April 4th, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr, Martin Luther King, is a reminder that we still have a long way to go for his dream to come true. His dream that his, “four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Less than a week ago, Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old unarmed man, was shot by the police in his grandmother’s backyard in Sacramento, California.

The murder has left many including Dwight Kurt, a DC resident and attendee of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr, Martin Luther King, disappointed.

“I think police brutality is a problem now like it was 50 years ago when Dr. King was alive,” said Kurt.

Kurt believes change can only come when more officials who take black lives seriously are elected.

Police officers kill around 1,000 people every year, according to the Washington Post’s 2018 police shootings database.

On March 18, community members in Washington D.C. came out to a forum organized by, “Stop Police Terror Project DC.”

Stop Police Terror Project DC, according to their Facebook page, “works to build community-led peacekeeping efforts to empower oppressed communities to deal with their own security concerns.”

Eugene Puryear, co-founder of Stop Police Terror Project D.C. thinks, “the only way to end police brutality, is to reduce the scope of the police.”

More than 30 community members participated in the forum, hopeful their activism and work would save lives in the future.

Ronald Hampton, activist, and a retired police officer has experienced change in the police institution only when it was demanded through protests, policy, internally through lawsuits, and when the community demanded it.

He said, “the job of the community is to hold the police accountable.”

“The police don’t work for themselves, they work for the community,” said Hampton.

In Hampton’s career as a police officer, the obstacles and injustices he and others witnessed, compelled him and his colleagues to become activists.

At the beginning of his career women weren’t allowed to drive in the police cars, but after lawsuits and external pressure, they got their rights.

“I saw a lot of change but that change was forced,” said Hampton.