POUGHKEEPSIE – Calling the killing of black men by certain police officers “the new lynch mobs in blue, with a badge and a gun instead of ropes, guns and white hood,” Elouise Maxey, president of the Northern Dutchess Branch of the NAACP in Poughkeepsie condemned the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Former police officer Derek Chavin has been arrested in connection with the crime.
Maxey said that behavior needs to be changed “through psychological evaluations before an officer is hired, and yearly after they are hired, through more diversity and sensitivity training, training on cultural competence, and on how to subdue without beating and killing the person in custody.”
The arrested officer and his colleagues on the scene “who failed to intervene all should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, swiftly and expeditiously,” she said.
The local civil rights leader asked the public to stop the violence. “I understand your anger and frustration, but Dr. King taught us that violence begets violence,” she noted. “A peaceful, nonviolent protest is best. Look what he was able to do through nonviolence protest.”
