Potential for Police Oversight Board in Wilmington — — Who will Oversee the Board?
By: D. Marque Hall
Tags: Police Brutality, Politics, Wilmington, Police Reform, Police

Potential for Police Oversight Board in Wilmington — — Who will Oversee the Board?

Above is a link to the Zoom meeting when the oridinance was first introduced.

By D. Marque Hall 11/27/2020 @ 12PM

Above D. Marque Hall at Wilmington City Council in 2019

We must all be thankful for the shared effort of co-laboring for civil rights for the most vulnerable that we’ve seen and been a part of this year. We exercised our First Amendment rights by assembling and protesting and using our shared freedom of speech to petition the government for change.

This righteous fire kept getting indignant gas poured onto it everytime another innocent Black man or woman was murdered by a current or former member of law enforcement. www.Change.org/FirethePig

Last week it was announced in Wilmington that a Police Oversight Board would be sponsored by Wilmington City Council and paid for by community tax dollars. The budget has not been prepared. We were told by the ordinance chief sponsor Chris Johnson that it would be done by 2022 and that is certainly not soon enough. The link to the November 19, 2020 meeting is the first link at the top of this article.

This board would be responsible for receiving and investigating police misconduct complaints against Wilmington police officers. It would be made up of 9 members — — not necessarily from the public — — — I’ll get back to that later. This board would not have any proverbial or literal “teeth”. It will ultimately hit a wall called the Police Officers’ Bill of Rights which I am going to share with you here.

https://delcode.delaware.gov/title11/c092/

“(12) All records compiled as a result of any investigation subject to the provisions of this chapter and/or a contractual disciplinary grievance procedure shall be and remain confidential and shall not be released to the public.”

As you can see the police have 12 amendments — — and the 12th is hefty and takes away all transparency from any case against any hateful or inept officer whether they be a rapist, a murderer or some other kind of predator protected by a badge.

“That would prohibit such a board from questioning officers and restricts access to police disciplinary records”, Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki said in a Delaware Online article about how he feels about this “Oversight” board.

He’s not going to veto it. He works closely with Chris Johnson. They are partners in crime, along with the FOP and the department.

Their greatest weapon against the public who they’re supposed to protect is the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights to spell it out. It’s been used for defense purposes by the police union for decades. Officers who have shot and killed men continue to serve after they’ve committed murder and then they shoot again. Once they have a taste for blood it’s impossible to stop them… Why would they stop when they weren’t held accountable the first time?

I mentioned rape: abuse of power by police is no different than a sick and toxic parent or other family member who you are supposed to trust that continues to penetrate you over and over again.

Sandra Bland

Ezell Ford

Mike Brown

Tamir Rice

Breyonna Taylor

George Floyd

Walter Wallace Jr.

This is a thimble of water out of the ocean of Black men and women murdered by the police.

And then in Wilmington

Jeremy McDole (Unarmed)

And the armed but mentally unstable Ricardo Hylton in 2019 that I spoke about in the video linked above.

Dock Worker and Entrepreneur Ricardo Hylton was born in Jamaica but gunned down on 27th and Washington Street on August 30th, 2019 by two white Wilmington PD officers who have never been identified.

(May they all rest in peace)

All of us activists are ready for change.

Many are saying, “Disarm the police”

Some are even saying, “Defund the police”

Still others are saying “Abolish the police”.

But all this ordinance from this police attorney who claimed to be a Civil Rights Attorney and then failed to fight for a defendant here in Wilmington who he then charged for a job he did not do is seeking is greater transparency and stricter “Oversight” of the police citywide.

The board would be given City Council subpoena power for witnesses. The board would have it’s own budget for attorneys and private investigators paid for with tax-payer dollars. The budget has not been made up or approved which is why the amendment to hold all this off until 2022 was made by Chis Johnson- the police attorney- turned City Councilman Public Safety Board Vice-chair- turned TURN-COAT during the meeting had on November 19, 2020.

Every City Council person currently serving (the new Council has not yet taken their oath and seat) signed off on the Community Police Transparency Committee for a variety of reasons but there was a general theme of their reasons why they said, “YES”.

The one “no” vote came from Ciro Adams who has touted himself as a Trump supporting Republican, an Anti-Black Lives Matter and Anti-Black Woman and Anti-LGBTQ and Pro-Police ACTIVIST on council. He spoke at length defending Law and Order and stated that, “There is No ‘Pamdemic’ of Police Brutality in this nation” — — I don’t know what a “Pam-demic” is either… but he got all RED and basically screamed BLUE LIVES MATTER!

He used these words to describe his opinion on this ordinance:

“Overreaching,

unnecessary and

emotionally driven from hyped-up distorted instances of police killings around the nation.”

He won’t be coming back to City Council — — — — — — — Our community voted him out this November- thank God.

We voted in a former police officer turned genuine “Good Guy”.

There is something to be thankful for this Holiday season!

On another note- Zanthia Oliver will be back to represent the 3 district. She stated that she was voting yes because she gets 33 complaints against the police a week from her constituents who live on the Eastside, Northside and Riverside areas of the city.

Adams said there were only 33 complaints against police made last year.

Linda Gray said she was voting yes so the public would have access to arrest reports and so that they could provide info like whether or not officers made racial slurs. She is former law enforcement and she knows people don’t always get their property back.

She wants the community to, “Feel more confident in the police”, she wants to “Ease fear” and “This is a NEW DAY!”

— That new day is too far into the future is what she said after Chris Johnson made the amendment to push this out until 2022.

Michelle Harlee who is very shrewd and diplomatic said she gets calls all the time too. She is a Co-sponsor of this bill and she said, “This is designed to give the community a voice”.

— -“I think it’s always better to wait too long than to go too soon” is what she said when the amendment pushing this back to 2022 was made by Turncoat Johnson.

Loretta Walsh who is a longtime FOP candidate and one of the last truly Blue-Blood members left on council, “Doesn’t want this to give the community a false sense of hope” because the Police officers Bill of Rights is going to eat this thing up.

— — She agreed with the sponsor for extending it until 2022.

Sam Guy who Loretta Walsh threatened bodily harm to at a Council meeting via Zoom in October basically said that some problems can’t be overcome since he established a citizen review board in 1998.

Some of Sam Guy’s gripes were that

The Mayor and his office does not need to be involved. Registered voters should not be the only people eligible to be on the board- doesn’t think that’s necessary.

And to waiting until 2022 for the board he said, “…. too long a wait. Will lose momentum”.

He said that the community should create a board based off of how the Police Officer’s Bill of Right is structured currently.

We should not wait to see what the General Assembly does in Dover months down the road.

Chris Johnson said this board would be established through and by council, “No later than January 1st, 2022”. He said, “It’s going to take at least 9 months to a year” because of “Guidelines and training”, seeing what the General assembly does, the budget that has not been worked out and the Turncoat said that he was, “Trying to Do It the Right Way”.

He doesn’t want to upset anyone in Dover/Members of the FOP or the establishment in general remain the truths unsaid.

Sixth District City Councilwoman Yolanda McCoy who is also going back for her second term after being triumphant against multiple challengers with considerable community support behind them said July would be a better target date.

Now as far as the boards makeup:

9 seats

1 coming from the mayor’s office

3 coming from City Council

5 coming from specific groups including the ACLU, the state branch of the NAACP, the Wilmington HOPE Commission, the Latin American Community Center and the local clergy.

In other words the Turncoat knows exactly who he wants to put on this board. The candidates already have a platform that they aren’t doing anything with to make a difference when it comes to what really matters.

“The appointed members should have legal, civil rights or law enforcement experience”, according to the bill.

Johnson said he is satisfied with the board’s composition, saying it represents “pretty comprehensive community groups.”

He does not know the community suffering under the pressure of the department’s foot. He knows people in government and in the community service building- not people in the community and in the prisons unless he helped to put them there and to keep them there.

“The new board may put the city in conflict with it’s police union”. The community is already in conflict with the city about this everytime an officer goes rouge or truly goes by “the code” if you know anything about the history of the police here or “The Delaware Way”. Politicians need to start representing the people. The Faternal Order of Police whose president, Greg Ciotti said during Council last week that the union will “Reserve all rights to challenge” could not be reached for comment — — — — — — — — — -

like I REALLY tried to reach out to talk to him anyway!

Tonight will be a VERY SPECIAL FREEDOM FRIDAY!

NOT ONLY IS THIS BLACK FRIDAY BUT IT’S NATIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE DAY!

Some traditions such as the celebration of Rebel traitors who divided this nation and conquistadors who discovered people here and vanquished them must end!

Also what must end is POLICE BRUTALITY!

On the otherside of the same coin, the minimizing of people for the rest of their lives for simple mistakes and crimes of circumstance they sometimes weren’t even guilty of especially poor people of color must end! WHITE SUPREMACY AND PATRIARCHY MUST END!

TONIGHT we’re going to hear from a Black man who served this nation proudly in the military, got in trouble for telling someone where to go and get drugs, served his time but still didn’t know that he could vote here in Delaware until 2 weeks ago- He completed his sentence a few decades ago.

Unfortunately he was not able to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris but he has a surprise for us tonight!

#KEEPUPTHEGOODFIGHT

#FELONFOCUSED

#VOTERREGISTRATION

Topic: Virtual Voter Registration Focusing on People Branded as Felons

Time: Friday, 10PM

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/95043791730...

Meeting ID: 950 4379 1730

Passcode: 9RcdE5