DURHAM COUNTY SHERIFF CLARENCE BIRKHEAD
BLACK DURHAM COUNTY SHERIFF
DISAGREES WITH NFOP
ENDORSEMENT OF TRUMP
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Last Friday in Charlotte, the National Fraternal Order of Police (NFOP) during their annual convention, endorsed Republican candidate Donald J. Trump for president.
The NFOP, which boasts a membership of 373,000 nationwide, issued a statement, saying in part, “Our members carefully considered the positions of the candidates on the issues and there was no doubt—zero doubt—as to who they want as our President for the next four years: Donald J. Trump.”
But African-American Durham County Sheriff Clarence Birkhead joined a reported one hundred law enforcement officials nationwide in condemning the NFOP endorsement, saying that the police group was supporting “a convicted felon over a former prosecutor.”
Birkhead is one of seven Black Democratic sheriffs who lead departments in Durham, Wake, Buncombe, Guilford, Forsyth, Pitt and Mecklenburg counties.
Sheriff Birkhead added that Democratic presidential Vice President Kamala Harris, who was a district attorney in San Francisco, then elected twice as California state attorney general, “… understands the needs of communities like mine, and has always had our back.”
Sheriff Birkhead was part of a Harris-Walz campaign press call last Friday, along with former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, also an African-American, who risked his life defending the U.S. Capitol during the infamous January 6th, 2021 attack that former Pres. Trump is criminally accused of leading.
That NFOP Trump endorsement came despite the fact that five police officers later died, and about 150 police officers from the Capitol Police and the assisting Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Dept, along with other local agencies, were injured as a result of the January 6th insurrection.
Trump faces four charges for his alleged role in the Jan. 6th U.S. Capitol attack. Still, the NFOP, called the nation’s oldest and largest police union, chose to overlook that, plus the 34 felonies the Republican presidential candidate was convicted of in New York earlier this year in his infamous porn star hush money case. He awaits sentencing on those 34 felony counts after the election.
At presstime, Birkhead was the only North Carolina law enforcement official on record publicly condemning the NFOP Trump endorsement, even though the other six Black sheriffs are also Democrats. No doubt each Black sheriff has been endorsed by their local Black political action committee, a coalition of which came together last week and announced their statewide endorsements last week in the upcoming November 5th general elections.
All of those Black PACS announced their support for the Harris-Walz Democratic presidential ticket, along with Democrats state Attorney General Josh Stein for governor, and incumbent Jessica Holmes to continue as state auditor.
This is not the first presidential election where the NFOP has endorsed Donald Trump for president, and has been blasted for it by Black law enforcement members. In September 2016, NFOP first endorsed Donald Trump for president, despite opposition from Blacks in Law Enforcement of America.
In October 2020, then Pres. Trump, while in office, soft-pedaled the police killing of George Floyd, despite a national outpouring of anger and disgust. The NFOP endorsed Trump for reelection then as well, again to the dismay of many of its Black members who had voiced concerns about how white officers treated citizens in the Black community.
“We are members of these [police] unions, and they don’t take into consideration our feelings about Donald J. Trump, then they don’t care about us and … they don’t care about our dues,” said Rochelle Bilal, then the immediate past president of the Guardian Civic League of Philadelphia. She called the NFOP’s Trump endorsement an “outrage.”
With this year’s NFOP Trump endorsement, NFOP National Pres. Patrick Yoes said the support for the former Republican president was “overwhelming.”
"During his time at the White House, we had a partner and a leader,” Yoes said before bringing Trump onstage in Charlotte. “Today. Mr President, we stand with you.”
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ACTIVISTS PREPARE FOR
“LONG MARCH FOR UNITY
AND JUSTICE”
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
From Friday, Sept. 20th to Sunday, Sept. 29th, they will walk across the state of North Carolina, from the mountains of the Cullowhee to the coast of Wilmington, picking up like-minded social justice leaders along way to dramatize the importance of voting, community organizing, grassroots activism and the arts.
They call it “the Long March for Unity and Justice.”
Sponsored by the BCC (Beloved Community Center) in Greensboro, which is co-executive directed byJoyce Hobson Johnson and Rev. Nelson Johnson , the objectives of the Long March are to grow and make visible the urgent need to join with others to build a powerful statewide transformative movement for truth, justice, healing and reconciliation that not only impacts North Carolina, but the nation; to heal deep divisions and growing wounds from the past; to uplift issues that connect communities; mobilize communities to promote voter education and actively increase civic engagement; and forge the people’s power and transform oppressive systems and structures.
"We must address our nation's crossroads: either continue toward authoritarianism or expand democracy with greater freedom and wealth distribution,” said Rev. Johnson.
The mission of the Long March for Unity and Justice is to create a compassionate and more just North Carolina that responds to the needs of environmental justice, women’s rights, reproductive justice, youth and students, racial and social justice, faith and religious inclusivity, gender and LGBTQ equality, worker and labor rights, immigrant justice and disability justice.
The Long March will begin from Cullowhee in Jackson County with a rally on Day One (Sept. 20th), followed by a second rally in Asheville in Buncombe County. On Day Two (Sept. 21st) the Long March goes to Boone in Watauga County.
On Day Three (Sept. 22), the Long March heads to Charlotte in Mecklenburg County with march start at 4 p.m. from 1600 West Trade Street, and rally site at 6 p.m. at 1729 Griers Grove Road.
Day Four (Sept. 23) will see Greensboro in Guilford County and the BCC at 417 Arlington Street. Day Five (Tuesday, Sept. 24), the Long March arrives in Durham in Durham County and Raleigh in Wake County. Day Six (Weds, Sept. 25th) the Long March arrives in Gaston County and Roanoke Rapids in Halifax County.
Day Seven (Thursday, Sept. 26th) the Long March arrives in Greenville in Pitt County. Day Eight (Friday, Sept. 27th), the Long March goes to Fayetteville in Cumberland County. Day Nine (Saturday, Sept. 28) the penultimate Long March stop is in Laurinburg in Scotland County.
And on the final day of the Long March, Day Ten (Sunday, Sept. 28), Wilmington in New Hanover County.
The Long March is supported by the NC Black Alliance, NC Council of Churches, Black Workers for Justice, Blueprint NC, Forward Justice, Down Home NC, Freedom Center, Red, Wine & Blue, Poor People’s Campaign, Second Chance Alliance, Union of Southern Service Workers, People’s Power Coalition, Justice Served NC, Southern Vision Alliance, and NC BLOC, and fosters unity and collaboration through the We The People Unity Covenant.
The BCC previously led the nation’s first Truth and Reconciliation Process to disclose the truth related to the November 3, 1979, Greensboro Massacre - that the police on that day, by deliberately being absent, allowed the Ku Klux Klan to attack community protesters.
That process led to a formal apology from the Greensboro City Council in 2020.
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