Remembering Tragedy: Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery

Statement by Executive Director Frank Chapman:

"What's on my mind this morning is Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. Arbery is the young Black man in Georgia who was hunted like an animal and murdered by two white men who will be tried by a nearly all white jury who the judge seated even after he acknowledged discrimination in their selection. Given Georgia's history we know what to expect. Injustice in the heart of Dixie again!

Breonna Taylor, a Black woman and an essential worker, was murdered by Louisville, Kentucky police officers who basically conducted a military, terrorist like attack against her and her partner while they were at home in bed. Sister Taylor, according to the logic of the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department (LMPD), was a "soft threat", meaning that she and her partner were vulnerable. However, what is most appalling about this case is that Attorney General of Kentucky, Daniel Cameron, has refused to indict the LMPD murderers, has unashamedly and blatantly used the power of the state as a weapon against U.S. citizens. This neither surprises or shocks those of us who continue to be subjected to state-sponsored terrorism in these United States of North America. (A country which hypocritically portrays itself to the world as a champion of human rights).

We can't say shame on a system that lacks a moral conscience when it comes to the oppression of Black and Brown people, but we can say:

DOWN WITH RACIST REPRESSION AND THIS RACIST CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM.

ALL POWER TO PEOPLE! NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!"