Will State College Borough Council take a stand on gun violence, white supremacy?
When State College Councilman Jesse Barlow was set to bring forth a resolution condemning gun violence and white supremacy at the Aug. 19 meeting, he was met with some resistance from fellow council members.
Councilwoman Catherine Dauler said she was concerned about portions of the resolutions council has received lately and wanted to have more time to discuss them before voting. Council members Janet Engeman and David Brown agreed that the vote should be delayed to allow more time to discuss.
Barlow’s resolution denounces “racist and xenophobic rhetoric” from President Donald Trump, condemns the violence in mass shootings “and the white supremacist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, misogynist, homophobic, and gender phobic ideology and hatred that motivates them.” He cited President Trump’s comments describing Central American and Mexican asylum seekers as an “invasion” at a Florida rally and telling four members of Congress over Twitter to “go back” to where they came from, though three of the four were born in the U.S.
Additionally, it provides recommendations that Congress and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania pass “meaningful” gun control laws that include universal background checks, a ban on assault weapons and large capacity magazines and “red flag” laws designed to temporary remove guns from a person who poses a danger to themselves or others.
On Aug. 14, Gov. Tom Wolf signed an executive order to create a special council on gun violence and called on lawmakers to pass laws that curb gun violence.
Dauler said she was “disturbed by the frequency” of resolutions brought forth at State College Borough Council meetings in response to a tragic or polarizing event at the national or state level, such as the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh or the executive ban on people traveling from majority-Muslim countries, sometimes referred to as the Muslim travel ban.
While she generally agrees with the resolution, Dauler said more time should have been taken to discuss the resolution at a work session so that members could say whether they “agree with the parameters” of the resolution.
Council member David Brown suggested council write an amicus curiae brief to support Pittsburgh City Council in its legal defense against three lawsuits challenging the city’s new gun-curbing legislation passed in April.
Council President Evan Myers defended the resolution, saying council should not delay the vote because the topics covered were “germane” to the community. He referenced the January shooting that killed four and injured one in State College and the borough’s diverse, international community as reasons to solidify its stance against gun violence and white supremacy.
“I think it’s important that we realize that process for anything is in place to help us achieve a goal. The process by itself is not the goal, the outcome is the goal,” he said.
Barlow said he hadn’t intended to write the resolution so quickly, but that he wanted to have a vote while the mass shooting events in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio were fresh in the public’s mind.
“I kind of felt that the events of the last few weeks, the president’s statements, the fact that we had our first mass shooting incident here in State College only a few months ago, that these incidents are becoming so common, that they’re rooted often lightly in white nationalism, and they seem to be, if anything, encouraged by some of our leaders, made it urgent for me to write this statement as quickly as possible and get it voted on now,” said Barlow.
The El Paso shooter released a hate-filled, anti-immigrant manifesto on now-shut down website 8chan that decried the “Hispanic invasion of Texas” and laid out a plan to separated the United State into territories based on race, among other things.
Three people who spoke during public comment all supported the resolution and urged council to vote on it that night.
Council voted 4-3 to postpone the resolution discussion and vote to the next work session and special meeting on Sept. 9. Council members Dauler, Engeman, Brown and Theresa Lafer voted to postpone and members Dan Murphy, Myers and Barlow voted against.
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