Community
Group protests outside of Fall River Police Station over social media post
A protest was organized across from the Fall River Police Station on Saturday.
A group of 15-20 people showed up Saturday afternoon on the sidewalk on Pleasant Street protesting the social media post by an official with the Fall River Police Department that was later removed.
Heidi Hiland, who attended the event, stated that a particular organization was not behind the protest, just a group of people who came together.
“We are protesters that have rallied together many times at different events and some locals showed up thanks to social media. We quickly shared a flyer and were able to pull together to stand against this crap.”
A flyer distributed for the standout featured the phrases “Black lives will matter here” and “protect and serve not oppress & brutalize”.
During the protest the group chanted with a megaphone “if you align you must resign.”
Hiland says weekly protests are being planned until the official involved with the post is removed from the Fall River Police Department.
“Someone who thinks like that should not be running the streets with a badge and a gun. Someone with that power and that ideology is truly a danger to the community.”
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Juanita Statkiewicz
April 25, 2021 at 11:31 pm
Do we really believe that the ONLY solution in this case, for this particular offense, is HIS resignation or firing? I would hope that we can do better. That it becomes a teachable moment instead. That we ALL can learn something from this, including the officer involved, about a lack of sensitivity. However, someone that has served FRPD for many years deserves to keep his job, to learn from this unfortunate incident, and move forward. I don’t believe, necessarily that the ONLY solution for sharing an inappropriate meme, should be a loss of his job. I think we should wait for the independent investigation to be completed and what their recommendations are, and go from there. Let cooler, more informed heads, prevail. One meme, doesn’t undo all the other years of his service. If we keep going to far, to fast in the opposite direction, painting all officers with the same broad negative paintbrush, assuming all bad about all, we are going to disenfranchise ALL officers, including good ones, or future good ones, or potential good ones. We are going to end up with towns and cities all across America, with NO police force left. Police departments with no officers working in them. Then what? When one call a 911, because a thug is kicking in your door in a home invasion, and you hear, “I’m sorry, we have no one left, available to respond”. It’s not an exaggeration. The reality of the situation is that it is,already starting to happen. Police stations locally are already operating with slashed forces, and NO applicants to fill the position. Please stop and think about what you REALLY want from your local PD. A better, more professional, PD? Me too. So let’s get them some sensitivity training maybe. Let’s give them some reasonable consequences for unreasonable offenses, like sharing an inappropriate meme, on FB. Let’s not alienate every officer on the force, and every potential future officer, by over reacting ourselves.
Jack Johnson
April 26, 2021 at 2:27 am
“First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action;” who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.”
Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
…
“In spite of my shattered dreams of the past, I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause, and with deep moral concern, serve as the channel through which our just grievances would get to the power structure. I had hoped that each of you would understand. But again I have been disappointed. I have heard numerous religious leaders of the South call upon their worshippers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers say, “follow this decree because integration is morally right and the Negro is your brother.” In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churches stand on the sideline and merely mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard so many ministers say, “those are social issues with which the gospel has no real concern.”, and I have watched so many churches commit themselves to a completely other-worldly religion which made a strange distinction between body and soul, the sacred and the secular.
So here we are moving toward the exit of the twentieth century with a religious community largely adjusted to the status quo, standing as a tail-light behind other community agencies rather than a headlight leading men to higher levels of justice.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Letter From The Birmingham Jail”