Locals: South Dakota police removed Confederate flag emblem
Source: Associated Press
Stephen Groves, Associated Press
Updated 5:40 pm CDT, Thursday, July 2, 2020
GETTYSBURG, S.D. (AP) — A South Dakota police department has removed a decal from its squad cars that featured a Confederate battle flag next to an American flag, according to local residents.
Dave Mogard, the police chief in Gettysburg, a small city named after the famous Civil War battle, declined to confirm that the decal had been removed, saying Thursday that the City Council would discuss the issue at a meeting Monday.
But several locals, including Selwyn Jones, an uncle of George Floyd, said the decal had been removed from the department's squad cars and station doors.
Jones called for the change after his nephew, who was Black and handcuffed, died May 25 while being arrested by police in Minneapolis. A white police officer used his knee to pin Floyd's neck for nearly eight minutes as Floyd begged for air and eventually stopped moving. Floyd's death led to charges against four officers who took part in the arrest and to worldwide protests over police brutality and racial injustice.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/article/Locals-South-Dakota-police-removed-Confederate-15383077.php
Posted Jul 2, 2020
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, explains its stance on Confederate symbols to Gettysburg, South Dakota
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, has sent a letter to its sister city in South Dakota explaining why it doesn’t display the Confederate flag “on its police uniforms, patrol cars, stationary or from official Borough flag poles.”
The letter, dated June 29, was sent just before the anniversary of the Civil War’s Battle of Gettysburg and days before the Gettysburg, South Dakota, City Council will consider the fate of its police logo that features the Confederate flag. Gettysburg, South Dakota, known as “Where the Battle Wasn’t” on the city website, has come under fire for its police logo in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody.
Copies of the letter were sent to the town’s council, Mayor Bill Wuttke and George Floyd’s uncle, Selwyn Jones. Jones lives in Gettysburg and has spoken out against the police department’s use of the Confederate flag.
The mayor and police department defend the logo, stating it is a part of the town’s history even though local historians have said that only one Confederate soldier homesteaded there among dozens of Union soldiers.
The patch, which shows the American and Confederate flags overlapping and a cannon to represent the battle that the town was named for, was created in 2009 by Scott Barksdale, a South Carolinan, after he learned of the history of the town.
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“We’re not wanting the liberals and the press telling us we have to change it,” Wuttke also has said. “People here do not feel it’s racism.”
More:
https://brookingsregister.com/article/a-tale-of-two-gettysburgs
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