HomeMy WebLinkAbout6/2/2020 Item Public Comment, WilsonHello council,
I’m writing to express my deep concern with the recent police involvement in protest activities, and to urge the council to do whatever they can to support police reform in line with
creating a SLOPD with strong cultural competence, alignment with the greater community's desires, accountability measures such as body cameras, and more.
Here is what I recently wrote to the SLO police chief, which sums up my thoughts:
“ In my writing this email, it will be obvious that I fully support all sorts of police reform to put an end to the violence like what we saw in Minneapolis(as well as many other places).
But I wanted to write in particular to express what I believe would be an easy way for YOUR department to show solidarity with this movement.
Having officers surrounding a protest or gathering of yesterday's sort in a defensive manner, and armed with automatic weapons and riot gear is certainly NOT the way to show your support
of the movement. It is actually exactly the opposite- it is creating a you vs. us mentality and STOKING the fire of violence and uprising. And if your response is "well, we need to
be ready in case something happens or gets out of control", then place your riot-ready officers AWAY from the protest, perhaps out of view and certainly not up against the protesters,
and allow other officers to stand in solidarity amongst the group. This seems wildly obvious and I'm so extremely frustrated that not even in a town like SLO would the police department
make such a simple effort to show that they understand that the violence and murder of POC is unacceptable and horrific.
I sincerely hope you and your department are doing whatever possible to support police reform here and elsewhere to prevent the murder of black folks at the hands of law enforcement.
“
This was met with with a quick response of complete dismissal by the police chief, which is even more concerning in a situation where this sort of dialogue should be welcomed, heard,
and considered.
Thanks for your consideration.
Emily Wilson
SLO resident of 7 years