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Black Lives Matter stands in solidarity with Jussie Smollett: 'We can never believe police'
"As abolitionists, we approach situations of injustice with love and align ourselves with our community. Because we got us," Abdullah said in a statement on the website for the BLM movement’s national arm, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation.
"So let’s be clear: we love everybody in our community. It’s not about a trial or a verdict decided in a white supremacist charade, it’s about how we treat our community when corrupt systems are working to devalue their lives," said Abdullah, who is currently director of BLM Grassroots, a "Defund the Police" group.
"In an abolitionist society, this trial would not be taking place, and our communities would not have to fight and suffer to prove our worth," she continued. "Instead, we find ourselves once again being forced to put our lives and our value in the hands of judges and juries operating in a system that is designed to oppress us, while continuing to face a corrupt and violent police department who has proven time and again to have no respect for our lives."