Commissioners censure, residents blast Gale

Arkoosh, Lawrence also slammed for public defender firings in February

NORRISTOWN » The only person who spoke Thursday in favor of Montgomery County Commissioner Joseph Gale’s June 1 statement regarding protests and the Black Lives Matter movement was Gale himself.

A steady stream of 30 people took to the podium at Thursday’s county commissioners’ meeting and denounced Gale as a “racist,” “a pile of dog vomit,” “reprehensible” “despicable” and a few other adjectives decency forbids us from printing here.

Outside, on the steps of the county courthouse, protesters also called on Gale to step down.

The other two county commissioners, Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh and Vice Chairman Kenneth Lawrence added to that chorus by voting to formally censure Gale for his comments.

Lawrence and Arkoosh did not escape criticism either as about half of those who spoke not only repudiated Gale and his statements, but also said Arkoosh and Lawrence’s words of solidarity with the African-American community had a false ring when considered in the light of their Feb. 25 firing of Dean Beer and Keisha Hudson.

Beer and Hudson were the top officials in the Montgomery County Public Defenders Office and were fired after they filed

an amicus brief on behalf of the ACLU in a case regarding the fairness of cash bail.

“Your statements reek of hypocrisy,” Springfield Township resident Megan Schanbocher told Arkoosh and Lawrence.

The firing of Beers and Hudson “was an attack on the minority community and your actions speak louder than your words,” said Schanbocher, who works in the public defender’s office.

Carrie Allman of Collegeville, who is also the chief of the public defender’s homicide unit, told the commissioners that Beer and Hudson “were seeking out and exposing racist police officers in Montgomery County,” the issue at the heart of the protests that erupted in the wake of the death of George Floyd who stopped breathing while a Minneapolis police officer held him down with a knee to his neck.

For his part, Gale seemed unbowed by the criticism and the censure, using his comments at the beginning of the meeting to double down on his previous statements and adding the issue of abortion to the controversy.

“Rather than protesting me, you should be protesting Planned Parenthood, which has participated in the slaughter of millions of black children in the womb,” said Gale.

He defended his original statement’s failure to make mention of Floyd or his death by insisting that incident and the protests and violence that followed are unrelated.

“No one is defending the actions of the Minneapolis police officer who took the life of George Floyd,” said Gale. But that incident “is being used as an excuse. The chaos and mayhem we’re seeing has nothing to do with George Floyd’s death and it would be disrespectful of Mr. Floyd and his memory” to link the two.

To say that the speakers who followed Gale’s remarks disagreed strongly would be an understatement.

“In times of turmoil, we need calming voices,” said Brett Bernstein of Cheltenham. “But your comments have been inflammatory, misguided and quite frankly incorrect. Systemic racism is a real issue that requires your attention.”

Systemic racism “is a deadly cancer infecting everyone in this community,” said Sandra Jenkins, vice president of the Cheltenham chapter of the NAACP.

Ara Bellino of Perkiomen told Gale: “I blame you for failing to educate yourself. This country was built on oppression.”

“You’re living on the bubble of privilege you can’t even see while people are being killed by your heroes,” Bellino said. “White people have been doing the talking for centuries. It’s not your turn any more.”

“You’re calling people hungry for justice terrorists, and the real terrorists are in uniform,” said Liam Trumbore of Whitpain. “The only thing you owe the people who pay your salary is your resignation.”

“You have a moral obligation to not publish hateful information during a crisis,” said Lansdale resident Albert Gelson.

“Rhetoric like yours only places fear into the minds of someone who has never been oppressed,” said Veronica Moeller of Souderton. “Now more than ever, we must be concerned about what we say. Language is power.”

Matt Guarisco of Skippack called Gale “a powerhungry, egomaniacal racist.”

Bradley Vasoli of Lower Merion said as the head of the Young Republicans he felt justified in opposing Gale’s candidacy due to his “raw racism.”

“You are like one of Trump’s minions, you just say the most shocking thing. You’ve made Montgomery County a worse place to live, but we see right though you,” said Nikhil Sindwani of Collegeville.

“You use trite, sensational language, but you cannot form a solution if you don’t see the problem exists,” said Gina Coccharo of Montgomery Township. “Step down and get some therapy.”

Montgomery County Solicitor Joshua Stein said all three commissioners are independent elected officials, and the only way Gale could be removed from office is by the state Legislature and governor, unless he was convicted of a crime.

The most Arkoosh and Lawrence could do under the law, he said, is to vote on a resolution of censure.

The censure resolution that the two commissioners voted to adopt Thursday notes that due to Gale’s use of Montgomery County stationery to issue his June 1 statement, he could be fired for violating the county ethics policy if he were an employee.

It concludes, “be it further resolved that the Montgomery County Commissioners hereby direct Commissioner Gale to comport himself to a standard of conduct which, at a bare minimum, the County requires of its own employees, or if he will not, that he should resign from office.”