A call to dismiss curfew, riot and other non-violent protest-related charges

Photo credit: Unsplash, Julian Wan

Cullin J. Smith, Executive Director of the Neighborhood Justice Center, issues the following statement in response to recent protest-related charged filed against community members:

The Neighborhood Justice Center calls upon St. Paul City Attorney Lyndsey Olson, interim Minneapolis City Attorney Erik Nilsson and all other city attorneys to dismiss all curfew, riot and other non-violent protest-related charges filed by their offices in connection with the George Floyd murder.

The purpose of the curfew was to create perceived order in our community, and that purpose is over. To continue to prosecute these individuals for demanding to be heard in the face of generations of injustice will only serve to expand the crippling gap between law enforcement and those they are sworn to protect further damaging our already suffering community. Many of those arrested are people of color and a criminal charge will only further disenfranchise them, their families, and their futures, which is exactly the opposite of what we need to do for our communities of color. Leaders of the past wrongly followed through with prosecutions for protesting and history now condemns them. You have the chance to be remembered as leaders who helped usher in the new just legal system for the future, or as prosecutors who reinforced the shackles of the past.  

If the human and community toll isn’t enough, the financial impact will also be significant as prosecuting and incarcerating these community members will cost the people of our cities hundreds of thousands of tax dollars, with no benefit to gain. Our community desperately needs these funds for more pressing concerns like closing the racial education gap and training police to do the job right.

Ms. Olson and Mr. Nilsson, don’t force your prosecutors to prosecute their neighbors who they know are only demanding true justice because they have been denied it for so very long. If you choose to pursue injustice by forcing these cases through the system please know NJC and hundreds of local and pro bono attorneys will be ready and willing to fight each and every case, demanding you prove to each sitting juror that their neighbor deserves to be jailed for seeking the justice we are all promised in America, that White America has long taken for granted.

Do the right thing - Dismiss Now.