Councilman calls on mayor to resign in Alabama city still reeling from police shooting

By Kayode Crown

In Decatur, a north Alabama city still reeling from a deadly police shooting last fall, a longtime councilman has called for the mayor to resign.

“I would ask, and I join with people, if there’s an ounce of integrity, I would ask that your love for the city will allow you to step down and let someone else take that seat,” Councilman Billy Jackson said during the city council meeting tonight.

Mayor Tab Bowling was walking out of the meeting when Jackson began speaking. The mayor returned to his seat to hear what Jackson had to say but then walked out without commenting.

The mayor emailed a statement to AL.com on Tuesday morning.

“Councilman Jackson and I don’t always see eye to eye, but I know he and I both care deeply about Decatur and our citizens,” the mayor wrote. “He’s welcome to have his own opinions and to share them as he sees fit, and I’m going to keep working for the people of our city.”

The mayor announced last week that he would no longer stay for the public comments portion of council meetings, saying that he and his family have faced threats and accusations in the wake of the police shooting of Stephen Perkins.

Ever since a Decatur police officer shot and killed Perkins last September, many members of the public have spoken during the meetings, blasting the city’s response to the shooting.

Bowling last year announced he will not be running for re-election when his term ends in 2025.

Jackson said he is calling for Bowling’s resignation because there is no way to remove a mayor from office.

“In the past, when the Steve Perkins situation happened, people had talked to me and their question was very simple, ‘How do we get rid of a mayor?’” he said. “And my answer has always been that there is no recourse. We can’t get rid of a mayor. We can’t. There is no recourse in the state of Alabama for us to do that.”

After Perkins’ death, the city fired three officers and suspended a fourth, the family filed a federal lawsuit and a grand jury indicted one officer on a murder charge.

Jackson said that if the mayor steps down, Jacob Ladner, the city council president could fill the position.

“He’s elected. He’s our mayor. And my position also has been that if we get rid of Tab then Jacob becomes mayor. And while I think that Jacob has listened to our public and that’s so vital, I do think that Jacob is more educated. He is more qualified to serve as mayor. And because of the things that happen in our city.”

Jackson also complained about a recent interaction in which he said the mayor told him not to speak directly with city department heads. Jackson said that the mayor told him that after he said he would contact the head of the sanitation department about a citizen complaint lodged during the public comment portion of the last council meeting after the mayor left the meeting.

He read text messages that he said the mayor sent him last week: “…You are nothing more than a citizen when you are not in a quorum. If you have needs in your district, please contact me and I will work with the directors to determine a possible solution.”

Before Jackson called for Mayor Bowling to resign, the city council unanimously passed a new ordinance that allows for people to protest without obtaining permits from the police.

Bowling in December announced a crackdown on protests, saying that anyone who wanted to demonstrate in the city would have to get a permit.

The mayor announced the change following months of protests that started in Decatur after the police shot Perkins in his front yard on Sept. 29. Police arrested some protesters. The mayor noted that protesters demonstrated in his neighborhood and throughout downtown.

“I think it’s a good change,” said Ladner, the council president. “It just kind of clarifies when you need a permit and when you don’t. It’s just further clarification for that.

“Basically in the ordinance, it specifically says that this does not apply to protest, pickets as long as there’s no blocking of the street or public sidewalks blocking, they can do what they need to do,” he said.

In a letter to Mayor Tab Bowling last month, the ACLU of Alabama called for the city to reverse the crackdown.

“The City of Decatur may not regulate speech and protest because of disagreement with the message or finding the activities inconvenient,” the group wrote.

“Therefore, those who have protested and continue to protest the police murder of Mr. Perkins do not lose their constitutional protection because their topic is potentially controversial or the City of Decatur is concerned about the public’s reactions,” the letter stated.

The city’s new ordinance does not apply to demonstrations limited to public sidewalks, parks, and other public places and do not interfere with the movement of people into and out of buildings and the normal flow of pedestrians.

Decatur modeled the new ordinance after one adopted by another northern Alabama city. In 2023, Florence enacted new noise and parade ordinances. Before then, a social justice group had sued, saying the city unlawfully restricted demonstrations after months of protests against a Confederate monument in downtown.

“No parade permit is required where marchers remain on sidewalks and obey all traffic signals and laws at intersections so long as marchers do not interfere with the normal flow of pedestrians and/or the ingress and egress from buildings, parking areas, or rights of way,” according to the newly approved parade ordinance.

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