Tyre Nichols was a father, a son, a friend, a co-worker. He enjoyed skateboarding and made it a point to watch and photograph sunsets. He loved and was loved. Now he is known as yet another unarmed Black man murdered by the police.
Keenan Anderson, a teacher and cousin of Patrisse Cullors was murdered by police in Los Angeles at a traffic stop this month.
Tortuguita was an environmental abolitionist activist in Atlanta fighting cop city. They were murdered on January 18 by police.
Another Black man killed by cops at a traffic stop. And another. Another activist resisting police murdered.
This news has taken an emotional toll on a lot of us. Often, we don’t make space for conversation and processing after collective trauma, and our society has an expectation that we go back to our individual lives and work without being given a chance to grieve together and remember our shared humanity.
However things are landing for you this week, and whether you express it by taking to the streets or by finding solitude, we hope you are able to take the time and space you need to mourn, grieve and process the impact of this tragedy. Collectively, we will take some time at our chapter meeting on Thursday, February 2 at 6:30pm to do just that and remember that we are in this together.
Then, we will turn our energy to collective power for action and change.
The 2023 Legislative & Budget season has begun.
At the state level, at least four SURJ NYC working groups have attended lobby days in Albany already this month.
We also have our work cut out for us in the city, as Mayor Adams prepares to maintain the police and department of corrections budgets while unleashing yet another round of devastating cuts to libraries, pre-K, CUNY, schools, and more services the community desperately needs.
Our working groups are powerful engines for change, but we think they could be stronger working together. We will be thinking together about how we can do that. What would be possible if we worked more collectively?
Could we mobilize SURJ and our neighbors to put sustained and escalating pressure on the Speaker and 10-15 additional Council Members? Could we help build and consolidate a progressive bloc in the Council who will in turn hold the Speaker to hard lines in budget negotiations? Could we help make Defund a reality?
We really hope you’ll join us on Thursday, February 2 at 6:30pm as we hold space to process the collective trauma of the past few weeks and discuss how we can work across working groups to help each other move into action and be most effective as a white anti-racist arm of the movement for change.
In solidarity,
SURJ NYC