Premeditated public execution of #AnthonyLamarSmith illustrates racist system
WASHINGTON – On September 15, former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley was found not guilty of killing Anthony Lamar Smith. Advancement Project, a national racial justice organization, released the following statement in response:
“The killing of #AnthonyLamarSmith is essentially a premeditated execution,” said Judith Browne Dianis, Executive Director of Advancement Project’s national office. “Jason Stockley said he was ‘going to kill this motherfucker, don’t you know it.’ Then he killed Smith in cold blood, with his service pistol in one hand and an AK-47 in another. This points to what generations of Black people and communities of color have repeated to no end: This is a racist system built to kill us.
“Everyone around the country should be looking at the egregiousness of State of Missouri vs. Jason Stockley. Every detail of this case has implications on how people of color are disregarded, what our judicial system is turning into, and what over policing is doing to our communities. As a national organization dedicated to transforming how safety and policing is administered within communities of color with organizations on the ground around the country, including St. Louis, we are in full support our partners’ work to transform a system that works in favor of killers and denies the protection of the First Amendment to protestors who seek justice.”
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Advancement Project is a multi-racial civil rights organization. Founded by a team of veteran civil rights lawyers in 1999, Advancement Project was created to develop and inspire community-based solutions based on the same high quality legal analysis and public education campaigns that produced the landmark civil rights victories of earlier eras.
