Written in 2025
Families Demanding Justice (FDJ) is a real organization that functions daily. Its members fight for each other’s cases, put on protests, rallies and actions, and study literature to learn about the movement against police brutality. After a recent split in our organization, FDJ has been discussing questions surrounding organizational function to make an official part of our organization. In March of 2025, internal problems that had been simmering for a while had finally reached a head. A core of FDJ’s membership, who weren’t committed to the mission statement, tried to take the organization in a different direction, engaged in factionalizing and shit-talking the organization and its members. The core of FDJ’s members left and those who were still committed to the project had to regroup and figure out what had happened, why, and how we move forward. The following are lessons we have learned together and principles we will stick to and hold others to who want to join us.
Members of FDJ must be committed to the movement
FDJ is about building leaders in the movement against police brutality who won’t sell it out or lead it down dead end reforms. We think impacted families play a pivotal role in this, hence why we emphasize their involvement so much. While we support people’s individual fights for justice, it’s not a competition. Everything we do is in the service of building a mass movement of all who can be united (youth who face police brutality, religious people, genuine progressives, for example), to demand killer cops be thrown in jail and to stop police brutality. Leadership in FDJ is determined by one’s commitment to this vision and our mission, not by identity or popularity contests.
We are working to develop ourselves and others as leaders in the movement
Building and leading a mass movement isn’t something that we are born knowing how to do, but something we are committed to learning how to do every day. FDJ members must work together to strengthen leadership capabilities through rigorous education and discussion, and through carrying out tasks together, such as in-person events, writing social media posts and statements, and doing rapid response outreach. By building relationships with one another, struggling around and building confidence in the Mission Statement, and an understanding of what needs to be done tactically, FDJ members must develop as leaders in the movement, and FDJ as an organization must become an organizational leader in the movement to stop police brutality.
Disagreements, questions, and criticisms need to be put on the table and aired out with the organization
Our responsibility is to the people facing police brutality every day and have their lives stolen by the pigs. We know an organization like FDJ is crucial in this fight. When we do not share disagreements, questions, and criticisms to the entire group for discussion, it leads to dysfunction and can be corrosive and harmful to the entire group. When we don’t put things out on the table for everyone to discuss, it can lead to personal animosity and factionalism (when a smaller group inside the larger group decides they disagree, and rather than trying to work through the disagreement, they instead start building support for their position by turning other members against the rest of the group). These things lead to disunity and can easily break up organization, becoming set backs for the important work and plans we are making. Because our responsibility is so great, we must have a strong unity among ourselves first. FDJ members don’t talk shit about the organization, privately or publicly. All issues people have are put out to be discussed so we can collectively move forward, stronger with better understanding.
Everyone has something to contribute
FDJ is not an organization one can passively join. When we say commitment to the movement, that means there needs to be action behind this. Not everyone involved in FDJ is going to be the best speaker, best agitator, best whatever; but everyone has something they can contribute to. Whether that’s getting on the phone with impacted families, passing out FDJ flyers at a rally, talking to people at your church or in your neighborhood about FDJ, making a video to let a family know you support them, making a post, there is something for everyone to do. We work together on things, collaborate, and build unity with one another through action. You can’t just be on the sidelines. Being a part of this thing is being active in building it up.
Every family is embraced
Not every family we reach out to is going to agree with FDJ or want to join it. And that’s ok. We might disagree about strategy to fight police brutality. We might disagree there needs to be a movement at all. But everyone we can connect with is embraced and supported in their fight. We have a strategy to fight, but even if you don’t agree with that strategy, we will still support you. Being a member of FDJ is not a requirement for receiving support from FDJ. Only people who genuinely agree with our strategy, or who are at least open-minded and ready to try it with us, should go on to become full members, and anyone who doesn’t want to for any reason shouldn’t worry that we will punish them for deciding not to roll with us.
Dedication to getting to know everyone we are working with personally
A key lesson learned from the FDJ split was that a division between Dare To Struggle (DTS) members and impacted families was deepened through DTS members treating FDJ and the struggle for justice as a purely political project, and leaving the emotional and personal aspect of this fight up to families to deal with among themselves. It is essential we break down that divide going forward and prove our commitment to becoming lifelong collaborators and comrades. We must deepen the personal and emotional ties we have to each other by catching up regularly about what’s going on in our personal lives, staying up to date on developments in individual cases, any events or actions they want to do individually, weekly FDJ national calls, and one-on-one and group reading discussions. As FDJ grows, we must truly embrace every impacted family and those seeking to join through both initial rapid response and also deep, strong, and consistent interpersonal connections and catch ups.
We are an organization, not a group chat
Being a national organization, our members are spread out across thousands of miles around the US, and mostly functions on the internet out of necessity. This has pros and cons: it’s far easier to reach out and have phone calls about anything, but when more real conversations happen over text, the tone gets lost, people don’t understand each other, and it can lead to drama between members. We must make sure we maximize the benefits the internet provides FDJ. While reducing the negative aspects like text conversations and group chats leading to drama, we should be looking for ways to make FDJ function in the real world with face-to-face relationships. Texting should be avoided for important discussions; meeting up in person is preferred, but one-on-one calls or group calls should be the preferred mode of communication.
We are all in the same boat
We must know who the enemies are. The enemies are the police. The other enemies include opportunist lawyers, opportunist groups, and others who are trying to make a buck off of lives stolen by the police or who are trying to steer the movement in a direction that divides families and gives the State more power. Because the enemy is well organized and on a rampage, we must stick together and unite all who can be united. We must know who the enemy is in order to direct our energy and build our campaigns against them.
Families Demanding Justice 
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