JAMESTOWN – Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist announced Friday the City will bring back a Human Rights Commission as residents call for change following the death of George Floyd.
Sundquist spoke during a prayer meeting with local religious leaders and law enforcement at Jackson-Taylor Park, formerly Chadakoin Park, on Friday afternoon.
WNYNewsNow spoke with Sundquist following the meeting. He tells us that the Human Rights Commissions sole goal is to “help foster better relations both religious and racially.”
Sundquist says the commission will have 12 members that he’ll be appointing. He adds he’ll be speaking to the Jamestown City Council during a meeting Monday to discuss the commission further.
Reverend Lee Croft Clark, in an interview with WNYNewsNow this week, says faith leaders are seeking to keep the conversation going in hope of sparking change within law enforcement.
“The focus is not so much to have a protest or gathering and then we are done. What we are striving for is to have a mutual, beneficial resolution, and the only way to get that is to pray,” explained Rev. Clark. “So, we are seeking the Lord, the pastors in town have decided that we (should) come together and seek God for such a resolution.”
He says following the prayer Friday, he believes that God will give those in attendance a task to help find a resolution to provide equal civil rights to all.
“God created us all as human, we may be black, white, brown, but the very core of who we are is human,” said Rev. Clark. “We may come from different backgrounds, different challenges that may be in our life, some of us may be more privileged than others, but at the end of the day we are all human.”
The Reverend says the conversation will focus on four primary aspects: repentance, justice, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
Did anyone ever notice that whites have been killed by police also? And Mexicans and Asians and every other race? The problem may not be race, Perhaps it is just police brutality. Some police and I emphasize some are just prone to this kind of violence. The officers involved have been arrested and will be punished. I can’t imagine that police in prison may not be the focus should be on training police officers and not on the paid rioters who are supposedly protesting.
@Naoma: You are ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!!! Do you think the local government would consider your ideas? Somehow, I doubt it!!
Where’s the Civilian Review Board?