The Madison, WI East Towne Mall incident involving two police officers and Genele Laird raised serious concerns about Madison police accountability and racism. It is up to us as a community to make sure that we are protecting everyone from racism and violence; even people accused of breaking the law. 

As a community, we demand that if police DO use excessive force, they will be held accountable. In order to restore trust and begin community healing, we seek policies that outline penalties for excessive use of force such as participating in restorative justice practices with their victims, suspension of pay, formal personnel action, termination and, in some cases, criminal charges. Penalties must then be enforced.

We cannot continue to pretend that racism doesn't exist in Madison. The city's disproportionate rate of arrests, convictions, and incarceration of people of color are among the worst in the nation. We seek acknowledgement of this reality, resources committed to change, and collaboration with community leaders to develop a plan for understanding and breaking racial barriers, and implementation of that plan.

Police officers have a difficult and important job to do as our public servants. We can't continue to look the other way and protect officers who are clearly in the wrong.