Milwaukee Fire Dept. appoints first African American female deputy chief

The Milwaukee Fire Department (MFD) announced they have appointed its first African American female as Deputy Chief.

Deputy Chief Sharon Purifoy will lead the department’s Emergency Medical Services Division. She has been with the department for 17 years and has been a registered paramedic since 2012.

Deputy Chief Purifoy has served in the roles of fire cadet instructor, director of the Survive Alive House, and director of recruitment. She has also demonstrated her commitment to the department through her active participation in the MFD’s Strategic Planning Committee.

Of Purifoy's appointment the MFD wrote:

Her commitment to recruiting and mentoring young firefighters, supporting them as they progress through their own careers will be maximized as she demonstrates to other City of Milwaukee women of color that not only are they welcome on the MFD, but that they too can promote and lead the organization. Indeed, on November 8, 2018, Purifoy was on the very first all-female engine company – she is a true trailblazer! We are so proud of Deputy Chief Purifoy! Congratulations!

Rep, Ayanna Pressley calls reduced $600 stimulus checks 'an insult'

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (Massachusetts's 7th District) spoke on the House floor to demand robust direct cash payments to people as part of any COVID-19 relief bill. She called the proposed $600 payments insuffient and an insult to the people needing funds to make it through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Watch her statement below:

FALLEN PATERSON NJ POLICE OFFICER’S BADGE TO BE REASSIGNED TO SISTER

For the first time in Paterson PD history a fallen officer’s badge number will be reassigned.

In 2007, Paterson Police Officer Tyron D. Franklin was fatally shot while doing his duty as an officer and protecting other Patersonians. Thirteen years later, Bevennia Franklin, sister of Officer Tyron Franklin will be following in her brother’s footsteps and joining the Paterson police force.

On Friday, December 18, Mayor Andre Sayegh together with the Paterson Police Department will reassign Officer Tyron Franklin’s badge number to his sister Bevennia. This is the first time in Paterson’s history a badge reassignment ceremony will take place.

Bevennia is set to graduate from the police academy at the end of December.

Texas city elects its first African American mayor

Michael Evans won a runoff election for mayor of Mansfield, Texas making him the first African American mayor in the city's history.

Dr. Evans, who is a pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church and a former Mansfield ISD School Board member, received 53.11% of the vote in the runoff.

He said he felt quite a bit of relief with the results after he had been campaigning for more than a year.

Evans added that he was excited for the future of the city of Mansfield, and looks forward to representing the wide array of people who live in the city.

“One of the good things about Mansfield is we get to celebrate our diversity,” he said. “I’m excited we get to do that here in this town.”

Evans said he will focus on attracting a diverse group of economic development, with different types of companies, retail businesses, and restaurants.

He added that he’ll work to keep Mansfield one of the safest cities in the country, by having a good quality of individuals in law enforcement and first responders.

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams Encourages Black Americans to Take Vaccine

Public health officials and community leaders who are concerned about COVID-19 vaccine skepticism are speaking up and trying to build trust, especially among African Americans and other minorities.

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, MD, is working with faith leaders, community groups and fraternities and sororities to discuss the vaccine.

“Nothing has been in my heart more than this issue over the past several weeks to months,” he told CNN on Monday.

“I’ve been working with Pfizer, with Moderna, with AstraZeneca, with Johnson & Johnson to make sure we have appropriate numbers of minorities enrolled in these vaccine trials so that people can understand that they are safe,” he said.

Adams said he hopes that the independent review boards for the clinical trials, as well as the CDC and FDA advisory groups, will help people to feel confident about vaccine safety, efficacy and side effects.

He emphasized that regulations are in place to protect Americans from incidents such as the Tuskegee experiment, which purposely left 400 Black men in Alabama untreated for syphilis between 1932-1972 so researchers could study the “natural course” of the disease. Even after penicillin became the standard treatment for syphilis in 1947 that could stop long-term organ damage, the experiment continued, which has built distrust in the U.S. health care system. Ultimately, 128 study participants died from syphilis and related complications, according to the CDC.

Adams said he hopes public health experts can shift that perspective in relation to the COVID-19 vaccine.

“There are tens of thousands of Black and brown people dying every year because they are distrustful of the system, in many cases rightly so, but also because they’re not getting the facts to help restore their trust in the system,” he told CNN.

[SOURCE: WEBMD]