April 20, 2021

Our statement on the life and murder of Ma’Khia Bryant.

We want to acknowledge the life of Ma'Khia Bryant, a 16 year-old Black girl whose life was lost to police violence. May she rest in power and peace. Black women and girls are 1.5x more likely to be killed by police than white women. This is the horrifying reality that Black girls grow up with.

Today in Columbus, Ohio, an officer with the Columbus Division of Police murdered Ma'Khia. Never once did they take into account her humanity or right to life. Her passing is violent and undeserved and worthy of revolution. Ma'Khia called law enforcement to her residence earlier this afternoon. Later Ma'Khia took protecting herself into her own hands. When police arrived, the officer who stole her life almost immediately shot her four times in the chest.

While we recognize this statement cannot bring her back, we are uplifting this tragedy as a way to amplify her life, acknowledge her unjust death and spread her story with hopes of holding the police accountable. As we continue to organize for the liberation of Black Lives and people, we must recognize how police are responsible for the killing of Ma'Khia. The police should not be supported or validated by those in power. Doing so promotes the racist and white supremacist values that encourage police to continue executing Black children and adults alike, the very latest of whom was our late sister Ma'Khia Bryant.

Policing is inherently anti-Black and represents an existential threat to all Black people in America. The names of the victims of this machine could line the halls of time. Our desire is for Black people and for all people to understand how routine anti-Black violence is and has always been a fundamental aspect involved in the maintenance of the American Empire. Police violence exists to create the racial hierarchy upon which this country stands; one innocent victim after another.

Black children should not be killed in their front yard.

Black children should not be killed on the Internet.

Black children should not be killed in the street, in their schools, in bodies of water.

Black children deserve their innocence and childhood.

Black children deserve to live long lives.

Black children deserve protection, not fear or fatal judgment by those who swore to protect and serve.

Ma'Khia was murdered by the police she thought were coming to stop violence from occurring. They did not protect her. They uprooted a community and a life today. What the police did is precisely what the institution of policing was created to do. Contain and crush the life of Black people.

End the cycle of death. End the cycle of violence. Abolish the police.

All peace and all power to the people.