Hearing Calls for Justice

Message from Helen Robbins-Meyer, Chief Administrative Officer

Since I last spoke to you, we’ve seen days of protests continue across the country and here in San Diego. They’ve been overwhelmingly peaceful, but no less impassioned in their calls for justice.

The police killing of George Floyd is painful to watch by itself. But it’s not by itself. It’s the latest addition to a long history of institutional violence committed against Black people in America. It’s the latest example that, despite progress we’ve made, racism still exists in our society, even among those sworn to protect us. 

The combined weight of that history and these incidents produces pain, frustration and anger that’s impossible for those of us who are not Black to truly understand. We do need to recognize and accept their experience and emotions. We can all listen to the messages coming from the peaceful marches in the streets and our communities, and continue to learn about the full scope of racism and the ways we need to confront it.

When we talk about institutional racism, we have to recognize – the County is an institution. We are the institution. We need to take the uncomfortable step of looking at our own operations for practices or policies that perpetuate bias, whether in our workplace or in the communities we serve. We must reject discrimination and any action that denies equal justice for all.  

We need to study social justice and equity in our budgeting process. How we choose to spend the public’s money is a direct reflection of our values.

We need to open up dialogue, including holding focus groups with community members and among employees, to discuss what’s often been ignored.

We’ll direct our Diversity & Inclusion Executive Council to do a thorough review of the goals and actions needed to root out and keep out institutionalized racism.

We’ll engage our Employee Resource Groups so they can better bring their perspectives and lived experience into our operations. They shared a powerful message on the protests I encourage you to read.

Before George Floyd was killed, but after several racist or hate-driven incidents in our county, our Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to bring back a human relations commission and named it in honor of political pioneer and community leader Leon Williams. He was the County’s first African American supervisor and started its original human relations commission decades ago. Its goal is to help unite the community and promote equity.

Our Sheriff and all other local law enforcement agencies last week took action to ban the carotid hold. That showed a willingness to rethink and quickly change policies, a readiness to act that we will need to repeat in other areas.  

I applaud the deputies and officers who have reached out to stand, pray, hug and walk alongside protesters. Those simple gestures build trust, something we’ll need to do much more of. 

None of these steps alone will provide a quick fix. It will take all of them and more, and much hard work, to achieve the just outcomes all people deserve.

I’m thankful the protests have continued to be peaceful, allowing us to put our attention where it belongs: on having heartfelt conversations that lead to education, understanding and real change.