Statement on death of George Floyd from Coconino County Legal Defender and Public Defender

“A police officer killed George Floyd. That officer was the spear tip of the American Criminal Justice System. It is easy to say that police brutality has no place in this system. But when a system authorizes law enforcement to use lethal violence against the people over $20 or cigarettes or a toy gun or while they’re asleep in their beds, it is incumbent on those working within that system to examine how their own actions propel the inexorable grind of the machinery of justice. When people of color talk about “systemic racism” they are not just talking about police violence. They are talking about the courts too. Mass incarceration and mass disenfranchisement require prosecutors, judges, and lawyers, including public defenders.