Side is currently at work on a response, and will submit it to the Council and others no later than tomorrow (Sunday.)
BRUNSWICK TOWN
COUNCIL
Statement
on Criminal Justice and Policing
The
Brunswick Town Council condemns the murder of George Floyd in
Minneapolis. We also condemn
the murders of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Breonna Taylor in
Kentucky before him.
Mr. Floyd’s murder and the protests it ignited are a flashpoint in
the long-standing battle against
systemic racism in our criminal justice system and country at large.
The protests have shone
a light on systemic racism and the current and historically disparate
treatment of African Americans
and people of color in our country.
We
as a Council support and commit to calling out hate and
discrimination when we see it and help
promote our core American value that no one should be targeted
because of their identity. Hate
will not be tolerated here in Brunswick and we will stand together to
fight any form of bigotry,
discrimination, or hate, in speech or action, against any group, from
whatever the source.
Condemning
Mr. Floyd’s senseless murder is not enough. The true challenge is
changing the entrenched
and unjust racism that pervades our society as a whole and our
criminal justice system
specifically. We must commit ourselves to working on ways in which we
can engage our communities
to address and uproot institutionalized racism and implicit bias and
offer spaces for dialogue,
trainings, and understanding.
There
can be no overnight change to the inequities in our system, but
concrete steps can be made.
A functioning criminal justice system requires the fair and humane
treatment of everyone at
every stage of the process: on the street during an arrest, in the
courthouse, and in jails and prisons.
We believe the following are the beginning steps to accomplish this:
•
Police departments must treat all allegations of
misconduct against officers seriously and handle
investigations with accountability and transparency.
•
The State should
maintain a database of complaints against officers that can be viewed
by the
public.
•
Police departments
should regularly review this database and terminate police officers with
a history of excessive force and racial insensitivity.
•
The State must
mandate training and continuing education for all police agency
personnel on
racism, implicit bias and use of force.
•
Every police officer
in Maine should be required to wear a body camera that cannot be turned
off at the officer’s discretion.
This
is the bare minimum of what is required to maintain the public’s
trust in law enforcement. We
look forward to hearing from our Police Department, the current
command staff and our incoming
Chief of Police Scott Stewart to hearing their recommendations on the
steps needed to move
forward to reassure our citizens that the Brunswick Police Department
hears its voices and concerns.
Members of our community have raised their voices and it is time for
our law enforcement
agencies and our State leaders to join us in efforts to end the
excessive use of force, racial
insensitivity and police misconduct here in Maine. The excessive
force, violence, and unequal
treatment must end.
As
public servants we have an even greater responsibility to speak out
against racism,
discrimination,
bias, and hatred because when the unacceptable becomes the norm in
our society, human
rights for all are threatened. It is our duty to maintain constant
vigilance with regard to its own
public safety policies and actions and do everything in its power to
make certain that Brunswick
is and will remain a welcoming town opposed to acts of racism and
bigotry. We
affirm and are committed to protect the rights of all people,
including the Black Lives Matter Movement,
and justice allies and activists in our community who speak up and
protest and demand
justice for all. Black lives matter to the town of Brunswick.
This
statement was adopted by the Town Council at its meeting on June 15,
2020.
_________________________________
_________________________________
John
Perreault, Chair James Mason, Vice
Chair
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