For the many members of our community who have been rooting us on behind the scenes and for those who have been speaking up for us publicly, we have been looking forward to sharing an update!
After members of PAGE supported and attended a protest asking for police transparency on October 25, our group was banned from participating in community events by the Greendale Village Board and the Greendale Library. Given that we had every right to exercise our free speech, we found this power play to be disturbingly anti-democratic, and we sought legal counsel.
Our attorney contacted the board on our behalf. On January 18, we were copied on an email to our attorney from Greendale Village Manager Todd Michaels stating, “We have received your email attachment; we are reviewing it now.”
On February 3, we received an email stating, “We rescind the action to exclude PAGE from Village Events immediately.”
We appreciate that the village recognized that their actions were not defensible in a court of law. We hope going forward that the library will follow suit and will also revoke their ban and allow us back in the library to participate in events there.
We hope that at some point both officiating boards of our community will acknowledge the harm they have done to our group and to individuals in our group over the last few months, and will apologize. We hope that they will commit to their personal education regarding equity and that they will follow up that education with concrete equitable actions.
We again thank everyone who has spoken up in our behalf and supported us in any way! Your partnership has made a difference!