Jacksonville, FL – Hundreds gathered Tuesday afternoon, June 27,in downtown’s James Weldon Johnson Park across from City Hall to remember Ben Frazier, a well-known civil rights activist and elder in Jacksonville, Florida who passed away this past Saturday, June 24, after a bout with cancer.

Frazier, founder of the well-known Northside Coalition of Jacksonville (NCOJ) was a force to be reckoned with in Jacksonville. The NCOJ,started in 2016, was vital in the fight for police accountability along with successfully fighting to rename public schools named after confederate generals, and taking down confederate monuments.

Community activists, including those from the Jacksonville Community Activist Committee (JCAC) along with other groups, elected officials, such as State Representative Angie Nixon and Jax Mayor-elect Donna Deegan, all spoke to the crowd about the greatness of Frazier and how much he will be missed.

“Don’t let anyone sanitize the legacy of Ben Frazier,” said Michael Sampson, a leader in the JCAC that worked closely with Ben Frazier and the NCOJ over the past few years. “Ben Frazier fought for civilian oversight of police, fought to take down symbols of white supremacy, fought for economic justice and labor rights. When we fight, we must remember how Ben fought for us so we must continue his legacy by fighting for what he would have fought for.”

Maceo George, another leader in NCOJ along with being on the executive board of the local Central Labor Council and former president of the local chapter of the Letter Carriers said at the event, “I was glad that he would know, that his name would live forever and that's what we're going to do because we're all going to be Ben Frazier, whenever we're out here.”

Groups plan to remember Ben Frazier’s legacy fighting for the racial and economic justice.

His family wrote the following release after his passing, “It is with love and heartfelt sorrow that the family of Benjamin McVickers Frazier, Jr. shares the news of his passing just one day after his 73rd. He was surrounded by family and close friends as he courageously ended his nine-month battle with cancer at 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 24, 2023 at Shands Hospital in Jacksonville.

The family asks for privacy during this difficult time and will announce memorial information when details become available.

Ben was a longtime broadcast journalist who became the first Black anchor of a major news show in Jacksonville. He was also an award-winning civil and human rights leader, a tireless voice for the voiceless even as he underwent cancer treatment. Ben received the NAACP’s Rutledge H. Pearson Civil Rights Award for his advocacy and outstanding contributions to civil rights over many decades.

Ben was extremely proud that he spoke at the United Nations. He talked about it frequently.

He fought for equality among Jacksonville’s citizens, equity in our neighborhoods, and integrity, transparency, accountability and compassion in our government.

He will be missed sorely by family, friends and the Jacksonville community”

#JacksonvilleFL #AfricanAmerican #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC

Jacksonville, FL – Around 80 people gathered at the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Jacksonville, November 20 after the acquittal of racist vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse, demanding the Department of Justice file civil rights charges. Organized by the Jacksonville Community Action Committee, they were joined by Florida State Representative Angie Nixon (who spoke), members of the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville, UNF SDS, Take Em Down Jax, Florida Rising, DSA Jax, Our Revolution along with other community members and activists.

The rally was started with chants of, “Do your job, DOJ, don’t let Kyle get away” along with chants of “Indict, convict, send Kyle Rittenhouse to jail, the whole damn system is guilty as hell.”

This mobilization was one of many mobilizations in over a dozen cities this past weekend called by the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression.

#JacksonvilleFL #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC #KyleRittenhouse

Jacksonville, FL – Around 50 community members came together outside of City Hall, October 26, to rally for the re-instatement of the “Safer Together Committee” by the City Council. The rally was led by the Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) and joined by the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville, Students for A Democratic Society, Take Em Down Jax, Florida Rising, and Women’s March Jacksonville.

The rally began at 4 p.m. with the crowd chanting “People! Power!” while various news stations set up to collect footage of the event. Michael Sampson, a leader of JCAC, kicked off the rally by demanding that the city council reinstate the Safer Together Committee in order to continue the work that the people started in 2020, when tens of thousands marched downtown in the wake of brutal police violence. Sampson stated, “The Safer Together Committee was created after the people demanded police accountability.”

​The Safer Together Committee was launched by late Councilmember Tommy Hazouri, in order to address the lack of trust and accountability from the Jacksonville Sherriff’s Office (JSO) after tens of thousands took to the streets, led by the JCAC and its allies. Among other recommendations, a citizen’s review board was proposed in order to increase some community involvement throughout JSO internal investigations. The meetings culminated with a report done by Doctors Tammy Hodo and Brian Van Brunt that delineated the various ways that JSO exacerbated the lack of trust and accountability to the community of Jacksonville.

Councilmember Michael Boylan suddenly resigned after pressure from JSO Sheriff Mike Williams and the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), the police union that has fought against any police accountability measures. Council President Sam Newby, also pressured by JSO and the FOP, later moved to end the Safer Together Committee.

Immediately after Boylan’s resignation, community members sent a letter to Council President Sam Newby demanding the reinstatement of the committee. The letter was signed by 15 organizations as well as State Representative Angie Nixon and the president of the local NAACP chapter, Isaiah Rumlin.

After the rally, the crowd moved inside council chambers to make public comment in support of reinstating the Safer Together Committee in order to continue the path towards community control of the police.

Monica Gold, an organizer with JCAC, stated that it was “interesting that even a small semblance of transparency and accountability made city council so uncomfortable”. During the rally, JCAC leader Christina Kittle asked the crowd who city council was protecting with this rash decision to end the well-supported Safer Together Committee. She answered her own question with, “they are protecting the campaign donations they receive from the Fraternal Order of the Police.”

​The Jacksonville Community Action Committee will continue to demand reinstatement of the Safer Together Committee as part of their organizing efforts for community control of the police in Jacksonville and across the nation.

#JacksonvilleFL #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC #NorthsideCoalitionOfJacksonville

Jacksonville, FL – Around 40 community members, led by the Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) came out to Jacksonville City Hall July 27 to rally and demand a People’s Budget before the city council meeting started.

The week before, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry released his proposed 2021-2022 budget, which calls for an increase to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) budget by $29 million, bringing their total share of the budget to around $513 million and accounting for nearly 40% of city spending.

Community members from the Northside Coalition, Southern Women Against Gun Violence and representatives from other organizations all came out to speak at the rally and gave public comment before the city councilors.

“We came out to demand our city officials allocate our taxpayer dollars to ending poverty, not more policing,” said Monique Sampson of the JCAC. “We’ve seen JSO’s budget go up every year while the Black community struggles to get roads repaired and septic tanks removed. We have the democratic right to determine how our money is spent.”

Despite the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office’s consistent increase in funding the previous years, Jacksonville has not experienced a decrease in crime and had an actual uptick in violent crime along with citizen police complaints last year. The JCAC says the People’s Budget aims to address the social issues that contribute directly to crime and poor public health. It includes proposals for investment in living wage job opportunities, mental health services and strengthened city infrastructure. The People’s Budget also contains legislation that activists are pushing for, including marijuana decriminalization, demanding city contracts go to Black contractors equally, and redirecting sheriff’s office funds to helping grow Black small business.

Organizers also say the People’s Budget aims to strengthen organized labor through redirecting city funds away from policing to public workers and a creation of a large public works program that would hire workers at a living wage. The People’s Budget contains the push for legislation such as a union neutrality ordinance for any vendor doing business with the city, along with calls for raising taxes on the wealthy to fund development in the Urban Core, Northwest and Out East, three historically Black and underdeveloped areas in Jacksonville.

“In the Black Belt and in cities like Jacksonville in the Black Belt, you’ve seen historic underdevelopment,” said Neal Jefferson with the JCAC. “The People’s budget aims to change that.”

After the rally, around 25 community members gave public comment demanding city council persons hear their calls.

#Jacksonville #AfricanAmerican #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC #PeoplesBudget #LennyCurry #BlackBelt

Jacksonville FL – On April 21, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) organized a rally, uniting with the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression call for protests to respond to the Chauvin trial and to demand justice for the countless number of victims of police crimes in Jacksonville and throughout the country.

Jacksonville is one of the many cities that have been plagued with countless murders at the hand of law enforcement.

The day after the guilty verdict, over a 100 people gathered in front of the Duval County Courthouse to demand justice for victims of police crimes. Christina Kittle, an organizer with JCAC, reiterated to the crowd that even with the Chauvin guilty verdict, we still must keep up the fight. She also shared the importance of community control of the police. Charity Baker, the mother of Leah Baker, a 28-year-old woman who was brutally shot and killed by JSO officers, spoke to the crowd and shared her daughter’s story. She also reminded the crowd that the fight for accountability wouldn’t be as prominent without the voice of the people.

The importance of the voice of the people was reiterated throughout the rally. The crowd chanted “The people united, will never be defeated.” Monique Sampson, another organizer with JCAC, emphasized to the crowd that “George Floyd sparked an entire movement. His death was not in vain. The guilty verdict wasn’t the result of the jury being the jury, it was the result of the peoples movement taking the street and changing the tide all over this country and all over the world.”

#JacksonvilleFL #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC #DerekChauvin #NationalAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepressionNAARPR

Jacksonville, FL – On January 30, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) organized a protest against Florida House Bill 1 (HB1/SB484): Combating Public Disorder. This bill is a 60-page document that prohibits and criminalizes successful tactics of people’s movements throughout history.

HB1 criminalizes the use of public roads for marches and demonstrations, it revokes bail for protesters, and it stifles people’s budgets. HB1 has been deemed favorable by the Criminal Justice and Public Safety’s Subcommittee and is currently being fast-tracked through the legislature. The bill is currently in the House Justice Appropriations Subcommittee in the Florida legislature.

Over 250 people gathered in front of the Duval County Courthouse to express their disapproval of HB1. The action began with the chant: “DeSantis, resign! Protesting is not a crime!” Maria Garcia, a JCAC organizer, explained that if HB1, hypothetically, passed this past summer, then many of Jacksonville’s protesters would have been arrested and jailed without bail. These protesters would still be awaiting their court date.

The JCAC was joined by the following local officials who also opposed this legislation: Councilwoman Brenda Priestly Jackson, Councilman Garrett Dennis, Florida State Representative Tracie Davis, and Florida State Representative Angie Nixon. Angie Nixon said, “This bill is an attack on Black lives. This bill legalizes racism by hindering the freedom of speech for a select few.” Nixon emphasized that this bill is pointed. It is targeted at Black lives matter protesters, and it will cause the most harm to Black communities.

Monique Sampson, an SDS organizer, shouted, “It may seem like Ron DeSantis and his pawns have all the power, but we have the power of the people on our side, and we are ready to fight!”

The JCAC is calling on people to continue the fight by putting pressure on state representatives to “kill the bill”. The JCAC is calling on supporters to use this link to email state representatives in opposition to HB1: BIT.LY/STOPHB1.

You can follow more about the JCAC’s future plans at jaxtakesaction.org.

#JacksonvilleFL #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #PoliticalRepression #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC #HB1SB484

Jacksonville, FL – On November 21, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC), alongside other organizations and over 250 community members, gathered at the Duval County Courthouse to rally against the repressive and undemocratic legislative proposal by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, as well as the killing of 18-year-old Devon Tillman Gregory by four Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office officers: Nicholas McDonald, James Mills, Aaron Roe and Brandon Shea.

In attendance were the family of Devon Tillman Gregory, and the mother of Vernell Bing, who was killed in 2016 by killer cop Tyler Landreville. Tawana Myrick, Devon’s mother, and other family members expressed their anger and pain over Devon being killed by JSO, with over 30 shots reportedly being fired.

Devon Tillman Gregory’s cousin, Tina Rhiles, powerfully reflected that before the killing of Devon, it was easier to show support from a distance, but now that must change, saying, “before this, we were sharing, and were at home. But now we know. Last week we were the people that were at home, and not out here. This week, we are here with you, and every other week, and every other time we will be here.”

The same sentiments were echoed by Ms. Shirley, who directed her words to Sheriff Mike Williams: “Leave our kids alone! Stop taking from us! And Mike I told you, Landreville was gonna kill again and that's what the hell he did, and you still let him come back in our community. But you better get him out of it, we’re tired.”

Speakers also articulated opposition to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ proposal for the “Combating Violence, Disorder and Looting and Law Enforcement Protection Act,” which seeks to institute mandatory minimums for protesters, alongside other amendments, including those that seek to retroactively legalize vehicular homicide of protesters.

Christina Kittle with the JCAC encouraged attendees to get ready to go to Tallahassee to protest this legislative proposal, reminding them that “this bill would make everything that we gained this summer, all of the momentum that we got started here in Jacksonville, illegal. So the 74 protesters who were brutalized, gassed and unlawfully detained by JSO this summer would have felony charges, trumped-up charges. The bill would also have made raising bail for them illegal.”

#JacksonvilleFL #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #PoliticalRepression #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC #RonDeSantis

Jacksonville, FL – Over 200 people gathered on the westside of Jacksonville, on the corner of San Juan and Cassett Avenues, to celebrate the life of Devon Gregory Tillman, along with protesting against his death at the hands of the police. Devon Gregory Tillman was an 18-year-old African American worker who was murdered by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office earlier this week during a traffic stop. Police surrounded the vehicle, pulling out Tillman’s two passengers before opening fire. Police fired 35 times into his car.

Devon’s family and community members, including the Jacksonville Community Action Committee, gathered to demand justice and accountability. Michael Sampson from the Jacksonville Community Action Committee started chants with “Justice for Devon” and “Release all the footage.” The family has been calling for the release of all body cam footage from the cops involved in the shooting.

The family spoke about how caring Devon was, how he worked two jobs and loved his family. They vowed to keep demanding answers.

#JacksonvilleFL #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC #DevonGregoryTillman

Jacksonville, FL – On November 4, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC), in coalition with other local organizations, continued the fight for community control of the police. This action was a part of a national day of action called by the National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression. Jacksonville, along with other cities across the country, joined the post-election protest, continuing to press for community’s demands.

Outside of Jacksonville City Hall, over 100 people gathered with the knowledge that their voices needed to be heard, both, at the ballot box and in the streets. Speakers explained that real police accountability is only born out of community control of the police. Community control would extend real power to the people, rather than leaving them at the mercy of the police.

Sara Tayiba, an organizer with JCAC and the Palestinian Youth Movement, said, “We will continue to fight back as we recognize this reign of repression doesn’t begin or end with Trump. We see it extended through Trump’s allies in Florida with Governor Ron DeSantis, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, and JSO Sheriff Mike Williams, who all actively seek to embolden killer cops while exploiting, oppressing and killing our communities.”

Speakers also denounced the anti-protest bill, being proposed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, which would criminalize protests and incentivize racist vigilantism against movements. Ben Frazier of the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville called such a measure “draconian” and “racist.”

Duval County voted to defeat Trump, the first time the city has voted against the republican candidate since Jimmy Carter’s election. Protesters chanted, “Hey hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump is ‘bout to go!” along with chants for community control of the police.

You can follow more about the JCAC’s future plans at jaxtakesaction.org.

#JacksonvilleFL #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC #NationalAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression

Jacksonville, FL – On September 8, while the Jacksonville City Council met virtually, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee held a press conference outside of city hall demanding the city council reduce Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office proposed nearly half-billion dollar budget and reallocate funding to other public services and Black community investment. Around 30 people representing various organizations attended.

Speakers from the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville, Take Em Down Jax, Florida New Majority, Women’s March Jax, the Black Commission and others all spoke in favor of the JCAC-led People’s Budget proposal. The proposal calls for cutting the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office’s budget in half and redirecting those funds to other city departments such as the departments of public works, parks, recreation and community services and other departments which could create living wage, union jobs and address issues of systemic inequality.

“We cannot continue to be shot in the streets,” said Pat McCollough of Women’s March Jax. “We must stop funding these killings.”

The People’s Budget also calls for People’s Legislation that would direct city officials to make a carve-out in the city’s charter to create a civilian police accountability council; a proposal for a union neutrality ordinance for contractors that gets city contracts to allow their workers the ability to unionize without workplace repression; calls to decriminalize marijuana; greater access to city contracts for small Black businesses and vendors; rent controls to combat gentrification in historically Black neighborhoods like Springfield, and the creation of an Urban Core Development Authority which would direct public and private investment to address community blight and poverty in Jacksonville’s Black neighborhoods.

Currently the city’s pro-police budget is scheduled to be voted on this month, yet activists and community members vow to keep pressuring city council, demanding a People’s Budget and demanding they vote no on any increased funding to the sheriff office.

“The People’s Budget unites all sectors of Jacksonville that have historically been neglected by the city of Jacksonville’s previous budgets,” said Michael Sampson II of JCAC. “For decades and decades, the Black community has gotten little from the city’s budget when it comes to infrastructure and programs, while wealthy Dixie capitalists and developers continue to redirect public money into their coffers. The People’s Budget unites all that can be united against the status quo which is why so many different forces from BLM protesters, city workers to even Black small businesses support it.”

Organizers say their next step is mobilizing for the September 19 Day of Action called by the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. The JCAC is an affiliate of NAARPR.

To find out more about the People’s Budget, visit: https://jaxtakesaction.org/peoples-budget-now.

#JacksonvilleFL #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC

Jacksonville, FL – On August 18, Jacksonville held primary elections where movement candidates won big. Angie Nixon, a trade union leader with SEIU and a community organizer, defeated incumbent State Representative Kimberly Daniels in District 14 by a margin of 60% to 40%. Nixon, a longtime supporter of progressive movements here in Jacksonville, spoke at historic massive rallies over the summer organized by the Jacksonville Community Action Committee after the George Floyd rebellion. She pledged her support for repealing the Law Enforcement Bill of Rights, a statewide statute that hinders cities in Florida from instituting community control of the police. Her opponent, a controversial, anti-gay, anti-women’s rights, anti-Semitic pastor, had wide support from the local Fraternal Order of Police, private prisons like GEO group, as well as the backing of the statewide Chamber of Commerce.

Rhonda Peoples Waters, a local African American lawyer, became the first Black woman in Jacksonville history to be elected to a judgeship. Since 2009, Peoples Waters had been selected 13 times by commissions as a finalist for judicial nominations, only to be spurned by right-wing governors. Also supportive of the people’s movement here in Jacksonville, Peoples Waters supports the demands of activist groups like the JCAC and the Northside Coalition, and had substantial backing from the local Black community. She won her race by a margin of 58% to 42%, defeating former prosecutor Erin Perry, who had been appointed to the bench by former Florida Governor and crook Rick Scott in 2019. Perry’s campaign was supported by the local Fraternal Order of Police and Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Sheriff Mike Williams.

In other races across the county, progressive candidates did well. Nicole Hamm, a young African American woman who ran for city council in District 4, a traditionally republican area with changing demographics, won 42% of the vote against two republican candidates, pushing her campaign to a run-off in November. Her opponent, Kevin Carrico, raised substantially more money than her campaign, with backing from many corporate donors and establishment money pouring into his campaign. He’s called for giving police more money as opposed to Hamm, who publicly supported the JCAC’s demands for a People’s Budget and the reallocation of JSO funding into ending poverty and addressing other social ills. Her race in November will be widely supported by the progressive community in Jacksonville.

Candidate Tammyette Thomas defeated her democratic primary challenger by a wide margin in Florida House District 15 and moves to an election in November against republican incumbent Wyman Duggan. Thomas, an African American woman, has also supported calls to repeal the Law Enforcement Bill of Rights and for community control of the police.

“This election yesterday was powerful in terms of the movement now having a real influence on elections in Jacksonville,” said Michael Sampson II of the Jacksonville Community Action Committee. “Having progressive candidates and now elected state reps who support our demands of community control of the police and repealing the law enforcement bill of rights is a game changer in our work in North Florida and is a warning to all the status quo politicians, Black or white, who choose the path of accommodation with the police state as opposed to fighting for the people. We are just getting started.”

#JacksonvilleFL #FL #US #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #Elections #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC #CommunityControlOfPolice

Tallahassee, FL -The Tallahassee Community Action Committee (TCAC) hosted an online training and workshop, July 30, over Facebook Live on the topic of community control of police. The event was led by experienced anti-racism leaders who are active in the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR), and also founding members of their local organizations: TCAC and the group that inspired TCAC’s own founding, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC).

“NAARPR, JCAC and TCAC all have political repression and police overreach central to their origin stories,” noted Tallahassee Community Action Committee member Satya Stark-Bejnar.

“Founding members of each organization recognized that state repression through law enforcement and the judicial system, while astonishing on a case-by-case basis, can and must be expected systemically, and that durable, organized bodies – that know to expect this – are better suited to respond to cases of repression, violence and overreach as they arise than individuals going it alone, spontaneous, surprised and starting from scratch,” continued Stark-Bejnar.

“Our movement is powerful because of our work with families of victims of police crimes, our work with police torture survivors, and our work to make sure that local police budgets don’t just bloat every year,” said JCAC panelist Michael Sampson, who opened the workshop. In addition to fighting for justice around specific cases of police violence, JCAC and TCAC are educating their communities about just how much money law enforcement gets from their cities, roughly 40% and 30% respectively, of the entire municipal budgets of Jacksonville and Tallahassee.

“They spend a lot of this money on surveillance,” said Christina Kittle, also of the Jacksonville Community Action Committee, who led the second segment of the workshop. “I learned, from my case, and the four others who were beaten and arrested along with me in 2017, that the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office had already spent over $17 million to illegally surveil us, build files on us- Before that [physical] attack was even launched!”

Sampson and Kittle’s workshop segments were followed by Tallahassee Community Action Committee panelists Delilah Pierre, Regina Joseph and Lakey Love, educating attendees about the difference between appointed police review boards and elected civilian police accountability councils (CPACs), the Law Enforcement Bill of Rights (LEOBoR), and introducing community control of police as an umbrella term that has, since the 1970’s included many specific demands that are currently trending around defund police/re-fund communities, and around police training, policy, oversight and accountability.

“I wanted to make sure people understood what community control of police really represented, said panelist Delilah Pierre. “It's more than a simple change in where the police live, or of their tactics. It's more than ‘review,’ and more than the removal of ‘bad apples.’ It's a real movement to change the structure of the police – to put them under the control of a far more democratic process.”

The workshop also focused on building a statewide coalition to tackle these issues, given limits imposed by LEOBoR, a Florida state statute passed in 1973 and strengthened since, which grants special procedures and special rights to police officers, helping them evade criminal conviction for misconduct, brutality and even murder.

At the end of the workshop, panelists fielded questions from viewers: how to become involved in local, statewide and national actions; who are local and state representatives who support CPACs; and how to bring advocates for specific police-related demands into a unified fight for community control of police overall. To expand the reach of the online workshop, the Tallahassee Community Action Committee’s event was co-hosted on Facebook by the Jacksonville Community Action Committee, the South Florida Afro Pride Collective, the Florida Coalition for Trans Liberation, and the Florida Peoples Advocacy Center, resulting in a viewership of over 1900 and growing.

Mary Correia (she/her) is an activist in Tallahassee, Florida.

#TallahasseeFL #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC #TallahasseeCommunityActionCommittee #CommunityControlOfThePolice

Jacksonville, FL – For the third Saturday in a row, June 13, thousands flooded the streets in downtown Jacksonville to demand police accountability and community control of the police, uniting with the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression’s call for a day of action.

After a historic turnout of 10,000 people earlier this month, and feeling the pressure from the mass demonstrations, Mayor Lenny Curry mandated the removal of Confederate statues across the city and State Attorney Melissa Nelson dropped the charges for the majority of protesters arrested. Also, the state attorney issued a memo saying they’d release the body cam footage sooner with a definite timeline. However, that rhetoric didn’t fool the marchers.

Thousands showed up and filled the streets with chants like “Indict! Convict! Send these killer cops to jail! The whole damn system is guilty as hell!”

People marched in the heat and demanded that the government release the body cam footage of those murdered by officers with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and to implement a Jacksonville Police Accountability Council (JPAC).

“They tried to say they’d release the body cam footage and took down racist symbols of white supremacy to try and appease our movement, but we won’t let them,” said Hakeem Balogun, organizer with the Jacksonville Community Action Committee and an emcee of the rally. “They still have yet to meet the demands of our movement and we aren’t finished.”

Around 4000 people gathered in front of the Duval County Courthouse and listened as speakers clarified demands once again for local elected officials. Representatives from Students for aDemocratic Society at the University of North Florida (SDS), Northside Progressive Coalition, Take Em’ Down Jax and Jacksonville Community Action Committee spoke and echoed the demands for the release of body cam footage and police accountability. Families of the victims of JSO murders were present as well. The mother of Reginald Boston, who was shot and killed by JSO officers in January, spoke and pleaded between sobs for information surrounding the murder of her child.

Organizers led the crowd back to the courthouse after the march, where Reverend Ron Rawls from Saint Augustine, Florida left everyone with a powerful and energizing message, finishing the rally for the day by reminding the crowd that we will win, “by any means necessary.” The demands were from the protest organizers were clear:

1. Drop the remaining charges against protesters from the May 30 National Day of Action

2. JSO and the state attorney release all unedited body camera footage for the community in all cases of police murder and police brutality.

3. The end of all excessive force by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office . Community control of the police through a civilian police accountability council, as well as the slashing of JSO’s budget and that funding redirected back into the community.

#JacksonvilleFL #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #NAARPR