Wednesday, July 29, 2020 | 6:45 p.m.
Douglas County Sheriff Dan Coverley is shown during a news conference in Reno on Monday, Jan. 28, 2019.
The Douglas County Public Library in Northern Nevada and the Sheriff’s Office are back on good terms following an apparent threat earlier this week that suggested law enforcement would not respond to the library over its support of the Black Lives Matter movement, according to a joint statement published today.
After Douglas County Sheriff Dan Coverley walked back his comments and “clarified” that his deputies would continue responding to calls for service at the library Tuesday, he and library Director Amy Dodson talked.
“Sheriff Coverley and I had a very candid conversation about the statement and we both expressed our opinions regarding the intent of our exchanged correspondence,” Dodson wrote in the statement published on the sheriff’s website today. “We agreed that we both support the people of Douglas County and this may have been an unfortunate circumstance of misunderstanding. The library respects and supports the work of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and appreciates everything they do to keep our community safe.”
“I am passionate about and proud of the work the Sheriff’s Office does for all members of this community,” Coverley wrote. “This has been a difficult time to be a law enforcement professional and can be disheartening when we perceive that our office may be under attack. My response was rooted in my belief that these issues need to be openly discussed in a way that values diversity and law enforcement.”
Coverley’s frustration came Monday in response to a diversity statement the library intended to propose at a board meeting Tuesday, which was ultimately postponed.
Citing support for Black Lives Matter, the four-paragraph statement denounced “all acts of violence, racism, and disregard for human rights ... We resolutely assert and believe that all forms of racism, hatred, inequality and injustice don’t belong in our society.”
A growing number of libraries across the country have put out similar messages following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in late May.
In its statement, the Douglas County library said it was going to add its name to a list of more than 170 public libraries in signing the Urban Libraries Council statement on race and social equality.
Learning about its intention to support Black Lives Matter, Coverley put out a letter Monday denouncing the movement and the proposed diversity statement, which he saw as an “obvious lack of support or trust with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office,” adding, “please do not feel the need to call 911 for help.”
Most of the verbiage in Coverley’s letter was copied from a letter by a group of state attorneys to U.S. senatorial and congressional leaders, the Nevada Independent reported.
The Black Lives Matter movement is not monolithic and doesn’t have an official chapter in Nevada. Douglas County, with a population of about 47,000, is 89% white, according to the 2010 Census.
On Tuesday, he said his letter was more a public comment rather than a directive, vowing that his department would continue providing service to the library “impartially.”
The board meeting in which the statement was to be discussed will be rescheduled.
