DV Journal

Potentially explosive racial allegations against police in Montgomery Township have died barely a month after a school board member suggested officers targeted her because of her race.

Elisha Gee, a North Penn School Board member, said at a Montgomery Township Board of Supervisors meeting in April that officers with the township’s police department had stopped her one evening earlier in the month while driving in her neighborhood.

In her statement before the supervisors, she suggested she was unduly targeted for police attention and was at risk of being abused by the police. She claimed at one point that “suspicion is the reason that Black residents are 12 times more likely to experience police misconduct or abuse of their power than their neighbors.”

In her remarks, Gee referenced George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other Blacks who activists claim were victims of police brutality.

She implied she was worried for her safety during the incident, describing herself as “concerned and startled” at the interaction. “I was basically bad until I proved that I wasn’t bad,” Gee said.

Claims of police misconduct against Blacks can and often turn local communities into powder kegs of discontent and even violence. Yet in over a month since Gee’s account of the incident, her claims appear to have died a quiet death—a sign that, whatever Gee’s grievances may have been, they were not enough to generate a wider community response.

Part of that could be because Montgomery Township police responded swiftly to the allegations, providing local outlet North Penn Now with police documentation and unedited bodycam footage of the exchange.

A review of the 911 call that led to the traffic stop showed a man had phoned police after he observed a white SUV repeatedly traversing the neighborhood several times over a short period.

Meanwhile, body cam footage of the stop showed the officer speaking briefly to Gee in her vehicle, explaining to her that he was responding to the 911 call to ensure that she wasn’t “out here committing a crime.”

“I live in this neighborhood,” Gee says at one point, visibly annoyed. “I’ve lived here for 20 years. And yes, I’m just driving around.” When the officer asks for her phone number to include in his incident report, Gee responds incredulously: “You’re writing a report for me driving around?”

The officer quickly ends the stop, telling Gee: “Have a good night.”

Gee did not respond to requests for comment on the incident, including whether or not she is taking any action against the police department.

North Penn School District Superintendent Todd Bauer told DVJournal he had “not discussed this matter with the Montgomery Township Police Department” but that the incident “has had zero impact on administration’s interaction with our police departments.”

“Our relationship with them has been and remains exceptional,” Bauer said.

The Montgomery Township Police Department did not respond to queries seeking comment on the matter. Police Chief Scott Bendig earlier told North Penn Now that he had viewed the footage of the incident. Gee’s insinuations, he said, were “not representative of the actions, professionalism, and dedication to service provided by the men and women of the Montgomery Township Police Department.”

Like much of the rest of the country, the Delaware Valley region has sometimes seen tension between citizens and police officers. Earlier this year, commissioners in Montgomery County’s Springfield Township banned the display of the “Thin Blue Line” American flag on public property, though police and the township ultimately agreed on an injunction to that ban. Critics had claimed the “Thin Blue Line” flag was a symbol of white supremacy.

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Delaware/Montgomery/Philadelphia) has also generated controversy for marching with anti-law-enforcement “Defund the Police” activists during the tumultuous summer of 2020.

Gee is a member of North Penn Neighbors for Progress, a group of progressive Democratic candidates running for reelection to the school board. Among its policy goals, the group touts “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives and green energy programs in the district.

In her statement before the supervisors, Gee suggested she only made it out of the traffic stop unharmed due to her having meekly submitted to the exchange.

“The fact is, I complied,” she said. “And that’s why nothing went any further.”

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U.S. Senate candidates at a forum at Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in Philadelphia last week criticized Republicans and not each other.

Although Rev.  Alyn Waller said he invited all the candidates of both parties who are running for the seat being vacated by Sen. Pat Toomey (R), only three Democrats came: Montgomery County Commissioners Chair Dr. Val Arkoosh, state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-Philadelphia) and Congressman Conor Lamb (D-Beaver).

The three answered questions submitted by area Black clergy and one by moderator Sharrie Williams, a co-anchor for Channel 6ABC. Williams asked them what they would do if elected about record levels of homicide and violent crime in Philadelphia. None of the three mentioned any culpability for DA Larry Krasner, a progressive Democrat.

Instead, Lamb, a former federal prosecutor under the Obama administration, spoke about passing laws to restrict gun ownership.

“Guns are multiplying fast in our society. We have 400 million…The least we can do is make sure the people that possess them actually qualify to have them under the law,” he said. Lamb also supports spending more money on community programs to try to curb violence and “direct interventions” with young people who are “most at risk” for violence. He would also like to target more federal dollars on preventing gun crime and less on prosecuting drug crimes.

“The DEA gets three times what the ATF does,” said Lamb.

Congressman Conor Lamb

Kenyatta mentioned violence in his neighborhood.

“I’m going to go home tonight to my home in north Philadelphia. It’s probably likely I could hear gunshots ring out.” There have been “folks tragically cut down blocks from my home,” he said.

“We cannot have another year in Philadelphia where we’ve had 550 people murdered on our streets and more who were shot but survived. The first thing we have to treat this like the emergency that it is,” he said.

He has asked Gov. Tom Wolf to declare gun crime an emergency “as we did with the opioid crisis.” He would also like to see more laws regulating gun ownership.

“So many of the weapons that ended up being used in a gun homicide were weapons that did not belong to the person who did the shooting,” he said. “Dealing with lost and stolen weapons, trying to get to the root cause of the consistent straw purchasing that we’re seeing, is critical.”

The state has also “released millions into the hands of organizations to disrupt gun violence,” he added. The other factor to reduce crime and violence is to end poverty, he said, explaining that if people have good jobs, kids are in good schools, and families have houses, that would reduce violence.

“We need to treat gun violence as the public health crisis it is,” said Arkoosh. She would like to see what she called background check “loopholes closed, and she would like to keep those charged with domestic violence or at risk for suicide from legally owning guns. She also opposes ownership of “military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.”

“I don’t see any use for weapons like that on our streets,” said Arkoosh. She also favors more after-school programs and mentorship to keep kids on the right track.

Their comments echo those of President Joe Biden and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who blame America’s gun laws for the recent surge in crime. Academics note that while gun sales did rise during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is not a significant change in the number of guns today versus three years ago when gun crime rates were lower.

Asked about the role of senators in approving federal judges and Supreme Court justices, Kenyatta said, “Right now we have a radical, conservative Supreme Court that is out of control, out of control.” He supports increasing the number of judges on the court to give it a liberal majority — a practice known as “court-packing.” However, he praised the judges who have been appointed Biden.

“We need to suss out and extinguish this conservative judicial philosophy that believes money is equal to speech and any corporation or wealthy person in society can spend as much as they want on politics in the name of speech. That is ruining our politics,” said Lamb.

Montgomery County Commissioners Chair Valerie Arkoosh

Arkoosh said the Supreme Court now is in a “very fragile place” and that matters coming before it that should be handled legislatively.

“Washington is so broken that somebody like Mitch McConnell can not only steal a Supreme Court seat but he can block all this other legislation from ever even getting to a vote. And my pledge to you, if I am your next United States Senator there will be hell to pay if Mitch McConnell or anyone else tries to steal a Supreme Court justice seat.

“And of course, I will be a vote against the filibuster so we can move on this critical legislation,” she added.

Kenyatta and Lamb also pledged to do away with the filibuster.

During her opening remarks, Arkoosh brought up the recent hostage crisis at the synagogue in Texas.

“We must speak out with one voice against antisemitism, which has no place in our commonwealth and our country, just as racism, Islamophobia, and anti-Asian hatred have no place in our society,” said Arkoosh.

Kenyatta said, “In this moment in this campaign we should answer a simple question. Who should government work for? I know my answer: It should work for working families like mine and so many others.”

He promised to focus on inequity.

“I’ve been all across this commonwealth, folks get it. But I will tell you who doesn’t get it so often: the 100 folks in the Senate who don’t know anything about what we’re going to talk about today,” said Kenyatta.

Lamb touted his electability, saying that he won twice in a red district that had elected Trump and that as a congressman he has sought out the advice of his African American constituents.

“I will never make false promises to the Black community. I will do my best to speak to you about the achievable, the doable,” said Lamb, who touted Biden’s Build Back Better bill, which passed the House but has not made it through the Senate.

All three supported the “Freedom to Vote Act,” the proposal to override state election laws and impose federal rules on voting. The proposal was defeated in the Senate last week when an effort to end the filibuster was defeated in a bipartisan vote, 48-52.

“Republicans are working every day to disenfranchise Black and Brown voters and doing everything they can to reduce the voter confidence in the election process,” Arkoosh claimed. “We need to make it easier to vote.” She suggested making Election Day a national holiday and allowing people to register on Election Day. She also said voting by mail “worked incredibly well in Pennsylvania.”

Kenyatta said that in the state legislature he fought Republican efforts to audit the 2020 election and used community organizing techniques to turn out protestors at Senate Pro Tempore Jake Corman’s house.

And Lamb accused Republicans of trying to “limit the right of people to vote” in Houston, Texas, and that they “looked at ways people of color vote and targeted them.”

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