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"[The new mayor] declined to talk at length for this story, saying she had been burned by the media firestorm and wasn’t doing any more interviews. Reporters, she said, had twisted her words.
“'They made it about race, and it’s not about race,' she said."
But don't let that stop anyone from making it about race. Carry on as you inevitably will.
I found one of the old threads on this story and was hoping to find an update to see if our suspicions were on target. I still believe there was a great deal of corruption and the rats were jumping ship.
It's not about race according to those on the ground.
The new mayor's words...
Meanwhile, the new mayor, Tyus Byrd, 40, was holed up in her office in the one-story brick community center, trying to piece things back together. Byrd declined to talk at length for this story, saying she had been burned by the media firestorm and wasn’t doing any more interviews. Reporters, she said, had twisted her words.
“They made it about race, and it’s not about race,” she said.
The opposition's words...
The exodus was quickly chalked up to racism (all the workers are white), drawing national scorn to Parma’s weed-choked streets. But residents say the truth is more nuanced. The walkout, some said, represents a much-needed changing of the guard in this modest, racially diverse town where the former mayor, Randall Ramsey, 78, relied on a heavy-handed, all-white police force to respond to mounting social problems.
“We didn’t like the police running the town,” said Martha Miller, 71, a white woman who runs one of Parma’s two convenience stores and who voted against Ramsey. “This is not a black-and-white thing; it’s a right and wrong thing. If Mayor Ramsey had done his job, he would still have it.”
...
On that, at least one of the workers who quit agreed. It’s not about race, said former assistant police chief Rich Medley, 34. He resigned in part because of Byrd’s extended family, who have been “very vocal about being anti-police.”
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