On December 5, Trenton City Council heard public comment regarding a Department of Justice investigation that determined the Trenton Police Department and City of Trenton engage in behaviors that violate the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Farahnaz Shemeem, current leader of Greater Trenton Democratic Socialists of America (GTDSA), offered these comments. “Working at a hospital especially during the outbreak of Covid19 has instilled in me an unshakable sense of duty. Duty to protect, to serve, to be versatile and think on your feet, to be charitable and not see one life as more valuable than another. The patients at St. Francis Medical Center were often no strangers to trauma, many impoverished, elderly, with co-morbidities of addiction, and mental health issues. “After a while you just don’t take things personally and learn to de-escalate risky situations with your fellow healthcare workers to create an immediate solution. No guns involved, no form of strangulation, no need for violence. “On April 3rd, just one month before George Floyd’s murder that would shock the nation and create waves internationally— I became a witness to the same exact crime carried out by Trenton Police department. To watch someone clearly having a mental health episode, literally screaming for help, not harming anyone, and begging for his life as police officers tackle him. Is something that still haunts me now. I could only manage to take a picture at the moment. It did not even register to me that his immobilized body equaled death by homocide. Stephen Dolceamore should still be alive. He was instead killed by Trenton PD on hospital property. “No amount of sensitivity training can end the systemic injustice that is caused by our police officers who run the streets with no accountability, contributing to for-profit prisons that capitalize on modern-day slavery. There is no rehabilitation, no justice to be found here. We do not want another George Floyd or Stephen Dolceamore. “The city of Trenton would do greater justice to its people by allocating funds NOT for the expansion of the Trenton police department but instead to creating better resources for our community in a way that actually improves our day to day lives. Let’s work to end police brutality by reducing police funding in the first place. And instead let’s invest in the needs of Trentonians to keep them safe and content. We can accomplish this by prioritizing the right to affordable housing, affordable healthcare, and better funding our community resources such as schools, libraries, museums and recreational facilities. Let us change the narrative to move away from violence and towards collective liberation.”