Dear Sacramento County and Sacramento City Leaders,

We are concerned healthcare professionals in Sacramento County who feel that systemic racism and police brutality have no place in our community. Change is needed NOW. We urge you to be national leaders in creating policies that truly invest in the development of our underserved communities of color, especially Black communities.

Below is an open letter that we sent to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2020. However, we have continued to collect signatures and comments in response to the ongoing crisis of systemic racism. We urge all of our Sacramento County and Sacramento City legislators to take concrete actions now to denounce and address systemic racism and police brutality in our community.

Sincerely,

Concerned healthcare professionals in Sacramento County

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Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Dear Sacramento County Board of Supervisors,

As a healthcare professional in Sacramento County, I am asking you to vote to denounce systemic racism and police brutality in our community.

We are appalled by the recent deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and many others by police violence. There is a long history of police violence against black and brown people and communities in the U.S., including the communities of the Sacramento region. As health care and public health professionals, we condemn these policies that perpetuate systemic racism. Racism is a public health issue and results in disparities in our patients’ mental and physical health.

Tomorrow, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors will vote on whether to ratify the proclamation of the local state of emergency which will continue to deploy the use of militaristic tactics to suppress protests in our county. We stand in proud solidarity of our young people who are leading the effort to denounce systemic racism in our community.

Now is the time for you to take concrete actions to stop police violence in our communities. We call on the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors to:

1. Name the underlying cause of the current community outcry and protest as systemic racism, and denounce systemic racism.
2. Create an emergency meeting to address the underlying issues that have led our County to our current state -- a system based on RACISM. Not an emergency meeting that ratifies the use of further police violence against oppressed communities.
3. Increase funding for community programs focused on physical and mental health, youth development, and community development. Reduce funding for law enforcement and invest in our communities.
4. Ban the use of tear gas by police in our community, especially during the current COVID-19 pandemic. This will induce coughing by individuals at the scene, potentially accelerating the spread of COVID-19 in our community.

Again, we urge you to take action now to reduce further acts of police brutality and redirect your attention to addressing the disparities in our community caused by systemic racism.

Sincerely,

Concerned healthcare professionals in Sacramento County