The Kent Black Action Commission (KBAC) called for the resignation of City Councilman Les Thomas at Tuesday night’s council meeting because of comments he made last month about the Ferguson, Missouri shooting death of Michael Brown by a police officer.
Thomas, in his third, four-year council term that expires in 2015, called Brown a thief and objected to a moment of silence for the 18 year old. Commission members testified that they want Thomas to apologize and resign.
“For us not to let this legacy of racial injustice inhibit us from moving forward as a unified community, we need to deal with each other with open minds,” said Gwen Allen-Carston, KBAC executive director, to the council after she led a protest march of about two dozen people from the Maleng Regional Justice Center to City Hall. “This brings us to our requests and demands. The statement that Councilmember Les Thomas made at the Aug. 19 City Council meeting that ‘I won’t participate in a moment of silence for an 18-year-old thief,’ referring to Michael Brown, shows us that you sir do not have the kind of open mind that this city needs to move forward.
“Therefore, we the people who pay your salary, demand that you extend a public apology for your remarks.”
Allen-Carston concluded her comments by saying Thomas violated council code when he tried to stop Councilwoman Deborah Ranniger from asking for a moment of silence for Brown at the August meeting.
“You Councilmember Thomas violated the code (of conduct) and because of that we the members of KBAC and citizens who believe in fairness, equity and justice, request that you resign from the City Council,” Allen-Carston said.
Thomas has no plans to resign or issue an apology.
“Maybe I was insensitive but I was not thinking what the color the man was,” Thomas said during a phone interview on Wednesday. “I was concerned about a point of order and that it was premature to give the man a moment of silence. If it proves out the officer was wrong, I’ll be the first one to apologize. But I don’t have all the facts and neither does anyone else.”
Thomas added it wasn’t a race issue for him.
“I don’t know how it got blown out of proportion and race got tied to it,” he said. “It’s a misunderstanding of what took place. The race card I don’t know where that came from. I think they’re looking for an audience, I guess.”
At the Aug. 19 council meeting, Ranniger requested a moment of silence to honor and recognize Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager, was shot to death by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in the streets of Ferguson on Aug. 9, a controversial incident that has led to protests, hostilities and arrests in the St. Louis suburb and across the nation.
“This should serve as a tragic and painful reminder to all of us about how critically important it is to embrace and make a top priority the strategic goal that we all set for ourselves of foster inclusiveness,” Ranniger said after her moment of silence request. “By this I mean it’s really important that we create connections, embrace the community that we live in, that we get to know our neighbors, make an effort to reach out to each other and take the time to build community together.”
Thomas quickly responded to Ranniger’s request by asking Mayor Suzette Cooke for a point of order about whether it was even appropriate at such a meeting for the moment of silence.
“I think it’s a little premature to be making statements like that,” Thomas said. “We normally have a moment of silence given to those of great honor such as a Nobel Prize winner dying, a president, governor or even the mayor. But to give honor to this 18-year-old thief I find it kind of difficult to do that, especially in light of some of the statements made by witnesses who saw the police officer was more correct than some of the other statements made.
“I wouldn’t mind joining Councilmember Ranniger in some of her statements she made. I thought they were very well done. I just don’t think this is the correct time or the place for our city council to be taking sides if you will and making this a race issue. Would it matter if it was a black officer who shot him or an Asian officer who shot him? It was a known thief of a nearby convenience store, tragically, things happen.”
According to news reports, witness accounts differ greatly as to whether Brown was surrendering with his hands up or moving toward the officer when the final shots were fired.
Councilman Bill Boyce reacted strongly to Thomas’ comments.
“I can’t sit here when you talk about someone’s life like it’s not worth anything,” Boyce said. “I will not judge what the police officer done, the jury is still out. But I am appalled for you to make that life sound so little. Regardless of what you do, people deserve to live. …I am a little surprised to hear you go that direction. I’m very shocked and surprised to hear you go that direction.”
Councilwoman Brenda Fincher also disagreed with what Thomas said.
“He was still somebody’s son and still deserving of a life,” Fincher said. “Whether he stole something or not, in that situation doesn’t mean that you are automatically dead. That’s why we have a justice system. And that’s why we have jails for people who steal things and other crimes. The penalty should not be automatically death. He was one of three young black men killed in police actions this week.
“We are a country where race is still an issue. A country where, whether you realize it or not, things from the past still affect us today that were done historically.”
Thomas responded at the meeting to the comments by Boyce and Fincher.
“I apologize if you think I was making light of somebody’s life,” Thomas said. “That is the furthest thing from my mind. My concern here is that we are very premature, and Councilmember Fincher just mentioned justice, and we have only seen one side of the scale. I will join Dr. Ranniger and the others if at some point this young man is made innocent. But I think we’re premature to honor someone where we just don’t know the whole truth.”
Councilman Dennis Higgins joined the discussion.
“What I’ve been thinking is what can we do better in our hometown to make a better community, to have wider open doors to encourage communication,” Higgins said. “I think it bears mentioning that I like what I see in our Kent Police Department along these lines. I know how much our officers care about this community and how invested they are in the community. It seems what we have heard out of Missouri is 180 degrees different from what we see out of our own police department.”
Ranniger added to her comments.
“The issue is not the whole story, the issue is there is work still to be done,” Ranniger said. “We have done some great work in Kent but there is still a lot of work to do and that involves all of us and reaching out to what has become a richly diverse community in Kent and making sure all of us who live in this community feel safe.”
Cooke entered the discussion and later led the moment of silence for Brown.
“I’m going to ask for the moment of silence in bringing it home for all of us to be conscious of what we can take responsibility for when it comes to our actions and be perhaps a little less rushing to judgement of others,” Cooke said. “Let us at least be open to having conversations with our neighbors.”
The shooting also served as a backdrop for the King County-led forum Sept. 10 in SeaTac that featured a panel of authorities, community advocates and agency officials who fielded questions from the crowd about whether Ferguson can happen here.
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