Police chief candidates interviewed by
citizens
By Liz Allen
Apr. 21 (AGR) – On Apr. 19 roughly 50 people
attended a meeting held in Thomas Wolfe Auditorium for input into the
selection of a new police chief for the city of Asheville.
The two canadites, David Moore (most recently employed as a police chief
from Laurel, MD), and William Hogan (police chief from the Rocky Mount,
NC police department) answered questions from meeting attendees who
were concerned about racial profiling, use of excessive force, denial
of civil rights and liberties by the police department and demographics
of the police department reflecting the population of the community.
Neither of the candidates supported citizen review boards, saying that
matters are better handled internally. Jim Westbrook, Asheville City
Manager, has the final decision in the selection. The city manager is
hired by the city council and then is in charge of hiring other positions
within city government.
Ninety applicants applied to fill the position of the police chief in
Asheville. City of Asheville Human Resource director Belinda Odom and
Assistant City Manager Jeff Richardson narrowed down the pool to fourteen
applicants. Jim Westbrook, city manager, then picked seven from the
fourteen.
Next the candidates were reviewed by a nine member board consisting
those three previously involved in the selection process as well as
members of the Asheville city fire chief Greg Garrison, the Chamber
of Commerce president/CEO Richard Lutovsky, local human resource consultant
Greg Mayo of HR solutions, superintendent of Asheville City schools
Robert Logan, former Winston Salem chief of police Linda Davis, and
Betty Bud with the Police Advisory Council. Odom said the Police Advisory
Council, not affiliated with Asheville Justice Watch, is “A community
group that works alongside the police department to communicate issues
in the community to the chief and the police officers and they kind
of work together. For example, they had held some small group community
meetings to hear what citizens were looking for in a police chief and
those comments were forwarded to the city manager.”
On the day of the meeting a flyer was circulated stating “Help
select a new police Chief for Asheville. One candidate is a woman from
Vermont.” The flyer also mentioned a website for National Association
of Women Law Enforcement Executives. When asked why there wasn’t
such an individual among the candidates, Odom said that there are a
lot of rumors among city employees and citizens about the police chief,
and she does not know why such a flyer would be circulated or how people
would have known about it since the names of the applicants were not
supposed to have been released. She stated that it is a NC general statute
that the names of applicants for a job are not announced without permission
from the applicants, which is why the candidates were not announced
prior to the public meeting.
A private meeting was also held between the candidates and 100 police
before the meeting.
The forum was announced on Thursday, Apr. 15 for the Apr. 19 meeting.
Some attendees attributed the low number in attendance to the short
notice.
Kent Miller contributed to this article.
Distributive justice against
Lumbee recognition
By Jerry Reynolds
Washington, DC, Apr. 9 — By any standard of
abstract justice, the Lumbee of North Carolina answered critics of their
case for full federal recognition at a packed hearing of the Committee
on Resources in the House of Representatives Apr. 1. The occasion was
H.R. 898, the Lumbee Recognition Act.
Not only did the Lumbee refute every argument brought against them on
the merits, but they also had to argue their way into the hearing room.
With space limited, the Eastern Cherokee delegation, principal opponents
of full federal recognition for the Lumbee, hired people to hold them
a place in line, according to an attorney for the Lumbee, Arlinda F.
Locklear, and others present at the pre-hearing dispute. For a while
it seemed that the very subjects of the hearing, Lumbee people, would
not be allowed in the room because of overcrowding. But here at least,
justice prevailed and the Capitol Police spent an hour enforcing it.
With that small struggle for distributive justice won, much larger ones
loom for the Lumbee. From the testimony Apr. 1, H.R. 898 will boil down
to a simple question of distributive justice. As opposed to the body
of reasoned argumentation that determines our view of what is just in
the abstract, distributive justice asks how resources are most fairly
distributed. The simple question of distributive justice in the Lumbee
case is this - can Indian country afford the full federal recognition
of 50,000 Lumbee, making it the third-largest tribe in the nation?
The Eastern Cherokee and their allies in North Carolina think not. They
fear the Lumbee will install a casino along Interstate 95, the primary
north-south artery of the eastern seaboard. An I-95 complex in Robeson
County, NC, home of the Lumbee, would be within easy reach of Fort Bragg,
Raleigh-Durham, Chapel Hill, Pinehurst, Myrtle Beach, SC, and South
Carolina’s military installations. Even without the lure of a casino,
39,000 vehicles a day use I-95 in Robeson County. A casino there is
apt to be a billion dollar operation annually, according to one expert.
The Lumbee deny any plans for a casino, but no future federally recognized
council would be bound by the deliberations of its predecessor councils;
and so many consider a Lumbee casino a foregone conclusion if Congress
confers recognition.
“This is a major concern in my state,” said William J. Brooks
Jr., president of the North Carolina Family Policy Council. “North
Carolina remains one of 11 states in the nation without a state lottery,
and our citizens and state lawmakers have traditionally resisted gambling
at almost every opportunity. The only forms of gambling that are legal
in North Carolina are bingo, limited video gambling with no cash payouts,
and the Harrah’s Cherokee Casino in the mountains of western North
Carolina, which offers only bingo and video-based machines.
“In fact, the Cherokee casino … is somewhat difficult to get
to, not being on an interstate or other major highway. Nevertheless,
this facility boasts about 3.3 million annual visits, making it the
largest private tourist attraction in North Carolina.”
The council is neutral on full Lumbee federal recognition, Brooks said.
It favors a moratorium on gambling expansion in the United States, and
Brooks testified to that effect at the hearing.
Eastern Cherokee Chairman Michell Hicks soft-pedaled any concern over
a Lumbee threat to the tribe’s monopoly on North Carolina casino
gambling. His concern was with the federal budget. H.R. 898 “could
cost more than 682 million in taxpayer dollars over four years and further
decrease the funds existing tribes and Indians receive.”
United Southern and Eastern Tribes, a 24-tribe coalition, joined the
Eastern Cherokee in opposition to H.R. 898. Tim Martin, USET executive
director, cited a recent Congressional Budget Office study documenting
the adverse budgetary impact a Lumbee-sized tribe would have on other
tribes. Like most tribes east of the Mississippi River, the USET tribes
tend to have small populations and a limited land base. Like small tribes
and many other tribes and tribal organizations nationwide, the organization
has already expressed concerns about cutbacks in the BIA direct-service
budget.
Non-financial arguments against the Lumbee claim fell by the wayside
under questioning from Lumbee allies on the committee, chiefly Reps.
Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., and Eni Faleomavaega, at-large member for American
Samoa. (Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-NC, a leading advocate of Lumbee recognition,
testified in favor of H.R. 898, but as a senator in the House forum
she could not pose questions.)
The Lumbee, recognized by the state of North Carolina in 1885, are already
a federally recognized tribe, but the 1956 congressional legislation
came without the financial and other entitlements enjoyed by other federally
recognized tribes. The Lumbee have described themselves under other
names than Lumbee, but they have done so only on the initiative of the
Interior Department, according to Locklear.
To recognize the Lumbee now by an act of Congress would indeed constitute
an exception to the BIA recognition process established in 1978. But
how much of an exception can it be when only 16 tribes have ever been
recognized by that process? Martin admitted under questioning that only
six USET tribes have been through the federal recognition process. Also
under questioning, Hicks acknowledged that the Eastern Cherokee were
federally recognized by an act of Congress.
In any case, the Lumbee are considered worthy of exception due to unique
circumstances - the 1956 legislation that recognized them also barred
them from federal benefits, including the right to seek recognition
under the 1978 process. Without any other way open to them, the Lumbee
seek an act of Congress.
An alternative remedy would be to enact legislation enabling the Lumbee
to seek federal recognition within the system dating from 1978. Charles
Taylor, R-NC, the committee chairman, said he will introduce such legislation,
despite a companion hearing Mar. 31 that found tribe after tribe complaining
about the red tape, expense, longevity and arbitrariness of the recognition
proceedings. The Lumbee themselves resist this remedy, contending they’ve
proved their case again and again since 1888, when the tribe first petitioned
for federal recognition.
Source: Indian Country Today
