Advocacy organization says criticism of efforts wrong
A recent editorial in this paper made inaccurate claims about my organization, and our report on discriminatory marijuana policing in Fayetteville. The editorial said our report made "unsupported claims" of discrimination, but, completely omitted the factual basis for our claims. For example, the Fayetteville Drug Task Force arrests for marijuana were of 47 percent black people in a city that is 6 to 7 percent black. When it was not a task force officer, there was still severe disproportionality among arrests for both misdemeanors and felonies. The report, along with the city's raw data, is available on our website for anyone to verify.
Furthermore, our analysis of the 2018 arrest numbers is not in dispute. The Fayetteville Police Department gave us this information, and they were supportive and cooperative every step of the way because they are and strive to be good community servants. The city attorney confirmed our analysis in a June 25th letter. The 2008 numbers are the only piece that is uncertain, as many records have likely been sealed since then, and Chief Greg Tabor is generously even going so far as to see if we can analyze those sealed records while protecting the anonymity of those whose records have been sealed.
The editorial also blamed Mark Kinion for the proposed change to city law. City Attorney Kit Williams himself proposed this change, the day after our press conference. Kit needed a City Council person to sponsor the change in law, since he himself could not, and Mark was first to do it, not due to a knee-jerk reaction as your paper alleged, but because it is the right thing to do.
The editorial, in addition to getting our organization's name wrong, also misrepresented the Arkansas Justice Collective, calling us a special-interest group, a choice of language intended to make us despised and distrusted. AJC is a nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization dedicated to serving low-income Arkansans. We published this report because we love Fayetteville and we know it can do better. Shouldn't our newspaper want the same?
Stephen Coger
Fayetteville
Arkansas Justice Collective, director
Bike lanes, rental program seem to lack actual riders
Rolling Hills Drive between Highway 71B and Old Missouri Road continues to have virtually no pedal bicycle riders using it. Is it not time for the Fayetteville City Council to have the black-and-white rubber bumpers removed?
Additionally, the rent-a-pedal bike program seems to be a failure. In over six months I have only seen two rent-a-pedal bike riders.
The bikes are scattered all over the city of Fayetteville with no riders in sight.
I hope the city is not subsidizing this venture.
Martin Redfern
Fayetteville
Commentary on 07/16/2019