WASHINGTON, DC – SEARAC joins racial justice organizations and Black communities in condemning the brutal death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police earlier this month. The release of body camera footage confirms indisputably that this was an egregious act of police brutality against a Black man. Far too often, police enforcement of traffic laws results in fear, abuse, violence, and death for people of color. Tyre Nichols should be alive today. No one should be condemned to death by a traffic stop.
All forms of policing – from traffic enforcement to anti-drug units to immigration deportation and detention – negatively impact communities of color, including Southeast Asian Americans. Despite growing calls for reform after the 2020 police murder of George Floyd, at least 1,176 people were killed by the police in the United States in 2022 – a record high. SEARAC encourages our community members and allies to sign this petition from the NAACP, demanding that “Congress pass legislation to end the horrors of police brutality and reform a criminal justice system that fails to properly hold law enforcement officials accountable.”
SEARAC acknowledges that Southeast Asian Americans’ pathways to equity are directly descended from the Black community’s historic civil rights wins and struggles, and we join our voices in solidarity with the call to urgently address the systemic racism that plagues policing in this country. We also urge Asian American, Pacific Islander American, and Native Hawaiian communities to review the Asian American Racial Justice Toolkit, a project hosted by Asian American Pacific Islanders for Civic Empowerment, for a deeper understanding of structural racism in policing and elsewhere.