“No hate in Springfield!” said Tom Davis.
Davis was one of dozens of concerned citizens and policy makers who turned out Wednesday night for a follow-up to last month’s Community Unity summit, arranged in the wake of racist and other hate-filled social media posts made by former Springfield Police Officer, Aaron Nichols.
The Wednesday night event was arranged as a joint effort between the Springfield Chapter of Black Lives Matter and the Resister Sisterhood.
“The key to keeping the dialogue going,” said another participant, “is to keep the dialogue going.”
According to BLM/Springfield co-founder, Sunshine Clemons (pictured with co-founder Khoran Readus), the plan is to do just that. “Future input meetings” she said, “are likely.”
Ideas from the Wednesday night session will be forwarded to Springfield Police Chief, Ken Scarlette.
“We have a good relationship with Chief Scarlette,” Clemons said. “We were meeting with him prior to him becoming the Chief. We’re able to have an open dialogue. Even when we don’t agree, we’re able to respect each other.”
Clemons went on to say, “I assume he is of the same mindset as we are that it’s better to have a smaller team of great officers than a larger team of potentially dangerous police.”