As our communities mourn the lives lost in the mass shooting at Pulse queer club's Latinx night this weekend, we affirm our struggle for a safety beyond hate and militarism. As politicians and ideologues of various stripes manipulate this tragedy, we remember the refrain: "our grief is not a cry for war." We refuse to allow the deaths of those in Orlando to justify increased police presence in our communities across the country. Today, WRL and AFSC, joined by thirty-two other civil liberties, religious, and peace and social justice groups called on the House Appropriations Committee to maintain the President’s cut to Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) funding as a “step in the right direction.”

On this MLK day, let us recall Dr. Martin Luther King's deepest legacy. He understood that denouncing the violent extremism of young, angry men in the ghettos could not be done without hypocrisy unless one also condemned the far greater violence of the U.S. war machine in Vietnam. When governments decide political problems can be solved through violence, it is no surprise their citizens reach the same conclusion.

WHAT IS THE STOP URBAN SHIELD COALITION?

Stop Urban Shield is a broad coalition of grassroots community and social justice organizations primarily based in the Bay Area but with partnering community groups across the nation who have come together united against Urban Shield. Urban Shield, a SWAT team training and weapons expo that brings together local, regional, and international police-military units to collaborate on and profit from new forms of surveillance, state repression, and state violence.