CLOC Press Statement

On the evening of February 23, a Community Narcotics Enforcement Taskforce (CNET) sting operation at Pete’s grocery went terribly wrong, resulting in the shooting death of Shawn Greenwood by Sgt. Bryan Bangs of the Ithaca Police Department. This tragedy has been painful and difficult for the people of Ithaca, and our wishes for peace and healing go out especially to the Greenwood family, Sgt. Bangs and his family, the Ithaca Police Department, and all who have been deeply affected by the events that occurred that night.

Because Shawn was an African American man and Sgt. Bangs is a White police officer, this event has had the potential to deepen the wounds and rifts caused by our shared legacy of racism. Anticipating the distress that this crisis would cause–particularly in the African American community–Mayor Peterson reached out to a number of community leaders of color the night of the incident, for insight, advice, to keep channels of communication open with members of the Black community, and to find ways to help the community at large.

Since then, this group has grown in size and scope. We continue to press for open and transparent reviews of the CNET operation and what occurred at Cayuga Medical Center that night. We also think it is critical to see this terrible event as an opportunity to address, once and for all, some of the underlying problems facing this community with respect to racism and racial equity.

Special prosecutor District Attorney Wetmore has led an investigation into whether or not the use of lethal force was justified. The evidence was presented to a grand jury which has returned its judgment that there is insufficient evidence for a criminal indictment of Sgt. Bangs.

We want to remind everyone in the community that regardless of how strongly you feel about the fairness of the grand jury’s decision, there are many others who feel the opposite just as strongly, and that for those who may feel that justice has been done, there are many who feel outrage that there has been no justice. As a community, today we are as vulnerable to being polarized as we were in the first hours and days following the shooting itself.

As community leaders, we feel a serious responsibility to take action at the closing of this particular chapter in our collective story to help our entire community heal, change, and become the progressive place it professes to be but so often falls short of.

Rather, we call upon everyone in this community to join us in facing this challenge. We call upon our school leaders to be particularly sensitive and wise with young people whose wounds may be freshly opened today.

We call upon business leaders and elected officials to give real meaning to your declarations of shared values and to put your diversity and equity goals into action. The time is now.

We want our police officers to know that we notice, appreciate, and support your efforts to keep the city safe and to establish respectful relationships with people in communities of color. We pledge our support to those efforts.

There is still a ways to go, and we call upon everyone to get involved in making a positive and lasting difference for our city.

For information about what we’re working on, about the status of the future investigations and reviews of the events of February 23, go to ithacacloc.blogspot.com. You can also find information there as it develops about how you can get involved and make a difference.

Sincerely,

Reverend Nathaniel Wright

JR Clairborne

Kirby Edmonds

Written on behalf of Community Leaders of Color (CLOC)

7/1/2010