Post by KC on Nov 23, 2006 21:43:19 GMT -5
MADISONVILLE - Several dozen people filled church pews Tuesday evening for a meeting that was originally intended to discuss police search procedures.
But the focus of attention quickly shifted instead to condemnation of a statement made by the police chief one week earlier and discussion concerning how the community should respond.
"If our goal is to fire the chief of police, what is our strategy to achieve that goal?" American Civil Liberties Union volunteer Kenavon Carter asked the group, which calls itself Concerned Citizens of Madisonville, before those in attendance broke into smaller groups to brainstorm strategies.
Police Chief George Sweetin did not attend Tuesday's meeting and could not be reached for comment afterward.
Area residents, many of whom are minorities, have been meeting since September with the ACLU and HipHop Against Police Brutality - an ACLU-sponsored organization founded by Carter, an Austin-based attorney. The coalition's main concern has been that the Madisonville Police Department conducts nearly three times as many consent searches as the state average.
Group leaders and community members crowded into Madisonville City Council chambers last week to present those statistics and demand that the police department revise its strategy for requesting searches that wouldn't otherwise have probable cause.
In interviews with various media outlets after the meeting, Police Chief Sweetin said he didn't take much stock in the complaints.
While describing to a local television station a previous Concerned Citizens meeting he had attended, Sweetin said only 25 percent of the people complaining were "fine, outstanding citizens and productive citizens of this community."
The others, he said, were either ex-cons or currently under indictment.
"It's just not true, and we're angry," the Rev. Fred Randle, a spokesman for Concerned Citizens, said Tuesday of the chief's statement.
The group knows the statement wasn't true, he said, because a sign-in sheet was passed around at the meeting Sweetin attended.
"There were some upstanding people that were there - people that had never been in trouble," Randle said, describing them as retirees, ex-teachers, state workers and nurses. "It was the whole community."
In the week since the statement was made, Randle said, he has received about 50 calls from residents who found the remarks offensive.
"I don't understand where that came from or what was the motivation for that," he said of the chief's statement.
In an open letter to the media, Randle said he wanted to give Sweetin the benefit of the doubt and assume the chief got his statistics backwards. The group has demanded through the media that Sweetin issue a public apology.
So far, the chief has not responded in public or private, organizers said.
During Tuesday's meeting, many suggested that the group make a new demand to the council - that Sweetin be asked to step down as chief.
"Definitely something needs to be done about it," Randle said, explaining that a strategy for how to respond has not yet been finalized. "We're trying to figure out what to do and how to do it."
www.theeagle.com/stories/112206/local_20061122001.php
But the focus of attention quickly shifted instead to condemnation of a statement made by the police chief one week earlier and discussion concerning how the community should respond.
"If our goal is to fire the chief of police, what is our strategy to achieve that goal?" American Civil Liberties Union volunteer Kenavon Carter asked the group, which calls itself Concerned Citizens of Madisonville, before those in attendance broke into smaller groups to brainstorm strategies.
Police Chief George Sweetin did not attend Tuesday's meeting and could not be reached for comment afterward.
Area residents, many of whom are minorities, have been meeting since September with the ACLU and HipHop Against Police Brutality - an ACLU-sponsored organization founded by Carter, an Austin-based attorney. The coalition's main concern has been that the Madisonville Police Department conducts nearly three times as many consent searches as the state average.
Group leaders and community members crowded into Madisonville City Council chambers last week to present those statistics and demand that the police department revise its strategy for requesting searches that wouldn't otherwise have probable cause.
In interviews with various media outlets after the meeting, Police Chief Sweetin said he didn't take much stock in the complaints.
While describing to a local television station a previous Concerned Citizens meeting he had attended, Sweetin said only 25 percent of the people complaining were "fine, outstanding citizens and productive citizens of this community."
The others, he said, were either ex-cons or currently under indictment.
"It's just not true, and we're angry," the Rev. Fred Randle, a spokesman for Concerned Citizens, said Tuesday of the chief's statement.
The group knows the statement wasn't true, he said, because a sign-in sheet was passed around at the meeting Sweetin attended.
"There were some upstanding people that were there - people that had never been in trouble," Randle said, describing them as retirees, ex-teachers, state workers and nurses. "It was the whole community."
In the week since the statement was made, Randle said, he has received about 50 calls from residents who found the remarks offensive.
"I don't understand where that came from or what was the motivation for that," he said of the chief's statement.
In an open letter to the media, Randle said he wanted to give Sweetin the benefit of the doubt and assume the chief got his statistics backwards. The group has demanded through the media that Sweetin issue a public apology.
So far, the chief has not responded in public or private, organizers said.
During Tuesday's meeting, many suggested that the group make a new demand to the council - that Sweetin be asked to step down as chief.
"Definitely something needs to be done about it," Randle said, explaining that a strategy for how to respond has not yet been finalized. "We're trying to figure out what to do and how to do it."
www.theeagle.com/stories/112206/local_20061122001.php
