The chief city councilor in the Maine city where a federal immigration agent fatally shot an immigrant says it’s time to dismantle a makeshift public memorial.
“For me, the bottom line is that the time for the temporary memorial has come to an end,” Biddeford City Council President Roger Beaupre said in a statement Tuesday night.
Mechanics Park, where the makeshift memorial to Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero sprouted up, “is a shared community space and not for standard or even permanent unauthorized or ad hoc memorials,” Beaupre told fellow councilors.
Beaupre, a former longtime Biddeford Police chief, offered his first public comments pertaining to the ICE shooting death on July 13, according to Biddeford Buzz.
He called on city councilors to review municipal parks rules to make sure they more clearly delineate allowed uses.
“There should be an ordinance that governs both temporary and permanent memorials,” he said.
In calling for the memorial’s dismantling, Beaupre said the park where it’s located “should be a welcoming spot to everyone.
“Parks belong to an entire community and should not formally or informally be occupied by any group or any one political perspective for an extended period,” he said.
In his wide-ranging remarks, the Biddeford native and veteran former city cop faulted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for failing to train its thousands of recruits.
“There is no godly way you can hire that many people and train them adequately to deal with situations such as this,” he said of the July 13 confrontation between the federal agency and a Colombian national living in Biddeford.
Beaupre also said the ICE agents poorly executed the tactics that should have been followed during a gunpoint traffic stop that led to the fatal shooting of what he called “the wrong man.”
Federal officials have acknowledged that Guerrero was not the suspect they were looking for when they killed him while trying to stop his car.
I would also like to see the graffiti in the area cleaned up.
Democrat policies killed him
Glad to see the comments section has again been turned on, instead of quelling our rights to free speech which was not a good idea for the Maine Wire who claimed they supported free speech.
What’s not being said here is that if the city does not demand the memorial be removed, it is creating a public forum, where all viewpoints have an equal right to be present.
ALL viewpoints, including white supremacist ones. It’s “content neutral”, not “content nice.”
I want to see signs saying
ICE WELCOME TO MAINE
And for that reason I’ll be voting for Collins
Those calling for a memorial are interlopers. The chief is a longtime resident. I have not seen or heard from long time Biddeford residents, why? Long time residents did not deface the bridge. Who is paying for the cleanup Mayor? I like ICE protecting me from illegals committing crimes and my tax dollars. I feel offended by the signs and have rights to safety also Mayor.
ICE WELCOME TO MAINE
Me too!!!