U.S. News
North Carolina town’s entire police force resigned over ‘toxic’ work environment
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- An entire police department in a North Carolina town resigned Friday after the hiring of a new town manager.
- Kenly police chief Josh Gibson cited a “toxic” and “hostile” work environment.
- Critics are questioning whether race was at the center of the mass resignation as all officers who resigned are white while the town manager is black.
All full-time police officers of the town of Kenly, North Carolina resigned on Friday citing a “toxic” and “hostile” work environment.
On July 20, the department’s police chief, four full-time officers and two town clerks resigned just less than two months after the town hired a new town manager, Justine Jones. Critics are questioning whether race was at the center of the department’s mass resignation. All officers who resigned are white while Jones, who began the job on June 2, is black.
In his resignation letter addressed to Jones, Kenly Police Chief Josh Gibson said he had been pleased with the progress his department had made in the past three years. However, the “hostile” work environment that Jones created made it impossible for progress to continue, he added.
Gibson has been a police veteran for 21 years. He has not made an elaboration on the alleged details, citing legal concerns. He noted he would consider coming back to work if Jones were fired.
Though other officers and two town clerks also cited “toxic,” “hostile” and stressful work conditions, they did not expand on the alleged working conditions.
Jones’s position as a town manager requires her to manage internal affairs and plan the city budget, including the budget for the police, for approval by a city council. Her duty as a town manager is similar to a mayor. The only difference is that a mayor is elected, whereas a town manager is appointed.
Gibson said the department has staffing shortages. The police department had been operating with only five full-time officers for the past few months when there should have been eight, he said.
Critics believe the driver of mass resignation is beyond personnel challenges.
“They don’t want to be led by anybody Black; that’s Kenly,” Cynthia Kirby, a longtime Kenly resident, who is also Black, told the News & Observer late last week. “They’re always harassing Black people. It’s racial.”
The Kenly Town Council held a meeting on Friday to address the issue, but there was no decision on how to move forward.
To calm the public, the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office has announced it will respond to calls in Kenly as needed.
“I will assign deputies to patrol the streets to ensure public safety if and when needed,” Sheriff Steve Bizzell said.
Source: AOL
Bob Page
July 26, 2022 at 7:17 am
Of course it HAS to be race. Everything that happens nowadays is race. I don’t suppose anyone considered that Ms Jones is unqualified, unfriendly, anti police, etc. and racist herself. Oh no. That would never fit the narrative. North Carolina has become a bastion of the left recently anyway so this is no surprise.
Bruce Conklin
July 26, 2022 at 7:46 am
I believe a civil wsr is coming it seems to be the only way to stop all this nonsense. I dont want it to come to that but I fear it’s needed at this point.
David Ruscitti
July 26, 2022 at 7:17 pm
Agreed
CharlieSeattle
July 26, 2022 at 7:04 pm
CORRECTION!
The officers are Law and Order Patriots. The new manager is a Marxist.
Race has nothing to do with it
Robert Zouse
July 26, 2022 at 8:14 pm
This is just the beginning , so look back and see where ” Defund the Police ” started ! It came from a POS President , yes – that’s right , the one before Trump. No one will agree with me, they will say I’m a racist ( yes , I am white ) No one will remember when POS Obama stuck his nose & views into a city / state problem. He want’s to see this country fail , he is the puppet master behind the puppets ” Biden , Harris , Polosi , Clinton and all is being done with Soros money. History repeats itself ” First , put puppets in power, then remove the gun’s , then slow the money flow – panic will follow and the monkey’s / people will listen to those in power ” Sound’s like science fiction ? Germany – 1937. I swore a pledge to protect my country from all terrorist foreign & domestic – who remembers that pledge ?
JLM
July 26, 2022 at 8:45 pm
Please stop defaming POS’s by comparing them to the president prior to Trump.
AL
July 26, 2022 at 8:55 pm
Ms Jones probably could not get local judges and prosecutors to go woke, so she tried to reprogram the officers.
You know – as long as the victim isn’t dead, it’s not a serious crime. If the perpetrator is black – it’s not his fault. Institutional racism forced him do it.
Lyudmila Loseva
July 27, 2022 at 12:01 am
“They always go after black people. It’s racial,” Cynthia Kirby told the News & Observer about the entire police force being resigned over a ‘toxic’ work environment by their new black boss. So who’s racially harassing whom when the entire team has retired and only one boss is left?
Jon Simon
July 27, 2022 at 2:16 am
I’m damn sick & tired of all the race BS that is constantly thrown in our faces. Starting with BLM, all lives matter! Racism will never end if all roads are ONE WAY ie: We have all Black colleges, all Black Miss America contests, a Black history MONTH and now two Black holidays! Doesn’t this seem to any of you that these things tip the scales a bit. We all know if we dare open an all white college what would happen. The police in our larger cities don’t stand a chance in hell of doing their jobs unless they themselves are a minority ( well in truth the reality is that today the true minority in this country is a White male) (people are hired as minorities over true qualifications regardless of race, now that’s bias & stupid!) example & point…recently In MPLS a Blackman on drugs or with mental issues fired a weapon in an apartment building nearly hitting a woman & her children. Police were called, Swat etc & a 6 hr. stand off insued where the police had numerous opportunities to shoot him in the early going but didn’t. They brought in his parents & negotiators to try & safely talk him out. Please understand that the woman who was rescued along with her children praised the police for their heroism, describing them dodging bullets while rescuing them! What’s happened since a memorial has changed the landscape in front of the apartment building & George Floyd’s family has hired & paid for an attorney to represent the family of the ALLEGED shooter was was shot by a Swat sniper. They want an investigation & the shooting officer or those authorizing it to be prosecuted. The Police are dammed if they do & dammed if they don’t! George Floyd did NOT deserve to die for his crimes on that day & three of the police deserve the punishment they are receiving. Given that did Mr. Floyd who was a known long term drug offender who on one occasion during the robbery of a white pregnant woman assaulted her in the STOMACH while stealing her purse. Does this behavior of a Black man or any man for tha matter deserve a gold casket, seven different funerals in different states & a horse drawn carriage like JFK & have monument’s built in his HONOR. The man truly was a thug & was not an honorable citizen. His family was so close to him yet he spent several years away from all of them including his wife and children, all the while being in MN continuing to break the law abuse his own body with drugs at the expense of his family! What’s wrong with this picture people? Morgan Freman ?sp said it best by said it best & I quote “we don’t have a white history month & we don’t need a black history month! We won’t stop racism until we stop talking about it”
In my opinion until we stop allowing black females from continuing to have children by different males (black or white) out of wedlock in order to obtain a larger welfare check things will never change. The kids don’t stand a chance, their raised in the streets & find their way into either gangs, drug useage or involved or either selling them or stealing to buy them. Who can really blame them, it’s all they know as generally they don’t have much education & have never known a different direction & it’s easy money without having to work for it. Generally speaking black married families that raise their children too have morals, family values & obtain their education have a very low
rate of arrests or incarceration, maybe even lower then white’s!
I managed inmate’s training programs across the State of Florida from Tallahassee to Homestead in fifteen different prisons. We taught inmates a skill & profession & once released helped them develop a resume, provided them with interviews and transportation to them as well as temporary housing. Once game fully employed we found in many case’s they stayed away from their old neighborhoods & friends. Of those who went through our programs we successfully reduced the prison average US & Florida State recidivism rate from 80 percent to 10. That’s right ten percent! Why because for the first time in their lives they had an opportunity to earn a living honestly without either robbing a seven-eleven or from selling drugs. Our systems have to change, we can’t continue down the same path or we will have a civil war! But racism will never end by continuing to talk about it or by rubbing everyone’s face in it continually on the news or by protesting. Generally speaking most protesters are people who are milking the unemployment system instead of seeking game full employment. They feel their rights to protest are more important than those of people who have the right to drive to or from work without having their hi ways blocked etc or without having their business’s burned down or desecrated . What about their rights? Common people let’s apply common sense & logic to the equation & then maybe we can have true equality and end racism.