North Country Public Radio
Deputies from the Franklin County Sheriff Department sit in front of a Blue Lives Matter flag at a police reform meeting in February 2021.
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Conversations about systemic racism and policing are happening across New York right now, sparked by a statewide mandate to reform law enforcement agencies after the death of George Floyd last summer. The reform process has revealed deep divisions in the way people in the North Country think about racial bias and policing .
After George Floyd was killed by police, there were protests against police brutality and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in Glens Falls, Saranac Lake, Ogdensburg, Potsdam and Plattsburgh.