EASTHAMPTON — A small, committed group of residents used the public speaking time at the Easthampton City Council’s meeting Wednesday to call for significant changes to policing in the city and beyond, as well as for the police to partner with local activists on reform measures.
“This is not so much an issue of calling out bad cops in Easthampton,” said Kelsey Cropp. “It’s about rethinking the way we do policing, and not necessarily pitting the people against the cops.”
Several of those who spoke were affiliated with the group 01027 A Knee Is Not Enough, which was formed in the wake of a citywide protest June 4 called by Mayor Nicole LaChapelle and Police Chief Robert Alberti.
At the protest, which drew hundreds, people knelt for 8½ minutes to protest racism and the killing of George Floyd. Floyd, a black man, was killed in Minneapolis as a result of Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, kneeling on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder.
Myra Oyedemi and her family knelt during the action, which she described as a powerful symbol, but she said more is required.
“A knee is not enough,” she said. “There must be tangible transformation that moves from the symbolic to the actionable steps which transform policing and health and safety at the national and local level.”
Oyedemi said the group is asking for transparency and accountability as the mayor implements the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance’s Mayor Pledge, which LaChapelle read aloud at the council’s June 3 meeting.
The pledge commits LaChapelle to review police use-of-force policies, engage with communities in the city in the review, report the findings of the review to the community and seek feedback, and to then reform the community’s police use-of-force policies.
Members of A Knee is Not Enough are also asking the city and police for information, including a copy of the police code of conduct, details about police training, information on how to file a complaint against police and a practical analysis of the last three years of policing in Easthampton. Jason Montgomery, one of the group’s members, told the Gazette that this analysis would involve looking at the whole of stops, arrests and police calls to determine where increased access to social services could be a better response than emergency police intervention.
The activists acknowledged that the information they’re seeking is available through public records requests, but they’re asking that it be provided to them as a gesture of good will.
“What we’re asking for is a partnership with the city,” said Kay Collins.
At the meeting, Montgomery said he hadn’t been able to discover on city websites how to file a complaint against an Easthampton officer.
“I found three ways to commend a police officer in our community and not a single way to file a complaint,” he said.
Because the comments came during public speaking time, the council could not respond to them at the meeting. At the previous meeting, the council approved the public safety section of the fiscal 2021 budget, which includes funding for the police, with the same numbers proposed by Mayor Nicole LaChapelle. The section that was approved increased the police budget by more than $24,000.
LaChapelle, who said she hasn’t met yet with A Knee Is Not Enough, said she will be releasing an update on policing in the city, based on her signing the Brother’s Keeper Pledge.
Alberti, the chief, told the Gazette that A Knee Is Not Enough has not reached out to him for a meeting.
“I would love to meet with them,” he said. “Not one of them has reached out to meet with us.”
Montgomery said he has requested a meeting on behalf of the group with the mayor and the chief, and that he did so through the mayor’s office.
Alberti said that the Police Department’s code of conduct is available on the department’s website. He also said that people can file complaints against officers using forms that can be picked up at the Police Department, or by emailing or calling the department.
“We have an official complaint form,” he said.
The department is in the process of putting up all of its policies on the internet, Alberti said. Additionally, he noted that every year in his budget narrative he lays out the statistics for all the police activity in Easthampton for the previous two years.
“Everything is out there,” he said. “We’re not hiding a single thing.”
At the same time, Alberti said that “we strive to do better,” and that he considered the kneeling action to be a first step.
On how Wednesday’s meeting went, Oyedemi said that she thought that the group had been heard.
“The next step is to gather that information,” she said. Once that is done, the group will consider additional demands after which they plan to meet directly with the mayor and the chief.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.