The only way we right these wrongs is to end them and the best path I have seen to accomplish that is laid out by the Ten Demands For Justice."
Occupy Wall Street NYC
"While police abolition is our goal, these demands are only one path. Reparation of harm caused by the violence of policing, enslavement, and genocide is ongoing. If humanity is to have a future, we must protect each other. The Ten Demands for Justice outline needed actions to protect our brothers and sisters immediately."
Pepper Oceana
"We must end the racist criminal justice system & police state as it currently is. Reform has proven to be ineffective. I am sick & tired of police brutality & seeing so many black & brown Americans being murdered by police. I am sick of a prison system that is biased against black & brown people & incarcerates them at 3 times the rate of white people. Ten for Justice calls for an overhaul of the racist system & I am all for that."
Reality Winner
"I lived it. Abolish prisons and end the police state."
Ryan Knight
"I am endorsing and partnering with Ten Demands for Justice because the small reforms being peddled by the United States Congress are not enough. Ending police violence against Black people requires systemic change and a complete overhaul of the way that we do policing in America. Ten Demands for Justice gets us there."
Salem Snow
"Our current system targets and oppresses Black and brown communities. I have seen firsthand the militarization of police and their inability to deescalate situations that all too often lead to the undeserved death of our own. This must end now. In order to make things right, we must dismantle these systems of oppression at the roots. That means true justice and accountability. Ten Demands outlines what must to happen for us to heal and create new systems that truly work for everyone — especially for POC."
Scott Menor
"Over 95% of what they are currently called upon to do does not require any sort of armed response and despite their motto to protect and serve the police are an armed occupying terrorist force and a menace to civil society. They are dangerous wolves roaming among us who can on a whim harass, injure, or kill anyone with little fear of ever facing any consequences. They are irredeemable and they have to be abolished to secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity. They've gotta go along with the private, for-profit prisons they funnel people into."
Sean Zevran
"I support abolition and the Ten Demands because 401 years in this country is long enough. There is no longer an excuse for this (as if there ever was an excuse for it). Words such as “progress” and “reform” are but excuses to do nothing—constructs of white supremacy. We have waited long enough. As James Baldwin so eloquently put it, “How much time do you want for your ‘progress’?” I’ll not see this struggle continue to enslave Black human beings the world over while those at the top sit back and accumulate an ungodly amount of wealth."
Sema Hernandez
"Our communities need and demand reforms to end the systemic racism, inequality, and injustice that has taken innocent lives and demoralized millions of others. Transformative justice requires investing in our communities through education, healthcare, and infrastructure, rather than in the militarization of law enforcement to wage war on the working class, the poor, and the marginalized. Police marching or kneeling with protesters and echoing slogans will not pacify the masses who suffer in this brutal system. The public demands justice from every level of government - federal, state, and local, and executive, legislative, and judicial. We can't bring back the lives cut short by the decades of systemic oppression, but we can end the policies that perpetuate it."
Shahid Buttar
"As someone who has personally experienced police corruption and witnessed the institutional failures that enable it, I’m eager to support the Ten Demands for Justice as a member of Congress after we replace Nancy Pelosi as San Francisco‘s voice in the House of Representatives. The Ten Demands are a natural extension of those that have driven the movement for black lives since the Ferguson uprising of 2014. I’m proud to have been a part of it—both in the streets from Washington DC to Ferguson to San Francisco, and also in the policy sphere, as a longstanding movement advocate and the first Democrat to face the sitting Speaker of the House in over 30 years."
Shawna Morlock
"Ten Demands is fighting for real accountability, and a system that is actually healing for our communities. The way policing has been done is clearly doing more harm than good, and I’m happy to reimagine our communities as safe in a world where we keep us safe."
United Left
"While black lives only 'matter' to corporations when it comes to profiting off of mass incarceration, we realize that black lives will only truly ever matter when we enact REAL fundamental change. That is why United Left is proud to endorse Ten Demands for Justice. We need real structural change and a path to abolition of the police in the United States. We need an institution that will protect us and not corporate or federal interests."