The Washington Lawyers’ Committee shares in the grief of Tyre Nichols family and community as we bear witness to another brutal attack and killing at the hands of the police. Tyre Nichols should be alive today.

This endemic of police violence calls for us all to work towards transformational change in our criminal legal system. We must envision community safety without the reliance on a police state that does not see every person’s humanity.

The Committee also stands with protesters who are lifting their voices in support of Black people and their right to be free from police violence. These protests should not be met with the same brutal police tactics that sparked them.

This moment – no more or less urgent than each moment that has come before it – is a charge to each one of us to fight for a different world where Black people and other people of color are not relentlessly targeted, beaten, and killed by the police.