#GREENSBORO4JUSTICE UPDATE AND FIRST CAMPAIGN!

UPDATE and FIRST CAMPAIGN GOAL:

We are proud to announce that the #GREENSBORO4JUSTICE movement is growing. Thank you everyone who have expressed their support and given their time to helping make #GREENSBORO4JUSTICE a reality. 

We will be launching our fundraising campaign soon, so be looking for that. We can use your donations to help grow the movement!

#GREENSBORO4JUSTICE has already begun its first campaign and we need your help to meet our first campaign goals.  Our first goal is to get 25 formal complaints into the GPD by September 11th!  That is two weeks away. We are putting pressure on the Greensboro Police Department (GPD) by asking residents who have been victims of police violence to call into the GPD and make a formal complaint. Did you know:

• Studies show that each year over a 1/2 a million Americans lay victim to police violence. An overwhelming 92% of victims of police violence, either through a threat or physical violence, say that the police acted improperly. (Williams, 2007)
• American blacks experience police violence at double the rate of other ethnic groups (Williams).

What do we know about victims of police violence? Many victims of police violence never make a formal complaint either because they feel that their complaint will not change their situation, they are afraid, they do not want to face the possibility of harassment or because they do not know how to. 

We want you to know that you do not have to be afraid and know that you will have support from the beginning to the end. The word on the street is that the department will not get back to you after you have filed, but we will still have accomplished our goal by flooding the department with complaints and making them conduct interviews and meet the residents who are being affected by corrupt police practices. Making formal complaints and putting pressure on the police department is one way we as residents can begin to put pressure on the GPD.

Here is how we make a formal complaint to the Greensboro Police Department:

1.      It helps to know some info before calling like, who the name of the offending officer was and what day you are available to meet an investigator from the police department.

2.      We will be making a phone call to the Professional Standards Division.

3.      The officer will ask you to provide your name and address and ask you to explain your experience (sticking with where you were when the violence occurred, when or what time of day did it happen, what you were doing prior to the violence, who the officer was who committed the violence, and how the officer committed the violence)

4.      The officer may ask you at that time would you like a phone or in person interview and you will say in person. They will ask you to provide a time and date, you should know when you are available beforehand.

5.      They will ask you where, and you will tell them at the Beloved Community Center on Arlington Street.

6.      The officer may say they will call you back once they get an officer to open an investigation. If that is the case then when the assigned officer asks you if you want a phone or in person interview you will say in person and at the Beloved Community Center on whatever day you are available.