President of Black Police Execs Defends Demoted Captain at Black on Black Crime Task Force Gun Violence Town Hall
Gainesville’s Black on Black Crime Task Force held a town hall meeting on gun violence at the Gainesville Police Department (GPD) headquarters Wednesday. During the meeting, the president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE), Renée Hall, spoke out against GPD Chief Nelson Moya’s demotion of Victoria Young.
Young is the president of NOBLE’s Gainesville chapter.
Earlier this year on Easter Sunday, 20-year-old Ontaria Baisden was shot and killed, and two others injured while attending an event at TB McPherson Park. GPD had a permit for the event that lasted until 7:00 pm and the shooting occurred at 8:15 pm.
At the following general policy meeting, City Manager Cynthia Curry said that GPD kept her out of the loop when getting the permit. Curry said she would’ve denied the permit and believes the shooting wouldn’t have happened if she got the opportunity. “I will be dealing with some disciplinary issues as they relate to this event," Curry said.
At the general policy meeting, Moya stated, "When I look at our organization, I'm responsible for the processes. Nobody else. Ultimately, that stops with me. As I look at this event, I've come to a couple of conclusions. Because ultimately, although I'm a leader of people, I also am a manager of processes.” Moya went on to say, “The responsibility for shooting somebody lies with the shooters.”
According to an email from retired GPD lieutenant Alena Lawson Bennett to the Gainesville City Commission, Moya filed a formal complaint against Captains Summer Hallett and Victoria Young for their role in the permit’s approval.
Bennett argued Young received disproportionate discipline, writing, “Capt. Hallett—who supervised the permit approval—received 40 hours without pay and was already on probation. Capt. Young, who did not approve the permit, now faces termination.”
Young was ultimately not terminated, but she was demoted to the rank of lieutenant.
Hall defended Young at the Black on Black Crime Task Force gun violence town hall, which was attended by several local officials and police officers, including Moya and Young.
Hall said, “Young was responsible for coalescing all the units within GPD and executing an operations plan for an event that happened in the park. That Easter egg hunt was supposed to go from 2:00 to 7:00 and that was a successful event. An hour and a half after that event a shooting took place where three people were shot. There were two captains who were responsible for organizing and executing this event. Only one, who is a Black female, has been disciplined.”
Hall told the room of officers and local government officials, “When we start holding police members responsible for shootings that happen in our city, none of us would ever have a job.”
Hall said NOBLE “is fighting for” Young. “She was responsible for making sure [the event] was successful. She did everything she was supposed to do. Now she, and only she, has been disciplined,” said Hall.
Bennett’s email to the city commission said Hallett would receive disciplinary consequences, however, in an interview after the meeting Hall clairified, “They said she was going to get some days off but she hasn’t served those days as of yet."
Moya spoke later on in the meeting, but he didn’t offer a response to Hall’s comments.
Hall told GnvInfo she went to the meeting because she tried to get a response from Moya and Curry but received none. Moya left the room after the meeting and Hall didn’t get the chance to approach him.
During her interview, Hall said, “Curry stated that someone’s head was gonna roll. My concern is the chief of police, who is responsible directly to her, is the person responsible for the complaint.”
“Captain Young has been a scapegoat for the fact that there were three people shot,” Hall said. “This optics plan that she put together for the Easter egg hunt was a collaboration of everyone… My biggest concern is that Captain Young was demoted, and the two reasons they gave was that she did not handle or organize the operations plan to the desires of the police chief, but in the investigation, it says nowhere where he even offered input, he acts as if he didn’t even know that it was going on… The second reason they said they demoted her was because of her demeanor; that her demeanor somehow impacts the relationships on the police department.”
Hall said Young was moved into a position where she’s responsible for all department training, including for new recruits, which she said is strange if her “demeanor” was an issue.
A former deputy chief in Detroit and police chief in Dallas, Hall said, “Sometimes your subordinates don’t necessarily like each other, but you can’t demote people because you don’t like them… You can’t tie the fact you don’t like someone to an investigation that found you did nothing wrong… I was police chief, and there were people I didn’t necessarily care for but you don’t demote them because this is not a personal situation. This is business. It should be about the business of the organization and taking care of people. That’s not what we have here.”
GPD's office of public information did not return requests for comment. GnvInfo will publish the full internal investigation on the TB McPherson incident when it is obtained.
