NoVa DSA

Cops don’t keep our communities safe; they terrorize and brutalize them. Let’s get serious about REAL public safety. #DefundNovaPolice patch.com/virginia/reston/vi…

Paul Gabriel Behan and Gabriel Rene Ramirez should be alive. We hold their families and communities in our hearts while we demand that our governments divest from the violence of policing and reinvest in caring for our communities.

In 2023, police killed more people across the country than any year in the last decade. 2024 is on track to be even deadlier. Police violence of all forms cannot become normalized in our communities, and the only way to end the violence is to reduce our reliance on policing.

We must increase funding for crisis response clinicians, to hire more people and pay them more. We shouldn’t have to be scared to call emergency resources for friends, loved ones, and in the case of the Alexandria shooting, coworkers. A call for help should never lead to death.

We condemn APD and PWCPD violence against all members of our community. The murder of our community members is the direct result of our reliance on police instead of trained clinicians to respond to mental health crises.

On August 1st, the Prince William County Police department shot and killed 22 year old Gabriel Rene Ramirez during a “wellness check”. Less than two weeks later, on August 12th, Alexandria police shot and killed 61 year-old Paul Gabriel Behan, Jr. during a “wellness check.”

STATEMENT on August 2024 police killings in Northern Virginia This past month, two Northern Virginia community members were killed by the police while experiencing mental health crises.