Dismiss Huntsville's Chief of Police: Mark McMurray

Dismiss Huntsville's Chief of Police: Mark McMurray

Started
June 22, 2020
Petition to
Mayor of Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle and 5 others
Signatures: 670Next Goal: 1,000
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Why this petition matters

Started by Huntsville Citizen

Police Chief Mark McMurray of Huntsville, Alabama used undue force against peaceful protestors and has doxxed the citizens he should be serving and protecting. 

Under McMurray's orders, Huntsville Police Department used tear gas, flash bangs, pepper spray, and rubber bullets on peaceful protestors on June 1st and June 3rd protests in downtown Huntsville. On June 3rd, McMurray placed undercover cops among the protestors and snipers were placed on the roof of the nearby courthouse. Several people sustained bloody wounds from rubber bullets, and a child in Big Spring Park was exposed to tear gas. He justified his actions at a town hall by saying that the protests wore eye protection and gloves. These are simply cautions against tear gas exposure, which can cause blindness, burns, and breathing difficulty. These precautions are responses to tear gas- if tear gas isn't deployed, they would not be needed. Recently, tear gas caused the death of Sarah Grossman, a 22-year-old Ohio woman without underlying conditions who went into cardiac arrest after tear gas exposure at a Ohio protest. As the crowds protested police brutality, McMurray used the exact undue force they were protesting. 

At a June 18 after-action report given at a town hall by McMurray to "justify" the actions taken against protestors, he blatantly doxxed a Huntsville resident, showing pictures of the resident with only his eyes blocked out and designating him as ANTIFA because he expressed his opposition to the violent response by law enforcement on his social media. McMurray later referred to the intelligence that justified this as “I guess you call it soft, soft intel. Might mean something, might not.” This is modern day McCarthyism. Similarly, he used uncredible Facebook posts to conjecture that ANTIFA might have been present at the Huntsville protest. 

Police Chief McMurray has chosen to act upon misplaced fear and his personal bias. We need law enforcement officials that reflect Huntsville's increasing diversity and strong values of equality and justice. We call on Mayor Tommy Battle and the City Council to dismiss Huntsville's Chief of Police Mark McMurray. 

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Signatures: 670Next Goal: 1,000
Support now
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Decision Makers

  • Mayor Tommy BattleMayor of Huntsville
  • Devyn KeithCouncil President, District 1
  • Frances AkridgeCouncil Member, District 2
  • Jennie RobinsonCouncil Member, District 3
  • Bill KlingThird Presiding Officer of City Council, District 4