RESOLUTION

By the North Carolina Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal
Justice System:

WHEREAS, the North Carolina Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the
Criminal Justice System (NC-CRED) was established in September 2012 to identify,
understand, and remedy the disproportionate representation of African-Americans and
Hispanic/Latinos in the criminal and juvenile justice systems in North Carolina; and

WHEREAS, the members of NC-CRED comprise a group of criminal justice

stakeholders, including judges, police chiefs, defense attorneys and Public Defenders,
policy makers, advocates, district attorneys, and academics, dedicated to finding
evidence-based remedies to deficiencies in the criminal and juvenile justice systems that
make those systems racially divisive and unfair; and,

WHEREAS, when NC-CRED identifies examples of such deficiencies, the Commission

strives to identify practical remedies that have the support of NC-CREDs professionally
diverse members; and,

WHEREAS, visible and systemic markers of racism and white supremacy, including
those commemorating the Confederacy, were erected outside courthouses and centers of
government power specifically to reclaim those public spaces for the unjust causes the
markers and symbols represent; and,

WHEREAS, such markers and symbols of injustice and inequality are inherently
incompatible with courthouses dedicated to justice and equality under the law; and,

WHEREAS, demonstrations relating to the continued presence of these markers and

symbols in public spaces constitute legitimate public concerns; and,

WHEREAS, government has the inherent authority to take such actions as are necessary
to protect public safety and welfare;

NOW THEREFORE, the North Carolina Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities
in the Criminal Justice System hereby:

1. Calls for the immediate removal of all Confederate monuments,

memorials, flags, and other symbols and markers of racism and white supremacy, from
all public spaces on which a courthouse at any kind is located and the removal of such
markers, monuments, and memorials from display inside courthouses; and,

2. Calls on the North Carolina General Assembly, which represents all of the
people of North Carolina and is responsible for their safety and welfare, to repeal the
Cultural History Artifact Management and Patriotism Act of 2015 (Session Law 2015-
170), G.S. 100-2.1, so that communities in North Carolina can remove these divisive
symbols of racism, injustice, white supremacy from public spaces.