Friday May 29, 2020 Protestors march over the Brooklyn Bridge to rally over the death of George Floyd Photo: Ryland West/ ALM

Pointing to the killing of George Floyd and Amy Cooper's Central Park dog-leash incident, a major New York defense lawyers group Friday released a passionate statement calling on elected officials to work harder to eradicate systemic racial bias that it says "permeates" America's criminal justice system.

"We know what we are seeing when we watch a police officer slowly squeeze a black man's life away in broad daylight, amid a circle of helpless onlookers," wrote the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, referring to the now-widely seen bystander video of Minneapolis resident George Floyd struggling to breathe as a local police officer knelt on Floyd's windpipe for more than eight minutes on Memorial Day. Floyd soon was pronounced dead.

Later in the statement, the group, in arriving at the changes it says must occur, wrote, "We cannot singlehandedly eradicate the racial bias that permeates the legal system. That is structural work that must be undertaken immediately and forcefully by the elected officials who draft criminal laws, fund law-enforcement agencies and prisons, and set priorities for prosecutors' offices."

In the middle of the statement, the group addressed, in particular detail, the recent Central Park incident in which a white woman, Amy Cooper, called 911 to report that a black man in the park, Christian Cooper, was allegedly threatening her, as he appeared to be speaking calmly while he argued over her dog being off leash, and he filmed the interaction.

"Amy Cooper well understood that police would presume Mr. Cooper dishonest and guilty, and presume her truthful and victimized," wrote the Albany-based organization, which represents approximately 1,000 private attorneys and public defenders across the state.

"Indeed, she so understood the disparity that she made her false report despite knowing that Mr. Cooper was contemporaneously recording the events as they actually occurred," the group added in the statement, written by its president, Timothy Hoover.

It was "a white woman's weaponizing of the 911 emergency-response system," Hoover also wrote in the statement.

Speaking more broadly to the organization's views on systemic racial bias and disparity in the nation's criminal justice system, Hoover wrote that "as criminal-defense attorneys across New York State, we have witnessed firsthand the violence, degradation, and destruction wrought on individuals and communities of color by a brutal and punitive law-enforcement apparatus."

The statement added that "as criminal-defense attorneys, we do not rush to judgment," and that "anyone charged in these two incidents," meaning the Floyd and Cooper incidents, "must receive due process of law."

"In fact, our members often play a part in that process, representing government officials and police officers accused of crimes," said the group.

But "the perfection of [American] justice is far too scarce a resource, reserved far too often for the privileged few," it said.

The statement continued, "Black and brown people in the United States are not only more likely than whites to be stopped by police, but are also more likely to be arrested, more likely to be charged with crimes, more likely to face more serious charges, and more likely to face harsher sentences."

In concluding its points, the group—which is an affiliate of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, which has more than 40,000 members—said that "structural work that must be undertaken immediately and forcefully" by the relevant elected officials.

"This organization will continue to throw its weight behind anyone dedicated to doing that vital work."