Senator West Issues Statement on The Deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor

Statement

State Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas), candidate for United States Senate in the July 14 runoff, has called for criminal justice and law enforcement reform in the wake of recent revelations concerning the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor.

Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man in Georgia, was jogging on February 23 when he was shot and killed by two white men. The suspects were not arrested until a video of the incident brought national attention to the murder. Subsequently, the Georgia Attorney General asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate law enforcement and prosecutors' handling of the case.

While Americans across the political spectrum are still seeking justice for Ahmaud Arbery, details of the troubling police killing of 26-year-old Emergency Medical Technician Breonna Taylor, a black woman, have emerged.

Taylor was shot and killed by police while sleeping during a botched no-knock drug raid in March.

"Today, I am calling upon the U.S. Department of Justice to speedily but thoroughly investigate each of these cases," West said. "The families of these victims deserve not only justice for these senseless killings, but answers as to why the investigation of these incidents was delayed or initially, not occurring at all."

West, who authored and passed legislation on police-community relations in the Texas Senate which has become a national model for similar legislation, said the problems with the Arbery investigation in Georgia and the Louisville incident make it very clear that greater federal oversight of law enforcement is needed.

"When I'm in the U.S. Senate, I will work to change federal regulations to prevent federal dollars going to any law enforcement agency that uses no-knock search warrants," West said, adding that in Houston, TX last year, a similar practice resulted in the death of two civilians, which led to the Houston Police Department ending the use of no-knock warrants.

"The Department of Justice must make better use of its ability, both criminally and civilly, to hold police and prosecutors to a higher standard when it comes to the investigation of police-involved shootings, hate crimes, and systemic racism or corruption within local police departments," West said.

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