Rensselaer votes down BLM measure
Resolution praising police for work at Troy rally passes 18-0
The Rensselaer County Legislature rejected by identical 16-3 roll call votes two versions of a resolution Tuesday night intended to support the Black Lives Matter movement and racial justice for people of color in measures that stirred controversy among county law enforcement agencies and some residents.
First to be rejected was an amendment offered by three Democratic legislators that toned down the language in the original resolution by removing direct references to law enforcement being part of systemic racism.
Then the original resolution was defeated after Legislature Chairman Michael
Stammel, R-rensselaer, took the highly unusual step of having it read out loud before holding the vote.
“We’re not done,” Minority Leader Peter Grimm, D-troy, said after the vote. He promised a new resolution would be introduced for the Legislature’s August meeting.
Grimm was joined by legislators Cindy Doran, D-troy, and Mark Fleming, D-troy, in proposing the original and the replacement measures. Fellow Troy Democrats Carole Weaver, Bob Burns and Erin Sullivan-teta had withdrawn their support and voted with the 13-member Republican majority to defeat the resolutions.
“It’s a very good resolution. It reflects what’s going on in our society,” Doran said about the redrafted resolution in which the language had been changed. The resolution was changed after the Democrats had heard from police and members of the community.
The rewritten resolution took “continuing structural and systemic racism that is evident in law enforcement and the justice system” in the first version and replaced it with “continuing structural and systemic
racism that plague our communities.”
Also removed was a phrase that stated the Legislature is “outraged by these injustices in law enforcement that unfairly target Black people and all people of color” to be replaced with the Legislature “cannot ignore these injustices that have unfairly targeted Black people and other people of color.”
Legislator Charles Peter, R-schodack, said he would introduce a resolution in August that would support many of the issues in the Democrats’ resolution but without the comments regarding police and certain political stances. Peter said the idea was good but the method to present was not.
Tuesday morning, Sheriff Patrick Russo, a Republican, was surrounded by police chiefs at the Rensselaer County Jail to denounce the original resolution.
Outside the entrance to the Legislature chambers, about 35 people held a silent vigil holding Black Lives Matter signs in support of the three Democrats’ resolution. They then brief ly broke into a chant of “Black Lives Matter” at one point.
The resolution was inspired in part by the Troy Rally for Black Lives that drew an estimated 11,000 people to downtown on June 7. During the meeting, the county legislators unanimously approved two resolutions, one coming from the Republicans, the other from the Democrats, praising police for their handling of the demonstration.