An Indiana police department unveiled its latest police vehicle design, revealing the county’s newest decals. However, once citizens saw the decals, they demanded that law enforcement remove the “controversial” message.
The Frankton Police Department changed up the facade of the patrol vehicles to promote a more modern and unifying message. However, instead of bringing communities together, the department was quickly inundated with complaints.
The department chose decals that read “All Lives Matter” to promote a message of equality across all races, backgrounds, and religions. However, this was not the message some community members picked from the decals.
It has some community members upset because they say it undermines the Black Lives Matter movement.
One resident, Molly Hobbs, started a petition calling for the removal of the decals from the patrol vehicles.
“As I educated myself on the black lives matter movement more and kind of spoke with other people about it, I kind of realized that that’s not OK and it needs to come off. I think it’s a controversial issue and I don’t think it’s one the police should have taken a stand on. I created the petition to kind of show people that it’s not just me. That it is a problem,” Hobbs’s petition stated.
As Hobbs’ petition gained momentum, the spotlight was cast upon James Burgess, the Madison County NAACP President. However, Burgess did not take a side on the issue.
“I could never say something’s wrong with that. I could say ‘hmm, what’s the intent of that?’ because ‘Black Lives Matter’ is the issue that is being left out,” Burgess stated.
Another NAACP board member, Tyjuan Garret, echoed Burgess’ statement, adding;
“I mean I would love to sit down with the Frankton Police Department and have a conversation with them and say exactly what are your motives? Tell me how you are adding to the conversation of All Lives Matter. How are you expanding out to reflect all lives matter?”
Despite the open-minded stance undertaken by NAACP members, Hobbs maintained that the statement “All Lives Matter” was exclusionary. She said, “I want the community to always be inclusive and accepting of anybody, and I think that doing this will help the community grow.”
According to AWM, Dave Huffman, the Frankton Town Marshal, said that the decals were not meant to be a criticism of Black Lives Matter. However, he understood why the message was controversial.
Huffman decided to remove the decals because they upset a lot of local people and will likely replace them with something else.
Watch the video report below for more details:
Source: AWM