Candidates share their visions at NAACP forum

Candidates share their visions at NAACP forum

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The county NAACP asked a hot button question to candidates for West Memphis mayor during its September meeting. A variety of forums have afforded both city and county candidates a public campaign platform. The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority donned its pink blazers and hosted a candidates forum in the primary where three early announcers for mayor presented themselves along with county candidates.

Next, the Coalition for a quality Crittenden County produced a series of four forums for all candidates in the city and county. It’s final shot for the public to meet candidates is Sept. 27 at the Eugene Woods Civic Center. The local Real Estate Association was set to present another forum for just West Memphis mayor candidates in October.

“This will be a historic election for mayor in West Memphis, there will be a new mayor for the first time in 20 years,” said President Shabaka Afrika.

“There will be a new regime, new policies, and a new direction. We need to carefully consider our votes.”

Many of the candidates for mayor attended, but two were absent. On hand in the order of appearance, Wayne Croom, Fred Leonard, Ramona Taylor and Marco McClendon. Eric Johnson and Lorenzo Parker did not attend the session.

The group expressed to candidates the desire for the next mayor to establish a civil rights commission as an external review board aimed at police accountability.

“Police work is a noble profession but we have no strong oversight for accountability,” said Afrika.

“What do you want to see happen?”

Candidate Croom introduced himself, presented his platform and spoke directly to crime and policing. He indicated success was best measured by results.

“One of the five things you need at the nucleus of the city,” said Croom. “You need a good police department. That means low crime. We know where our crime is. I heard on the radio the other day our city had its twelfth murder of the year.”

“We’ve hired a new police -community liaison and she has done a really good job so far. You have to have a CANDIDATES

committee of stake holders not just for police department oversight but also to help plan our city. Some of the older officers I recently talked to said they’d like to see some walking patrol around town, which we don’t have anymore. We need police present in schools and involved in community activities. Then people may take a different image of a police officer, that they are there as a friend. It will take a lot of work to straighten the relationships we’ve been talking about. It will take more than what we’ve been doing for sure.”

Fred Leonard tackled the police question by pointing to some successes in the Little Rock.

“Crime is an issue that tends to be on everybody’s mind,” said Leonard. “I believe in community policing. You may remember the documentary Gang War: Bangin’ in the Rock. Little Rock was really bad at the time and so they did some things that I’d like to bring here.

“One thing is community policing. I’m not talking about getting out with cops and walking the streets but engaging the community with conversation. Instead of being reactive, we need to be proactive. If our community has a good relationship with our law enforcement officers then when there is something going on in your community you do not mind talking to them letting them know what is going on. Little Rock built resource centers they had services.

That worked very well for them. Like here, I don’t want to be a snitch, but if you have a stake and ownership in your community, you try to better your community. Its not about snitching and telling its about doing what is right.

That is the only way to progress. You can point fingers at the police department, but we all have a responsibility to take ownership in this, “When officers aren’t doing what they are charged to do, we need to speak up for that as well.

Citizens need communication with the chief if they see things going the way they should not.

Its what the NAACP does, support those complainants and also run the entire process. There is a process already set when you have a complaint.”

Candidate Ramona Taylor said the police department has turned its culture in a positive direction.

“It starts with fielding the right candidates and properly training them,” said Taylor. “I think they’ve done that. They really work on having a higher ratio of African American applicants. One way they do that is by creating their own law enforcement academy. If you are a young man, have a family and then have to go to Camden for four months, that makes a deterrent. Now they can get trained here, stay with their family and help raise their family. Another step forward was the citizens academy about what we should and can expect from police. I’ve heard a lot of good from those that have done that.

“The community outreach director, I think that is going to be amazing so that we have more community meetings. The more we talk, the better we are going to be at doing things. We can look to see what other communities have done that have been successful.

There is a barber shop initiative that a couple of police chiefs in North Carolina started. The police become intentional about working with local barbers and having a friendly presence in the shops. The citizens are our customers.

They pay our salaries. We need to have that focus.”

Marco McClendon said that crime and murder had impacted his life and good police-community relations must start at home.

“I sponsored a resolution on gun violence in West Memphis,” said McClendon. “Of the 126 people murdered since the ‘90’s, I probably knew 80 of the people. So, when we think about crime it goes deep with me, because it was someone I knew. I get passionate because of the love that I have for this city.

Men have been beaten by the system, the power struggle in West Memphis.

“We go back to crime we have to strengthen the family. With my crime plan I want to get heavily involved in intervention and prevention. Policing is not the problem. You know 94 percent of the murders are solved? If prisons are making building plans based on third grade population, why can’t we come up with third grade career pathways? Anti bullying, why are we not using the Roberta Jackson Neighborhood Center and put proper programs in there and empower our community. Success starts at home and I can’t legislate that, but I can put a program for intervention in West Memphis.

There are 89 black churches in West Memphis. Some are doing a great job, some not enough. With that many churches in our community we should not have a big bothers out reach plan or adopting a street to keep their street clean. We all got to get involved.

McClendon finished by touting summer youth employment programs.

By John Rech