NEW YORK – Color Of Change, the national racial justice organization, issued the following statement in response to the Department of Justice’s decision not to charge the police officer who shot and killed Alton Sterling last summer. Color Of Change has called on the DOJ to bring justice for Sterling—last year they delivered petitions with 500,000 signatures to DOJ HQ in a rally for Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.

Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of Color Of Change:

“There is no way to misinterpret the message that Jeff Sessions sent today: Black lives do not matter. There is no other way to read this decision from the Department of Justice, which issued no charges to the police officers who tased Alton Sterling, held him down on the ground, and shot him in the chest and back. A Black man who was selling CD’s was summarily executed, and the Attorney General sees nothing wrong with that.

“This dystopic vision should have been part of America’s past, but–thanks to the white supremacist administration of Donald Trump and his racist cronies like Jeff Sessions and Steve Bannon—it’s become our present.

“But it will not be our future. Already the powerful organizing of our communities, and others that have been victimized by this administration, has dealt serious blows to Trump. We stopped his repeal of Obamacare. We stopped his Muslim ban. And, we will stop his destruction of Black life. From the streets to the ballot box, we are prepared to oppose this administration and its theft of our very rights as Americans. We will model for the nation what a true vision of safety, justice, and progress looks like—one that values Black lives, rather than trampling them.”