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Regarding the Conversations at the Monument event today with police, I must say as a trust builder that conversations cannot sure corrupt culture. The chief of staff of RPD is literally a murderer. Where was the conversation for Jeramy Gilliam? Where was the conversation for MDP?
A key element of safety (private or Public) is who gets to decide what is harm? When the family of MDP started a conversation two years ago stating that safety meant accountability for police it was elected officials that left the conversation & refused to vote on solutions.
When organizers today communicate as the brilliant children of RPS stated in their town hall that police presence represents harm and not safety, why would you invite the same institution to a space where they tear gassed protestors that is named after a man killed by police?
Why would you invite the chief of police that on June 23,2020 had a restraining order placed on his police department by superior court Judge Karen Eady Williams for teargassing protestors. The judge (a black woman) started receiving threats after issuing the order.
As elected leaders, why are you inviting organizers into a space with people and institutions that have done harm to them? Why does that equate to safety in your imagination?
I know the safety manual for police on lethal force says “safety of the officer is first priority always” but public safety “reimagined” must no longer mean safety for the police only! Marcus-David Peters was killed by this mentality. Organizers were teargassed by that mentality
Black progress has been attacked by that mentality as John Lewis and freedom fighters all over this nation discovered. It is the institution of police that has arrested and detained black conversations on liberation. So why invite that institution to this conversation?
If you seek to work with the organizers, families, and survivors of police brutality that have been “solution-oriented” for years, it must work in spaces that prioritize their definition of safety and harm instead of police
I think August is the perfect month for our elected officials to end their “entanglement “ with Chief Smith. Are elected officials going to be about people oriented solutions or police oriented solutions? Right now this event has so many red flags it’s looking like a red table
Are our elected officials going to hold police accountable to what the public defines as safety or are you all just going to let the police go from tear gassing to gas lighting and call that a solution?
Conversations cannot cure corrupt culture! Only consequences and accountability
