Local NAACP leadership and police show unity and outrage over Floyd death

Leaders of the Front Royal and Warren County black community met with Town and County political and law enforcement leadership Monday afternoon, June 1, in a show of unity surrounding the potential of protests here stemming from public outrage over the death in police custody of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota a week ago, on May 25.

A crowd arrives inside FRPD headquarters for a masked, socially distanced meeting illustrating unity between all of this community and its law enforcement apparatuses. Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini – Royal Examiner Video/Mark Williams

Demonstrations have developed around the nation, some turning violent, in the wake of widespread viewing of video recording of Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin’s pinning Floyd, who was suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a nearby delicatessen, to the ground with his knee to Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. Floyd can be heard in cell phone video taken by bystanders pleading for his life, calling to his dead mother, saying he could not breathe and was dying.

The four involved Minneapolis police officers were fired the following day and Chauvin has been charged with third degree murder. But the delay in charging the three other involved former officers and some aggressive police responses to demonstrations in Minneapolis, including targeting a CNN news crew for arrest, and firing “pepper” rounds at an NBC news affiliate team and rubber bullets into crowds in Louisville, Kentucky, has led to escalating hostility, rioting and violence.

A.D. Carter III, left, and the Rev. Alfred Wood began and ended the meeting with prayer.

That rioting has drawn scathing comment from black leaders, including Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and rapper Killer Mike, among others. Controversy has also erupted about the potential of white “agent provocateurs”, in particular one identified as the “black umbrella man” in inciting peaceful demonstrations toward violence.

Monday’s meeting between black community leaders and local police was called to show that years of “community policing” networking has paid off in placing our black community and our local law enforcement apparatuses at a common point of mutual interest in assuring that the type of thing that happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota would not happen here.

Moderating at the noon event held in the outdoor foyer area of the Monroe Avenue Front Royal Police Department headquarters was Warren-Page County NAACP President Alford D. Carter III. Carter was accompanied by his son, Alford IV, the Reverend Alfred Wood who performed an invocation and closing prayer, and about five other members of the black community. In addition to FRPD Chief Kahle Magalis and Warren County Sheriff Mark Butler, attending were Front Royal Mayor Gene Tewalt, County Board and Emergency Management Team Chairman Walt Mabe and County Emergency Services Deputy Manager Rick Farrall, among other officers from both local law enforcement agencies. Joining that crowd was Strasburg Police Chief Wayne Sagar.

Above, Warren-Page NAACP President A.D. Carter III greats the assembled to a show of common purpose. Below, WC Sheriff Mark Butler flanked by FRPD Chief Magalis and town officers, said law enforcement officers who wear badges for the ‘right reasons’ are also outraged by George Floyd’s death in police custody.

The message was clear – what happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis in police custody is NOT acceptable, not only to the black community but to the law enforcement community here and across the nation for those wearing a badge after swearing to “serve and protect”.

With a nod to his FRPD counterpart Chief Magalis, Warren County Sheriff Mark Butler cited not only outrage within minority communities, but in law enforcement at the Floyd killing at the hands of law enforcement officers.

“I got a call from my son, who is in security forces. And he’s like, ‘Dad, can you believe this?’ And I said, ‘Well, how do you feel about it?’ And he goes, ‘He (Officer Chauvin) just disgraced our entire profession. And I’m sure, the chief will probably go along with me on this one, any professional law enforcement officer will literally sit and tell you, ‘That is NOT who we are. That is NOT what we raised our hand to be or to do.’

FRPD Chief Magalis agreed that ‘community policing’ does not mean abuse of any portion of the community being served by its law enforcement agencies.

“And I can promise that any person who is wearing a badge for the right reasons would never do anything to harm someone intentionally. And we have just as much anger towards that incident as anyone else – we really do,” Sheriff Butler told those assembled.

See the full, approximately 50-minute NAACP-sponsored community meeting, with remarks from a variety of perspectives on where we as a community, and a nation, are and hope to be in the future, in this exclusive Royal Examiner video: