CCSJC, Town Councilors, Continue To Spar Over Prioritizing The Needs Of Amherst’s Most Vulnerable Residents

Report On The Meeting Of The Community Safety And Social Justice Committee, October 12, 2022

The meeting was held over Zoom and was recorded. The packet for the meeting can be viewed here. 

Present
Dee Shabazz (co-chair), Allegra Clark (co-chair), Phillip Avila, Debora Ferreira, Pat Ononibaku. Freke Ete
Staff: Pamela Young (Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), Earl Miller, (Director of CRESS)

Council participants: Lynn Griesmer (President, and District 2), Michelle Miller (District 1), Dorothy Pam (District 3), Anika Lopes (District 4), and Ellisha Walker (at large)

Three other town councilors and two members of the public also attended.

Highlights

• Fraught discussion about upcoming consideration of the Amherst Nine incident and the council’s response to it as well as to queries and requests for interventions made by the CCSJC. Committee expressed dismay that the town council is unwilling to commit more time and money to issues that impact Amherst’s most vulnerable residents. Councilors and committee members pledged to seek ways to move the work forward.
  
• CRESS reported 1,858 engagements during their first four weeks of operation. The program is currently working 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday and will move to 9 a.m. to midnight, seven days/week on January 7
  
• DEI  is seeking to establish translation services in town. Continues to differ with CCSJC on whether it was appropriate for the DEI director to author a report on the Amherst Nine incident.
  
• Committee reports 
  
• Vira Cage offered a public comment

Preparation For Meeting With The Town Council
The bulk of this meeting was devoted to preparing for a discussion with the Town Council at their next meeting (Monday October 17) about the July 5 incident concerning harassment of BIPOC Youth, now widely referred to as The Amherst Nine, by Amherst Police (APD).

CCSJC members repeated concerns that had been raised at previous meetings,  that  town officials have yet to respond in any way to the Amherst Nine incident, that the town council has ignored requests from the CCSJC for a response to the incident and for a proposal for redress , that the Amherst Police Department has yet to issue a report on their internal investigation of the matter, and that DEI Director Pamela Young should not have been asked to evaluate the issue when she was new to the job and was  not have given investigative authority to do so. They also said  it would be  inappropriate for her to comment on the incident at the upcoming council meeting because she would not have new information to present. They emphasized that they seek redress for the members of the Amherst Nine and their families to repair and heal the harm that resulted from the incident. And they called on the council to work with them to come up with processes and remedies to prevent incidents like this from happening and to provide a formal process for addressing them when they do. They protested that allocating only an hour to take up the discussion is hardly sufficient for addressing all that needs to be discussed and noted that a good deal of that hour would likely be taken up listening to reports from Scott Livingstone, Amherst’s police chief, and Young. They noted that time and money always seem to be in short supply when Amherst’s most vulnerable residents are concerned. 

Griesemer defended Young’s report, noting that she was fulfilling an assignment from the town manager. She lamented the packed agenda of the town council, acknowledging the concerns raised by CCSJC as important but standing firm that there is only room for an hour of discussion at the next meeting. She emphasized that she cares deeply about the concerns raised by the CCSJC and that she has been seeking a way forward to address them but is handcuffed by the packed agenda. She suggested that CCSJC and the council prioritize hearing the reports from  Livingstone and Young, and move on from there. She said that time would be set aside for a Q&A following their reports.

In the end, no changes in the council meeting’s agenda were made. Griesemer agreed to distribute the forthcoming reports to the CCSJC and councilors before the meeting so that they would not have to be processed on the spot and so that all parties would have more time to be thoughtful about what they want to ask. Councilors and committee members suggested that an apology from the town and the police at the outset would do much to move the discussion along. The groups were split on the idea of organizing a retreat to discuss the issues, with some councilors and some committee members believing that not much gets done at retreats. Both Giesemer and CSJCC Co-chair Dee Shabazz concluded by pledging to move forward with the work though no concrete plans were adopted for next steps. 

“How are the Amherst Nine being supported, how are they and their families being taken care of? I want to see the town council addressing this on Monday. I’m not only looking for an apology but also a remedy to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. And I’d like to know how the cops are going to be held accountable.”

Debora Ferreira, CCSJC member

The Discussion
Councilors Griesemer,  Miller, Lopes , and Walker were present as participants. Councilors 
Dorothy Pam (District 3), Ana Devlin Gauthier (District 5), Andy Steinberg (at large) were in the audience.

Griesemer opened the discussion by asking CCSJC members what they want to get out of Monday’s council meeting. 

Debora Ferreira said that she can’t attend because of another commitment and that she had received no notice that the CCSJC would be having their engagement with the council at this meeting. She asked whether the CCSJC would be brought into the discussion promptly and pointed out that on two previous occasions they had to wait almost two hours to be brought into the discussion to which they had been invited. Ferreira challenged Young’s authority to have investigated and reported on  the incident, saying that she lacked the authority to do so. She asked, “ How can [Pamela] do a report if she has no power to investigate? That report was picked up by the papers and interpreted as an exoneration of the police, and she is in no position to do that. I’m trying to be protective of Pamela, who is a woman of color who is new to the town, and I don’t want to see her put in a position of protecting the police, which undermines her work as a DEI director.”

Pat Ononibaku said, “Several of the BIPOC youth from the Amherst Nine and their families approached me and asked me to speak on their behalf. I’ve shared at a Human Rights Commission (HRC) meeting and CSSJC meetings. And they have instructed me to share their thoughts with the town council, so I will forward what they have said and I ask that it goes in the [meeting] packet.” She emphasized the importance of finding compensation for the victims of this incident and the need for a victims’ compensation fund. She concluded by saying that healing is going to require a statement of contrition from town officials, i.e. the town manager, chief of police, and police officers who were involved.

Ferreira again asked, “Why has it taken so long for there to be any action on the part of the town — July 5 to October 17! We’ve made multiple requests for action but nothing has happened. As a BIPOC person, what this looks like to me is that this is not a priority.” She added, “How are the Amherst Nine being supported, and how are they and their families being taken care of? I want to see the town council addressing this on Monday. I’m not only looking for an apology but also a remedy to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. And I’d like to know how the cops are going to be held accountable.”

Greisemer said that she had written a long response to the CSSJC letter and had shared it with the council but it has not been discussed yet.

Co-chair Dee Shabazz said that she, too, is looking for statements about actions the town will take to protect the rights of town youth. She said she would like to see the town adopt the state’s POST (The Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission) guidelines for police interactions with youth and build its guidelines for training into current police union negotiations.

Griesemer responded that “everything mentioned here can’t possibly be covered in the time we have set aside for Monday’s meeting. It strikes me that the most important thing is to get the final reports and to offer questions about them. Also, we haven’t yet discussed as a council most of the issues that you have raised as CSSJC. So I want to manage the expectations of what we’ll be able to get done in one hour on Monday night”

“Why is it that when it comes to issues that oppress BIPOC folks there is never enough time? Why is it that we don’t have time for the most vulnerable members of our community? I saw that the council spent so much time allocating funds for the Jones Library but then balked at spending for reparations! Are we really ready for diversity in this town? The problems are not going to be resolved without action. I want to hear what the town intends to do to promote healing.”

Pat OnoniBaku, CCSJC Member

“Is it possible that we, the CCSJC, and the Human RIghts Commission (HRC), and some members of the council can get together to figure out a process for dealing with stuff like this?,” said Shabazz. “We don’t have a process now that makes for a substantive discussion and that gets to better outcomes. How are we going to do that as a community — meetings that take place to produce results and a process that works for this community?”

Ononibaku asked, as she has at other meetings, “Why is it that when it comes to issues that oppress BIPOC folks there is never enough time? Why is it that we don’t have time for the most vulnerable members of our community? I saw that the council spent so much time allocating funds for the Jones Library but then balked at spending for reparations! Are we really ready for diversity in this town? The problems are not going to be resolved without action. I want to hear what the town intends to do to promote healing.”

Shabazz concurred. ”I think that the healing and process ought to be the priority and that our time is best spent attending to that first. And I think an hour is not enough to do that.”

Councilor Dorothy Pam, speaking from the audience, acknowledged that the issues raised by CCSJC will take a lot of time to address and agreed with committee members and councilors who had suggested that the council start by opening with a statement of apology.

Griesmer concluded that these discussions are difficult but that she welcomes them and learns much whenever she participates. She indicated that she will continue to seek a path forward.

“It’s time to do this! Let’s get this done!” Shabazz urged the councilors.

Councilor Michele Miller added that it would really help if the council could do some education on victim compensation funds. What are they? How do they work elsewhere? What are the legalities involved?

Co-chair Allegra Clark recommended an article, Reparations for Police Violence, focusing on Philadelphia and Chicago and including a discussion of formal apologies by government or police.

CRESS UPDATE
Earl Miller, Director of Amherst’s Community Responders For Equity, Safety and Service Department (CRESS), provided an update on his department’s recent activities. Miller packed a lot of information into his allotted time, quipping that the pace of his presentation was fast but so is the pace of the department’s work. He noted that in its first month of operations, responders have focused on engagement with the Amherst community by attending public events and by reaching out to local businesses and agencies. The department logged 1,858 engagements in its first month of operation, tallied as follows:

Week 1: 577
Week 2: 637 (including attending the town block party and responding to the fires at the high school).

Week 3: 320 (the first week that students at the colleges were back)

Week 4: 324

He noted that the outreach activities of his responders provide a foundation for later responses. For example, responders’outreach with the Meals on Wheels program has provided a relationship that facilitates wellness checks for seniors.
 

Miller noted that CRESS is still working out the mechanics of dispatch and at this time, calls for CRESS are not going through the town’s emergency dispatcher system.

Miller summarized the  majority of call types that CRESS has received as:

* wellness checks for seniors

* mental health calls (typically  from a neighbor)

* non-violent school calls 

* non-trespass vagrancy

* assisting fire and police departments (including Amherst College and UMass police)

* assisting with transport (e.g. transporting people to social services and medical appointments)
* follow ups (i.e. returning to check in on the subject of the call)

Miller reported that wellness checks were the most common type of call received by CRESS so far and that a key component of their practice is to follow up.

He reported that CRESS does not currently respond to noise complaints but might begin to do so in early January, easing themselves into this type of call while most students are away for winter break.

CRESS hours of service are currently 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday and will expand to 9 a.m. to midnight, seven days/week beginning on January 7. Responders will work four 10-hour shifts/week, with three days off. 

Miller is engaged in active dialogue with civilian responder programs in other communities including Denver, Minneapolis, Albuquerque, and Dayton, and noted that the programs have much to share.

Miller reported that Kate Shapiro is the new implementation manager for CRESS, and came to the program from the Department of Mental Health, where she was a case manager. He is negotiating a MOU with the school committee to specify how CRESS will interact with the schools. And CRESS currently seeks to fill one responder position. 

Questions From The Committee
Ononibaku: How many staff are on duty with the current hours?

Miller: Currently, two teams of two responders are out at a time doing engagement and meeting folks. And one team in the office is ready to deploy. We can also deploy folks from the field, as we did when we sent two teams to the fires at the high school.

Ononibaku: The Community Safety Working Group (CSWG) was pretty clear they didn’t want resource officers in the schools. So what’s CRESS up to with the schools?

Miller: We have no intention of becoming school resource officers. We see our role as more of a resource to parents who may be struggling to find resources or with their own mental health. We are in the process of drafting an MOU with the School Committee to clarify our relationship.

Ferreira: Do you have any racial data? Who are the people who are using this service the most?

Miller: It’s difficult to get this kind of information without making assumptions or violating people’s privacy. This will get easier though as we develop relationships of trust in the community. But of the six calls that we took so far that would have been 911 calls, four of the six were from people of color.

Ferreira expressed her hope that CRESS would begin to take on noise complaints as that was a recommendation of the CSWG.

Shabazz commented on the importance of addressing language diversity in town and on the need to develop translation services for government activities. “ I hope you’re keeping an eye on this,” she said.

Miller: We are aggressively seeking folks with diverse language skills.

Clark: Do you have informational pamphlets to distribute in the community?

Miller: We have business cards with our name on it with lollipops attached. We are looking at what other responder programs are doing to get the word out. We are exploring social media. We are planning on producing more materials but it may be that the most effective way to reach people is through personal outreach and by handing out our phone number with a message like: call us for help.

Miller reported that CRESS is currently using two vehicles borrowed from other departments, and procurement has suggested that CRESS may have their own vehicles by the end of the year.

He concluded with praise for his team’s start-up and with their demonstrated compassion, and expressed his confidence that they are up to the challenge. He noted that 9 of the 11 current responders have previously lived, worked, or grown up in Amherst and this has contributed to their successful engagement with residents.

DEI Report
DEI Director Young offered a brief report on her department’s activities. She reported that she is working with the town’s Human Rights Commission to revise the bylaw covering HRC’s  work, which greatly limits its ability to participate in complaints about the police. She is also engaged in outreach to all three college campuses in town and has been attending some of the same outreach events as CRESS.

Shabazz asked about efforts to establish translation services in town, again identifying the need as urgent. Young responded that she is working on it in collaboration with the town’s communication director, Brianna Sunryd.

Committee Member Reports
Pat Ononibaku and Phillip Avila reported that they attended the two-hour Know Your Rights Training that was held on October 9 with  Citizens For Juvenile Justice, a Boston-based youth-justice organization. They said the event was successful and included robust training on how to deal with police encounters. A video of the training will be available in the future.

The HRC is hosting a Latinix heritage event at Kendrick Park this Saturday from 11 a.m to 3 p.m. It will include speakers ,activities, and performances.

The ABC walk is also on Saturday, beginning at  9:30 a.m. on the Town Common.

Phillip Avilla reported that the HRC has been looking into how similar commissions operate in Cambridge and Arlington as they consider revision of the bylaw related to their work..

Public Comment

Vira Cage of Longmeadow Drive referred people to a front page article in the Daily Hampshire Gazette on public records requests made to the Amherst Police Department about internal discipline and how it fought those requests and redacted much of the information provided. Cage expressed concern that the DEI director was not privy to information needed to accurately report on the Amherst Nine incident, noting that Young  “is not at the table in collective bargaining with police”. She commended the leadership of CCSJC and CSWG and said that the council needs to trust the black women who have brought recommendations to the town.

Next Meeting
CCSJC will appear before the Town Council on Monday, October 17 at about 7:30 p.m. and will meet next on Wednesday, November 9 at 6:00 p.m.

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