Black Lives Matter Foundation
Mission Statement
*Please note that this organization isn't affiliated with the Black Lives Matter Global Network, nor the Thousand Currents organization* We intend, in various ways, to help survivors and families that have suffered the loss of a relative or loved one as a result of a questionable, unjust, or unlawful shooting by law enforcement or others. In addition, we will help assist the children of those victims with scholarships, educational assistance, career guidance and personal psychological counseling if needed. Moreover, we will use the unique and creative ideas developed in our Community Organized Programs, (whose acronym is COP), to help bring the police and the community closer together in an effort to save lives.
About This Cause
*Please note that this organization isn't affiliated with the Black Lives Matter Global Network, nor the Thousand Currents organization* We intend to bring attention to the problem of unfair and questionable policing in minority communities and help families who have suffered losses as a result of such unjust police violence. We will assist them with obtaining legal help, and when needed, provide financial assistance for funeral services and the like, along with college scholarships for any surviving children. Our organization will provoke thought, dialogue and help to provide a resolution to the problem by using creative and innovative ideas that promote peaceful interactions, understanding and healing with the police; with the broader goal of bringing the community and police closer together for the good of the local communities and the cities they serve. At Black Live Matter Foundation (BLMFoundation) we agree with President Obama that the community and police must start to rebuild trust, and we also support his efforts to help young African Americans as well. In May of 2015, the President spoke explicitly about the youth, saying emphatically, “Your lives do matter… we’re going to invest in you before you have problems with the police.” Today, we think most people would agree, that regardless of race, something must done to heal the riffs between some communities and the police, and with your help we at BLMFoundation have the very ideas to do just that! We will share and assist hard-hit communities in implementing some of the creative ideas and events that promote positive interactions with the police that will help bring police and troubled communities together on one accord. At present, we have three extraordinary ideas under the banner of our “COP events,” which is an acronym for our Community Organized Programs. These events are designed to effectuate change and fulfill the wishes of President Obama to rebuild trust. We refer to each event respectively as: Community Organized Party, or (COP-1); Community Organized Picnic, or (COP-2); and the Community Organized Publicity, (COP-3). Our three COP programs are designed to allow the police to get to know the people in the communities they serve as well as enabling the community to learn more about the officers who serve them. Two of the three BLMFoundation’s COP programs are centered around two annual community events, the Community Organized Party, which is a buffet dinner that takes place in the winter months that allows leaders of the community and average everyday citizens to meet and break bread with some of the police officers that patrol and serve their neighborhoods, and the Community Organized Picnic, which is held in the summertime, brings families together in the community to interact with the families of the police officers. With both families interacting in harmony, watching their children play, just celebrating humanity and simply getting to know one another they get to see how much they are really alike. These events are strictly “get to know each other gatherings” and not citizen complaint sessions aimed at the police. You’ll be surprised what can happen when we just communicate peacefully with each other. At our COP-1 and COP-2 affairs the agenda is quite simple; there will be a few general statements and introductions made by some community leaders, police brass and special invited guest, but the stars of the COP events and main speeches will be made by and between the invited citizens and the policemen as they get to know one another. What most people fail to realize is that the people in the community and the police officers have much more in common than they do differences. Both have families and loved ones, (mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers), children in school, have financial issues and concerns, root for many of the same sports teams, cry, laugh, care and feel emotions like the other. In other words we are all related, as J.K. Rowling said in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, “We’re all human, aren’t we? Every human life is worth the same and worth saving,” in that statement she reflects what should be the mindset of the police and the community as they learn to work together—we know that humans tend to fear that which they don’t know and/or understand. At BLMFoundation we believe that its much more difficult to mistreat people that you know, respect and can relate to—this goes for the police officers as well as the people in the community. We know at times these meetings may be difficult depending on what the climate may be between the citizens and the police at that given moment, but these meetings must go on in spite of if we are to expect meaningful change. Crime exists now and will forever continue, so we desperately need the services of the police; however, we need the services of good police! We need police officers that will respect all life equally and apply deadly force only when absolutely necessary. I know this may sound a little crazy, but what happened to warning shots and shooting unarmed fleeing suspects in the leg? As President Obama urged on his May 4th, 2015 appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, “If you just have a handful of police who are not doing the right thing, that makes the job tougher for all the other officers out there.” And the president also stressed, “This is not just a policing problem…” poverty and lack of opportunity also play a role. In addition, we believe that preconceived attitudes towards the police and some police towards the citizens are also responsible for the disconnect between many police departments and the communities they serve—we must improve upon that! Of course, we recognize that there are no simple or easy solutions to what has been a multi-generational relationship with the African American community and the police. In my youth, in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s growing up on the mean streets of Detroit, we had a great mistrust of the police and the scars can be everlasting—so we must make changes now so that these problems don’t persist into future generations. . In many African American communities it is believed that the police almost do nothing right—and that perception of the police must change. However, in order for change to happen, police must lose the attitude that seems to say, “I’m the police so therefore I’m right and all powerful,” and the community must have more respect for the good police that serve. We know that the police do great things and many serve the community very well and quite honorably, but they seldom get the credit they deserve because the community remains unaware of their good deeds. At BLMFoundation we have an idea to change that. We agree with President Obama’s idea that building trust between the community and the police is what’s needed and his idea of providing more federal funds for police officer body-cams is a step in the right direction and is necessary, but, before we can effectively move forward we must realize that while police body cameras and squad car dash-cams can help, real trust can only be established through live interactions with the people and the police—not just via mechanical things. This is another area where our COP program comes into play, the Community Organized Publicity or (COP-3). The Community Organized Publicity is a monthly COP news bulletin of sorts. We team together someone from the community and the police department to assemble a simple newsletter highlighting positive encounters and/or services provided by the police to the community, so that the good works of the police become known to the people in the community as well as the bad; which gets emphasized every night on the evening news. An example might be a citizen was rescued from a disaster; a neighborhood robbery suspect caught, crimes that were averted because of good heads up police work, a citizen’s life saved because of rapid response by the police and so on. Also pictures may be posted with the police and some of the citizens or businesses that may have been affected so that the community is made aware of good workings of the police in their neighborhoods. We feel that the police would receive much better cooperation from community members if those members were aware of the good deeds performed by the police that often go way beyond their call of duty. These positive “good news” monthly COP-3 bulletins can be printed by a local merchant at no cost in exchange for advertisement then placed and distributed in local businesses, churches and via an online website so that people can keep up with the good police activities that has taken place the previous month in their respective areas. Only when the community and the police work in harmony in a spirit of mutual respect and cooperation can we ever expect to have a real lasting solution to the ongoing problem between the police and the black and brown citizens they serve, and at Black Lives Matter Foundation we are here with the ideas and vision to make positive change between the police and local communities around this nation a reality. As has been said, “Where there is no vision the people perish,” and with your generous donations and help our vision is clear…