For Immediate Release
July 7, 2016
Washington, DC — The nation’s largest trade association of African American owned newspapers and media companies, the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), today issued an urgent call and demand that President Barack H. Obama and U.S Attorney General Loretta Lynch appoint a Federal Special Prosecutor in the wake of the police killings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota.
Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. President & CEO of the NNPA stated, “The killings of African Americans in Louisiana and Minnesota during the past 72 hours represent an escalating national pattern of fatal police killings that appear to be racially motivated. These incidents are not isolated local tragedies, but are the terrible growing manifestations of a deadly national system of racism in the criminal justice system that needs to be effectively challenged and changed. There are today too many African American families and communities that continue to endure police brutality and violence across the United States. This is a national crisis that demands immediate federal intervention to both investigate and to prosecute police officers who continue commit these wanton racially motivated killings.”
“We, therefore, demand that a Federal Special Prosecutor be immediately appointed by the United States Department of Justice. To date, unfortunately, local investigations and prosecutions have been ineffective and have not insured justice. We have heard from many of our NNPA member publishers throughout the nation and our cups of disgust have run over with moral outrage. We will not be silent in the face of these injustices. We demand action by the federal government now.”
The NNPA represents 209 African American owned newspapers based in 32 states and known as the “Voice of Black America” that reaches 20.l million readers per week with national offices located in Washington, DC. www.BlackPresUSA.com and www.NNPA.org