SSSP Expresses Concern Regarding the Eric Garner Grand Jury Decision

SSSP President Marlese Durr, Executive Officer Héctor Delgado, and Vice-President Nancy Mezey wrote on behalf of the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) to express deep concern with a recent Grand Jury decision in Staten Island not to indict police officer Daniel Pantaloeon for the choking death of Eric Garner, despite the fact that the event was caught on tape.  The letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder and President Barack H. Obama insists that if states and municipalities cannot protect the civil and legal rights of their citizens regardless of race or ethnicity, then the federal government must step in, as it has in the past, to protect these rights.  The letter applauds the Justice Department’s investigation of these events, and states that we hope that it can help to restore the trust in our criminal justice system lost in communities of color by these events. The letter is posted on the SSSP Action and Activism page at http://sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/480/.

Click here to read the full letter.

12/19/2014, 03:47 PM