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250 Microsoft Employees Call on CEO to Cancel Police Contracts and Support Defunding Seattle PD
The letter also asks for the resignation of Seattle’s mayor and for full support of Black Lives Matter
Hundreds of Microsoft employees have signed a letter to the company’s top executives asking for Microsoft to take action in the wake of national protests. The letter, which was obtained by OneZero, requests that Microsoft cancel contracts with the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and other law enforcement agencies, asks the company to formally support the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, and calls for the resignation of the Seattle mayor.
The email, which eventually included more than 250 employees CC’d in solidarity, was sent in the early hours of Monday, June 8, and was addressed to Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, and executive vice president, Kurt DelBene, with the subject line “Our neighborhood has been turned into a warzone.”
Much of the email focused on the protests and police response in Seattle. “Every one of us in the CC line are either firsthand witnesses or direct victims to the inhumane responses of SPD to peaceful protesting,” the letter said, according to the copy obtained by OneZero.
“Every one of us in the CC line are either firsthand witnesses or direct victims to the inhumane responses of SPD to peaceful protesting.”
The employee who authored the email indicated that they live in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, where protests have become increasingly violent. On Sunday, June 7, a gunman drove into a crowd of protesters in the neighborhood, shooting a protester before surrendering to police.
The email to the Microsoft executives includes a list of requests, including increased leniency for Microsoft workers in performance reviews due to the coronavirus pandemic and protests; the company formally…
