At their Aug. 19 online meeting, the Kennett Township Board
of Supervisors overwhelmingly agreed with a resolution to enter the township in
commitment to support the Black Lives movement by establishing four initiatives
aimed at creating a government and police department that would ensure that its
policies were inclusive, and that with the help of diversity training, do all
it could to confront direct and indirect racism.
As stated in the resolution, the township acknowledged the
Black Lives Matter movement; recognized that systems of oppression such as
slavery, sharecropping, Jim Crow, redlining and mass incarceration continue to
affect the physical and mental health, safety, and education of African
Americans; acknowledged that recent incidents such as the murders of George
Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery “remind us that police brutality and disregard for
black people’s lives has caused the loss of numerous lives for no reason other
than racist biases; and that it strives to be a welcoming place where all
people feel protected.”
At their Sept. 2 online meeting, the board discussed – and
later approved – an amended resolution that distances the township from the
Black Lives Matter movement and rather, aligns it more closely with the
“systems of oppression” that the entire African-American community has faced
for the past 400 years.
Resolution 2020-14 now states:
“WHEREAS, Kennett Township acknowledges that Black lives
matter; and WHEREAS, Kennett Township acknowledges systems of oppression, such
as slavery, sharecropping, Jim Crow, redlining, and mass incarceration continue
to affect the physical and mental health, safety and education of African
Americans; and
WHEREAS, Kennett Township acknowledges that recent incidents
such as the murders of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery remind us that police
brutality and disregard for Black people’s lives has caused the loss of
numerous lives for no reason other than racist biases; and
WHEREAS, Kennett Township strives to be a welcoming place
where all people feel protected, included, secure and safe; and
WHEREAS, the Kennett Township Board of Supervisors stand in
solidarity with the Black community, and strive to hold our township
departments and ourselves to the only standard that will begin to protect all
of us: one of equality and justice that embraces all people, not just those
with the most privilege.
Under the revised resolution, and as part of its commitment,
the township will undertake five action items:
- Conduct a review of
all existing policies to ensure they are antiracist and that all policies to be
developed are also antiracist and not developed to serve only those with
privilege. - Conduct annual diversity
training with a focus on confronting direct and indirect racism. - Explore and
implement tools and resources within the Kennett Township Police Department to
enhance emergency service delivery in times of crisis for all persons. - When policies fail, Kennett Township will wholeheartedly
engage in a root cause failure analysis in order to ameliorate the conditions
that caused the defect; and continue to make the policies increasingly
effective and just. - Develop a diverse group of advisors to township leadership
that will provide guidance on issues related to racial injustice as well as the
experience of minorities locally.
“The goal of the board and the township was to very clearly
emphasize the message they are trying to send about the importance of having
anti-racist polices, and recognizing the disturbing history of our country,”
said township manager Eden Ratliff. “While there are many organizations that
are doing comprehensive work to bring [the issue] to the forefront, our goal
was to pass a resolution that says ‘This is what we recognize, and more
importantly, this is what we are going to be doing about it.’”
‘A
government of neighbors’
Supervisor Whitney Hoffman said that the revised resolution
is more inclusive than its original
counterpart.
“It’s important that people feel like they have a real
connection with their government,” she said. “At this level — it’s really a
government of neighbors – it is important that people feel included, welcomed
and encouraged not only to come to meetings, but to participate in any township
functions, and to feel that government services are being delivered equally the
same among everybody, and if there are any issues, that they feel welcome to
come and address those.”
Referring to the inclusion of the names George Floyd and
Ahmaud Arbery in the revised resolution, a township resident asked the board, “How
do we know that the lives lost were [racially motivated], given that the cases
are still opened and unresolved? What is the basis for such a definitive
statement?”
“We don’t necessarily say that those two [deaths] per se
were 100 percent [racially motivated], but one would have a hard time saying
that they weren’t,” Leff said. “They are a reminder that maybe there were other
[deaths of African Americans] that were racially biased, but certainly those
two [murders] had an aspect to them that was racial in tenor and in items of what
we saw.
“All I can do is see what we all can see, and with
technology these days, it’s obvious to see what happened in terms of what was
going through the mind of the people who caused those men’s lives to be removed
from this planet,” Leff added. “That’s a hard thing for me to understand, but
at least as an observer, it certainly looked like a white man killing a black
man.”
The resident continued to press the supervisors to further
explain why the township has chosen to focus its revised resolution on the
broader African American community than the Black Lives Matter organization,
which he said “has an ideology of Marxism.”
“How are you explaining that to the public?” he asked. “You
think or you hope that the public understands the difference.”
“I don’t think the Black Lives Matter organization says anything
about Marxism,” supervisor Scudder Stevens said. “This [resolution] doesn’t
refer to the organization. It refers to the fact that Black lives matter.”
The resident went on to quote from two of the chief founders
of the Black Lives Matter organization, who in an interview admitted that they
espoused Marxist principles. He stressed that it was important for the township
to “make it clear” in its revised resolution that is not in alignment with
Marxism.
“We have taken out the [capitalized] ‘Black Lives Matter’
because some people might get confused about it,” Leff said. “I think this
[revised] resolution aligns with what the Black Lives Matter global network’s
needs were when it was formed four years ago.
“They started out as a chapter-based, member-led
organization, whose mission was to give local power to the people when violence
was inflicted on African American communities by states and vigilantes.
Remarkably, four years later, things are still about where they are. There is
nothing about Marxism on their website.
“All I can do is speak to what we can do in Kennett
Township, and I stand behind everything in this resolution – the way it is.”
“We are not becoming Marxists overnight or anything else,”
Hoffman said. “It’s really simple, and any implication as to the other is
farcical.”
“I am hopeful that this resolution will speak to the broad
component of our community and say that this township wants to know if there is
a problem, so that we can address it,” Stevens said, “because we are concerned
about the on-goingness of 400 years of systemic racism, that affects everything
from land values and school values to playing in the school yard and finding a
job.”
The resolution becomes effective immediately.
To contact Staff
Writer Richard L. Gaw, email rgaw@chestercounty.com.
Credit: Source link