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Fiancé of protest organizer vows to hold board accountable

By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer


ASHWAUBENON – The village board heard Aug. 25 from the fiancé of a De Pere woman who is refusing to pay an invoice for nearly $800 after organizing a Black Lives Matter protest July 14 in Ashwaubenon.

The $763 invoice sent to Hannah Lundin by Ashwaubenon Public Safety Commander Nick Kozloski was due Aug. 16 and included $590 in charges for police and $172 in special event charges for closing off streets.

Her attorney, David Hassel, told the village board billing Lundin for the protest doesn’t make sense as a public policy matter.

Hassel disputed the protest amounted to a “special event” under the village code, requiring advanced notice of least 45 days.

He argued it was a political demonstration in which advance notice requirements “drastically burden free speech.”

Hassel said Lundin, who is a working mother with three children, was unable to attend the meeting, but her fiancé, Tevin Taylor, wanted to address the board during the public comment period.

Taylor said the invoice sent to Lundin shows the village “does not support Black people nor the Black Lives Matter movement, because the whole message of the Black Lives Matter movement and the protest that we were doing was to bring awareness and to bring some type of change and advancement for Black people.”

Taylor said the absence of any Black people on the board told him “a lot about the intentions and the overall care about how you feel about Black people.”

He said sending an invoice for nearly $800 to Lundin amounts to the village sending the message “you do not want people protesting in the Village of Ashwaubenon.”

Taylor said he would hold the board members accountable “because you hold the positions of power to make some change and do something from what I’ve seen has not been done.”

“I always tell people you need substance over symbolism,” he said. “I would like to see something done.”

Taylor said the invoice “is not going to stop us until you guys use your position of power to actually start making some changes around here for the advancement of Black people.”

“We are going to hold you accountable, and this amount of pressure is not going to ease up,” he said. “You cannot sit here and tell me or say that you care about the overall advancement of Black people when I don’t see not a single Black person on this council.”

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