By Leslie Acevedo and Kevin Barragan
BEVERLY, MA – Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP) said this week it stands in solidarity with the Memphis community in the mourning of Tyre Nichol’s death.
The group said it mourned all of the lives lost to past police violence and emphasized the need to transform policing, while extending its deepest condolences to Tyre’s loved ones, noting, “We also know that words ring hollow without decisive action.”
Lt. Diana Goldstein (Ret.), executive director of LEAP, proposed a need for “investment in community responders as a viable alternative to armed police response, change policies on qualified immunity, holding police officers accountable and banning pretextual stops that could have prevented the tragedy from occurring.”
Goldstein added Black and Brown communities are frightened of police and do not trust the system meant to protect them, and there is a need to “[r]ethink the way we practice policing and earn the trust of all community members.”
Goldstein said law enforcement must be held accountable as those who violate the law, adding, “The best solutions to these structural problems often come from the communities affected, and we need to listen to those communities and center their needs as we envision policing for tomorrow.”
