A Candlelight Vigil for Victims of Racial Violence

We the members of the Greater Bennington Peace and Justice Center are both heartbroken and enraged at the alarming ongoing history of police violence against our African American brothers and sisters. Below you will see just four of the reasons why we take a knee and raise our voices in support of those who suffer such mistreatment.

"To Protect with Courage, To Serve with Compassion!" is a noble motto, the actual motto of the Minneapolis PD, for the men and women in blue to live up to, but George Floyd was not protected with courage. George Floyd was certainly not shown compassion. His life was extinguished by police.

"We protect and serve 24 hours a day, every day!" is another great motto promising unrelenting protection. It is the motto of Glynn County, Georgia where Ahmaud Arbery was hunted down by two racists, one a retired cop, and murdered in cold blood. The further outrage was that for seven weeks the local D.A. refused to indict the murderers. It was not until a cellphone video was released and went viral that the State of Georgia Bureau of Investigation interceded and brought charges.

"Service and Integrity" is the simple motto of the Louisville, Kentucky PD, the same one whose plainclothesmen smashed down the door of EMT Breonna Taylor at midnight and shot her 8 times.

"Courtesy, Professionalism, Respect" are the lofty ideals for the NYPD to aspire to, and in the case of Eric Garner, one of the original "I can't breathe" victims, fatally ironic. Garner was accused of selling "loosies," single cigarettes to folks who could not afford a pack. He paid for this with his life.

What has become crystal clear is that all these noble mottos written on the sides of squad cars are meaningless if they do not apply to all of us. These are but four of the hundreds of incidents stretching back 400 years. We are unified in voice when we exclaim that any systemic racism, including here in our own town of Bennington, must end NOW.

Please join us at the Four Corners in Bennington on Saturday June 13th from 7pm to 8:30pm as we solemnly commemorate in a candlelight vigil the lives of George, Ahmaud, Breonna, Eric and countless others. Bring a candle, bring a knee, bring a voice as we say their names.

Sincerely, The Greater Bennington Peace and Justice Center