Calls for police reform intensify
in the days since Fairfax County officer charged with assault for tasing man in
Gum Springs.
By Ken Moore
#The institution of policing
dates back to the institution of slavery. “It has to be acknowledged as such.
What happened 400 years ago is actually manifesting itself in practice today,”
said Fairfax County Chief Equity Officer Karla Bruce.
#“Here’s what we know,” said Sean
Perryman, head of the Fairfax County NAACP. “In a county where black people
make up a little bit less than 10 percent of the population, we make up nearly
50 percent of the use of force. That’s it. That alone should have every Board
of Supervisor demanding answers and reform.”
#Data has to be available and
examined to impact policy and practice, both Bruce and Perryman said in
separate meetings last week, and the data proves how Black and Latinx
communities are disproportionately and negatively impacted.
#“We’ve had this data for a long
time, but we’re now seeing protests across all 50 states,” said Perryman. “The
data has always been there and black people have always said that we are being
policed differently.”
#Last week, the Fairfax County
Chapter of the NAACP held a Town Hall on June 16, and listed eight demands for
police reform, including reporting long-promised data on disparities in police
enforcement, removing police from schools, equipping all officers with body
worn cameras, and more.
#“There is urgency here,” said
Perryman. “I’m not sure people are recognizing that. This needs to be addressed.”
#“That alone should have every
Board of Supervisor demanding answers and reform.”
#— Sean Perryman, NAACP
#BODY WORN CAMERAS are the reason
authorities could see the actions of Officer Tyler Timberlake, who used his
taser multiple times on a Black man who did not appear to be a threat on June
10 in Gum Springs. In the released video, officers and fire rescue personnel
are calmly responding when officer Timberlake enters the scene with his taser
drawn. Then he can be seen with his knees on the man’s back when he uses his
taser again, directly to the man’s neck.
#“It was gut wrenching for me to
watch that video,” said Lee District supervisor Rodney Lusk, also chairman of
the Board’s Public Safety Committee.
#"They are criminal acts
which violate our oath of office, and they ignore the sanctity of human
life," said Colonel Edwin C. Roessler Jr., Fairfax County Police Chief.
#Commonwealth Attorney Steve
Descano charged Timberlake with three counts of assault.
#What would have happened if
there was no video? The Mount Vernon police district uses body worn cameras
because it was part of a pilot study, but the Board of Supervisors had defunded
plans to expand the body worn cameras to the rest of the county because of the
financial impact of the Covid-19 crisis.
#Shortly after the incident, the
Board reversed course and now will go forward with implementing body worn
cameras.
#“The number one thing is
accountability, accountability is a must,” said Descano. “If you’re going to
collect that video, you have to have someone who is going to watch all of it.”
#“I would argue that police have
some responsibility in watching all of that as well,” said Lusk. He asked
police to research technology that would help review the footage, as well as
technology to automatically turn on body-worn cameras if an officer grabs his
weapon, his taser, or uses his voice over a certain decibel or uses types of
commands.
#“What happened 400 years ago is
actually manifesting itself in practice today.”
#— Karla Bruce, Fairfax County
Chief Equity Officer
#“WE CAN ALL AGREE there are more
issues demanding our attention and items that we can cover in a single
meeting,” said Lusk, at the Public Safety Committee meeting on Tuesday, June
16. “I’ve got to say, when Chairman McKay asked me to chair this committee, I
never expected so many urgent priorities facing our county would end up under
its purview.”
#“The best way to reestablish
trust with the community and through dialogue and communications,” he said.
#“I’m committed to looking at how
we can alter the way we do policing here in Fairfax County,” Lusk said.
#Perryman said one promise of
policing data has been asked for since 2018. “We have had a lot of promises of
data and transparency, but we’re not actually getting the data. We can’t wait
until 2021,” he said.
#Perryman and the NAACP are
calling for an end to School Resource Officers in schools.
#“That’s what we call the school
to prison pipeline,” said Perryman. “An officer [in schools] will lead to
arrests of Black students, Latino students and students with disabilities. It’s
just not good policy. Police in schools are a danger because they can escalate
situations that shouldn't be escalated to a crime.”
#The School Board has to make the
decision first, said Lusk. “I’m certainly open to having the SROs removed from
our schools.”
#Del. Vivan Watts called for
NAACP to expand its recommendation on removing officers from schools to include
training school administration to refrain from involving law enforcement in
what should be school disciplinary issues.
#Perryman agreed. “What should
have been considered a behavior issue became a criminal issue because you have
the presence of a police officer.”
#SPRINGFIELD SUPERVISOR Pat
Herrity said an elephant in the room had not been addressed in the Public
Safety Committee meeting.
#“We need to do something to not
just address our community in crisis but our [police] department in crisis,”
said Herrity, the only Republican on the Board. “The department really has lost
confidence in its chief some time ago. ...
#“The rush to pad a national
resume and the incident with Officer Timberlake has exacerbated that. You
compound that with a Commonwealth Attorney who ran on an anti-police platform
who filed not just one assault charge but three for a single incident. …Our officers
are at a loss.”
#Herrity said none of the
officers he spoke to are of the opinion that Timberlake’s actions were
criminal.
#FCPD Officer Charged with
Assault
#https://fcpdnews.wordpress.com/2020/06/07/fcpd-officer-charged-with-assault-against-community-member/
#https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjFEDlTCKGE&feature=youtu.be
Viewpoints
#Rodney Lusk, Lee District
Supervisor:
#“There is the need for a softer
touch on some issues in our community. Imagine police running up to someone who
is in the middle of a mental health crisis and demanding that person to put his
hands up. That person is not in the condition to process all of that. If the
police don’t understand that, they may make the wrong decision.”
#Karla Bruce, Chief Equity
Officer:
#“There’s just a fundamental
distrust of government in the community in particular among the communities
that are most negatively impacted. …I think we’ve heard from the community an
interest in taking a broader view of public safety and one that would be inclusive
of understanding the root causes and underlying factors and putting as much
emphasis into addressing those.”
#Steve Descano, Fairfax County
Commonwealth's Attorney:
#“The best person to respond to a
situation is not always a person who holds a gun. …Once people are in that
system there is a narrow window of what that system can do. It pushes that
individual down that path to more recidivism.”
#Pat Herrity, Springfield
Supervisor:
#“We need to do something to not
just address our community in crisis but our [police] department in crisis. The
department really has lost confidence in its chief.”
#Sean Perryman, NAACP:
#“It should be equally disturbing
that some elected officials seem to have no recognition that black people have
a very different lived experience than white people when it comes to law
enforcement.”
#Daniel Storck, Mount Vernon
Supervisor:
#“Neighborhood patrols for me are
a big deal. We don’t do enough of them. … I think it’s an important part of how
we change the dynamic at least in the Mount Vernon community and other
communities that have had histories of policing that may have been less
positive.”