Blake Strode ('15), Executive Director of ArchCity Defenders, published a piece in The St. Louis American regarding the necessity of action in the course of mourning, funding alternative systems of justice, and investment in education, jobs and healthcare ("Make Black Lives Matter: Defund the Police," June 4). "Like many others, I have felt at a loss as to what to do or say in the wake of this brute force, as DuBois aptly described it. However conditioned we may have become to giving and receiving instant feedback and analysis, there is sometimes nothing more to do in the moment than to keep breathing oneself. … If we truly believe that Black Lives Matter and that the consistent pattern of police violence and killings are unacceptable, we must end our reliance on policing itself. We must reduce the role of policing in our society and in our lives. We must defund the police."