The New York State Bar Association announced Monday that it had formed a task force to propose "institutional and cultural reforms" to the criminal justice system in the wake of George Floyd's killing by police, which has touched off nearly two weeks of protests in New York and around the country.

The state bar said in a statement that Floyd's death, the latest in a long string of deaths of African Americans at the hands of law enforcement, had exposed "a long history of racism and inequality that continues to plague our nation" and required "bold action" to address "all aspects of the justice system," from arrests to sentencing to incarceration.

"The status quo is plainly unsustainable. Police violence against people of color is just a symptom of the broader and more complex deep-seated racial disparities within our criminal justice system that undermine the rule of law," NYSBA president Scott M. Karson wrote.

The task force, Karson said, would recommend changes with respect to police misconduct and accountability, including greater transparency of the police force through the use of body cameras, more rigorous training and sharing information about internal investigations.

It would also look to ensure that oversight includes greater civilian participation in reviewing police conduct and that prosecutors respond to instances of wrongdoing "swiftly, transparently, and fairly—as with any other crime."

"NYSBA welcomes the opportunity to be an active and positive force for reform, and we look forward to working with New York state and local officials to effect the kind of robust and meaningful change that is needed to restore faith in our criminal justice system," the statement said.

Mirna Santiago and Violet Samuels, the co-chairs of the NYSBA committee on diversity and inclusion, said in their own statement Monday that waves of protests across the country had demonstrated "society's frustration" with repeated instances of police violence and the "corresponding failure" to enact meaningful reform to stop them.

"This failure runs deeper than the incidents themselves and speaks to a failure of the criminal justice system in the United States," Santiago and Samuels said.

Video of Floyd's death on Memorial Day has gone viral, showing a white police officer in Minneapolis kneeing on his neck for nearly nine minutes while handcuffed and in police custody. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has since been arrested and charged with second-degree murder and three other officers on the scene are now facing charges of aiding and abetting Floyd's death.

All four officers have been fired, and a majority of the Minneapolis City Council said Sunday that they support disbanding the city's police force, as the state has launched its own civil rights investigation.

Sustained protests, a small number of which have been violent and featured clashes between demonstrators and police, are now entering their third week.

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