MOULTRIE, Ga. — Residents of Moultrie packed Moultrie’s city council chambers to capacity as they came to speak their minds to the council Tuesday evening. They asked for representation and equality in their city.

This crowd came in the wake of a controversial social media post and resignation of former fire chief Jeff Thibodeau and a pair of Facebook posts by Councilman Cornelius Ponder, including one that referred to “KKKops.”

People at the meeting said a pastor — and more prominently, a council member — shouldn’t speak that way. Some called for Ponder’s and City Manager Pete Dillard’s resignations.

They asked, “What’s the difference between what Councilman Ponder said and what Thibodeau said?”

Ponder responded his message wasn’t out to offend anybody, rather to empower the community to fight back against crooked cops. And if you were offended then you must be a crooked cop.

“Yes, in America we really have, in my words, some KKKops which means (K)crooked (K)cops killing our people,” Ponder said. 

He recognized an unnamed person who said on WALB that his message would incite retaliation. In response, he pointed to the crowd, saying they were the retaliation: a peaceful group who wanted to have a conversation.

And that was his goal. Ponder wanted to have a conversation about the state of things as they are now.

“When I posted that thought-provoking, conversational message, no one responded, no one wanted to talk about my concerns,” he said. “Now, I have had an opportunity to sit down this week and talk to people all over this town about my viewpoints. I love the way God works.”

However, Ponder said he had been planning to resign last week after some negative treatment he received from a black woman on the square a couple of weeks ago. 

With the “tough” conversations being held now, he said his position is something to fight for. And “tough” conversations were held all night as at least 20 speakers spoke their piece.

Rachel Weeks, a former candidate for city council, said Ponder was a leader in his community and sees a kinship in him via his spirit for social justice. That being said, she called the second half of his “KKKops” statement ambiguous.

“What are the real and likely results of people literally taking your advice,” Weeks said.

Ponder’s May 26 Facebook post reads, “Y’all still wanna March and pray? It’s time to stand your ground, buy some guns and join the NRA! Stop asking people to stop mistreating you, make them stop! They been killing our people for over 200 years; it’s not going to stop, until we stop them!”

Weeks is a gun advocate herself and believes that those wanting to use a gun should get trained. However, she cannot see why Ponder decided to make such a radical comment.

“Why did you advocate for that when your position of authority gives you so much more than us and the ability to speak directly to the police force, to begin education for cross cultural issues — community events that would advocate cross cultural relationships,” she said.

She said it made her lose hope: If violence is what a city councilman is advocating, then what can she and others do to stop that? 

Hearing the explanation, she reiterated that she was on his side as she wants positive change too.

 “Please use your voice to stop the cancer of racism at its root,” she said.

This is a sentiment shared by George Wallace who spoke next. He works with children and wants to see a better community for them, but he said things have been getting outrageous in the world and on social media in the community.

Moultrie is too small for incidents like this to get out of hand.

“I was out in California when Rodney King got beat by the cops and I’ve seen the city that large burn to the ground behind it,” he said. “We as the people of Moultrie haven’t had any issues up until this.”

He said Moultrians may not be able to hold people outside the city accountable, but we need to hold each other accountable. Racism shouldn’t be taking place, he said, especially if the citizens are God-fearing people.

“And I’m not harping on God-fearing people, but the thing is, if you believe in God, you believe in equality — you believe in justice,” Wallace said.

Wallace said a pastor shouldn’t be saying things like Ponder had said, but he added his own counterpoint.

“If I was a minister, my son is on the ground, begging for his dead mother while somebody’s knee is on his neck and he’s dying, I don’t know where God would take me right then and there,” Wallace said.

Criticism didn’t come only for Ponder, it came for Dillard and the city at large too.

Moultrie NAACP President Isabella Brooks said she was heartbroken by Thibodeau’s post, which implied George Floyd deserved to die for his previous crimes, including robbery and drug offenses.

Brooks said she’d hoped by now that people would do the right thing and made a point: This wouldn’t have happened if Blacks had equal representation among the city’s department heads.

“We have a vacancy for the fire chief of this city,” she said. “We have never had a Black, Hispanic, or Oriental fire chief.”

In a city where almost 50 percent of its denizens are people of color, she said they need equal representation among city leadership.

Steven Reynolds, a coach and the owner of the Fifty Yard Line Sports Bar, said prominently, “Black Lives Matter,” as he came up to the podium. There is a lot of cry for racial change in the city and country, said Reynolds, who also ran for city council in the most recent election.

He said the standard of living for African American citizens of Moultrie is second-class. He said, speaking for the Black people of the community, that “we no longer trust the city manager.”

This came out of a situation where Shonta Melton expressed her concerns about Thibodeau to Dillard but was met with a “half-hearted” apology.

“He was hoping that the matter would just go away like a number of other questionable decisions that he has made regarding African Americans and people of color since becoming the city manager,” Reynolds said.

Dillard said that wasn’t in his character and you could talk to anyone who’s worked with him in the past 40 years about that. To describe his efforts to bring diversity to the city, he told the crowd about searching for a replacement for the previous fire chief.

“About a year ago, we needed a new fire chief. The first thing I did is I went to the most highly respected fire chief in the state that I’d met three years before,” Dillard said.

This was Freddie Broome, the current member services consultant of the Georgia Municipal Association. Dillard said Broome turned around the Valdosta Fire Department.

“I said, ‘I need help. I need diversity in the fire department in Moultrie.’ He said, ‘You’re going to have a battle because it’s hard to move people over there from Valdosta, from other places,’” Dillard said.

But Dillard still asked for any help Broome could give. Broome could send only three recommendations — three white men, one of whom was Thibodeau.

“I called and said, ‘Chief Broome, I know I got to be careful with my language, I don’t want to be discriminate here, but I need diversity,’” Dillard said. “He said, ‘I tried, but they won’t leave to Moultrie.’”

Dillard said he called two other city managers for diverse recommendations but to no avail.

“So yeah, those are the labor pains and the baby isn’t here, but I’m going to try again,” Dillard said. “Have I been successful with other diversity? No, I haven’t, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been one heck of an effort.”