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This past week, Daunte Wright was shot and killed in Minneapolis, and in Chicago police released the footage of the fatal shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo.
These events also come on the heels of the Derek Chauvin trial, and recently surfaced video of two Virginia cops assaulting an Army officer during a routine traffic stop. Damon Hewitt, acting president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law released the following statement:
“It is time to put partisanship aside, and come together to act now in response to the abhorrent, unnecessary loss of life that we continue to witness at the hands of those we entrust to protect and serve our communities. Americans of all stripes are increasingly coming to consciousness and consensus that something is fundamentally wrong with policing in this country.
“Black people have felt the pain of police violence for far too long, and we now have a way to address this issue sitting right before us. The U.S. Senate must heed our nation’s call to action and immediately pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and send it to the president. There can be no trust without accountability, no accountability without transparency, and no healing without justice.
“For nearly a year now we have demanded change that would keep our communities safer, keep our family members alive, and put a stop to the structural racism that impact policing, just as it does so many institutions, public and private. Until the Justice in Policing Act is signed into law, discriminatory and reckless policing practices will continue, and Black Americans will continue to suffer the consequences. The Senate must make a choice — either uphold structural racism, or take this important opportunity to move our country forward.”
By Lacy Crawford Jr.\Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
