350.org on police murdering Trayford Pellerin in Louisiana, shooting Jacob Blake in Wisconsin

As communities in Louisiana brace for a double-hurricane the world commemorates the 15th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, local leaders are calling for justice following police murdering 31-year-old Trayford Pellerin on Friday. On Sunday, 29-year-old Jacob Blake was shot in the back seven times by local police with his children in the car in broad daylight in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

350.org stands in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives in fighting for the rights and dignity of Black life everywhere.

Tamara Toles O'Laughlin, 350.org North America Director, said:

"Sandra Bland. Freddie Gray. Elijah McClain. Breonna Taylor. George Floyd. Tamir Rice. Trayford Pellerin. Jacob Blake. We are done with racist police perpetuating white supremacy, shooting and killing our Black siblings in broad daylight, in our own cars, our own backyards, our own beds. This campaign of state sanctioned terrorism can no longer hide under the dog whistle of law and order.

"We send solidarity and support to the communities of Trayford Pellerin and Jacob Blake, as Jacob is in critical condition. We are family in this struggle. Our fight for climate justice means we must challenge systems of racism that protect profit for the wealthy few, and steals and destroys Black life.

"Racial justice is climate justice. Police and fossil fuel corporations share racist, colonist, and fascist roots because they were designed to serve the same system of white supremacy. As we hold fossil fuel companies accountable for climate devastation we're experiencing right now, we must divest, defund, and abolish all related systems of white supremacy, racism, and anti-Black violence: including police and prisons, ICE, and fossil fuels. And as we build a world free from fossil fuels, we must reimagine how we care for our communities."

350.org has endorsed the Movement for Black Lives platform since 2016, as well as The BREATHE Act released last month, which includes "funding climate resilience in communities so that they can prepare for climate change-fueled disasters (such as hurricanes, floods, and wildfires) that are exacerbated by human fossil fuel consumption..."

On Wednesday, September 9, 350 US will hold the second of four mass Solidarity School calls, during which we'll address "Defund, Abolish & Divest: Climate, Racial & Economic Justice."