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By Paul Bean
A controversial public comment made by a Northfield resident at a town selectboard about the police chief meeting prompted a visit from the Director of Outreach and Education for the Vermont State Office of Racial Equity at Northfield’s selectboard meeting Tuesday, April 22.
Shalini Suryanarayana, Director of Outreach and Education for the Office of Racial Equity, visit to Northfield’s selectboard meeting was prompted by a comment made by Lynn Doney, a Northfield resident at a selectboard meeting April 8 during the time for public input. Doney questioned the selectboard on whether or not the town’s police chief was supposed to be wearing his uniform on the job saying, “Why isn’t he wearing it so he looks like a police chief and not a gangster off the street that’s just driving our cruisers around?” (Read Doney’s full comment below).
This comment received backlash in the community as many residents came out in support of the Northfield Police Chief, Pierre J. Gomez, who was hired in August 2023, who has 20 plus years of experience and law enforcement in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania.
“At the April 8 Select Board meeting, a community member publicly made accusations against the Chief that appeared to be racially motivated,” wrote a resident in a post made in the Northfield Facebook group. “You can view this moment in the final 20 minutes of that meeting available on YouTube. Watching it makes it clear why showing up on April 22 is so important.”
Northfield’s Selectbord meeting Tuesday April 22 drew a packed room of 60 people at Brown Public Library in response to Doney’s comment about Gomez and The Office of Racial Equity’s visit. “The town of Northfield is committed to non-prejudiced treatment in the workplace. Accountability demands we investigate, identify, and eliminate hatred and bigotry where they exist,” said Selectman Charlie Morse to open the meeting, introducing Suryanarayana.
“I know that something everyone is trying to do is listen with grace – make sure people get an opportunity to be heard. ” said Shalini Suryanarayana, Director of Outreach and Education for Vermont’s office of Racial Equity. The Office of Racial Equity’s website says Suryanarayana’s job is to “interact with residents, visitors, press, other sectors of government, and builds training curricula. She also liaises with communities around the state and helps state and local leaders apply an equity lens to their work through education and close communication.”
Suryanarayana gave a 45 minute presentation on DEI, strategies, and incentives for towns to implement DEI programing. Below is an excerpt from her presentation. (You can watch the entire presentation starting at 33:01-1:11:40).
Suryanarayana: “I will tell you in my field, the experts, the subject matter experts and practitioners will never tell you if you study this much you’ll be done. You know how sometimes you’ll get a degree and once you’re done you’ve got the diploma and you don’t ever have to take another class in that subject again. Unless you’re something like a doctor who has to take those board exams again or something like that… But most of us, I was in mechanical engineering, most of us don’t ever have to take another engineering class thank goodness so why in DEI are we saying that it is never… you’re not going to be done?”
Northfield Resident: “Because humans change?…Because humans never stay the same?”
Suryanarayana: “That is true but that’s true for every field that we study. People are always changing.. So the answer in our field, what many of us believe is that we will be able to stop worrying about doing DEI trainings and education, and learning and thinking about when we reach a state of equity. And by that I mean when we get to that point in time when you can no longer use something about a person’s identity to predict an outcome…”
Lynn Doney’s full exchange with the Selecetbord at the April 8 Northfield selectboard meeting, where Doney is accused of making a racially motivated comment.
Lynn Doney: “Do we buy the police chief uniforms? Then do we buy him a jacket? Why have I seen him and I can’t even count how many times I’ve seen him driving our police cruisers around with a hoodie? I’ve seen him coming out of the municipal building supposedly working because he’s got his gun on and he’s got a badge on a chain around his neck hanging out on his neck. Is he working for us or what’s he supposed to be doing? Because if he’s going to be a police chief and we’ve spent and I know when I was in those uniforms and all that gun apparel and everything else you get into thousands of dollars of that. Why isn’t he wearing it so he looks like a police chief and not a gangster off the street that’s just driving our cruisers around?”
Merry Sherock: “I’m sorry I don’t think he looks like a gangster and I’ve seen him several times.”
Lynn Doney: “How many times have you seen him in the cruiser with the hoodie on?”
Merry Shernock: “Lots.”
Lynn Doney: “Well he shouldn’t be If we’re going to buy a police chief uniform.
Why? Because he’s a police chief.”
Merry Shernock: “Lots of times police officers wear gray flannel jackets.”
Lynn Doney: “Not your police chief.”
Merry Shernock: “Yeah lots of times.”
Charlie Morse: “Yeah, well he does”.
Lynn Doney: “Well I haven’t seen any and I’ve been around a lot of police officers before and a lot of police chiefs and I haven’t seen him in a police cruiser driving around with a gray hoodie with a badge on a tag hanging down on your chest.”
At the end of the presentation, the selectboard thanked Suryanarayana for her presentation and her time. The selectboard did not say whether they will discuss the matter further.
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Categories: Law Enforcement, Local government
He is a police chief, and acting in his position AS police chief, We the People ought to be able to plainly see that he IS, and that he ought to be dressed as a Policeman, and not as any other sort of character.
At McDonald’s all the employees had to comply with a dress code, uniform, everybody or they didn’t work. It was part of the job.
The whole equity thing. You know what, we are equal, we already are all equal, in our fallenness, no not one of us without sin (sin is an archery term, meaning you missed the bullseye, you missed perfection is another way of saying it). That applies to EVERYONE.
So, we are in the same boat. Guess what, there is no one except Jesus Christ that spoke perfectly….so we’ll have to get over these slights and minor transgressions, we need to show forgiveness. We need to show love for another.
If I went to NYC to police and wore Carhartt’s and flannel, what would people think? Could I possibly stick out more? How about if I drove a lifted Subaru to boot? One thing for sure, he’s not undercover.
Yet we are paying somebody a massive salary to oversee such nonsense? Seriously, we’ve got more important things to deal with, but now the cancel culture arm is going to oversee the police force. They already fired state troopers for singing rap songs. our state needs to head in a new direction; this current one isn’t working for any of the players.
I have a question for everyone. Having been a Police Chief here in Vermont, there were many times when I was called when I was off duty to an incident. Maybe to back up an on duty officer, maybe to a fatal car crash, maybe to a domestic disturbance, maybe to assist the ambulance on a call. If you were a victim in any of these things would you rather I respond right away or go home first and dress in my proper uniform? As to carrying a firearm while off duty, all Vermont Police Officers have powers of arrest no matter whether on or off duty. I for one appreciates he displays his badge while he is armed and wearing civilian clothing. ~Steve Waldo, Baltimore, Vermont.
Nothing like a lecture on equality and respect from a high caste Indian – a country famous for its treatment of women and the non-Hindu population. Also, a country that classifies one in six of its population as untouchable (Dalit). She moved to Vermont and currently occupies Abenaki land. And she gets paid handsomely to talk down to us.
I imagine she sees no need to lecture India on equality since you would have to do that for free.
There is a difference between emergency situations and attire while on duty. The context of this story is the police chief’s choice of attire while on duty. If the town has used taxpayer funds to purchase a uniform, he should wear it. It’s a part of being professional and respectful. As an adult human female, traditionally known as a woman, the last person i want to see approaching me is a male with his hood up so I cannot fully see his face. It is threatening, regardless of skin color or ethnicity. I assume the police chief wears his unprofessional sweatshirt with the hood down while on duty. Regardless, it is unprofessional attire.
I may be off base with this but like those of us in the military, we try wearing our uniform less in public. Why? With it on, we are targets for cartels and a host of other people. Police officers are in the same crosshairs. There are times when being out of uniform is smart.
Sure, if you are driving a tank out of uniform? If you are responding to an emergency and you are off duty, of course you don’t go home to change, duh. Vt rocks has it right, this is all a bit too rich.
If the guy wears his uniform on shift, when he’s not under cover, it’s all good, this is really not a big deal, nor do we need a government agency making a big deal of it.
This is not about equity, it’s about controlling th speech of society under threat of government dictate and penalties.
They want control of anything that is not part of subverting a republic.
This is getting to be way too nonsensical.
The State’s costly, pointless and ineffectual Office of Equity ad nauseam, with all it’s moronic progressive driven agendas and programs, needs to be closed!
I think we really need to make DEI, DIE…
Neil is on target – this is about shaming the speaker and NOT about the topic under discussion. The lady was right to call out the cop if he habitually rides around in the cruiser out of uniform but wearing a hoodie. If this was an occasional thing or something that happened only in an emergency that would have been mentioned at the time. It wasn’t.
It is also a good exercise in recognizing implicit bias. Would the speaker who criticized the chief have done the same thing if that cop were white? I imagine she would since her point was that the uniform is an important part of the job, especially for the chief of police.
But the select board chose to focus on the race of the cop and not on his position as chief. Their bias would have them make special accommodations for the chief because he is black and not for any other reason. So who exactly is the racist here?
Finally, I managed only a few moments of the passive aggressive, self-aggrandizing lecture from the DEI person before my disdain made further viewing unbearable. In that short time, I got her self congratulatory resume and her view that, unlike mechanical engineering, DEI is a “discipline” where you never stop “learning”.
Or put another way, mechanical engineering is difficult because you have to work at it while DEI IS the grift that keeps giving.
This is a journalism piece. I can’t tell how the writer feels. I should never know how the news writer feels. Just facts . And to answer the former police chief comment in here. I would not care what you were wearing. If you come to help me I don’t care you roll up with a pair of shorts on. Just have the badge round your neck .
Why are taxpayers funding a department of thought police? Why are taxpayers and soveriegn citizens subjected to State sponsored demoralizing, obey or be ostracized tricksters, frauds and carpet bagging con-artists? Has anyone looked to see how much money these charlatans are collecting off our backs to pontificate how superior they are over those who don’t drink their witchcraft wordcraft Kool-aide? They are the racists, the disrupters, the dividers, the bigots, the eugenists, the annihilators, the storm troppers, the illegal, immoral, jackbooted legion. High time for them to be shown the door and sent back to the abyss from which they came.
Director of Outreach and Education for the Vermont State Office of Racial Equity
Has anyone ever heard of a more useless organization?
VTDEM and VTGOP
Vermont needs the DOGE enema.
DEI is racist schlock and this state agency is a joke and does more to agitate than mediate. This wasn’t a racist incident but DEI shills seek any little excuse to justify their wasted salaries. Where is Xusana Davis these days, BTW?
He should wearing his uniform. He’s one of those guys that once he is promoted to the boss – he doesn’t need to follow the rules.
A good leader sets the example for their employees and his customers- the public.
Some people have to stop yelling racism when there is none.
The guys got to fix his image.
A point of reference – 51% of major city Chiefs are Black and Latino. With highest proportion is black.
“We the People” don’t need your DEI lectures. Did you see who got elected?