“I Need to See Change”: First Framework for Reconciliation Town Hall Reveals Fissures and Urgency

June 22 marked the first town hall in the city’s “Framework for Reconciliation in Long Beach,” a discussion series meant to address police reform and the current civil uprising concerning police violence in Long Beach and worldwide. The second town hall of the four scheduled so far will take place this evening.

Many of the comments had a common message: less talk, more action. 

“I want to see change,” said Long Beach Unified School District employee Denise Collins. “I don’t want to keep having meetings and having meetings. I want somebody to come to me one day and say, ‘Look, we’re going to have a meeting about transparency and this is what we are going to do.’ Not what we want to do, but what we are going to institute.” 

Collins went on to say that she is concerned that her grandchildren and the other children from her community she takes care of will themselves be the victims of police violence. 

“I can’t tell you how broken my heart would be if something happened to them because of unconscious bias by the police. I’m sorry, I’m getting emotional,” she said. “I need to see change.”

The virtual series features town halls, like Monday, where anyone can participate. The series also features listening sessions, which have limited participation, and include more formal discussion between city officials and participants.

Hundreds have attended, and in fact dates have been added, due to the demand. 

“We got 255 people at the (first) town hall,” Councilmember Rex Richardson said in a recent interview. “Some of it was folks expressing their pain, their anguish. Some had some really great, powerful stories. And some had real tangible recommendations.” 

Polls were taken to gauge the audience’s feelings on police accountability, and what topics were most important for discussion. Among the participants, 47% said the Long Beach Police Department had no accountability to the community, while 45% said it had some accountability. Only 8% said the LBPD is fully accountable for its actions.

An overwhelming 45% wanted to discuss community-based alternatives to police, while police budget and use of force came in a distant second and third with 19% and 14%, respectively. 

The meeting was headed by Deputy City Manager Teresa Chandler and Chief Communications Officer for LA County Public Health Carl Kemp, both of whom are Black. City Manager Tom Modica, who is White, was also in attendance and, save for an opening comment, remained muted most of the evening. 

“We here at the City understand that these protests and actions being taken are rooted in historical racism and community trauma,” stated Modica. “The deep pain that members of our community are feeling and recognizing is not rooted in just one incident, but in patterns of injustice. The pain we’re seeing from our community, it is real. It needs light. It needs discussion. And it needs action.”

The appeal to change was echoed by the public with an albeit different focus.

“We need to make actual real change. We need to hold criminals accountable,” said a man who identified himself only as Roy, referring to police officers guilty of using excessive force. “Anytime anybody is shooting somebody and just walking away, (or) holding down somebody until they die… That’s a criminal. That’s a gang with guns. We (need to) clean up them streets.” 

Data recently released by the city shows that a disproportionate number of those shot by police are Black. While Black people are 12.9% of the city’s population, they were 27.3% of those shot by police between 2015 and 2019.

“Let’s stop talking about ‘talking about,’ and let’s do,” said one resident, Jocelyn Howard. “There needs to be something done everyday. Something needs to be passed, something needs to be productive.” 

Another commenter, James Marks, called the event a “dog and pony show.” 

“This is not a community process,” he said. “This was from the higher ups. You can’t build any foundation if you don’t start from the bottom. (Making) a change starts from within and you guys are starting from outside.”

Richardson, who spearheaded the framework on the council, argues that the discourse is critical for transformative policy.

The “Framework for Reconciliation” involves four key steps: acknowledging the existence of systemic racism, listening to experiences of racial injustice, convening community leaders and city staff to evaluate the feedback from the listening process, and finally taking action by presenting short-term and long-term recommendations for the City Council.

Richardson previously led the “Everyone In” initiative, which also included listening sessions, featuring nine conversations about economic inclusion that resulted in 12 community solutions. These included affordable childcare, increasing the minimum wage, and support for low-income home-buyers. The recommendations, meant to spur economic equity in the city, have not been implemented due to funding, Richardson says, but he’s hopeful that this series will drive the council to prioritize equity in its budgetary process. 

“No one ever said government was perfect,” says Richardson. “People in government are builders. They build institutions, they build departments, they build programs, they build budgets. The community, their focus is calling out what’s wrong with that institution and helping dismantle that institution. They’re two sides of the same coin. In order to have a healthy government, you have to have a healthy exchange between those who are internally building structures and those outside who hold those structures accountable.” 

“You should never be too comfortable,” he added.

Many activists and residents have called on cities to adopt new strategies for responding to calls related to mental health that are currently fielded by law enforcement. In Los Angeles, city councilmembers supported a motion that would do just that, asking city departments to develop a model that directs nonviolent calls for service to non-law enforcement agencies rather than the LAPD. 

Michelle Gath, who spoke during the third hour of the town hall, told the story of her friend Adrian, a Hispanic man suffering from schizophrenia. He had been threatening to commit suicide when his parents called law enforcement. Gath said Adrian went outside with a kitchen knife and police shot him.

Tomisin Oluwole
Ode to Pink II, 2020
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“When you’re dealing with a mentally ill person, there needs to be a different way of handling that. It should not just be the police,” said Gath. “Because guess what, my friend Adrian and I, we can never go to another Cake concert.”

While community-based alternatives to police were popular among many town hall participants, a woman who identified herself only as Elie argued that she was interested in finding ways to “better support law enforcement and what they do.”

“It does get violent, the police need to be there,” said Elie.

She said she’d like to see domestic violence specialists available to assist law enforcement as well as having wraparound services readily available. 

“What I don’t want to see,” Elie cautioned, “Is us go down to having only a couple dozen patrol cars and nobody responding to those phone calls (or) thinking that some mediators (are) going to show up and solve every problem that these people who are in the midst of violence have.”

Another resident, Tiffany Davy, questioned whether police were the best suited to respond to calls related to sexual abuse because it could possibly lead to the retraumatization of the victim. 

Despite acknowledging racial injustice and attempting to accurately document the grievances of speakers, Carl Kemp was also the target of some criticism for an endorsement from the Long Beach Police Officers Association (LBPOA) that he received in his 2014 bid for a City Council seat. He lost to current District Five Councilmember Stacy Mungo by roughly 900 votes. Kemp worked as a lobbyist for the Port of Long Beach before starting his own lobbying firm, The Kemp Group, in 2008. 

Along with Kemp, city councilmembers and Mayor Robert Garcia also received criticism for their relationship with the police department. 

“The City Council likely will take no action based on what we discussed here today,” a resident named Savannah said. “The city council will not even address that there is a problem in this city with police brutality. City Manager Tom (Modica) was singing the LBPD praises (during) the last meeting we had because the LBPD agreed not to strangle people temporarily while all this was going on. Carl Kemp, moderating this call, was endorsed by the Police Association. Mayor Garcia, in the same breath that he said Black Lives Matter, also said the LBPD is doing a great job. The city is not going to admit that there’s a problem here, and they know there’s a problem here.”

“I think placing the focus on Carl is ill-placed,” said Richardson, who also first ran for office in 2014. “He received a $350 contribution from the Police Officers Association. $350. I think he raised something like $70, $80,000 (total) for (that) race.”

Along with former District One Councilmember and current State Senator Lena Gonzalez, Richardson has pledged not to receive campaign contributions from the LBPOA until there is “systemic change.” 

Richardson explains, while not wanting to get ahead of the community input delivered in this series, this change means “investments in things like health equity, youth equity, and economic equity.”

“On police reform,” Richardson added, “I’m committed to transparency, accountability, and oversight. What that looks like (is) going to be a nuanced thing. (The Citizens Police Complaint Commission) can’t be changed, what can happen in the meantime?”

The Citizens Police Complaint Commission has been decried by activists, with a current commissioner going so far as to call it a “farce.” Because it is a charter commission, restructuring it or expanding its authority would require putting a charter amendment on the ballot. In 2018, the city’s charter was altered with unanimous council endorsements (and heavy financial backing from public unions like the LBPOA) and enthusiastic campaigning by Garcia in order to change the rules regarding term limits, redefine the role of the city auditor, and establish a citizen’s redistricting commission as well as an ethics commission.

Long Beach Community College Trustee Uduak-Joe Ntuk, referenced a recent revelation that the LBPD requested a line be erased from a report on economic inequity that noted the Prohibition-era ties between the department and the Ku Klux Klan.

“They had a small reference to the Ku Klux Klan and Long Beach PD’s history. That’s real, it’s documented by the Long Beach Historical Society, and the city made them edit it out,” said Ntuk. “That was an example of systemic racism. Now there’s a news article that goes into greater detail and it’s far worse than any one, singular reference.”

Community activist and small businessman Senay Kenfe offered a financial solution to police misconduct. He questioned Modica as to whether there were any internal conversations regarding lawsuit payouts for police misconduct and its deleterious effects on the city’s credit ratings. Between 2014 and 2019, the city paid out at least $30.3 million to settle police-related litigation. The money was acquired from the city’s general fund, thereby affecting its ability to honor other liabilities. 

“De-escalation will never be a priority until there’s a financial conversation that is attached to that,” said Kenfe. “There are police officers on the force right now with multiple citations against them and they’re going to continue to be violent because it’s in their nature. (It’s) the type of human being they are. But until there’s a conversation about liability, specifically with regards to their pension fund, I just don’t see the opportunity for (swift dismissal of offending officers) being realistic.”

Colorado recently passed a bill to end qualified immunity, which protects police officers from legal liability in civil lawsuits.

A tense moment came when Black Lives Matter Long Beach co-founder Dawn Modkins said that Police Chief Robert Luna personally addressed a letter compelling her to “turn myself in immediately” to resolve a suspended license.

“I have always been (un)apologetic about systemic harm and naming systemic harm and fighting for resolutions around systemic harm,” Modkins said. “This time, I’ve allowed myself to be even louder. And now I feel like I’m being retaliated against, or harassed a little bit, by this letter that I have (received) directly from Chief Luna’s office.”

Chandler assured Modkins she would “be looking into the concern with the police department.”

The LBPD later informed us that the letter addressed to Modkins is standard procedure, one of “approximately 30-40 letters (sent) a day.” The letters are meant to inform individuals of how to resolve the issue “prior to an arrest taking place.”

The next “Framework For Reconciliation” town hall is tonight at 5:30 p.m. The topic will be Racial Equity Across Systems. You can see a schedule of the town halls and listening sessions, and register to participate, here.