DO SOMETHING!

I still can’t quite comment on the outrageous display of racism we’ve seen unfolding under our noses this past month. My tendency is to go inward and reflect before I can form the right words to speak. Over the past couple of weeks there have been so many incidents that I can barely wrap my head around one before news of the next is breaking. I’ve felt immobilized with grief, acutely aware of the privilege of being able to scroll past those stories and not look, and frozen in not knowing how to respond to the injustice of it all. I get this story in my head that I am only one person and my one little voice is just an echo in the wind. And really, it is when all I do is post in outrage on Facebook and then go about my daily life.

Today I looked that lie square in the eye and I wrote an email to the Hennepin County Attorney in regards to the murder of George Floyd. My voice may be only one voice, but anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of crowd funding knows that when we join forces with what little we each have, it makes a huge impact.

I’m calling on each of you to not look away today. Take one of the actions listed in this article. Or if you want to write an email as well- send it to:

citizeninfo@hennepin.us

Feel free to use my email as a template if you aren’t sure what to say:

To whom it may concern,

I am writing as a concerned citizen of this country in regards to the murder of George Floyd at the hands of your police officers.

It is not enough to know the four officers involved in this case were fired. This action should have come with an immediate arrest of each offender. When an allegation of forgery against a black man results in his death, but the men who murdered him are allowed to walk free, there is every reason to label the actions of the murderers as a modern day public lynching.

There is no amount of justice that will bring Mr. Floyd’s life back, but there will be no rest for the citizens of this country, nor for Mr. Floyd’s family, until the men involved have been held accountable for the severe and unwarranted restraint that resulted in his death.

Your office is handling just one of the many outrageous affronts to our black citizens this country has had to endure this month. I know I am not alone in saying enough is enough! We are tired of seeing our country destroyed by systemic racism. We are tired of the excuses and the deflecting of blame. It does not require much intellect to know when racial disparity is at play right under our noses. We are more racially divided as a nation then we’ve been since the civil war.

You are in a unique position at this time to do the right thing and send a clear message that racism and injustices towards black men and women will no longer be tolerated. Until every citizen is able to walk the streets of your community without fear of being targeted for the color of their skin, until every citizen can expect to be handled with equal dignity and respect during a police investigation, none of us can be considered free and none of us can feel safe in your jurisdiction.

I will end with a plea to extend your investigation to include the party who made the phone call to the police to begin with. Why, if what is being reported, that there was no forgery committed to begin with, was that call made? It is as prudent to understand the motive of the caller, as it is to charge the officers involved in this case with the murder they shamelessly committed for all the world to see.

It is time for a change in this country. I am respectfully asking you to be a part of the solution and specifically for justice for Mr. Floyd and his family.

With regards,
Crystal Marie Neubauer
Gurnee, Illinois