Hmong Electeds Demand to Defund the Police Now!

Historically, we share experiences that parallel the violence and impact of US colonialism that our BIPOC have faced. We recognize that our collective history is layered and complicated, and understand that we ourselves have been colonized by white supremacy, often acting as a tool and base easily utilized to support white supremacy. We benefit from systemic racism and US colonialism within the United States. We benefit from the exploitation of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities. Most of us have the privilege of existing without the fear of getting murdered by the police and live our lives in close proximity to whiteness due to harmful, entrenched narratives around API silence and adhering to the "model minority" myth.

We do not tolerate the anti-Blackness and pro-police propaganda within our API community. The police do not keep us safe and have not kept us safe. Police exist because of white supremacy. There are no "good" cops, as all cops support a system that profits off of minority labor and protects profits over people. We acknowledge that the majority of our API community in the state of Minnesota have been silent about the unjust murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD).

It is our duty to educate ourselves, hold ourselves accountable, and heal our own community. It is also our duty to uproot and dissolve any forms of violence that our BIPOC communities are experiencing. Our liberation from white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism are intertwined with the values and demands of the Black Lives Matter movement. We will no longer remain silent and complacent to the violence that is unfolding right before our very eyes and in our neighborhoods. Your silence in the face of violence will be remembered.

The community has entrusted you with the power to amplify our needs and voices. We are demanding you to decide if you are either fighting with us or against us in the fight for Black liberation. We recognize that you have an opportunity to rise in solidarity with your BIPOC constituents, other BIPOC Minnesotans, and ask that you stand with us in seeking the closest thing to justice for George Floyd and those who loved him.

Minneapolis City Council knows that all of this is on their hands by having approved increases in the police budget. It is the responsibility of other elected officials within and outside of the city of Minneapolis, to take a stand and hold them accountable. True justice can't be had without the decision to defund the police. True justice would be us not knowing George Floyd's name. True justice would be his daughter not having to show grace and joy for the revolution her father's death has kicked off. True justice would be the reconstruction period following, with elected officials following through with their commitments to the Black community, and actually allowing folks access to autonomy as freedom rather than capitalistic low wage work as freedom.

Time after time again, we bear witness to the damage and violence they have allowed and have seen the various ways they intentionally harm BIPOC communities in the state of Minnesota. We are asking you to lean into the discomfort of addressing your own racial biases and urge you in making the right decision, a decision we can support - to demand our state to defund the police and abolish all forms of prisons and authoritative powers.