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MANSFIELD — City Council will be voting on a draft resolution Tuesday night declaring racism as a public health crisis. The resolution (Bill 123) comes in the wake of the George Floyd murder case that has engulfed the nation in civil unrest. One group not supporting the measure says the resolution falls short in combating the problem of racism and could set the wheels in motion to defunding the police department.
“As a mental health therapist for many years, racism is not and never has been a mental health problem,”says Reverend El Akuchie, Executive Director of the Richland Community Prayer Network (RCPN). “Racism is a spiritual problem of the heart. Racism, prejudice, or bigotry are not listed as mental health conditions in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Currently there is no support for including extreme racism under any diagnostic category.”
RCPN is a Bible-based catalyst ministry that partners with local clergy to bring moral clarity. The group believes the Bill 123 is part of the same movement calling for the defunding of police departments across the nation and will be the likely next step if the measure passes.
(Photo courtesy of Frontlines Ohio)
“Cities across the nation are declaring racism as a public health emergency and then singling police departments out as the culprit,” says the Pastor. “While this may leave law enforcement as the budget casualty, the neighborhoods and businesses will become the real victims.”
The cities of Minneapolis and Boston recently declared public health emergencies and are defunding their police departments. In addition, city school districts in Denver, Portland, and Seattle are terminating ties with their police departments; each declared racism as a public health emergency.
The Prayer Network also says true systematic racism-the targeted abortion of black babies, should be declared as the real public health emergency. Planned Parenthood has been called out with seventy-nine percent of its abortion facilities located in minority neighborhoods. According to the Ohio Department of Health, 8,204 black babies were aborted in 2018.
Reverend Akuchie points out, “Why does one person group (blacks) which represents thirteen percent of Ohio’s population account for forty percent of the state’s abortion number? Bill 123 does not mention this travesty.”
“Bill 123 names racism as the root cause for all these social problems without listing any footnoted references. There are no local examples of racism listed and there is no evidence presented demonstrating a relationship between these issues and racism. How can a governing body positively support a resolution when it leaves more questions than answers?”
Reverend El Akuchie
Richland Community Prayer Network
The bill states there is a need to “lift collective voices to improve the lives of people of color living in Mansfield and Richland County, and that racism, not race causes disproportionately high rates of homelessness, incarceration, poor education, health issues, including mental health, and economic hardship for African Americans particularly.”
Reverend Akuchie asks, “Bill 123 names racism as the root cause for all these social problems without listing any footnoted references. There are no local examples of racism listed and there is no evidence presented demonstrating a relationship between these issues and racism. How can a governing body positively support a resolution when it leaves more questions than answers?”
Click on the video below by the American Center for Law and Justice addressing the funding of the police versus Planned Parenthood during the national conversation on systematic racism.
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