PRESS RELEASE FROM THE BIG BEND CHAPTER OF THE FLORIDA PBA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 30, 2024
MEDIA CONTACT:
MICHAEL SKELLY
917-364-8142
THE FLORIDA PBA BIG BEND CHAPTER SLAMS CITY COMMISSIONER JACK PORTER AND CANDIDATE FOR CITY COMMISSION, DOT IMAN JOHNSON, FOR ATTENDING A PUBLIC FORUM BACKED BY ANTI LAW ENFORCEMENT ACTIVISTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE TALLAHASSEE COMMUNITY ACTION COMMITTEE
PBA PRESIDENT RICHARD MURPHY CALLS ON PORTER AND JOHNSON TO IMMEDIATELY CONDEMN THE TCAC’S EXTREME ANTI-LAW ENFORCEMENT PLATFORM THAT VILIFIES THE POLICE AND REFERS TO COPS AS ‘KILLERS’
TALLAHASSEE- On July 20, 2024, Tallahassee City Commissioner Jack Porter, along with Dot Iman Johnson, a candidate for Tallahassee City Commission, attended a public forum hosted by the Tallahassee Community Action Committee, a far left-wing activist group that proudly boasts on its website (www.tallycac.com) about its anti-law enforcement platform that vilifies police officers, refers to cops as killers, and seeks to defund the police. In fact, on its website, the TCAC states “modern American policing grew out of slave patrols and crowd control of urban areas, namely in the context of striking or protesting working class people.” The group also asserts that “law enforcement officers in the United States kill at least a thousand people every year” and homosexuals are frequently targeted by police, “especially if they are black.”
The TCAC platform is riddled with lies, misinformation and racism. The group fails to mention that according to a report from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, which examined police shootings in the United States, over a six-year period, the vast “majority of victims in shootings by police- 84% overall-were reported as armed with a firearm or other weapon, such as a knife or vehicle.” There is zero evidence to suggest that police officers target homosexuals who are black and the notion that modern policing is tied to slave patrols is completely baseless as well.
In response to Porter and Johnson’s attendance at the TCAC forum, Big Bend PBA President Richard Murphy is calling on Porter and Johnson to immediately denounce the TCAC’s blatant vilification and demonization of the police. PBA President Richard Murphy said, “It is absolutely appalling to us that a sitting City Commissioner and a candidate for City Commission, would publicly associate themselves with a group that blatantly lies about cops and vilifies our law enforcement officers, who risk their lives daily to keep the public safe. Such an affiliation automatically disqualifies them for serving in an official capacity, paid by Tallahassee taxpayers, while overseeing policies that impact our law enforcement officers. The PBA is demanding that Jack Porter and Dot Johnson denounce this dangerous hate-filled group and issue an immediate apology for attending the forum on July 20th. If they do not, we can assume that they too hate our police officers. We are proud of the fact that our police force is now comprised of more than 30% people of color and nearly a third of our force is female and those numbers continue to grow. We are also proud of the professionalism demonstrated by our officers every day. They deserve to be represented by local officials who respect their commitment to public safety in our communities and so does every citizen of our great city."
