Police accountability demanded at Washington DC town hall on police crimes

Washington, DC – Dozens of community members gathered at the Covenant Baptist Church in Southeast DC on Saturday afternoon, November 1, for a police crimes town hall. The event, hosted by the DC Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (DCAARPR), was called to address the recent upsurge of federal and local police presence in DC, and to continue to build the movement against police crimes.

The event began with opening remarks on a voice call from NAARPR Executive Director Frank

Chapman, who spoke on his experiences with police brutality, the injustice system, and the fight against the federal occupation in DC.

“Trump has declared war against all the urban cities in which Black people constitute a significant part,“ said Chapman, “and we have to fight them every step of the way. There’s more of us than them, so we have to do all that we can possibly do to stop the military occupation of our communities and to get community control of the police.”

Afterwards, a panel of community members took the floor to speak on their experiences with police crimes locally in DC. One community member, Terra Martin, spoke about the death of her son Delaneo Martin at the hands of DC Park Police two years ago.

“He had a five month old at the time that he had custody of, that’s now fatherless” said Martin, “When you’re shooting our loved ones MPD, or when you’re allowing your federal officers to do it – you don’t just hurt us, you hurt the community.”

After the panel, organizers for the event engaged the audience in rounds of chants that turned into a song, with calls and responses of “Stop the police” and “No Trump” from each side of the room. The organizers also led audience members through a version of Oh, Freedom, rousing people to their feet to clap and sing along.

To wind up the town hall, Christina Murdoch from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization DC (FRSO DC), gave a call to action encouraging community members in the audience to get active.

“Anyone can get involved, all that matters is that you do it,” said Murdoch, “You don’t have to be Black to fight for Black people, you don’t have to be an immigrant to fight for immigrants, and you don’t have to be from DC to fight for DC!“

#WashingtonDC #InJusticeSystem #DCAARPR #NAARPR