Call to action: petition

The USA needs compassionate first responders trained to deescalate mental health crises so that a call for help doesn’t become a death sentence, as it can especially for people of color.

This is a call for reform to public health so that police trained to incarcerate or enact violence are not deployed in mental health crises during which non-violence, peace, compassion, love are vital training in successful public health outcomes.

For these reasons, we signed a petition on Action Network at the request of Black Lives Matter telling the United States House of Representatives to advance The People’s Response Act.

We wrote about this topic recently.

Petition is at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/the-peoples-response-act?source=direct_link&

The organization Color of Change declares:

The current law enforcement-driven approach to public safety is not working, particularly not for Black communities. Any approach that centers punishment as a tool of public safety jeopardizes the health of whole communities and places the people in those communities at extreme risk.

For years, activists have called on all of us to rethink the nation’s approach to public safety. Now, United States Representative Cori Bush is introducing the People’s Response Act that redefines public safety as a public health issue and funds community-based, community-centered approaches to safety. The safety of Black communities is dependent on our collective ability to create holistic, community-based centers of care and harm reduction. We cannot afford to protect the status quo: Tell your Representative to cosponsor the People’s Response Act.

Please consider signing the petition.

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/the-peoples-response-act?source=direct_link&