CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Black attorneys with the Leary Bar Association for Black Attorneys came together Friday to call for specific changes from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and the criminal justice system in Charlotte.
“Seems like I’ve lived through this before,” attorney James Ferguson said.
Ferguson and his law partner founded the first integrated law office in North Carolina. He said the officer’s knee on George Floyd’s neck is symbolic of ongoing systemic racism.
“This whole history of this country has been about the knee of the necks of black people ever since,” Ferguson said.
For nearly nine minutes, attorneys of different races, dressed in black business attire, came together and stood silently to honor Floyd’s life.
Then they called for policy changes.
“A few years ago when we had issues here in Mecklenburg County. The black lawyers did not really stand up, so we want to make sure we make a change this time,” said Fatina Loric, president of the Leary Bar Association.
They said some of those changes they are asking for include CMPD improving its hiring process and providing further training for cultural sensitivity, racial profiling and racial bias.
Attorneys called on CMPD not to employ officers with substantiated complaints of excessive force.
“When it comes to all of us coming together it can be really powerful,” Loric said.
The attorneys said they are in a position to make a difference.
“Attorneys, religious leaders have always been the forefront of the movement,” attorney La-Deidre Matthews said. “If not us, then who is it going to do it?
Matthews also brought her 8-year-old son, A.J., to the rally.
As a community works to make this city better, now and for the next generation, Ferguson said it will take everyone working together.
“One day, we will be able to come together like this and inhale and exhale and say, ‘Now, I can breathe,’" Ferguson said.
The Leary Bar Association announced it is also going to facilitate pro bono representation to protesters who were arrested while demonstrating in Charlotte.
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