Kick Killer Cops Out of Our Community !
Tell MPD To Fire The Gun Recovery Unit !
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Dear friend,
We just started a petition titled "Kick Killer Cops Out
of Our Community! Tell MPD To Fire The Gun Recovery
Unit!"
On August 9, 2017, Law for Black Lives–DC members viewed a
publicly-posted photograph of seventeen members of the
Metropolitan Police Department’s Gun Recovery Unit (GRU),
including Officer Michael Vaillancourt inside of what appears
to be an MPD stationhouse in police-issued uniforms and tactical
gear. The GRU officers are proudly posing in front of a
disturbing logo threatening the residents of the District of
Columbia with violence and murder. District of Columbia
(“D.C.”) residents have seen members of the Gun Recovery Unit,
prominently displaying this murderous logo on their police
uniforms while armed, patrolling the community, stopping and
frisking individuals, and effectuating arrests.
Local activists from Law for Black-Lives - DC recently filing
formal complaints with MPD’s Internal Affairs Division against
officers in the Gun Recovery Unit and the 7th District
“Powershift Unit. The complaints list an appalling number of MPD
officers who have been seen in the community and at the courthouse
proudly wearing shirts that flaunt symbols of white supremacy
and symbols of death. These same officers have been seen
wearing hooded sweatshirts printed with this violent logo
inside of the DC Superior Courthouse while waiting to testify
in criminal cases.
The Gun Recovery Unit treats our community as an active
theatre of war, tell MPD to stop them!
Perhaps nothing makes this logo more abhorrent and repulsive
than placing it in its appropriate context : Gun Recovery Unit
members have been responsible for the recent shootings of
Raphael Briscoe, Darius Jamal Murphy, and Mark George;
tragically killing both Mr. Briscoe and Mr. Murphy. According
to the Metropolitan Police Department’s Annual Reports, between
2009 and 2015, twenty-nine people have been killed and
twenty-eight have been injured by the intentional firearm discharge
of an MPD police officer. After police shootings and killings, MPD
often demands that the community not rush to judgment. It is
unconscionable for the MPD to expect the benefit of the doubt
when their officers shoot and kill Black and Brown citizens
while boldly wearing a logo reflecting their cavalier attitudes
towards police brutality and murder.
The disturbing Gun Recovery Unit logo prominently features
a skull and crossbones, universally understood to be a symbol
of death. Through the center of the skull is a single bullet hole—
indicating the individual had been shot in the T-zone, a virtual
guarantee of death on the first shot. Directly above the skull and
crossbones are not one, but two handguns, with handcuffs on
either side of the image. Below the image of the skull is a flag
reading “vest up one in the chamber”—an admonition to officers
to put on a bulletproof vest and to load their firearm with a bullet
in the chamber, ready to shoot civilians. By placing “NSID”
(the acronym for the Narcotics and Special Investigations
Division of MPD) and the “Gun Recovery Unit” on the
graphic, the logo clearly sends the message that the
Metropolitan Police Department endorses the message
captured in the logo.
These symbols are offensive and indicate systemic bias in
the policing of Black people. Join us to fight back.
The use of this logo is part of a broader campaign designed
to inflict terror on low-income communities of color. For the
longest, community members have voiced their fear of the Gun
Recovery Unit and concern with their policing tactics. For many
in the community, the Gun Recovery Unit has become
synonymous with “jump outs”—a policing tactic involving
officers literally jumping out of unmarked vehicles, often with
their weapons drawn, to illegally stop individuals without
justification.
“Jump outs” happen at any time, leaving individuals with no
recourse against them. This maligned practice ensures that
Black and Brown communities live amidst intimidation and
an ever-present threat of violence because, as the community
well knows, and these officers proudly announce,
the officers are “vest[ed] up, [with] one in the chamber.”
This provides corroboration to what communities of color in
DC have long experienced—the policing of their community
through intimidation and violence leading to the killing of
community members at the hands of the police.
On behalf of a number of community organizations and
community members, Law4BlackLives-DC has formally filed
complaints with both the Internal Affairs Division of the
Metropolitan Police Department and the Office of Police
Complaints regarding this logo and the message it propagates.
This logo explicitly associates MPD with threats of death,
violence, and the celebration of a climate of police
brutality. We are asking concerned community members to
let Mayor Bowser know that she must step in to check this
culture for the people of Washington D.C. We also ask that
the Office of Police Complaints and the Metropolitan Police
Department conduct a thorough investigation into all threats of
violence and murder by members of MPD against the residents
of the District of Columbia.
Officers who endorse and flaunt symbols of violence and
murder are a threat to public safety. Silence by Mayor Bowser,
the Metropolitan Police Department and the Office of
Police Complaints is nothing less than a full
endorsement of this logo’s murderous message. Further
inaction makes the Mayor, MPD, and OPC complicit in the
killing of Black and Brown people by the police.
Will you pledge to join the fight against racist policing?
Thank you,
Law for Black Lives-DC
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