Several members of the #JusticeForTony movement were at the Walker County Commission meeting earlier this week with two speaking during the public comments section of the meeting.
The group is also holding another protest/march to speak out for Justice for Tony Mitchell, an inmate who die in January while in the custody of the Walker County Sheriff’s Office. That event will be at 3 p.m. at the Walker County Courthouse on Saturday, March 25.
Ryan Cagle, an organizer for the group, said after the meeting, “we came here not to be a clanging gong or thrashing cymbal, but…”
Cagle then said the group was there for four reasons. Those were:
1. To be an enduring presence calling for justice.
2. To present several hundred more petition signatures.
3. To update the commission on the status of the presentation on the non-police operated medical response team and opioid settlement money we discussed with them last meeting.
4. And primarily to reiterate, that despite what some folks have said, we are desiring to be a part of the solution to the opioid and mental health epidemic in our community by working cooperatively with the county officials.
This marked the third-straight commission meeting where the group has had a presence and spoke.
“Our team wanted you to know that we are still working on a presentation for you with our partners to move this conversation beyond this public comment time,” Cagle said during the meeting. “That said, we also believe it is important for us to be here as well, and we come bearing several hundred more signatures. We also wanted to continue to express that , despite what some in our community may believe, we are here because we value the cooperation necessary to see a different future for Walker County. And wanted to reiterate this point in particular.”
Cagle mentioned a letter sent on Feb. 23 from Walker County Sheriff Nick Smith to Circuit Judge Doug Farris where Smith made a plea for help in addressing the needs of 37 inmates suffering from mental health disorders.
Cagle quoted Smith in the letter as saying, “Mental health issues are taken very seriously within our facility… but we can only do so much. At some point, we have to work together… to try and get these people the help they need.”
Cagle followed with statistics on the volume of citizens in the country with abuse disorders and mental illness.
“According to the National Institute of Health, somewhere between 38% and 51% of citizens in this country with a substance abuse disorder had a co-occurring mental illness,” Cagle said. “On Sept. 27, 2022 the WCSO stated in a facebook post that they had made 231 drug related arrests for the first three quarters of the year. If even 25% of those arrested individuals did not suffer from a substance abuse disorder and only trafficked it would mean that the care of roughly 65-107 of those individuals would have been beyond the scope of the department’s abilities alone.
“While the department goes to great lengths to communicate the advances and achievements they have made on these fronts, I respect the sheriff’s humility in recognizing that it is not enough and that these issues are ultimately beyond their capabilities to fully address,” Cagle added.
Cagle quoted Smith’s letter again by saying “In the closing of his letter Sheriff Smith says that the blame lies at the feet of the federal and state levels ‘from all angles’ and while I do not fully agree with his imputation, I couldn’t agree more with his overall sentiment when he says ‘if we all work together and play our respective parts in getting these people the help they need and deserve, we can preserve life…’
“This sentiment is why we have been here every meeting calling for a non-police operated medical response team, as one of many cooperative steps in that direction,” Cagle said. “A step that can preserve life and alleviate the unnecessary burden that has been placed on the Sheriff’s department by enabling them to focus on the work they are equipped to handle. A step toward working collectively for a different walker county.”
Sarah Watkins also spoke after Cagle, ensuring commissioners “we are in fact not here to make noise but are putting our full effort into taking the time needed to make this presentation as thorough and extensive as possible.”
