Op-Ed: Ossining's Police Reform Process Isn't Inclusive

To the Editor:

In the midst of a national sea change, in a state that has been more of an ally to diversity and inclusion than most, in a Democratic community 35 miles north of Manhattan, the Village of Ossining continues to exclude the voices of people of color, particularly Black men, when it comes to addressing the mandates set forth in New York State Executive Order No. 203: New York State Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative.

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd, I have seen communities across the country stand up with voices raised in opposition to the injustices suffered by Black men and women at the hands of the police. I have mourned. I helped organize rallies. I have marched. The nation demanded sweeping change, and in response to the outcry, on June 12th of 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order requiring every local government in the state of New York to adopt a police reform plan that will implement change and build trust and respect between the police department and the communities they serve.

Ossining is one of over 500 municipalities in the State of New York currently reviewing its reform of policing under Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order, which calls for a collaborative process of trust and transparency between the municipalities and its citizens to effectively create a plan and implement change. Governor Cuomo states, “Collaborative is the key word. It would be a mistake to frame these discussions as an adversarial process or an effort to impose top-down solutions.”

The intent of Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order is to eliminate racial inequities in policing and to build trust and transparency between the community and the municipality. The Executive Order identifies victims of these inequities as predominantly "Black and African-American men."

However, Ossining has not conducted itself in a good-faith effort to include the community members who can best speak directly to their experiences as Black people who are entrenched in the community. Instead, Ossining first excluded the community entirely; upon reproach elected to limit the voices of Black men by appointing committee members of color who have good standing in the community and/or are new to the community. Upon another protest, Ossining’s hand was forced to add a Black man from the community at the 11th hour.

Ossining started this process in closed-door meetings that established the guidelines and created the very foundation for this important work. Ossining then developed and requested submissions to their request for proposals (RFP), choosing to use taxpayers to cover the expense of hiring a facilitator instead of forming a committee of citizens like so many other municipalities chose to do. Ossining’s Board of Trustees led by Mayor Victoria Gearity, now a Senior Advisor to newly elected Elijah Reichlin-Melnick, reviewed proposals, conducted interviews, and selected the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and began contract negotiations without community input.

However, Ossining had to quickly change course after Jerry Smith and the NAACP discovered their clandestine dealings.

With pushback from the NAACP and many others, Ossining then changed course and hired Matrix to replace the IACP and then formulated a working committee. However, the committee consisted of the usual collaborators, the same faces, the same voices, and the same names frequently found on the other local, mayoral-appointed boards. Ossining conducted the business of addressing the Governor’s mandate with zero input from community citizens, no Black men, and no Black organizations.

Ossining’s Police Reform and Reinvention committee was originally initiated with police officers, elected officials, and clergy. Ossining then strategically reached out to fill the committee with representatives from different backgrounds, boards and organizations in the community; Latinx, LGTBQ+, and Town and Village Boards. I was one of a handful of Black Men that immediately stated my desire to serve. Notably, not one Black citizen from the general community was contacted: no Black men, no Black youth, no Black organizations, not one citizen from the community at large that wasn’t already representing a board or office was contacted. It was limited to the inner circle.

Of the members of the original working committee, only two Black men were selected. One moved to Ossining a few years ago. He is a well-known and respected Pastor of the Star of Bethlehem Baptist Church. The other selection was a member of the Ossining Police Department.

In their impetuous selection process for the committee, Ossining disallowed the President of the NAACP to be a part of the committee. In fact, they initially excluded the NAACP entirely, course correcting by inviting a member of the NAACP to participate, thereby claiming they had NAACP representation.

However, it should be noted that membership does not equate to representation or participation.
Anyone can be a member.

In September of 2020, I sent an email to Mayor Gearity asking several questions, including inquiring about a non-existing “application process” she had referenced in a previous email. In that email Mayor Gearity stated, “We received a significant number of applicants and chose to move forward with other community members at this time.” Frustrated by the lack of response to my concerns about having a balanced and inclusive committee, I began to direct my request to any of my elected officials asking seven simple questions:

• What was the process for the people chosen for the committee?
• How did the Village come to the decision of the number of members on the committee?
• Why were there no Black Men from the community on the committee?
• Who was part of the decision-making process?
• Why was the NAACP given opportunity to serve on the committee?
• What will the purpose of the working committee be now that the facilitator contract is signed?
• Has the Working Committee been meeting with this looming December deadline?

To date the only one who has responded is Omar Lopez - who sits on the Ossining Village Board of Trustees. And now, one phone conversation with newly elected Mayor Rika Levin.

Neither Mayor Gearity nor County Legislator Catherine Borgia have answered emails from Persons of Color who are looking for answers to simple questions on process, or who are seeking support, inclusiveness, and guidance from their elected officials to finding the appropriate course of action to address these questions and concerns.

In Mayor Victoria Gearity’s only email reply to me, the Mayor referenced George Floyd and his Mother in an inappropriate manner, explaining that “more than one woman spoke about her son... And perhaps that is fitting, given that George Floyd’s final act was to call for his mother” in reference to having Black women serve on the working committee instead of Black men. This was truly upsetting and so disheartening to Black men such as myself who seek actively to be part of the solution by offering insights from many different perspectives.

During what was supposed to be a trust-building and transparent process, Omar Lopez was the only elected official to reply to any of several community emails since October. It is discouraging that Mayor Victoria Gearity, County Legislator Catherine Borgia, and many other elected representatives made a pledge to be allies to People of Color, yet they all continue to ignore multiple emails from People of Color like myself, adding salt to the wound by refusing to ensure the adequate representation of Black men on the working committees of the communities they serve.

Throughout this process Black men in Ossining have been told that “we have a deadline,” “do not hold up this process,” and “it’s best to just move on.”

Time and time again, Black people are told “it’s best to just move on” when we protest the treatment of our fellow Black citizens who are first portrayed as a victim at the hands of the police and then turned into a villain by their community and the press. Case in point: George Floyd went from a father lying dead in the street after 8 minutes and 46 seconds of strangulation by a police officer to being portrayed as an accused abuser and ex-drug dealer.

We are vilified and labeled as “Angry Black People” for looking for answers, for asking questions, for wanting someone to acknowledge that our lives matter. We are skewered and smeared for asking to be part of the process to effect change, for asking for a seat at the table. We are denigrated for fighting against systemic racism, injustice, and of the murders of people who look like we do. We are labeled agitators, anti-American, rioters, thugs and criminals when we assemble to peacefully protest.

Here in my own community where I am a coach and a youth mentor and community organizer, I have been labeled as an angry Black man who is looking to install only Black men on the committee, when all I asked for were more seats at the table for Black men in the community who grew up here, and who have experienced racism, profiling and abuse at the hands of the police.

I have lived in Ossining for over 40 years. I am a parent of mixed-race children, and we have all gone through the Ossining public school system. I am an IT professional, co-founder of two community organizations, Project105 Athletics and ENUBuilds. As a coach, through the Ossining Recreation Department, St Ann’s Catholic Church and Project105, I have coached hundreds of boys and girls of all races, sexual orientations and socioeconomic status. As a volunteer serving on the Westchester County Youth Board, I have worked with various communities.

Yet, I am still faced with acts of micro-aggression and acts of discrimination. I still have to have “the talk” with my son, as my father had to have with me. I still must hold on to the pain of my father’s stories of growing up in the South in the 1960s.

Internalizing the agony of hundreds of years of injustice as a marginalized part of society. Black Americans hold on to the pain of not having a cultural tie to a nation, not knowing our background, our heritage. We are not allowed to vocalize that pain, that history. We are not allowed to use that as fuel to fight against institutional and systematic racism, to fight for equity, we are the ones that must move on.

In my community, many have asked why more Black people are not more involved now in this fight. The answer is simple: They are tired, frustrated and have seen this all again and again. After years of eroding trust in any process and continued injustices we are tired of screaming, asking to be seen, and time and time again no one answers, no one sees you.

The murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor that set off a firestorm in this country were supposed to be the point in history where we become a better nation, better society, better community. There was hope from the people across our great nation all the way down to smaller communities like Ossining where diversity is a bragging right. The Executive Order put forth by the Governor of New York insisted on an inclusive process of trust and transparency.

Sadly, for Ossining, it is business as usual and political leaders have obscured the process, appointed members to the committee who enjoy privileges that come with their titles, and effectively ignored the intent of the Executive Order and ignored Black citizens who have begged for a seat at the table. We are unwilling to just move on. This time we need to be heard.

Jermain Smith

Ossining