DURHAM
Extra security was present at Monday night’s Durham County commissioners meeting, though a group that has been criticizing the county said any fear it’s causing is being exaggerated.
Chair Brenda Howerton said County Manager Kimberly Sowell arranged for several additional sheriff’s deputies to be positioned inside the building for the 7 p.m. meeting.
“Deputies were there to make sure that nothing occurs. There’s so much going on around the country that we just want to be proactive,” Howerton told The News & Observer.
Since early July, a handful of women with Operation Stop CPS have been speaking in three-minute allotments at the commissioners meetings, protesting on the steps of county buildings, and lobbying for the recusal of a District Court judge over what it calls the “kidnapping” of children from their mother by social workers.
“It is about time that the social workers feel uncomfortable, right?” founder Amanda Wallace said. “They’re trying to mischaracterize it as fear, but no, they’re fearful of the truth. And the truth is that there are children being kidnapped right here in Durham County.”
Wallace said they’ve been showing up on Main Street to protest every Tuesday and Thursday at 4 p.m. and will continue to do so.
WRAL reported that after a hostile protest last week, Director of Social Services Ben Rose warned of “potential violence” in an email to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
“We feel we are in eminent [sic] jeopardy as this group is selectively targeting multiple people and using families against us. They run inflammatory rhetoric and put us at risk,” Rose wrote, according to WRAL. “There is genuine fear here now, even from court officials. We need help.”
The N&O has submitted a records request seeking more information. Rose declined an interview request, but forwarded a statement the county issued late Monday.
“DSS will always protect the confidentiality of child welfare and cannot litigate or share information regarding child welfare cases in a public forum,” the statement said. “Specifically, statements brought forward by Operation Stop CPS are pending matters in Court and therefore no additional response will be forthcoming in the future, oral or written.”
“We can’t comment because that means were getting ahead of the lawyers and legal process,” Howerton said, a refrain she has repeated from the dais whenever the group comes to speak.
Two women whose children were taken away spoke through tears at Monday night’s meeting. Operation Stop CPS claimed a minor victory last month when District Court judge Shamieka Rhinehart recused herself from a case involving one of the women.
Rhinehart did not reply to an email Tuesday or answer a reporter’s calls.
Wallace, a former Child Protective Services investigator for several North Carolina counties, said the answer when children are in danger lies within communities, not the foster care system.
“There’s never a situation that I believe a child should be taken into state custody, because if I believe that, then I would believe that the system needs to stay intact,” Wallace said. “This agency was birthed from slavery … and it will keep taking away the children that it was created and designed to take, which is Black and brown children.”
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