Killing Of Missouri Teen Reminds San Diegans Of Problems Between Minorities And Police

MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Our top story on Midday Edition, and more disturbing images from Ferguson Missouri today. Once again, crowds protesting the killing a black teenager Michael Brown were met with tear gas after violating a state imposed curfew. And follow-up from the shooting of Michael Brown has reverberated across the country. Black community groups in San Diego as well as the San Diego Police Department are evaluating law enforcement equity in our city. Would like to welcome my guests, Mario Lewis, Detective Sergeant Ben Kelso, and Lei-Chala Wilson. Welcome to the program. Why do you think this one tragic shooting has galvanized the attention of the nation? LEI-CHALA WILSON: You might look at it as one tragic shooting, but it also follows on many other tragic shootings. We just had the Eric Garner case in New York, people have not forgotten about Trayvon Martin, they haven't forgotten about Jordan Davis, they have not forgotten about Ezell Ford, those killings by the police. It's not one tragic shooting. Look over the years, there have been many shootings where black man who were unarmed were killed by police. There are other dynamics here. You have someone who was shot, people believe he was surrendering, with his hands up. As far as we know, the officer had no information he was engaged in criminal activity. You have a body left out there for hours in the street which showed a lot of disrespect. You also have a city where there's a history of the police not being fair to the community. When you have a city that is majority black, and the Police Department with fifty-three officers with only three, that is in the message. But there is a lot of other dynamics than just the tragic shooting. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Detective Sergeant Ben Kelso, as a black police officer, do you have conflicted feelings about this incident? I would imagine you could see a little bit of both sides of what is going on here. BEN KELSO: Absolutely. I think it is important to make sure that we state in any incident like this, that there are a lot of injured feelings in the community that are broken and damaged as a result of this incident. As a law enforcement officer I have the capability of objectively viewing both sides of the incident. It does not take away or make the incident any less tragic than it is. I think any time there's a death involved with law enforcement or any other situation in that regard, it's a very tragic and very personal incident MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Mario, tell us about 100 Strong, and the groups response to what is happening in Ferguson. MARIO LEWIS: 100 Strong is a community advocate group. It is 100 to God, family, and community. We are doing a reclaiming the community effort, which we began four years ago when a young man was murdered here in San Diego. Now we decided to go on coalition with other organizations to march through certain communities. We have five designated parks we go through and we marched through those communities, give out resource information, we invite the community to come back to the park, and those people with resources are there for them talk to. We try to engage the community and have a sustained movement so we can educate people. Because of the recent shootings with Michael Brown, we have dedicated the next March to Michael Brown and victims of police homicide. This is something near and dear to my heart. This is a situation that has built up over a decade with of stuff that sparked off like a match. When you have disparities in the community, you have a police force in occupying force in the community. When you have economic numbers very high, you are in a situation where anything can spark that off. The murder of that young man was a spark that needed to happen for the community to go into rebellion. It's unfortunate that businesses got burnt and a lot of set happened to that time, but those are the types of things that happen in rebellion when they are decades of abuse in the community. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: How far is San Diego from that? MARIO LEWIS: Thousands of miles. But it touches everyone. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: What I'm saying is, how far away are we from an incident like that? Is there a spark that could ignite the kind of reaction here? Or have we gone further, and have way better communication between police and the community? LEI-CHALA WILSON: If it happened in San Diego, it would not surprise me, and in fact I expected to happen across the country. If we see any more killing like this, unarmed, young black men, it could happen any day. I don't have any information where there will be some kind of uprising, but you never know. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Let me go to a clip. Last week San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman released this public service announcement about racial profiling: [AUDIO FILE PLAYING] SHELLEY ZIMMERMAN: Members of our community, I want to be absolutely clear. The San Diego Police Department does not and will not tolerate any racial profiling or discourteous treatment by any officers or employees. If you feel there is a problem, we want to know about. There are many ways you can report any concerns that you have. That is all work together, to make sure that we continue to foster the highest standards of community trust. Thank you for the privilege an opportunity to serve you. [END AUDIO FILE] MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: The number included in that public service announcement is 619-531-2672. Do you think that people who feel unfairly targeted will actually use that number? LEI-CHALA WILSON: It is debatable. The problem is, it's a number into the Police Department, and we know there have been numerous complaints of racial profiling, other complaints of abuse by police officers, discourteous treatment, and although you have the internal affairs and citizens review board, a lot of times people do not contact those numbers because they do not trust the person they're calling. Whether or not people will reach out or not, I am not sure. My concern is, that they don't trust that if they call that number that they will be taken seriously, or if they call, they are worried about retaliation. We have heard that from other community members, that they don't trust calling the police department. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Detective Sergeant, before the previous police chief retired, there was criticism growing that there was a collapse in record keeping on traffic stops. There's a strong feeling among committee groups that racial profiling was indeed taking place. What is the stance of the Black Police Officers Association on that? BEN KELSO: The Black Police Officers Association in San Diego as a local chapter of the National Black Police Officers Association stands against racial profiling said all forms. We also advocate for legislation to enact rules and penalties for racial profiling, it would participate in training on both the law enforcement and the community side, in dealing with police contacts. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Is it your feeling that it is happening here? BEN KELSO: My feeling personally, and as president of the Association, is that incidents happen all over the country. Whether they can be proven and determined to be that is altogether different. I believe the best stance to take is to take a proactive stance against it to make sure that the statement is made that racial profiling is not tolerated and I think the chief of police has done that. The impact has yet to be seen, we will have to see what happens in the future, we can't predict that. To address what Lei-Chala said about whether people would be comfortable enough to call, the communication piece with the community is very important to being able to resolve issues and problems. More work needs to be done on behalf of the police Department to better increase those lines of communication, that will have to be done. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Is there more training that the San Diego police officers need to relate and deal with members of every community in San Diego? BEN KELSO: I believe that training is certainly a good thing to have across the board. I believe that the police department is working on developing newer and more cutting-edge training to better be able to relate to people, and at the same time, groups like the NAACP and 100 Strong and the BPOA are working to enhance training community on how to better interact and deal with law enforcement. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: That was one thing that I wanted to bring up. The former chief used to say, when community forums were held, no one brought up the subject of racial profiling. He said that on a number of occasions. Is a your feeling that the community has spoken out strongly enough about their concerns and challenges to the San Diego Police Department? LEI-CHALA WILSON: I believe so. There have been not only unity forums, but also, new chief of police Shelley Zimmerman, there was a community hearing at the Jacob center, and there also hearings on the public safety level neighborhoods hearings. She has said on numerous occasions I hear you loud and clear, and she will not tolerate racial profiling. So there will never be anyone able to say that we did not tell them, because they have heard numerous stories from different communities and community members. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: What more could the black community do to foster a better relationship with the San Diego Police Department? MARIO LEWIS: First of all, everyone needs to know their rights. People need to come out to these assembly meetings and actually meet the new police chief. I have met chief Zimmerman on several occasions, she is actually came to my place of business and we talked for several hours. I think her heart is truly in the right place and trying to get rid of racial profiling. I believe her statement was a little premature, I think she should actually have seen the process foster itself first before she actually made a statement like that, because I'm still over in the community of color, I am in the fourth district, and I still some of these things happening especially with the gang detail unit. I think it will take all of us to be educated about a lot of stuff that is going on in our community, and actually really take the time to interest in the people in the numbers they have given us to utilize those. I make it a point, when we do these, to know your rights workshops inside of my barbershop, and we basically tell everybody to also always have a camera phone with you so you can record and take pictures of things that you do see, so it's not just your word, we actually show people certain things that this is what I saw and what I saw happen. We just have to educate ourselves all around. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: What is the a conversation going on in your barbershop about this incident in Ferguson? MARIO LEWIS: It's a major debate. We have a major debate that a lot of people think the situation is just a situation happening here, you have opportunists going out there voting, and that is true. But for people to rebel in this manner is something that took years to foster. It took Mike's death to foster this thing right here. Our debates have been long and hard about this, I think the sentiment in the barbershop is that it definitely seems wrong. There's a gigantic? About this. Instead of going to these processes every year, we would really like to see something done on the federal level. This is out of control. We're not here at a table talking about a young white man being murdered by police. We don't ever have those conversations. It always seems to be the young unarmed black male that we talk about. I think we all have to take a look in the mirror and try to figure out a total solution to this problem. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: With all this focus on a Ferguson in the news, is it something that helps the process of communication, all of the attention, or does the way this reported tend to divide people even more? LEI-CHALA WILSON: I say yes to both questions. The second part, yes it divides people. You've seen that the KKK is out raising money for the police officer. You have majority of the community who is white backing the officer, and what they have to understand, the black community is not trying to railroad this man. They want him identified, they want him arrested, and they want him tried. What they want is accountability, and they want justice. So far, I think that was part of the problem. The chief of that city was so slow to move. People are speculating, wondering if the police are hiding information, are they trying to get the story together, and that is what is fueling some of the anchor. I think if they would handle it differently, it would maybe have turned out differently. But the fact it is in the news and did not go away, it shows how serious the problem is, a serious the community is, and how much serious work we need to do in the future. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: And in the minute that we have left, Mario, perhaps you could tell us more about the event on Saturday? MARIO LEWIS: Yes, Saturday the twenty-third, Marie Wightman Park in Encanto, we will be assembling with nine other organizations, right now our RSVP says about 200 people will be walking in the community. Will be coming back, feeding the entire community for free, and we will be giving out resource information so people can access some of the resources we have available within our community, and it will be in honor of the people all in and murdered in police terrorism and police homicide. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Thank you all very much.