New York, NY — Following former District Attorney Daniel Donovan’s failure to hold NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo and other officers responsible for the brutal killing of Eric Garner, nearly 100,000 ColorOfChange members and their allies urged the Department of Justice to hold all those involved accountable. One year later, and not one police officer has been prosecuted. The only person to spend a time in jail was Ramsey Orta, who was held in wildly inhumane condition at Rikers for months after capturing the killing on camera.

In response to a recent $5.9 million settlement, Gwen Carr, Eric Garner’s mother, renewed calls for a federal indictment of the officers who killed her son, stating, “victory will come when we have justice.”

Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of ColorOfChange.org issued the following statement:

“Our hearts and minds are with the Garner family today as they usher in one year since police killed their loved one. The brutality of Garner’s death shocked the world, and hit home for millions of Black people across the country who are all too familiar with the indignity, injustice and pain of discriminatory police violence. In this year, the core problems that led to Garner’s killing have not been addressed by city officials. Broken windows policing rages on, and the officers who killed Garner and left him to die still have their jobs, still have the power of the badge.

“Eric Garner, Ramarley Graham, Tamir Rice, Rekia Boyd, Tanisha Anderson, Mya Hall, Freddie Gray, Dajerria Becton, and most recently Sandra Bland, are just a few of the police brutality cases the Department of Justice is yet to prosecute. Families shouldn’t have to wait years to see justice for the killing of their loved ones, yet the vast majority never even see the day. The Department of Justice is failing to protect the civil rights of Black Americans and to timely and effectively address the crisis of structural racism and police violence targeting our communities.”

“Before leaving office, Attorney General Eric Holder spoke to this problem, arguing the need for a lower standard of proof for civil rights crimes. Attorney General Loretta Lynch has the power and responsibility to establish a broader standard for what defines a “deprivation of rights under color of law,” the provision that most commonly applies to police killings. We cannot afford to wait for her leadership on this critical matter. The lack of sufficient prosecutions and accountability for abusive and discriminatory police has had an unconscionable human toll.”

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With more than 1 million members, ColorOfChange is the nation’s largest civil rights group