Cori Parrish, Deputy Director of Programs and Operations
January 2016
The Justice Committee (JC) is among the groups leading a movement against police violence and systemic racism in New York City. They are empowering low-income Latino/a communities and other people of color to address these issues. JC members and leaders are New Yorkers whose lives are impacted by police violence, including families who have lost loved ones to the New York Police Department. JC is a co-founder and steering committee member of Communities United for Police Reform.
Since 2004, Justice Committee has received 14 North Star Fund grants totaling over $150,000, including the 2015 Frederick Douglass Award. In 2014, they received a $50,000 Movement Leadership grant and last summer they received a grant from the Let Us Breathe Fund in recognition of their success organizing the families hurt by police shootings and brutality.
Over the last year, they and their allies have taken huge steps towards achieving a goal they identified in the 1990s: an independent prosecutor to investigate and prosecute civilian deaths at the hands of police and cases of police brutality.
As a result of a families-led Special Prosecutor campaign, in July 2015 Governor Cuomo signed an executive order establishing a standing special prosecutor to investigate killings by police, the first of its kind in the country.
For more information about this victory, visit:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/08/cuomo-special-prosecutor_n_7752876.html
