For Immediate Release: 25 May, 2022
Media Contact: Noble Frank, noble@mnfreedomfund.org, (952) 353-6930
MINNEAPOLIS — In observance of the two year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police, the following is a statement from Mirella Ceja-Orozco and Elizer Darris, Co-Executive Directors of the Minnesota Freedom Fund:
“Today marks two years since George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officers. George Floyd was a father, a brother, a partner, and a friend. But to the officers who showed up to arrest him on May 25, 2020, George Floyd’s life was worth less than the counterfeit $20 bill he had been accused of spending.
Much of the coverage of today’s solemn anniversary has rightly focused on the lack of substantive policy changes in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the subsequent protests demanding concrete reforms to our broken and racist criminal justice system. Our political leaders have not just walked away from their commitments to real change – they are actively working to block even minimal reforms, like eliminating no-knock warrants.
Less often discussed is the violence our current criminal legal system visits on Black people even when it functions without overt brutality.
Black men arrested for misdemeanor offenses are often swept up into a pre-trial system in which they are jailed disproportionately, assigned higher bail amounts, and left at greater risk of losing their jobs or homes, regardless of their eventual guilt or innocence. Policies that address police violence but leave these systems in place will never be enough to truly protect Black, brown, and Indigenous Minnesotans.
We remember George Floyd’s family and friends on this day, and we lift up the loved ones of every person lost to police violence. We at Minnesota Freedom Fund remain committed to our core mission of dismantling our state’s cash bail system, which criminalizes poverty and is blatantly discriminatory. And we will continue fighting to build a criminal justice system that respects the humanity and dignity of all members of our community — and that finally abandons the policies that have oppressed so many for so long.”
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