Jordan Edwards
We must end abusive and deadly policing now! Stand with the Family of Jordan Edwards!
May 22, 2017
He was just a kid. An honor roll student. A popular football player with a loving family. But no matter what grades he had or sports he played, we know one thing: Jordan Edwards didn't deserve to die.
Three weeks ago, police officers arrived at a party that Jordan was leaving with friends. They were responding to a call about “drunken” teenagers walking around. Officer Roy Oliver fired a rifle at the car Jordan was a passenger in, striking Jordan in the head and killing him. His two brothers, who were in the car with him, witnessed him dying. The police chief, Jonathan Haber, tried to justify the killing and claimed the car was backing down the road "in an aggressive manner” towards the officers.
Though District Attorney Faith Johnson made the right decision by filing murder charges against Officer Oliver, the officer who fatally shot Jordan, we need to ensure the next step toward conviction. DA Faith Johnson must show leadership and allow for a special prosecutor who will be fair, impartial, convict Roy Oliver, and investigate all wrongdoing by holding the entire Balch Springs police department accountable.
We are asking for a special independent prosecutor because local district attorney offices have been largely inefficient in handling police officer killings due to a reluctance to pursue criminal indictments of police officers. When officers kill, they are almost never held accountable because of an inherent conflict of interest that arises whenever local prosecutors investigate the police officers they work with every day. And studies show the chances of prosecution are lower when the victim is Black. The police officer who killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice last year in Cleveland, Ohio, was cleared under similar circumstances. Young Black men are 21 times more likely to be killed by police than young White men, and too often their families see no justice. The story continues to repeat itself, and we need this to stop now.
No mother should ever have to fear a loved one could be harmed at the hands of those charged with protecting them.
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