Marlene Fosque. Image: Gwinnett County website

Audio taken from the official records of the Gwinnett County Commission meeting on August 6, 2019. The link is here , Fosque’s filthy smear starts at 13:27 of the ‘introduction’ segment. The video is here on Youtube.

Ms. Fosque:

Well, this afternoon, I would like to share some, remarks, and not so much as an announcement.

Good afternoon. Last Wednesday, I held my first community engagement discussion, where the topic was 8… the 287(g). The purpose of the discussion was to create an open space for dialogue between Gwinnett county residents and panelists, which focus on the benefits and impacts of the 287(g) program.

For those of you who don’t know, 287(g) is a federal immigration program the Gwinnett County Sheriff Department has, uh, has participated in for the last 10 years, yet no one brought these two opposing sides together to discuss facets of this program until now.

Now, I do not usually quote President Trump, but on Monday, the president stated, “In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy. These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America. Hatred warps the mind, it ravages the heart, and it devours the soul.”

Well, I want to change one of President Trump’s statements to say, “Hate has no place anywhere.” Hate definitely do not belong in Gwinnett county.

For whatever reason, still unbeknownst to me, Sheriff Butch Conway invited a man from Cobb county to participate as a panelist in our local discussion. Our, our Gwinnett county issue. I will mention this man’s name, probably two times only, and then I’m gonna refer to him as “the man from Cobb county.”

The Southern Poverty Law states, “the Dustin Inman Society is a Georgia-based, anti-immigrant hate group founded and led by activist, D.A. King.”

They list this group as an anti-immigrant hate group because it criticizes unfairly, it belittles, immigrants and it supports efforts to make the lives of immigrants so hard that they leave on their own, which is a tactic known as attrition through enforcement. The Southern Poverty Law Center also state that this man from Cobb county was comfortably working with, and accepting money from, some of the most hardcore elements of anti-immigrate- immigrant movement, including white nationalists.

I rebuke, denounce, deplore, and condemn the participation of Donald A. King, better known as D.A. King, of Cobb county, from being a panelist at my Gwinnett county community engagement discussion that was held on last Wednesday, July 31st. This individual, as noted by an anti-defamation league director, has ties to the extreme elements of the anti-immigrant movement. Spewing hatred and imitatin’-imitatin’, I’m sorry- intimidating advocate, advocacy groups.

This man from Cobb county, he should have never been invited by Sheriff Butch Conway, to participate in our local, Gwinnett discussion. Especially, representing our Gwinnett County Sheriff Department. This man from Cal, from Cobb county, he didn’t bring value to the discussion. Instead, he was more of a distraction. This man from Cobb county does not represent our Gwinnett standards, nor that Gwinnett County Sheriff Department, and he sure doesn’t speak on behalf of me, or any of our residents.

We do not want this type of hatred and distraction in our ever-growing, prosperous, and vibrant county. We include and embrace all individuals, but not their, for their hateful opinions.

To Sheriff Butch Conway, I’m very disappointed in your choice for the panelists and how you moved forward with allowing this man from Cobb county to participate, even after I offered you two replacement options. This was disheartening.

All the negativity, the petitions, the angry comments, whatever’s going on right now throughout Gwinnett, it didn’t have to happen, if you chose differently. Therefore, it is my opin, opinion that Sheriff Conway and the sheriff’s public information officer were wrong for allowing this man, from Cobb county, someone known for spewing hatred and bigotry and racism, to represent our Gwinnett County Sheriff Department in a public forum.

Never again should this happen in Gwinnett county, never again. Now I know, there are wonderful men and women employed with our sheriff department. In fact, I’ve met many of them. You see, Gwinnett county is a great place to live, to work, and to play, and to learn. We have award-winning parks and recreation, schools, and libraries. We have excellence in water production and wastewater treatment, and we maintain a competitive, viable, and sustainable economy, built with strong partnerships.

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These are some of the Gwinnett attributes we want to be known from, and I got in a magazine just today, by the Gwinnett Chamber, here’s some other numbers: 95% of animals are saved at the Gwinnett County Animal Shelter. That’s what we want to be known for. 3,900 and 4,000 meals are served to seniors by our Health and Human Services division. That’s what we want to be known for. 2.78 million people have visited our Gwinnett county public library br- um, library branches. And then 733,000, the number of police calls dispatched, per the, to the, e, 9-1-1 center.

So lastly, as a leader in Gwinnett, I will continue to strive to create peaceful and respectful, open spaces in our communities, so that there’s times and opportunities to create dialogue among Gwinnett county residents. It does matter that all of our voices are heard, which was the whole premise of the whole community engagement discussion. Thank you.