Ben Frazier detained during Jacksonville City Council meeting, debate over Confederate monuments continue

Ben Frazier, president of the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville civil rights organization, told a crowd of protesters Tuesday the group would be changing its tactics moving forward in the fight to remove the city’s existing Confederate monuments. Sit-ins, boycotts and civil disobedience would be considered, he said.

About three hours later, police arrested Frazier after the City Council sergeant at arms escorted him out of the Jacksonville City Council meeting.

“Remove Confederate monuments,” Frazier said as he was being taken out of City Council chambers. Other meeting attendees periodically joined in chanting, “Take them down.”

Official charges were a misdemeanor trespassing and nonviolently resisting arrest. Frazier was to be released on his own recognizance without bond Wednesday afternoon. The court, according to Frazier's attorney, advised the state to drop the charges. As of Wednesday morning, the state had not done so. The judge set a court date for Jan. 9.

Police previously detained Frazier at the beginning of the year for refusing to leave a Ron DeSantis press conference in Duval County. Those charges were dropped after three weeks.

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Prior to the meeting, the Northside Coalition and other civil rights groups protested in James Weldon Johnson Park calling for removal of Confederate monuments. The statues are once again at the center of local debate after the group Save Southern Heritage took responsibility for a plane flying over a Jaguars game, pulling a Confederate flag with the message “Put the monuments back” on Nov. 27.

The city decided earlier this year when Sam Newby led the council that they would conduct “community conversations” meant to determine the fate of the remaining monuments. No such meetings have occurred.

Frazier led the protest and, like many others in attendance Tuesday, spoke out against the monuments during the public comment portion of the City Council meeting, but he spoke longer than his allotted time. Speakers are normally given three minutes to speak during the 90 minute portion of the meeting, but time was shortened to 65 seconds each to account for the multitude of speakers.

Though Jacksonville has seen various efforts to remove the monuments, some still remain, including the “Tribute to the Women of the Southern Confederacy” statue in Springfield Park.

Frazier told the Times-Union before the meeting the coalition had given “great platitudes and speeches” toward removing the statues for years without success, and they needed to change.

“This is about strategy,” Frazier said. “This is about civil engagement. This is about politics. This is about a city that has been directed by white city fathers for generations…These are middle aged white men who are still asleep. They must be awakened.”

What happened at the City Council meeting?

City Council President Terrance Freeman spoke toward the beginning of the meeting with a “reminder” that council rules prohibited disruptions and that attendees could be removed if rules were broken.

The meeting featured speakers from the groups who left the protest to go to City Hall, as well as speakers advocating for the monuments to remain – and for the ones already removed to be restored. The opposition dressed in red shirts, with one man opting to dress as Santa Clause, and defended the monuments, at times thanking the council for not removing them.

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The speaker directly before Frazier, Ronnie Nichols, dressed in a red vest with Confederate flag and the words "125 years later the heritage continues" on the back, asked the council not to "disrespect [sic] our ancestors" and told them the opposing side's free speech had "wasted a lot of taxpayer money and hurt both sides."

"Slavery is horribly ugly, but please remember not all slaves were abused," Nichols said. "Many of them had bonds of friendship that lasted well beyond the war. What good has it done to rename schools, remove a monument? Are those grades better? Does the city have less violence? I'm not sure, but those decisions have caused more division between us."

Frazier followed, saying the time to wait was over and that the word "wait" had been used to "keep Black people on hold" and almost always "meant never."

"We will wait no longer," Frazier said. "We say take the monuments down. We've chosen to engage in nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience to force and demand that you act with leadership, that you act with courage. Time for you to stop kicking the can down the road."

The timer indicating his time had ended beeped, but Frazier continued. Council then turned off the speaker microphone as Freeman tried to tell him his time had ended. Frazier instead turned toward the public and kept speaking and led a chant of "Remove Confederate monuments, take them down."

Council members, with the exception of Freeman, exited the chamber for a five minute recess as Freeman directed the sergeant at arms to escort "the disruptors" out of the chamber.

Frazier, who is battling cancer and uses a motorized scooter for mobility, repeatedly asked if he was being arrested as an officer held each of his arms as he partially walked, partially was pulled, out.

What's next?

Frazier's attorney, John Phillips, later told reporters outside of City Hall that the next step was to get Frazier out of jail, and that he was “not concerned” about how Frazier’s previous detainment impacted matters because the charges were ultimately dismissed.

Phillips said Frazier was utilizing his right to free speech just as others, including the mayor, had already done.

“I’ve got to bring up Lenny Curry’s promise, from this very step, that the monuments were going to come down, and he had changed, he had evolved, to brother Frazier now in jail for fighting for the very same thing,” Phillips said. “So, it all ties together.”

Curry allocated $500,000 for the removal of monuments in the city’s most recent budget. He tweeted his continued support on the topicTuesday night after the meeting.

“​​I’ve given the Jax City Council a budget that includes the needed funds to remove the monuments,” Curry tweeted Tuesday night. “Obviously, I think they should. They have decided to ignore the issue, [sic] Each member should take a position. Yes or No on monument removal. Take a vote. Do your job on tough issues.”

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Northside Coalition of Jacksonville leader arrested at City Council meeting