Roc Nation held a virtual press conference with the attorneys of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery to demand justice.
What We Know:
- Civil rights attorneys Lee Merritt and Benjamin L. Crump were joined by CNN commentator Van Jones on Facebook on Friday to express their expectations in the tragedies that have happened over the last couple of weeks.
- They want the Congress to intervene by holding hearings about the cases and to create a national task force that would hold police accountable and hopefully end racial violence.
- Merritt stated it was time for a national responce as civil rights attorneys across the counrty could not continue to “galvanize the community and demand they focus their energy on one instance of injustice when we know, there are over 1,000 on avaerage officer involved shootings a year; that we live in the most incarcerated nation on the planet earth and in the process of maintaining that system of mass incarceration we empower our law enforcement officers to brutalize, focus and over police Black and brown communities.”
- He also called for a campaign to financially hold the places where police brutality repeatedly occurs accountable. Merritt said “We are asking for economic boycotts and sanctions in these communities where these atrocities continue to occur.”
- Crump called on the Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to take over the Floyd investigation. Crump stated it was an insult to Floyd’s family that at that time, the officers involved in his death had not been arrested yet. Since the virtual gathering, Derek Chauvin, the officer shown with his knee on Floyd’s neck has been arrested and charged with murder and manslaughter.
- Crump also stated that there will be an independent autopsy on Floyd. He stated “We’re bringing Dr. Baden to perform an independent autopsy because we saw in the Eric Garner case and so many other cases, where they have these people who work with the city come up with things that are not such an illusion about you didn’t know he had a heart condition’ or ‘he had asthma’. All this stuff that is completely irrelevant because they were breathing, walking just fine until the police accosted them and assaulted and battered them”.
Van Jones ended the press conference saying it was an opportunity to end this terror, describing the deaths against black and brown bodies by the police as an act of terroism. Then, he thanked Jay-Z and Roc Nation for helping behind the scenes to bring forth justice.
