For Immediate Release
Contact: Kayla Keller, kayla@fitzgibbonmedia.com, 281.682.6212
New York, NY – President Obama spoke out today on the tragic police killing of Mike Brown in Ferguson, MO. The President says that he has ordered the FBI and DOJ to work alongside local and state officials to rigorously investigate the police killing. He also expressed deep concerns about local law enforcement’s violent crackdown on peaceful protesters and the journalist reporting from on the ground. ColorOfChange.org, the largest online civil rights group, is calling on the President to do more to do to end the rampant police misconduct and violent attacks being waged against Black residents in Ferguson.
ColorOfChange Executive Director Rashad Robinson said, “The President has the responsibility and the authority to protect the constitutional and civil rights of Ferguson residents who want to peacefully assemble. We urge him to take immediate action to stop local officers from using excessive force and military tactics and equipment against peaceful protesters and journalists, before we see more tragic deaths of unarmed Black folks.”
Systemic militarization of law enforcement combined with long-held racial-bias and the criminalization of Black residents has turned those exercising their constitutional right to peacefully assemble and protest in Ferguson into enemy combatants of a highly militarized and violent police force. Over the past five nights there has been a complete breakdown of law and order because of police terror. Officers are perched on rooftops with military style rifles, spraying dangerous tear gas, patrolling the streets with armored tanks, firing rubber-coated bullets, and unlawfully arresting civilians and members of the press looking to shine a light on this horrifying police violence.
“There’s no time to waste. Things will only get worse in Ferguson and cities across the country unless President Barack Obama and United States Attorney General Eric Holder take definitive action to de-militarize the situation, ensure proper federal oversight, and enforce a national standard that ends police misconduct and protects Black folks not only in Missouri but across the nation,” said Robinson.
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With over 900,000 members, ColorOfChange.org is the nation’s largest online civil rights organization.