First-term Fayetteville City Councilman Mario Benavente is not mincing words when it comes to a Community Police Advisory Board being led by Gregory Perkins.
Be proactive, the 33-year-old councilman was telling Perkins on April 24 after the advisory board chairman gave his first-year report of the board’s progress to Mayor Mitch Colvin and the council.
“You guys asked the question, but then you stopped the second that someone in the Police Department said, ‘Don’t worry about it,’” Benavente told Perkins. “And that’s the issue that I have. If you guys are going to be the critical eye and necessary voice of the people, don’t just play ball with the group that says everything is fine. So, I hope you take this as constructive criticism that we want you guys to do great work, but you guys are not a propaganda arm for the police. You are here to speak for the people and to make sure that we are actually getting true justice in this community.”
The councilman says he has attended Community Police Advisory Board meetings at which police officials led the discussion more than board members, and he noted that there have been seven meetings recently.
“Having attended the majority of your meetings,” Benavente told Perkins, “you guys haven’t really talked about any of them.”
Among those lawsuits, Benavente said Monday, is the death of 22-year-old Jada Johnson, who was fatality shot by a city police officer on July 1, 2022, at the Briarwood Hills home of her grandparents. Johnson was holding her child and a gun and refused, according to police, to adhere to officers attempting to de-escalate the matter; a stop of Ja’Lana Dunlap by city police officers on Sept. 6, 2022, in north Fayetteville, when the woman claims she was improperly detained by city police officers; and the death of Christine Harris, 57, on Sept. 22, 2022, when the Air Force veteran’s vehicle, according to published reports, was turning into the parking lot at Church of Christ on Country Club Drive and a law enforcement officer was driving more than 90 mph.
All the lawsuits, according to the city, are in litigation. The death of Harris, according to the city, did not involve a city police officer.
“Mrs. Harris was hit by Jonathan Fambro, an employee of the N.C. Special Police,” says Loren Bymer, director of marketing and communications for the city. “Mr. Fambro is not an employee of the city of Fayetteville.”
True, Benavente says, but …
“The city is being purposefully misleading,” the councilman says. “It was indeed a special police officer that killed Ms. Harris. However, as FPD did in the case of Jason Walker, they botched the investigation. An FPD officer took toxicology on the victim, Ms. Harris. It did not test the special police for alcohol or anything that is typical in this case.
“Further, the investigating officer ultimately charged the special police with only speeding, which was later dismissed.
“The effort, from my view, was to cover for the special police,” Benavente says. “Not dissimilar to the way they covered for Sheriff Deputy Jeffrey Hash when they failed to disarm and arrest him. FPD does not police citizens the same way they do people they consider cops.”
The investigating city police officer in the Harris fatality, Benavente says, is named in the lawsuit.
“The special police officer, the investigating officer,” Benavente told CityView on Thursday, “the Police Department and the city.”
The councilman is not mincing his words when it comes to city policing practices and protocols and this community.
Benavente said a past chairman made him feel unwelcome at Community Police Advisory Board meetings He said he is expecting a more engaging and proactive position under Perkins’ leadership. The councilman also reminded Perkins that after the downtown protests of May 30, 2020, at the Market House that community activists had lobbied the City Council for “some kind of group of citizens that would be able to look at police brutality instances where use of force police brutality had occurred.”
Not so sure, if you will, there was police brutality on that May 30, 2020, chaotic evening that left the historic downtown landmark with damage of $84,000, according to the city, before protesters and provocateurs moved on to the Cross Creek Mall.
Mayor Mitch Colvin reminded Benavente that the state does not allow for a citizen review board.
“So, this was the closest thing that we could legally do without a charter change,” the mayor said regarding a Community Police Advisory Board that is appointed by the City Council. “So, we just wanted to make sure we put that in context.”
There you have it: the scenario of what transpired on April 24, 2023, when Gregory Perkins gave his annual report on the Community Police Advisory Board.
‘We are not an investigative body’
Now, give a listen to what Gregory Perkins has to say about Benavente’s concerns.
“He has been at nearly every meeting,” Perkins told CityView last Tuesday about Benavente. “He has his observations.”
Being a new board, Perkins says, has been a learning experience.
“We needed guidance,” says Perkins, 63, the third chairman of the board and a volunteer chaplain with the Police Department. “We needed in the first year to learn how the Police Department operates. We were thoroughly trying to understand.”
But …
“We are not an investigative body,” Perkins says. “We collect information and can make recommendations. Our role is not to investigate lawsuits. We did ask about certain cases.”
But the board, Perkins says, is bound by legalities.
“Many are under investigation and litigation,” says Perkins, who holds a social work degree from the University of North Carolina, Class of 2003, and says he has worked with former Cumberland County District Court judges including Ed Pone and Beth Keever, the retired District Court chief judge.
Hence, Perkins says, he knows the boundaries of cases in litigation.
Still, Perkins says, he can appreciate Benavente’s concerns.
“I took all of the positive feedback from Councilman Benavente at heart.”
‘When I say Jason, you say Walker.’
You must understand something about Mario Benavente. He’s not just a city councilman representing District 3. Before winning his seat nine months ago, Benavente was a community activist and a familiar face in the protests over the death of Jason Walker, a 37-year-old who was shot to death on Jan. 8, 2022, by an off-duty Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office deputy in west Fayetteville. The deputy says Walker was damaging his vehicle, and Jeffrey Hash has said he feared for the safety of his wife and child.
“When I say Jason,” Benavente said among protesters, “you say Walker!”
Fayetteville police never arrested or charged Hash at the scene. The deputy later was absolved in the case by the North Carolina District Attorney’s Office, calling the shooting death, according to published reports, a case of self-defense.
Benavente is passionate about what he believes and all business when it comes to city police practices, to include what the councilman describes as “use of force in 2022 being used 75% of the time against people of color in this community; that 100% of the time we used K9s in 2022 on Black men; and when we stop and search Black drivers at 3.5 times the rate of white drivers despite the ‘hit rate’ of contraband found for all racial demographics is roughly the same.”
Benavente would prefer an office of community safety rather than a Community Police Advisory Board, with a director, he says, who is an academic and a professional better qualified to lead efforts for city police reform.
The councilman says the advisory board is suspect so far.
“At a special City Council meeting is where this board’s members were first assigned,” Benavente says about that meeting on Dec. 15, 2021. “The City Council members at the time took such little care to appoint the members. They literally picked names out of a hat from the applicants. No exaggeration. It may have been a wicker basket.
“From my perspective, the majority of those council members and the Police Department under (Gina) Hawkins,” the retired police chief, “had zero interest in receiving any type of constructive criticism or recommendation from this board, ever.
“Not much has changed since,” Benavente says. “Ultimately, my concern is that this board is not being set up to succeed. Success is addressing community concerns with regard to the FPD through recommendation of best practices to improve on the status quo. Unfortunately, they’re only ever getting one side of the discussion of highly complex public safety issues. So, it’s no wonder they haven’t produced anything in 18-plus months of existing through numerous headline news incidents.”
Kemberle Braden, the city police chief since Feb. 3, did not respond to a CityView request about the councilman’s claims that police are leading advisory board meetings. A Police Department spokeswoman said the chief was out of the office. CityView offered an opportunity for the Police Department attorney to respond Thursday. CityView did not receive a response.
9-member advisory board
Jacqueline Clay, Pablo Arroyo, Julie Aul, Debra Slaughter, Chametri Wrice-Bulluck, Johnathan Pratt, William Grace and Bridgett Navejar are the appointed members of the Community Police Advisory Board in addition to Gregory Perkins. Patrick King, according to Perkins, recently resigned because of family matters.
“From what I have read, it seems that the Police Advisory Board had too many members who were in some way connected to the Fayetteville Police Department,” Grace says. “I was appointed as ‘a regular citizen’ who can hopefully bring an impartial and balanced view for the community. Also, someone who can hold the Fayetteville Police Department accountable when they make mistakes.
“As a new member who has only been to one meeting, I am trying to get up to speed and also trying and finding out what was discussed in the first year of CPAB meetings. I think council members (Sheila) Ingram and Benavente’s comments were fair. We need to get the community involved and engaged with us. We had no speakers for our public comment time at the last meeting. That is unacceptable.
“I intend to review the Fayetteville police policies and procedures, try to get information from the inaugural year of the CPAB to see what was covered,” Grace says. “And most importantly, engage with the community going forward and learn what their concerns and issues are with the Fayetteville PD.”
Aul says the Community Police Advisory Board’s responsibility is to review and recommend improvements to the policy and practices of the Police Department and to report to the City Council, city manager and police chief on an ongoing basis and serve as a liaison between the Police Department and the community.
“We have spent our first year learning and experiencing their work by going through the Citizens Police Academy and doing ride-alongs with officers,” she says. “We have listened to their initiatives and asked questions. We started citizen input with our public forums at our monthly meetings last November. We are attending police functions, including neighborhood watch meetings.”
Advisory Board member Julie Aul does not turn a deaf ear or a blind eye when it comes to Mario Benavente’s concerns.
“I agree with Mr. Benavente that we need to involve more active listening with our citizens and do more critical thinking around policies and issues to collaborate for effective problem solving around public safety for all,” she says. “Our board has addressed this with our goals and plans for the next year. I am excited to see our growth and believe we will have a greater impact next year. We have very dedicated board members, and under Dr. Perkins’ leadership, we are ready to do the work. I hope that citizens will support our efforts to get their input in the many events we have planned and reach out to us.”
Epilogue
You cannot fault Councilman Mario Benavente for his concerns regarding the death of Jada Johnson, the young woman who lost her life to a police officer with 17 bullets, according to an autopsy report. You cannot fault the councilman for his concerns regarding a city police officer’s apparently neglectful investigation of the vehicular death of Christine Harris.
I am not a member of the Community Police Advisory Board, but I share that concern, too, investigation and litigation no matter.
Mario Benavente is a city councilman who is not afraid to speak up, and Mario Benavente is a city councilman who is not afraid to speak out when it comes to police accountability. And Mario Benavente is absolutely right that the Community Police Advisory Board should not be a propaganda surrogate for the Fayetteville Police Department, and every city council member should follow suit.
Something else, for your consideration, about the freshman councilman. He holds a law degree from N.C. Central University with plans to begin practicing criminal and civil rights law by year’s end in addition to serving on the City Council. Should he ever decide to do something else, Mario Benavente, with his persistence, has the makings of being quite the journalist.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
