The Missouri NAACP issued the following statement after the conviction of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd.
Press Release
The Missouri State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (Missouri NAACP), a frontline civil rights organization, calls for respect for Blacks’ constitutional rights in Missouri and America.
The NAACP sees the importance of the people demanding justice, from cell phones in hand to the witness stand to jury service.
This was a peaceful response to Derek Chauvin’s illegal acts before there was hope for a trial.
The NAACP continues to condemn Derek Chauvin’s inhuman attack on George Floyd and awaits the sentencing portion of this trial in 8 weeks.
“We watched a police officer force his knee on the neck of George Floyd. We saw a murder. We must understand the voice courts give even after death. Missourians asked for the prosecution of Cory Hutchison after he forced his knee on Tory Sanders’ until he died in a Missouri county jail. The death of George Floyd, and the deaths of so many other victims of police brutality in Missouri, is exactly why the NAACP issued a travel advisory in the first place, and it is still in effect,” said Nimrod Chapel, Jr., President of the Missouri State Conference of the NAACP.
“Missouri Attorney Generals including Senator Hawley and Eric Schmitt refused to even try to prosecute the death of Tory Sanders when less famous lawyers got justice for the people. The Missouri NAACP asks that Missouri address its Jim Crow system of justice that ignores Black deaths from county jails to its failed Covid19 response. The people throughout this country are exercising their constitutional rights to make their voices heard. The police must fulfill their duty to protect and serve all people. This is not new. We saw police cooperate with the KKK during the Freedom Rides and on January 6, 2021, when the Capitol was attacked. There is some solace in this verdict, and the finality will stretch past the death of Mr. Floyd because police can be held responsible for the harm they cause.
