Mayor John Dailey Clarifies Stance on Black Lives Matter

Mayor John Dailey Clarifies Stance on Black Lives Matter

On Wednesday, Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey appeared on the Preston Scott show and discussed his positions on Black Lives Matter and the Tallahassee Police Department.

At the beginning of the segment, Scott asked Dailey to clarify his position on Black Lives Matter.

“I do support the Tallahassee Police Department, and I do support the mantra ‘black lives matter,’ and I think it’s important for people to hear their mayor say that, but let me be very clear, in no uncertain terms do we support an organization. We’re not providing financial assistance to any organization,” Dailey said.

Scott asked Dailey how he distinguishes between the “black lives matter” sentiment and the Black Lives Matter organization.

Dailey said he has read what the Black Lives Matter organization stands for, and he separates it from the phrase “black lives matter.”

“When I stand up and say ‘black lives matter,’ it’s no different than when my good friend Mike Norvell stands with the FSU football players on the front steps of the capitol and says it, when all your university presidents say it,” he said.

Scott asked Dailey why he does not say “all lives matter” instead. Dailey said the phrase ‘black lives matter’ indicates racial issues that still need to be addressed.

“I do think, in my mind, if you’re asking for my opinion, the phrase, not the organization, the phrase ‘black lives matter,’ does specifically reference that we do have some inherent racist policies that need to be addressed,” he said.

“I think everybody should take a deep breath and remember there is plenty of room in the narrative to say we have issues that we have to work on and we fully support the police department, and that’s my position,” he said.

Scott also brought up the Black Lives Matter mural painted at the intersection of Railroad Avenue and Gaines Street. The mural was painted in July after weeks of Black Lives Matter protests. Notably, there was no official City Commission vote on the mural.

“We had a very healthy conversation about it at a City Commission meeting,” Dailey said.

Dailey said he doesn’t know if the mural is permanent and anyone with a similar idea can bring it to a City Commission meeting for discussion.

The interview is available here.

37 Responses to "Mayor John Dailey Clarifies Stance on Black Lives Matter"

  1. I don’t dislike Mayor Dailey, but he’s wrong here. The City is advertising BLM, which translates into donations to BLM INC — donations which, in fact, are collected by goblue .com, the massive D fundraiser.

  2. If you HAD to Paint on our Roads, it SHOULD have read “ALL LIVES MATTER”. I know what they meant by “Black Lives Matter” in the beginning but, if the Blacks TRULY believe it, WHY are they killing each other, committing crimes, spending to much of their lives in prison, dropping out of school, NOT doing anything positive to advance themselves. Just look at the NEWS every day and see for yourself, there are thousands of articles and videos.

  3. Mayor Dailey, if you can’t include in the same paragraph all black lives matter, that those born, unborn and those born without fathers matters then you aren’t addressing the societal issue at hand. As I said before to you, leadership takes courage to say and do what’s needs to be said, not what the publicist tells you. The implicit endorsement of BLM.Org is divisive and unnecessary in our community and has cost a 12 year Sergeant of our police force his career. This along with President Thrasher’s woke culture reaction is splitting out community. Don’t let the tail wag the dog Sir!

  4. Well, the “Mayor”s elegant 2 step got me to research some Tallahassee history from the 1850’s leading up to the national civil war. I won’t restate it here, but it is interesting. I don’t mind pointless paint on the street nor even paying for it having observed far too many city street projects with one guy shoveling and 6 watching. At least Mayor is light-years better than his predecessor & not likely to suffer the consequences of out-of-state largess funneled to “that guy”. One set of city workers I always observe carrying their weight & then some are the garbage crews. I propose that the only people we allow to run for mayor be folks with 5 years experience lifting garbage cans. Nobody else can run.

  5. We should all push for a giant “MAGA/KAG 2020” mural on Monroe and Tennessee Street. When the City declines to use their workers and pay for it, break out with a lawsuit. That should bring all this to an end. Case closed.

  6. Lemme help with the pandering puffery on full display by our shameless Mayor who was only elected because the alternative Dustin Daniels (Andrew Gillum) was such a poor choice.

    I am glad he was able to pull himself away from yet another Kraft Infinity event to address the peons.

    “My good friend Mike Norvell”??? Huh??? Is he your good friend, like, the first time he came to town? Did you have to say Mike Norvell to enamor yourself with FSU football fans?

    “All your University Presidents say it”? Huh? “Your” university? Whose? Name the universities that are pandering. Good grief dude, lick your finger, put it in the air and direct someone to paint a street!

    There are a hell of a lot of Citizens, i.e. taxpayers and voters, who once believed in the phrase black lives matter, but that belief took a terrible hit once antifa and white liberals (like John Dailey) used the opportunity to create chals, instill fear, riot, burn, murder, and threatened the continued democratic republic that gives EVERY American and opportunity to live freely, to chart their own course, to be as successful as they can.

    Dailey, your whole mentality is keeping everyone from having opportunities. You and the rest of the commissioners get the vote, things stay the same on the southside and westside plantation while you all enrich yourselves.

  7. I do not understand why someone would vote for Bill Shack and Jack Porter. They are opposites; Bill supports law enforcement and Jack wants to reprioritize funds from law enforcement to other areas. Ruth’s List is endorsing Jack Porter because the mission of Ruth’s List is to get progressive women elected to office. You can easily look it up. What am I missing?

    1. No one is perfect, but Jack’s credentials, education, and experience are the best in her category.

      Her opponent , Elaine Bryant, said she would not run for a city commission seat when she was appointed… Elaine Bryant is divisive and backs Black Lives Matter, and she has accomplished absolutely nothing of significance during her time in office.

      Bill Schack is a responsible caring hard-working citizen who is educated and a humanitarian.

      Jack and Schack will win on their own merits even though their opponents are entrenched in special interests, receive bundled contributions and are not only covering up corruption they are participating.

    2. A bit off topic, but a fair question to be sure. Having diverse perspectives make up a governance body is the supporting premise of having a governing body in the first place. Having a single-minded or group-think mentality on the board defeats the entire purpose of having a “board”. If every member of a board thinks, talks, and votes the same way… then there’s no reason to have a board. You might as well save some tax dollars and just elect one person to make all decisions.

      Speaking only for myself, I want a diversity of thought on the board. I want differing viewpoints and ideas brought to the table in an effort to fully vet an issue and maximize the potential for effective solutions. It’s by sharing these differences of opinion and ideas that result in an evolution of thought, and in many cases, educates and changes minds. Of course, the willingness to maintain an open mind and consider different perspectives is paramount to the body’s success in achieving a fair and balanced representation of those they serve. Having an earnest variety of perspectives, along with respectful disagreement and discourse on a given topic and/or issue… is a healthy approach to – and often results in – good decisions and balanced governance.

      1. Sounds great but the political left is not interested in reciprocity. All the compromise is from the right which is why things keep drifting further and further to the left. But thank you for your thoughts. I hope the best for all of us.

      2. Brill, you may be surprised but I agree. Of course, if there is any dissension you can always chastise the person for their Alinsky like behavior and regale them with tales of life experience and academic acumen 🙂

  8. SO, can we have a Red Square painted at the Intersection of Monroe and the Parkway that says “KEEP AMERICA GREAT” in white Letters?

  9. The best political dance ? I’ve seen in a while… Noticed how quietly the the Mayor has been lately? If “Black Lives Matters” so much then why does the City of Tallahassee pay a City Manager a base salary of approximately $260,000 per year ( who has the least amount of management experience & education of all his Assistants City Managers, including the black Deputy City Manager who first hired him. He refuses to pay City Employees a minimum of $12 per hour. The Mayor gave this City Manager the highest score possible on his evaluation (5). Yes the highest score a 5!

    1. You finally get it, Stanley! The mayor cares nothing about black lives matter he only cares about being re-elected. This is the way the Democrats operate… they want to make you think they care, but they really don’t. They only care about their next re-election campaign.

      If you are concerned about jobs and the economy and people who genuinely really care about you vote out the incumbents.

      If you want things to remain the same then remain in the Democratic Party.

      Citizens have the best opportunity to vote out the corruption and vote in competent people who really care about all citizens, jobs, and the economy

      Vote Schack, Jack, Tommy Mills, and Scott Flowers!

  10. Dailey is a spoiled, weak, liberal, bow tie politician. He has no guts, purpose or desire but follow the national Democrat playbook. I fear that the past political leaders that made our country great are disappearing. At age 78, I hope to see someone run that cares about the values that got this country great. If I ever see a good old boy or girl that grew up poor, knows how to clean a hog, skin a deer, run a trot line, loves their family, makes God first in their life, then I will fund their campaign. Anyone out there? Thanks for letting me feel better.

  11. Mayor Dailey did his best to define what the definition of is is. Right out of the Democrat playbook. He’s taken the political Texas Two Step in dealing with his policies that he admits to being racist and socially unjust.

  12. “I do support rain, I just don’t support water that falls from the sky”

    There is no distinction between the phrase, and the organization that coined it.

    More proof that is no systemic racism, only the systemic exploitation of the lie.

    This Mayor also seems to publicly admit that he and the Commission had a (out of the Sunshine) meeting, discussion, vote, and a subsequent tax dollar allocation without public notice OR public input.

  13. To Mayor John Daily,
    If there was no official meeting by the City Council on the painting off the Black Lives Matter on the Street just how was $40,000 of tax dollars approved to pay to have that painted on the street? If another group say Young Republicans want their logo painted on the street is the city going to pay for that as well?

  14. Well this is interesting. Despite the spelling issue (Black lives matter or Black Lives Matter) does this clarified stance impact the appeal of the demoted Sergeant? He was very specific about it being BLM the organization. If the Mayor reflects the sentiment of the City, then the Sergeant should be able to mirror a statement of no support for the BLM organization without impact.

  15. I would like Mayor Dailey to specify which inherent racist policies exist and need to be addressed? When you use the term ‘policies’, I certainly would like to know these policies

    1. 100% correct. As a taxpayer, and “person of color”, I am tired of the political pandering and costly solutions to problems that haven’t been defined of even proven to exist. I want the facts, specifics, names, dates, occurrences, impacts of said, et al… to support these accusations of “systemic” inequalities.

  16. To John Dailey:

    For the safety of law abiding citizens please have the city paint a skull and crossbones on the street in front of known drug houses and body outlines where murders have been committed. You’ll need a lot of red paint.

  17. Voters had a choice to vote for Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda or John Dailey. You get what you vote for.

    Painting graffiti on a city street supporting ignorant protesters is irresponsible and a misuse of your official city office.

    The mayor should have resigned when he was caught misusing his position conspiring with Kraft Nissan to do free TV commercials where he was misusing his position as mayor.

    City Commissioner Curtis Richardson was caught recently lying in a videoed Tallahassee Democrat candidate forum and it was reported by me in a comment on Tallahassee Reports and then reported buy Karl lEtters from the Tallahassee Democrat in an article the other day.

    Curtis Richardson is on video stating he does not or never has accepted “bundled” campaign contributions. In fact he most certainly does and he did not apologize or explain telling the LIE and he now says why he accepts those bundle contributions.

    Curtis Richardson flat-out lies to benefit himself financially. Curtis is an instigator behind black lives matter.

    Voters need to come out in full force and vote this corruption and divisiveness out of office.

    We are still waiting for Curtis Richardson to tell us what was in the text between he and commissioner Elaine Bryant on the same day that she was approved to be a City Commissioner — to take the place of the corrupt Scott Maddox who has been sentenced to federal prison.

  18. I think Dallas said it best after the interview. It’s like painting the McDonald’s logo on the street because you love hamburgers. How does that make Wendy’s or Burger King feel? Isn’t that promoting one particular brand of burgers?

    Mayor Dailey and his fellow socialist city commissioners are despicable.

    1. It Wendy’s and Burger King understands they haven’t faced disparate treatment like McDonalds and they recognize that pausing to tell McDonalds that they have value just like the other burger joints, they should be secure enough to listen to those proclaim McDonalds matters as well.

      1. So, different Burger Lives Matter? I thought all Burger Lives Mattered and were subject to systemic anti-burger discrimination? Or do you just focus on the Burger Lives at McDonalds? Nice word salad you have there.

  19. if there was no vote for the street painting, then does that mean the city will come help me paint a sign of my own on a street of my choice?

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