R E S O L U T I O N
By the North Carolina Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System on September 5, 2017:
WHEREAS, the North Carolina Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System (“NC-CRED”) was established in September 2012 to identify, understand, and remedy the disproportionate representation of African-Americans and Hispanic/Latinos in the criminal and juvenile justice systems in North Carolina; and
WHEREAS, the members of NC-CRED comprise a group of criminal justice stakeholders, including judges, police chiefs, defense attorneys and Public Defenders, policy makers, advocates, district attorneys, and academics, dedicated to finding evidence-based remedies to deficiencies in the criminal and juvenile justice systems that make those systems racially divisive and unfair; and,
WHEREAS, when NC-CRED identifies examples of such deficiencies, the Commission strives to identify practical remedies that have the support of NC-CRED’s professionally diverse members; and,
WHEREAS, visible and systemic markers of racism and white supremacy, including those commemorating the Confederacy, were erected outside courthouses and centers of government power specifically to reclaim those public spaces for the unjust causes the markers and symbols represent; and,
WHEREAS, such markers and symbols of injustice and inequality are inherently incompatible with courthouses dedicated to justice and equality under the law; and,
WHEREAS, demonstrations relating to the continued presence of these markers and symbols in public spaces constitute legitimate public concerns; and,
WHEREAS, government has the inherent authority to take such actions as are necessary to protect public safety and welfare;
NOW THEREFORE, the North Carolina Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System hereby:
1. Calls for the immediate removal of all Confederate monuments, memorials, flags, and other symbols and markers of racism and white supremacy, from all public spaces on which a courthouse at any kind is located and the removal of such markers, monuments, and memorials from display inside courthouses; and,
2. Calls on the North Carolina General Assembly, which represents all of the people of North Carolina and is responsible for their safety and welfare, to repeal the Cultural History Artifact Management and Patriotism Act of 2015 (Session Law 2015-170), G.S. § 100-2.1, so that communities in North Carolina can remove these divisive symbols of racism, injustice, white supremacy from public spaces.
