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, in light of the acquittal of Officer Goodson, who was the driver of the van that inflicted injuries that lead to Freddie Gray’s death, as ministers we cannot in good conscious, continue to work with the Baltimore Police Department in any way on a community based level. We are urging all our members to fulfill their legal obligation to the judicial system of Maryland and to obey all court orders. As clergy we will no longer cooperate with the Baltimore Police Department in any community based, building confidence, programming.
We believe the Baltimore Police Department is morally corrupt, criminally corrupt, and they are the enemy of the Black community.
Rev. Anthony Evans, President of the National Black Church Initiative says, “I can no longer sit by and wholeheartedly support law enforcement in any case. Especially in the City of Baltimore. I am asking all of our members to obey the law. Do not defy court decrees in any way. What I am saying, is that if it is a voluntary action, to support the police, you are not under any moral obligation to do so. Do not give them any money and do not support any of their charitable programs. We will not give money to people who are bent on killing us, lying on us, cheating on us and stealing from us.”
This is one of many incidents that has happened within Baltimore that has caused us to lose faith. The most powerful incident has been the trial of Freddie Gray and how the presiding judge, the press, the Baltimore Chamber of Commerce and the state power structure, manipulated evidence and administratively forced the District Attorney, Marilyn Mosby to undermine her own case against the six police officers. She was politically neutered by the power structure of Maryland and dismissed because they wanted to cover up the Baltimore Police Department and how they murder African Americans. This is the opinion of the Church. This is why we issued a press release saying that in the eyes of the Church, all of those officers committed murder.
Then of course we all read about the corruption of the police, planting evidence on African Americans which is an ongoing criminal case against several officers of the Baltimore Police Department. There has been up to 77 cases dismissed because of this corruption (cancer) that is on the Baltimore Police Department. This case, in the Church’s view, stains the whole department. It is rotten to the core. There is no way that we as clergy can continue to have faith in such a corrupt and immoral system ran by people who pray on Sunday and kill God’s children on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday through their lying, cheating and stealing.
