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An Open Letter to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights by Mary Moore

February 23, 1998

My name is Mary Moore. I was one of the organizers of the recent hearings in Sonoma County regarding police/community relations. I have already submitted written testimony to you on the subject of police violence and harrassment in our community. THE SUBJECT OF THIS LETTER IS THE ADVANCE PROCESS & LOGISTICS REGARDING THESE HEARINGS and why so many people were upset and offended on the day of these hearings.

1. The choice of site was done by an advance person (Phil Montez?) who does not know the community.

We knew from the beginning that the state building was a very bad choice and we asked to have it moved to the Vets Memorial Building. That site offered better parking and accesability as well as rooms that would seat alot more people than 80. We were told that we couldn't move it because of a rule that the site had to be advertised 30 days in advance.

Because of this obscure "rule" your venue of choice created a huge public relations problem with a community already stressed. To make matters worse the building manager and her crew at the state building were extremely rude to people who only wanted to give input to you. A non violent overflow crowd was prevented from using the elevator or the stairs by a fleet of C.H.P. officers. While you were up on the 4th floor you were unaware of an increasingly angry crowd of people in the lobby who were forced to wait in line for HOURS before gaining access to the hearings. Many left in disgust and did not come back. All of this could have been prevented if your people had listened to the community in the first place.

Why didn't your advance person get input from us before selecting a site and when we warned him of the consequences why did he not listen?

2. Because of the scarcity of space there were other problems that happened.

By now you must be aware that the yellow buttons (police and their supporters) packed the first hearing at 9:00 A.M. We believe they had advance notice about the logistics because all their people lined up at the elevator very early on. We were not told until later that this was the procedure for gaining access and by the time we realized what was happening there was no more room. When we complained we were told that after two hours the hearing room would be cleared and new people would be allowed in. At 11:00 A.M. you asked for the room to be cleared and many of the yellow buttons refused to give up their seats. When they were pushed many of them simply went out the door and came back in. \

Meanwhile the crowd of community members downstairs grew, both in size and in irritation. At one point when the crowd downstairs realized that many family members had never been allowed in they gave up their space in line so that family members could go first. That was the only way family members got access. When the family members were finally allowed up the whole crowd downstairs cheered. You obviously were unaware of all this.

The lack of fairness shown by law enforcement supporters is the best example we can give of what this community has been experiencing these past years.

3. Several of the organizers were told by Tom Pilla that because there would be so much input from the community, you would allow the public portion of the hearing to go beyond the 5:30 shutoff time.

I was personally told that this was common procedure in other communities so not to worry about it. Other organizers were also assured this would be so. We were told that there would be about 3-4 minutes each for this public input. Because your hearings were held on a work day we assured community members that they could still give testimony after their work day ended and many people showed up to do just that. Imagine our surprise when on the morning of the hearing we were told by Mr. Pilla that you had decided the night before to shut off community input at 5:30. He said you had made this decision because you had already received so many advance requests. That makes no sense. If you knew that this community was going to be so vocal it would make more sense to let people have their say.

YOU DON'T PUT THE LID BACK ON A PRESSURE COOKER WHEN IT GETS TO BOIL!

We tried to negotiate with Mr. Pilla & Ms. Youngblood (she was always very courteous) to have you extend the input as promised. You handled it by giving people only one minute instead of the 3-4 originally promised. You can't say much in one minute especially considering the many stories that are complex in nature. For myself, I gave up my original input (youth harrassment) to try and let you know how badly these hearings were handled on a logistics level.

You came into our community without getting input from us regarding site. You allowed the police and their supporters to abuse the access to the hearings. You created an unnecessary situation in the lobby that left a very bad impression on people who only wanted to be heard. And you were unwilling to stay to hear the very people who are most affected by the extremely bad police/community relations in Sonoma County. You heard from a small percentage of people who had such important things to tell you. You heard the tip of the iceberg.

Please consider returning to our community to hear from the people who were shut out of this forum.

Mary K. Moore, Sonoma County Free Press
P.O. Box 296 • Occidental, CA 95465  •  707 874-2258 / 829-2417

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