The Common Council's Public Hearing for legislation to establish a Civilian Review Board (CRB) is on Monday, 9/21 at 5:00 PM. Please register for the hearing and make sure you email dflynn@cityofpoughkeepsie.com before 4pm on 9/21 in order to speak at the hearing. This endeavor needs as much support as we can possibly muster, so please share with any and all individuals and organizations outside of ENJAN.
If you have a story about mistreatment or misconduct by the police, whether personal or witnessed, please consider sharing it if you're comfortable doing so. These experiences are emotionally traumatizing, and I fully understand reluctance at publicly sharing them.For the rest of us, a concept to stress would be fostering trust in the police through transparency and accountability in the complaint process. All of us recognize there's a long history of policing communities of color differently than white communities, both here and throughout the country, and this injustice and the accompanying atrocities need to end. To further bolster the necessity of a CRB, it could be noted that legislation like this is exactly what's called for by Executive Order 203 and the guidance promulgated from it.Every person is entitled and encouraged to voice their own opinion. I've tried to illuminate the complexity of constructing a comprehensive legislative package that fits within federal, state, and local law. Some suggested amendments to the proposed legislation would compromise the legal standing of a CRB. But one amendment that wouldn't do so is removing the ability of the chief of police to pick one member of the CRB. If you don't agree with allowing the Chief to pick a CRB member, by all means make that known among your other criticisms.I look forward to hearing you all speak next Monday.
Brian