Statement from Jana Morgan, Director of the Declaration for American Democracy – a coalition of 160 organizations from the labor, racial justice, faith, women’s rights, environmental, good government, and many other important communities – in response to police violence and the extrajudicial killing of Black people across the United States of America.
“The recent fatal killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Dreasjon Reed, and Breonna Taylor, and countless others at the hands of local law enforcement with impunity is horrific, unacceptable, and all too common in this country. The barbaric tactics used by law enforcement to kill these citizens dehumanizes Black Americans and continues to perpetuate our nation’s long history of bigotry, hatred, and racism toward Black people. Democracy cannot exist without full and free participation of all people, including Black people and people of color.
We – along with other members of our coalition, and led by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights – urge Congress to take decisive actions to safeguard the lives of Black Americans by holding local, state, and federal police accountable for racial profiling and implicit bias. This includes prohibiting unnecessary use of force, increasing reporting requirements for data collection around police-community actions, and ending policies that protect police officers from being held legally accountable when they break the law. We must all do our part to end the killing of Black and Brown people across the U.S.”
