On October 2, 2018, NorthJersey.com published an article on
how the Fair Lawn, New Jersey, School District hired armed uniformed Police
Officers to patrol their schools. A comment linked to the article posted via social media
caught the attention of the public as well as national law enforcement causing
outrage. This comment made by Michellene Davis, a lawyer and Vice
President of Corporate Affairs for the Robert Wood Johnson/Barnabas Health
Network (RWJBarnabas) commented, "Who is going to train them (the police) not to shoot black children first.”
After
making such an abhorrent comment, the follow-up comments went viral, and her
first instinct was to lie, stating she was hacked, then recanted and offered an
apology. Her inflammatory comment insinuated that our nations law
enforcement target and systematically murder children of color, painting law
enforcement officers as racist, untrained, murderers, is not only uneducated
and outright false, but is disgrace coming for a person in her position
dictating the corporate affairs of one on New Jersey’s largest health network.
The
Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA) is comprised of over 26,000
members from over 65 Federal Agencies. Several of our members are members
of Brothers Before Others (BBO), which is an outstanding 501(C)(3) charitable
organization that parallels our model of "Don’t Go it Alone.”
We
stand with BBO as they take the lead on this issue, standing up against
bigotry, unwarranted anti-police rhetoric and stifling the perpetuation of
division in the communities. We need leaders that promote cohesiveness,
not division.
Read the letter to RWJ Barnabas Health from FLEOA President, Nathan Catura