Call to Action: Justice for Loreal vigil (10/28) at Mesa, AZ police forum

Contact:
bordertown.justice.coalition@gmail.com

Phoenix, AZ – Members of the Bordertown Justice Coalition, a group founded last spring in response to police violence against Native peoples in Arizona, will hold a vigil to remember Loreal Tsingine this Friday (10/28/16) at “Conversation With Cops 2” at The New Beginnings Christian Church in Mesa, AZ.

The group will hold the vigil to remember slain Navajo mother Loreal Tsingine, who was brutally murdered by a Winslow police officer in broad daylight last Easter Sunday (3/27/16) in the small northern Arizona town.

The vigil is meant to remind participants at the Conversation with Cops 2 that right-wing ideologue and Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery predictably failed to prosecute Austin Shipley for killing Tsinigine, who was unarmed and posed no threat to police.

We will hold a vigil to remind audience members of the past wrongdoings of Bill Montgomery and Joe Arpaio toward indigenous peoples and non-White immigrant communities.

They have unapologetically harmed indigenous peoples and other communities of color in their positions of power. For this reason we refuse to speak with them, shake their hands, or interact with them directly, but only suggest the public should vote them out of office.

We will have a number of speakers to address the issue of police violence against Native communities at the event.

We remind the Mesa Police Department of their duty to investigate Officer Shipley’s police conduct at the Winslow Police Department and that they need to fire him immediately for his killing of Tsingine and his abuse of other residents of Winslow.

We hold the vigil to also remind the U.S. Department of Justice that they are obligated to review Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery’s investigation of Shipley and should hold his office into account for denying justice to Loreal’s family.

Finally, we hold the vigil to remind the Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye that tribal sovereignty places him in a position of power to force a resolution of these matters for Navajo people. He should use his authority as president of the Navajo Nation to compensate the Tsingine family and force the State of Arizona to hold Shipley accountable for killing Tsingine.