On Thursday, August 8, 2020, BALT testified before the Maryland House Policing Work Group. Our testimony is below.

My name is Iman Freeman, and I am the Executive Director of Baltimore Action Legal Team, a Baltimore-based organization that supports local community organizing that builds power for the Movement for Black Lives. In our capacity of operating a protest arrest hotline, maintaining a bail fund, helping citizens cover the extraordinary costs of private home detention, and combating police misconduct we have come to understand a few things about how policing is not working for our communities.

MARYLAND – Maryland residents are demanding change in our system of justice. Six months ago – at the invitation of Open Society Institute-Baltimore, and before COVID-19 began ravaging black and brown communities, and before the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others -- a group of Maryland advocates and activists came together to demand fundamental changes to Maryland's justice system. That effort is the People's Commission to Decriminalize Maryland.

“When we first conceived of this commission over a year ago, we had no idea that COVID-19 would turn all of our worlds upside down. The pandemic has helped to lay bare the multiple ways our laws build or prop up systems of racism and inequity. It has also inspired leaders and regular folk all over the world to rethink what is fair and what is possible. This Commission’s goals are ambitious, and it is needed now more than ever.” Tara Huffman, Director Criminal and Juvenile Justice Program, Open Society Institute – Baltimore.

ANNAPOLIS, MD – A large, diverse coalition of over 60 groups from across the state are calling on Maryland legislators to support strong, renewed demands for police reform and accountability. Over the past few weeks, after the police killing of George Floyd and the national outcry that followed, elected leaders have issued countless statements, social media posts, and other expressions of solidarity with Black Marylanders who have suffered police abuse. The groups now urge legislators to act on those words and pass at least five impactful police reforms during the next Maryland General Assembly Legislative session.