Activists continue push for Columbia police changes even after detained artist departs

An activist group called for reform at the Columbia Police Department Tuesday as part of continued efforts to hold the department accountable for detaining an innocent artist.

Columbia’s National Action Network held an event outside the department headquarters to demand changes to police protocol after the network said the artist was racially profiled and detained.

The network has been critical of the department since artist John Sims, who is Black, was detained by officers in his apartment at 701 Center for Contemporary Arts in May. Sims was the artist in residence. Sims departed Columbia on Monday after his near two-month-long residency at the art center ended.

Chief Skip Holbrook has defended the officers, saying they followed department policy in their primary actions.

Tiffany James, president of the local National Action Network chapter, said the group will continue to push for police protocol changes even with Sims gone.

“If they continue this same practice someone’s not going to end up alive,” James said. “We have a great opportunity to change the protocol”

The network is calling for the department to:

▪ “re-evaluate and remove the policies that allow CPD officers to terrorize people based on their race.”

▪ “publicly apologize for racially profiling Mr. Sims and terrorizing him at his place of residence.”

▪ “commit to support and enact the policies and procedures in the (federal) George Floyd Justice in Policing Bill.”

▪ “conduct a series of community meetings across the city to hear from residents about community interactions with police and what can be done to prevent what happened to John Sims from happening again.”

▪ create “a policy to provide mental health treatment and services to those traumatized by police actions.”

“There are people in black and brown communities that are walking around with anxiety and chronic stress because of (police) protocol mistakes,” James said.

The network said the City of Columbia should “secure a company with expertise and a record of success to conduct a racial bias audit” of the police department.

The calls come on the heels of Mayor Steve Benjamin issuing an apology to Sims.