The staff of the Orleans Public Defenders Office (OPD) are both saddened and outraged by the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. We send our condolences to their families and their communities in Minneapolis; Houston; Louisville; and Glynn County, Georgia.
The deaths of Ms. Taylor and Mr. Floyd at the hands of Louisville and Minneapolis Police add to the already shameful list of African-Americans senselessly and needlessly killed by law enforcement in this country. Given the particularly acute level of unrest in Minneapolis, we hope the arrest of one of the officers responsible for Mr. Floyd’s death marks the beginning of police accountability and closure for Mr. Floyd’s family and the Minneapolis community. We also hope – as we hope each time this kind of tragedy repeats itself – this injustice is the one that leads to fundamental change in our criminal legal system throughout the country.
We are not surprised by the horrific video or the horrible outcome in Mr. Floyd’s encounter with police. We at OPD, and public defenders across the country, see the dehumanization and indifference to our clients and poor black and brown communities. We combat the assumption of dangerousness every day. On a daily basis, we call out the ordinary and extraordinary injustices poor people and people of color face in our criminal legal system. Indeed, it is OPD’s job to question and hold power accountable, all while dignifying and humanizing our clients, their families, and their communities – insisting, demanding their lives matter, their voices matter.
The routine and unjust targeting of poor people and people of color by law enforcement is impossible to ignore. The unfounded and unnecessary use of aggressive, violent, and corrupt policing methods to incapacitate poor black and brown people is wholly without justification, except to inflict fear and dehumanize communities. This is what it looks like when racism, bias, and fear are translated into policies and practices.
Even during this pandemic, we continue to cry out to stop the daily influx of arrests that do not make us safer and actually make us less safe. We call on our leaders to use this tragic, yet opportune, moment to re-imagine policing, and make police community partners and allies.
We must stop making unwise and unlawful arrests, like the arrest of Mr. Floyd. Around the country, we must abandon the default use of aggressive, violent and corrupt police interaction. Instead, we need law enforcement sees itself as part of the community. Until law enforcement changes this dynamic and can see themselves in the eyes of the communities they serve, these tragic moments will repeat, while hope for change dwindles.
