Washington, D.C. – Following the verdict in the George Floyd murder trial, Greisa Martinez Rosas, Executive Director of United We Dream, issued the following statement:
“Nearly a year ago our country bore witness to the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Police and enforcement agencies have continued to target and kill Black people. Just earlier this month Daunte Wright was shot and killed by Brooklyn Center police just a few miles north of where George Floyd was murdered. We know that George Floyd was murdered not just at the hands of Derek Chauvin, but at the hands of a white nationalist system of state-sanctioned violence against Black and brown people. Enforcement agencies like police, ICE, and CBP were created to harm Black and brown people and must be defunded and abolished.
No outcome of this case could have addressed the systemic oppression and violence that led to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Mike Brown, John Crawford, Atatiana Jefferson, Daunte Wright, and Adam Toledo. This conviction does not mean that police will stop targeting and killing Black people. There is no true protection for our communities until ICE, CBP, and Police are defunded and abolished.
Our hearts are with George Floyd’s family who continue to mourn the loss of their father, their brother, their son. Our undocumented community remains committed to defending and fighting with and for Black lives everywhere. The members of United We Dream will not stop fighting until all of us are free – free to live, free to move, and free to breathe.”
