On April 24, the United Nations Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement (EMLER) began an 11-day investigation of law enforcement’s excessive use of force against Black people in the United States.
The United Nations set up EMLER in response to the massive global demonstrations protesting the cold-blooded police murder of George Floyd in 2020. It is composed of three experts: one from South Africa, one from Argentina and one from the U.S.
EMLER will visit six cities—Washington, DC; Los Angeles; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Atlanta; Chicago; and New York. In DC, EMLER will only meet with government officials. In the other cities, they will meet with community people and organizations.
The New York meeting will be held on May 3 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the historic Malcolm Shabazz Center in the former Audubon Ballroom, where Malcolm X was assassinated through the covert actions of U.S. law enforcement. The New York meeting will hear testimony from families of victims of police murder and criminal conditions in prisons (including Rikers), and direct victims of racial profiling, stop and frisk, and the war on drugs.
The December 12th Movement International Secretariat, which helped organize the first-ever UN investigation into the U.S. in 1994, has been working closely with Sister Kerry McLean of the UN Anti-Racism Coalition (UNARC) and other organizations about the New York meeting.
All the meetings will be livestreamed on Facebook (facebook.com/UNARC/).
For more information, call the December 12th Movement at 718-398-1766 and/or go to the UNARC website, www.unarc.org, and scroll down to “Country Visit to the United States.”