Wednesday, April 22, 2015

3 women set out to deliver a package. On foot. 250 miles away. Here's why.

How about 250 miles?

That's what these three phenomenal women just did.
Take a good look at this picture.
On April 13, Linda Sarsour, Carmen Perez, and Tamika Mallory left Staten Island to start a nine-day, 250-mile walk from NYC to Washington, D.C.
Why?
They were fed up with years of police brutality and injustice toward people of color all across America, especially after the non-indictment of Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner in December 2014, right in their backyard of New York City.

They had reached their limit.

The three had been activists for most of their lives but knew it was time for something out of the ordinary. They wanted to do something disruptive and epic and a little crazy.
So they decided to walk.
And they weren't alone. Nearly 100 marchers took the trek with them.

Passionate walkers of all ages and ethnicities walked side by side for 250 miles, tweeting their reasons for marching under the hashtag #whywemarch.




And while they had their personal reasons for going, together they had one clear goal:

Bringing a “Justice Package" of legislation proposals to Congress.

The package includes three proposed pieces of federal legislation: 
  • The End Racial Profiling Act that would do exactly what its name suggests: prohibit law enforcement from profiling based on race, nationality, ethnicity, or religion.
  • The Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act would amend the current law that allows the Department of Defense to transfer its excess equipment (like the military-grade vehicles and weapons that were used to police peaceful civilians in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri) to federal and state law enforcement.
  • The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act would create a federal-state partnership to support prevention programs that give young people alternatives to incarceration. http://www.upworthy.com/3-women-set-out-to-deliver-a-package-on-foot-250-miles-away-heres-why?g=2&c=hpstream

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