Today the Charleston Police Department published its final assessment of its response to the uprising in Charleston on May 30 and 31, 2020. CPD's “Final Report” is deeply disappointing. It has been nearly nine months since the CPD and other law enforcement agencies brutalized people protesting police brutality on May 31. At a minimum, this report should have acknowledged this abuse of power. Instead, CPD has continued to deflect responsibility. CPD has shown our community that it is unable to hold itself accountable. This so-called report is yet another reminder that to achieve safe and just communities we must invest in people, not police and prisons.
CPD's abuses on May 31 are well known. In fact, we have written to CPD on three separate occasions about these abuses. First on June 2. Again on July 28. Finally, along with our partners at SC4CJR, on October 22. These letters documented the police abuses that we witnessed first hand. They also documented the ways CPD officers violated the department's own internal policies. Today's so-called "Final Report" ignored all of this information.
Stay tuned ...
