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Join the Last 3% and the family of Jessica Williams today at 6:30 p.m. at Third Street and Palou in Bayview Hunters Point for a march to the Bayview Police Station and a healing circle; bring candles and items for Jessica’s altar if you can
by Leigh Davenport for the Last 3%
On the morning of Thursday, May 19 – National #SayHerName Day – a San Francisco Police sergeant killed Jessica Williams, 29, with a single shot at close range while she was unarmed, sitting in a car in the Bayview. This is the same neighborhood where a sergeant recently expressed a desire to kill Black people.
In response, the community will hold a rally that centers families who have lost loved ones to state violence and then march to the Bayview police station for a vigil honoring Jessica Williams.
As Malcolm X stated, “The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman; the most unprotected person in America is the Black woman; the most neglected person in America is the Black woman.”
Since Jessica’s senseless murder by an officer who deemed himself judge, jury and executioner, the pattern of forgetting or minimizing the state-sanctioned abuse and killing of Black women has predictably continued. Most conversation has centered around the subsequent resignation of the ex-chief of police, rather than the loss of Jessica Williams.
“Though Ed Lee fired Greg Suhr in the wake of Jessica’s murder, we will not be distracted by a new Black police chief,” stated Ronnisha Johnson of The Last 3%. “Greg Suhr was symptomatic of the larger disease that infects the entire SFPD.”
“Though Ed Lee fired Greg Suhr in the wake of Jessica’s murder, we will not be distracted by a new Black police chief,” stated Ronnisha Johnson of The Last 3%. “Greg Suhr was symptomatic of the larger disease that infects the entire SFPD.”
In this spirit of uplifting Black women that BYP 100, an activist organization of 18-35-year-olds, and many other organizations called for on May 19, we implore everyone to #SayHerName.
“We live in a world where the dignity of Black people is denied through every interaction with the state. It is apparent that the lives of ALL Black people are under attack; however, the stories, experiences, and needs of Black women, girls and femmes are left out all too often. And it is imperative that we work intentionally to bring them to the center,” states BYP 100.
The community demands that Chief Toney Chaplin:
- Release the name of the officer who murdered Jessica Williams;
- Place the officer who murdered Jessica Williams on unpaid leave as this crime is being investigated;
- Place the investigation of the crime with an outside agency for independent investigation;
- Identify and place all of the officers involved in all 22 of the murders that happened under Greg Suhr’s reign on unpaid administrative leave while their actions are investigated by an outside agency.
Contact The Last 3% on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Last-3-Percent-1007065332717404/?fref=ts.
