CUAPB is an all-volunteer organization that was formed in December 2000 in the aftermath of the shooting death of Charles "Abuka" Sanders by Minneapolis police. As we worked to try to achieve justice for Abuka's family, we came to the realization that while many people respond in powerful ways to brutal police killings and other egregious incidents, handling each case separately is not an effective way to deal with police brutality. Reinventing the wheel with each new case is reactive, not proactive, and almost assures there will be more cases. It was time to form an organization to take on police brutality 24/7/365 and to work on day-to-day abuses with the idea that taking them on could reduce the number of more serious incidents. In mid-December 2000, CUAPB held its first meeting on a Saturday at Hosmer Library in Minneapolis.
To this day, we continue to meet every Saturday to do our work (though much work happens between meetings).
CUAPB was created to deal with police brutality in Minnesota on an ongoing basis. We work on the day-to-day abuses as well as taking on the more extreme cases. We work to combat police brutality from many angles, including political and legislative action, education, research, and providing services and support for victims and their families.
Our overriding goal is to create a climate of resistance to abuse of authority by police organizations and to empower local people with a structure that can take on police brutality and actually bring it to an end.