Today marks ten years since Michael Brown was killed by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer.
In response to this, Legal Defense Fund (LDF) Director of Strategic Initiatives Jin Hee Lee issued the following statement:
“Our hearts go out to the friends and family of Michael Brown. A decade has passed since his killing by law enforcement left a devastating impact in the Ferguson community, which reverberated nationwide. The ensuing pattern-or-practice investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice unearthed disturbing and widespread constitutional violations within the Ferguson Police Department pertaining to racial discrimination, criminalization of poverty through fines and fees, and racialized violence inflicted on Ferguson’s Black residents. These findings resulted in a consent decree that currently governs the Ferguson Police Department as it engages in court-ordered, department-wide changes to prevent further harm to the Ferguson residents.
“The death of Michael Brown, the police violence against Ferguson residents engaged in acts of protest, and the shocking findings about the Ferguson Police Department reflected the deepest flaws in our public safety system. Yet, we have still not remedied the systemic failures within police departments that lead to ongoing violence against Black people, often with little or no accountability. Even so, the family of Michael Brown, and so many other families impacted by police violence, inspire us to continue to fight for a transformation of our public safety system that keeps all people truly safe within their communities. We stand with them and recommit to developing a public safety system that respects all people’s inherent dignity through the strategies outlined in our Framework for Public Safety to reduce police violence in the future.”
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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights law organization. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Please note that LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.
