In light of protests around the country, the Carbondale NAACP and city officials will be holding a policing town hall on Thursday, July 9th.
The panel will include Fire and Police Commissioner Randy Burnside, Jackson County State’s Attorney Michael Carr, social activist Michael Coleman, Chief of Police Max Grubbs, Carbondale NAACP member Nancy Maxwell, City Manager Gary Williams, and IL NAACP member Robert Moore.
Linda Flowers, president of the Carbondale NAACP, said the discussion will include things like calls to defund the police, use of chokeholds, and other concerns being discussed nationwide.
“Interesting enough, in 2018, the Illinois state NAACP Conference of branches and the Illinois chiefs of police signed off on 10 shared principles by which they agreed policing would happen in the state of Illinois,” Flowers said.
The Carbondale police department is one of the organizations that signed on to those principles, which will help guide the discussion.
Flowers said the goal of the town hall is to open discussion about how communities and police can work together and clarify the policies in place in Carbondale.
To participate, people can register for the Zoom session on the Carbondale Public Library’s website, join on Facebook at the Carbondale Public Library page, the Carbondale United page, or the Carbondale NAACP page or watch on channel 16.
