Statement from The Block Community Collaborative:
The Block Community Collaborative (TBCC) is made up of numerous businesses and residents in the historic, African-American neighborhood known as The Block.
As businesses and residences located on Eagle and Market Streets, we were witnesses to the excessive militarization of police and staging of APD in riot gear, armored vehicles, the heavy weaponry, the mobilization of State Troopers, and National Guard, etc.
TBCC believes that as taxpayers and stakeholders we should be able to live and work in a City that is focused on racial healing, community building, and creating lasting equity for Back Asheville while rectifying the mistakes of the City’s past and to ensure that the mistakes are never repeated.
Members of TBCC stand together in solidarity against racism and injustice and in support of Black Asheville Demands and Black Lives Matter. We oppose the militarization of our City and police violence.
We support Black Asheville Demands as written below:
Invest-Divest
We Demand a Divestment from the Police and Investment in Black Communities 50% of the APD’s budget should be invested in long-term safety strategies including supporting Black startups/business, eliminating the racial opportunity gap in Asheville City Schools, and funding an all-civilian oversight committee with the power to hold the APD and individual officers accountable.
Reparations
We Demand Repair for the Past and Continuing Harms Inflicted on Asheville’s Black Community. We demand that Asheville City Government remove the Vance and Robert E Lee monuments and replace them with monuments that honor the many Black Ashevillians who have built this city. We demand that streets named after former slave owners also be replaced with names of historic local black leaders.
End the War on Black People
We demand not just individual accountability for officers after lethal or violent use of force, but for accountability for the entire Asheville Police Department. We demand an end to the systemic harms inflicted on all Black people (including Black trans, queer and gender-nonconforming people).
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TBCC Mission Statement: What we do in the present shapes our future: strengthening community, honoring the past and moving forward together.
TBCC Vision Statement: Coming together to provide mutual aid, seek solutions and facilitate communication in supportive and empowering ways. Address foreseeable issues while advocating for collective resources.
Benne on Eagle
Eagle Market Streets Development Corporation, CDC
En La Calle
Just Folks
LEAF Global Arts
Limones
Penny Cup Coffee
THE BLOCK off biltmore
The Foundry Inn
55 S. Market
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