The Time for Thoughts and Prayers is Over
A police officer with his hand casually in his pocket knelt on George Floyd’s neck for almost 9 minutes while several colleagues watched or knelt on other parts of Mr. Floyd’s body. The officers knew people were filming, but they were confident no one would stop them. They were right, and they killed Mr. Floyd without interference from anyone, apart from the cries of horrified bystanders. After all, they had badges and guns. On that day, Minneapolis police conducted a racial terror lynching of George Floyd in broad daylight that was filmed by onlookers and then sent across America. President Trump’s reaction tells you all you need to know about his commitment to seriously address racism in America.
The President Mr. Floyd’s family. The call was “so fast,” Mr. Floyd’s brother Terrence recalled. “He didn’t give me the opportunity to even speak. It was hard. I was trying to talk to him, but he just kept, like, pushing me off, like ‘I don’t want to hear what you’re talking about.’”
Once the call was finished, so was any expression of concern about the racism that enabled Mr. Floyd’s murder. When demonstrations turned violent, Trump quoted an infamous Miami police chief from the 60s: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” When people across party lines expressed outrage, Trump claimed he did not mean police should shoot people committing property crime. Yet when protestors showed up at the White House, he threatened to , later adding that the power of the federal military should be used.
On a with Governors, Trump was as clear as he could be when he said, “You have to arrest people, you have to try people, you have to put them in jail for 10 years and you’ll never see this stuff again.” He added, “You have to dominate. If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time.” His solution to the protests is the response that has always been embraced in America — suppress them aggressively. Send some people to prison. Harass some activists. Maybe next time, they will take the thoughts and prayers and shut up.
These demonstrations are about more than murder by police officers. Earlier this year, Trump claimed that there was a need to study the impact of COVID-19 on Black America. This is necessary only if, like the President, you have turned a blind eye to history and fact. COVID-19 stripped away any cover we had to avoid seeing the true impact of inadequate health care, under-funded education, gentrification, and economic disparities — conditions in communities of color, and in Black communities in particular, that are the direct result of centuries of intentionally created structural racism.
These are the things behind the unrest in America. However, the racism and hatred behind the murder of George Floyd has faded from our President’s focus because he has identified something more important than a racial terror lynching by police. He has identified the real enemy.
Who is it? Well, depending on the circumstances, for Trump it is , or This time, the real enemy is not the racism in America that let police officers choke the life out of a man in front of numerous witnesses with unfettered confidence. It is the demonstrators — Trump calls them “thugs” — many of whom are Black Americans.
So instead of actions to eliminate the racism that pressed the knee into Mr. Floyd’s neck, we get threats about what is coming for these “thugs.” Unless cities respond with an overwhelming law enforcement presence, he will “deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.” If you wonder what he meant by domination, you have your answer.
How many times can a country offer thoughts and prayers in the face of senseless death with no progress or solutions before it becomes clear that the thoughts and prayers were meaningless? George Floyd must remind you of Eric Garner. Breonna Taylor and Terence Crutcher should be alive today. Trayvon Martin and Ahmaud Arbery are dead because their blackness alone marked them as criminal. If thoughts and prayers made a difference, why are we living in this moment of crisis 99 years after the Tulsa Massacre, 52 years after the King assassination, and 29 years after Rodney King was beaten?
The federal government is pushing for cities and states to make a maximum effort to prevent property damage. The President is willing to commit federal law enforcement resources and even the military to defeat the enemy, protect property, and reinstate the status quo. What would America look like if we ever put the same commitment and resources into the elimination of and reckoning with racism?
Take a good look at Mr. Floyd’s lynching and the centuries of unaddressed racism in America. What’s it going to be this time — more thoughts and prayers, with Trump’s military threat waiting if anyone complains? Or, for the first time in our history, a maximum effort with dedicated local, state, and federal resources to transform America’s history of racism?
Our President has given you his answer. America is going to have to answer the same question.
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Press ReleaseDec 2024
Prisoners' Rights
Criminal Law Reform
ACLU Sues Bureau of Prisons for Keeping People in Prison Longer Than the Law AllowsACLU Sues Bureau of Prisons for Keeping People in Prison Longer Than the Law Allows
WASHINGTON – A federal lawsuit brought today by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of D.C., and Jenner & Block LLP challenges the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for unlawfully incarcerating people longer than the law allows under the First Step Act. The lawsuit contends that the BOP’s failure to implement the First Step Act according to its plain language violates the rights of thousands of people who should be returning to their communities and rebuilding their lives but instead remain incarcerated. Signed into law in 2018 by then-President Donald Trump, the bipartisan First Step Act was designed to reduce the population in federal prisons, reform extreme sentencing laws, and provide programming and reentry transition services to people in prison. Central to the First Step Act is a system of earned time credits, which allows people in prison to earn time off their sentences and time out of prison by participating in rehabilitation programs. Through the First Step Act, Congress unambiguously ordered BOP to move people out of prison when they meet certain requirements to use their earned time credits. Instead of faithfully following the mandatory law, BOP adopted a regulation treating the law as optional. As a result, thousands of people, who should already be back in their communities and with their families, remain in prison. “Every extra unlawful day our clients spend in prison is a serious injustice,” said Emma Andersson, deputy director of the Criminal Law Reform Project at the ACLU. “It is egregious that the Bureau of Prisons is imprisoning people for months longer than the law allows. The government must follow through on its legal obligation to get people out of prison on time and back into their communities, where they belong.” Additional comments below from: Vanessa Crowe, plaintiff: “Time is what I owed for my wrongdoing, and I have paid my time. But I should not have to spend more time in prison than the law allows. I often reflect on what I will miss during the months after when I should be out of prison. I will miss work and lose out on wages that would help me get back on my feet. I could be a tax paying citizen instead of a burden on society. But most of all, I will miss more precious time with my family. My family and I are ready to tum the page on this period in our lives — we are all ready to start a new life, a life with purpose, hope, and healing together. I want to start that life when I am legally entitled to start it-not five months later.” Arthur Spitzer, senior counsel at ACLU of D.C.: “There’s no excuse for the Bureau of Prisons to pretend not to understand Congress’s clear command that people who have earned the right to early release must be released. This law has been on the books for six years. The Bureau of Prisons has had plenty of time to understand it. Law enforcers should obey the law.” Betsy Henthorne, partner at Jenner & Block: “It has been six years since the First Step Act was signed, but despite Congress’s clear directives, the Bureau of Prisons continues to hold thousands of people in prison longer than the law allows. We should and do expect better—it’s past time for the BOP to ensure that those who have earned their release are able to return home to their families and communities according to the law Congress passed.” -
Maryland Supreme CourtDec 2024
Criminal Law Reform
Roland Branch v. State of MarylandRoland Branch v. State of Maryland
This petition to the Supreme Court of Maryland asked the court to reconsider its adherence to Whren v. U.S., 517 U.S. 806 (1996), which declared that a traffic stop undertaken for pretextual reasons does not violate the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution so long as the police have probable cause to believe that a traffic violation occurred. The ACLU, alongside the ACLU of Maryland, filed an amicus brief in support of the defendant’s petition, in which the ACLU argued that the court should take up the question of whether pretextual stops violate the Maryland Constitution. In September 2024, the Court denied the petition. -
North Carolina Supreme CourtDec 2024
Criminal Law Reform
State v. WrightState v. Wright
This case in the North Carolina Supreme Court involves the question of whether the police violated the U.S. Constitution when they searched the defendant, Mr. Wright’s, backpack even after he repeatedly said no to the search requests. The ACLU alongside the ACLU of North Carolina filed an amicus brief arguing that the search was unconstitutional because Mr. Wright’s eventual “consent” was the result of police coercion. Our brief urges the court to consider the totality of the circumstances that make one more susceptible to coercion, including race and poverty. -
News & CommentaryDec 2024
Criminal Law Reform
Disability Rights
Incarceration Should Not be a Death Sentence for Individuals Who Use OpioidsIncarceration Should Not be a Death Sentence for Individuals Who Use Opioids
New litigation centered on increasing access to substance-use disorder treatment in jails and prisons is helping to reduce mortality rates among incarcerated individuals.