In February, after months of public pressure, community action, and media coverage, we forced the City of Phoenix to launch an independent investigation into the conduct of Phoenix PD during last year’s uprising for Black Liberation. 

On August 12, Ballard Spahr finally released the results of their investigation, confirming what community-led organizations and directly-impacted people have been saying from the beginning: the Phoenix Police Department targeted, surveilled, brutalized, and falsely charged hundreds of protesters because they viewed them as political opponents; people who marched on the streets in 2020 for Black lives and to end police violence. Phoenix PD actively colluded with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office by lying to a grand jury about a fictional street-gang. 

Hundreds of people faced decades in prison because of the corruption, violence, and deceit of the Phoenix PD of the deadliest police force in the nation; and the City enabled it. Despite this, no public official has truly demanded accountability or justice. Chief Jeri Williams received a one-day suspension and the officers involved were neither fired nor disciplined in a meaningful way. . 

THIS MUST END! In solidarity with directly impacted people and the families of those killed by Phoenix PD, Poder in Action and Mass Liberation AZ have released these demands as a first step towards accountability, justice, and reparations.