CITY COUNCIL: NAACP takes issues to City Council

<table width="234" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" background="http://static.cnhi.zope.net/flashpromo/niagaragazette/images/byline_234x60.jpg" height="60"><tr><td><div align="center"><font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By Rick Forgione</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></font><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="mailto:rick.forgione@niagara-gazette.com">rick.forgione@niagara-gazette.com</a></font></div></td></tr></table>
Niagara Gazette

November 02, 2009 11:04 pm

— More than 100 people stood up in unison Monday night to help deliver a message encouraging Niagara Falls City Council members to join in on the fight against racial discrimination in the city.
“We are no longer going to remain silent on these issues, nor are we going to allow you to remain silent,” said Shirley Hamilton, first vice president of the Niagara Falls Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “... You have an obligation and responsibility to ensure that the residents of this city live in an environment free from harassment, injustice and racial profiling at the hands of public officials and city employees. ... You are not living up to your obligations.”
Hamilton’s comments were met with thunderous applause by those in attendance. The crowd, consisting of NAACP members, residents and a few dozen high school students, was later asked to rise at the same time as a gesture that residents are willing to keep pressure on elected officials to address the issues.
Bill Bradberry, president of the local NAACP chapter, encouraged members to attend and speak out at Monday’s council meeting, a day before voters select three candidates to the five-member council in the general election.
“This is a call to action to ask the city to join us in our struggle,” Bradberry said before the meeting.
During her remarks, Hamilton highlighted three specific examples that are creating a hostile environment within the city and fostering injustice. The first was the posting of a “Whites Only” sign in the workplace by DPW employee James Curtis. The second was the increasing number of claims that city police officers are mistreating and using derogatory and ethnic remarks when dealing with minorities.
Hamilton ended by calling out the council’s lack of action regarding last summer’s arrest of Councilman Steve Fournier, who according to police used racial slurs while he was drunk during an altercation inside a bar.
The charges against Fournier were eventually dropped. There was no public discussion whether the incident should impact his role on the council.
“... We have a problem at City Hall,” Hamilton said. She later added, “Those who have been elected to serve the public can utilize racially and derogatory statements, and remain in office without any ramifications for his actions. (That) no one, not the mayor or the City Council, denounce these actions publicly, just shows me that the problem is at the top.”
Hamilton said NAACP members are requesting that a policy be implemented calling for the discipline, termination or removal of any department head, council member or mayor who “encourages, approves, promotes injustice or unprofessional behavior and chooses not to discipline or eliminate racism within the workplace or the environment.”
The NAACP is also pushing for the creation of a citizen’s review board to partner with the U.S. Justice Department and state attorney general’s office to review all police complaints and monitor arrests. Any complaints made against the police department involving claims of discrimination and mistreatment should be reviewed by an independent outside entity, Hamilton added.
NAACP member Gloria Dolson said the concerns addressed Monday are not new in the city.
“It’s a shame we have to keep repeating it and repeating it,” she said.
Council Chairman Chris Robins said after the meeting he wasn’t surprised by the number of complaints but he believes most of it was directed at the mayor’s administration and police department, not specifically at council members.
“This is the venue that people come to vent,” he said.
As for Fournier’s situation, Robins said Monday was the first time in months the arrest was brought up by a member of the public. He believes his colleagues handled the situation appropriately by doing nothing.
“We let the courts decide it,” Robins said.