City council members to vote on whether to conduct independent investigation into death of Marcus Deon Smith

Members of city
council agreed to have a future vote on whether to conduct an independent
investigation into the death of Marcus Deon Smith during Monday evening’s council
meeting.

Cheers erupted from the crowd as two city council members
made and seconded a motion to open an independent investigation into the death
of Marcus Deon Smith, who was killed after being hogtied by Greensboro police
in September 2018, at Monday’s city council meeting.

At-large Councilwoman Michelle Kennedy, who knew Smith personally through her position as executive director of the Interactive Resource Center, called for the motion about halfway into the meeting, saying she’d like to ask the city manager to call for an independent investigation into Smith’s death. Councilwoman Yvonne Johnson, at large, seconded the motion.

“I think that it is important that there is a resolution and
we aren’t any closer today to a resolution than we were when this happened,” Kennedy
said. “This conversation keeps coming to our feet. I believe that the only way
we get to some different place on this is moving forward to a resolution…. If
there’s not trust at this level, then an independent investigation into this
should bring that level of understanding.”

While the motion was brought forth by Kennedy, she and
others on the council, stated multiple times during the evening that votes
can’t be taken in town hall meetings and that the item would be put on the
agenda for the next meeting scheduled for April 16.

Zalonda Woods, a member of the Homeless Union of Greensboro
and the Justice for Marcus Coalition, spoke during the public comments section
and presented a petition with more than 100,000 signatures calling for the
firing of police Chief Wayne Scott.

“Marcus Deon was a live, breathing, black man that deserved
to live,” Woods said. “He did not deserve the treatment that he received. He
was asking the police for help. The police relations here is bad, as an
understatement. Hold this department accountable. Change the narrative of
Greensboro.”

Several members of the council spoke after Kennedy, including District 1 representative Sharon Hightower.

“If you will recall, several months ago, I asked for that
independent investigation and it was ignored,” Hightower said. “I hope it’s not
ignored this time. I agree with you. We have to find a way to move on, move
beyond. We have to right wrongs and that’s something I think people are asking
us to do.”

Mayor Nancy Vaughan said it’s not clear what form an independent
investigation would take.

“The city manager and I have had discussions over the last
couple of months on what even an independent investigation would look like,”
she said. “We haven’t really been able to come up with what an independent body
would be acceptable by anyone. What would an independent body be? And that is
something that I think we would have to talk about. We are not prepared at this
point. This is something that just came up. We don’t know what this independent
body would look like this evening.”

As Vaughan spoke about how Smith’s case has affected her
since he died last September, many audience members angrily spoke over her,
pointing to Smith’s mother and sister who were in attendance. After Councilwoman
Goldie Wells, of District 2, implored the community members to let Vaughan
speak, one woman stood up shouting, “We have listened to her speak since
September! You have silenced people in this city since September! This man is
dead!”

Shortly afterwards, Councilman Justin Outling, of District
3, left the chamber and did not return for the remainder of the session.

The Rev. Wesley Morris, the pastor at the Faith Community
Church and a staff member of the Beloved Community Center, walked over to calm
the woman, whom Vaughan and Wells asked to be removed from the chamber. Morris
and several other community members held a rally before the city council
meeting, in front of the Melvin Municipal Building where organizers spoke out
against the city council and Chief Scott. Many in attendance were faith
leaders, who along with Morris, submitted a letter to city council on March 28
listing six points of action that include firing Scott, ending police coverups,
conducting an independent investigation, apologizing to victims of police
violence and compensating them, establishing an independent citizen’s police
review board, training police officers in de-escalation tactics and providing
mental health workers for the police department.

While Vaughan said council members would talk among
themselves to figure out how to conduct an independent investigation before the
next meeting, Kennedy told community members that if an investigation were to
take place, that they would have to accept the results, whatever they may be.

“I do want to say, that I hope that if this is something
that this council agrees to do… and the city manager agrees to do, that we are
able to come to a position that whatever the outcome is of any type of
investigation, it will be understood and accepted by all of us,” Kennedy said.

Later in the evening, Kennedy reiterated her position.

“There is an important part of this that is if there is an
independent investigation, it needs to be done by a body that… everyone in the
community can accept as independent,” she said. “It does no good to have an
independent investigation if following that, the community says, ‘Well that
wasn’t really independent.’ So, there is a process in that part that has to be
determined.”

Councilwoman Tammi Thurm stated that the length of the
investigation, if the council were to approve one, would be up to the
independent body.

Morris, who referenced the letter, signed by 12 different ministers and approximately 200 members of different congregations during the public comments section, pointed to an independent investigation conducted by the city of Charlottesville, Va., following the white supremacist Unite the Right rally in 2017, that exposed the misconduct of the city’s police department. After reading two points from the document, Morris noted that the city of Greensboro hired Parker Poe, a Raleigh law firm, to draft an alternative ordinance after members of the Homeless Union of Greensboro challenged the unconstitutional panhandling ordinance passed in April 2018.

“I’m sure you have consultants in your ear left and right,
on every single issue,” Morris said. “It is not something that you can’t do. It
is something that you can do.”

The independent Charlottesville report took months to
complete and was led by former federal prosecutor Tim Heaphy of the Hunton and
Williams law firm in Richmond, Va. The report found that unprepared police and
government failures compounded the violence during the rally. Shortly after the
report was released, Charlottesville police Chief Alfred Thomas resigned.

“Is there any justice that’s gonna be done?” asked Kim
Suber, Smith’s sister, towards the end of the meeting.

“We are tired of wondering,” continued Mary Smith, Smith’s
mother. “We’ve been wondering since September. We can’t go to bed at night.”