VOLUME 95 - NUMBER 13 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2016 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Organizers: Moral revival tour will challenge injustice
By Martha Waggoner
RALEIGH (AP) - An
outspoken North Carolina
minister who has chal
lenged conservative state
lawmakers through the
“Moral Monday” move
ment is teaming up with
the former pastor of an ac
tivism-oriented New York
church for a 15-state tour
to promote a “revolution of
moral values” in the face
of what they see as social
injustice.
The Rev. William
Barber and the Rev. James
Forbes' said March 28 they
want to encourage people
to reclaim political dis
course so that it focuses on
love, justice and mercy.
Rev. William Barber
At news conference at
Temple Beth Or in Raleigh,
they spoke about the tour
called “The Revival: Time
for a Moral Revolution of
Values.”
“Far too much of our
national political discourse
and activity has been poi
soned by the dominance
of regressive, immoral and
hateful policies directed to
ward communities of color,
the poor, the sick, our chil
dren, immigrants, women,
voting rights, environment
and religious minorities,”
said Barber, who founded
the Moral Monday move
ment. “Our country is in
need of a revolution of
moral values to champion
the sacred values of love,
justice and mercy in the
public square.”
Moral Monday dem
onstrations began in North
Carolina in April 2013 to
protest issues including
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Durham Announces Police
Chief Candidate Finalists
Students at Durham School of the Arts call for the release of Wildin Guillen Acosta, a
Central American teen who was detained in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo courtesy of
Alerta Migratoria NC via Facebook.)
North Carolina community stands up to
Community Forum for Residents to Meet Finalists April 6; Residents
Encouraged to Submit Questions
stop a Central American teen’s deportation
Following a three-month search, City Manager Tom Bonfield has announced the two finalists for the
police chief position of the Durham Police Department.
Deputy Chief Cerelyn J. Davis Major Michael J. Smather
“The search has been a very deliberate process to recruit and identify the very best person to be
Durham’s next Chief of Police, and I’m confident that we’ve selected two extremely strong and capable
candidates,” Bonfield said. “I look forward to introducing them and receiving public feedback as the next
step of this process.”
The finalists are Deputy Chief Cerelyn J. Davis, who serves over the Strategy and Special Projects Di
vision of the City of Atlanta Police Department, and Major Michael J. Smathers, who oversees the Field
Services Group of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
As deputy chief, Davis oversees several units including Staff Inspections, Project Management, Pub
lic Affairs, Atlanta Retired Police Reserve, Community Liaison, Planning and Research Accreditation,
Crime Analysis, and Video Integration. Over the course of her 28-year career with the department, she
has held the ranks of patrol officer, detective, and sergeant.
As a lieutenant, Davis served as the personnel commander, public affairs manager, and executive as
sistant to the Chief of Police. She was also appointed as the commander of the department’s Homeland
Security Unit. Additional responsibilities included overseeing the Intelligence and Organized Crime Unit,
Gun and Gang Unit, Cyber Crimes Unit, Tactical Equipment Unit, and all satellite investigators assigned
to the DEA, FBI, ATF, and the Joint Terrorism Task Force. While serving as the department’s emergency
preparedness coordinator, Davis partnered with agencies such as the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force,
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Anti-Defamation League, local consulates, and the State of
Georgia.
Davis has also served as the commander of the Special Enforcement Section, which included Home
land Security, Narcotics, Vice, Licenses and Permits, High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, Project Safe
Neighborhood, Weed and Seed, Human Trafficking, and the now disbanded Red Dog Unit. As a major,
Davis served as the commander
of the Office of Professional
Standards, assistant commander
at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta
International Airport Precinct,
project manager for the depart
ment’s Community-Oriented Po
licing Section, and project man
ager in the Office of the Mayor.
Davis also was one of eight
women from across the coun
try recognized in 2015 for their
significant contribution to public
service by “0” magazine, and
was selected from over 3,000 ap
plicants to participate in the “O”
Whitehouse Leadership Project.
To view her resume, visit the
City’s website.
A major with the Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Police Department
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Kansas City church replaces stolen
‘Black Lives Matter’ sign
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A Kansas City church has
replaced a stolen “Black Lives Matter” sign in time for
Easter. .
The Kansas City Star reports that the All Souls Uni
tarian Universalist Church hung the new banner after a
previous one was stolen in January. The 2014 death of
Michael Brown in Ferguson helped spawn the national
“Black Lives Matter” movement.
All Souls minister Kendyl Gibbons says the story of
the cross and Easter is interpreted through the prism of
race. Gibbons says the black church identifies with the
cross and “what it means to be persecuted by authority
and to suffer for no reason but the arbitrary twists of his
tory.”
By Allie Yee
Democracy South
The grassroots movement to
halt the deportation of Wildin
Guillen Acosta, a 19-year-old
who fled his native Honduras
two years ago to escape gang
violence and was detained dur
ing an immigration raid in Dur
ham, North Carolina, earlier this
year, prevailed this week when
Immigration and Customs En
forcement (ICE) officials issued
a last-minute order preventing
his removal until the legal pro
cess plays out.
The March 20 decision came
after more than a month of pro
test actions organized by Acos
ta’s supporters and the interven
tion of Congresspersons G.K.
Butterfield, a Democrat who rep
resents Durham, and Zoe Lof
gren of California, the ranking
Democrat on the Subcommittee
on Immigration and Border Se
curity.
“It is my hope that he will be
eventually granted asylum in the
United States,” Butterfield said.
Acosta was among the thou
sands of unaccompanied Central
American children who arrived
in the U.S. in 2014 after fleeing
violence and poverty at home.
After missing an immigration
hearing last year, he was deemed
a deportation priority and de
tained by ICE agents during a
series of immigration raids. He
was taken into custody Jan. 28
on his way to school.
Following his detention,
Acosta’s supporters in Durham
have spoken out on his behalf.
His family and friends, and his
teachers and classmates at River-
side High School where he was
a senior, used the hashtags #RH-
SwantsWildinback and #Educa-
tionNotDeportation to rally sup
port through social media. His
teachers mailed him homework,
though the detention center staff
refused to accept it. And the lo
cal school board, city council,
human relations commission
and the North Carolina NAACP
released statements condemning
the immigration raids and calling
for Acosta’s release.
Watching so many different
community groups and lead
ers of all backgrounds stand to
gether for Acosta has been en
couraging, said Elisa Benitez, a
community organizer with a new
group called Alerta Migra to-
ria NC that has helped organize
around Acosta’s case.
The group was formed by
immigrant rights organizers in
early January as reports of ICE
raids sent fear and alarm through
the state’s immigrant commu
nity. Alerta operates a hotline for
immigrants facing issues related
to detainment or deporta
tion, which organizers say was
swamped with calls in January.
Alerta is also working with
community groups across the
state to advocate for five other
Central American teens who,
like Acosta, were detained in
Continued On Page 3)
NAACP: Attorney
General should review
wrongful convictions
By Martha Waggoner
RALEIGH (AP) - North Carolina’s attorney should set
up a group to investigate claims of wrongful convictions
to prevent more innocent people from being in prison, the
head of the state NAACP said March 24.
The Rev. William Barber also called on Gov. Pat Mc
Crory to establish a task force to recommend ways to
strengthen protections against wrongful convictions. At a
news conference, he said both the governor and Attorney
General Roy Cooper - running against each for governor
in the 2016 election - should come together to support a
moratorium on the death penalty.
"Put down being competitors for the season of Eas
ter,” Barber said. "Come together and do what’s right.”
Barber held the news conference to focus on two mur
der cases - one in Winston-Salem and another in Green
ville - where defense attorneys say innocent men have
been in prison since the 1990s. Both men rejected plea
deals for lesser sentences because they refused to admit
to murders they didn’t commit, Barber said.
"This is what happens when a system is infected and
infested with racial class bias,” Barber said. "And the
only way to stop it is to deal with it, have grown-up con
versations, free the innocent people” and a create a sys
tem that prevents wrongful convictions.
Conviction integrity units such as ones in Harris Coun
ty, Texas, and Brooklyn, New York, are one reason a re
cord number of people falsely convicted of crimes - 149
- were exonerated in 2015, Sam Gross, editor of the Na
tional Registry of Exonerations, has said. The registry is
a project of the University of Michigan Law School that
has documented more than 1,740 such cases in the U.S.
After the news conference, participants delivered let
ters to the offices of McCrory and Cooper, calling for the
release of the two men - Kalvin Michael Smith in Win
ston-Salem and Dontae Sharpe in Greenville. Their fami
lies and supporters also attended the news conference.
Cooper’s office said in an email to The Associated Press
that a meeting was held with Barber and representatives
of the NAACP. "We look forward to working with them
to address systemic issues in the criminal justice system,”
said the email from Noelle Talley, public infonnation of
ficer for Cooper.
McCrory’s office didn’t immediately respond to Bar
ber’s comments.
^CQ