District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser and three other mayors in the Washington area have signed on to a 10-point anti-extremism plan drafted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in the wake of deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
According to an official website for the initiative, Alexandria’s Allison Silberberg, Baltimore’s Catherine Pugh, College Park’s Patrick Wojahn and Hyattsville’s Candace B. Hollingsworth are among the nine mayors from Virginia and Maryland who, in addition to Ms. Bowser, have signed on to the “Mayors’ Compact to Combat Hate, Extremism and Bigotry.”
The ADL and USCM describe as “a new initiative to fight extremism and bigotry and to promote the fundamental principles of justice and equality that define America.”
Other notable signatories including Marty Walsh and Mike Signer, the mayors of Boston and Charlottesville, respectively, two cities that have found themselves recent flashpoints of contention between the so-called alt-right and left-wing Antifa activists.
Signatories to the Compact pledge to execute a 10-point action plan that includes policies such as “support[ing] the integration of immigrants and other new residents into the community” as well as “provid[ing] … hot lines and online tools” for reporting “hate incidents and hate crimes to local authorities.”
The mayors also vow to “protect public safety while safeguarding free speech and other basic constitutional rights through the use of appropriate time, place, and manner restrictions.”
“We must come together and step up our efforts to combat hate in our cities,” Doron Ezickson, the Washington,D.C. Regional Director for the ADL said in an Tuesday statement announcing the Compact.
“Mayors have always been strong supporters of civil rights and we could not be more grateful for the support and leadership these 18 mayors have demonstrated and hope more will commit to this effort in the coming days,” Mr. Ezickson said.
The entire Mayors’ Compact can be accessed online here.
• Ken Shepherd can be reached at kshepherd@washingtontimes.com.
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