Group condemns RWJBarnabas for response to executive’s anti-police post

A national law enforcement organization gathered outside the RWJBarnabas Health offices in West Orange Thursday to condemn a “baseless and egregious” anti-police social media post by one of its top executives.

Around 50 members of Brothers Before Others – a nonprofit group comprised of current and retired police officers – said their presence was in response to a social media post by Michellene Davis, an executive vice president at RWJBarnabas Health.

“Who is going to train them not to shoot black children first?” Davis posted on Facebook under a link to the NorthJersey.com story about the placement of armed officers in Fair Lawn schools. The comment was eventually deleted.

Davis apologized for the post and was placed on administrative leave, but reinstated to her position earlier this month.  

Brothers Before Others representatives said RWJBarnabas Chief Executive Officer Barry H. Ostrowsky “doubled down” on Davis’s comments by writing in a statement that RWJBarnabas Health wants to take a leadership position in social issues, including “violence in all its forms” and that Davis is the proper executive to lead the Social Impact and Community Investment Practice for RWJBarnabas Health.

“For a senior VP of a hospital to come out with that statement demonizing police when that’s not even close to the problem is egregious,” said Rob O’Donnell, director of media relations for Brothers Before Others. “Our police are risking everything to protect these children in the schools and are running toward gunfire when there are shootings and she’s accusing them of indiscriminately attacking black children?”

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Brothers Before Others members held flyers containing information from 2017 FBI statistics. Of 1.2 million violent crimes nationally in 2017, deadly use of force by police was used in 987 and 99.5 percent were against armed subjects, read the flyers. Police use of deadly force is at a 40-year low and down 70 percent, the flyer read.

Michael Burke, president of Brothers Before Others, said until the CEO of RWJBarnabas recognizes these facts and holds Davis accountable for her comments, the organization will continue to rally.

“When all of these people put their uniforms on, the goal is to go out and do 8.5 hours of work and then go home to their families,” Burke said. “It’s not to go out and kill people, which is why my mind is blown that Ms. Davis’s statement stayed out there for so long.”

RWJBarnabas Health released a statement that it prides itself on the close working relationship it has with law enforcement over many decades, in response to the rally.

“We have the highest appreciation and respect for their unwavering dedication to keeping our communities safe,” according to the statement. “We will focus our efforts on continuing to work collaboratively with our partners in law enforcement for the benefit of the people in the communities we serve.”

Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura said when he saw the post by Davis he was disappointed, but could sense her remorse when he called her. He said in the 30 years he’s known Davis, she has always been extremely supportive of police officers.

“What she said was a mistake, which she recognized,” Fountoura said. “No individual human being is perfect all the time. Let us move forward from this out-of-character incident.”

Brothers Before Others members said they aren’t quite ready to move on. They said they don’t want Davis to lose her job, but they want her to be held accountable.

Burke said statements like hers coming from a respected person hold weight and could be dangerous by heightening people’s emotions on the street.

Josh Olivera, a board member of Brothers Before Others, said statements like Davis’s are frustrating, baseless and inflammatory.

“She wants to paint the police with this false narrative that we’re out there murdering unarmed black children when it’s just utterly false,” O’Donnell said.

Email: nolan@northjersey.com

 

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