AFTER ONE AND A HALF DAYS of talks by last Wednesday
afternoon, June 11, the members of the mayor’s racial profiling
committee were standing on a huge tarp, trying to turn it over without
stepping off.
The exercise, paid for with your tax dollars, was suggested by the
group’s facilitator, Kristen Lensen, who told people to try turning the
tarp over if they felt the committee had made any real progress during
its two-day retreat at the Lloyd Center Doubletree Hotel. Eventually,
the tarp was turned, but there was no whooping for joy. Mostly, the
whole effort felt a little embarrassing.
The committee has been meeting since January 2007, and by the end of
last week’s meeting it had yet to make any progress other than
identifying three goals for the next year, including the execution of
small-group situations in which police and the community can interact
positively.
The committee agreed, during its brainstorming session on last
Tuesday afternoon, June 10, that it needs to make “concrete decisions.”
It needs to have some “tangible things [it] can achieve.” The next day,
everyone watched a documentary about white privilege, had a discussion,
and then, moved toward setting the group’s goals.
But for some, progress is too slow. Just before the tarpaulin
turning, the Mercury asked the committee’s co-chair, Jo Ann
Bowman of Oregon Action, how she felt things were going.
“I was really clear with the mayor’s office in the run up to this
retreat that if I didn’t start seeing progress, then an alternative may
be to pursue a class-action lawsuit,” she said, clearly frustrated.
Bowman said she has been talking with attorneys interested in
helping her file such a suit, and that she needs to see firm progress
out of the committee by November or she plans to move ahead.
“If she is serious about making changes at the police bureau, she
needs to stay at the table,” says the mayor’s public safety policy
director, Maria Rubio. “Change takes time and we’re just now beginning
to see some consensus.”