With episodes of police violence against unarmed African-American citizens occurring at a frequency that has raised the national consciousness to an unprecedented level, the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) and The Executive Leadership Council (ELC) have jointly called for immediate reforms to end police misconduct.
This collaboration between The ELC and LDF – the nation’s premier civil rights law organization – is a powerful statement by leaders from across our community about the breadth of the challenges we face and the commitment to work for meaningful change. LDF believes that the voice of the business community is an important one to be heard during this time of national focus on the need for policing reform.
Both LDF and The Executive Leadership Council share the commitment to promoting fairness and equity, and faith in the rule of law. Public confidence in the rule of law and in the integrity of our justice system is threatened by these ongoing incidents, especially when they are so powerfully captured on video as in the case of the killing of Eric Garner in New York and Walter Scott in South Carolina by law enforcement personnel and there is an absence of accountability.
It is critical that we work to make changes now. To this end, both LDF and The ELC support federal action that will promote anti-bias and de-escalation training for all police officer. We also support the provision of additional resources to the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to engage in more robust oversight of funding for police department training, and to support the ability of the Department to identify and investigate patterns of discrimination and misconduct in police departments across the country.
“I am gratified that The ELC has chosen to lend its voice in support of the need for policing reform,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. “When a business group with the stature of The ELC chooses to speak, people listen. The ELC’s engagement on this issue speaks powerfully to the urgent need for change. We are excited about this important collaboration.”
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The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is not a part of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) although LDF was founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights. Since 1957, LDF has been a completely separate organization. Please refer to us in all media attributions as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF.
The Executive Leadership Council, an independent non-profit 501(c)(6) corporation founded in 1986, is the pre-eminent membership organization committed to increasing the number of global black executives in C-Suites, on corporate boards and in global enterprises. Comprised of more than 600 current and former Black CEOs, board members and senior executives at Fortune 500 companies and equivalents, its members work to build an inclusive business leadership pipeline that empowers global black leaders to make impactful contributions to the marketplace and the global communities they serve. For more information, please visit www.elcinfo.com.
