Florida Police is all set to remove the Confederate Flags from all their uniforms as part of their rebranding.
Mayor Grover Robinson has sent the required budget of $290,000 to the City Council for the rebranding.
This rebranding will include the removal of flag from all department uniforms, badges, cars, and other equipment.
Even though the vote has been passed, 7-0, The City Council will wait until September to approve it. This request was the first item that was sent to the City Council from the Citizens Police Advisory Committee.
“We found out it was roughly going to be about $300,000,” Robinson said Monday during his weekly press conference. “There is money to do it now if the council wants to appropriate that. We told the committee we would bring that item forward.”
“I think that’s an inappropriate use of that money, for this reason,” Councilwoman Sherri Myers said. “If we spend that money, just to take the Confederate flag off, then what we’re putting is another flag up there. Then what we’re basically saying is that we accept that motto, the city of five flags. I don’t know why we even need a flag on their badges to represent the city. Maybe the American flag, but the flags that are going to be left there are still flags of countries that were involved in slavery, that stole land from Native Americans.”
Randall was confirmed as the new chief in the same meeting.
“When you talk about 21st century policing — just think about all that went on last year in 2020, with the protests, and the country calling for these symbols to be removed — how can we as the face of the government, the most visible face of the government each and every day, as public safety professionals, walk around with this symbol that has caused so much consternation in communities across this country as recently as last year?” Randall said.
