Washington, DC – The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), a faith-based coalition of 34,000 churches comprised of 15 denominations and 15.7 million African Americans, declares that the fix is in. The Sessions / Trump Justice Department is going to do everything in its power to protect racist murderous white police officers like Blane Salamoni and Howie Lake II who know that the escalation of violence in simple stop cases is going to be a huge problem going forward. NBCI’s last Press Release dated April 9th sternly warned the Attorney General not to play this deadly game of refusing to prosecute murderous racist white cops because they supported his nomination. This is why we say. The Fix is in.
Rev. Anthony Evans, President of The National Black Church Initiative says, “The cases that are now pending in the Justice Department with Attorney General Sessions signals that he was willing to interfere with federal consent decrees because he wanted to pay back the Fraternal Order of Police for their loyal support of his candidacy to his Attorney Generalship. The only thing that the Black Church can say to Attorney General sessions is that you may have weaseled your way into this office but you will respect, without a shadow of a doubt, African American rights to exist peacefully and assemble peacefully using all the moral weapons in our arsenal including prayer to tear down the racism that is left in your heart. If the Justice Department persists in ignoring the rights of African Americans then I am prepared to authorize one of the most powerful moral weapons I possess and I am prepared to do it on the fourth of July on the Independence Day of this Nation.”
The Black Church must warn everyone. This is not a road that they want to follow, it would only lead to a race riot. African American clergy will not serve as the buffer between the police and our people because these decisions set this narrative up. The administration would have to live with it and suffer whatever consequences come as a result largely because they refuse to listen to reason and righteousness from a prophet. The Black Church will never be an apologist for the racist, murderous white cops who feel that they have a right to kill Black people at will because they have a gun and a badge. We will do everything in our power that is legal and morally radical to make sure that those cops are identified, prosecuted and put in jail. The refusal from the Justice Department to not levy Civil Rights charges follow a long tradition, even under Barack Obama, of not going after the cops form a federal standpoint. Barack Obama successfully ignored Black suffering and refused to bring any of the police up on federal charges. This Independence Day will see the response from the Black Church.
