To our elected officials:

We write to you as the frontline workers ensuring the health and safety of all people in our communities.

For hundreds of years, Black individuals in the United States have endured countless forms of violence and harm in everyday life without an audience or validation of our experiences. Now, these horrific events are displayed across our cellphones, computer screens, and televisions. Experiences that have historically been dismissed by the white in positions of power have now been documented for all to see. In fact, the harm across generations is the direct result of decisions made by people in power who directly benefit from upholding racist economic systems that depend on the labor of Black people while simultaneously criminalizing them.

The trauma experienced by Black families and communities at the hands of police contributes to chronic stress and poor health. Black children begin to experience police surveillance in their schools, where they live, and where they play. Black people experience harassment in hospitals and clinics by police even when they are seeking out medical help for their illnesses. The loss of life at the hands of police is a public health emergency with long-lasting community health outcomes that requires decisive and concrete action.

This is outlined in the American Public Health Association Policy statement from 2018,  Addressing Law Enforcement Violence as a Public Health Issue Policy (https://www.apha.org/policies-and-advocacy/public-health-policy-statements/policy- database/2019/01/29/law-enforcement-violence).

We write today in honor of Oscar Grant, Mario Woods, Stephon Clark, Idriss Stelley, Miles Hall, Jessica Nelson Williams, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Atatiana Jefferson, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Michael Brown, Walter Scott and so many more who never made a headline. We write this in honor of those families and communities impacted by this violence, who not only never got to see justice, but who also have to continue reliving the trauma as this violence continues unchecked throughout the country.

We in the healthcare community and the signatories to this letter stand in solidarity with a community that has been brutalized for far too long. Actions speak louder than words.

In order to advance a Culture of Care, we call on you to enact the following:

1. Tell the truth about police violence and racism
Immediately declare Racism and Police Violence as public health crises. We applaud UCSF’s Chancellor Sam Hawgood in stating that police violence and systemic racism are public health issues that the health institution is committed to address. We need this addressed at every level of governance.

Enact legislation that will require Ethnic Studies education in all K-12 and college institutions to promote awareness and sensitivity to historic struggles the Black community has faced.

Eliminate legislative provisions that shield law enforcement officers from investigation and accountability.

Prioritize legislation to provide full public disclosure of all current and past investigations of law enforcement officer brutality and excessive use of force as well as access to recordings of any incidents in question, which should be deemed public property. These materials could be made public through an online database.

2. Defund police
Defund and dismantle any and all local police departments. We are not interested in police reform. We are interested in transforming social practices to protect Black and Brown lives, and investing in community-driven, self-determined models of public safety.

3. Demilitarize communities
Immediately reverse the militarization of law enforcement, by eliminating acquisition and use of military equipment and reducing the number of SWAT teams and the frequency of their deployment.

Immediately outlaw the use of rubber bullets and chemical weapons, including CS gas/tear gas, which have been shown to be ineffective crowd management strategies with fatal and severely morbid consequences. In addition, CS gas during COVID is unsafe on many levels, leading to the potential for mass aerosolization events.

Engage in a review of law enforcement agencies’ formal and informal policies and practices in order to eliminate disproportionate violence against specific populations. Examples of such policies and practices may include racial and identity profiling, stop and frisk, gang injunctions, and enforcement of laws that criminalize people who are unhoused.

4. Remove police from schools and healthcare facilities
Police or other law enforcement agents should be removed from all schools, hospitals, health centers, and other sites of learning and healing.

5. Free people from jail and prisons
Decarcerate all jails and cages, by freeing people from jails, prisons, and ICE detention facilities, and working to shut down these facilities permanently.

End any and all collaborations with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including stopping all transfers from in-custody to ICE and eliminating all reporting to ICE.

6. Repeal laws that criminalize survival
Advance equity and justice by eliminating officer enforcement of regulations designed to oppress marginalized people, including but not limited to substance use and possession, sex work, loitering, sleeping in public, and minor traffic violations, as well as targeting undocumented immigrants.

7. Invest in Communities and Care, Not Cops
Fund programs such as the Black New Deal, as outlined by Anti Police-Terror Project that meet human needs, promote healthy and strong communities, and reduce structural inequities (economic, racial, and social) — such as employment initiatives, substantial and long-term small business subsidies, affordable housing that puts people over profit, culturally sustaining educational opportunities, programs that uplift and protect the arts —including by using resources currently devoted to law enforcement.

Halt the use of law enforcement to respond to reports of individuals experiencing mental health crisis and increase funding to evidence-based and culturally sustaining mental health programs who can respond instead.

Advance legislation for single-payer healthcare to safeguard Black and Brown communities most impacted by COVID19 in California.

To achieve the demands outlined above, we call for an immediate meeting with lawmakers. We will only accept this meeting if community organizers and organizations with whom we organize and have been actively working to address these inherent issues are present. Together we can lay a new foundation for our cities, counties, and the state of California, to set a standard for the nation.

Because Black Lives Matter and Black Health Matters today, tomorrow, and forever.

In solidarity,