WASHINGTON – On Monday the Tulsa, Oklahoma, Police Department released footage of a white police officer fatally shooting Terence Crutcher, an unarmed African American man. People For the American Way Foundation President Michael Keegan released the following statement:

“On behalf of everyone at People For the American Way Foundation, we offer our deepest condolences to the family of Terence Crutcher. This kind of horror is something no family should ever have to experience.

“It is unconscionable that an unarmed man standing beside his stalled SUV would be shot and killed by the police. It’s on all of us to speak out not only against excessive police force but against the systemic devaluation of Black lives in our country. 

"We challenge everyone within the progressive movement and all people of conscience to speak out, demand accountability and justice, and fight for policy change to address police brutality and systemic racism.”

People For the American Way Foundation is a progressive advocacy organization founded to fight right-wing extremism and defend constitutional values including free expression, religious liberty, equal justice under the law, and the right to meaningfully participate in our democracy.

###