City Councilors and community members, including the mother of Delano Walker, shared their experiences amid mounting calls for Comm. Cheryl Clapprood’s removal, in response to her claim that her department has no racial bias.

SPRINGFIELD – Massachusetts Senior Action Council, a statewide senior-led advocacy group, held a rally Wednesday, June 9th, to call for the removal of Springfield Police Commissioner Cheryl Clapprood following her callous response to community concerns over charges of racial bias within the department. Speakers included Kissa Owens, mother of Delano Walker, who spoke publicly for the first time since her son’s death after a confrontation with Springfield Police in 2009; City Councilors Tracye Whitfield and Justin Hurst; Bishop Talbot W. Swan II, of Rise Up and NAACP Springfield; Rev. Dr. L. A. Love, of Alden Baptist Church; Tara Parrish of the Pioneer Valley Project; and members of Mass Senior Action.
The senior group organized the rally after the Commissioner claimed in a meeting and in a letter to the organization that her department “is not racist, nor do we suffer from systemic racism as we save many lives weekly.” Concerned that Commissioner Clapprood is unwilling to acknowledge the well- documented issues within her department, let alone implement reform, Mass Senior Action, city councilors, community groups, and others are calling for Mayor Domenic Sarno to remove Clapprood from her position.
On Tuesday (May 8, 2021), Mayor Sarno and City Council President Marcus Williams met regarding the calls for her removal.
“The current national reckoning with systemic racism and police brutality has led our community to a similar place,” said Mattie Lacewell, Springfield Chapter President of Mass Senior Action. “Racial bias provides the foundation for police overreach and abuse. We need to speak the truth: Police brutality occurs in Springfield, and we must root it out.”
At the rally, the mother of Delano Walker, a Springfield teen struck and killed by a car during a confrontation with police 11 years ago, spoke publicly for the first time about her son’s death, and rebuked Clapprood for comments that dismissed her son’s death as something from “the past” that was not relevant to today. Delano’s family was ultimately awarded $1.3 million in the case.
“She (Clapprood) said that’s in the past,” said Kissa Owens, choking back tears. “He is not the past. He is part of me and my family. He matters…His life mattered.”
Seniors from the organization met with Commissioner Clapprood through Zoom in late April to discuss racial bias within the force. In a letter to Mass Senior Action after the meeting, Commissioner Clapprood wrote: “My department is not racist, nor do we suffer from systemic racism as we save many lives weekly…It is inherently unfair to be characterized in this manner and not be able to defend ourselves because we are labeled without proof.” (See June 1, 2021 POV for full text of her letter.)
The Springfield Police Department has been under scrutiny for years following allegations of excessive use of force and violations of civil rights raised by groups and government entities ranging from the ACLU to the U.S. Department of Justice and members of the Springfield City Council. “Her lack of empathy or understanding of the experiences of Black and Brown residents in the City of Springfield is unacceptable,” said Emurriel Holloway, a member with Mass Senior Action. “Her insistence that the department is free of racism and bias is scary. Her suggestion that we can do no better until robots patrol the streets is insulting. As residents, we deserve better. As Black and Brown residents, we demand leadership that will help to ensure that the Springfield Police Department protects and serves all of its residents.”
Charles Stokes, lifelong Springfield resident, spoke at Wednesday’s rally, saying: “It’s one thing to dismiss us, but to dismiss our elders is an insult. We will not tolerate this. The mayor and the police commissioner are rejecting the lived experience of our elders.”
Pioneer Project board member Jynai McDonald said, “We know there cannot be real reform in this department with Commissioner Clapprood in place.
While the Commissioner has come under fire in the past, Mass Senior Action is now joined by City Councilors Tracye Whitfield and Justin Hurst, NAACP Springfield, and the Pioneer Valley Project in calling for Mayor Sarno to remove her.
“I, too, cringed at her responses, and the brazenness with which she diminished our seniors,” Springfield City Councilor Justin Hurst said of stinging comments Clapprood made during an online Zoom meeting with coalition members.
The push for police reform over the past year has prompted federal legislators to take action, with President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress proposing landmark legislation to reform police departments across the country. The measure would ban chokeholds, strengthen accountability standards for departments and identify abusive police officers.
Mass Senior Action calls on Springfield’s political leaders to consider how the city’s own department is
responding to such a major issue and to take action to ensure public safety and protect civil liberties. ■

About Massachusetts Senior Action Council: Massachusetts Senior Action Council is a statewide, grassroots, senior-led organization that empowers its members to use their own voices to address key public policy and community issues that affect their health and well-being. Now in its fourth decade of organizing, Mass. Senior Action is an effective, grassroots activist group, led by seniors fighting for social justice. It is the acknowledged “go-to” organization in Massachusetts for developing intergenerational social change strategies to safeguard and strengthen the systems that all community members need to rely on for economic and health security.