Mayor Francis G. Slay stepped onto the spotlighted stage at the Public Accountability Meeting held at the Union Avenue Christian Church on Monday, November 23. The hosting coalition of advocacy and clergy groups waited to hear his answers on reform to municipal legislation and police policy – the same questions they had wanted to ask at their November 1 meeting that he didn’t attend.
“Mayor Slay, will you work with [Police Chief Sam Dotson] to create a consolidated training center for St. Louis County and city?” Marcia Hayes-Harris, of Empower Missouri, asked the mayor.
Without hesitation, Slay answered “yes” to this question and several others, including incorporating “strong components” of implicit bias, cultural sensitivity and appropriate use of force into police training.
These recommendations came from the Ferguson Commission’s report “Forward Through Ferguson.” Since its release in September, the coalition of clergy, students and activists have been meeting with elected officials to demand their commitment to pushing forward the agenda.
All of Slay’s commitments earned loud applause from about 300 attendees. The loudest applause came after his commitment to the new Civilian Oversight Committee, which is charged with reviewing complaints of excessive police force.
Slay said he would work toward changing the City Charter to give the committee subpoena power and toward making the committee independent from the city’s Public Safety Department, which also oversees the police department.
He also agreed to deploy the city’s lobbyists to support Senate Bill 559, the “Fair and Impartial Policing Act” sponsored by state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal.
Slay commended Rev. Starsky Wilson for being a good community leader – even though Wilson and other activists occupied Slay’s office earlier this month after he skipped the November 1 meeting.
Slay seemed relaxed and good-natured as he commended the audience as well.
“There’s nothing that I enjoy more than seeing people who are passionate about our community who don’t sit at home and think and talk and complain,” he said, “but actually get out and let your voices be known.”
Attorney General Chris Koster, a Democrat running for governor, did not have the same tact.
Michelle Higgins, of the South City Church, called Koster up to the stage, after prefacing her question with the damaging effects of racial profiling.
“Mr. Koster, as attorney general, chief law enforcer of this state of Missouri, will you use the power of your office to work to end racial profiling throughout the state?”
Koster seemed hurried to take Higgins’ place at the podium mic, which got a negative reaction from some in the crowd.
He said, “Yes,” but then launched into addressing a point that James Croft of the Ethical Society had made earlier in the meeting.
Croft spoke of shutting down streets, holding up banners at the symphony and baseball games, and chanting alongside hundreds of others for change.
“I remember countless acts of courage from people like you, people willing to stand against all the power of that system and demand not just a voice, not just equality, but justice for all,” Croft said.
Koster clearly had a speech prepared, but he sidelined it to jump on Croft’s comment.
“I appreciated your invocation at the beginning,” Koster said, “but I have to say while you took note of a thousand acts of courage that occurred in the street, there was no note of the thousand acts of courage of Missouri law enforcement officers who kept the city of Ferguson and people safe.”
The boos started halfway through his comment. People yelled back that peaceful protestors were teargassed while many Ferguson businesses were burned last November – after the St. Louis County grand jury chose not to indict Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown Jr.
“That is my opinion, that someone should stand and thank law enforcement officials during this period,” Koster said.
Koster seemed to steal his own thunder. After that, his speech about his work – promoting police-worn body cameras and recruiting more minority law enforcement officers – hardly kept the audience’s attention.
But he did get applause for mentioning that the state’s deadly force law is 30 years out of date. He said the statute is inconsistent with the United States Supreme Court’s holding in Tennessee v. Garner – which addressed when an officer can justifiably use deadly force. Missouri’s outdated statute was a complicating factor in prosecuting Wilson.
“Missouri statues were never updated after the Supreme Court case,” Koster said. And legislators need “to make this issue one of their top priorities.”
Koster left right after his speech.
However, Slay stayed until the meeting’s end, along with several other elected officials who stood up and said they supported the “Forward Through Ferguson” agenda – including state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed; state Reps. Kimberly Gardner, Courtney Curtis and Tommie Pierson; St. Louis County Councilwoman Hazel Erby; and St. Louis Alderwomen Megan Ellyia Green and Lyda Krewson.
Follow this reporter on Twitter @RebeccaRivas.
