[BwayDems] A Statement in Response to Recent Events

[Gretchen Borges]

*A STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO RECENT EVENTS*



The Steering Committee of the Broadway Democrats joins with many New
Yorkers and other Americans in painful disbelief that the case of a police
officer, who was caught on video apparently using a choke hold not
permitted by department policy during an arrest which led to the death of
Eric Garner, was not moved to trial by jury for a full public hearing of
the evidence.



The similar failure of the grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri to indict and
require a full public hearing in the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed
Black man who was also killed by deadly force at the hands of a policeman,
makes it important that we address on both a local and national level the
use of force (especially deadly force) by police, flaws in the current
grand jury system, and the lack of communication between the police and the
communities they serve.



Every one of these deaths was devastating to an individual, a family, and a
community, and was grotesquely out of proportion given the minor offenses
involved.  We must improve police training to reduce their use of deadly
force, and encourage our police departments to hire and train officers to
better understand and communicate with the communities in which they keep
the peace.



In addition to raising serious questions about policing, these incidents
also lay bare deeper societal issues. Racism and criminalization based
solely on skin color, especially for young Black men, are endemic to our
society.  Until this bias is acknowledged and directly addressed, remedies
to halt these avoidable deaths will have a difficult path toward success.



We call on all Americans to identify and expose the forces of structural
oppression and injustice that result in violence and dehumanization in all
relationships. Equal justice for all must be woven durably and inextricably
into the social and ethnic fabric of our society.
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