Collecting a List of Demands from the George Floyd Protests
A living list of perceived demands from various groups involved in an attempt to create clear communication, understanding, and empathy at scale.
The Society Library is not currently updating this list.
We are a non-profit library that collects, organizes, and archives peoples ideas on social and political issues. We’ve created this living list by performing media analysis on content related to the George Floyd protests. Please help us make this list better by sending us your ideas through this form. We’re listening, and we want everyone to be heard.
Some the following statements are vague ideas, some are concrete actions. These demands may not represent the point of view of everyone. Many groups participating in the George Floyd protests may specifically NOT want some of these demands met. Additionally, some of these demands contradict others, since they’ve come from multiple sources. We hope this will simply be a starting point for the clarity and communication that’s badly needed.
We’ve tried to match these sentiments with organizations working to put these demands forward, in case you’d like to get involved or learn more.
✔️ = Demand met, may be only locally
An additional list of demands released by CHAZ Protestors has also been released, see here for that content.
Demands for Justice for George Floyd:
In no particular order:
- No bail for the officer currently charged in George Floyd’s death ❌
- Increase charge to 1st degree murder and/or convict
Explore legal counter-arguments to that demand, here.
- Charge the other 3 officers involved in the incident ✔️
- Revoke all 4 officer’s Police Pensions (from Colors For Change petition)
- Prevent officers from ever becoming a police officer again (from Colors For Change petition)
Demands for Changes in Policing:
On Police Mental Health
- Police should be provided with PTSD counseling and given access to mental health services.
- Police should be tested for ASPD (Anti-social personality disorder)
On Police Training and Policies
- Police training should include non-violent, de-escalation tactics
- Train police officers to intervene when other officers are using excessive force
- Ban certain behaviors entirely, such as chokeholds and shooting at moving vehicles ✔️
- Police should be required to give a verbal warning before use of a firearm
- “Establish non-police alternatives to 911 calls involving people with mental illness” or cases such as psychological episodes or substance use crisis
- Police should be trained to limit use of force and exercise all other actions before force
- End racially-biased policing policies everywhere (like Stop and Frisk and Broken Windows Policing)
On Police Operations
- #DefundThePolice (from Black Lives Matter Petition)
- Demilitarize the police (remove military-grade weaponry from the force)
- Renegotiate for stricter police contracts (to establish higher standards for police conduct)
- Implement Police Reform (improved training / increased oversight / stricter punishments / zero tolerance for racially-biased policing)
- Police should be paid more (remove financial stresses)
- End for-profit policing — no quotas for arrests or tickets, limit fines for low income people, prevent police from pocketing cash, require police departments’ pensions/retirement funds (not tax dollars or city budgets) to pay for misconduct settlements
- Make police officers do more paperwork every time they threaten use of force, use use of form, and/or use a firearm.
- “Require police departments to develop and publicly report a strategy and timeline for achieving a representative proportion of police officers who are women and people of color through outreach, recruitment and changes to departmental practices”
On Police Oversight
- Deploy AI technology for predictive policing: “use data on on use of force, complaints & lawsuits…to identify officers who most likely to shoot someone”
- Improved investigation procedures into police misconduct
Police Alternatives
- Demand community led safety programs / transformative justice solutions / crime prevention programs for Black communities (“communities policing communities”)
Other Political Demands:
In no particular order:
- #SayHisName Formal acknowledgement / grievances addressed of the various lives cut short from police brutality and racially-motivated attacks
- Cities/Towns/Communities should show they support the cause, such as through #BlackLivesMatterPlaza in D.C.✔️
- Bail out/release protestors who have been jailed for non-violent protest immediately
- Support the Pressley-Omar Resolution
- End the War on Drugs
- Create a publicly scrutable registry of officers who have been terminated due to improper conduct to ensure permanent termination for these officers
- Work with/or override the authority of Police Unions to stop protecting officers from proper reprimands due to unlawful conduct (whether it’s racially motivated, use excess force, or otherwise).
- Remove/ban all public displays of confederate battle flag ✔️ (on Marine bases)
Changes in Criminal Justice Demands:
In no particular order:
- Remove racial variables in parole and criminal justice algorithms.
Other Social Demands:
(General Demands) In no particular order:
- End systemic racism / oppression in all sectors of society
- End#WhiteSilence, ask white people to pursue an anti-racist education (from Indivisible)
- Enable peace for Black people and People of Color in America
- #EnoughIsEnough - No more deaths at the hands of police for Black people, People of Color (and people in general)
- Follow Black voices on social media
Demands for Communities:
In no particular order:
- Communities should be surveyed and give regular feedback about police performance, which are used to inform policies and pay incentives
- Investment / Support / Opportunities for Black communities (and People of Color) should be increased by various social and political means.
- Communities should be empowered to take down statues which honor the Confederate south. ✔️ ✔️
- Local police should take a knee or otherwise participate to show solidarity and respect for George Floyd
- Local government officials should officially acknowledge racial tensions and bias in police forces and commit to improvement in their communities
- Support Black-owned businesses, artists, authors, and journalists in local communities
- Help clean-up the impact of vandalism, looting, and destruction related to the protest
- Enable peace between police and their communities
- Boycott big businesses #BoycottAmerikkka
In no particular order:
Equal Treatment Under The Law #JusticeForAll
Call you representatives, and ask them to pass:
What’s Next?
If you are interested in supporting organizations working to reform our justice system, or are interested in supporting George Floyd’s family, there are many ways to get involved. Consider viewing this article to see an aggregated list of organizations and GoFundMe pages for George Floyd’s family.
If you support the protests, and would like to help, check out these resources:
- https://www.joincampaignzero.org/research
- “Things you can do to support the resistance from home”
- Additional recommendations for social justice actions can be found in this resource: “75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice”
We will work to improve this list to ensure that the various groups and their actions and sentiments are articulated and heard. We stand ready to support any group working to articulate their ideas in this matter as our form of social service.
See also our List of Reasons Why People are Participating in the George Floyd Protests.
We’ve collected this information through media analysis of social media, news media, activist website content, analysis of protest signs, and surveys. You can learn more about our organization here, where you can also learn about our methods and organizational values.
Collected by Jamie Joyce and the Society Library volunteer archival team.
