Advocates demand accountability after man shot, killed by police

Welcome back to Fox 5 Weekend live on this Saturday. I'm Sina Gebra-Abb. The group Justice for Arlington held a rally outside the county government building this morning ahead of the county boards meeting, all in the wake of a police-involved shooting earlier this year. Sean Vaughn was killed by Arlington County police officers in May, and Justice for Arlington is now demanding change and answers. As a result, co-leaders Wilma Jones and Judith Davis are joining us now to tell us more about this. Hello, ladies. I see. Thanks for having us. Yes, thanks for having us. So happy to have you on. If you could kind of catch us up on the demonstration this morning and sort of everything that you're sort of you were sort of trying to achieve. I'm sure. I'll start off. Judith and Pamela Pinnock and I, we worked together after the town hall that was had on October 26th with a number of other interested and also upset Arlingtonians to come together. To let the county board and the county manager and the police chief know that we are very unhappy with how they have handled the aftermath of Sean's murder and we organized a demonstration this morning. We had a number of people speak. Arlingtonians who have been civic activists as well as the communications director from Justice Forward Virginia and the founder of We of Action, one of the indivisible groups. And this is the beginning of our effort to hold our county leadership accountable and to... Impact change going forward so that we don't have these kinds of issues and occurrences in our community. And describe for us how, you know, this morning's rally went. How did you feel seeing everybody sort of come together and participate? I can take that on. So, this morning was a big surprise to us because, A, it was very cold and it was also very early. And we only had, we had about less than 12 days to put this together. And if it wasn't for the army of people who share common interests and have common concerns, this wouldn't have came together. It was, we had a large group who showed up and the one thing that sticks out is It wasn't just black people. It wasn't just parents. It wasn't just neighbors. It wasn't just one demographic group. People from all walks of life who know someone with either a mental health condition or a substance abuse issue or is someone who doesn't speak English or has a deaf son or daughter. People who basically know another Sean Brown in the community. And also people who love Arlington because Arlington finds itself to be as this, you know, close-knit community. And we love Arlington as well. Well, it is either our... Because our ancestors grew up here or our children's home. But the one thing that we don't agree with is while we are trying to upkeep this public persona, the actions of our county government don't match that. And we need to close the loop and ensure that policies, actions, and accountability matches the community's culture. And with that, I mean, what specific changes or efforts would you like to see on the part of the county and the police department as a result of this? Sure. We have three demands. We have spoken with various county board members, and their response about our issues about the police is that the police reports to the county manager, not to the county board. So our first demand is for a new county manager. Mark Schwartz has been either a deputy county manager, an acting county manager, or the county manager since 2010. Black people have been over-policed and under-protected. Other communities who are in Arlington are feeling those same effects, so we want a new county manager, and we want the person who becomes the county manager to replace our police chief. The second demand is about the release of police-involved footage for incidents of force. Arlington does not have a policy, unlike many other jurisdictions in our area. And we want a policy, and we want the unedited video of what happened to Sean to be released, because what was released on October 23rd was heavily edited and narrated by the police. Our third demand is for training. We need cultural competency training given to the police officers on an annual basis by an outside organization, because at this time, all of that training is within the police department. And based on how they have handled things, we do not believe that it's culturally competent. And so what comes next? I mean, I guess what comes next in all of this, in all of these efforts? Can I just pick that up? I wanted to just make sure that we stated that we felt really, really good about the fact that Sean's mother and family came to the demonstration today. They told us how. Please, they were that we had picked up this mantle and are fighting for justice and we do not plan to end. As I said in my statement to the county board during the public comment session this morning. This is not over. This is just the beginning. And. We plan to continue to press and we had a number of people who came up to us during this and as well as people who have contacted us via text and social media who want to get involved. So we plan to continue demonstrations and continue speaking out and continue. To talk to the media about this so that we can let all Arlingtonians know that we need their assistance in order to hold our elected officials accountable for having policing in Arlington that is just and fair. And just to close out the loop, and this is bigger than, this was the last straw. This Sean's murder was the last straw for us to say something else needs to happen. Thus far, Arlington County government, whether it's the county manager, the police, or the county board members, Their relationship with the community is very fractured. There's a lot of distrust. There is the expectation that if they dismiss it enough, if they're not responsive, if they just give us a canned response, we will go away. And a lot of people do, right? But this is not a single cause issue. This is a community issue. And this is not just pertaining to the fact that they don't, Arlington County is the only county. Close and near, it does not have a policy on how body cam footage gets released, the timelines and all of that stuff. The fact that Sean Brown's mother... was with us when they all saw her for the very first time. And even after we spoke and introduced her in the public meeting, the words or lack thereof they had for her is entirely insufficient. This is bigger than that. What other policies are not in place? And how are we putting people's safety and life in harm's way? And how are we accumulating more accountability and financial liability? To the county because our government is not listening, just to close the loop. And for people who want to keep up with Justice for Arlington or potentially join your next demonstration, where can people do that? We're on social media at Justice for Arlington on Instagram and on Facebook and on TikTok. And our long form articles are on Justice for Arlington on Substack. And we would love for you to join. And if you want to send information to us directly, our email is justiceforarlington at gmail.com. Right. Well, thank you so much for joining us, ladies, and for taking the time to sort of share all of this with us today. We really appreciate it. Thank you for having us.