Raleigh doesn’t listen to Black people, speakers tell city. Could a new board help?
On the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, two women told a Raleigh City Council committee that Black people don’t trust the city to protect them and look after their interests.
To help, some community members have pushed since January for an African-American Affairs Board. The City Council’s Safe, Vibrant and Healthy Community committee met Tuesday to talk about it.
Residents Quanta Edwards and Kimberly Muktarian both said the city isn’t listening to Black people.
Muktarian, a long-time advocate for police reform, told committee members that Black residents had asked for police body cameras that activated when an officer draws a weapon.
That didn’t happen, she said, and in 2019 a Raleigh police officer who fatally shot a man didn’t activate his body camera.
“The reason why we are specifically outlining the way we want this [board] done is because we can’t wait another 10 years, Mayor Baldwin,” Muktarian said. “We can’t allow these continued cycles where we engage but we get nothing. We have had seven deaths by RPD in seven years.”
The council committee heard a presentation from Audrea Caesar, the city’s director of the Office of Equity and Inclusion, about how the board could be created. One option is to create a subcommittee for African American affairs under the Human Relations Commission.
If a new, separate board was created, the Equity & Inclusion Office would need additional staff and resources to support its work, Caesar said.
The board’s mission would be to advice the city on “policies that protect, preserve, advance and establish the well-being of African American citizens within the City of Raleigh.”
City needs separate board, speakers say
Both Muktarian and Edwards, the only community members who spoke, said the city needs a separate board to advocate for its Black residents, who make up 29% of the population.
“The city does not operate as though it believes its Black citizens,” Edwards said. “These things are happening in the community.”
Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin, who chairs the committee, asked Edwards for examples of when the city didn’t listen.
Edwards pointed to the aftermath of Floyd’s death, when the city said it would implement all national 8 Can’t Wait reforms to limit police use of force. Many activists said the reforms didn’t go far enough to address community concerns.
“But they were not believed,” Edwards said. “You still moved forward with 8 Can’t Wait. That’s what you wanted to do. And that’s what I am saying. These coalitions that are working directly with Black people, they are coming to you, telling you these things. And they need to be believed.”
“I am slightly confused,” Baldwin said.
Edwards spoke again, this time about the police chief.
“The first question I typically ask people from the city council is ‘Do you believe there is a problem with your police chief?’” she said.
“If you don’t believe that, you are not going to be able to get to the root and the heart of what is going on in the community,” she said. “Because if the people who are greatly affected by the decisions that are made by your police chief are not believed when they are telling you that this is what is happening in the Black community, you’re not going to get feedback.”
Edwards said there are people who will talk to her but not to the City Council or city staff because they don’t believe they will be heard.
“I still am searching for some examples,” Baldwin said. “If we are going to have an open conversation, when people come to talk to you, Quanta, what are they saying you? That’s the part that is missing to me.”
People believe the city is more interested in helping developers build “luxury buildings” instead of having “robust conversations” about how to help house the city’s poorest residents, Edwards said.
The council committee took no action on the proposed board but asked staffers to research how much it would cost to create a separate board and how it might compare to a Hispanic and Immigrant Affairs Board.
That board, created in 2020, meets monthly to advise the city on “barriers that impact the Hispanic and immigrant community in social, economic, and vocational pursuits,” according to the board’s website.
This story was originally published May 25, 2021 at 8:05 PM.
