During the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, the most effective tactic in bringing about change happened when the various organizations combined their resources. That appears to be the strategy now as a number of civil rights leaders are joining together demanding immediate justice and federal review of racial violence and discrimination in law enforcement.
Sparking this new resolve that will culminate Thursday morning, Sept. 25 at the National Press Club are the recent deaths of Eric Garner on Staten Island and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., both victims of what protesters have called police misconduct.
“Justice delayed is justice denied. They should not stall and we will not wait,” is the slogan under which such prominent activists as Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League; the Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network; Cornell Brooks, president and CEO of the NAACP; Benjamin Crump, president-elect of the National Bar Association and attorney for the Brown family; and Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation will assemble, with an aim toward pressuring the Department of Justice to take over the investigations into both cases and press for federal civil rights charges to be brought against the officers responsible for the deaths.
The leaders, accompanied by Brown and Garner family members, are also asking the Justice Department to launch a federal review of police misconduct and implement key recommendations for police reform. It was recently reported that the Justice Department has already begun probes into over two dozen police departments in the nation where there have been reports of systemic misconduct.
According to a press release from NAN, there is a demand to end the “contemptible tactics by local prosecutors designed to impede the legal process while demonizing the victims.” They are calling for immediate indictments of the officers involved in the killings.
Earlier, there was a call for a special prosecutor in the Brown incident because of the general distrust of the assigned prosecutor, though that was not a current request. The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 25 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Contact Jacky Johnson at 646-981-5903 for further information.
