Patrick Lyoya’s Murder: “Police Do Not Keep Black People Safe”

extra-judicial execution of Patrick Lyoya by an unidentified Grand Rapids police officer.

Photos: Video Screenshots\Twitter

Los Angeles, CA – Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation released the following statement on the extra-judicial execution of Patrick Lyoya by an unidentified Grand Rapids police officer.

The Foundation shared the statement below following the release of video this week:

“Every single day, people fleeing violence from around the world come to America in pursuit of a dream that they soon learn is a lie, thanks to white supremacy. Patrick Lyoya’s dream was met with a bullet, his last moments caught on surveillance and cell phone video.

Patrick experienced this as a refugee from the Republic of Congo, arriving to begin a new life for him and his family. His rights were violated one-by-one, escalated by an individual who many claim was supposed to keep him safe. The video shows the targeting, criminalization, and execution of Black bodies in real time. Patrick was denied human and civil rights by the very entity politicians embrace to maintain their own political power.

Police do not keep Black people safe.

Two years after George Floyd’s murder, police violence is the norm and police killings are on the rise. How many Black people must die before those in elected power acknowledge that their current approach to public safety is not working? Care, community, housing, nutrition, access to health care and mental health care keeps us safe. We keep us safe.

Patrick Lyoya’s life mattered.

We join his family, community, and Black people in collective mourning, and demand justice too often denied to too many Black families.

BLMGNF urges the public to follow BLM Michigan (@BLMMichigan) and BLM Lansing (@BLMLansing) for updates on what is happening on the ground.”

About Black Lives Matter Global Network:

Founded in 2013 in the wake of the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer by Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi, Black Lives Matter Global Network is a chapter-based, member-led organization in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, whose mission is to build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. We support the lives of the Black youth, families, queer and transgender communities, the disabled, the undocumented, those with records, women, men, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives. From pop culture to design to fine arts, artists inspired by #BlackLivesMatter understands that creativity transforms politics, transforms our individual relationships, and transforms the world.

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