NAACP Calls for an Investigation of Fatal Police-Involved Shootings Around the Nation

WHEREAS, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the nation's premier civil rights organization, issued a strong statement following the fatal shooting of Stephon Clark by a Sacramento police officer which gave support to the Sacramento Branch and the State Conference; and 

WHEREAS, our organization and the nation engages in a critical discussion on gun violence, police misconduct we must not ignore the continual stream of men, women, and children whose lives are lost to police firearms. African-Americans are less than 13 percent of the total U.S. population but account for 23% of those shot by police in 2017, according to the Washington Post. The deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Alton Sterling, Philando Castille, Tamir Rice, Laquan McDonald, and Stephone Clark are unacceptable; and 

WHEREAS, our national president wrote Johnson wrote, "We are tired of the apologies, tired of murder being justified on the sole basis that an armed officer feared harm. This is not right and the NAACP refuses to accept this". So this is a call to put some teeth behind that statement; and   

WHEREAS, President Johnson further stated that "Although the White House would have us believe that the killings of Mr. Sterling and Mr. Clark are simply 'local matter[s]', we know better. (The numbers above prove him incorrect). The federal government has a duty to enforce federal civil rights laws, a duty to ensure that we live in a nation where local authority do not kill us with impunity. We refuse to accept the White House's abdication of responsibility." 

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, "The NAACP not only fiercely condemns these latest examples of our justice system's failure to protect Black lives but illuminate this history to Congress and ask for a federal investigation of alleged law enforcement violations across the country. 

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the will work with its social justice partners in seeking legal remedies for unlawful killings of Blacks by police officers.