In 2021, we still have an all white male disciplinary review board that decides if police misconduct occurred. The protests of 2020 brought trumped up and fabricated charges against protest organizers, many of whom were subjected to brutal treatment by LPD officers. Will there be any findings of misconduct by the equivalent of an all white male jury? Racism white supremacy has hardly ever found itself guilty of its own offenses.
Will Mayor Linda Gorton and city council members listen to the cries of the hundreds to thousands of people taking to the streets last summer in nonviolent protest and heed the recommendations of the Mayor’s Commission that give tangible steps for dismantling racism white supremacy within LPD and the FOP?
Thousands of people in this community joined in sustained nonviolent civil disobedient direct action as one collective unit with the understanding that love liberates and that “justice is what love looks like in public.” Some of us have risked our safety, our livelihoods, and our freedom to bring our city to this critical juncture in dismantling racism from the values and mindset of policing and the criminal injustice system. City council must reject the collective bargaining agreement coming up for vote if Article 15, Section 3(c) is not amended to include three civilians on the police disciplinary review board. The Commission provided all necessary steps for this amendment to be in alignment with current local ordinances and KRS statutes.
This city is at a historical juncture in the struggle for freedom from law enforcement policing and criminal injustice systems that continue to perpetuate racism in its values and mindset. Will the fear mongering lies of indignant cisgender heterosexual white men steeped in racism continue to control the social order? Or, will the citizens of this city who seek the liberating power of love stand in solidarity to demand values that respect all of humanity and usher in a shift in mindset from hate, apathy, fear, and prejudice to love?
Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article253439449.html?fbclid=IwAR1fCXhWmQHZOBb9aTEDcUAwkkIjU0tDe62J2YzE9AkYMp0n9byMGdzIfUA#storylink=cpy