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Charles City mayor cites vandalism incident, urges ’empathy’ in addressing George Floyd demonstrations

Charles City mayor cites vandalism incident, urges 'empathy' in addressing George Floyd demonstrations
Members of the Charles City Council and city staff listen to Mayor Dean Andrews (upper left) make comments during a City Council meeting held through Zoom on Monday evening. (Zoom screen capture)
By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Charles City Mayor Dean Andrews took the opportunity at Monday evening’s City Council meeting to use his “mayor’s comments” portion of the agenda to address demonstrations in response to the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd.

This is the text of Andrews’ comments:

“I’d like to make a comment from the mayor.

“As we express our concern and ask all of our Charles City residents to grieve the senseless death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd a week ago, we join with those peaceful demonstrations nationwide who try to seek an answer to this racial injustice and the equity of all people regardless of their skin color.

“What we do not, though, and what we will not support, is the acceptance of violence that really serves no purpose other than than to create division.

“This past weekend we did have an instance of vandalism in Charles City on the cable pedestrian bridge. It was a minor act of vandalism, but no act of vandalism is good. Graffiti included the acronym ACAB, ‘All Cops Are Bastards.’

“We all know that all cops do not fit into this category, just as we know that all black people, all white people, all brown people, all people of this earth do not fit in this category.

“I was listening this morning on the news and I heard an African American priest or bishop, someone from Los Angeles, say that ‘proximity builds empathy,’ and I think that’s a really good comment.

“I think what that’s telling us is that we all need to get together, whether that’s one-on-one, or in a group, whether that’s formally or informally in an organized manner, because I think if we all get together we’ll see that we all have different mannerisms, we come from different cultures, we may have different accents, have different habits, but we all live life on the same planet, and we all deserve peace and safety.

“I hope that we will use the next couple weeks and the next couple months and beyond that to build upon this empathy for each other, so that all people and all of our residents in Charles City can feel free to walk down our streets and feel that they are safe and secure no matter what may be presented with them. We just want everyone to feel this is a safe place, no matter who you are or who you are associating with.

“So, hopefully we will continue that dialogue as we go forward and in our small way try to address this issue.

“I just wanted to make that comment and hope the City Council will echo those comments as we move forward.”

George Floyd, an African American, died after a white Minneapolis police officer pinned him down and pressed Floyd’s neck with his knee as the man pleaded that he couldn’t breathe.

Violent demonstrations have raged in scores of American cities, marking a level of unrest unseen for decades.

White police officer Derek Chauvin, who put his knee on the handcuffed Floyd’s neck for several minutes, has been charged with murder. Three other officers who stood by have been charged with aiding and abetting murder. All four officers were fired.

 

— The Associated Press contributed to this report

 

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