After years of demonstrations and calls for meaningful police reform, on November 18, 2014 Dallas Communities Organizing for Change (DCOC) hand delivered a Department of Justice Complaint against the Dallas Police Department, to your office in Washington, D.C. 

The complaint, based on ten years of public data on officer involved shootings by the Dallas Police, details the ongoing pattern and practice of excessive force against minority communities.  The data contained in the report is verified by data released by Dallas Police to their website in November 2014.

The federal complaint makes a compelling argument that the Department of Justice must conduct an investigation of Dallas Police in order to protect Black and Hispanic individuals from civil rights violations, and save lives of unnecessary shooting victims. 

Congresswoman Johnson, you refused to support police reform organizers calls for justice, and have been surprisingly silent on the matter publicly.  We are therefore re-issuing our request that you stand side by side with your constituents as they call for sweeping police reform, and publicly support a Department of Justice investigation of the Dallas Police.

Fighting for racial justice and an end to discriminatory policing is as much an issue in 2015, as it was in the 1960's.  We need leadership that is willing to do what it takes to save the lives of those most at risk, in day to day interactions with law enforcement.