Nearly a year has passed without justice for Nicolas Morales, gunned down by Collier County Sheriff's deputy who remains on the job, and in our streets, today...
Leaving bad police on the streets begets more police violence. Accountability for past violence isn't just the right thing to do for those already victimized by police brutality, it prevents future abuse, too.
Call to Action: Join us on September 17th at the Collier County Sheriff's Office in Naples to deliver a petition demanding justice for Nicolas and an end to police brutality for all of Collier County!
This September 17th -- just three weeks from today -- will mark one year since Nicolas Morales was shot to death at close range by Cpl. Pierre Jean of the Collier County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) and mauled by a police K-9 as he lay dying, alone and calling out for his mother, in the quiet streets of Immokalee's Farmworker Village neighborhood. As a result of two woefully inadequate investigations by both the State Attorney's office and the CCSO's own Professional Responsibility Bureau, Cpl. Jean and the two other Sheriff's deputies on the scene with him that night remain on the job -- and in the streets of Collier County -- today. The officers suffered no official consequences for killing a man in the throes of a mental health crisis whom they just as easily could have helped. The consequences of their actions, on the other hand, cannot be undone, leaving a 13-year old boy forever orphaned and a heartbroken community outraged and demanding justice.
For the past year, the community's demands for justice and common-sense police reforms have been ignored, while the need for change has grown only more urgent, and the community's commitment to seeing their demands become policy has only deepened. It has become increasingly clear that what happened to Nicolas that morning in Farmworker Village was anything but an isolated incident, but rather part of a larger pattern of unchecked police abuse both here in Collier County and in the nation as a whole. And, more than that, what happened after Nicolas's unconscionable killing was likewise part of a larger pattern, where police who commit violence on the job, from the use of excessive force all the way up to killing those they are sworn to protect, are rarely held accountable for their actions and, in all too many cases, return to the streets only to commit more violence, and even kill, again.
Any serious analysis of the history of police violence in the country as a whole leaves no room for doubt: When officers who commit acts of police brutality are not held accountable for their actions and are left on duty and in the streets, the chances of continued violence only increase. If the past tells us anything, it is that unchecked police violence only leads to more violence in the future.
Our patience is not infinite. After all too many years of silence, the time to act is now.
Join us this September 17th at the Collier County Sheriff's Office (meeting at Airport Pulling Rd. and US 41 in Naples) to mark one year since the brutal killing of Nicolas Morales, to deliver a petition demanding justice for Nicolas and urgent police reforms for all of Collier County to Sheriff Kevin Rambosk, and to demand a new and more humane future of policing in Collier County.
While our protest on September 17th will be in Nicolas's name, our voices join a growing chorus calling for an end to police brutality and an official commitment to the structural reforms that are urgently needed across the country. Because, sadly, we are far from alone.
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Coalition of Immokalee Workers
110 S 2nd St
Immokalee, FL 34142
United States
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