Law Offices of Kevin E. Mitchell      (415) 581-0885

Since inception, America has maintained a system of law that is racially discriminatory on it’s face, that is, in the very text of the law.

During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the descendants of slaves who built America united and demanded justice, becoming world leaders in liberation.

The oppressed rose and fought for justice, as heroes, as champions, and in any case as people to be admired, helped and supported.

Today, the discrimination is no longer clearly authorized in the text of the law, but the legacy created by those unjust laws leave us with a code, discriminatory in it’s application and enforcement.

“An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority compels a minority group to obey, but does not make binding on itself.”  -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

Law Enforcement agencies across America, including prosecutor's offices, continue to be staffed and operated by a substantial number of individuals who do not feel compelled to respect the rights of certain people, who live in certain neighborhoods.

Police command staff incentivizes and commends officers who actively engage in unlawful detentions and use excessive force, even deadly force, to assert their authority and obtain complete submission by force.

We need police in our society and there are good people, good officers, who actually do protect and serve the communities where they work.

We need police to preserve our freedom. The threat we face today comes from those police officers, who masquerade as guardians, but are nothing more than modern day Gestapos, prepared to create a police state in communities of color, through what they creatively call "proactive policing" (i.e. depriving citizens in "high crime" areas of freedom under the guise of crime prevention).

In effect, it amounts to policing by intimidation, instigation, taunting, persecution and physical attacks on the people who live in communities of color.

Our firm is uniquely equipped to disabuse police of their fanciful justifications for abusing people of color. We take great pleasure in fighting against such injustices.

If you or a loved one were the victim of police misconduct, the lawyers in our office are fiercely committed to enforcing your rights, making sure your voice is heard and obtaining financial compensation for the physical and emotional harm they inflicted on you.  

Publication: 

I Can’t Breathe: A Black Public Defender’s View