Leslie McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr. urged a United Nations committee to recommend that Darren Wilson be arrested immediately in the death of their son
Michael Brown’s parents, Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr., spoke before a United Nations committee in Geneva on Tuesday to urge the panel to “recommend the immediate arrest” of the police officer who shot their unarmed son, a CNN report explains.
They also told the committee to recommend that Ferguson, Mo., police officers put an end to “racial profiling and racially biased police harassment across the jurisdictions surrounding Ferguson.”
Although their testimony was closed to the public and the press, McSpadden and Brown Sr. reportedly read from a prepared statement.
Before the speech, Brown’s parents spoke to CNN about their intentions in Geneva.
“We need the world to know what’s going on in Ferguson and we need justice,” McSpadden told CNN in Geneva.
“We need answers and we need action. We have to bring it to the U.N. so they can expose it to the rest of the world, what’s going on in small-town Ferguson,” she continued.
They delivered their remarks to the United Nations Committee Against Torture, a collective that “works against cruel or degrading treatment or punishment by government authorities,” CNN explains.
Family and community members are bracing for the decision of a grand jury that will determine whether Wilson, 28, will be indicted on charges for the death of Brown. The results of their deliberations are expected to be announced this week.
But while local residents are stocking up on guns and ammunition in anticipation of any potential protests, McSpadden made a plea for peace asking residents and community members to pause, plan, and prepare in response to the grand jury decision. “We don’t want anyone acting irrational or acting before thinking,” McFadden said. “Because it wouldn’t be serving us any purpose, it wouldn’t be doing us any good. We’re trying to get a message across.”
Along with these recommendations, Brown and McSpadden requested a nationwide investigation examining “systematic police brutality and harassment in black and brown communities, and youth in particular. Methodology and findings of this investigation must be made publicly available,” they said according to CNN. Brown’s death is one of the latest incidents in a string of shootings of unarmed black teenagers and his parents are not the only ones who have shared their loss before the U.N.
Meanwhile, McFadden and Brown Sr. join the parents of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis in battling the loss of their relatives while remaining strong in their mission to fight for justice. “It’s a situation where I’m surprised we haven’t even lost our mind yet over this,” Brown’s father told CNN. “But we’re being strong. Hopefully, justice will prevail.”
-Tamara El(@_SheWise_)
