George Floyd’s uncle, Selwyn Jones, has spoken out about the controversial logo of his local police department and called for the Confederate flag to be removed from it.
While the police patch was designed in 2009 to symbolize the end of the civil war with Confederate and American flags crossed, some activists believe it is the right time to abolish the Confederate flag from the Gettysburg Police logo.
As some have suggested, the flag could be seen as an insult not only to people of color but also to the founding members of the town of whom the majority were Union soldiers.
One of those calling for reform is also Mr. Jones who dubbed himself a “crusader for change” and vowed to try to get the ‘racist’ logo altered.
“I’ll see if we can figure out a way to make a change in that. It will change,” Jones said in an interview with Rapid City Journal.
While Gettysburg Police might decide to overhaul their logo in the wake of protests inspired by the unwarranted death of George Floyd, the city previously defended the patch and said they had no intention of changing it.
“The City of Gettysburg’s police patch has the American Flag and the Confederate flag overlapping, which was meant to symbolize unification, and a cannon to represent the battle that the City of Gettysburg is named after,” the City of Gettysburg wrote in a Facebook post back in 2015.
“This patch has no racist intentions; it is meant to be another way that we, as a city, represent our heritage. Without the war, and without the Battle of Gettysburg, we would not be the same City that we are.”
After Mr. Jones request to abolish the Confederate flag from the patch, Mayor Bill Wuttke confirmed he’s not willing to change the logo and insisted it is not racist.
“If I thought for a minute it had something to do with racism that would be a whole different ball game, but it doesn’t and it didn’t. It’s just strictly to do with the history of our community,” he said.
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Replaced!