It has been 774 days since Marcus-David Peters was shot and killed by Richmond police while having a mental health crisis. None of the demands for reform made by his family and supporters have been met.

Our Richmond city government officials claim they are working on meeting these demands now. These claims only came after massive upheaval and protest in Richmond which were responded to by a violent and out of control crackdown by police.

City officials like @LevarStoney now behave as if they've been acting on this all along. This is a false narrative. He has been refusing to engage with Marcus's family and supporters for two years. He has made broken promises to Princess Blanding, Marcus's sister, for years.

These demands for police accountability and reform are not new. They aren't a result of protests that began after the murder of George Floyd (although we are certainly in solidarity with Minneapolis and all communities protesting). We hit the streets for Marcus two years ago.

We "peacefully" marched and asked for reforms that would provide more safety to Black residents in the city in the name of Marcus-David Peters two years ago:

We "peacefully" stood on the pouring rain to listen to Princess Blanding read her demands for reform in the name of her brother, murdered by Richmond Police, while the police refused to come outside and speak to the community:

We "peacefully" requested @LevarStoney attend community gatherings in order to hear the community's grief, and demands for change to keep these things from ever happening again in our city. He could not be bothered to come:

In 2018 we "peacefully" watched @LevarStoney stand by Chief Durham as he lectured the community about how there was "no bias" in policing in Richmond:

For *two years* people rallied around the family of Marcus-David Peters and "peacefully" asked for change and the only thing that happened was that people were ignored, people were lied to, people were mocked and RPD's budget just keeps getting bigger.

On June 1, 2020, hundreds of protesters "peacefully" protested against police violence committed against Black people and @LevarStoney 's police responded by tear gassing kids kneeling in the grass, chasing them down through the gas and attacking them:

Now our city leadership wants to stand up there and lecture people how to protest? You want to tell people you "support" peaceful protests? If you "supported" peaceful protests then you would have listened and enacted changes after *two years* of people asking for them.

Marcus-David Peters was a REAL, LIVING, LOVING HUMAN BEING who was GUNNED DOWN IN THE STREET for needing mental health care and his family deserves JUSTICE, and they deserve RESPECT, and they deserve APOLOGIES and this city deserves CHANGE.

And then in the middle of all of this you promote an interim police chief who shot Jeramy Gilliam *in the back* and killed him because he kind of looked like a suspect in 2002? https://www.wric.com/news/taking-action/richmonds-new-interim-police-chief-was-investigated-in-2002-fatal-shooting/

And now our city "leadership" will just act like they're all confused about why people are angry, and why people aren't "peaceful", as they do absolutely nothing, not even the bare minimum in response to requests for change.

And now, after this community created a place for reflection, grieving, discussion and solidarity where people have come together every day and night, a sacred place to memorialize the those that police violence have stolen...

You have the audacity and callousness to send armed thugs to brutalize people, fire weapons at them, trample all over the space, destroy what people have built?

The leadership of this city is utterly incapable of seeing how deep the sins being committed here go. I have no words for it. I need to do some work now. To the people who keep fighting for what's right, you are all in my heart.

And to @JusticeforMDP I am so deeply sorry and full of grief for what was done to Marcus, and his family, and his friends.