I will never accept Springfield’s status quo of brutality and misconduct on the part of  the police department. Silence, by citizens, leaders in the African American community, churches, organizations, is not golden! It’s deadly!

At the present time, I live in Holyoke. I was born and raised in Springfield and lived there from 1958- 2022. I do a large part of my work in Springfield right now as a Case Manager at a Sober House for men in Indian Orchard which is part of Springfield. Most of my life was as a public school teacher in the Springfield Public Schools for almost 27 years in both junior high/middle school teaching a range of subjects including high school history, civics, and criminal justice.

My affiliation with the Pioneer Valley Project goes back to my teaching in middle school and high school. At the time, PVP was questioning why libraries were not open enough hours in poorer communities in Springfield and my students and I helped to plan civil rights protests.  My middle school students led many of the protests and spoke before the city council at the time.

It was really a natural progression for me to continue my social activism with the Pioneer Valley Project. In my lifetime, I have experienced a total disregard of minorities in the city of Springfield by the Springfield Police Department. There had always been a historic culture of police brutality and the residents of Springfield not voicing their frustration and anger at the Springfield Police Department. As a result, this gave the police department the license to do whatever they wanted in the city. Misconduct by the police department grew, and as the years went on the police department felt as if there was no need for any transparency to the citizens of Springfield.  If something went wrong, and it became violent, they paid off victims.

Pioneer Valley Project decided to take on the police department and led an initiative in which we studied the culture and the history of the residents of the city and their relationship with the Springfield Police Department. I was part of a group that investigated and poured over old articles and reports about the abuses of the Springfield Police Department. I was particularly surprised, and maybe I shouldn’t have been, to find out that our own commissioner of the police department had her own sordid history with relations between the particular number of cases of violence used against citizens and her own lack of transparency, questionable record keeping, and reporting! 

As part of my participation, we made efforts to sit down and speak with both the mayor and the police commissioner. We were questioning the status quo and they have never been forthcoming!  Instead of meeting with the community, they have consistently disregarded and ignored our requests. They have tried, in many ways, to weaponize groups who have questioned them. They have targeted leaders, including myself, in an attempt to persuade the community that PVP’s actions are violent.

I was part of a nonviolent protest held in a predominantly white neighborhood in Springfield in response to an incident that had occurred between minority men and police officers. The mayor installed cameras to watch us, told local businesses that it would be violent and blocked the driveway where the protest was to be held in front of the restaurant where the officers and the minority residents had had an altercation several years ago.

I am a sister of Saint Joseph, which is a Catholic religious community in Springfield. I was questioned by my community as to the reasons why I would be at the protest even though there were other sisters who were going to be there who were not questioned.  I was the only African-American sister questioned. The white sister also there was not.

By the end of the peaceful protest, all the organizers - white, black, hispanic, - agreed that this particular protest, in a predominantly white neighborhood, even with the mayors antics (busing in national guard, having the fire department install cameras at two locations, blocking entrances making it difficult to park and turning on park sprinklers as speakers were talking) was successful.

Two days later, my own congregation started to get phone calls directed to me. I am certain these complaints came from the mayor, the commissioner and people who were not even at the protest.

I was called in twice about my involvement with the Pioneer Valley Project. Even though there have been other members of my community involved, I have been the only one targeted, questioned by my community.

I filled out a job application within the Sheriff's department and was told that my name would not be considered for advancement because: “she’s doing things in the community.” I suspect that the mayor, commissioner, and other sisters in my community spread information that was not accurate!

I have been questioned as to my motivation and my role in protests. One of our attempts to get the mayor and the police commissioner to a discussion table came through delivering personal invitations. We took a caravan of cars to both the mayor's home and the police commissioner’s home on a Saturday afternoon. The protest included a prayer I gave and was followed by walking to the mailbox of each person's home and delivering a letter of invitation. 

I was called into a meeting with my religious leadership days after the event. Even though leadership knew what I was going to do and it was documented on local TV stations, I was still questioned about the violence of leaving notes in the mailbox of both the mayor and police commissioner.

I was questioned without the benefit of knowing who had accused me. I was questioned about my actions within our Religious Charism( our founding purpose, the soul of the Sisters of Saint Joseph)!

I will stand by my convictions! I will always fight for truth and for justice. Someone recently criticized my community activism on Facebook and wrote: ”Sister Melinda, thought you were a woman of the cloth (I’m not sure the author understood this. Religious women sometimes wear habits, but my community does not, and it is men who are usually referred to by this comment, not women) I didn’t think women stood out shame on you!”

This is where everyone should be, on the side of the poor, the disenfranchised, the suffering and to stand in truthfulness, transparency and total accountability. 

Accountability is NOT paying families off when tragedy strikes as the result of racism and hate!