February 17, 2022
We are thankful that nobody was injured in Craig Greenberg’s office on Feb. 14, 2022. We are thankful that 21-year old Quintez Brown was taken into custody alive when worse outcomes are so often both tragic and predictable. Just as there is no justice for lost and destroyed Black lives, there is also no concern for their future.
Quintez needs direct mental health support. As his direct community and family, we have been concerned and showing up for him.
He did not belong in jail.
The Louisville Metro Department of Corrections jail is dangerous; six people have died in their care in 4 months. No one who needs it should be detained another hour without counsel, support, and mental and physical health care. These supports are comparatively cheap, while punishment and control are more costly, less effective, and perpetuate cycles of trauma and oppression.
The crisis we face is not underfunded law and order, but an underfunded future. We demand that all serving and potential Louisville leaders speak to this truth and work for a better future, beyond the racial trauma we currently face.
No one in our community finds joy in the violence that happened Monday nor any other day. We are in an era where violence takes place daily in many forms. We strive to build a world where our children and their children may never have to traverse the levels of violence we have faced and face now.
Quintez is a brilliant and bright leader from the West End of Louisville. He has advocated for a violence-free world, and successfully led campaigns including one against a racist principal to remove police from schools, March for Our Lives, and local and national violence prevention programs. As many activists and organizers discover, battling racial trauma as a young person is hard when many of our communities don't know how to practice healing, and this work is difficult.
Quintez Brown’s incandescent words for the Courier-Journal detail how young Black people are made to suffer in Louisville, and how hearts break. He concluded that nobody was listening. We are worried for Quintez Brown, angry, and grieving.
"The hopelessness, trauma and despair that comes with existing as a Black person in this country may indefinitely be trivial for the white reader. Some find hope in my words, but I find a troubling reality that I must, once again, figure out how to exist within." — Quintez Brown, “A quest for freedom: The diary of a young Black man raised in Louisville's West End”
We hope that many of you take action just as we, his movement family, commit to take action every day. We hope that you take up the work and create the pathways to a nonviolent world.
If you or anybody you know is in need of mental health support and/or services, please call (800) 662-4357 or for local resources contact (502) 792-7011.
Signed by:
Black Lives Matter Louisville
Louisville Community Bail Fund
Stand Up Sunday (a collective of abolitionist organizations and individuals in Louisville, KY)
Better Dayz
Feed Louisville
Fight Toxic Prisons
Louisville Family Justice Advocates
Louisville Showing Up for Racial Justice
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