BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week

The St. Lawrence County Legislature unanimously passed a resolution opposing a state bill requiring police officers to maintain personal liability insurance, and remove them from indemnification by the state. They also unanimously supported a bill discouraging local governments from defunding or abolishing their police departments.

Prior to the vote, one member of the legislature praised the local Black Lives Matter demonstrations, and several others voiced their disdain with a local newspaper for writing an editorial criticizing the board for taking a stance against the statewide reforms and the national conversation on defunding police agencies.

The bills come just days after over 100 Black Lives Matter demonstrators peacefully gathered in Massena to support a Black family who had a noose left in their yard. A couple of months prior to that, the local BLM organization drew 1,000 people to Potsdam for a march and rally in response to the May 25 killing of George Floyd, who was Black, by a white Minneapolis police officer. The proposed statewide police liability reform and calls to defund or outright abolish police agencies came in the wake of Floyd’s death and the subsequent civil rights activism that started in Minneapolis and spread across the globe.

“Much like what we’ve seen some of these demonstrations do to the people performing them, the rioting, the property damage … really detracts from the message Black Lives Matter wanted to get out when this started,” said legislature Chair Joe Lightfoot, R-Ogdensburg. He is a retired state police investigator. “Their feelings for a black man who was essentially killed in the hands of a police department, I think that they make themselves look rather cheap, rather ridiculous. I bet half the people doing the rioting now have no idea the name of that man.”

“I’ve certainly seen some things in my time that warrant an adverse reaction to police procedures,” he said, adding that he feels those incidents are “so far in the minority they wouldn’t register” they wouldn’t register in a survey of everyday police-public interactions.

“When are the police called? When somebody needs them, when somebody is in trouble,” Lightfoot said.

Legislator Jim Reagen, R-Ogdensburg, then applauded the St. Lawrence County BLM demonstrations for remaining peaceful.

“I just want to emphasize the individuals who have participated in the Black Lives Matter rallies and marches in St. Lawrence County are to be commended for the way they have acted during those events. I think they have sent a message of their concerns the way that the founders of this country intended,” he said. “They’ve been a great example to others around the country of the right way to make their views known to the public and to the government. I think all of us in this room appreciate the right of the public to make its views known and to exercise their First Amendment rights. I think our criticism of this legislation has nothing to do with our views on peaceful protest.”

Legislator John Burke, R-Norfolk, said he agreed with Lightfoot’s assertion that most police are good police, but said he thinks legislators sometimes need to look outside St. Lawrence County.

“I certainly agree with you Joe it’s a small percentage of police who give the whole effort a bad name. I would also say it’s a small percentage of protesters who give a bad name to all of them,” Burke said. “I think about the stop and frisk in New York City. What would it be like to be a black man in New York City and not be sure you can walk two blocks without being stopped and frisked? I know it’s over. We need to have a sensitivity to the bigger picture. We’re extremely fortunate in St. Lawrence County to have what I consider a great police presence.”

Earlier in the discussion, Legislator Margaret Haggard, D-Potsdam, said she feels it’s possible to both support law enforcement, as well as calls for reform.

“I believe that addressing reforms in social justice and supporting our local LE in the county and the state, shoutout to the Potsdam Police Department by the way, are not mutually exclusive,” she said.

The editorial that drew the legislators’ ire is on NNY360.com, published July 31. It calls the board “shortsighted” for the two bills passing the July Finance Committee meeting. It goes on to offer the opinion that some money should be taken away from police departments and spent on social services programs, so officers aren’t getting involved with mental health calls, or other situations better suited for a counselor or medical doctor. It also praises Northern New York law enforcement for excelling in carrying out their duties.

Lightfoot during his time speaking said family-related complaints police receive “are the worst” as far as handling a complicated situation.

Reagen, a former editor of the now-defunct Ogdensburg Journal, was among the voices who weren’t happy with what the paper had to say.

“As someone who spent their career writing editorials, the idea that a major publication in Northern New York would be in support of this kind of legislation is very disappointing. I think it’s important the public understands no one in this room is against legitimate reforms that improve our law enforcement community’s ability to serve and protect the people of the North Country,” he said. “No longer defending our law enforcement community when they’re sued would hamstring their ability to function.”

He also said he believes the state bill, if passed, “would discourage people from becoming law enforcement officers and putting their lives on the line to protect our communities.”

Lightfoot did not hold back his opinion on the editorial.

“The Watertown Times has taken a dip in the cesspool writing an editorial critical of what this board saw fit to [support],” he said. “I’m troubled by the Watertown Times putting this kind of tripe in their newspaper and that’s one of the reasons I don’t subscribe to it. I don’t like reading this crap.”