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Statement

MomsRising Says Lack of Police Accountability in Deaths of Freddie Gray and Ramarley Graham, As Well As the Assault on a Teenage Girl at a Texas Pool, Are Ongoing Failures of Our Criminal Justice System

June 27, 2016
Maternal Health

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

Statement from Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, CEO and executive director of MomsRising.org, on the lack of verdicts in the police killings of Freddie Gray and Ramarley Graham

“Nearly every week we are reminded of ongoing structural racism in our nation that must be deconstructed. Nothing demonstrates that more clearly than the past weeks' failures of our criminal justice system to hold any of the involved officers accountable in the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, or in the video taped assault on the teen at the McKinney pool in Texas, as well as the ongoing failure of justice in the death of Ramarley Graham and too many others. Our nation must end racial profiling and police brutality, as well as halt mass incarceration. We live in a country where a young black man is 21 times more likely to be killed by police than a young white man. This is not okay. No mother should have to fear that a loved one could be harmed at the hands of those charged with protection.”
 

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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.