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Defunding Cops Shortchanges Citizens

Author: Brandon McGaha

N.C. Staff Representative

 

Asheville, North Carolina, is known for its beautiful mountains, breweries, restaurants, and people. Recently, Asheville has also become known for crime. In June 2020, in the wake of the George Floyd incident, Asheville became the center for the defunding movement in the western mountains of North Carolina. The history of the city officials in Asheville openly opposing law enforcement is well-documented. The relationship among cops, council and citizens has been contentious at best.

 

A 2014 Asheville Citizen-Times article by Jon Ostendorff[i] addresses the 44 officers who signed a petition of “no confidence” in police Chief William Anderson. They accused Anderson of improperly intervening in an investigation his agency held into a car crash involving Anderson’s son. Anderson publicly cleared his son of wrongdoing when that was not the case. Anderson then was accused of retaliating against officers involved in reporting his actions.

 

Whistleblowers also brought forward massive issues with the evidence room, which prompted a large-scale investigation by district attorney Ron Moore and outside sources.[ii]  Ultimately, the petition and interactions between the chief and his officers led to Anderson's resignation in December 2014. Anderson’s troubles should have come as no surprise to anyone. A simple Google check revealed a checkered history of problematic leadership from Anderson virtually everywhere he has served. City officials chose Anderson anyway, ignoring other well-qualified candidates without the baggage that Anderson brought with him.

 

City council members showed their lack of support once again in 2017 following a police encounter with a combative suspect. During this incident, the officer and his trainee attempted to write a citation to a person jay-walking after repeated attempts to warn the suspect failed.  The suspect refused to comply with officers and attempted to flee, forcing officers to try to restrain him.  During the struggle, the man broke free and ran a short distance before one of the officers caught him. A fight ensued whereby the man attempted to grab the officer’s taser. The summarized incident led to widespread negative criticism from city council members, with one member publicly saying that the Asheville Police Department was “structurally racist.” PBA members once again took action and, after several meetings with council members and Mayor Manheimer, the mayor issued a public apology for the statement.

 

Mayor Esther Manheimer

 

In 2018, Buncombe County District Attorney Todd Williams demonstrated his total lack of support for the law enforcement community when he allowed a career criminal to walk on a plea deal on attempted murder of a law enforcement officer. Ronald Patton, a multiple violent offender, walked out of the courtroom with time served and a reduced misdemeanor plea to resisting arrest. Patton was initially arrested for an outstanding warrant and subsequently charged with assault with a deadly weapon while inflicting serious bodily injury and with the intent to kill when he took Officer Matt Metcalf’s taser from him during a fight. Patton then pressed the taser against Metcalf’s head and activated the taser multiple times before another officer could intervene. Not only did the district attorney’s office not consult with Metcalf before the so-called plea negotiation, but they also went on to state to the local media that “officers were okay with the plea arrangement.”[iii] This statement was false. When PBA members, including Metcalf, met with the district attorney regarding the matter, their concerns were ignored.

 

In 2019, the NCPBA Mountain Chapter objected to efforts by the City of Asheville and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice to restrict officers’ ability to conduct consent searches. The Southern Coalition misrepresented traffic stop information by race and consent searches, to make it appear police officers were improperly targeting minority communities. Chapter President Rick Tullis and NCPBA staff addressed the council on the real reasons for traffic stops and consent searches in these communities. Crime data clearly showed that the calls for service and citizen complaints were directly correlated and proportional to actual encounters of violent crime and drug-related incidents. Eventually, a compromise was reached between the council and the PBA. Then-interim Asheville police Chief R. White included language in a new written consent search policy that allowed officers the opportunity to defer from the policy when officers had reasonable grounds for conducting such search pursuant to existing constitutional and decisional law. While PBA believes such a policy remained unnecessary and counterproductive both to the officers and potential defendants, the fact that PBA representatives were able to reach a compromise with executive staff and the city council at that time was a positive step forward.

 

On June 29, 2020, district attorney Todd Williams once again demonstrated his disdain for law enforcement when he improperly brought a criminal charge against Senior Officer Anthony Sorangelo. In February 2020, Sorangelo was attempting to arrest an impaired assaultive suspect. As officers were trying to place the handcuffed suspect in the back of a cruiser, the suspect got onto his back and began kicking Sorangelo in the groin. Sorangelo delivered one effective strike to the suspect, gaining compliance.  PBA staff and legal counsel advised the department and district attorney Todd Williams it was not a criminal matter. The force used was within departmental standards, policy, procedure, law, and in keeping with the officer’s training.

 

District Attorney Todd Williams

 

Nevertheless, PBA’s concerns were once again ignored, and Sorangelo was charged with misdemeanor assault. Following the unlawful assault charge, Williams made the unprecedented decision to Giglio the officer. Using a decades-old U.S. Supreme Court case, Giglio v. United States (1972), concerning failure to disclose police officer untruthfulness, Williams utterly misapplied the Giglio Doctrine to the case of a criminal assault. Following what appears to be an intentional misapplication law on top of a fraudulent criminal charge, Sorangelo was fired by the Asheville Police Department. On Feb. 12, 2021, more than a year after the officer was charged, Chief District Court Judge Calvin Hill dismissed the case against Sorangelo at the end of the state’s evidence. Hill said the officer should never have been charged.  The verdict was announced without the defense even having to be heard as prosecution witnesses admitted under cross-examination that they saw no assault in the actions taken by Sorangelo. As PBA now prepares to assist Sorangelo in getting his job back, PBA is exploring other available options in addressing the district attorney office's actions, the City of Asheville, and other sources that appeared to have played a role in this travesty of justice.

 

Since the George Floyd incident, Asheville has been dealing with severe riots and actions by anti-law enforcement groups calling for the police's defunding. This call has been compounded by the total lack of police support by Asheville City Council. As recently reported by local media, Asheville has been given a new recognition as named in a 2021 report by the online media publication of the Wall Street Journal.  According to the report, Asheville has been named in the top 10 percent of America's most dangerous cities. That fact should come as no surprise given the history of lack of support from city leadership. Becoming the center for the Western North Carolina defunding movement has weakened officers’ ability and desire to perform their duties. It has resulted in an unprecedented exodus of officers leaving the department.

 

“We're up," Asheville police Deputy Chief Mike Yelton was quoted as saying about the city's violent crime rate. “Crime is up nationwide, but particularly in the city of Asheville. For a city our size, we're not within the scale we should be."[iv]

Kimberly King with WLOS News reported, "The violent crime rate continued to climb in 2020, when 10 people were killed, four more than in 2019. Of those 10, eight were African-American -- seven men and one juvenile."[v]

 

In 2020, APD reported:

  • 45 people were shot
  • 57 were stabbed
  • 652 people made emergency calls for shootings

Of the 45 people shot, 39 were men, and 37 of those were African American men. Of those shot, 46 percent was between the ages of 16 and 25.[vi]

 

One factor for the increase in crime is police officers are leaving the Asheville Police Department at alarming rates. Television station WLOS reported, as of November 2020, 53 police officers left the department, and 49 of them left since June 1, 2020.[vii]  As of January 2021, that number has risen to over 70 officers, with several more officers actively searching for other jobs. The mass withdrawal of officers began after the city was hit hard by people calling for defunding the police department.

 

These protests included painting a “Defund the Police” mural on the street at the police department[viii]  and leaving a coffin in the lobby.[ix] There were reports directly to the NCPBA that officers were ordered to stand down and allow the protestors to paint the street illegally. Officials have allowed the mural to remain in place as officers have to cross it daily as they go to work. These reports were the latest in an ongoing trend of city leaders not supporting the police.[x]

 

Former Asheville police Sgt. Ethan French told WLOS one of the reasons he turned in his badge was, "Various members of the governing body would come over and tell us (APD officers) that they appreciated us and then the next day would make public statements that were totally opposite from the things that they told us. So, I don't know anyone in the private sector who would put up with that for very long. There were a series of situations that occurred during the protests that caused a lot of people to just throw their hands up and say, ‘I'm done.’ I think I did the same thing," French said.[xi]

 

In response to this cry for defunding, the City of Asheville re-allocated $770,000 from the police department budget.[xii] The police budget decrease happened after the extraordinary refusal of council members to vote on the budget in July 2020. It became apparent the Asheville City Council of that time was going to hold the budget hostage until drastic cuts took place.

 

Asheville's first Black city manager, Debra Campbell, cautioned the council that structures were not in place for large budget cuts.[xiii] It appears clear that Campbell is being pressured to work with police leaders to comply with the council's instructions.  To her credit, she has been somewhat hesitant thus far to make widespread cuts.

 

State officials have now stepped in to address this issue and the targeting of the police. Republican state Sen. Chuck Edwards introduced Senate Bill 100 that would withhold state funds from municipalities advocating for their police departments' defunding.

 

Senator Chuck Edwards

 

"The brave men and women who serve in law enforcement simply must have the adequate financial backing to ensure they have the personnel, equipment and resources they need to do their job and protect their lives,” Edwards said. “We are already seeing crime rates skyrocket in areas where radical threats and efforts are being made to defund police. I intend to stop those defunding efforts in their tracks."

 

Democratic state Rep. Brian Turner said “Everyone is attaching their meaning to the phrase ‘Defund the Police.’ Without a common understanding of what it means, it's become difficult to have an objective discussion around what changes are needed in public safety. While I know we need to look at new ways to address our community's challenges, recent calls for a 50 percent reduction in the budget fail to think through how that would present itself in everyday life and safety across our city. I think we all know firsthand how well-trained, quick-thinking officers put public safety first and earn the community's trust. As a member of the North Carolina General Assembly, I have a responsibility to work with local governments to help enact policies needed at the state level to make sure law enforcement has the tools they need to do their jobs and to keep everyone safe.”

 

Representative Brian Turner

 

While in Asheville, state legislators have a more measured conversation, some of our state's executive leaders have gone to the extreme. This conversation has become more challenging as we find how North Carolina leadership feels about officers. In the report, produced by Democratic Co-Chairs North Carolina Associate Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls and Attorney General Josh Stein, the North Carolina Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice refer to a problem with law enforcement committing "extrajudicial killings." The PBA was previously refused "a seat at the table” on this commission. For some background, Earls is a founding member of the anti-law enforcement group, Southern Coalition for Social Justice. So, while disappointing, it is not surprising that the task force would conclude similar anti-law enforcement animus.

 

Associate Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls
(image courtesy The News & Observer)

 

An extrajudicial killing is "… the killing of a person by governmental authorities without the sanction of any judicial proceeding or legal process. Extrajudicial punishments are by their nature unlawful, since they bypass the due process of the legal jurisdiction in which they occur. Extrajudicial killings often target leading political, trade union, dissident, religious, and social figures and may be carried out by the state government or other state authorities like the armed forces and police. Extrajudicial killings and death squads are common in the Middle East, Central America, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, several nations or regions in Africa, Jamaica, Kosovo, parts of South America, allegedly Russia, Uzbekistan, parts of Thailand and in the Philippines."[xiv]

 

Our highest-elected officials’ default to feeling the use of deadly force by law enforcement officers is unlawful. Von Kliem, J.D., LL.M, of the Force Science Institute finds, "As it sits now, there is a constant tension between traditional law and order interests (e.g., crime reduction, public safety, law enforcement) and the government's broader efforts to achieve 'social justice' (the reduction of unearned disadvantages and systemic inequality). The result is that officers are no longer judged solely on the lawfulness of their conduct, but instead on whether their actions support the larger social justice efforts, including renewed efforts to dismantle systemic racism.'”[xv]

 

Asheville may have started as the epicenter for this movement in North Carolina. However, this attempt to subvert law and order and handcuff the very officers called upon to protect our great state is spreading throughout North Carolina. NCPBA is fighting across the state and in the General Assembly to maintain our members’ ability to perform their job in the safest way possible. It remains to be seen what will eventually happen in Asheville. As more officers continue to leave the agency, the question becomes, “How does Asheville protect its citizens?” The department has already had to take unprecedented measures to maintain the minimum manning levels to allow officers to perform their jobs safely. The agency has cut out or reduced significantly many of the services it used to provide the citizens. The investigations unit is now being tasked with a rotating schedule of detectives working patrol shifts to maintain the most basic services. 

 

Time will tell whether the newly-elected council members will tone down some of the rhetoric and work with the police on actual solutions. At least two outspoken opponents of law enforcement are no longer on the council, and the first all-female council in the city’s history was elected this past November. 

 

One thing is certain. Suppose these elected officials within our state continue to call for defunding police departments and demonstrate their lack of support for law enforcement in general. In that case, officers will continue to abandon the profession, and crime rates will continue to rise. Citizens will continue to be increasingly tormented by the criminal. There will be a tipping point, of course, but after, how much cost?  How long will it take to regain the confidence of the people in its government?  How long to regain the officers' confidence to do their jobs as they have been trained? A government’s first obligation is to attend to the safety and well-being of its citizenry. This obligation is the one area the government cannot continue to shortchange the citizens. 

 

It is not just our duty; it is our most fundamental and constitutional requirement as a nation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Reference:

 

[i] Ostendorff, J. (2014, October 17). Police: No confidence in leaders. Retrieved March 01, 2021, from https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2014/10/16/police-confidence-department-leaders/17370383/

[ii] Boyle, J. (2014, June 19). Asheville police evidence ROOM audit released. Retrieved March 01, 2021, from https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2014/06/19/asheville-police-evidence-room-audit-released/10965119/

[iii] King, K. (2018, March 09). Buncombe County DA allows plea deal for career criminal who assaulted 2 officers. Retrieved March 01, 2021, from https://wlos.com/news/local/buncombe-county-da-allows-plea-deal-for-career-criminal-who-assaulted-2-officers

[iv] King, K. (2021, January 06). Study ranks Asheville in top 10% of most violent cities in America. Retrieved March 01, 2021, from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/study-ranks-asheville-in-top-10-25-of-most-violent-cities-in-america/ar-BB1cx7gJ

[v] King, K. (2021, January 06). Study ranks Asheville in top 10% of most violent cities in America. Retrieved March 01, 2021, from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/study-ranks-asheville-in-top-10-25-of-most-violent-cities-in-america/ar-BB1cx7gJ

[vi] King, K. (2021, January 06). Study ranks Asheville in top 10% of most violent cities in America. Retrieved March 01, 2021, from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/study-ranks-asheville-in-top-10-25-of-most-violent-cities-in-america/ar-BB1cx7gJ

[vii] WLOS Staff. (2020, November 18). Resignations take toll ON asheville police department. Retrieved March 11, 2021, from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/resignations-take-toll-on-asheville-police-department/ar-BB1b7b2U

[viii] Wicker, M. (2020, June 22). Asheville protesters paint 'Defund the Police' on DOWNTOWN street, city works to remove it. Retrieved March 01, 2021, from https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2020/06/22/asheville-protest-defund-police-painted-street-george-floyd/3235511001/

[ix] Cnn, & WLOS Staff. (2020, September 26). Chief upset by coffin left outside police department. Retrieved March 11, 2021, from https://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/chief-upset-by-coffin-left-outside-police-department/article_255053a0-ff96-11ea-8750-7ffba4bc9bb8.html

[x] Kracher, F. (2020, June 06). Asheville not HANDLING PROTESTS correctly or supporting its officers, police group says. Retrieved March 01, 2021, from https://wlos.com/news/local/asheville-not-handling-protests-correctly-or-supporting-its-officers-police-group-says

[xi] Emert, J. (2020, October 08). Former APD Sergeant explains why he and so many officers have resigned. Retrieved March 01, 2021, from https://wlos.com/news/local/former-asheville-police-sergeant-explains-why-he-and-so-many-officers-have-resigned

[xii] Wicker, M. (2020, September 23). Asheville 'DEFUND police' VOTE: City reallocates $770,000 From APD budget. Retrieved March 01, 2021, from https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2020/09/22/defunding-police-asheville-cuts-department-budget-3/5865674002/

[xiii] Wicker, M. (2020, September 23). Asheville 'DEFUND police' VOTE: City reallocates $770,000 From APD budget. Retrieved March 01, 2021, from https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2020/09/22/defunding-police-asheville-cuts-department-budget-3/5865674002/

[xiv] Definitions for extrajudicial killingextrajudicial killing. (n.d.). Retrieved March 01, 2021, from https://www.definitions.net/definition/EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLING

[xv] Kliem, V. (2020, August 07). Accountability meets inconvenient truths. Retrieved March 01, 2021, from https://www.forcescience.org/2020/08/accountability-meets-inconvenient-truths/

 

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