U.S. Transhumanist Party Official Week of Mourning for Duncan Socrates Lemp
The U.S. Transhumanist Party hereby declares an official Week of Mourning for our member, technologist and entrepreneur Duncan Socrates Lemp (1997 – 2020), who joined the USTP on September 6, 2019, and remained a member in good standing until he was murdered by trigger-happy masked SWAT police in Potomac, Maryland, on March 12, 2020, while asleep.
More information is found here: “Lawyer: Man killed by officer was asleep when police fired” – Article by Michael Kunzelman, ABC News – March 13, 2020
The Week of Mourning will last from March 14 through March 21, 2020.
During the Week of Mourning, the U.S. Transhumanist Party encourages everyone who knew Duncan Lemp to post accounts regarding his character and accomplishments, as well as any art and other imagery that would enable his memory to be preserved. Furthermore, during the Week of Mourning and beyond, the U.S. Transhumanist Party encourages all of its members and others to oppose senseless police violence and advocate for holding the police who killed Duncan Lemp accountable for their careless and ignominious misdeeds and atrocities. Member-generated content that preserves the memory of Mr. Lemp and expresses outrage at murders by police will be featured on the U.S. Transhumanist Party website with attribution to the authors.
The U.S. Transhumanist Party has taken a strong stance in opposition to police violence. Section XXI of the USTP Platform reads, “The United States Transhumanist Party supports a concerted effort by governments and by public opinion to eradicate police brutality against peaceful citizens, such that violent force is only utilized against individuals who actually pose an imminent threat to human lives.” The USTP Platform advocates for numerous other measures to quell police brutality, including Section XXXIV (sousveillance / body cameras), Section LXXXIX (prohibition against police being equipped with military-grade hardware), Section XC (requirement for police to be equipped with and mostly use rubber bullets), Section LIX (requirement for outside investigations of police misconduct), Section LX (prohibition of collusion among law-enforcement entities to cover up police misbehavior), Section LXXXVI (improved reporting of police misconduct), and various additional approaches to achieve police accountability. We firmly believe that, had our Platform planks been codified into law and enforced, Duncan Socrates Lemp would have been alive today. All persons of conscience should push for the unconscionable prerogatives of police use of violence to be greatly curtailed everywhere in the United States, as they have been in virtually every other civilized country.