BALTIMORE – Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown has released the following statement in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day:
“On this day, as we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I reflect on Dr. King’s messages about service to others, equal protection under the law, and resisting all forms of injustice. We, as a nation, are experiencing a contentious time in which divisiveness and harmful rhetoric sometimes feel pervasive. But this doesn’t have to be the case. Although it feels like an uphill struggle at times, I believe that a better future lies ahead. As Dr. King said, ‘the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’
“On January 3rd, I took the oath of office to serve as Maryland’s 47th Attorney General. During my remarks, I pledged that central to my office’s mission will be to defend democracy, pursue justice, ensure policies and laws are free from bias and applied equitably, and protect civil rights. There is much work to be done, but we’re not daunted.
“We will build on the work of my predecessors, who undertook tremendous efforts to protect civil rights by, for example, establishing the Office’s first Civil Rights unit, addressing discriminatory profiling in law enforcement, combating voter suppression and intimidation, forming a hate crimes working group and hotline, and even righting past discriminatory actions that were once upheld by the Office.
“All Marylanders should be protected from discrimination and enjoy the civil liberties guaranteed under the law. To this end, I will seek to have the Maryland legislature confer on my Office the authority to enforce federal and state civil rights laws, working in tandem with the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, and to investigate and remedy the patterns or practices of unconstitutional policing within the state.
“Dr. King challenged all citizens to stand up and speak up in the face of injustice. We honor him today by committing to use the resources of the Office of the Attorney General to do the very same. It is the right and just thing to do.”
