Local group seeks to extend the probation and restorative justice process for former APD officer Christopher Hickman

Press release from Just Us: 

“Just Us” a black-led collaborative of concerned Asheville citizens and faith leaders are filing an Amicus Curiae Brief to extend Chris Hickman’s probation and restorative justice process. The amici curiae-“friends of the court” believe that more time is necessary for Hickman to genuinely engage in community repair for the harm he inflicted against both Rush and the community as a representative of the Asheville Police Department.

On August 9, 2019, Buncombe County North Carolina became the first county in the nation to formally implement a “Restorative Justice” sentence in response to a high- profile case of police brutality. Former APD officer Christopher Hickman was convicted for communicating threats, assault inflicting serious injury and assault by strangulation of Black Asheville resident, Johnnie Rush, for a violent encounter that occurred the night of August 24, 2017 as Mr. Rush attempted to walk home from work. Hickman could have served a total maximum punishment of “39 months plus 270 days.” Instead, he received one year of supervised probation and a requirement to participate in a Restorative Justice Program directed by Jon Powell, a former criminal defense attorney, and the Director of the Campbell University Restorative Justice Clinic, in Raleigh, N.C.

In the August 2019 hearing Powell described the restorative justice process this way, “…my commitment and my desire is to bring in voices from the community that have been affected by this. And I can’t tell you what the solutions are going to be. They’re going to be guided by the needs that need to be addressed. And so I would hope that I could begin to have conversations with parts of this community that have been affected, and then we will craft solutions that we think are aimed at trying to help with that community harm.” No county or city funds were allocated to Powell to oversee the restorative justice process, and for the past year Powell has essentially been volunteering on behalf of the Campbell University RJ Clinic.

For the past 11+ months “Just Us” has been meeting weekly with the goal of ensuring that the restorative justice process stay true to Powell’s word, and that voices of the black community most impacted by Hickman’s actions be centered in the process. From their first meeting with Mr. Powell on October 16, 2019, Just Us made it clear that its members did not presume to speak for the entire Black community. Just Us gave Powell names and contact information of multiple Black community members, knowledgeable of police-community relations, with whom it was recommended he speak directly. Powell however failed to follow up with the majority of these contacts until recently.

In February, Just Us initiated an effort to survey the broader black community. Preliminary results revealed that the term, “restorative justice”, was an immediate barrier for Black residents, who are concerned about the so-called “restoration” of the relationship or returning to an original state between the Asheville Police Department (APD) and the black community. Historically, the APD has been synonymous with violence, over-policing and racial disparities in arrests that lead to further inequities in convictions and sentencing in Buncombe County court systems. This is not an ‘original state’ that Black residents want to return to, and this is not the type of relationship that Black residents would want to be restored. Rather, the relationships must be transformed.

This sentiment is echoed by Bob Smith, Co-Founder of Just Us. “I have lived here all of my life, and after Hickman was given a mere one-year supervised probation, I felt like he was just another officer getting away with harming a black man. This questionnaire was designed to both inform the Black community of Chris Hickman’s sentencing and to elicit potential solutions for next steps that might lead to what was named in the Guilty Plea Hearing Transcript as ‘restorative justice’. But what we need is more time and real community input to repair and heal our communities. We can’t do any of those things during a pandemic.”

In March, as the COVID-19 crisis entered the country into lock-down, the Just Us survey efforts came to a halt. As Racial Justice Coalition Community Liaison, Rob Thomas remarks, “Just as we began a plan to canvas impacted neighborhoods door to door, that Monday, Stay at Home Orders due to COVID-19 began and we had to stop.” It will likely take months for all sectors of both the Asheville community and American society at-large to recuperate from the impact of COVID-19. Consequently, Just Us is requesting additional time to complete the survey and engage face-to-face community solutions.

While Powell has suggested the use of ZOOM for continued community engagement, a large part of the most impacted communities, however, do not have access to reliable internet which makes this especially difficult. Elizabeth White, Co-Founder of Just Us and native to Asheville, states, “I was more encouraged to go forward with our group when one member joined that was a part of the restorative justice process. We need time to convene a Town Hall to include police officials, elected officials, black community leaders and black community members directly impacted by police violence, if they can overcome their fears. That way we can move toward community solutions, not the court’s solutions which don’t work.”

Just Us members are adamant that virtual town halls would not be effective for such an emotional and potentially volatile conversation. Engaging a few Black people, one organization or one neighborhood serves to create division and does not represent the voices of the broader Black community. Powell and Thomas Amburgey, Hickman’s attorney, could have reached out to communities as early as August 2019 but chose not to. Now COVID19 and an August 10th deadline is pushing them to appear as though they have done this important work.

Just Us is proposing that during the probation extension, local skilled facilitators from the area develop and implement a transformational dialogue process once it is safe from COVID-19, so that the broader Black community can offer and begin implementing viable community solutions. Given an extension through the Motion for Leave to File Amicus Curiae Brief will allow time for Just Us to safely conduct their survey and convene a town hall to lead toward these solutions and healing.

Asheville and Buncombe County has an opportunity to set a precedent in restorative practices that can lead to real transformation of relationships between the community and APD. We hope that our District Attorney, Todd Williams, Hickman’s attorney, Thomas Amburgey and Jon Powell will center authentic community healing over wrapping Hickman’s probation up quickly and pouring more salt on the wounds of many Black Ashevillians.