Proposed Madison County resolution in support of police said to be politically motivated
The Madison County Board may consider a resolution Wednesday declaring its support for law enforcement in the wake of protests. Critics say the resolution is divisive and politically motivated.
The resolution is on the county board’s agenda for its meeting, which begins at 5 p.m. A protest is scheduled for 4 p.m. at the Madison County Courthouse in opposition to its passage.
Board member Don Moore said he wrote the resolution to “say something good about the police” as he saw “riots” and criticism of police officers over the deaths of Black Americans, including George Floyd in Minneapolis. Floyd, a Black man, died after a white police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.
Moore acknowledged that unrest is not happening locally and said he has attended a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in Edwardsville “because what happened to George Floyd was not right.”
Emily Ehley, an Alton resident and one of the organizers of Wednesday’s protest, said board members have told residents who voiced concerns over the past week that they plan to vote to table the resolution.
Moore said it might not even come to a vote if Madison County Board Chairman Kurt Prenzler decides to pull it from the meeting agenda. Prenzler did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday afternoon.
Moore said there has been “a lot of pushback” and that he revised the original language “in an effort to make the resolution more agreeable to a larger number of Madison County residents.”
The original version stated that police “protect our families, our friends and our neighbors against those groups that endanger us all by spreading chaos, encouraging civil unrest and destroying our communities in an effort to weaken our democracy” and that “blue lives matter.” Those passages are removed from the revised version.
Maj. Jeff Connor, chief deputy sheriff in Madison County, said the sheriff’s office has not been involved in the writing of the resolution.
“I think if we had an official stance it would be that we believe this is a politically motivated resolution by the Kurt (Prenzler) administration of the Madison County Board, and we are not part of that,” Connor said in an interview. “We did not encourage this nor did they talk to us prior to them drafting the resolution.”
Ehley said the resolution creates an “atmosphere of fear,” making people afraid of protesters or afraid to join the protests.
This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 3:49 PM.
