The Black Student Alliance, the University chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Sustained Dialogue hosted an open forum Tuesday evening to discuss possible solutions to police brutality and media misrepresentation in modern culture.
The discussion was held to follow up the Rally Against Police Brutality and Media Misrepresentation that occurred Sept. 5.
BSA Political Action Chair Aryn Frazier, a second-year College student, opened the forum.
“We have all fallen victim to discussing problems and being really frustrated about them and not getting to the next step,” Frazier said. “This is about getting to that next step.”
Kiara Redd-Martin, a local Charlottesville activist and member of the social action group Operation Social Equality, reiterated the duty of Charlottesville residents to ensure the police department’s unbiased patrol of the city.
“We share the responsibility with the police department,” Redd-Martin said. “We need to hold ourselves accountable for holding them accountable.”
M. Rick Turner, president of the Albemarle-Charlottesville chapter of the NAACP, said there is “increasing and alarming violation of the civil rights of black people” in the American media.
“We find no solutions in these injustices [such as Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown’s deaths],” Turner said. “We fear that in the coming days they might very well go unabated.”
To combat police brutality and media misrepresentation, Turner suggested diversity training for the police force, recruitment of underrepresented minorities to the police department and protests from the youth population.
“Everything started with you guys, with young people,” Turner said. “Young people have been in the forefront of protests. You must form some sort of nonviolent protest; you owe it to yourself.”
Turner concluded by noting the problem of under-reporting of abuse in the media and by the police force.
“The problem that needs to be addressed in your organizations is silence,” Turner said.
Third-year College student Ali Hazel, vice chair for moderators in Sustained Dialogue, spoke briefly on her communication with Chief Timothy J. Longo of the Charlottesville Police Department.
Though no police officers attended the forum, Hazel said the department is planning an upcoming police training regarding issues raised at the forum.
For the last hour of the event, participants broke off into small group discussions with Sustained Dialogue moderators. Sustained Dialogue recorded these discussions and will anonymize and transcribe them for the Charlottesville Police Department.
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