Earlier this week, Kent City Councilmember Les Thomas openly objected to the Kent City Council holding a moment of silence for Michael Brown, the 18-year-old African American male who was gunned down by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo.
Thomas, who is serving his third term on the council and a member of the council’s public safety committee, expressed his opposition during a full council meeting on Tues., Aug. 19, after Councilmember Deborah Ranniger requested a formal moment of silence for Brown during the public recognition segment of the Council meeting.
“I would like to ask for a moment of silence to recognize and honor Michael Brown who lost his life in Ferguson, Missouri,” said Ranniger. “The reason I ask for this is because he [Michael Brown] deserved to have his life and what happened in Ferguson is a flashpoint in this country.”
“It says to me and it should say to all of us that we have much work to do around the issues of racism and prejudice,” continued Ranniger before Thomas tried to interrupt her.
Ranniger rejected Thomas’ attempt to interrupt her and finished her statement in support of the request, after which Thomas took the floor and expressed his opposition to the request.
“I think it’s a little premature to be making statements like that,” said Thomas.
“[Nornally] a moment of silence is given to those who have great honor such as a Nobel Prize winner dying, president, governor even the mayor,” Thomas continued. “But to give honor to this 18-year-old thief, I find it kind of difficult to do that especially in light of some of the statements that were made today by witnesses who saw actually that the police officer was more correct than some of the other statements that were made.”.
“The real victims right now are the officer and his family,” said Thomas. “So I cannot stand in silence as requested. I will be walking towards to door if anybody wants to join me, because I find it difficult to pay tribute in this format that we have up here.”
Thomas’ statements were quickly admonished by Councilmembers Bill Boyce and Brenda Fincher, both of whom are African American.
“I can’t sit here when you talk about someone’s life like it’s not worth anything,” said Boyce. “A life is a life and to belittle that regardless [of what a person may have done] I’m very shocked and surprised that you would go that direction.”
“A number of things have come out [about the
shooting], not everything has come out, we do have to wait,” said Fincher. “Whether he stole something or not in that situation does not mean that you’re automatically dead. That’s why we have a justice system, and that’s why we have jails for people who steal things and other crimes.”
“He was somebody’s son, and he was a person,” added Fincher.
After the statements by Councilmembers Boyce and Fincher, Thomas appeared to back off the issue stating that he was not trying to belittle a person’s life and he remained seated in the room during the moment of silence for Brown that was held by the council and Kent City Mayor Suzette Cooke.
