Washington, DC (May 25, 2021) – Today, the nation marks the one-year anniversary of the tragic and senseless death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. The statement below is from NACDL President Christopher W. Adams:
One year following the shocking and unacceptable killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, a horrific event witnessed by millions upon millions of people across the nation and around the world, NACDL recommits itself to the nation’s collective and imperative obligation to end the systemic racism that permeates the U.S. criminal legal system and the death and destruction it inflicts on people of color throughout this nation.
NACDL envisions a society where all individuals receive fair, rational, and humane treatment within the criminal legal system. And at its core, NACDL’s mission is to identify and reform flaws and inequities in the criminal legal system, and to redress systemic racism.
To further this critical vision and mission in a profoundly effective manner, in the months following George Floyd’s death NACDL launched the NACDL Full Disclosure Project, which aims to disrupt the culture of secrecy that systematically and pervasively shields law enforcement misconduct by changing police secrecy laws and by empowering the defense community to track police misconduct. The Full Disclosure Project recognizes that all too often police killings involve officers with a long history of misconduct allegations and that true systemic reform is only possible with transparency and accountability.
On this day, as every day, it is not enough simply to be ‘against’ systemic racism and bad actors in law enforcement. As a society, we all have a duty to deploy every resource at our disposal to eliminate these twin scourges fully and forever. NACDL is committed to that future.
