The last few months have seen an extraordinary mobilization and education about white supremacy in our country. The horrific deaths at the hands of police of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor – and now the police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin and the murder of two protesters by an armed vigilante — have sparked protest from Los Angeles to Lynn.
With one horrific incident after another, it is impossible to dismiss this problemas just a “few bad apples.” And it is impossible to understand how we came to this point or to address white supremacy without looking honestly at our history.
Yes, the Civil War was fought over slavery (not “state’s rights”). Those Confederate statues were not erected to bring unity to a divided country, but to celebrate and cement the return of murderous Jim Crow lynch laws at the turn of the last century.
How did our high school history books miss the mass murder of 300 Black people in Tulsa a hundred years ago? The New Deal, it turns out, was not dealt to Black people in the South. The “War on Drugs” failed, and was a recipe for mass incarceration of Black and Brown people, and with it the loss of opportunities for jobs, housing, trade or professional licenses, etc.—what has become known as the New Jim Crow.
Billions of dollars of Defense Department war armaments were given to police forces across the country. As our institutions are re-examined in a transformative moment of our country’s history, we can hope these truths will not be forgotten.
The protests in the wake of the police killings have caused communities across the country to step back and evaluate public safety issues. These discussions include the fact that Black and Brown people are disproportionately on the receiving end of police misconduct. Two incidents this summer in Lynn – the arrest and assault on Victor White and the disruption of a family party on July 4 – brought the issue home to our own community.
The Item asked the question, “After Black Lives Matter – What Now?” Local community leaders have been holding productive discussions with City Councilors and representatives of the mayor’s office, including the Lynn Police Department, to address that question, and to seek changes to policing in Lynn.
These are both new groups and others who have spent years dealing with police issues, housing, fighting racial stereotypes, feeding Lynners who are hardest hit by the pandemic, and working to hire a more diverse public workforce in our city where 85 percent of city employees are white and two-thirds of Lynn’s population is not.
The goal is to maintain public safety and change police practices that do not contribute to that – or as ECCO puts it, “fund peace, not
force.” We have to both reimagine public safety and take concrete steps now to begin necessary changes. Three things in particular are under discussion.
First, many cities and towns are setting up unarmed response teams
for non-violent incidents where social workers, mental health counselors, and medical staff would be better equipped to de-escalate and resolve a situation than police officers.
The intervention of armed officers can escalate a situation that calls for de-escalation. We are asking, if Lynn had such a skilled de-
escalation team for mental health issues or minor complaints, would Denis Reynoso, who was killed by officers responding to his mental health crisis, still be with us? Would Victor White have been arrested on his own front porch and then assaulted at the station after an incident that began as a noise complaint?
In Eugene, Oregon, a de-escalation program took 24,000 calls in 2019 that would have previously gone to police. Only about 150 of these calls required police backup, saving the city millions of dollars.
We are partnering with experts from the Lynn Community Health Center and Service Employees International Union 509 (which represents many social workers) to help develop a proposal for a program that could work here in Lynn.
Second, many cities and towns require body cameras be worn by police. In some cases this has helped to clarify facts during crimes or police assaults on civilians.
Third, discussion are underway to create an independent civilian police review board, perhaps as part of the Lynn’s Human Rights Commission, with the authority to better serve Lynn residents who file complaints about police misconduct.
In response to a petition circulated by Prevent the Cycle and the North Shore Juneteenth Association, the City Council is scheduling a public hearing on Oct. 24 on Zoom under conditions allowed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
There will also be a rally on Lynn Common at 10:30 am. This will be an opportunity for citizens of Lynn to comment on these and other issues regarding policing in Lynn. We encourage all Lynn residents to participate in this discussion.
We cannot miss this moment. If Black Lives Matter – something must change.