Black activist Arthur “Silky Slim” Reed stunned the packed chamber at Wednesday’s Metro Council meeting, when he said, “Justice came when Gavin Long came,” referring to the ambush killer whose shooting spree last July left three law enforcement officers dead and three others wounded.
Reacting to the comment in a prepared statement today, Mayor Sharon Weston Broome delivered a bombshell of her own: Reed had been engaged by one of her administrators to work in the BRAVE crime prevention program.
In the statement, in which the mayor calls Reed’s remarks “hateful, offensive and frankly unacceptable,” Broome says she only recently learned Reed was “engaged by a member of my staff to serve in a contractual relationship as a ‘street counselor’ for the BRAVE program.”
She does not say when she was made aware of the relationship or who the staffer was, but says, “That contract was cancelled and no monies were dispersed.” (sic)
The statement does not elaborate and her office did not respond to questions seeking additional information in time for publication.
Sources familiar with the situation, however, say the mayor became aware of the contract earlier this week, after a public records request was filed by a local television station that had gotten wind of the deal.
District Attorney Hillar Moore, who does not administer the BRAVE program but has been instrumental in working with it, says he learned of Reed’s involvement with BRAVE two days ago and that it came as a surprise.
Reached by phone, Reed contradicted the mayor’s statement and said he never had a contract with BRAVE. But he concedes his organization, Stop the Killing, was negotiating with the city-parish for a contract that would have been worth $5,000.
“It was such a small amount there didn’t even need to be a contract” he says. “It should have been a donation.”
Reed went on to say he was not aware of the particulars of the contract talks, adding a staffer with his organization, John Mitchell, had been negotiating the deal.
Reed, who served on Broome’s advisory board on police and community relations, says the mayor called him around 8 a.m. to let him know she no longer needed him on the board and that she would be issuing the written statement.
“She told me that she thought it would be in her best interest to distance herself from our relationship and that I would no longer be on the police advisory reform board and she said she had to make a public statement,” Reed says. “I said, ‘I don’t have a problem with it. I’m cool with that.’”
In the statement, Broome says the advisory council disbanded in February. Reed says he was under the impression he was still serving on the council and that he was only informed this morning that he would no longer be.
Reed says he is not sorry for the remarks, though he says they were taken out of context.
“Controversy is needed,” he says. “This isn’t something that can be swept up under the rug. I don’t regret things that I say. It had a bigger impact than what I expected. But I’m glad it has stirred up controversy.”
—Stephanie Riegel
