By Jason Sibert.<\/p>\n
The Peace Economy Project and the Organization for Black Struggle are organizing St. Louis’s Valentine’s Day Campaign for Police Accountability.\u00a0<\/span> We will gather at Congresswoman Cori Bush’s office at noon on Friday, February 12th, with Valentine’s Day memorial cards to those who have lost their lives to police violence.<\/p>\n PEP, with co-sponsors Organization for Black Struggle, Women\u2019s International League for Peace and Freedom, and Veterans for Peace, will bring our message of thanks to Cori Bush, for her activism for Black Lives Matter, and to show our support for federal legislation that will change policing in the United States.<\/p>\n The Valentine’s Day Campaign for Police Accountability<\/span> intends to spread a message of hope. The effort will rely on collective action.\u00a0 If the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and Michael Brown have taught us anything, it is that we need a change to the laws that govern police authority. We are under a system that has ignored abuses of authority for far too long. Police are weaponized for war and they use these weapons against innocent citizens, feeling no compunction to violate human rights and dignity. It is time for a change now.<\/p>\n PEP & OBS’s supportive local effort will start at Congresswoman Cori Bush’s (D-Missouri) office with a rally at noon on Feb. 12, where we will deliver our valentines to Bush’s\u00a0 staff.\u00a0 Members of PEP’s Board and staff will take our valentines and message to the offices of Senator Roy Blunt and Representative Ann Wagner later that afternoon. (PEP will not lobby the seditious Josh Hawley\u2019s office because of his support for a coup against our government.) The Valentine’s Day message is clear–federal dollars should not go to police departments that do not have civilian oversight and police should not be equipped with military hardware funded by the federal government.<\/p>\n We will follow Covid-19 safety precautions and use just one to two people in the physical delivery of the valentines. Anyone who wishes to join us in this struggle is welcome to show up at the scheduled time.<\/p>\n