The leadership of Black Lives Matter Sacramento is in a state of flux after several current and former members have called for the group's co-founder to step down.
Twenty-nine current and former members have signed a letter that alleges "patterns of abuse" by co-founder and leader Tanya Faison dating back to 2016.
The group says Faison was confronted two weeks ago about her alleged behavior, but no apology was forthcoming. Now, the group has demands.
“We're waiting for things that are along the lines with amending with the people you've hurt in the community," said fellow group leader Sonia Lewis.
Faison says she is still the leader of the group, and that she has blocked those who signed the letter from using its social media pages.
She says a lack of communication is to blame for the rift.
"If I say something mean to you, and you don't like it, I would expect that you tell me, 'Don't talk to me that way' or something like that,” Faison said.
Faison disputed claims by Lewis and those who signed the letter. “ What I can say for sure is that the information is inaccurate," she said.
The local Black Lives Matter chapter was at the forefront of demonstrations against the 2018 fatal police shooting of Stephon Clark, and has been active in the past year at City Council meetings.
NPR recently interviewed Faison after District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert declined to prosecute the officers that killed Clark. During that interview, she called California’s law enforcement’s use-of-force policy “weak.”
Faison says stress is to blame for a high turnover rate in her chapter’s membership, which has been as high as 21, but is now about the size when it started.
“We had a group of about six people, and then it grew and then it shrunk,” Faison said. “It always evolves because the work is heavy and it’s hard. There’s always burnout.”
She founded a group in 2014 called Incite Insight, which then joined BLM in November 2015.
Lewis says she is not sure how the group of dissenting members will go forward, but that it will not include Faison.
Faison was in court Wednesday facing charges for disrupting a luncheon where Schubert was scheduled to speak.
Faison says she is happy the charges were dropped.
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