Jimmy Carter is the latest former president to speak out about the police killing of George Floyd, calling on people in power to provide more than lip service to improving what he termed “a racially discriminatory police and justice system.”
In a statement posted at CarterCenter.org, Carter said he and his wife, Rosalynn, are “pained by the tragic racial injustices and consequent backlash across our nation in recent weeks.”
Carter also noted that silence can be as deadly as violence, and that people have a duty to speak out against the current system of inequity.
“People of power, privilege, and moral conscience must stand up and say ‘no more’ to a racially discriminatory police and justice system, immoral economic disparities between whites and blacks, and government actions that undermine our unified democracy,” he said.
Carter is the final former president to speak out about Floyd, 46, a Black man who died last week after a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed on the all HuffPost superfans!