In partnership with RISE Coalition, we are circulating a sign-on letter for religious and spiritual leaders to preempt police violence against Indigenous water protectors.

All of us have the right to peacefully protest injustice, but too often we have seen a brutal and racist police response, from the streets of Minneapolis to Standing Rock.

Please add your name, and share this with any religious or spiritual leaders you know.

An open letter from religious and spiritual leaders to Governor Tim Walz, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, John Harrington, Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Rebecca Lucero, Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, and Katie Sieben, Chair of the Public Utilities Commission:

We are leaders from many spiritual and religious traditions. We are deacons, elders, imams, priests, pastors, rabbis, Indigenous spiritual leaders, and other people of faith and conscience. We hold in common the core value of justice, which calls us to protect life and raise our moral voice against violence directed at marginalized communities.

We write today to express our deep concern about how you will deploy Minnesota law enforcement in response to protests against the Line 3 pipeline, should the project get approved. We understand that law enforcement have been preparing to forcefully quell protests against Enbridge Line 3. In 2018 the state organized the “Northern Lights Task Force,” a coalition of law enforcement agencies preparing for Line 3 protests, including training and stockpiling gear. The Canadian pipeline corporation Enbridge is helping to coordinate communications, resources, and even funding the purchase of policing equipment through the Public Utilities Commission.

Read the full letter and add your name.