Latest in a series of posts in the wake of the George Floyd murder

“I look for anyone that has a connection to Allentown.”
Allentown Police Chief Granitz

So, once again, Gadfly’s keeping an eye out for what’s happening around us.

Allentown’s making an effort to recruit homegrown Latinx officers.

Allentown’s population is 50% Latinx, ours about 30%.

In Allentown, 30 of 216 officers are bilingual.

Gadfly doesn’t believe we know the racial/ethnic mix of our police department. He remembers Chief DiLuzio saying in one of the post-GeorgeFloyd discussions that all minorities were represented on the force (even Asian), but he does not remember that any numbers or percentages were given. The diversity in the department is another one of the areas Gadfly is hoping we would push on if we were to have the kind of Public Safety meeting he has wistfully wished for.

Several Council members have expressed the desire that the police force “look like” the population of the city.

A resident has suggested to Gadfly this prompt for the candidate forums: “Would you be willing to advocate for the development of a police force that has an equitable ratio of white males, white women, POC males, and POC women officers? Would you seek the same diversity-based composition for our local police union?”

Gadfly has several times heard mayoral candidate Grubb speak favorably of a time when a majority of City employees lived in Bethlehem.

Maybe you are catching Gadfly’s drift.

(Click here for the Hispanic Center virtual event led by Guillermo Lopez mentioned in the article below.)

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selections from Paul Muschick, “Allentown police recruit more homegrown officers who speak Spanish. ‘It’s easier to build rapport with someone who can understand you’.” Morning Call, March 26, 2021

Latest in a series of posts in the wake of the George Floyd murder

You know Gadfly would be in a front row seat for this if we could be seated.

You know he feels these are the kinds of discussions we ought to be having.

Given the host organization, this event should be . . . thought-provoking.

You haven’t forgotten the related discussion coming up at the Hispanic Center April 12, have you?

Tuesday, March 30, 6-7:30
register

Tuesday, March 30, 6-7:30
register

Latest in a series of posts in the wake of the George Floyd murder

Gadfly continues to ride his hobbyhorse of the need for more in-depth conversation regarding how we do public safety.

Mayoral candidate Dana Grubb lists Public Safety as one of his platform issues, but Gadfly is not sure exactly what he has in mind. Council candidate Hillary Kwiatek has been bolder, specifically suggesting that there are “new models” that could be of use in “re-imagining public safety.”

I haven’t heard so far of any scheduled pre-election public events where candidates can expand and be pushed to expand on such ideas.

Maybe Gadfly will make public safety one of the Forum topics.

But in the meantime he continues to call attention to incidents like the one yesterday that suggest the need of that re-imagining, as well as thought pieces like the following.

Editorial Board, “Reimagine Safety.” Washington Post, March 16, 2021.

Since the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020 unleashed what may have been the largest protest movement in U.S. history, the nation has been fiercely debating how to respond — to his horrifying death, and to those of Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and so many other Black Americans at the hands of police.

Some energy has been directed at accountability for specific acts, exemplified by the trial of the man charged in Floyd’s killing, former police officer Derek Chauvin, underway this month.

Some has been directed at reforming police training, discipline and other policies. Several state legislatures have updated use-of-force policies and restricted or banned the use of chokeholds and neck restraints.

But the fiercest and potentially most consequential debate is over mounting a more fundamental response to these tragically familiar incidents.

Today, community activists and law enforcement officers who see eye to eye on precious little agree on this: We rely too much on the police.

Over-reliance on police is preventing us from imagining and investing in other public safety tools — ones that could revitalize the struggling neighborhoods that experience the most crime.

We should think about public safety the way we think about public health. No one would suggest that hospitals alone can keep a population healthy, no matter how well run they might be. A healthy community needs neighborhood clinics, health education, parks, environments free of toxins, government policies that protect the public during health emergencies, and so much more. Health isn’t just about hospitals; safety isn’t just about police.

Past spasms of outrage over horrific incidents of police violence have faded from mainstream attention largely without giving rise to a fundamentally different framework for supporting safe, healthy communities. If this season’s reckoning is to be more fruitful, we must do much more than address police brutality by reforming police unions, training, practices and accountability, though all of that is urgent. For all our sakes, we must break law enforcement’s monopoly on public safety.

Simply put: We need new tools.

Rayshard Brooks was killed by a police officer in Atlanta after Wendy’s employees called the cops to complain that a man, asleep in his car, was blocking the drive-through lane. . . . What if, instead of the police, the Wendy’s staff had been able to call an unarmed community patrol worker — perhaps a neighbor who knew Brooks — to drive him home or to a sober-up station for the night?

Daniel T. Prude died in Rochester, N.Y., after police officers forced him into a hood and then pushed his face to the ground while he was in the throes of a psychotic episode. His brother had called 911, later saying, “I placed a phone call for my brother to get help. Not for my brother to get lynched” . . . . What if instead of facing armed police officers while in the agony of a mental breakdown, Prude had been assisted by a crisis worker and a medic who were trained to de-escalate the situation and could connect him to mental health crisis services?

It’s not just that law enforcement is ill-equipped to help people in crisis and that other organizations could do better. In some cases, police cause unnecessary harm. In many cases, communities and law enforcement would support police functions being reassigned to trained civilians.

Incident response is an obvious candidate. Noting that a disturbing number of killings by police originate in a 911 call, jurisdictions around the country are questioning whether an armed police officer is really the best response to most calls for help. Philadelphia, Dallas, Denver and Atlanta are among the growing number of cities experimenting with new, unarmed response teams to better respond to crisis calls, particularly where mental health is involved.

Not all such programs are new. For three decades, Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets (CAHOOTS) in Eugene, Ore., has sent a medic and a crisis worker in response to 911 calls that involve a nonviolent emergency. According to the White Bird Clinic, which runs the program, CAHOOTS costs about $2.1 million a year. Based on the Eugene Police Department’s estimated cost of $800 per police response, the clinic estimates that CAHOOTS saves the city about $8.5 million in public safety spending per year.

But beyond saving money, reimagining incident response could give people in crisis the help they need

There will always be emergency calls that warrant a responder who can use force, but they are surprisingly rare. In 2020, calls about violent crime — homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — made up only about 1 percent of police calls for service in many city police departments, including Baltimore, Cincinnati, New Orleans and Seattle.

There will also always be murkier situations in which the presence of someone authorized to use force could prevent harm by de-escalating conflict but might also lethally escalate the situation.

Even then, jurisdictions could experiment with a blended response in which civilians and law enforcement work together. Civilian responders including medics, crisis workers and others with rigorous de-escalation training could try to resolve crises while law enforcement waits nearby, out of sight. If civilian responders aren’t able to resolve the situation, they could call for backup. That capability could save lives, but again might be needed in surprisingly few cases: In 2019, out of 24,000 calls the CAHOOTS team received, police backup was requested only 150 times.

Still, cities around the country are realizing that this first step is crucial — that they can offer people help they really need while minimizing the chance that a lethal escalation will make a person’s most vulnerable moments their last.

Latest in a series of posts in the wake of the George Floyd murder

Gadfly has been busy with other things and has taken his eye off certain types of police doin’s that relate to the GeorgeFloyd event and the re-imagining of the way we do public safety.

But the tragic deaths from the misapplication of police force don’t take holidays.

Gadfly hangs on to hope for a real Public Safety Committee meeting before the George Floyd anniversary where we discuss training and tactics in such circumstances as we see here among other things.

Who will answer Anjie Leigh’s call for help?

————

Steven Henshaw, “Berks DA’s office identifies man fatally shot by police in Muhlenberg Township home.” Reading Eagle, March 17, 2021.

“Man fatally shot by police needed help, daughter says.” 69 News, March 16, 2021.

————-

What we know now, 2 days after the incident:

Police received a 911 call from a woman about a man threatening her with a knife.

Not all accounts report that she reported being threatened.

The police arrived to find the man locked in a bedroom. They got a key and opened the door.

The man refused to drop the knife. He was tased to no effect. He was then shot.

The man was 62, diagnosed with brain cancer about a year ago and had undergone surgery and chemotherapy.

One neighbor or the man’s daughter said that what the man needed was help.

The man’s daughter said her father’s cancer fight left him in need of psychiatric treatment and that words can’t describe how much he’ll be missed, especially by his grandchildren.

Facebook comments from the public contain the standard polarity:

• “Cops acting as judge, jury, and executioner need to stop. This man needed help, not a bullet to the heart.”
• “he was having a mental health emergency, and was suffering from cancer. Not surprising the cops couldn’t seem to handle a 130lb chemo patient and had to shoot him in the chest.”
• “Well like others have said, maybe a call to his therapist or counselor would have been a better choice. Police are trained to control lethal situations and persons endangering the lives of others, non lethal measures were taken with no effect. That leaves them no options. They do not know each individuals personal history when they respond. They have to deal with what presents itself at the time. Sad someone lost their life but it means someone else’s life was saved, maybe more.”
• “Dude was in his room by himself. They broke in and threatened him, making the situation worse. A trained mental health expert responding and this man would be alive today. The cops should have stayed the hell outside.”
• “the police have the right to protect themselves from people carrying weapons. If YOU can do a better job. Go be a cop.”
• “What were the police going to do in this situation? What did they have to offer here? It’s almost like the presence of these officers almost made certain his life was going to end whether he was an actual threat to himself or not. This needs to stop… there’s been many successful departments in adding a mental health specialist unit…I suggest they learn from those successes and make changes immediately.”
• “I read this story in disbelief. At the point of police intervention, the man was locked in a room and no threat to anyone but himself. The situation called for de-escalation, contain and wait for back-up. Instead, lives were destroyed; both this family’s and that of the officer. We need to rethink and retrain policing in this country.”

This is how the man’s daughter, presumably the woman who made the call, saw it:

Anjie Leigh, Facebook, March 16:

Muhlenberg township police killed my Daddy today. He was battling brain and lung cancer the past year during covid and couldn’t see clearly for days beforehand. He was scared. They broke into his bedroom and killed him. he weighed 130 pounds, was still receiving cancer treatment and was supposed to be receiving a medical intervention due to a 302 call from a concerned family member. Help.

Latest in a series of posts in the wake of the George Floyd murder

Gadfly knows that some of his followers do not believe in systemic racism, nor in the need for anti-racism.

He wishes everybody could immerse themselves in the Black experience, could listen to the Black voices as he has been able to do through local consciousness raising resources provided in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.

Especially resources through the Bethlehem Area Public Library.

Please consider.

Register:

The Roots of Anti-Racism : first meeting Thursday March 11

The Toni Morrison Book Club : next meeting Thursday March 25

Latest in a series of posts in the wake of the George Floyd murder

ref: Loosening up for the Public Safety meeting

Yesterday, Gadfly said, “He could wonder why there was no follow-up information that he could discover on a “mentally distressed” man with a sword killed by an officer in Pennsburg.”

All of a sudden now there are a lot of notices, though none with much detailed info, or the same info.

The reason for the notices is that the D.A. ruled the shooting lawful.

Not all notices mention that the man was mentally distressed or that that was in the original call to police.

Not all mention that there is a video — a video that has not been made public.

Not all mention a 5-second gap between the officer command and the shots.

Not all quote dialogue by the subject.

So it is not possible to adequately judge how the officer responded and if the shooting was necessary and unavoidable.

The D.A. simply based his judgment on the legality of deadly force in a situation in which the officer’s life was in peril.

Town and Country

Daily Voice

Morning Call

etc.

Latest in a series of posts in the wake of the George Floyd murder

Ok, for the past 24 hours Gadfly has been mentally limbering up for the Public Safety Committee meeting 5:30 Tuesday night.

He could go on and mention that a video surfaced showing the man with a gun with suicide on his mind killed by Pennsylvania State Police shows the man with his hands up when so killed.

He could wonder why there was no follow-up information that he could discover on a “mentally distressed” man with a sword killed by an officer in Pennsburg.

He could tell you about the police who stopped a guy walking at night whose only crime was that he was an odd duck, put him in a chokehold, put a spit bag on him, precipitated injuries from which he would die, mocked him, argued that they were simply following policies implemented by city leadership, and buried the body-cam videos.

But enough.

Enough to remind him that there is enough evidence around in the post-GeorgeFloyd era for our police department, for every police department to undergo self-scrutiny about procedures and practices.

And for City Council to assure that it is being done.

Gadfly is suggesting nothing nefarious about our police department. With its double certification, he assumes the department is as well trained as possible.

But he has said that such visible, public analysis simply makes sense in the post-GeorgeFloyd era.

The international furor over the killing of George Floyd plus the hiring of a new Chief of Police mark the perfect moment to take significant stock of department operation.

So perhaps Tuesday’s meeting on “Police reorganization” will get in to this.

But anything that smacks of criticism of the police will inevitably be a political hot potato.

We’ve already seen a local group applying the heat.

Gadfly thought Councilwoman Crampsie Smith hit the right note, the right balance in her re-election comments before Lehigh Valley for All February 17: “I come from a family of cops, but I also see that you can support the police but also address and fight systemic racism because they are not two mutually exclusive items.”

So far one of the two mayoral candidates has foregrounded public safety in his platform pronouncements.

One of the candidates for Council has put herself behind “re-imagining public safety”: “This to me means not just looking at policing in a vacuum but integrating our approach to public health and our approach to policing. I do think that Chief Kott is on the right track in a lot of ways, but I would love to be there as well to ask how we approach that. There are a lot of new models in cities that are bringing out social workers, public health professionals who are disrupting the police engagement when people are in crisis over things that are non-violent and non-criminal.”

That same candidate has boldly said “Black lives matter and Latino lives matter,” and we know that policing is inextricably tied to racial issues.

So Gadfly hopes that there will be political pressure to keep public safety in front of us.

One week to the day after the May election will be the one year anniversary of the George Floyd killing.

All cities in the country will be asked to show what they have done in response.

Latest in a series of posts in the wake of the George Floyd murder

Now here’s a proposal for a “radical re-imagining.”

Note that it’s the result of a Community Engagement initiative!

Note the verbal tangle of what to call the proposal!

————

selections from Wesley Lowery, “The Most Ambitious Effort Yet to Reform Policing May Be Happening In Ithaca, New York.” GQ, February 22, 2021.

It’s been nine months since the George Floyd protests thrust “Defund the Police” and other abolitionist rhetoric into mainstream political discourse, yet the results have been meager so far.

Yet even as mainstream political operatives have declared the concept a political loser—just last week President Biden reiterated his opposition to defunding during a CNN town hall—a handful of cities have significantly reexamined the role of their police. In Berkeley, Ca., armed officers no longer conduct traffic stops or respond to mental health and homelessness calls. Portland ended the deployment of “school resource officers,” long linked to the criminalization of Black and brown youth and the so-called school-to-prison pipeline.

And now, in a proposal announced today, the mayor of Ithaca, NY will attempt the most radical reimagining of policing in the post-George Floyd era so far: abolishing the city’s police department as currently constructed and replacing it with a reimagined city agency.

n a nearly 100-page report obtained by GQ, Mayor Svante Myrick will propose replacing the city’s current 63-officer, $12.5 million a year department with a “Department of Community Solutions and Public Safety” which would include armed “public safety workers” and unarmed “community solution workers,” all of whom will report to a civilian director of public safety instead of a police chief.

“IPD currently spends one third of its time responding to calls for service that essentially never lead to arrests,” Myrick writes in the report’s introduction. “Those calls, as well as a majority of patrol activity, can and should be handled by unarmed Community Solution Workers well trained in de-escalation and service delivery. This will allow our new Public Safety Workers to focus on preventing, interrupting and solving serious crime.”

If the proposal is approved, calls for service will be evaluated to determine whether an armed or unarmed respondent is necessary, or another public agency altogether would be best to respond. Mental health calls would be outsourced to a standalone unit of social workers based on the CAHOOTS program pioneered in Eugene, Oregon. The goal, ultimately, is to have far fewer encounters between citizens and armed government agents.

“Everyone wants the police to perform better when they show up, everybody wants that. What this plan is saying is that we also want the police to show up less—and that’s a radical thing for a city and a mayor to do.” Myrick, 33, told me in an interview Sunday.

Now, he’s investing his political capital in a plan that would remove armed officers from most civilian interactions, which he said should free those who remain to fully investigate and solve serious crimes. “The investigators are going to be focused on the shooting last Tuesday, they will have nothing on their plate except finding that gun, finding that shooter and taking them off the street,” he said. “They won’t be pulled away from that work by a motor vehicle crash on 3rd Street or a welfare check on Madison.”

And the proposal will provide new fodder for the national semantics over policing, even as the plan itself lays bare how undercooked public perceptions are around much of the terminology. Depending on your rhetorical goals, it’s possible to argue that the Ithaca plan would mean the police department is being “abolished,” or policing in the city is being “reformed” and “reimagined,” or armed government response to public safety is being partially “defunded.” Myrick notes that the new department would likely result in more city money being spent on public safety—while the specifics are yet to be finalized, he envisions the combined staffs of the department’s unarmed and armed workers exceeding the city’s current number of police officers. He admitted he’s yet to decide whether he’ll use the term “abolish” when discussing the proposal: “This plan would abolish the police department while not abolishing policing,” he said.

The proposal is part of a report Ithaca and surrounding Tompkins County intend to send to Governor Andrew Cuomo, who last June signed an executive order requiring local governments to conduct comprehensive reviews of their police departments. With the help of the Center for Policing Equity, officials conducted a community engagement survey, held a series of town halls and public forums, and convened 21 targeted focus groups that included members of law enforcement, the formerly incarcerated and homeless citizens.

According to the report, community members said they often feel disrespected by police during interactions and questioned whether local police officers knew how to properly deescalate situations. As a result, respondents told city officials, they were hesitant to turn to the police for intervention. During the law enforcement focus group, police officers and sheriff’s deputies said they don’t believe the public understands what their jobs entail. They think the department is understaffed and under resourced; and called for better coordination between police and other public service agencies. “Few people who participated in the Reimagining Public Safety trust the process,” the report notes. “Both targeted focus groups and law enforcement think the other needs education. Both respondents from targeted focus groups and law enforcement agree that the lack of trust is a major issue that needs to be addressed.”

“Once you can fully imagine an alternative response agency,” Myrick told me. “It’s hard to defend what exists currently.”

Latest in a series of posts in the wake of the George Floyd murder

Ok, what are some sensible re-imaginings of the way public safety is done in certain situations and circumstances that are being piloted, explored, tested around the country?

Gadfly profiled several of these programs in these pages last summer.

But he finds this example from Denver in his current clippings file.

Note that the purpose of the re-imagining is to better serve the public and to enhance “real” police work.

————

Latest in a series of posts in the wake of the George Floyd murder

For another example, can we not agree that just possibly a sensible re-imagining of the way public safety is done in a situation involving a child might have avoided this mess?

Latest in a series of posts in the wake of the George Floyd murder

“The family and close friends find ourselves thinking of the countless ways this situation could have been de-escalated. What he needed was treatment, and what he received was a death sentence in a chaotic encounter with law enforcement.”

If we want an example of the kind of situation gone wrong that Gadfly has chronicled in these pages for the past 8 months, we don’t have to go far.

Just to Catasauqua nine days ago.

The scenario is so familiar that the Morning Call reporters could almost just look up a previous shooting, change the name and address, and file their story.

Domestic disturbance. Man having a heated argument with his ex-girlfriend. She calls the police. Certainly we are told that domestic disturbance calls are among the most dangerous of situations for the police. But the police have been to this house before. They know this man. They know his history of mental problems.

Three police arrive. The man has had no gun. When the police arrive, he goes to the cellar to get one. The police confront him there. He refuses an order to drop the gun. They shoot him. The man is dead.

The family grieves, describes what a good and harmless man their loved one was, blames the police for not de-escalating, blames the system for unresponsiveness to a person in need.

Now that’s as far as the story has gone so far, but we can write the rest of it, can’t we?

The police say they were acting in self-defense, the police say they were following their training, the police say the man was at fault for not obeying their order, the D.A. presses no charges, the man’s family sues (and sometimes even the same lawyer shows up to represent them — like the omnipresent Benjamin Crump these days if the subject is Black), the case is settled for Big Bucks, the taxpayer shells out.

Can we not agree that this is a bad outcome for everybody, for everybody, and that we need to figure out a better way to handle such situations?

Can we not agree that just possibly a sensible re-imagining of the way public safety is done in certain situations and circumstances might avoid unnecessary loss of life?

———–

selections from Sarah M. Wojcik, “Man with gun shot and killed by Catasauqua police, officer placed on administrative leave.” Morning Call, February 19, 2021.

A man arguing with his ex-girlfriend was shot and killed by a Catasauqua police officer Friday after he refused to drop a gun in the basement of the home he shared with his parents, authorities said.

Ryan Shirey, 27, was pronounced dead by the Lehigh County coroner’s office at the home at 133 S. 14th St., where he was shot shortly after 2 p.m.

Shirey and his father and ex-girlfriend were at the house when she called police during an argument that the father told police got “heated,” Martin said. The ex-girlfriend is a caretaker for Shirey’s mother, he said.

Three Catasauqua police officers responded to the home, at which point Shirey “fled to the basement where he retrieved a revolver,” Branosky said.

Police entered the basement.

“[Shirey] was ordered to put the gun down, he did not comply,” Martin said. “And a Catasauqua police officer shot him, and unfortunately he is deceased.”

———–

Sarah M. Wojcik, “Man shot to death by Catasauqua police battled mental health issues and encounter should not have ended in ‘death sentence,’ family says.” Morning Call, Februry 23, 2021.

Ryan Shirey, the 27-year-old man shot to death Friday by Catasauqua police, was “in a heightened paranoid state” when officers responded to a 911 call at the home he shared with his parents, but the encounter should not have ended in a death sentence, his family says.

A statement released by family member Jeff Purdon said Shirey battled mental health issues his entire adult life after being diagnosed during his childhood, and was in need of treatment, not a use of force from police who were called to the home for a domestic argument.

“There are no words to accurately describe the pain of this sudden loss, the anguish at times unbearable,” the family said in the statement. “He is a victim of a system that failed him. A system that made it impossible to get the treatment and help that he so desperately needed.

“Those of us who knew Ryan know he posed no mortal threat to anyone,” the statement said. “The family and close friends find ourselves thinking of the countless ways this situation could have been de-escalated. What he needed was treatment, and what he received was a death sentence in a chaotic encounter with law enforcement.”

Purdon said Catasauqua police had been at the home in the past, and the department should have been aware of Shirey’s mental health issues. The presence of law enforcement could trigger his paranoia, Purdon said.

“I feel like there was no compassion, no understanding [from police] going in,” Purdon said. “We have no idea what was running through his head. Nobody gets to know what his last thoughts were.”

Shirey’s family said they hope the Catasauqua police will consider how the incident could have been better handled considering Shirey’s mental health issues made him a “vulnerable member of this community.”

According to Shirey’s obituary, he loved animals, something family friend Scott Rossi said was evident anytime Shirey was near a four-legged creature.

When Rossi was moving across the country in 2006, Shirey agreed to watch his cat, Scooter, for awhile. The two got so close that Rossi thought it best to let them stay together.

“They had such a bond. It was unreal,” Rossi said.

More recently, Shirey agreed to watch Rossi’s dog while he was at work. He’d come home and find them both curled up on the couch together, snoring away. Rossi said his dog had its own special tail wag dance whenever it laid eyes on Shirey.

“He probably understood animals better than he understood people,” Purdon said.

Shirey’s battle with mental health issues was constant, but according to family and friends, he could find solace “in digital spaces” and the myriad interests that would snag his attention.

Shirey spent countless hours creating electronic music, but was very private about the art and wouldn’t share his creations, Purdon said. Regardless, the comfort Shirey found in his music was clear to anyone who knew him, Purdon said.

His ability to become hyperfocused meant he’d dive deep into a subject once it caught his attention, according to Purdon. And he felt strongly about some of the issues, such as his support for the decriminalization of marijuana, family said.

Purdon recalled how for a period of time, Shirey would haul a tome about coding with him wherever he went, though he never seemed to be reading it.

“It was more like this physical reminder that this was something he had to get into and learn about at some point,” Purdon said.

Purdon also said Shirey loved to spend time surfing Google Maps and touring the halls of far-away museums online with his father, Karl Shirey.

“It was like he was in his own little world sometimes,” Purdon said. “And we were all just guests.”

“This world is poorer for Ryan’s absence,” Rossi said. “He will be greatly missed, and we will spend the rest of our lives working for justice for Ryan.”

Latest in a series of posts in the wake of the George Floyd murder

The Public Safety Committee (Chair Colon, members Negron and Crampsie Smith) meets at 5:30 Tuesday, March 2, immediately before the regularly scheduled City Council meeting.

The subject is “Police reorganization.”

We know that the current Chief, Chief Kott, has only held her position since September.

So we can assume that the report at this meeting will embody her plan to shape the department according to her views on policing.

We cannot assume that the meeting will relate to the momentous events of last summer — the killing of George Floyd, the several notable subsequent killings in police actions, the national reckoning with race, and the discussions about re-imagining public safety that ensued.

The meeting might do these things. But we can’t assume.

For instance, when the Mayor requested such a meeting at the February 16 City Council meeting, he clearly said that it would not deal with the Community Engagement Initiative — the Council plan initiated by members Reynolds and Crampsie Smith that was our main response to GeorgeFloyd.

We cannot assume that the meeting will relate to how police handle what Gadfly has called some “first contact” situations, especially, for instance, those that could be identified as mental-health issues.

Trying not to get entangled in the verbal and political barbed wire of “defunding” (a term which he virtually always puts in quotes to indicate its vexed meaning, to the perplexity of follower John Rothschild who wants him to drop the term altogether), Gadfly has simply pointed out that to him there is an obvious problem in how some calls are handled by police, that that problem should be aired, and that, if appropriate, changes should be made.

Gadfly has been impatient with the City’s delay in considering such issues that to him seem to demand first rank attention. Though he recognizes that Chief Kott is new in her position. And though he recognizes that there is a pilot program with the Health Bureau.

Gadfly has said several times that he is afraid George Floyd will be forgotten, that the momentum crest of his killing is passing, that we will soon be asking “George who?”

He hears no one else calling for the kind of internal analysis and self-analysis of the department that last year’s “history” called for.

He thinks that only he and follower Michele Downing care about such. (Ha! true, Michele?)

(Though he does note hopefully “re-imagining public safety” in candidate Hillary Kwiatek’s stump message for City Council.)

But this upcoming meeting prods him to dip in to his clipping file and remind himself and others about some cases that highlight the issues that warrant re-imagining how public safety is done.

Hence the next several posts.

Latest in a series of posts in the wake of the George Floyd murder

Bud Hackett is a Bethlehem resident who raised 4 kids in the City. He recently became very interested in quality of life issues in the city and hopes to offer a balance to the approach City Council is taking.

This report is adapted from a 2-4-21 story by Lehigh Valley Ramblings

ref: Recent news about troublesome “first contact” situations involving the police

Gadfly:

Here is a picture of the Bethlehem resident that tortured and killed a fellow gang member by lighting him on fire while still alive and killing him in a dumpster.

Imagine what it was like for the witnesses and Bethlehem Police who found the victim burning and still screaming in the dumpster.

That must have been quite a “first contact.”

Alkiohn Dunkins
photo from Lehigh Valley Ramblings

The Bethlehem gang torture/murder took place on April 24, 2018, at the Parkhurst Apartments complex in Bethlehem. Northampton County DA announced the arrest on 2-4-21.

Mr. Dunkins’ co-conspirators, Yzire Jenkins Rowe, 22, and Miles Harper, 21, were already charged with the homicide

The Bethlehem-based gang is called Money Rules Everything (MRE) and originated in the Marvine and Pembroke housing development.

The victim Mr. Holmes “could be heard screaming at a high pitch,” and witnesses could see movement while he was engulfed in flames.

Dunkins stabbed Holmes outside Parkhurst apartments. He directed his co-conspirators to douse Holmes with gasoline and set him afire.

Does the Bethlehem community know and understand the violence that is taking place among the gangs in our community?

Is the police work to stop the violence and protect our citizens a worthy pursuit?

How has Mr. Gadfly’s continued campaign to “defund the police” impacted that effort?

Bud

Latest in a series of posts in the wake of the George Floyd murder

These two of the most familiar Insurrection Day images demonstrate that we have a ways to go toward achieving the American Dream of a multi-racial democracy in which all people are truly equal.

Gadfly is fond of saying that the murder of George Floyd triggered (another) national reckoning with race. And fond of saying that the Bethlehem Area Public Library has done a wonderful job of providing resources and programs that enable us to do the kind of reading, viewing, thinking, discussing, learning that that reckoning requires of us if that death is to have any lasting meaning.

Gadfly recommends these two programs now in progress.

Sundays January 3, 10, 17, 24 from 12:00-1:30

Information and registration

Note especially Rayah Levy, “The Modern African American Experience in Bethlehem,” January 24

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The next two meetings of our “conversations” will be based on the last two chapters of Kendi’s book, but the discussion is free-ranging, and you can profit even if you can’t complete the reading.

register here

Latest in a series of posts in the wake of the George Floyd murder

So much going on at the national level. Hard for Gadfly to think about local matters these days.

But here he continues to keep an eye on what’s happening in our neighborhood regarding reimagining the way public safety is done in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

Gadfly has been worried that we will soon be in a “George who?” state if we don’t keep our eye on the ball.

Allentown is a little bit ahead of us in terms of movement on concrete proposals, but our police department has made moves toward partnering with the Health Bureau, and we’re looking forward to a Public Safety Committee meeting soon.

We’ve entered the election campaign season, and Gadfly wonders if reimagining public safety will be an issue.

He hopes so, while there is still some GeorgeFloyd momentum.

See here and here for Gadfly’s review of the Eugene, Oregon, CAHOOTS program cited in this article.

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selections from Andrew Wagaman, “Who should respond to 911 calls related to mental illness? Allentown discusses police alternatives, though path forward remains hazy.” Morning Call, January 14, 2021.