White Plains, NY — All seventeen members of the Westchester County Board of Legislators on Saturday, wrote to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and members of the Minneapolis City Council, to condemn the killing of George Floyd and to call for swift, fair and total justice by state and local authorities in Minnesota and by federal officials for the murder. The letter was also forwarded to the city’s police chief.

A copy of the letter is attached here. The text of the letter is below:

We, the undersigned members of the Westchester County Board of Legislators, condemn in the strongest terms the actions of the former Minneapolis police officers which led to the death of George Floyd on Monday, May 25.

The outrageous, vile and pernicious indifference to human life on display to the world as his colleagues watched while Derek Chauvin kept his knee on the neck of a handcuffed, unarmed black man for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, while Mr. Floyd begged for his life -- including for nearly three minutes after George Floyd was unresponsive -- sickens all of us.

We call for swift, fair and total justice by state and local authorities in Minnesota and by federal officials for the murder of Mr. Floyd.

But as we all know too well, the killing of Mr. Floyd did not occur in a vacuum.

The persistent and continuing violence, mistreatment and inequity which people of color are repeatedly subjected to across this nation, especially in interactions with law enforcement and the justice system, is intolerable and must be brought to an end.

That is why we must speak out. We have no legal authority to act on behalf of justice for Mr. Floyd in Minnesota, but there is a moral imperative that we raise our voices. Our ability as a nation to effect the fundamental change that is 400 years overdue, requires all of us to speak out whenever and wherever this kind of injustice and indifference to our common humanity is on display.

Silence is not an option – not for us as lawmakers, not for us as Americans, not for us as human beings.