From Staff Reports 

Johnnie Jermaine Rush’s jaywalking and the resulting beating he received from Asheville police captured the minds and hearts of the residents of Asheville and Buncombe County throughout April.

The incident occurred in Asheville, where it has resulted in terminations, restructuring and new hirings and programs, but it also has impacted the county, where  leadership is calling for conflict de-escalation training for law enforcement workers.

 On Aug. 25, 2017, Rush was walking home from work after dark, when he was spotted — by police — jaywalking. He failed to comply with police and the resulting scuffle ended with an alleged assault by then-APD officer Chris Hickman.

Hickman was immediately placed on administrative  leave, and an internal investigation was ordered. 

Hickman resigned in January as Asheville Police Chief Tammy Hooper had prepared his letter of dismissal, and he was charged on counts of assault including strangulation.

In addition, APD Sergeant Lisa Taub, who was the supervising officer on the scene, was ordered to take additional training.

 Bodycam footage of the incident was leaked to the Asheville Citizen-Times on Feb. 28, setting off a chain of events after the AC-T immediately posted the video footage on its website. Then, on April 2, at the request of Asheville City Council, additional footage was made public. 

Seven officers had responded to the incident, and six were wearing bodycams. The seventh officer was in training and had not yet been issued one.

In bodycam footage from outside the hospital after Rush was released, Hickman explained Rush had been resisting arrest. Hickman said he had told Rush to put his hands behind his back, Rush asked how he could when Hickman was choking him, and Rush replied he did not start choking him until he punched Rush 10 times.

Following cries of systemic racism following the incident, Asheville City Council held meetings, fired its city manager, doubled down on efforts to create a Human Relations Council, added authority to the city’s new Equity and Inclusion office, and called for additional changes to police policy, among other things.

A number of people in the community are still calling for Hooper to resign. They claim there was a coverup with unreasonable delays, even though Hooper followed protocols and immediately informed her direct supervisor, an assistant city manager. 

Members of the public also thought she should have launched a criminal investigation instead of an administrative one. Hooper responded to that saying she could not launch a criminal investigation once Hickman resigned.

Hooper, meanwhile, claims she has been working to mitigate distrust, pain and outrage Asheville’s African-American community feels toward government in general. 

She told a group assembled at a Citizens Police Advisory Committee meeting in March that she would resign if that would solve the problem, and later explained she had meant her resignation was not going to solve it. 

Instead, Hooper said, as long as she is chief, she will be working to enforce fairness and build trust.

 Noting the city’s actions, Buncombe County commissioners Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, Ellen Frost and Al Whitesides issued a press release via Facebook calling on the county to replicate actions the city had taken. The post was published the day after the additional body cam footage was released, and its signers explained they were being compassionately responsive to citizen outcry.

 The post said of systemic racism in the police department, “This is a crisis in our community on par with the opioid epidemic. It must therefore receive the same level of open dialogue, honest assessment, collaboration across agencies and robust funding by the public bodies who are duty-bound to serve and protect our constituents.” 

The three commissioners, who issued the press release with neither the knowledge nor approval of at least three other commissioners, went on to prescribe eight action steps they wanted Buncombe Sheriff Van Duncan to take. 

They included implementing new policies, accommodating additional training, retaining records, creating a Use of Force Response Team and a Human Rights Commission, and developing new protocols for investigations. The roles and responsibilities of the UFRT were spelled out in four subcategories.

Within hours of that post, Duncan responded with “A Message from Your Sheriff.”

“I read this statement this morning and was completely disheartened. Three of my Buncombe County Commissioners, Al Whitesides, Jasmine Beach-Ferrara and Ellen Frost basically told their sheriff and their Sheriff’s Office that the hard work we have done over the past 12 years has counted for nothing. The three of them feel that they should have oversight through County government into all use of force complaints and use of force policies that involve any law enforcement agencies in Buncombe County to include their Sheriff’s Office. This Sheriff’s Office, by and large, enjoys the support of the community that it serves, has been an agency of best practices and been recognized nationally for its efforts in community policing practices, and this comes as a slap in the face.

 “I, as well as the community, was taken aback at the incident that occurred with the Asheville Police Department and Mr. Johnnie Rush. Because of that, some in elected office are taking advantage of this situation to drive a very anti-law enforcement agenda that I can promise you will impact your public safety and the safety of those that serve. Instead of addressing the very serious issue and making sure justice is served, they are applying what they see as the solution to agencies and officers who had absolutely nothing to do with the Johnnie Rush incident. They are also proposing actions that they do not statutorily have the ability to enforce. What I think shows the intent of these commissioners the most is they did not communicate with anyone at the Sheriff’s Office or to my knowledge any other municipality or their law enforcement agencies before responding with the following:

 “The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office will continue to provide the best service possible to the people of Buncombe County and will not own any of this statement that gives the impression that we do the contrary.”

 The police chiefs of Weaverville and Woodfin also responded in short order with open letters.

 Michael Dykes, Woodfin’s chief of police, asked for a retraction. “I must state that such an accusation is either grossly uninformed or intentionally dishonest. To imply that the Woodfin Police Department would engage in such behavior serves only to erode the trust that we have worked so hard to build with the public that we are sworn to protect,” he wrote.

 “Given that, to the best of my knowledge, no effort was expended to obtain information about the Woodfin Police Department’s Use of Force Policy or to review any relevant records about any allegations of abuse by the Department,” he wrote, “it is hard to accept that the true intent of your April 3, 2018 statement was a serious effort to create changes in policy.”

 Woodfin’s mayor, town manager and police chief wrote, “Town leaders were taken aback by the inclusion of our Town and other municipalities in this joint statement. We believe it to be futile to enter into any conversation when emotional enlistment, hyperbole, and nebulous overstatements may be deliberately employed as the foundation for a debate.”

 They added, “In over 30 years, our police department has received zero formal complaints regarding bias or excessive use of force.”

 All police chiefs agreed what had happened to Rush was terrible and did not reflect the high standards of their departments. One bad incident, they said, should not be used to defame the character of the men and women who put their lives on the line every day to defend all members of the community.

 Duncan was granted permission to address the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners at its April 10 meeting to clarify his statements. He warned the commissioners against adding fuel to the fire. “I don’t think there’s anybody here in elected office that doesn’t recognize that there’s a pretty strong law-enforcement activist crowd that is generally active in the city of Asheville. It’s well-funded. It’s well organized. And one of the things that they try to do is they try to put pressure on local boards and local councils to give up law enforcement’s ability to set their policies.”

 Duncan said many of the recommendations are already implemented as well as they can be given his current budget. Other recommendations showed a lack of understanding of law enforcement. For example, regulatory vehicle stops and searchers are one of the few legal tools officers have to address drug trafficking, a problem for which he said he fields calls daily.

 He then explained statutory separations of powers. In Asheville, the police chief is appointed by City Council and answerable to city management. In the county, the sheriff is elected by and answerable directly to the people. The sheriff, just like the commissioners, has specific roles and responsibilities. The only say the commissioners can legally have in how to run the sheriff’s office is in setting its annual budget.

 On a positive note, Duncan said a human relations council could be very beneficial. He recalled a time when deputies responded to complaints about a rash of break-ins in the Latino Community. People were frightened, because they thought they would be deported, so Duncan sat down with Sarah Nuñez, the director of the now-defunct community relations council, listened, collected information, and made changes that made everybody safer.

 Duncan stressed the good that an HRC can do when staffed with people working to do the right thing rather than entrench a political, us-versus-them dynamic.

 Duncan then told of an incident that happened the day before. Deputies had gone to McDonald’s to serve a warrant, and an employee crawled through the drive-thru window and ran, screaming, “Are you guys gonna murder me?”

 Duncan said the county did not have issues like that with race before, but, “That’s what happens when you have these types of conversations that push political agendas.” He said officers’ jobs are complicated enough already, and more complications will only work to the detriment of their safety and that of the communities they serve.

 “When elected officials jump on board with something very loosely grounded in fact, and they make people in the community feel like they have something to fear from people who are there to help them, you’re adding to the problem,” Duncan said.