NAACP Vancouver Letter to the Community: Police Accountability

My dear community,  

The announcement yesterday in the case of Mr.Donald was disheartening, but did not come as a shock. Police accountability is something we do not have often, no matter if the victim is a person experiencing houselessness, a young adult with a future ahead of them, a child, or someone needing mental health resources. 

Read: Prosecutors: Fatal Police Shooting of Jenoah Donald Justified

Our community and communities alike are becoming conditioned to a traumatic cycle, and the first step to breaking this cycle is authentic accountability; we need unquestionable independent investigations. In addition, we need thoroughly reimagined policing in our community. 

Communities disproportionately affected by our backwards way of policing cannot survive until this occurs. Our communities cannot continue to withstand such trauma, the current state of policing harms everyone including the police, we all need this level of reform. 

This is one of many pieces of systemic racism that is rooted in our community that needs to be dismantled. Any organization that is whole heartedly invested in justice, needs to stand firm against the current way of policing, and band together to restructure the way we care for our community as a whole. 

My call to action to all individuals is to rethink what you are doing to be anti racist.

Performative activism will not dismantle the systemic racism plaguing our community, your actions need to actually move the needle forward, and not just be a sign in a window or a fancy DEI statement. 

We are dying and no one is being held accountable.

Sincerely,
Jasmine Tolbert
President, NAACP Vancouver 1139-B