November 19, 2021
Press Contact:
Ashley Chambers, Ella Baker Center
510-285-8227
OAKLAND—For centuries, Black and Brown communities have suffered from the harm, murders, and trauma born from a racist, unjust system. The acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse today for the murder of two protestors during a racial justice protest for Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin is another form of the state-sanctioned violence used to silence justice seekers and empower white supremacists.
This verdict is the system doing what it was always designed to do — advancing white supremacy, and protecting people like Rittenhouse who murder to advance it.
There is no justice in a courtroom that preserves and protects the ideals of white supremacy, while terrorizing Black and Brown people to unjust sentencing and convictions. We know true justice will not be achieved by a system that is inherently unjust. To move our communities closer to safety, we must dismantle these systems of punishment and look toward community-based solutions, not the criminal legal system.
Our communities face trauma every day and we still have not seen any restoration for our communities and our families that are impacted by this unjust system. Justice will not come from this murderous system, it can only come from the complete divestment from police, and reinvestment in healing and community-based solutions.
We stand with the families of all the victims, and the long list of people who continue to lose their lives to state violence. In solidarity with organizers on the ground in Kenosha, across the country and here in Oakland, we will continue fighting together for justice and our collective liberation.
Here is a resource on how to stay safe while attending a protest.