Larry Brown, the councilman in Allen County, Indiana who said that “unfortunately,” Black Lives Matter protesters “breed” resigned on Monday.
Council President Joel Benz, who did not respond to TPM’s request for comment, told local CBS affiliate WANE that Brown’s resignation was “the only way forward.”
“But Mr. Brown’s resignation does not solve the challenge laid bare by Thursday’s meeting,” he said, pointing out the lack of diversity in local government.
“Council will also continue to consider the question of censure, even though Mr. Brown is no longer a member of Council,” he added. “It is important that it become a part of the permanent record that these comments are and will always be unacceptable and not representative of the values of this community or of Allen County government.”
The seat is currently listed as “vacant” on the council’s website. Allen County includes Fort Wayne, the second-largest city in Indiana.
Brown apologized for the comments, which sparked immediate backlash, last week. “My comments in regards to protesters breeding was wrong, and totally out of line,” he said.
He made the offensive statement at a filmed council meeting last Thursday, while discussing his frustration with constituents threatening to vote the members of the council out of office.
The conversation got heated as Shiela Curry-Campbell, the only Democratic council member and president of the local NAACP chapter, defended the protesters.
“These kids are out there for a reason. They are angry,” she said, after Councilman Ken Fries said that protesters who destroyed property deserved a “spanking.”
“We’re all being threatened with votes,” Brown interjected. “As uneducated as they are, obviously, on local government, they do vote. And, unfortunately, they also breed. But they do vote, and they’re gonna be an uneducated voter.”
The response to his comments was swift and outraged in a usually very red part of the country that has seen recent protests after the police killing of George Floyd brought anger at racial injustice to a boiling point.
Seems like the seat was also vacant while Mr. Brown was seated.
To me it’s amazing that some one whose job depends on people showing up to elect/re-elect them don’t understand that the public can hear them while they are at a meeting. It’s not the good ole boys club, the sunshine laws have been in effect for decades, and thank God for that.
Dumb old white racists still don’t understand camera-phones and crowd-streaming.
See, DJT.
It is effectively a good ole boys club in these parts of the country though. Roberts rules of order are only as good as the chair enforcing them, and that goes right on down for every other statute until their voters hold them to account.
Well now they are being held to account. Which is progress.