Noose incident sparking ideas of change
MARION, Ind. (WISH) — People are using an incident that fueled racial tension in their city to spark change. Many of their ideas were announced for the first time at a town hall meeting Tuesday night.
A few months ago, the fire department was conducting a rope tying exercise. That’s when then Assistant Chief Rick Backs tied together a noose then threw it on a table. But firefighter Mike Neal, who is black, said it was thrown directly at him.
The assistant chief, who was then demoted, admitted to tying the noose and called it a lapse of judgement. But he said the rope was not directed at anyone.
After the incident happened – people called for him to be fired.
But since there was no policy on how to handle that situation, one of the new ideas at Tuesday night’s meeting was to create a “Zero Tolerance Policy”.
They want to establish rules and guidelines on how to handle situations like this in the future in Marion.
“The ‘good ole boy’ mentality of that’s my buddy, I can’t fire him has got to go,” said Javon Washington, one of the meeting organizers. “You do wrong, you lose your position. It’s as simple as that.”
“You have the power to do what you want to do in the city of Marion,” said State Senator Greg Taylor while at the meeting. “The process starts with a discussion like this.”
People came together to not just talk about issues in their city but the solutions.
“Do you think Charleston, South Carolina never had a noose incident?” asked Taylor.
He encouraged people in the crowd to take a stand by pushing their lawmakers to support legislation against hate crimes, something Indiana doesn’t have.
But organizers know laws can’t always protect people from incidents like the church shooting in South Carolina.
“I don’t think Marion is (as bad as South Carolina) yet. Could it happen? It possibly could happen. Emotion boils over and people hold in emotion for a long period of time,” said Washington.
Which is why instead of holding it in, they hope more meetings like the one held Tuesday keep the conversation out in the open where ideas of change ring louder than hate.
“Whatever helps us come back together as one instead of ‘he say she say,’ let’s all come together and make this happen,” said Tony Stanley who attended the meeting.
“If we seize the opportunity now, going forward things like this that we’re dealing with now will be a non-issue later on,” said Washington.
Other ideas discussed including drawing up legislation in the form of a “Human Rights Law” that would focus on how on hiring practices for minorities – as well as how police can treat people.
To go along with that, organizers want to lobby for the police department to wear body cameras.
They said it’s only fair that both officers and the people they encounter have visual evidence of their interactions.