Four African-American citizens detailed allegations of excessive force by Greensboro police officers during a community meeting tonight at Bethel AME Church, after which they were promptly ushered into a back room where a team of NC A&T University students helped them fill out official complaints to lodge with the US Justice Department.
Organized by a loose multiracial coalition of clergy and activists, the purpose of the meeting was to gather complaints alleging discrimination under the provisions of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which holds that local agencies such as police departments that receive federal funding may not discriminate on the basis of race, color or national origin.
One young couple said they had been driving home after obtaining a money order at Great Stops on East Market Street to pay their rent when an African-American officer followed them home, placed a gun to the young man’s head, threw him against the ground and placed his knee against his back and neck. The young woman said she was Tasered while in handcuffs when she did not comply with the officer’s commands quickly enough, and no longer has full use of her arm as a result.
Another young man who said he has epilepsy described a roadside incident on US Highway 29 in which an officer allegedly knocked out his passenger window and similarly forced him to the ground when he refused to be taken to the hospital after suffering from a seizure that caused him to black out behind the wheel.
An elderly woman named Eva Foster relayed an experience that she has already detailed before the Greensboro City Council in which she said an officer injured her wrist by forcing her down on the floor while handcuffed during a police raid last year at an Asian food market on Coliseum Boulevard. Foster alleges that former police Chief Tim Bellamy broke a promise to her that he would make sure her medical bills were covered.
Earlier this month, the North Carolina Latin Kings led by Jorge Cornell filed a Title VI complaint with the Justice Department, with assistance from a Durham-based social justice organization. Three fired police officers and two active officers, including an unnamed female, who allege they have been subjected to discrimination, also attended the meeting.
The pastors are making a push to compile as many complaints as possible to amplify the petitions of both the Latin Kings and officers facing adverse action within the department. Volunteers passed out brochures published by the Justice Department explaining the discrimination prohibition, along with official complaint forms. Pastors urged people attending the meeting to distribute the complaint forms in their churches and pass them along to friends.
“It’s important to add as many individual voices as possible to the story of Jorge Cornell and the black officers,” said the Rt. Rev. Chip Marble, assisting bishop for the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina.
At about 9 p.m. the lone reporter at the meeting was asked to leave to accommodate an unidentified representative from the Justice Department’s community relations service who reportedly wished to speak with citizens outside of the presence of the news media.
Joseph Frierson, a community organizer with the Beloved Community Center, said a representative of the Justice Department’s civil rights division was in Greensboro for a “roundtable discussion” on a recent Saturday morning that included Cornell, Foster and the Rev. Clarence Shuford, among others.
Tonight’s meeting was attended by 100 to 150 citizens, including five volunteer members of the Greensboro Human Relations Commission and former Mayor Carolyn Allen. Vice Chair Marikay Abuzuaiter said the human relations commission has scheduled a meeting on Dec. 8 at 5:30 p.m. at city council chambers that will include a speakers-from-the-floor segment. In the past, the meeting has been held in the middle of the day, but the commission changed its meeting schedule to make it easier for people who have difficulty getting time off work to attend. Abuzuaiter said the commission is asking the city to allocate funds to televise the meetings.
Some of the pastors indicated that they had expected more people with discrimination complaints to attend, and expressed hope they could be reached in a more private setting. Several speakers articulated more general concerns they would like to take up with the police department or other local agencies One expressed misgivings about a school discipline process that some feel routes minority students into prison. Three clergymen called for further official contrition for the shooting deaths of five communist revolutionaries by the Klan and Nazis in 1979. (The city council issued a statement of regret upon recommendation of the human relations commission in 2009.)
Other stated concerns included a desire for Greensboro to have a police review board with subpoena power; a proposal to require police officers to carry business cards bearing their supervisors’ phone numbers; and an appeal for the city to set aside federal stimulus funding for community organizations for the purpose of facilitating dialogue.
The gathering had an element of mutual aid. The Rev. Nelson Johnson said members of the Latin Kings had been forced out of their jobs because of members of the gang unit speaking with their employers, forcing them to resort to entrepreneurship. Cornell’s two daughters and a young man walked to the front of the assembly, each carrying foam platforms holding sticks of candy shrouded in multicolored, pinwheel-style wrapping. The pastor urged people to buy candies or place an order.
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