Justice Sonia Sotomayor.Photo: Erin Schaff/AFP/ Getty
In the wake of several high-profile police-involved shootings of Black people that spurred dozens of protests against racial injustice around the country, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor believes Americans should take a closer look athow citizens are policed, because those rules will “apply to all of us at some point.”
Asked about young people of color living in a country with “serious inequality of law enforcement” on Thursday, the AP reported that 66-year-old Sotomayor responded: “It’s a question about what do we, as society, how do we as a society want the police to interact with us? And not just to say, with Black people, or brown people or Asian people or even white people, but all of us. Because the parameters we set will apply to all of us at some point.”
During the discussion, Sotomayor also noted that the topic of racial injustice and policing is “one that people should not discuss or think they need to discuss as a ‘Do I respect the police or not?′ It has nothing to do with respect for the police or not.”
A spokesperson for Sotomayor did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
The justice did not specifically address Floyd’s killing or the Chauvin verdict in her remarks.
Just last month, Sotomayor — the first Latina to be appointed to the Supreme Court — made another virtual appearance, alongside conservative colleague Justice Neil Gorsuch.
She continued: “Yet at the same time we have seen some cracks in our system. We have a great deal of partisan, very heated debate going on, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing but it can turn into an awful thing and into something that destroys the fabric of our community if we don’t learn how to talk to each other.”
Gorsuch concurred the sentiment, saying: “How can a democracy function if we can’t talk to one another and if we can’t disagree kindly, with respect for one another’s differences?”
Meanwhile, earlier this week, a North Carolina prosecutor declined to press charges against sheriff’s deputies involved in the fatal shooting of Andrew Brown Jr., saying the incident wasjustified. The 42-year-old Brown’s shooting in April sparked days of protests.
Last month, following the guilty verdict in the Chauvin trial, former PresidentBarack Obama— whonominated Sotomayor to the Supreme Courtin 2009 — lauded the decision, but added that “true justice is about much more than a single verdict in a single trial.”
“While today’s verdict may have been a necessary step on the road to progress, it was far from a sufficient once, we cannot rest,” Obama, 59,said in a statement. “We will need to follow through with the concrete reforms that will reduce and ultimately eliminate racial bias in our criminal justice system. We will need to redouble our efforts to expand economic opportunity for those communities that have been too long marginalized.”
source: people.com
