The letter pointed to Biden’s recent promise to add $300 million for community policing programs, a plan that activists say would undermine their efforts to push for systemic changes, such as defunding police forces.

“It is a slap in the face to black folks,” said LaTosha Brown, the head of Black Voters Matter, an Atlanta-based civil rights group that signed on to the letter. “We’re in the middle of the largest uprising and protests against policing and unfair and unjust policing, and the biggest supporters to your campaign have been black people, and you come out and say you’re going to reward the police? What message does that send?”…

“As the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, you have a moral responsibility in this moment,” the groups wrote in the letter, which was first reported by the New York Times. “Making amends for the harm you’ve caused is an important first step, but it is no longer enough.”