Bye, Felicia! Entire North Carolina police force quits after town hires Black city manager

Last month, a tiny town in North Carolina hired a Black woman to manage their city. The celebration of diversity quickly waned; after just two weeks, the police force walked off the job en mass, including all four full-time officers, two town clerks, and the police chief—all of whom are white.

Kenly, population 1,800, is a community that is neither majority Black nor majority white. According to Data USA, the city is made up of 36.1% Black residents and 35.7% white residents. The remainder are white (Hispanic), other (Hispanic), and multiracial (Hispanic).

So when Justine Jones began her role as city manager in June, it wasn’t to diversify the local government. She was approved by the city council after an exhaustive nationwide search. She was chosen because she’d “dedicated her career to public service for over the last 16 years” in “progressively responsible positions with local governments” in multiple states, according to a press release sent after she was hired.

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