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Statement

Moms Group: “No Mother Should Fear Harm to Their Children at the Hands of the Police”

November 24, 2014
Maternal Health

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

Statement from Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, executive director and CEO of MomsRising.org on news that a grand jury has refused to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the killing of Mike Brown
“Mothers should never have to fear that our children could come to harm at the hands of those charged with protecting them. And yet, today’s refusal by a St. Louis grand jury to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the killing of Mike Brown is an apparent miscarriage of justice that reinforces the all too familiar narrative of lives cut down by those entrusted with protecting and serving - a story of racial profiling and police brutality. The numbers do not lie: Black people are three times more likely than White people to be killed when they encounter the police in the US, and Black teenagers are far likelier to be killed by police than White teenagers.
 
Across the country, we need a higher standards of policing, with strengthened accountability mechanisms, and critical reforms that end biased racial profiling, police brutality, and militarized policing targeting African American and Latino youth, families, and communities.
 
There was a failure to bring justice in the case of police officer Darren Wilson killing teenager Mike Brown. Now it is up to the Department of Justice and President Obama to take definitive action to indict Officer Darren Wilson and to overhaul the policies and practices that lead to deaths like that of Mike Brown, as well as those that perpetuate the nationwide crisis of discriminatory policing.”
 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.