Fresno city leaders launch police reform commission
Fresno’s mayor and city council on Thursday launched a commission for police reform that will make recommendations to the council within 90 days.
The announcement came after a presentation from the Fresno State chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other leaders in Fresno’s black community.
Council President Miguel Arias and Mayor Lee Brand launched the commission with Councilmembers Luis Chavez and Esmeralda Soria. Arias said in his announcement that Mayor-elect Jerry Dyer and Fresno Police Officers Association President Todd Fraizer support the commission.
The commission will be led by former Councilmember Oliver Baines, who also used to be a Fresno police officer. The commission will include residents and local and national experts on community policing.
“The reforms need to represent the values and needs of ALL our community,” Arias said in his announcement. “I know it will be hard, and I know many of you like me are physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. But the good men and women of our police department and our community they serve deserve nothing less than our best collaboration and thinking. Only through our strength and unity will we achieve a better version of ourselves and our city.”
Baines said in an interview with The Bee the council approached him to lead the commission because of his unique qualifications being a former police officer, a former city council member and a black man living in America.
When Baines worked as a police officer in southwest Fresno under former Capt. Greg Garner, he saw community policing work there.
“At first I was reluctant to believe this would all work,” he said. “The results speak for themselves. …I saw precisely how the trust is established with the community and the officers, and it’s magical.”
Community demands
In two presentations on Thursday, Fresno State’s NAACP and other southwest Fresno black leaders presented a list of 29 demands of the City Council, Fresno Police Department and other heads of the city.
The list demands sweeping change in the police department, including the removal of the city’s independent auditor, a change to how the city could hold officers accountable and the institution of a civil service board, which could review police use of force.
The list also called Brand, Dyer and Police Chief Andy Hall to “acknowledge the research-backed disparities for what they are,” which could help to end stereotypes and stigmas facing people of color. The presenters also demanded Dyer donate his salary as mayor to the community.
The demands also called for Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp to charge the officers involved in the killing of Isiah Murrietta-Golding, a 16-year-old shot in the back of the head as he fled from police.
Among several more demands was the call to reduce the department’s budget, and for the city to fund $8.9 million in southwest Fresno’s health infrastructure to correct historical disinvestment.
Saint Rest Baptist Church Pastor D.J. Criner used an analogy comparing southwest Fresno and Fresno’s “Tale of Two Cities” to “The Lion King” movie.
“For years and years and years, West Fresno has almost felt like this elephant graveyard. Interestingly enough, to black people, West Fresno has almost seemed like their home. Our home is West Fresno,” he said.
Ashley Swearengin, Fresno’s former mayor who now leads the Central Valley Community Foundation, said donors are ready to invest more than $2 million in health initiatives and areas of the community with few resources, including African American communities and rural communities with farm workers and other essential food industry workers.
“We as a community foundation look forward to standing with you and and putting our money where our mouths are and being a part of lasting and significant change in Fresno,” she said.
Racist and inappropriate remarks
The council meeting was conducted online via Zoom. The NAACP’s presentation was followed by public comment, in which many speakers voiced support for reforms and funding cuts to the police department.
One speaker during public comment advocated for violence against black people and using slurs. He also shared explicit videos and other obscene and graphic content. He was quickly muted, and the councilmembers later strongly denounced the comments.
This story was originally published June 11, 2020 at 12:31 PM.