Open Letter to the CommunityOffice of the Mayor
and City Council
City Hall
50 West 13th Street
Dubuque, Iowa 52001-4864
August 30, 2007
Open Letter to the Community:
THE CITY OF :'l
T?~BV+Q E
On August 25, 2007, a murder took place in our city. We would like to express our
sympathy to the family of the victim, Mr. Nicholas Blackburn. This young man should
not have lost his life. And there is nothing that we can say that will take away this
family's pain. As a community, however, we need to extend our most sincere thoughts
and prayers to the family in their time of sorrow.
We also would like to encourage the community to cooperate with police efforts to
ensure that justice is served in this case. We take our obligations to ensure the safety
of our community members very seriously.
We recognize the tension and uncertainties that many individuals, black and white, are
feeling in our community, and we call on our community to take the following steps.
First, no violence. One person has died and another is awaiting trial. This alone is
tragedy enough in our community. Second, no racist rhetoric and behavior. Third, no
retaliation, whether in response to the murder or in response to the use of racist
language or behavior. We must work through this without further injury or loss of life.
Fourth, if you hear or witness racial slurs, tell the individual using such language to stop.
If you fear you are in a situation that may escalate to violence, immediately report it to
the police. Let your neighbors and friends know that you will not tolerate the use of this
language.
We cannot discuss this incident without also addressing the recent news report
indicating that someone responded to the stabbing by publicly posting a photo of the
lynching of a black man on the Telegraph Herald website. We strongly condemn this act
because it carries a horrifying message of hate and bigotry to ourAfrican-American
residents as a whole in this community. When coupled with other comments suggesting
that the behavior of this one African-American male suspect is representative of the
behavior of an entire group of African-Americans in our community, we cannot remain
silent.
We understand that the vast majority of our community members are open and
accepting of people from all backgrounds. We understand that reasonable people can
become fearful following a violent incident. Our response is to ask people to take a
moment to consider what - if not race - is driving the discussions surrounding this
Service People Integrity Responsibility Innovation Teamwork
Open Letter to the Community
August 30, 2007
Page 2
incident. We ask community members to consider that when an African-American man
commits a crime, people who share his skin color should not have to find themselves
defending their presence in our community. And we ask people to consider whether
that is a burden we wish to place on the African-American children who call our
community home and whom we are trying to raise with the belief that they can stand on
their own merits.
Most of the people in our city are hard-working people raising families and helping to
build our community. We also recognize that there will be some who wilt not be
contributing members and who will bring violence in their wake. We will not tolerate
violence, and when any person commits a crime, our officers will prosecute the case
equally.
Condemning other people is easy. Refusing to take the time to distinguish fact from
fiction is easy. Making broad, sweeping statements to avoid working through the messy
details of each interaction between people is easy. We are challenging this community
to try harder and do better. Do not fall prey to the all too easy trap of lumping people
into a category and giving up on them. We know that, as a community, we are better
than that. Our community is capable of standing together with a collective voice of
support and continuing efforts to create a welcoming and equitable community that
judges each person on the content of his or her individual character.
We know that the vast majority of people in our community are law abiding people,
black and white, who are here to live their lives and raise their families in peace. Now
is the time for that majority to band together and strongly send the message: no hate,
no violenc .
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Mayor oy D. Buol Karla Braig, Council M ber
at Cline, ouncil Member Jo cE
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Ric Jones, Council Member Kevin
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Ann Michalski, Council Member
,Council Member
uncil'Member