UNITED AGAINST POLICE VIOLENCE DEMANDS:
We ask your organization to endorse our demands listed below. We believe that your endorsement will show that public outrage against police violence in all its forms is not isolated but rather a common concern for all poor and working people.
WHEREAS,
- Police violence is predominantly directed against women and people of colour.
- Police violence upholds and perpetuates colonization.
- Police violence in the form of institutionalized ineffectiveness has led to the murder and disappearance of countless women.
- Police violence against women has created the conditions where women are not properly protected from violent abuse.
- Police violence through the act of strip searching is a form of sexual assault.
- Police violence in the form of racial profiling specifically targets communities of colour, refugees and immigrants, and aboriginal people to police aggression.
- Police violence directed at poor people isolates poor people and prevents them from accessing health services such as medical clinics and homeless shelters.
- Police violence in the form of bureaucratic inaccessibility and a culture of complicity make for the pursuit of justice against police violence impossible.
- Police violence is used internationally to protect Canadian capital interests abroad such as in countries currently occupied by Canadian forces including Haiti and Afghanistan.
- Police violence in the form of complacency allows the ongoing violence against gays, lesbians, and transgender people.
- Police violence and the threat of violence dissuades otherwise peaceful protest.
These forms of police violence and all others too numerous to mention must be stopped immediately. We are therefore united against police violence and we demand:
- END RACIAL PROFILING
- STOP THE WAR ON THE POOR
- END POLICE VIOLENCE IN ALL FORMS
Please send the name of organization, union local, student union or group to United Against Police Violence.
If you wish to participate in the organizing committee please contact us: uapv (at) resist (dot) ca.