President Trump’s refusal to accept defeat and peacefully transition power are antithetical to our values and imperil our democracy. The extremism, lawlessness, and violence unfolding at the Capitol are the direct result of Trump’s racist rhetoric and relentless disinformation from America’s political leaders. They are an attempt to deny the will of voters, including millions of Black voters and other voters of color around the country.

The difference between what we’ve seen today and the way Black Lives Matter protesters were treated in Lafayette Square underscores the urgent need for immediate action by Congress and the Biden-Harris Administration. We’re long past incremental steps. We need a complete overhaul of the criminal legal system and a comprehensive, federally led strategy to ensure racial justice and full democracy.

About the Vera Institute of Justice:

The Vera Institute of Justice is a justice reform change agent. Vera produces ideas, analysis, and research that inspire change in the systems people rely upon for safety and justice. Vera collaborates with the communities most impacted by these systems and works in close partnership with government and civic leaders to implement change. Across projects, Vera is committed to explicitly and effectively reducing the burdens of the justice system on people of color and frames all work with an understanding of our country’s history of racial oppression. Vera is currently pursuing core priorities of ending the misuse of jails, transforming conditions of confinement, providing legal services for immigrants, and ensuring that justice systems more effectively serve America’s increasingly diverse communities. Vera has offices in Brooklyn, NY; Washington, DC; New Orleans, and Los Angeles.