DCY STATEMENT ON GEORGE FLOYD

“For it isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.” Eleanor Roosevelt

The execution of George Floyd and the echoes of his desperate plea “I can’t breathe,” reverberates in our hearts with a sense of utter failure. We have failed because we know those words. Eric Garner uttered those same desperate words in 2014 and we knew then that the system was broken. We knew it was broken when Michael Brown and Freddie Gray were killed shortly after. And we vowed then that as a society we must fix what is broken.

As a law firm built on the values of protecting freedom, fighting injustice and advocating for equality, we know it is our duty to ensure we exhaust every tool within our sphere of influence to bring change. Our sense of failure is born from the familiar feelings of sadness and disbelief and the knowledge that this cycle of racism, oppression and police misconduct is spinning on repeat.

At Domnick Cunningham & Yaffa, we support the voices of those peacefully protesting and share their vision for a more just society. We recognize that each person who speaks out against racism is doing so because silence is deafening. 

There is a systemic failure that has allowed the seeds of hate to plant themselves within society and proliferate unchecked. The tragedies that are captured on tape are only a small snapshot of the intolerance, judgement and implicit bias that seeps through cities each day. We know that in 2020 racism courses through the veins of some people in power and those at their mercy have paid with their lives. Most of all we know that when failing systems go unchecked, the outcome is always catastrophic. Today, Domnick Cunningham & Yaffa joins the nation in grieving for the loss of George Floyd and every victim of racial injustice. 

We pledge to demand accountability and unite against injustice. We support the peaceful demonstrations across the nation. But we also know we must do more. We must activate the electorate so that they elect officials committed to action not just campaign rhetoric. We must lobby for bi-partisan reform of the justice system and acknowledge that true reform cannot occur until we admit that racism exists. We must demand that data submitted to the FBI Use of Force database cannot be voluntary. In order to truly understand the scope of our system’s failures we must mandate the collection of this data and hold those that do not comply accountable.

At Domnick Cunningham & Yaffa we will continue our fight against injustice. We will continue to prosecute cases of police brutality in our community (and we will succeed). But we also pledge that this time we will not accept failure as an option. We will work tirelessly to lobby and elect leaders who will make a difference. We will financially support organizations who stand for equality. We will not allow racism to enter our walls and we will ALWAYS stand up for what is right.