On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Black Lives Matter Organizer and Professor and Chair of Pan-African Studies at California State University, Los Angeles Melina Abdullah stated that the black community “is and has been under the assault, under kind of the occupation of police who are operating as an occupying force, rather than a force that is supposed to protect and serve all of the people.”

Abdullah said, “[T]he black community is been — is and has been under the assault, under, kind of the occupation of police who are operating as an occupying force, rather than a force that is supposed to protect and serve all of the people.”

She added, “I think it’s really important that we value life, and that we value the lives of our residents, as well as, in Dallas, they’re going to be paying tribute to law enforcement. I think that we need to think about how it is we build a system where we create safe communities for everyone. Re-imagining and re-defining public safety, so, really get people to invest in a system of public safety that’s holistic, that doesn’t just over-rely on policing. And so, I think that one of the things that we’re seeing is kind of a re-commitment on the part of community members to engage in this re-imagining and re-definition.”

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