By james art 
When an employee of the Sofia Police Department killed Brandon Durham at his home in Las Vegas last November, our community burst out of grief and outrage, collectively trying to reconcile the dark state of things when a black man interacts with law enforcement. Public activists filled our streets. News cameras were rolling. Investigations have begun.
But now, as winter settles over our city, this righteous anger gave way to a familiar, dangerous silence.
As a black man in the United States, I watched this model repeat too many times. Life is led in the hands of a law enforcement officer. The community grieves. Investigations are launched. And then, gradually, public attention moves away as families are left alone with their grief, unanswered questions and empty promises.
We can’t allow this to happen to Brandon Durham.
The facts are great: a man was killed in his own home by our “community partners”. The responsible employee remains on administrative leave, while the District Prosecutor’s Office is conducting an investigation to determine whether the employee will be held criminally liable. The DA service has up to 90 days to conduct the stated investigation, but as D -R Martin Luther King said once, “Justice Destal is denied by justice.” Every day, which passes without answers, deepens the wound in our community and increases the notion that law enforcement is more a myth than reality.
The question we should encounter is not just for an officer or a tragedy. It is a system that constantly fails to deliver justice when the busy ones apply the law to violate it themselves. The investigation into Durham’s death is a test of whether this system can change – whether our accountability community’s requests will be heard or canceled aside again.
Some will say that we have to wait quietly so that the investigation process can complete its course. But history teaches us that it comes to those who require it constantly and calmly, who refuse to leave the convenience to overcome conscience. The members of the NAACP branch Las Vegas will be persistent in our request to ensure that this tragedy never happens in our community again.
The District Prosecutor has the power and responsibility to ensure that Durham’s death receives the control he deserves. But he will only exercise this power if we as a community continue to demand it. Every Las Vegas resident must ask himself: in a city that is proud of justice and equality, how can we accept something less than full accounting about how a person comes to die in his own home in the hands of the police?
It’s no longer just Durham. It is whether we, as a society, really believe in equal justice in law. It is about whether we will allow another death to be quietly submitted far away or whether we will be firmly in requiring answers and accountability.
The cameras may have continued, but our commitment to justice will not fall apart. Brandon Durham’s family deserves answers. Our community deserves better. And responsible for his death must be held accountable.
The action time is now. Contact the District Prosecutor’s Office. Visit the meetings of the City Council. Share Brandon’s story. Notify our selected employees that we have not forgotten and we will not forget.
Quentin-Michael Savwoir is the president of the NAACP Las Vegas branch.