Black Lives Matter Coalition rejects call for leader to leave state racial justice task force

The leaders of a Latino advocacy group who demanded that Jordan Chaney resign from a state task force are showing “anti-Blackness” and should recognize their own biases, says the Tri-Cities Black Lives Matter Coalition.

The coalition came out in support of Chaney one day after Consejo Latino Tri-Cities issued its call for the motivational speaker, poet and local BLM leader to step down from the Governor’s Task Force on Independent Investigations of Police Use of Force.

“The Black and the Latino community stand TOGETHER and ANYONE who would attempt to drive a wedge between the two is destructive and not about the uplifting of these communities,” the Black Lives Matter Coalition: Tri-Cities said in a Facebook post.

“Black Lives Matter Coalition stands behind Jordan and we understand the frustration of this fight that (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) people all over this world are fighting. As do MANY people, of all races, in this community.”

The board of Consejo Latino, in its own Facebook post, accused Chaney of an abusive and disrespectful “tirade” during a meeting last week with police officials.

The meeting, organized by Pasco Police Chief Ken Roske, was a briefing for Chaney and fellow Tri-City task force member Brian Moreno on the regional Special Investigations Unit, or SIU, program.

Gov. Jay Inslee created the task force in June to address policing and racial justice across the state following the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., and, closer to home, Manuel Ellis in Tacoma.

The task force is working jointly with the Legislature to see if the reforms put in place with Initiative 940 — dealing with independent investigations when law enforcement use deadly force — are working and to craft potential state laws.

Tense meeting

Felix Vargas, who wrote the statement for the Consejo Latino board, acknowledged to the Tri-City Herald that none of them were at last Thursday’s meeting with Chief Roske.

He said the board had received a number of calls and messages about Chaney’s conduct, and confirmed with several attendees that Chaney “lost his temper.”

The board accused Chaney of using abusive language that made all attendees uncomfortable, and said Roske got them back to “more civil dialogue” but the damage was done.

Consejo Latino called for Chaney to resign his post on the governor’s task force and to issue a public apology.

Chaney, reached by the Herald on Monday and Tuesday, said he did not want to comment on the meeting or the board’s demands.

He wrote a Facebook posting last week after the meeting saying, “I just lost my s--- at (the Pasco Police Department).”

Roske told the Herald that often emotions run high, particularly during these challenging times.

He said the purpose of the meeting was to provide information to Chaney and Moreno and answer any questions, so all parties can “drive good policy that allows for a thoroughly competent process that is as transparent as possible.”

‘Smear campaign’

The Monday night post by the Black Lives Matter Coalition said Vargas and Leo Perales, in issuing their board’s statement, were aimed at destroying Chaney and trying to label him as the “angry Black man.”

“It was an issue that required tact and poise that could have been handled privately but instead became a smear campaign on social media,” the coalition said.

It is difficult to dismantle the systemic racism and structures designed to oppress the Black community, and “even harder when those ideologies and criticisms come from a fellow person of color,” the post said. “... We are in this fight TOGETHER. To try and tone police a Black man in the middle of a civil rights uprising is disgusting and dripping in condescension.”

David G. Cortinas, publisher of La Voz newspaper in Pasco and president of the Downtown Pasco Latin Business Association, told the Herald on Tuesday that Vargas and Latino Consejo are not “the mouthpiece” for all Latinos.

Cortinas said he disagrees with the call for Chaney’s resignation.

“Yes, ‘We can catch more bees with honey than we can with sour milk’ but, Jordan Chaney is passionate and causes ‘GOOD TROUBLE,’” he wrote in an email. He referred to a quote from the late Civil Rights icon and Georgia Rep. John Lewis.

“If Jordan was so disrespectful and scared people in the meeting that their lives were in danger, then I believe the Chief would have had him arrested.”

Saul Martinez, a visual arts teacher at Pasco’s New Horizons High School, replied online to the Latino board: “Consejo, a virtual PUBLIC hanging of Jordan doesn’t put you in a positive light. Jordan is heavily regarded and respected by so so many, and this message furthers the schism between the brown and black communities. I hope you remedy this, privately.”

This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 2:27 PM.