This statement, excerpted and linked below, was distributed in the June 2, 2020, PTACC Ticker, a weekly emailing from the Police, Treatment and Community Collaborative (PTACC). 

PTACC is the national voice of the pre-arrest diversion field and provides vision, leadership, advocacy, and education to facilitate the growth and practice of deflection and pre-arrest diversion across the United States.

Jac Charlier is the executive director of TASC's Center for Health and Justice and the co-founder and executive director of the national Police, Treatment and Community Collaborative.

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PTACC Statement on the Killing of Our Neighbor, Mr. George Floyd

The “P” in PTACC stands for Police. However, since we are a collaborative made up also of “T” for Treatment and “C” for Community, the “P” also stands as a proxy for Partnership, as in, our deflection work is done - and indeed can only be done - through partnerships between Police, Treatment, and Community. This means Partnerships that rely on those who are P and T and C who have not always previously worked together nor gotten along, and indeed have openly opposed and worked against each other at times, to collaborate instead for a much greater good; the clear, better, and right purpose of helping People who otherwise would not be able to get the care, treatment, housing, and services they need. People, who we at PTACC call “our neighbors,” can, as a result of our efforts as P, T, and C working together, get into recovery and lead the lives they deserve and want, along with their families and children, just as each of us do and each want also for ourselves, our family, and our children.

As a core value in doing our shared work of deflection, PTACC advocates for equity, diversity, and inclusion in deflection. In the People deflected we can see ourselves, friends, and families. So we act with humility and humanity in what I call the “Golden Three of Right Action”: a sense of urgency, a sense of purpose, and a sense of passion. This is the foundation of who we are at PTACC, our field of deflection, and our shared work together as Partners in Collaboration. In this way, the practice of deflection sets an example for what can be, indeed what we each can be-come when Police, Treatment, and Community come together.

Still, I write to you now because so tragically, and so sadly, and so disgustingly yet again an African-American neighbor of ours living in our national Community (E Pluribus Unum) has been killed by a police officer. This all happened in broad daylight, while being filmed, with the police officer being told by a multitude of Community standing just a few yards away that he was killing a man and yet the police officer ignored their pleas. This all happened, too, while our neighbor from our Community, George Floyd – an African-American man, an American citizen with the same legal rights that you and I have, laid face down on the street, already handcuffed, with two police officers on him, another walking around him, and a fourth police officer with his knee on his neck, used what energy he had left to say, “I can’t breathe,” and then to beg and plead for his life: “Please, please, please…” while also calling for his mother. Mr. Floyd’s pleas, coming from just a few feet, not yards, away were ignored by the police officer as well as the other three police officers present. Mr. Floyd lay dead, killed by the actions of one officer and the inaction of three other officers.

Mr. George Floyd is the latest African-American citizen killed by a police officer, yet his death comes after thousands upon thousands of our African-American Community of neighbors, family, friends, colleagues, and fellow American citizens and residents have been saying for decades upon decades that the Police distrust them, the Police abuse them, and this has led to the oppressive weight of the entire Justice system being used against them for centuries and up to this very day still. Mr. George Floyd, American Citizen George Floyd, our neighbor George Floyd, wanted to be heard so he could live while he was under the real weight and the pressure of the police officer’s knee. This was a powerful symbol of the metaphorical weight and pressure of racism – systemic and white, oppressive, and isolating – that generations upon generations of other African-Americans have endured. They too wanted to be heard so they could live, without fear, to go about doing the daily things of life. This is the root of what has gone on for far too long after the last time it went on for far too long and after the time before that and before that when it went on for far too long too.  

What does this all mean for us doing the important work of deflection? First, while we at PTACC know that we can only do our shared work of deflection with the P of Police, we must also pause, look at each other, and call out yet again today and tomorrow and the next tomorrow until this ends, that this same P for Police that we Partner with has caused damage in the lives of our Community of African-American citizens and their children who have been traumatized again and again. This is what can be heard so loudly in both word and deed from citizens peacefully protesting from sea to shining sea and demanding Police accountability for actions past and present.