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Has the Healing Process Started?
 

 It is no secret that the relationship between the Austin Police Department and the Black and Hispanic Communities has been on a fast decline in past recent years. The level of miss-trust and disappointment the Black and Hispanic Community has felt is yet to be realized fully, on a social scale if you will. Recently, the President of the CATF (Community Action Task Force), Pastor Ivy Rich of St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church, a sub group initiated by the Austin Baptist Minister’s Union met with the president of the Austin Police Association, Mike Sheffield and Corporal Mike J. Alexander Northwest Area Command of the Austin Police Department to discuss relationship healing tactics between the Austin Police Department and the Black and Hispanic communities. I guess the real question here is what exactly is Healing? What can the Austin Police Department do to begin the process of healing with the Black and Hispanic Communities?
Let’ revisit the original demand brought forth by the Austin Ministers’ Baptist Union.
On February 21st 2004, the Austin Baptist Ministers’ Union marched on Austin’s City Hall to announce these demands;
• Our police don’t care enough about the people in our community.
• Racial profiling.
• We no longer feel safe to call or seek out the police. We fear them now.
• I think we are not being treated fair as black people by APD.
• It is a scary situation for black men in East Austin.
• Inexperienced officers in East Austin.
• There is a lack of caring police presence in the community.
• Shooting of blacks in East Austin.
• Promotions of black police officers.
• Police Brutality.
• As a citizen, I feel that we as a Black race are being hunted down. It seems that APD are aiming at East Austin. Then we are put in jail for life, possibly for a crime that we may not have committed.
• I am afraid for my son’s life on the streets of Austin because of APD.
• All of the APD officers are not prejudice, but a hand full are and they make it bad for the rest of APD.
• Same sex marriages, gay officers pushing the limits.
• As a citizen of Austin, Texas I am concerned as to how the African-American race is being treated. Where is the justice? That is just what it has come to (“JUST US” - )
Rev. Ricky Williams, Pastor of Greater Union Baptist Church, presented the list of concerns regarding crime in the neighborhood:
• I would like it if the shooting would stop and the drugs everywhere.
• There is illegal Drug activity in the community.
• There is Prostitution in the community.
• Burglaries in the community.
• Car theft in the community.
• Abandoned cars on vacant lots and in front of houses.
• Trash and debris dumped on vacant lots.
• Boarded up houses and abandoned houses serve as a haven for drug users and dealers.
• My prayer is that Northeast Austin residents be treated as Northwest residents. We need: City busing, Traffic lights, Better water systems. The city dumping ground must be moved from our neighborhood.
• I would really like to see more services made available for the homeless to help them have a place to live and teach them how to live in society.
• U-T parking should be held in a parking facility during seasonal games instead of the local neighbor hoods. Rev. Walter Jasper, Pastor of the Antioch Baptist Church and member of the Task Force, presented the concerns regarding economic disparity:
• Black contractors and professionals do not get a fair share of city contracts.
• We need better access to Health Care. Blacks are treated as second class citizens after waiting in long lines for treatment or care.
• Racial discrimination in the hiring and promotion of Black people in the Austin Fire Department.
• Black citizens are suffering double digit unemployment in Austin.
• With all of the ongoing construction in Austin, why are there so few Blacks being hired?
• Black people have been shut out of the Mueller Airport development opportunities.
• Gentrification in East Austin. Blacks are being displaced in the East Austin community.
• Black people have no voice in the governance of the city. White people choose Blacks who need their validation and assign them the role of leaders in the Black community.
• Black and minority students are trailing behind White students in academic performance in Austin.
The Pastors then presented a list of demands and recommendations.
Rev. Sterling Lands, II, Pastor of the Greater Calvary Baptist Church and Chair of the Task Force presented the demands list:
• We demand an immediate end to APD’s use of unnecessary force and racial profiling.
• We demand equal protection under the constitution.
• We demand that the Justice Department conduct a complete thorough investigation into the disproportion of Black deaths at the hand of APD not just a review.
• We demand the establishment of a Police Oversight Commission that reports directly to the Mayor and City Council. The commission should have investigatory authority, subpoena authority and discipline authority.
• We demand drug free and crime free neighborhoods.
• We demand the elimination of racial discrimination at every level. Make it illegal to discriminate against Black people in hiring, housing, health care, etc….
• We demand economic justice. Fair share of all contracts let by the city.
• We demand employment parity. Employment for the employable and training and retraining for the unemployable.
• We demand full participation at every decision making level within the City of Austin.
• We demand that the Mayor, City Council and City Manager aggressively pursue education excellence for all of the citizens of Austin. Raise the academic standard and eliminate the academic performance gap that exists between Black and White students. Restrict city funding to AISD if this requirement is not met. Rev. Ivie Rich, Pastor of the St. Luke Baptist Church and President of the Baptist Ministers’ Union presented a list of recommendations that reflected conversations that members of the Task force had with APD officers:
• Establish a state-of-the-art training program for police officers that is ongoing and recurring and make it mandatory that all officers at every level complete a minimum of 96 approved hours per year.
• Eliminate the barriers to hiring and firing police at every level who violate the law or who disregard and violate department procedures.
• Do away with fixed shifts for police officers. Go to two or three month rotation.
• Police officer promotion should require a minimum of four years active duty with good to excellent performance evaluations each year. Now a patrolman can promote to a detective in two years. Change this to four or five years.
• Get back to basic police work; enforce traffic laws, investigating crimes, patrolling the streets, etc.
• Eliminate excessive special units. Reinstated vice (prostitution, drugs, gambling, etc.)
• Increase the capacity of the patrol officer to do detective work.
• Patrol Sgt. should spend their time on the streets. Leave data entry by civilians. Minimize acting in a reactionary mode.

Have the Austin Police Department read and considered all the commands with the intent on reaching a feasible solution?

Your concerns and comments are always welcome. Keep this one thought in your mind at all times……WHAT EXACTLY IS HEALING?