Name: North Alabama councilman called on to resign for saying Black protesters should be run over
Brand: al.com
SKU: al-com-512
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

North Alabama councilman called on to resign for saying Black protesters should be run over

preview

NEW!209sharesDecatur Councilman Hunter Pepper said Saturday he was “extremely sorry” for making a racially insensitive social media post in 2018, but a fellow council member said an apology was not enough and that Pepper should resign.“It’s something that shouldn’t be accepted,” seven-term Councilman Billy Jackson said after Pepper discussed at a news conference a Facebook post he made when he was 16 suggesting Black protesters at the Galleria Mall in Hoover should be run over.The Facebook post came in response to an story about protests following the fatal 2018 police shooting at the mall. Pepper wrote, “See I have to go shopping there next week and we gone play a game called red rover red rover you fools gone get ran over!”Pepper, now 19, won the District 4 City Council race last year.Jackson said, “If I made a comment like that, people would come out of the woodwork after me. I expect people will come out of the woodwork for his resignation. If he doesn’t do it voluntarily, I expect people will request it.”Pepper’s 2018 post surfaced Friday in a story on written by the website’s editor/owner Brent Wilson.Pepper responded with the news conference Saturday in front of City Hall where he said, “My past has come back to bite me in the butt.”He called his comment “extremely arrogant” and “very ignorant.”“I don’t think I should have made that comment,” Pepper said. “I don’t remember being that aggressive as a juvenile.”“There is nothing in that post that mentions race whatsoever,” he added. “Unfortunately, it took a turn in that direction to involve race. I am extremely disappointed in myself at that moment in time. I’m not a racist individual, and don’t like racism and am extremely sorry how that turned out.”District 4 demographicsJackson said Pepper had more than two years to admit he made a mistake with the comment and is only making an apology now because “he’s been caught.”“I’ve been 16 years old, and I’ve been around 16-year-olds,” Jackson said. “Never have I heard somebody suggest running over people, maiming people and possibly killing people. I am not sure he can blame it on age. It doesn’t matter if you are 6, 16 or 60 years old, that language is inexcusable and there’s no place for it in our society, absolutely no place in city government.“He has no business representing any population in the city of Decatur having made comments such as these.”Jackson said the situation in Hoover was “highly polarizing” at the time.“The protesters there were mainly Black. It’s hard to imagine a comment that was directed at a minority population when a great amount of people in District 4 are brown-skinned. How should they view these statements? Is it OK he was only 16 years old at the time?”Other reactionDecatur Mayor Tab Bowling didn’t attend the news conference but said in a statement afterward: “History follows you at times. Public life brings out disappointing items in our past and impacts others. Racism and threatening statements will not be tolerated as we appreciate and honor the diversity of our community and our city employees.”Murphy Brown, executive director of Decatur-Morgan Minority Development Association, said people learn throughout life and Pepper is only human.“We’ve all made mistakes, things we’re ashamed of,” Brown said. “Like the Bible said, ‘He who is without sin should cast the first stone.’ Those comments posted were awful and a horrible thing to say. You’ve got to choose words more carefully. Everybody has things in their past. But we’re not going backward. We are moving forward. Those attitudes need to be changed. He made a mistake, we’ve all made mistakes. If he makes that same mistake again, shame on him. Racism is intolerable.”Pepper said he could have made better decisions as a juvenile.“My past is something that I tried to look back on and say I could have done a lot better. I could have made a lot better decisions. ... We can’t reverse time. ... I consider myself 100% more mature than I was at 16, and I take advantage of that.”Jackson said the late American poet Maya Angelou had a saying about claims to have transformed. “She said when somebody shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”Pepper defeated incumbent Charles Kirby in the 2020 municipal election with almost 52% of the vote to win the District 4 seat as an 18-year-old.— or 256-340-2442. Twitter @DD_Wetzel.___(c)2021 The Decatur Daily (Decatur, Ala.)Visit The Decatur Daily (Decatur, Ala.) at Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.

NEW!209sharesDecatur Councilman Hunter Pepper said Saturday he was “extremely sorry” for making a racially insensitive social media post in 2018, but a fellow council member said an apology was not enough and that Pepper should resign.“It’s something that shouldn’t be accepted,” seven-term Councilman Billy Jackson said after Pepper discussed at a news conference a Facebook post he made when he was 16 suggesting Black protesters at the Galleria Mall in Hoover should be run over.The Facebook post came in response to an story about protests following the fatal 2018 police shooting at the mall....

North Alabama councilman called on to resign for saying Black protesters should be run over

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS