(MINNEAPOLIS) — Ex-police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison, Friday, for the 2020 murder of George Floyd.
The following is a statement from Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law:
“We are glad to see that some modicum of justice has been meted out today. But this one sentencing will not bring George Floyd back to his family, nor Breonna Taylor, or the countless others who have been killed by the police. Today’s sentencing, no matter how important, does not solve the systemic issues that continue to rob us of Black and Brown lives.
“To be clear, the conviction and sentencing of police officers remains the exception and not the rule. We need now more than ever a paradigm shift that increases transparency, tamps down the hyper-militaristic law enforcement presence in our communities, and ensures that police departments and individual officers are held accountable and removed when necessary for perpetrating unwarranted violence.”
###
About the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law – The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, was formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to involve the private bar in providing legal services to address racial discrimination. The principal mission of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is to secure, through the rule of law, equal justice for all, particularly in the areas of voting rights, criminal justice, fair housing and community development, economic justice, educational opportunities, and hate crimes. For more information, please visit https://lawyerscommittee.org.
