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Attentive audience in Supervisor Ridley-Thomas’s office.
Last Saturday morning, a diverse group of 150 people, including police officers, poets, clergy, coaches, students and the County Sheriff, sat down to share their perspectives on the shooting of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin and a Florida jury’s exoneration of his killer, George Zimmerman.
The event, Days of Dialogue: Trayvon Martin: Unfinished Business, was sponsored by County Board of Supervisors Chairman Mark Ridley-Thomas, the Empowerment Congress and several nonprofit organizations.
This is a methodology that we have used for many years, starting with the O.J. Simpson verdicts,” said Mr. Ridley-Thomas. “It brings together people who want to have a serious conversation about the crises that confront us. Then they take what they have shared back into the communities, offices, churches and homes.”
Throughout the morning, participants sat at small tables in the Supervisor’s Exposition Park constituent office with trained moderators who guided their discussion.
“The beauty of this type of engagement is that we all come to the table as equals,” Mr. Ridley-Thomas said.
Indeed that was the case. LAPD captains and officers, as well as the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, Andre Birotte, Jr., Sheriff Lee Baca, City Atty. Mike Feuer, senior citizens, community activists and others who politely offered and traded opinions.
Christopher Hampton, 21, sat at a table with Sheriff Baca. Afterward, he said the experience had altered his perspective on law enforcement.
“I never would have thought the Sheriff would have been so receptive to hearing me,” Mr. Hampton said. “But he was. I think more people need to know that. They need to know that the Sheriff really listens.”
Never far from the conversation was the topic of racial profiling and the senseless death of a teenager armed only with a bag of Skittles and a soda.
“These stand-your-ground laws are a problem,” Mr. Baca said. “It doesn’t matter whether they’re in Los Angles or in Florida.
“If I go to Florida and I’m not in uniform, does that mean it’s all right for someone to harm me because they say I pose a threat?”
Despite the seriousness of the conversations, the morning ended with positive reflections and calls for more dialogues.
As Sharon Lyle of Long Beach put it, the shooting of Trayvon Martin had this outcome: “It destroyed a life but created a movement.”
Ms. Moon may be contacted at SMoon@bos.lacounty.gov
