Prince George’s County elected leaders discuss political violence, ways to stay safe

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (DC News Now) — Many have concerns that political violence is growing across the United States.

In Prince George’s County, leaders gathered Friday to discuss ways to keep everyone safe.

Councilwoman Jolene Ivey said the three-hour meeting provided valuable safety information so area elected leaders can stay safe.

“There are so many of us who are so close to the people, and we are in public every day, and we want to be in the public. But we don’t want to put our families and ourselves at risk, so the information we get today will help us all be safer,” Ivey said.

Ivey and Police Chief George Nader co-hosted a public officials’ security meeting at Police Headquarters in Upper Marlboro. Prince George’s County elected officials, including those from Annapolis, the County Executive, State’s Attorney, attended to learn and discuss concerns about political violence.

County Executive Aisha Braveboy said this information is vital and meeting with other leaders was the right thing to do.

“We have to be able to represent our people in our community and we have to be able to have political discourse without fearing for our lives,” Braveboy said.

“There are some new public officials in Prince Georgia’s County, and we want to make sure we educate them about things going on around the country. And we have some experts here who can tell them things — how to be safe, and some things they can do to be safer, and things they can do to protect themselves on social media,” Nader said.

Sixty local elected leaders were invited to attend the safety meeting.