MIAMI, FL – As communities across the country reckon with violence and fear, the ACLU of Florida affirms its commitment to peace, democratic values, and civil discourse.
Bacardi Jackson, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida, shared the following statement:
“In a true democracy, there can be no refuge for politically motivated violence, nor for the quieter violence of inaction and silence in the face of tyranny that stokes division and erodes our most vital norms.
“When constitutional principles bind us, when the rule of law holds all of us accountable, when academic freedom prepares us for principled disagreement and dissent, we can tolerate difference. There can be no clearer clarion call for us to reclaim the evolved values of our nation that have been under assault.
“We stand in solidarity with every community that decries assassins' bullets and chooses peace and civil discourse. We stand in solidarity with communities living in fear after the school shooting in Colorado (the 47th school shooting this year alone), with professors and academicians who have lived a constant barrage of threats of violence after being named on watchlists, and with families tortured by the daily disappearing of loved ones – all of which like the viciousness of rhetoric from the highest echelons of political power, have been dangerously normalized.
“Our condolences go out to the families of conservative political advocate Charlie Kirk and every person who has become a senseless casualty of the hostile political wars that have seized our nation, including Minnesota State House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, children like Fletcher Merkel and Harper Moyski whose lives were tragically taken in yet another school shooting while survivors’ voices and solutions have been silenced in the face of political pandering, as well as Cuban National Isidro Perez, Ukrainian National Maksym Chernyak, Honduran National Genry Ruiz-Guillen, and Guyanese National Ramesh Amechand who all lost their lives to political cruelty and the inhumane conditions of the Krome Detention Center in Miami.
"We must, and will, emerge from these politically tumultuous times stronger – more united, more determined, and more committed to ensuring that out of division and loss, we build a future rooted in dignity, safety, and freedom for all.”
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