FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 25, 2014
CONTACT: Samantha Friedman, West End Strategy Team - Office: (202) 776-7700; cell: (202) 215-9260; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
We Must Stand Together and Work Boldly for Justice:
Statement After the Ferguson Grand Jury Decision
WASHINGTON – In response to the grand jury decision in Ferguson not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the killing of unarmed African American teenager Michael Brown, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture released this statement by Rev. Laura Markle Downton, director of U.S. prisons policy & program:
“Our shared work to end torture in U.S. policy, practice, and culture is rooted in the reality that our religious traditions teach us that we belong to one another in community. When and where human rights and human dignity are violated, where systemic violence, racism and brutality are met with impunity, whether on our streets or in our prisons and places of confinement, we must stand together and work boldly for justice. The persistence and bravery of the youth organizers in Ferguson, sustained now for more than one hundred days, along with solidarity protests nationwide, continue to call our nation to account. Together, we must work to end the criminalization of communities of color, and promote policies that ensure all people are free to live into their full and sacred potential.”
Statements from several of NRCAT’s members and partners are posted on the NRCAT website.
The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) is a membership organization committed to ending U.S.-sponsored torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Since its formation in January 2006, more than 300 religious organizations have joined NRCAT, including representatives from the Catholic, evangelical Christian, mainline Protestant, Unitarian Universalist, Quaker, Orthodox Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Baha’i, Buddhist, and Sikh communities. Members include national denominations and faith groups, regional organizations and local congregations.
