LatinoJustice PRLDEF Statement on the Killing of Adam Toledo
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Release
April 16, 2021
Contacts:
Elianne Ramos | Chief Communications Officer | [email protected] 212.739.7513
Sarai Bejarano | Manager of Traditional & Digital Media | [email protected]| 212-739-7581
LatinoJustice PRLDEF Statement on the Killing of Adam Toledo
Chicago Police Department Officer Fatally Shoots 13-Year-Old Boy
New York, NY – On Thursday April 15th, 2021 the Chicago Police Department released body camera footage of an officer fatally shooting a Latino 13-year-old boy. The adolescent, Adam Toledo, was shot last month on March 29th. The incident has set off protests in Illinois and follows the death of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old fatally shot at a traffic stop by another police officer of the Brooklyn Center Police Department in Minnesota.
The following is a statement issued by LatinoJustice PRLDEF on the killing of Adam Toledo.
“With the revelation of yet another false narrative from law enforcement to conceal the murder of one more unarmed child, we must accept that a system that so relentlessly devalues Black and brown lives cannot be reformed.
Adam Toledo was a 13-year-old child. Neither his youth nor his compliance saved him from being murdered by police, just as 20-year-old father Daunte Wright’s fear and lack of a weapon did not save him. When neither compliance nor flight is an option, what’s left?
We can no longer endure the profound and dangerous dissonance in this country between policing and public safety.
We can no longer accept a society where Black and brown children and fathers won't make it back home each night.
We will no longer allow a criminal justice system to assault our communities with impunity.
Once again, we find ourselves standing in mournful solidarity with the Black and brown communities who have lost their loved ones to state violence, and once again cries for justice resound.
However, we will no longer demand justice in their names and in the names of the countless humans before them whose lives were snatched from us in the name of policing. Justice has never been extended to individuals in our communities. No amount of training can eradicate the deep racism that permeates every American police agency and contributes to the view of brown and Black individuals as threats to be eliminated.
We demand transformation. We can no longer accept armed agents of the state executing our community members. We demand that every law enforcement agency in this country sit down immediately with representatives of community organizations that have proposed funds be shifted from law enforcement to the communities they profess to serve and, together, agree on plans to scale down American militarized police forces.
We demand that every law enforcement agency in this country, in cooperation with those community organizations, conceive and implement accountability measures for officers who brutalize or kill community members, measures that are transparent, meaningful, and immediate. We will accept nothing less.”
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About LatinoJustice
LatinoJustice PRLDEF works to create a more just society by using and challenging the rule of law to secure transformative, equitable and accessible justice, by empowering our community and by fostering leadership through advocacy and education. For more than 40 years, LatinoJustice PRLDEF has acted as an advocate against injustices throughout New York and beyond. To learn more about LatinoJustice, visit www.latinojustice.org.