Our Press – 2020/2021

"The only way to break the chain [of teen violence], is to invest in communities and teens" said Kerwin Pittman

“What happened behind the scenes is what almost always happens. The sheriffs’ association used its incredibly outsized power at the General Assembly and got that done,” said Dawn Blagrove

"There's no way to claim equity or fairness in a process when the results so disproportionately deny life and liberty to black children," Blagrove asserted.

"This trial invokes an emotion that's sickening . . . [it's] white man's justice and black man's grief in the criminal justice system," said Kerwin Pittman.

“Your repeated conclusory statements will not be sufficient assurance that she is safe from harm and not subject to coercion and retaliation, while she continues to be a woman incarcerated in a men’s prison,” Simpson wrote.

“There is a segment of our population who, number one, feels like they are silenced, and, number two, feels like their pain is not recognized,” Dawn Blagrove said.

Elizabeth Simpson, an attorney with Emancipate NC, said she believes that prison deaths over the past year and a half increased not only due to the virus but due to lack of access to care for chronic conditions.

“This bill HB805 is racist. It’s an anti-Black Lives Matter bill,” said attorney Dawn Blagrove with Emancipate NC.

Will you personally encourage citations over misdemeanor arrests, including for marijuana charges? asked Kerwin Pittman with Emancipate NC

"Facial recognition systems has shown disproportionate error rates in identifying Black and brown people, ultimately leading to wrongful arrests of black and brown people," Kerwin Pittman said.

“What we are seeing is Republicans finding the easiest, the most innocuous, the least impactful ways to create change to a system that needs massive overhaul without actually disrupting the system,” Dawn Blagrove, Emancipate NC Executive Director said.

Public defenders’ offices are underfunded across the country, but in North Carolina it is “especially egregious,” said Dawn Blagrove, executive director of racial justice group Emancipate NC. “It is a travesty and it is a guarantee that folks’ Sixth Amendment right to counsel will be decimated,” Blagrove said

“If [the police department is] not going to hold these officers accountable in a situation like this, when will they hold officers accountable?” said Ian Mance, attorney with Emancipate NC.

“Cierra Cobb, who works for Emancipate NC and is married to someone in state prison, said Stein’s silence on the state’s handling of COVID-19 in prisons has been disheartening.”

“Advocacy works,” Elizabeth Simpson, an attorney for Emancipate NC, said. “It is my fervent wish that everyone in prison would have someone who cares about them and is working hard to get decision makers to see their humanity.”

“We believe that it is important for the people of Fuquay-Varina to see Malcolm’s face while he experiences the trauma of this interaction. Hear the humiliation and fear in his voice," said Dawn Blagrove, Executive Director of Emancipate NC. "This situation could have been handled with so much more care.”

“And it’s hard to imagine what could be more coercive than telling someone that they’ll be sent back to prison if they don’t agree,” said Ian Mance, attorney with Emancipate NC.

"Within a week and one day, 350 people have called -- family members and people in prison," said Kerwin Pittman, about the flood of state prisoners calling the stimulus hotline set up by Emancipate NC.

“So if I whitewash the truth, if I water down the truth in a way that feels more palatable to the person who is oppressing me, then I am being complicit in my own oppression,” said Dawn Blagrove, Executive Director of Emancipate NC.

“I was always taught silence means acceptance, right? So, if I don't speak up and speak out about what you're doing to me, that means I accept what you're doing to me, because I'm a basic human and you're a basic human and we have human rights,” said Emancipate NC Organizer Kerwin Pittman.