AIDS United’s CEO responds to the killing of Daunte Wright

Jesse Milan Jr., president and CEO of AIDS United, issued the following statement after police killed Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota:

“We are faced once again with a Black man dead after interacting with the police. Daunte Wright’s life mattered, and he should still be alive today. He joins a long litany of Black people killed by police.

Breonna Taylor

George Floyd

Amadou Diallo

Philando Castile

Sandra Bland

Eric Garner

Rayshard Brooks

Tamir Rice

Michelle Cusseaux

“These, and so many other Black people whose names never made the national news, should be with their friends and families today, but they cannot because police took their precious lives.

“Members of the HIV community regularly experience police brutality, negligence, indifference and malfeasance. We are your neighbors, brothers and sisters, sex workers, people who use drugs, and Black, Brown, Indigenous, Latinx, LGBTQ and undocumented people — and none of us is immune from a system that devalues our bodies, our lives, our love.

“We have to fully address white supremacy, the root cause of violence against Black people. We must root out racial injustice, racial inequities and racial biases whether they show up as a deadly interaction with police, structurally in our health care systems or within our own organizations’ policies and procedures.

“It must end. And we must work for its end now.”

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn