U.S. Attorney Damian Williams Speaks at the National Action Network King Day Public Policy Forum

First of all, I want to thank you for inviting me here today to reflect on the life and the legacy of Dr. King as we celebrate what would have been his 93^rd birthday. My name is Damian Williams. I am the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. I am a proud New Yorker. I was born here, but I was raised in Atlanta, Georgia, the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement, a place where the titans of the movement lived and changed this country – people like Dr. King, Coretta Scott King, Ralph David Abernathy, Hosea Williams, Andy Young, John Lewis. Their legacy is in the air that we breath, and so today is a good day to reflect on that legacy and to reflect on the lessons that Dr. King taught this country.

One of those lessons is that justice and the justice system are not always one and the same, and anyone who doubts that fact should take a moment and re-read Dr. King’s words in “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” and then anyone who still doubts that fact should remind themselves that you cannot revere Dr. King’s legacy and reject Dr. King’s lessons. You can’t do that. And so, it is the job of people like me, people who hold positions of authority in this country, to do everything we can to bring justice and the justice system closer together, closer to harmony. Part of that is pushing back on the forces of hate, and so in my time as U.S. Attorney, we have launched a civil rights investigation into the Mount Vernon Police Department for racially discriminatory policing practices targeting black residents. It’s a very important investigation, but as we have seen throughout history, and continue to see far too often today, hate harms too many of our brothers and sisters, our Jewish brothers and sisters, our Asian-American brothers and sisters, our transgender brothers and sisters, our incarcerated brothers and sisters – they’re facing this too. It’s the same old poison just in new bottles.

So, in my office, we have also launched a brand-new Civil Rights Unit in our Criminal Division because it is important that we bring every tool to bear as we try to push back against these forces of hate because as Dr. King reminded us in words that retain their prophetic power decades after he wrote them down in that Alabama jail cell, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny.” It’s that age old belief that I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper, that we are all in this together, and so today we reflect, and tomorrow we get back to doing the work.

I am proud to be your United States Attorney and thank you for having me.