The San Francisco Latino Democratic Club is deeply disappointed with the grand jury decision in the case of Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed unarmed teenager Michael Brown. We along with many legal experts and scholars are also critical of how the case was mishandled by St. Louis County District Attorney Robert McCullough.
The death of Michael Brown is a tragedy, but also not an isolated incident as evidenced by the deaths of Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, Tamir Rice and more locally Alex Nieto. Such deaths are all too familiar to us as we see increased militarization of our police along with continued racial profiling.
We are disheartened by the mainstream discourse that sought to dehumanize Michael Brown and justify his killing. There is never an excuse for the loss of life, no matter the circumstance.
Our hope as an organization, is that we can continue to address social justice and quality of life issues. We must work to ensure the injustices we see today are not repeated again tomorrow.