RICHMOND, Va. -- The Virginia NAACP called for action following thesentencing of former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, for the murder of George Floyd. Meanwhile, a Virginia police organization said reforms recently established needed time to work.
"Today's action was accountability. It wasn't true justice," said Da'Quan Love, Executive Director of the Virginia NAACP. "Legislation right now is what we need to ensure that what happened to George Floyd over a year ago, won't happen again a year from now."
Love said the NAACP was renewing its call for federal and state standards in policing to hold officers accountable.
"The fact that we are holding the officers accountable in Minnesota should not be the exception, it should be the rule," said Love. "Until we have standards for law enforcement, we are left to the whims of juries, and we're left to the whims of judges."
Love added that the Virginia NAACP had made recent requests to Governor Northam to act at the state level.
"There have been some pieces that you'll hear about very soon, about what we have requested for the Governor to do. If you recall, we had some meetings with him over the last several weeks," Love said.
Meanwhile, Dana Schrad, Executive Director of the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police responded to the calls for state standards in policing with the following statement:
Virginia passed broad reforms supported by our police chiefs to strengthen hiring, background checks, and decertification standards. New professional standards of conduct are also in development. We need to give those reforms time to work.
