Month: June 2020

Going down Memory Lane

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We are still talking about the first part of the Use of Force Directives and a Community Engagement Initiative memo to Chief DiLuzio by Councilmembers Reynolds and Crampsie Smith.

Gadfly took some heat for calling the Mayor’s statement on the George Floyd matter a “powerful statement.” He still thinks it was. He kudo’d the Chief’s statement at City Council as well.

Gadfly still thinks these statements were powerful, appropriate, necessary — but he didn’t see such statements as complete, as putting a period to local response to the larger situation and issues.

He agreed with the call to add action, saying, “This is no time to be self-satisfied, self-congratulatory, smug, back-patting, complacent, resting-on-laurels, etc. It’s a time for rigorous self-examination even if we think we are doing a good job.”

Here’s how he handled the duality in his brief comment at last week’s City Council meeting:

In that comment Gadfly could only reference the traffic stop of September 11, 2019, that, he thought, was the kind of incident that, given the right circumstances, could well blow up but, at the very least, was quite likely an example of racial insensitivity. There was not time during Gadfly’s Council remarks to rehearse the circumstances of a case that he handled in detail just before the pandemic started to shut him down.

Go to “Police” on the right-hand sidebar for full coverage of the discussion.

The bare facts from memory: A Puerto Rican Southsider with limited English language proficiency was pulled over for rolling through a stop sign at 6th and Hayes. The officer conducted a consent search, he said, and found two half-burnt blunts under the seat that tested positive for marijuana. While in custody, a deported felon warrant came back in the operator’s name, or something close to the operator’s name, noting a tattoo as an identifying mark. The operator had no tattoo, but he was taken to headquarters anyway, where he was cleared. There was no apology. And the officer refused to return the operator to his car, which as still at 6th and Hayes. The operator was charged with possession under the federal statue not the local city ordinance.

There were questions about the legality of the search and the officer’s action in taking the operator to headquarters. Gadfly sought unsuccessfully to view a copy of the deported felon warrant to check the similarity of the names and the nature of the tattoo, which should have cleared the operator, to see if there was probable cause to cuff the operator and take him to headquarters.

At the February 18 City Council meeting, the Mayor reported that the officer was cleared of “allegations of unprofessional and illegal conduct” by a “thorough internal investigation” and that, on advice of the Solicitor, there would be no further comment.

Gadfly literally had 20 lingering questions that went unanswered with that abrupt closure.

Well, in fact, there was no closure, and at Council last week in the comment above Gadfly wondered whether an internal review was satisfactory in cases like this. And he notes that speakers at the demonstrations last week called for a Civilian Review Board.

Gadfly is not sure that is the answer, but there has to be more transparency if the department and the City can be trusted to handle such cases.

Desiderata from the Chief

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Peter Crownfield is officially retired but spends most of his time working with students in his role as internship coordinator for the Alliance for Sustainable Communities–Lehigh Valley.

Gadfly:

What I would like to see from the Chief are:

1. A response to the 8 recommendations for use-of-force policies that references where that is addressed in current BPD policies.

2. A similar response for the call to eliminate tear gas, pepper spray, or related compounds (many of which have been shown to have effects lasting for days or weeks and are known to be carcinogens or endocrine-disruptors)

3. A complete copy of BPD policies that control or guide officers’ conduct with respect to use of force.

Peter

I am a Bethlehem resident . . .We are contacting you again . . . I am a resident of . . . I’m writing to address . . . Now is the time . . . Will you. . . .

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At the City Council meeting last week, we heard about letters flooding all members of Council and City Hall. Here is a selection from some of those letters.

What Gadfly was expecting was first-person accounts by Bethlehem residents of situations, experiences, problems relating to police/minority interactions.

As he said in his last post, Gadfly is wondering about evidence of racially insensitive but non-physically violent behavior by police that he hears about through the “grapevine.” He is not sure what to think about such stories.

On Saturday, for instance, he heard from a friend who heard from a friend of a police officer at the Payrow Plaza vigil that the officer was making vigorously derogatory comments about the participants of color.

Now just what do you do with that kind of “information” except discount it.

  • I am a Bethlehem resident demanding reform of our inequitable system. The Police budget for 2020 is over $15 Million. The budget for Health services, listed under Community & Economic development, is just over $2.5 Million. During the next budgetary assessment, the City of Bethlehem needs to defund policing and allocate this funding to Health services, Public Housing, and Education.
  • We are contacting you again to demand immediate action. The Black Lives Matter movement is shifting community safety away from policing and 8 Can’t Wait is the first necessary step. These 8 policies deter use of excessive force, a violent method that Bethlehem police have unquestionably engaged in.
  • I am a resident of Bethlehem, PA. I am emailing to demand the restructuring of the Bethlehem city budget in a way that prioritizes social services for communities and drastically minimizes spending on police. We are in the midst of widespread upheaval over the systemic violence of policing. We will no longer accept empty gestures and suggestions of “reform.” We are demanding that our voices be heard now, and that real change be made to the way this city allocates its resources.
  • I’m a volunteer with the Grassroots Law Project. We are working to end police brutality and mass incarceration, and reform policing for a more just society. I’m writing to ask you to take the Path to Justice Pledge. By taking this pledge, you are committing to policies that end police brutality and killings by restricting the use of force, creating non-lethal response teams, and demilitarizing police forces. You’re also committing to hold law enforcement accountable by creating committees for oversight with subpoena powers, and eliminating exceptions for law enforcement such as qualified immunity.
  • I am writing to address the lack of regard for the public’s safety by the Bethlehem Police Department which I witnessed on Sunday, June 7th, at a faith-based Black Lives Matter Rally. The rally was held at the Bethlehem Public Library and was relatively small in scale. Members of the police force stood at the perimeter and monitored the gathering. I was able to see the scope of the crowd, and every member of the public in view was wearing a mask. Conversely, out of over a dozen police officers that I saw, I only saw one wearing a mask. Several others had masks in their pockets or around their necks, but nowhere near their faces.
  • Now, it is the time not to simply speak, to disown, to pacify, or to appease. This is the time to convert our anger and abhorrence THROUGH hope, love and faith INTO action.
  • WILL YOU ask the “affected” what THEY need? When will leadership speak with all
    of its people?
  •  I am proud that our city is working on a Climate Action Plan. Bethlehem can be a leader on this and other progressive issues. I’d love to see the City do more for Community Development and Outreach, especially as far as inclusion and equity are concerned.
  • We have a lot of work to do to right historical wrongs, and I urge you to take up that challenge. 400 years of oppression cannot be changed overnight – it’s been a long and difficult journey and still we must march and protest for change. You have the power to make Bethlehem work for all its citizens. Please use your roles and platforms to make necessary equitable change.

Chief DiLuzio: what you saw on tv was murder, and we are out in front in regard to the kind of training people are calling for

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So, in response to a need for local action regarding police/minority issues stemming from the murder of George Floyd, Councilman Reynolds and Councilwoman Crampsie Smith have proposed to Chief DiLuzio a plan “concerning two areas that we feel need to be priorities for our City moving forward”: Use of Force Directives and a Community Engagement Initiative.

Tip o’ the hat to the Councilmembers for stepping up.

They made their proposal to Chief DiLuzio. How will Chief Diluzio respond?

The Chief has been asked to respond by June 15 (before the next Council meeting), and Gadfly hears that a Public Safety Committee meeting is in the formative stages.

Let’s take the two parts of the proposal individually.

First, the use of force directives. The Councilmembers’ proposal says:

There has been national discussion recently about a set of policy directives related to use of force directives within police departments (generally referred to as “8 can’t wait”). We have received significant support from the members of our community about the implementation of these principles here in Bethlehem. The directives are attached to this memo [see the last page of the proposal here]. In connection with the directive, we have the following questions:

(1) How many of these eight directives are currently included in our use of force guidelines?
(2) For the directives currently not in place, what is your stance on adding them to our current guidelines?
(3) What are our annual training requirements for our police department?
(4) What percentage of the training time is spent on de-escalation?

If the conversations with Councilmembers Crampsie Smith and Colon that succeeded his “George Floyd’s Death & Policing in America” statement on behalf of the police department at last week’s Council meeting are any indication, the Chief will be eager to answer Council questions about police department policies and training, confident that the department is well ahead of the pack in implementation of the positive measures to control unnecessary violence capsuled in the “8 can’t wait” principles (see chart below and, again, see the last page of the Councilmembers’ proposal here).

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Followers know that Gadfly always recommends that you go to the primary sources and form your own opinions.

Thus he recommends very strongly that you take less than 5 minutes each to listen to these interchanges. Don’t just read Gadfly’s summary paraphrasing.

Councilwoman Crampsie Smith and Chief DiLuzio

The Councilwoman asks the Chief about training. All officers have body cams. The kinds of things people are asking for have been in place for years. We are accredited at the national and state level. We do escalation, we do crisis intervention, we have a strict use of force policy. We learn from our mistakes. We’re in front of what people are talking about and have been so for 10-15 years. We do training, qualification, recertification yearly. We have a training division, and that’s all they do constantly. We have courses endorsed by the minority communities. We are a diverse department and every year get more diverse. The training is continuous. We were in front of deescalation training.

Councilman Colon and Chief DiLuzio (listen to the Chief’s comments toward the beginning as well as at the end of the interchange)

The criminal justice system is broken. What I saw in Minneapolis was disgusting. Americans don’t act that way, cops don’t act that way. That was murder what you saw on national tv, period. This is going to take a change at many levels. Nothing is going to change overnight. The system is 50 years behind the times. It’s not what fits society today.

What are you thinking about this part of the Councilmembers’ proposal and the Chief’s comments regarding police department policies and training?

Followers have already posted here about the need for the “8 can’t wait” principles, and it sounds like we will learn in more detail that they are all in place.

But, though proper policies are in place and proper training is implemented, there is still the question of outcomes.

Have these policies — stringently applied and enforced as they might be — successfully eradicated or reduced cases of violent police behavior? Is there any data on that?

One can expect that Derek Chauvin had training. Training can’t guarantee the proper outcome.

Why is the City “out front” in training? What’s the history here? The Chief made the interesting comment that “we learn from our mistakes.” What did he mean by that? What’s the context for that? What mistakes? So, is there a baseline that would help us determine the efficacy of all our energy put into training?

And, as Breena Holland and others have pointed out, there is a level of behavior beneath, as it were, violence that is still racist and, Gadfly would say, just as insidious. What can we say about that? Have there been citizen complaints, either formal or informal? Have there been incidents? Have there been disciplinary consequences? Have there been “talkings to”? Who keeps track of such things? Gadfly hears murmurs of insensitive behavior by police with minorities that doesn’t turn violent and doesn’t make the papers. Is there evidence of such?

In this regard, Gadfly will go next to the handling of the marijuana enforcement to which Breena also called attention.

You have the Chief’s long statement and his conversations with Councilmembers.

It’s important that we have trust in the Chief.

Please listen.

“the Bethlehem PD is better than most, but . . .”

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Peter Crownfield is officially retired but spends most of his time working with students in his role as internship coordinator for the Alliance for Sustainable Communities–Lehigh Valley.

Gadfly:

A couple of thoughts on council members’ responses:

1. Some Council members had inspiring responses, but what remains to be seen is whether their actions and votes are equally inspiring and effective.

2. Legislators often think that enacting a policy actually creates the change they envision, and we have seen examples of this with Bethlehem City Council — but, as the history of attempts to control the Minneapolis PD show, some “law enforcement” officers act as if they are above the law. In a current story in In These Times, one Minneapolis council member states that “We Actually Cannot Reform This Department” [inthesetimes.com/article/22583/george-floyd-minneapolis-black-lives-matter-police-disband-dismantle].

3. I appreciate the fact that our police departments here in the Lehigh Valley have not descended to the depths we see in some big city police departments, but just because they don’t display violent, sadistic, criminal behavior does not mean everything is OK. I think the Bethlehem PD is better than most, but . . .
• We know that in some neighborhoods, police patrol more heavily and are often more vigorous in their enforcement (yes, even in Bethlehem).
• At the “Forum on Race” almost two years ago, citizens related a number of incidents where Bethlehem PD officers showed racial bias and/or have not lived up to the high standards we’d like to see.
• Even when things are slow, police here in Bethlehem often ignore minor offenses that could help people learn to be safe — bicyclists riding on the sidewalks or against traffic, motorists running a red light, and so on. One BPD officer even explained to me that his job was to put the bad guys away, not deal with petty problems.
• Police in some Lehigh Valley municipalities have, over the years, taken action against protesters — arresting lawful, non-violent, peaceful protesters. How does this comport with their oath to obey & uphold the Constitution?
• Bethlehem PD has a lot of equipment that seems to be designed for violence against the people. Who is paying to train officers in its use and to store and maintain all this equipment?

Peter

Councilmembers Reynolds and Crampsie Smith propose creating a citywide Community Engagement Initiative within our police department

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CITY OF BETHLEHEM
City Council Memorandum

SUBJECT: Use of Force Directives and Community Engagement Initiative

TO: Mark DiLuzio, Chief of Police

FROM:
J. William Reynolds, Member of Council
Grace Crampsie Smith, Member of Council

DATE: June 9, 2020

———-

Chief Diluzio,

Let us start by thanking you and the Bethlehem Police Department for your efforts in helping the residents of Bethlehem protest racial injustice peacefully over the past few weeks. During a time of justified anger and frustration, our community has been able to come together to grieve, talk, and mobilize without fear of violence or confrontation.

Recently, citizens and social and criminal justice reform organizations have been creating and advocating for proposed changes and initiatives to improve police departments throughout the country. We are writing to you concerning two areas that we feel need to be priorities for our City moving forward.

Use of Force Directives

There has been national discussion recently about a set of policy directives related to use of force directives within police departments (generally referred to as “8 can’t wait”). We have received significant support from the members of our community about the implementation of these principles here in Bethlehem. The directives are attached to this memo. In connection with the directive, we have the following questions:

(1) How many of these eight directives are currently included in our use of force guidelines?
(2) For the directives currently not in place, what is your stance on adding them to our current guidelines?
(3) What are our annual training requirements for our police department?
(4) What percentage of the training time is spent on de-escalation?

Community Engagement Initiative

Over the last several years during budget hearings and various community events, we have heard consistently about the positive programs that our police officers engage in with the community. These “community policing” programs involve everything from working with elementary school students to attending block watch meetings where citizens share the issues in their individual neighborhoods. The importance of these programs is unquestioned. They provide positive, trust-building opportunities for members of our community and the police officers who serve them. Yet, many residents feel that the level of trust is still lacking. We, as a community, clearly need to invest more time and money into the aforementioned initiatives to continue to build trust and collaboration between our citizens and our police department.

We are proposing creating a citywide Community Engagement Initiative within our police department. It would include a broad coalition consisting of residents, police officers, representatives from our schools, social justice organizations, and more.

The initiative would bring awareness and a louder voice to issues of injustice in our City. It could also help to design and promote events and actions designed to build trust between our citizens and the Police Department. It could also be a place for people to talk, organize, and, most importantly, listen. The reality is we don’t know exactly what the coalition would want to focus on. It is designed to be a group with an organic and flexible focus determined by our community. We understand that we are currently successfully carrying out individual events that fulfill the philosophy of engaging citizens with our Police Department in non-enforcement activities. It is clear, however, that we need to do more. Bethlehem needs to include more officers, more organizations, more citizens, and have more discussion on issues relating to race, justice, and trust.

If you would be able to provide a response to the use of force related questions and your opinion on our proposed Community Engagement Initiative by next Monday (June 15, 2020), it would be greatly appreciated. Please feel to contact us with any questions you may have about the information in this memo.

Thank you again for all of your hard work over the past several weeks and we look forward to continuing the conversation about the future of our Bethlehem community.

_____________________________________
J. William Reynolds, Member Council

_____________________________________
Grace Crampsie Smith, Member of Council

CC: R. Donchez, Mayor; Members of Council

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New ideas are unpopular until they aren’t

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Gray Simpson moved to Bethlehem from Atlanta in 2018 to begin a career in horticulture. Gray is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Lehigh Valley and a member of the Bethlehem City Democratic Committee.

Gadfly:

On June 7, nine Minneapolis City Council members told a crowd that they have pledged to “begin the process of ending the Minneapolis Police Department.”

Wow. Protests and direct action don’t work, until they do.

The mayor isn’t quite on board yet, but nine city council votes would constitute a veto-proof majority. New York City and Los Angeles officials recently announced steps to divert small percentages of funding from their police departments.

“We recognize that we don’t have all the answers about what a police-free future looks like, but our community does,” they said. “We’re committed to engaging with every willing community member in the City of Minneapolis over the next year to identify what safety looks like for you.”

A “police-free future” is not a new idea. I remember hearing calls to “de-fund the police” and “abolish the police” a couple of years ago, in the wake of another high-profile killing. Was it Philando? Tamir? Michael? Trayvon? Freddie? Walter? Eric?

I ignored the idea at the time. It sounded almost stupid. Blunt, certainly. Over-reactionary. Dangerous. Fringe. And besides, wasn’t such an extreme message counter-productive when there were many other things to do about police violence?

Does any of that ring a bell?

“Abolishing slavery” must have sounded pretty unsettling to my white ancestors. (I can’t begin to imagine the range of thoughts enslaved and free Black people had on the topic.)

Two very different movements, of course. While slavery has no place in this world, there is a place for law enforcement. But the laws must be just and the enforcement fair. Body cameras and bias training don’t cut it. We need systemic change.

Essays are not my strong suit, and I have no expertise in any of this, so don’t listen to me.

Listen to people of color. If you can’t hear yet, try harder. Seek out their voices. Listen intently.

Listen to yourself. How do the words “abolish the police” make you feel? Why might that be? What were you taught about the police as a child?

Have an uncomfortable conversation with yourself. With a white friend or family member or activist. With a person of color, if it feels right.

If you want to learn more about the movement to begin de-funding the prison-industrial complex while funding alternative solutions to prevent and address the root causes of crime, http://criticalresistance.org/ isn’t a bad place to start.

Vox has a good explanation of the basics: https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/6/8/21281069/abolish-the-police-black-lives-matter-george-floyd-protests-minneapolis-new-york

And this article is for folks that want to see some numbers:

https://labornotes.org/2020/06/its-way-past-time-redistribute-obscene-police-budgets-schools-hospitals-and-buses

Be safe, be brave, be kind. Remember that all lives can’t matter until Black lives matter.

Gray

Council voices matter

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One of Gadfly’s missions is to help make us better voters.

We don’t elect our City Council members, for instance, to make 7-0 decisions on a contract for the Water department, though that is the kind of thing seemingly they mostly do.

We elect them — or should elect them — for their potential to provide leadership when things get tough.

Like now.

George Floyd’s murder has become a national inflection point. Look at the news to see what City Councils across the country are being asked to consider — are, in fact, considering.

Such moves as defunding, dismantling, disbanding the police.

Such issues as racial discrimination and systemic injustice.

That’s a lot for our part-time Bethlehem public servants.

But this is precisely the kind of time we should envision when we vote.

Over the past few days, Gadfly has asked you to concentrate individually on each Council member’s first public response to the Floyd murder.

Whose voices move us, whose don’t?

Who seems up to the task at hand, who not?

Whose voices reveal leadership timber, whose not?

Gadfly asks you to consider such questions now and as we go forward especially in the next few weeks for we will no doubt meet these people on the Council ballot again, for no doubt one or more of these Council members will be running for mayor — a decision now less than a year away.

Let’s test their mettle now.

Let’s see what they’ve got.

So before we move on, Gadfly asks you to take a few more moments to browse again the first voices of our Council members at this dynamic cultural moment.

For, to shamelessly appropriate a phrase, “Council voices matter.”

President Waldron: “the Police department . . . did a great job . . . supporting the First Amendment rights that everyone is granted”

Councilwoman Van Wirt: “I ask you to do something, to look at our own city and address economic and social racism where it exists”

Councilwoman Crampsie Smith: “We must work together as a city to insure that all our community members and visitors of color feel safe, secure, equal, and loved”

Councilman Reynolds: “It is not enough just to say that we can have peaceful demonstrations here”

Councilman Callahan: “I was so proud of the way people were behaving themselves and just peacefully protesting”

Councilman Colon: “Now is the time for listening and to keep the dialog going”

Councilwoman Negron: “There’s a lot of wrong-doing, a lot of wrong going on right here”

Rarin’ to go!

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A day ago all this pot revealed was a trio of bright yellow residents. What a difference a day makes. Look closely and you can see the Cardinal Climber is several inches up the stake. A good day’s work. At this rate the 8 ft journey to the lattice roof where it spreads out to provide some shade will take no time at all. Speedy devil!

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The Gadfly

Turning Point for the White Boy

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Turning Point for the White Boy

There are “Sundown Towns,” towns in which it is not safe for a black after dark. I lived in a “Sun-drenched Town,” a town in which you’d hardly see a black at any time.

There was an “other side of the tracks” in my town. The Paoli Local split the town, not in half, but let’s say 90-10. The blacks stayed on their side of the tracks. This was the 1950s.

The school playground, however, was democratic terrain. There the many bloods of the American stream met.

It was on the playground that I met him.

I can’t remember his name. It was Homer or Horatio. It was Johnson or Brown or Washington.

Homer or Horatio was good-natured and gregarious. He faced life with what I would much later recognize as a plantation smile. He was also a natural athlete, a “superb physical specimen,” as they say when coldly dehumanizing a person, the kind of guy who never wore a shirt in warm weather and you didn’t mind.

Homer or Horatio and I played a lot of ball together in my high school years.

We were friends on the playground.

After graduation, I had a summer job delivering furniture and appliances, helping to meet college expenses.

Homer or Horatio wasn’t going to college. He needed a job to subsist. But he confided to me with inherited stoicism that everywhere he applied in our sun-drenched town he met polite but curt refusal. Remember, this was the 1950s.

Homer or Horatio was my friend.

He needed a recommendation.

So I made the well meaning offer to put in a good word for him with my boss, pretending I was a man of influence, of privilege, of power. Though I knew he was better equipped for this kind of work than me, who was a definite liability on the ass-end of a sofa going up two flights of stairs.

I offered to help Homer or Horatio. He was my friend.

But I never followed through.

My big boss was a big bigot – Mr. Sundrenched himself. His assistant – I remember her name precisely – was the snooty Mrs. DuBois – pronounced Du-bwa, mind you, not Du-boise – who barely tolerated my lower middle classness.

It was no good. I would be no help. I had not the courage to recommend my black friend.

Moreover, from some dark cellar of racial anxiety, I made the selfish calculation that even recommending my friend might endanger my job. That he might trump me.

I never followed through on the offer to help my friend.

I did nothing.

I thought the rash offer forgotten.

But this unpardonable sin was not to go unpunished.

Late one drowsily hot Saturday summer afternoon as the work week wound down, while killing time by fiddling with the front store window display, I saw Homer or Horatio confidently approaching in his Sunday best.

It hadn’t occurred to me that he would do this.

It felt like something never before done in our sun-drenched town.

I couldn’t breathe.

I lept from the window and blocked him at the door, stupidly, selfishly, and transparently lying that I had done my best but that the boss expressed sincere regret that at the moment there were no jobs available.

Homer or Horatio lowered eyes that had seen cowardice, neatly folded his smile for use another day with a better friend, joined the palms of his hands prayerfully on his chest, and, bowing subserviently ever so slightly from the waist, turned and disappeared.

I never saw Homer or Horatio Johnson or Brown or Washington again.

Except on the rack of conscience.

Except on the ever rising tide of resolve to do better by people of color that persists to this day.

Edward J. Gallagher

Gadfly is fostering local art and encourages followers to contribute creative work and personal responses to the George Floyd killing.

Councilwoman Negron: “There’s a lot of wrong-doing, a lot of wrong going on right here”

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On behalf of the department, Chief DiLuzio read a statement on “George Floyd’s Death & Policing in America” at the Council meeting Wednesday night. You can find the text here and the audio below. (The Mayor’s May 31 statement was not read into the record but can be found here.)

The Chief’s statement was the occasion for response to the local and national events of the last ten days or so by each member of Council.

Followers know that a main purpose of this blog is to help you know your Council members better. These Council responses are a good way to do exactly that, so Gadfly is taking some time to present each one individually for better focus.

Listen to the voices of our elected officials.

We began with President Waldron and have proceeded in the order in which the comments were presented at the meeting. finishing up here with Councilwoman Negron.

Councilwoman Negron

“I appreciate some of the comments that some of you have made. I also remind you that the change that we need, it is not about a resolution or a magic pill. It’s simpler than that. We have been taught, we have been cautioned, we have been advised that there is injustice going on in our courts, in our district courts who are brown and black people in our community. And everybody turned the side to look another way. O that’s not happening. That is not in here. We are very blessed, very lucky that we have a great community, a beautiful community that I love, that I chose to raise my daughters in, and I don’t regret it. But there’s a lot of wrong-doing, a lot of wrong going on right here. We have been advised . . . each one of us has been advised of wrong-doing in terms of injustice to the brown and black people, your constituents. Your brown and black constituents are being right now, every day treated in an unjust way. You’ve been told, you’ve been cautioned, you’ve been warned. You did nothing about it. So, yeah, I am glad that nobody in our Bethlehem Police Department has killed any of our brown and black people here today. Right? But the injustice exists. And there’s no way for anybody to say otherwise unless you lived it or heard the stories directly from the individuals that are crying ______, even myself. I am, as all of you know, very proud to be a Puerto Rican woman, and I carry my flag, and I even have a face mask now my sister gave me with the Puerto Rican flag, I’m afraid to wear it to some places. There are a lot of places that I would not wear my flag. There are a lot of places where even without my flag, I’m not crazy to go. I feel intimidated, afraid, and I’m not the only one. All of your constituents, all of your constituents, 76,000 people who live in the City of Bethlehem, all of the brown and black individuals, are feeling something very similar. So we don’t need a resolution, we don’t need a magic pill, we just need to listen to what we’ve been told that is happening, and we need to do something about it. It is unfairness. It’s like Councilwoman Smith said, with liberty and justice for all. Really? Justice for all. Justice for all as long as you have light skin, gold hair, and blue eyes. Because if you don’t, there’s no such a thing in here as justice for all.”

Councilman Colon: “Now is the time for listening and to keep the dialog going”

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On behalf of the department, Chief DiLuzio read a statement on “George Floyd’s Death & Policing in America” at the Council meeting Wednesday night. You can find the text here and the audio below. (The Mayor’s May 31 statement was not read into the record but can be found here.)

The Chief’s statement was the occasion for response to the local and national events of the last ten days or so by each member of Council.

Followers know that a main purpose of this blog is to help you know your Council members better. These Council responses are a good way to do exactly that, so Gadfly is taking some time to present each one individually for better focus.

Listen to the voices of our elected officials.

We began with President Waldron and are proceeding in the order in which the comments were presented at the meeting. Previously we have posted on Councilmembers Van Wirt, Crampsie Smith, Reynolds, and Callahan. Negron comes after Callahan here.

Councilman Colon

Unfortunately, Councilman Colon’s presentation is occasionally garbled.

“I really don’t have that much to add that members of Council haven’t said already other than I am glad things have been going peaceful and well for the past few days. I’m someone who comes from a diverse family, a Puerto Rican family. My youngest brother whom many of you know and have met is African American. And I’m still using now as a time really for listening, thinking that my experience and what I see and the life that I live is reminding myself every day that my existence isn’t the scope of all that goes on here in Bethlehem. I’m using this time to listen. I’m glad that others have mentioned that now is the time for listening and to keep the dialog going. So I hope we can really achieve . . . I know the department is trying to stay ahead a lot of the things that are coming whether the norm or ahead of the times a little bit but keep all those things going. I was glad to hear from Mr. Dobyan who called in, some of those things I thought were just common operating procedure in all departments across the country, they all sound pretty reasonable [The Chief interrupted to say that all depts don’t have guidelines, that we’re talking about criminal justice reform, the system is broken and reiterated that what he saw in Minneapolis is disgusting as well as everything else going on. That was murder on national tv.] I truly believe that Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, we aren’t going to be the ones to change the world, to change the country, I think we could continue beyond today as we have and even change is incremental. As I said before, change takes time and effort. The calendar days keep ticking away. I know the effort is there, and I really just hope we can stay . . . I’m proud of the city I grew up in, I think we could all say we appreciated whether it’s the cultural diversity that go no further in South Bethlehem and all the different churches and ethnic backgrounds that really built Bethlehem through the Steel and just growing up in the City and the people I grew up around and the family I come from, I really hope we can just continue again not only having the time for listening but keeping the dialog going and continue to do whatever we can here locally. We’re not going to change what’s going on in D.C., we’re not going to change what’s going on even in Harrisburg necessarily, as long as we keep doing our part to change what’s going on in Bethlehem.”

The goal: “We all need to have love in our hearts”

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Dana Grubb is a lifelong resident of the City of Bethlehem who worked 27 years for the City of Bethlehem in the department of community and economic development, as sealer of weights and measures, housing rehabilitation finance specialist, grants administrator, acting director of community and economic development, and deputy director of community development.

Gadfly:

As my Black neighbor said to me last week, “We all need to have love in our hearts.”  And this week another long-time black friend contacted me about being interviewed by the newspaper I freelance for, to discuss all of this. He wants me to do it. “You’re one of us,” he said to me. Not quite, I know, but I am in spirit. I’ve helped him on a number of projects over the years.

I grew up on the side of Stefko Boulevard opposite Marvine Pembroke public housing. The minority population then wasn’t what it is today. However, when the minority kids crossed over to the old Stefko Little League field for pick-up games, all that mattered was how well you could play baseball, nothing else.

The same approach applied to the 23 years that I played softball, mostly as a fastpitch pitcher and centerfielder. When somebody teed off on one of my pitches, I didn’t care that my leftfielder was Italian, my centerfielder was Black, or my rightfielder was Hispanic. All I worried about was if they could save my behind and make the play.

By the way, that Hispanic rightfielder’s brother played third base for our team. He had a golden glove, and it was because of it that I once tossed a no-hit game. He and his wife live in Florida now and we have exchanged Christmas cards for over forty years.

It was the same during the twenty-five years I played volleyball in leagues all over the Lehigh Valley.

My stepdaughter married a Black police officer in Allentown. He was a hell of a nice guy who treated his wife and my granddaughter as the loves of his life. He was popular and a good community police officer. Sadly, cancer took him at the age of 37.

The first time we went to a family gathering with his family, my ex, her daughter, and I were the only white people in attendance initially. I remember walking into a picnic with about twenty smiling Black faces and thinking, “aah, so this is what it’s like for them every day.” We had a blast because we were just people at a picnic.

Of course I see skin color, and of course I’ve been the benefactor of white privilege. Am I a racist as a result of being white? I don’t know.

What I know is that I am a guy who tries really hard to live by the Golden Rule. I pray each night for the guidance to do what is good and right, and for the strength to be kind, caring, compassionate, and considerate of others. I’m not perfect, but those things are what I aspire to be, no matter whom I come across.

Dana

Gadfly welcomes personal reflections on the current racial issues.

Councilman Callahan: “I was so proud of the way people were behaving themselves and just peacefully protesting”

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On behalf of the department, Chief DiLuzio read a statement on “George Floyd’s Death & Policing in America” at the Council meeting Wednesday night. You can find the text here and the audio below. (The Mayor’s May 31 statement was not read into the record but can be found here.)

The Chief’s statement was the occasion for response to the local and national events of the last ten days or so by each member of Council.

Followers know that a main purpose of this blog is to help you know your Council members better. These Council responses are a good way to do exactly that, so Gadfly is taking some time to present each one individually for better focus.

Listen to the voices of our elected officials.

We began with President Waldron and are proceeding in the order in which the comments were presented at the meeting. Previously we have posted on Councilmembers Van Wirt, Crampsie Smith, and Reynolds. Colon and Negron come after Callahan here.

Councilman Callahan

The Council meeting was held online, of course, and unfortunately Councilman Callahan’s presentation broke up repeatedly, so Gadfly is sorry for all the breaks in the tape and the transcription.

“I just want to echo everybody’s statements. It really touched everybody, what happened, the tragedy last week and on the weekend I didn’t know about the parade that was going on but I heard all the noise up there, and I walked. I was so proud I posted the video I saw, I was so proud of the way people were behaving themselves and just peacefully protesting. . . . Our police department did a heckuva job, and I want to say thank you to them too for such short notice . . . They allowed everybody to speak up . . . I think everybody knows how I feel about the president of the United States . . . I believe he’s trying to divide everybody, and that’s a whole other issue . . . As Ms. Crampsie Smith said . . . maybe we should send some type of resolution to the state . . . our state senators, our United States senators. This is not America, and it’s a shame . . . as Mr. Reynolds said . . . in schools . . . I know Allen High School, Northeast, and Easton has a lot of poverty, and we have a lot of minorities in there. These kids are great, great kids, great souls, and great hearts, and they come from extreme poverty some of them. And it brings a set of issues you don’t see in white middle class America, and it’s time for us to step up, and I don’t know if anybody wants to write a resolution or vote for it, but I think we gotta . . . It’s not just the resolution, it’s what we do, it’s what we say, and it’s how . . . I just want to reiterate what everybody said, you know, we are really in unprecedented times . . . For some reason I feel like we are back in 1969 again. This is crazy. And so my heart goes out to everybody . . . the family of the gentleman in Minnesota . . . It’s time for a change, you know, and the only way we are going to get that is by going out and voting. So I appreciate all . . . If there’s anything I can do to help or push along some resolutions or whatever . . . I’m all for it.”

Breakfast at Billy’s

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Saturday morning breakfast at Billy’s.

Nothing better.

And Gadfly has to be bunkered in because of the virus.

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Ambience not beautiful. Not yet. “They” are working on it.

Would you want to share any dining experiences during “Yellow” weekend?

NAACP’s Esther Lee: “We’re done dying”

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“To end the vigil, Lee called across Payrow Plaza to two Bethlehem police officers, asking them to stand beside her. She then led the crowd in the singing of ‘We Shall Overcome,’ an anthem of the civil rights movement.”

Does anyone know if the police complied? Pictures? Maybe those of you who dwell in Facebook will know.

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from Jon Harris, “Somber Bethlehem vigil, energetic Allentown youth march, calls for change following killing of George Floyd.” Morning Call, June 6, 2020.

As mourners gathered in George Floyd’s North Carolina hometown for his funeral Saturday, demonstrators marched in Allentown, prayed in Bethlehem and protested in cities across the country, demanding that the 46-year-old black man’s death at the hands of police triggers change.

Leading that call at a midday vigil in Bethlehem that drew a couple hundred people was Esther Lee, a longtime activist and president of Bethlehem’s NAACP who has been organizing peaceful rallies for equality and against injustice for decades. Wearing a mask and her signature hat, the 86-year-old said the pandemic and a bad knee couldn’t keep her from speaking out. She started the rally by reiterating Floyd’s last words: “I can’t breathe.”

“I’m just as fired up as I was when I was 16,” Lee said. “I like to tell people, ‘I’ve got a bad knee, but there’s nothing wrong with my mouth.’”

Like most of the demonstrations that Floyd’s death ignited across the country, the ones in Bethlehem and Allentown were peaceful.

“Coming out of here, it’s really where we go with it,” [Allentown Police Chief] Granitz said of the community engagement.

That’s where the attention of Lee, longtime leader of the Bethlehem NAACP, is focused. She said the group will be meeting with Bethlehem police to make sure good comes out of the protests, rallies and vigils.

Lee, who fought much of her life to overcome bigotry and was the first African American elected to the Bethlehem Area School Board, said they’re going to work in Bethlehem to help combat racism.

“It’s not over, and we’re done dying,” she said. “We’re done dying.”

To end the vigil, Lee called across Payrow Plaza to two Bethlehem police officers, asking them to stand beside her. She then led the crowd in the singing of “We Shall Overcome,” an anthem of the civil rights movement.

The crowd then went silent, for 8 minutes and 46 seconds — how long Floyd lay handcuffed in the street with Chauvin kneeling on his neck.

When the silence ended, Lee spoke again — as she plans to keep doing.

“I can’t breathe,” she said once more. “Amen! Bless you.”

What can we do to ensure that our police do not over-react or use violent methods — even if some BLM protesters or counter-protesters were to engage in property crimes?

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Peter Crownfield is officially retired but spends most of his time working with students in his role as internship coordinator for the Alliance for Sustainable Communities–Lehigh Valley.

Gadfly:

This statement [Councilman Reynolds] makes the point that we need to solve problems, not just express dismay.

At the most fundamental level, what do we need to do to eliminate institutionalized racism? This will take a long, deep, and open discussion throughout the community.

And what can we do to ensure that our police do not over-react or use violent methods — even if some BLM protesters or counter-protesters were to engage in property crimes? One step might be to review all policies related to police tactics and to adopt policies, backed by an ordinance, such as those put forth by the Police Use of Force Project.

Here’s what the Police Use of Force Project published:

1 Failing to require officers to de-escalate situations, where possible, by communicating with subjects, maintaining distance, and otherwise eliminating the need to use force

2 Allowing officers to choke or strangle civilians, in many cases where less lethal force could be used instead, resulting in the unnecessary death or serious injury of civilians

3 Failing to require officers to intervene and stop excessive force used by other officers and report these incidents immediately to a supervisor

4 Failing to restrict officers from shooting at moving vehicles, which is regarded as a particularly dangerous and ineffective tactic

5 Failing to develop a Force Continuum that limits the types of force and/or weapons that can be used to respond to specific types of resistance

6 Failing to require officers to exhaust all other reasonable means before resorting to deadly force

7 Failing to require officers to give a verbal warning, when possible, before shooting at a civilian

8 Failing to require officers to report each time they use force or threaten to use force against civilians

To these, I would add a ban on use of tear gas, pepper spray, or similar compounds…

Source: Police Use of Force Project   [http://useofforceproject.org/]

Peter

See Alex Dobyan’s comments at Council last Wednesday. Alex raised such points as Peter does, and in response to questions from Councilwoman Crampsie Smith, Chief DiLuzio indicated that the Police department is “out front” on all of these kinds of policies and does continual training. Gadfly’s sense is that the Chief was satisfied where the department stands on such policies and that no particular introspection is needed at this point. Perhaps he should take more time at a separate time to explain the department policies in detail and answer questions about them — a Public Safety meeting devoted to this topic?

Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce: “In support of the Black Business Community, we are calling for a Lehigh Valley Black Business Directory.

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What a great, practical, timely idea!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 4, 2020

Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber’s Diversity Councils Supports Launch of Black Owned Business Directory

LEHIGH VALLEY PA:  The last few weeks have shown the significant flaws in our society.  Racial injustices have been pushed to the side for far too long. The entire nation took to the streets, to social media, and we hear your cries. BLACK LIVES MATTER. We stand in solidarity with you.

As we represent the Diversity Councils of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce on a daily basis, it hurts to see a more than deserving community in pain. The Black community needs our support, now more than ever.  Too many lives have been lost at the hands of injustice, and we give our deepest sympathies to George Floyd’s loved ones and to all the other lives taken before him. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” –Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are on the brink of change and everyone is paying attention. Foundational change is not immediate; it takes time, persistence and resilience.  It takes numbers and a never-ending stream of support. Rosa Park’s refusal to give up her seat in 1955, began the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which took 381 days of focused engagement to result in a desegregated bus system. We cannot stop now.

To this end and in support of the Black Business Community, we are calling for a Lehigh Valley Black Business Directory.  During this time, we want to support the Black Business Community of the Lehigh Valley as much as possible.  “Strategic change is created through economic commitment – a commitment to be on the right side of an issue you are passionate about.  Support Black Owned Businesses,” said Joanne Leasure, CEO of Day One Accounting and Financial Services LLC.

As a “Call to Action,” the African American Business Leaders Council of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce has launched #SUPPORTBLACKBUSINESS Black Business Directory.  The open call for businesses to sign up starts now via the Business and Diversity Councils’ webpage: https://www.lehighvalleychamber.org/submit-supportblackbusinesslv.html

The business directory will facilitate supporting black owned businesses by having direct links to their websites and the contact information all in one place and organized into categories.  The directory is open to all African American owned businesses in the Chamber footprint.

“The goal is to have a positive economic impact. We also want to create opportunities to exchange beneficial knowledge and expertise that support the success of the business community,” said Qiana Cressman co-chair of the Chamber’s African American Business Leaders Council and Executive Director, Donor Operations at Miller-Keystone Blood Center.  “It’s our responsibility to promote and help direct as much business as possible to this underserved segment of our business community,” adds Dan Bosket, co-chair of the Chamber’s African American Business Leaders Council and Director at Community Action Development Corporation of Allentown.

In Solidarity,

The Diversity Councils of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce

The dynamic list of Black owned businesses can by accessed here:  https://www.lehighvalleychamber.org/list-supportblackbusinesslv.html

Businesses that would like to sign up can do so at:  https://www.lehighvalleychamber.org/submit-supportblackbusinesslv.html

For more information on the Black Owned Business Directory and the African American Business Leaders Council, please visit
https://www.lehighvalleychamber.org/businessanddiversity.html

Tip o’ the hat to Olga Negron for calling this to Gadfly’s attention.

Councilman Reynolds: “It is not enough just to say that we can have peaceful demonstrations here”

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On behalf of the department, Chief DiLuzio read a statement on “George Floyd’s Death & Policing in America” at the Council meeting Wednesday night. You can find the text here and the audio below. (The Mayor’s May 31 statement was not read into the record but can be found here.)

The Chief’s statement was the occasion for response to the local and national events of the last ten days or so by each member of Council.

Followers know that a main purpose of this blog is to help you know your Council members better. These Council responses are a good way to do exactly that, so Gadfly will take the next day or so to present each one individually for better focus.

Listen to the voices of our elected officials.

We began with President Waldron and are proceeding in the order in which the comments were presented at the meeting. Previously we have posted on Councilmembers Van Wirt and Crampsie Smith.

Councilman Reynolds

“I want to thank the Chief for making sure that the rally last week on Saturday was peaceful, and I also want to thank the Mayor for reaching out to the organizers as well as his comments. I do share the feelings of my colleagues, though, when I think it is really only the beginning of the conversation here. I think that the fact that everybody in this country just about agrees that what happened to George Floyd was horrorific, it was a tragedy, it was an injustice unlike what we have seen on camera for a long, long time. But there’s also a difference between not doing something wrong and doing what’s right. And I think that’s part of the conversation we need to have in the city. And to piggyback on what other people have said, we need to start with the understanding that we don’t have the same experience in this country based on our skin color. We don’t. And I think as a government we need to be creating institutions that are equitable and fair. Ms. Crampsie Smith just gave the line and Dr. Roy just said that recently, that it’s just not enough to be against racism, but we need to pro-actively be anti-racist. A 150 years ago you could be an ally of African Americans by being against slavery. A hundred years ago you could say Jim Crow laws were wrong. 60 years ago you could say desegregation is wrong. Today it takes more than that. It’s conversations about where highways are built, and how you draw zoning codes, and how you can make sure you can’t make a house on a lot smaller than a certain amount so that you can improve affordable housing. And those are the conversations. We’re not to blame for those things, but it is our responsibility to fix those things. Look at the history of Bethlehem _____?, look at our African American population compared to Allentown or Easton. A lot of that has to do that Bethlehem Steel didn’t want to hire African Americans for a long time. So we have, what’s our population of African Americans according to the census — 6. 7. 8%? What has that done? It has created generations of African American families in this city that have inherited that discrimination and had to face those challenges. Look at what’s happened to our Hispanic community as people have moved to this city. We are not to blame for those things, but it is our responsibility to understand that a lot of the anger we are seeing in the country over the past several days is not about what happened in Minnesota. It’s about the discrimination, the anger, the frustration that has crossed over generations that we have inherited as elected officials. And one of our jobs here is to understand that as our country’s identity changes, our city’s identity is changing as well. And we need to do everything we can to make our institutions and build the trust because a lot of us are teachers, I guarantee you, Mr. Callahan, Ms. Crampsie Smith could tell you the same thing. When students walk in to our classrooms and a lot of times they are angry at us or they’re angry or pissed off at the world, they’re not actually angry at us. It is traumatic experience that has led to damage, hurt trust to the people standing in front of them. As a teacher, it took me years to understand that. That when a kid was angry, he wasn’t angry at me. And it’s not our police department’s fault, it’s not our fault that this has happened, but it needs to be a wake-up call to us, and we need to be inspired going forward that it is not enough just to say what happened in Minnesota is wrong. It is not even enough just to say that we can have peaceful demonstrations here. It’s gonna be enough when people that are in marginalized communities are able to look at us as our elected officials and look at things we’ve done and say, you know what, they made things better, they made things more inclusive, they gave power to people that didn’t have power before, because as I said before, it is more difficult sometimes to point out some of these biases and existence of racism than might have been fifty or a hundred years ago. It’s a challenge for us to do that, but that is our job. I would agree with Ms. Crampsie Smith when she said that she wouldn’t be up here if she didn’t feel strongly about these issues, and I think we need to make more of an effort as a community, as individuals, and this does not all fall on our police department. It falls on every public institution, every governmental institution to make sure that we understand both the history, the pain, the anger, the frustration, and we need to be committed to creating better, fairer institutions that are equitable and that our citizens can look at and say that they believe them. And that’s the challenge for all of us going forward.”

LEPOCO: “We stand with the Black Lives Matter Movement as they seek racial justice”

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Barbara Diamond enjoys retirement as Lehigh University Director of Foundation Relations by engaging in various activities and organizations hopefully for the betterment of the community. Her particular interests at the moment are preventing gun violence, local government ethics reform, and Bethlehem Democratic Committee work.

Dear Gadfly,

In 2016, in response of widespread protests related to police killings, LEPOCO issued the following statement and call to action. It is notable that the recommended course of action then is much the same as we hear today; there has been little discernible progress over the last four years. We are not likely to see the changes we need and want until we hold political leaders at all levels to account for their inaction. I am heartened by the sustained demand for change expressed through these protests, maybe we are at a turning point. We will get meaningful change if the people in the streets carry their fervor into the voting booth in the next election cycles for national, state, and local offices, and prioritize racial justice and policing with their votes.

Floyd 3

Barbara

LEPOCO is a Bethlehem treasure. How many cities can boast an organization dedicated to peace?

Councilwoman Crampsie Smith: “We must work together as a city to insure that all our community members and visitors of color feel safe, secure, equal, and loved”

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On behalf of the department, Chief DiLuzio read a statement on “George Floyd’s Death & Policing in America” at the Council meeting Wednesday night. You can find the text here and the audio below. (The Mayor’s May 31 statement was not read into the record but can be found here.)

The Chief’s statement was the occasion for response to the local and national events of the last ten days or so by each member of Council.

Followers know that a main purpose of this blog is to help you know your Council members better. These Council responses are a good way to do exactly that, so Gadfly will take the next day or so to present each one individually for better focus.

Listen to the voices of our elected officials.

We began with President Waldron and are proceeding in the order in which the comments were presented at the meeting.

Councilwoman Grace Crampsie Smith

“Well, as President Waldron said, this has been an extremely difficult week, more so for some than others, but I just want to speak from the heart because I feel I want to say something, and I’m not really sure what to say, but I’ve been thinking a lot about it, but I think that, you know, at every Council meeting, every morning at the beginning of school, and at almost every public meeting, we cite the pledge of allegiance. And within it are these words, “liberty and justice for all.”  And I really take that part and think about it every time I say it. I think, is there really justice for all? And obviously the answer is no. There hasn’t been for even the past 100 years since this pledge was written in 1892 and for many hundreds of years before that. They say anger is a bodyguard for hurt, anger is a bodyguard of hurt. While I never condone violence, it is really important for us to reconcile with the fact that people of color are deeply and profoundly hurt and that hurt is manifesting itself as anger. Can we blame them? Absolutely not. I would not be in this position of councilmember if it were not for my dear friends of color. I am blessed every day to see the gifts, talents, and dignity of my wonderful students of color. My heart is broken for them and for our country. As a mother you live with many fears regarding your children’s well being. I thank God my twenty-year-old son is white, for his safety is greater than his friends of color.  And that is truly wrong. My heart breaks for the parents of children of color, for I cannot fathom the fear they live with each and every day. Their fears are above and beyond what any parents’ fears ever should be. Our path to justice for all and especially for people of color has been diverted especially in the past 3 1/2 years. We must continue on this path, bolder, stronger, and even more determined. The time is well past for justice for all. We must open our ears, eyes, heart, and soul to our brothers and sisters of color. We must work together as a city to insure that all our community members and visitors of color feel safe, secure, equal, and loved. We must insure that we are not not just against racism, but we are anti-racist, we are inclusive, and we always strive to insure justice for all.”

Bethlehem Interfaith Group statement on the George Floyd murder: “to achieve positive change and an end to racism, we must act”

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Statement on Racism and Solidarity with the African American Community

The killing of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis law enforcement officers has become the tipping point for grief, outrage, and protest across our nation. Floyd’s death, the most recent in a long line of suspicious and wrongful deaths of black people at the hands of those sworn to protect, has galvanized the American social conscience and so requires reflection and concurrent action by people of faith.

For over 400 years we have wrestled with the scourge of white supremacy in North America which has enslaved, colonized, dehumanized, marginalized, abused, repressed, and murdered people of color and minorities solely due to the color of their skin. From the end of slavery to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s, we hoped that progress would end systemic racism in the United States. Sadly, we have known—and bear witness to once again—the brutal treatment of black people and other people of color and minorities in the United States. At its core is an entrenched discriminatory system which disproportionately targets people of color and minorities in the United States, burdening them with oppression and violence, injustice in our legal system and by law enforcement. This in turn perpetuates poverty, loss of freedom, disadvantage, and systemic societal inequality. It has fostered a culture of fear against people of color. It has made African Americans, particularly males, fear for their lives every time they leave their homes and parents wonder if their children will safely return.

As members of the Bethlehem Interfaith Group (B.I.G.), we raise our voices in support of and solidarity with those who are peacefully demonstrating for racial justice, and commit ourselves to being partners and allies for systemic change. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said, “In a free society, only some are guilty but all are responsible.”

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Statement on Racism and Solidarity with the African American Community

Tip o’ the hat to the Lehigh Valley Meeting (Quakers) for passing this statement on to the Gadfly.