ACAB Graffiti on South St. Sidewalk Next to Demerest Building

Editor,

The following letter was submitted to Village of Warwick Mayor Michael Newhard:

While I certainly respect the community’s right to peacefully protest and seek reforms in institutionalized bias, there is never a justification for the destruction of property and defacing the community that we all work so hard to maintain for the benefit of all.

Moreover, statements such as “ACAB” (an abbreviation for “All Cops Are Bastards”), which have been scrawled all across our country in recent weeks are wholly inappropriate in any situation and under any circumstance. This is hate speech, plain and simple, and even the people who scrawl these messages know that they are untrue.

The Village needs to send a clear message to the community that such behavior is not tolerable.

I sincerely appreciate your ongoing and consistent efforts as Mayor to keep our community beautiful, and would greatly appreciate any steps that your office can make to eradicate this kind of behavior which defaces our community and unjustly criticizes the officers that we rely on to keep our community safe and beautiful.

JEREMY L. HAVENS, ESQ.