Public comments: stalking allegation, proposal to remove 'race' from city forms and NAACP warning on book bans

Several residents used the Mobile City Council public-comment period on Feb. 18 to press for action on public safety and civil-rights concerns.

Jessica Walker told the council she has “been a victim of a horrific stalking case” for more than six months and said she reported the matter "more than this 10 times" to multiple enforcement agencies, including "the D.A., the sheriff's office, the FBI, and the city police," alleging she was given fake case numbers and that evidence submitted by officers was not turned in. "It's disgusting. It needs to stop," Walker said, and asked the council for access to justice.

Also during public comment, Fredrick Richardson Jr. read proposed ordinance language that he said was adopted July 7, 2020, and urged the city to remove the word "race" from official city forms and replace it with the word "ethnicity" except where state or federal law requires otherwise. Reading from the text, Richardson said the change would address what he described as a harmful classification system: "the word race ... would no longer divide our citizens and would disappear and be removed from any and all official forms ... except that it may be required by state or federal law," he said.

Robert Clopton, speaking for the NAACP, praised the city's Black History Month events and warned of an organized effort to "erase the very history we celebrate," criticizing book bans and calls to sanitize history. "From the NAACP's perspective, we will not let our history be sanitized or erased," Clopton said.

Reggie Hill urged the council to reconsider budget priorities, saying about $500,000 on the agenda was earmarked for vehicles that he would prefer be redirected to programs addressing poverty, training and public-safety prevention. "If we're not going to be tackling poverty, there's no way we're going to eradicate the issues that we're seeing within the city of Mobile," Hill said.

The council did not enter extended discussion or take immediate action in response to these public comments during the meeting; the speakers' statements were recorded in the public-comment portion of the transcript.

What happened next The council proceeded with the consent agenda and other business; the transcript does not record a formal staff response to the specific allegations Walker raised, nor a council vote or staff commitment on Richardson's ordinance text during the Feb. 18 meeting.

—Key quotes— "I've been a victim of a horrific stalking case." — Jessica Walker "The word race ... would no longer divide our citizens and would disappear and be removed from any and all official forms ..." — Fredrick Richardson Jr. "From the NAACP's perspective, we will not let our history be sanitized or erased." — Robert Clopton

Next steps Speakers seeking formal responses should expect follow-up through council procedures; items that need staff review (including any proposed ordinances) would be scheduled for committee or a future agenda for formal consideration.