By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
A Bowling Green resident handed two flash drives to the clerk of Bowling Green City Council last week on his way to the podium to speak.
The man, an off-duty Bowling Green police officer named Paul Tyson, said the flash drives were for City Council and the mayor’s office to view.
The video showed an online discussion about tough national and local events with a couple members of BRAVE (Black Rights, Activism, Visibility and Equity.) One of the members, Anthony King, is a member of the city’s Human Relations Commission.
“This is a video that was willingly put out for the public to see,” Tyson told City Council. “They wanted as many people to see as possible.”
“It comes with one question – is that acceptable representation of the content of character required to be a sitting member of the Bowling Green Human Relations Commission?” Tyson asked council.
After viewing the video, Mayor Mike Aspacher said he saw no reason to remove King from the Human Relations Commission.
“This is another reminder to me that it’s never been more important for us to be aware that we have diverse opinions,” said Aspacher, who appointed King to the commission.
Tyson’s question about King’s character then prompted another question – this one directed at Bowling Green Police Division from King.
“Is this acceptable representation of the content of character required to be a police officer?” King asked on his Facebook page.
The 51-minute video that Tyson objected to shows King and another BRAVE member talking about national and local issues the day after the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial, after a couple white men walked across the BGSU campus with assault-style weapons, and after a 16-year-old girl was killed by police in Columbus.
While there was relief in the guilty verdict for Chauvin, King talked about his concern that the sentence be significant.
King and the other BRAVE member talked about their disappointment in BGSU for not notifying students and staff about the armed white men walking on campus. And they wondered if two armed black men wearing hoodies would have been able to freely walk campus.
The other speaker on the video talked about white privilege which views white guys with guns as patriotic but black guys with guns as threats.
They also talked about national police reform, but questioned if any reform is enough if police departments hire officers with “hatred in their hearts.” They discussed the minute number of convictions in cases where officers have killed unarmed black people.
“You cannot tell me there is equity in the system,” King said.
The discussion then turned to steps BRAVE could take to help change the system. King said members were meeting with U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s staff about changing laws to keep guns off college campuses. They suggested that people make BGSU officials aware of their disappointment.
They talked about the need for more community conversations on “taboo topics.”
In the video, when one viewer asked how white people can help, the BRAVE members suggested they talk to public officials, and be confrontational if necessary.
“Not being racist is not enough. You have to be anti-racist,” King said.
The discussion then turned to local police, and the feeling by some people of color that they are targeted. King said he was pulled over twice during his first week at BGSU, both for headlight issues.
They also talked about the lack of Black officers in the Bowling Green Police Division – despite efforts by BGPD to attract officers of color.
The video discussion points were similar to those discussed at the monthly Not In Our Town meetings in Bowling Green. King said he stands by his comments made on the video discussion.
King was troubled that Tyson’s goal appeared to be to attack him personally, rather than try to understand what was being said during the video discussion.
“It disappointed me to say the least,” King said. “For him to ignore the comments and concerns of Black experiences in Bowling Green. If they want to have a discussion, I’m open to that,” he said of the police.
“All because I challenge the police department,” he said. “I believe that reveals his true intent. It shows he doesn’t understand racism.”
“Black and brown people do experience racism in Bowling Green,” King said. “I want to challenge people in power in the city of Bowling Green” to do better.
“This Bowling Green Police Officer feels so threatened by the current Black Movement in BG that he is willing to go to extremes to silence its 22y/o Black leader,” King wrote on Facebook. “Paul is so confident that Bowling Green will uphold his White Supremacist viewpoint that he took this ridiculous notion to City Council. This comes a week after Officer Paul Tyson, a white man, claimed that Bowling Green was not racist.”
At the previous City Council meeting, Tyson spoke out against the city’s effort to expand its anti-discrimination ordinance.
“Bowling Green does not have a racism problem,” Tyson said in a letter he read to City Council at that meeting. “We have an identity politics problem: People using race as a cudgel to gain power and force a meritless agenda on unwilling free citizens, resulting in a continuing erosion of our God-given rights.”
Bowling Green Police Chief Tony Hetrick said Tyson attends the council meetings as a private citizen, and is not representing the police division in his comments.
Ellie Boyle, chairperson of the city’s Human Relations Commission, said she viewed the BRAVE video discussion and saw no problems with King’s statements.
“Absolutely not, she said. “He’s a great spokesperson and leader of people of color in our community.”
Boyle, however, is troubled by Tyson’s public attack on King.
“It infuriates me,” she said. The fact that Tyson was off-duty does not relieve him of responsibility, such as with many other professions, Boyle said.
“Police officers are really wearing that uniform no matter where they are – a lot of us do,” she said.
Comments like those from Tyson about King and about no racism in Bowling Green set back efforts made by the police division to improve race relations, Boyle said.
City Council President Mark Hollenbaugh also viewed the video discussion. He said that he saw nothing to preclude King from continuing to serve on the Human Relations Commission.
“There was nothing I saw in the video that would warrant removing someone,” Hollenbaugh said.
As for Tyson, Hollenbaugh said “he’s an individual who’s entitled to his opinions.”
However, he added that the city would benefit from discussions rather than divisiveness.
“People spend way too much time talking past people or about people, rather than talking with people,” Hollenbaugh said. “Until people can sit down and talk about these differences about things that are painful and uncomfortable, we’re not going to make progress.”
Aspacher echoed those sentiments. He talked about the value of discussing issues to “create a community where we’re respectful of diverse opinions.”
“We may not always agree,” the mayor said. “But I will always stand for the right for people to express their opinions.”
The entire video can be viewed at:
