Demand for accountability.
Hello comrades,
Josh from Life Force, here. As individuals, as a band, and as a community we have a responsibility to stand up against racial injustice wherever it rears its ugly head. Unfortunately, we live in a reality where that racial injustice and the ideals of white supremacy are perpetuated by the state itself right before our eyes every single day. Just three months ago George Floyd was executed by the state in broad daylight, adding yet another link in the chain of injustices in the form of black folks in the United States of America being killed for the nonexistent crime of having melanin in their skin by those who take a fallacious oath to “serve and protect.”
On August 23rd, 2020, police were called to respond to a reported domestic disturbance in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where I grew up and spent the first 20 years of my life. On the scene, Jacob Blake had reportedly broken up a fight between two other individuals. As he had his back turned to officers, slowly walking around his vehicle and opening his car door to presumably check on his children who were inside, a KPD officer took this as an opportunity to grab Jacob by his shirt and blindly unload seven rounds into his back at point-blank range despite no evidence of him being a threat to their safety. Jacob fortunately survived, but is now paralyzed from the waist down, with the officers who committed this heinous act of violence on administrative leave in a world where the culture created by qualified immunity and a lack of body cameras make it unlikely that they will see any substantive repercussions for their entirely unjustified, egregious use of lethal force.
In an unjust world, civil unrest is our responsibility. Until there is substantive change and calls for justice aren’t met by police officers in riot gear, acting as a paramilitary force who commit literal violations of international law by using chemical agents such as tear gas and exert tactics of psychological warfare against those exercising their first amendment rights, there will be no peace.
Albeit we are states away in the midst of a still-raging pandemic and cannot be on the ground fighting for justice alongside the community I grew up with, starting August 27th we will be raffling a test press of our upcoming LP “Hope and Defiance,” with all proceeds being donated to the Milwaukee Freedom Fund, an organization currently dedicated to helping the freedom fighters in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
From Breonna Taylor to George Floyd to Jacob Blake, from Louisville to Minneapolis to Kenosha, we will always be a collective who uses our platform to stand for justice, and we will not be silent until the system which does everything to shelter itself from accountability finally listens. Additionally, please take the time to call the following people and demand the officers involved in the attempted execution of Jacob Blake are held accountable for their actions:
Kenosha City Attorney: 262-653-4170
Kenosha Mayor and City Administration: 262-653-4000
Wisconsin Department of Justice: (608) 266-1221
Kenosha Police Non Emergency Line: 262-656-1234
Black lives matter. In solidarity,
Josh, Flint, Matt, Davis, and John