The Official Black Long Island Statement

By the Founders and Moderators of the Black Long Island Group on Facebook and blacklongisland.net

This statement is less than 8 minutes, 45 seconds. We hope that you will read it and/or listen to it understanding the last breaths taken by George Floyd.

In June 2016, when Black Long Island first started, we set out on a mission to build a bigger, brighter and stronger Black community presence on Long Island. We have supported Black owned businesses, helped to elect Black county and state officials, and kept the Black community informed. Four years later, we find ourselves more united than ever before, but still baffled by the 2014 New York killing of Mr. Eric Garner by on-duty police officer Daniel Pantaleo and New York’s pitiful response. The time for change is now.

Mr. George Floyd cried out for his deceased mother as he was being killed by on-duty police officer Derek Chauvin. He cried out symbolically for so many people whose lives were extinguished unjustly by American Government Officials: Patrick Dorismond, Sean Bell, Atatiana Jefferson and Tamir Rice, just to name a few.

Derek Chauvin’s callous murder of George Floyd broke the veils of silence across our nation, and the world. Sadly, it is this un-defendable act that White allies of criminal justice reform needed to feel socially safe coming forward. And it is this un-ignorable act that the Black allies of criminal justice reform needed to let themselves feel. We can NO longer hide or suppress our gut instincts about the tremendous need for criminal justice reform, our blood is boiling and the teapot of justice is whistling loud and clear.

We, the Founders and Moderators and the people that make up Black Long Island, serving over 29,000 members, in response to the recent murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Abery and George Floyd, recognize the documented senseless killings of unarmed Black Men and Women at the hands of current and former law enforcement officers in the United States as part of a long legacy of systemic violence perpetrated against Black lives that is wrong and should not be tolerated by any person that considers themselves to be humane.

We assert that Black Lives do Matter. We call on all Black, White, Latino, Indigenous and Asian Elected and Appointed Politicians as well as Civic, Social, Fraternal and Religious organizations to stand as our Allies and renounce police brutality publicly, for any American to remain silent, is to be complicit. 

Black Long Island has a unique opportunity to lead the way in criminal justice reform. We have two County Executives and County Legislatures who are intimately beholden to Our Votes. We have a recent history of enacting pioneering county laws (like no cell phone usage while driving) that have swept the nation. We need to use that influence now. 

Read Luke 12:47-48 in context of the police as public servants and the PUBLIC as the master (we pay their salaries). “And a servant who knows what the master wants, but isn’t prepared and doesn’t carry out those instructions, will be severely punished. But someone who does not know, and then does something wrong, will be punished only lightly. When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.” Officers and prosecutors, commissioned to serve and protect the public by the public, are given so much power to shackle human freedom and take human life. Now let’s ask ourselves “Are peace officers and district attorneys held to high standards of performance?”

The answer is resoundingly NO.

With a federal anti-lynching law having passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, there is no time like the present for criminal justice reform. We can no longer wait! It’s time that the smart, strong, brave and willful (pick one) among us put our heads together to create a new and modern standard of performance and a modern checks and balances in our criminal justice systems on Long Island and across the country. We’ll start with police and corrections, and end with district attorneys and judges. This country has standards that are archaic in the criminal justice system. They are reflective of a time when only paper carried records and only humans could tell the truth and they are literally killing us. It’s time that we move the criminal justice system into the 21st century by creating standards of performance that are suitable for our computer-age, that can be tracked and measured, and that decrease individual subjectivity while increasing system objectivity.

We can make a difference right now, Black Long Island. We will be organizing political cells and virtual meetings for brave warriors for change. Only sign up if you are ready to contribute your time, energy and talents. Let’s move forward with force and favor because all Black Lives Matter.