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National Bar Association: A black Lawyers Group to tackle Police Brutality
Protestors in Ferguson, Missouri. PHOTO/Charlie Riedel/AP
In an effort to combat police brutality against the African American community in the United States, the National Bar Association has announced plans to file open records requests in 25 cities to study allegations of police misconduct.
Pamela J. Meanes, president of the Black lawyers and judges group, said that the National Bar Association was already making plans for a nationwide campaign to fight police brutality when Michael Brown, an unarmed African American teenager was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a White police officer following a controversial midday confrontation in Ferguson, Missouri.
Meanes called police brutality the new civil rights issue of this era, an issue that disproportionately impacts the black community. “If we don’t see this issue and don’t do the legal things that are necessary to bring this issue to the forefront, then we are not carrying out our mission, which is to protect the civil and political entities of all,” she said.
The National Bar Association, which describes itself as “the nation’s oldest and largest national network of predominantly African American attorneys and judges,” selected the 25 cities based on their African American populations and reported incidents of police brutality.
The lawyers group will file open records requests in Birmingham; Little Rock; Phoenix, Arizona; Los Angeles; San Jose; Washington, D.C.; Jacksonville; Miami; Atlanta; Chicago; Louisville; Baltimore; Detroit; Kansas City; St. Louis; Charlotte; Las Vegas; New York City; Cleveland; Memphis; Philadelphia; Dallas; Houston; San Antonio and Milwaukee.
In a press release about the open records requests, the group said it will not only seek information about “the number of individuals who have been killed, racially profiled, wrongfully arrested and/or injured while pursued or in police custody, but also comprehensive data from crime scenes, including “video and photographic evidence related to any alleged and/or proven misconduct by current or former employees,” as well background information on the police officers involved in the incidents.
Not only will the National Bar Association present their findings to the public, but the group also plans to compile its research and forward the data over to the attorney general’s office.
