Satya Nadella said: “As a company, we have to look inside, examine our organization and do better.”
Washington:
More than 200 Microsoft employees have urged CEO Satya Nadella to cancel the company’s contracts with the Seattle Police Service and other law enforcement agencies amid widespread calls to dismantle the police after the murder in custody of the African American George Floyd, according to a media report.
There has been a growing demand from some Americans to reimburse the police after a white policeman knelt on George Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes despite repeated calls that he cannot breathe on the 25 May in Minneapolis.
The internal email, which included more than 250 employees, was sent on Monday to Satya Nadella and executive vice president Kurt DelBene, with the subject “Our neighborhood has been turned into a war zone,” says a report. published in OneZero.medium. , an online portal for technology and science.
Letter calls for Microsoft to cancel contracts with Seattle Police Department (SPD) and other law enforcement agencies and calls on company to officially support Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and calls for resignation from the mayor of Seattle.
“Each of us in the CC line is either a first-hand witness or a direct victim of the SPD’s inhuman responses to peaceful protests,” said the letter, according to the copy obtained by OneZero.
The employee who wrote the email said he lived in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, where protests have become increasingly violent, the report said.
“Those who choose to support the movement other than through boot demonstrations on the ground have also suffered from the results of the SPD’s response,” wrote an employee in the thread.
In a Microsoft statement, India-born Satya Nadella said, “As a business, we need to look inside, look at our organization, and do better.”
In an earlier statement condemning the June 1 protests, the 52-year-old Microsoft CEO of Indian descent said: “There is no room for hatred and racism in our society. Empathy and shared understanding is a start, but we need to do more. “
“I support the black and African American community and we are determined to continue this work in our business and in our communities,” said Nadela, born in Hyderabad.
The murder of George Floyd sparked violent protests nationwide, with demands to end police brutality and racial justice.
However, US President Donald Trump on Monday ruled out funding or dismantling police services in American cities, saying “these people are doing a great job of protecting the citizens of our country.”
Meanwhile, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told the US Congress that the tech giant no longer offers its facial recognition or analytics software and that it “strongly opposes” the technology used for mass surveillance, racial profiling and violations of fundamental human rights and freedoms.
Arvind Krishna on Monday sent a letter to Congress outlining detailed policy proposals to advance racial equality in America, which has seen many protests and demonstrations against the spate of recent murders of African Americans, including that of George Floyd.
