The attorneys and staff of Cramer & Anderson stand in solidarity with everyone horrified by the killing of George Floyd and its representation of the pervasive and often deadly racism and discrimination tearing apart our troubled nation.
The phrase “silence is complicity” rings across the Internet and social media, and our law firm aligns with those voices in declaring that silence in the face of pervasive racism is simply unacceptable.
Our attorneys and staff, working in six offices in northern Fairfield County and rural northwestern Connecticut, may not often directly witness or experience the impact of violence, hate, racial injustice, or discrimination based on ethnicity, socio-economic status, religious beliefs, disabilities, gender identity, or sexual orientation—but we must raise our voices against intolerance and its crimes against humanity in all their many forms.
It has taken a police officer’s deadly knee to the neck of a black man who did not resist arrest in Minneapolis to finally push the nation toward truly unifying against forces that seek to preserve and perpetuate racial and social injustices that enlightened American leaders have sought to dismantle and overcome for centuries, beginning even before the Declaration of Independence.
Like those attorneys and legal professionals who came before us, such as our Founding Partner Henry B. “Hank” Anderson, the Naval hero who fought in World War II to free the world of hate, tyranny and racial prejudice, we pledge to do all we can to be catalysts of positive change, as we affirm our fundamental and abiding beliefs.
We believe in equal justice under the law.
We believe that all men and women are created equal.
We believe in the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
We believe that peaceful protests are important agents of social and systemic change, and examples of free speech protected by the First Amendment.
We believe in the rule of law and the principles of the U.S. justice system that we have taken a sworn oath to honor and protect. Our society is based on that rule of law, and we do not condone lawless acts that masquerade as methodologies to bring about social change—like the vandalism, looting, arson, theft, rioting, or vigilante attacks we are now witnessing.
We believe the “us versus them” mentality in politics and public life must change before the festering problems exposed once again by George Floyd’s death can be meaningfully addressed and eradicated.
By standing with all those who suffer the effects of discrimination and injustice, and by working together, we can finally begin to replace hate and fear with peace and hope, and forge a new society in which bias, racism, and social injustice have no home.
Together we can guide the nation toward reembracing and embodying the founding principles of “liberty and justice for all” in America.
—the Partners and staff of Cramer & Anderson
