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BYP100 Releases the Agenda to Keep Us Safe to Mobilize Young Activists Seeking to Hold Police Accountable

The Agenda to Keep Us Safe is a call to action and tool for everyday people, elected officials and law enforcement agencies.

October 9, 2014

CHICAGO — Today, the Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) releases the “Agenda to Keep Us Safe,” The Agenda the organization’s first public policy manual for young activists seeking to hold local enforcement agencies accountable for police violence.

In the wake of the Ferguson Uprising, BYP100 has developed a well-researched and accessible call to action for all young people who want to change the all too often violent relationship police departments foster within our communities.

“Given our collective experiences as activists, we are compelled to approach the work of Black liberation with strategic thinking and actions. Public policy advocacy sits at the intersection of both,” says BYP100 National Coordinator Charlene Carruthers.

The Agenda contains specific recommendations to:

  • Establish Civilian Police Review Boards
  • Repeal criminal laws targeting young people
  • Implement programs requiring police to wear body cameras
  • End the ‘War on Drugs’
  • Demilitarize the law enforcement agencies
  • Increase enforcement of existing civil rights laws

Terrance Laney (Washington, DC), BYP100 National Public Policy Chair, uplifts the significance of the creation of The Agenda. “Too often young Black people are only engaged to be bodies at a rally or as voters for a candidate, but aren’t asked to do the visioning and thinking that is necessary to create the kind of communities we want to build,” says Laney.

The Agenda will increase visible thought leadership among young Black people. Young Black people across the nation are most directly impacted by these problems, and have original ideas about how to solve them. Decision-makers need to know that this lobby is growing.

Janae Bonsu (Chicago), The Agenda co-author, echoes this notion saying, “The time couldn’t be more ripe than now to transform the collective pain of all the state-sponsored violence happening in our communities into power.”

As BYP100 continues to build its local grassroots organizing campaigns to make the public policy recommendations a reality in communities, we would invite allies and partner organizations engaged in the fight to end criminalization in a national dialogue about Agenda to Keep Us Safe via Google Hangout on Wednesday, October 22, 2014. Please contact Terrance Laney (terrance@byp100.org), BYP100 National Public Policy Chair for more information about the upcoming Google Hangout and partnership opportunities.

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About the Black Youth Project 100:

Black Youth Project 100 (BYP 100) is an activist member-based organization of Black 18-35 year olds, dedicated to creating justice and freedom for all Black people. We do this through building a network focused on transformative leadership development, non-violent direct action organizing, advocacy and education using a Black queer feminist lens. We are an organization affiliated with the Black Youth Project. Visit us at www.byp100.org.