May 25th – Call for National Day of Action for Stolen Lives
Six years since George Floyd
Six years ago today, on May 25, 2020, people across the country witnessed the public execution of 46-year-old George Floyd by arch-pig Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For over 9 min, Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck, ignoring desperate cries that he could not breathe until Floyd’s body finally went limp.
In the immediate aftermath of Floyd’s murder, Black and working-class neighborhoods erupted in militant protest. Floyd’s death represents years of police killings, poverty, and violence that had been allowed to fester in their neighborhoods by the ruling class.
It was this widespread unrest and the unwillingness of the masses to leave the streets that struck fear into the hearts of the ruling class, ensuring that within a few months, the people won a victory: Chauvin was sent to prison for Floyd’s murder, where he remains.
But six years since Floyd’s murder, since the people rebelled and won a victory against police brutality, police killings have continued and increased at alarming rates.
8,129 people’s lives have been stolen by police since the 2020 rebellion for George Floyd. Thousands of mothers, brothers, sisters, daughters, spouses, and friends were taken from their loved ones.
People like Timothy Glaze.
On January 3, 2025, a terminally ill Timothy was shot 16 times by CPD officers Alejandro Urbano Mateo and Salah Saleh while experiencing a mental health crisis. His partner, Charlotta Pritchett, had called 911, hoping police would be able to help her and Timothy. Instead, police executed her life partner in a hail of bullets right at her doorstep, leaving Char traumatized, angry, and swearing she’d never call 911 again.
Nearly a year and 2 months since Timothy Glaze’s murder by Saleh and Urbano-Mateo, the Cook County State’s Attorney Law Enforcement Review Unit (LERU) published a bogus memo clearing Saleh and Urbano-Mateo of all wrongdoing in Timothy’s murder. They say that because Timothy walked toward the pigs with a knife in hand, they were justified in shooting him 16 times.
Four body armor-wearing, taser, baton, and pepper spray-carrying agents of the state could not do anything besides gun down a 137-pound, cancer-ridden Timothy Glaze. Nothing about Timothy’s murder was justified.
Not taking either Timothy’s murder or this latest ruling sitting down, Charlotta has become a fierce advocate and leader against police brutality alongside Families Demanding Justice (FDJ). She joins a fraction of impacted families fighting for justice for their loved ones and an end to police brutality.
But talking to Char over the phone, she repeats what needs to bẹ said; that the jury’s verdict that says that Tim’s murder was justified is a disgrace and isn’t coming close to stopping police killings. “We need a George Floyd Movement. We need people out in the streets every time the pigs steal our loved ones’ lives and try to justify their murders,” Char says.
If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that rebellion is what got Derek Chauvin convicted and locked up. Not peaceful protests, a lawsuit, reforms, or the word of a politician. But to go beyond locking up just one killer cop, to fight to end police brutality once and for all, we must organize ourselves into a sustained, militant mass movement against the police, the politicians, nonprofits, and lawyers who have derailed the movement. We need a mass movement against the whole system that allows these killings to continue.
That is why Dare to Struggle, Char, and other impacted families united under Families Demanding Justice (FDJ) are calling for a National Day of Action on May 25th for the thousands of lives, like Timothy’s, stolen by police brutality.
We are asking people sick of the epidemic of police killings to go out into their neighborhoods, hit train stations, busy shopping centers, parks, and street corners to Speak-out against Timothy’s ruling and expose the epidemic of police brutality and its countless victims.
Let them know about:
Timothy Glaze, Antonio Caseem Armstrong, Alejandro Campos Rios, Peter Villalobos, Terron Evans Jr., Nate Fejerang, Darren Green Jr., and more.
We also challenge anyone who takes up this day of action to join Dare to Struggle and FDJ to get organized against police brutality through O22.
O22 is the National Day of Protest against Police Brutality on October 22nd. It is an annual nationwide day of action uniting the loved ones of those killed or those brutalized and harassed by police with supporters in militant protest against the police and the system that supports them. In 2024, Dare to Struggle and FDJ took on the responsibility of re-establishing O22 to rebuild the movement against police brutality on strong foundations. Last year, we held O22s in 22 cities (including inside a jail) across the country. This year, we want to make O22 bigger! Email familiesdemandingjustice@protonmail.com to learn more about O22 and how you can join the movement.
Dare to Struggle 