We recently reported that the entire police force of a small town in North Carolina quit, en masse, when a new town manager took charge. Two clerks walked away with them. Without a whole lot of information available to the public, it was implied that the reason for the Kenly resignations was the progressive policies of Justine Jones. In the aftermath, the media tried to twist it into a race issue. Suddenly everyone started assuming they all quit simply because she happens to be Black and they’re all White. The locals took that race card and stapled it right back on liberal foreheads.
Former Police force not racist
Kenly, North Carolina could pass for a real life Mayberry R.F.D but that’s not the issue. The media is trying to make the all White police force into a group of sheet covered Klansman by twisting the issues. The whole force resigned because they don’t like the way they are being treated.
They wouldn’t care if Justine Jones was purple. It’s the evil color of her progressive soul that offends them, along with controversial methods which might work great in Minnesota but not North Carolina.
The town of 1,500 residents will still have a Sheriff’s department to rely on for emergencies but the town is on their own for basic police security services. The official reason for leaving their positions on the force was listed as a “hostile” work environment.
Kenly, North Carolina. Hired new City Manager. Justine Jones. Black. Woman. Entire all-white police department resigns. Claim 'hostile work environment' yet to provide no support. A long-time resident says: “They don’t want to be led by anybody Black; that’s Kenly.” Wow. pic.twitter.com/5fvvAvBR43
— Don Lewis (@DonLew87) July 26, 2022
They gave Justine Jones two months in her new job then decided they had enough and quit. They’re still on the job a few days but in the wind real soon. Local business owner Joy Wright admits the community is concerned, no matter what the reason.
As Ms. Wright notes, she was “mostly frustrated because the town hadn’t been keeping residents in the loop with any developments.” That, she claims, is “just weird, and for us to not have any information as to what to expect. Are we going to have police? Are we going to have a town manager?”
The crisis prompted an “emergency, closed-door meeting” of the town council. They kicked it around and decided to punt. “The prudent course of action is to find out what happened and not make any rash decisions.” They’re right.
An investigation underway
Town attorney Chip Hewett happens to be the only lawyer in Kenly. He told the press “he will oversee an investigation conducted by an outside firm starting next week when all the resignations take effect.” Police chief Josh Gibson was at the top of the list, along with “four full-time officers, one part-time officer and two town clerks.”
They all used pretty much the same wording, “with most referencing a stressful work environment, though they don’t provide any details about the allegedly ‘hostile‘ workplace, nor do they explicitly blame Jones.” That’s proof, the liberal media snarls, that they did it because she’s Black. There are more holes in that argument than a Swiss cheese.
Chief Gibson has clearly laid all the blame on Jones. What the public didn’t know is that “Jones had written him up multiple times in her short time on the job.” He told Laura Ingraham that “she came in, first of all, to start giving us tasks and all these projects all the time. And unfortunately, we are — we only have five officers and I was working double shifts at the time to try to keep up officer safety and be there with the officers in case something happened.”
The police chief also claimed “she wrote me up for going to businesses and talking with businesses. She wrote me up for talking with council members I’ve known for 20 years.” Basically if he wasn’t at his desk he got written up for it.
Members of the community stand with the officers. They “believe there is not a racial component to the situation due to the fact the previous town manager was a Black man. Some residents also cautioned against jumping to conclusions, saying they’ve always had a good relationship with the police department.”
Ms. Wright’s business, the Granny Barn, is two doors down from Town Hall. She doesn’t think the situation was a “Black vs White thing.” In fact, she’s “never seen that being a problem.” She also thinks “there are too many jumping to conclusions, we really don’t know what is going on. I know I have never met this town manager, I have never had any problems with the police, so I really don’t know what dynamic could have led to these types of decisions.“