NASHVILLE, TN — Yesterday I stood with Mayor Briley at his press conference in hopes that after the release of the video where Daniel Hambrick was shot and killed that there would be given full support of the Community Oversight Board proposed to be on the ballot this November. Additionally I believed there would be an outline of new policy for better policing of communities of color. Unfortunately that did not happen, however I am calling on Mayor Briley to give full support of the Community Oversight Board. It is time for the Mayor’s office to take a top-down approach within MNPD to acknowledging, addressing, and acting on brutality, discrimination, and unlawful deaths. MNPD leadership must be re-evaluated and much-needed changes have to be made. It is getting harder and harder for those disparately impacted by law enforcement to pledge allegiance to a flag when there is no “liberty and justice for all.” The shooting of Daniel Hambrick once again opens the decades long wound of the appearance of governmentsanctioned murder. The community will no longer accept multiple accounts of the story being released, people of color being pulled over disproportionately, and being killed for a simple traffic violation. We are better than this. We deserve better than this. We demand better than this.
Ann Sharfner – Legislative Assistant