Brooklyn Nine-Nine donates $100K to National Bail Fund

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

In support of the Black Lives Matter movement and protestors across the nation, the cast and showrunner of Brooklyn Nine-Nine made a $100K donation to the National Bail Fund Network. The Network was created in response to an increasing interest in replicating and expanding the bail fund model across the country. The project works with organizers, advocates, and legal providers across the country that are using community bail funds as a part of efforts to radically change local bail systems and reduce incarceration. 

Co-creator of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Dan Goor, took to his Twitter page to announce the cast and crew support of the National Bail Fund as well as telling others to look into their local bail fund as well:

The cast of Brooklyn Nine-Nine including Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher, Stephanie Beatriz, Terry Crews, Melissa Fumero, Joe Lo Truglio and Joel Mckinnon Miller, also posted the statement on their respective social media accounts. Beatriz, who plays Rosa Diaz on the NBC comedy, addressed that she is an actor who plays a cop on television and stated "If you currently play a cop? If you make tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in residuals from playing a cop? I’ll let you do the math." Even though Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a comedy and is a show about police officers, the comedy series has not shied away from talking about the mistreatment of African Americans by officers of the law. A season 4 episode called "Moo Moo" followed Sergeant Terry Jeffords (Crews) as he was racially profiled by a white police officer in his own neighborhood.

Bail funds were trending across social media as an immediate way to provide relief to activists in jail. Protests erupted across the country, including Minnesota, New York, California, New Jersey, Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Michigan in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis. The officer has since been fired, arrested, and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. The protests have even spread across the globe, with demonstrations being held in London, Berlin, New Zealand, and Toronto.

The protests have unfortunately led to bad apples that are piggybacking off of those who are trying to peacefully protest the cause by using the opportunity to loot and riot. There is a difference between protestors and those who are using a tragedy like this to instigate more violence. The bail fund is used to support those arrested amid peaceful acts of activism and by no way condones the riots and looting that has attempted to overshadow a peaceful desire to have voices heard. You can learn more about bail funds by state by going here.