LA County Public Defender Media Release On May 25, 2020 we witnessed a murder and heard cries to end systemic racism in the criminal legal system. That day, a social movement erupted across the nation. The eyes of many opened to a stark reality that Black and Brown people live with every day, racism thrives in our criminal legal system. Diverse communities stood side by side to rail against a system that silences, dehumanizes, and over-incarcerates Brown and Black people. Angelenos spoke up, we can never again continue with business as usual; systemic racism must be called out and stopped. The demand for reform in our criminal legal system is not new. As a community we realized fear-mongering led to caging children for behaviors they exhibited, in large part, because their brains were not fully developed. Our shame at following fear, not science, changed the juvenile justice system. We know the system is broken and we can fix it.