Alan Weber, a member of the activist group Woodstockers United for Change, wants the town to take a stronger stance on civil-rights issues and hopes to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ and women and to resist efforts to round up undocumented immigrants.
The majority of the town board wants to make sure that the proposed policies, if and when enacted, would be within the bounds of the law.
“We affirm the equal rights of women, including the right of women to control their own reproductive health, and will support all efforts to defend those rights,” Alan Weber said as he read a proposed resolution during the Public Be Heard portion of the November 19 meeting of the town board.
“We embrace the LGBTQ+ community as equal and respected members of our community, and will vigilantly defend them against any attempts to demean, harm or strip them of their hard-fought rights,” the proposed resolution continued. “We stand firm that all contributing members of our community, residents and workers, are welcome and protected. We will not cooperate with any attempts by any authority to conduct workplace raids, family separations or campaigns to encourage neighbors to turn in neighbors based on immigration status.”
It further proclaimed support of public schools’ freedom to design curricula that “reflect historic truth, established science, separation of church and state and inclusion.”
It also affirmed a commitment to continue to protect the environment and to stand against hate, bigotry, supremacy, discrimination, scapegoating and marginalization.
Back in July 2017, when there was support for Woodstock becoming a sanctuary town, supervisor Bill McKenna had resisted the idea. He said he did not want to give people false hope and did not want to attracted unwanted attention from federal authorities.
Police policy exemplifies the town’s approach. As a matter of policy, for the past several decades the Woodstock police have not asked about immigration status when questioning or stopping people. Coordination between the town Human Rights Commission and the police department resulted in a policy against cooperating with general warrants calling for the rounding up of undocumented people. The town police will only cooperate with a directive signed by a judge that has a suspect’s name on it.
That policy has also promoted unbiased policing for all.
While the town has such a policy, it has no power over other agencies whose jurisdictions include Woodstock, such as New York City Department of Environmental Protection police, Ulster County sheriff’s office, the state police or federal agencies.
Other policies make it easier for people who are often marginalized to lead more normal lives, such as a municipal ID law in 2019, which makes it easy for people to obtain an official form of identification. Undocumented town residents can now obtain something they can show to businesses or even to be able to pick up their children at school. This alleviates a problem the trans community had in obtaining identification that shows the gender they identify with instead of their gender at birth.
In 2019, the town board adopted a resolution in support of the Driver License Privacy Act, known as Green Light NY. Anyone in New York can obtain a driver’s license regardless of immigration status — provided they need all other requirements.
Councilmember Anula Courtis, though not opposed to Weber’s statement, thought there were more appropriate ways to request enactment of policy. She said the steps made by the board and the HRC in prior years had addressed many of the concerns in the proposed resolution.
As recently as 2020, the HRC asked the town board for an official statement supporting equality. “We stand to oppose and dismantle the machine that oppresses a portion of the population in order to enhance the privilege of another segment,” the letter said. “There have been too many deaths of black and brown individuals at the hands of the police. We stand together with a loud shout, ‘No more!’”
In February 2022, the HRC and the town board issued a joint statement denouncing a white supremacist group that had assembled on the village green.
Councilmember Laura Ricci said she was 100 percent behind Weber’s message, but wanted to make sure any action the town takes was within the law.
“I would be dismayed and upset if we had raids in Woodstock,” said Ricci, who wants to consult with other members about passing a resolution on the subject. “I certainly wouldn’t like it at all, but am I going to commit to break the law? I would have to give that some thought, but I certainly don’t want any raids in Woodstock, for sure. I agree with all these things, but we do need to pay attention to the law of the land and work within the bounds of the law of the land and do our best to achieve each of these things, but also do our best to not break the law.”
If such a measure were brought up for a vote, it would likely be a memorializing resolution. It would provide no legal authority but would state a position.
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