Bernice Alexander stood in silence, her back turned to the Tulsa City Council as it took public input on policing in the city.
Alexander greeted the councilors and then stood silently, breaking her silence during her comment period only to say “thank you” at the end of her allotted time.
After the meeting, she said she had “no words” for city government regarding policing in Tulsa.
Alexander was among about 20 people who were allotted time to speak to the council Wednesday night. Most of them focused on two items: the new city budget, which features $250,000 for an Office of the Independent Monitor, and the Equality Indicators reports.
In contrast to Alexander’s silence, Tyrance Billingsley spoke out and pleaded for urgency.
“I’ve seen many of you on Facebook posting about your kids, their accomplishments, how proud you are to be their parents,” Billingsley said. “Until you see their face when you look at these numbers; until you see your child being treated suspiciously; until you see your child being deemed dangerous to the point of the use of force simply as a result of expressing common human emotions and frustrations, you do not feel this urgently enough.”
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His statements were met with quiet applause and finger snapping.
“We have to do better,” Billingsley said. “In looking at these indicators, I’d like to think that there isn’t a single person on this council or in this city who doubts we have to better, but what I wonder is the level of urgency that some of you … feel about us doing better.” In the 2018 Equality Indicators Report, the city’s score for Race and Officer Use of Force was 20 out of 100. The report states that blacks were five times more likely than Hispanics and twice as likely as whites to experience use of force by police. The city’s score improved to 34 in the 2019 report, which says blacks are three times more likely to experience officer use of force than either Hispanics/Latinos or whites. Those numbers have been disputed by the police officials, who have argued that the methodology used to determine them is flawed and that African-Americans are no more likely to be subject to use of force than any other race.
Police Chief Chuck Jordan was not at the meeting, and at least two Tulsans noted his absence during their comments to the council. Except for a retired police sergeant, there were no obvious Tulsa police officers in attendance.
Simba Williams, flanked by his siblings, shared with the City Council his experiences with Tulsa police when he was a juvenile. Williams told the council how he as a child hid his younger brother under a blanket and locked the car door. A Tulsa police officer had removed his father from the vehicle, leaving him alone in the car with his sibling, he said.
He shared another story about an officer in plain clothes demanding to be let into his residence. Williams hid his younger siblings in the bathroom and hid behind a door with a machete, he said.
“By this age, we were very clear that black people should be terrified of the police,” Williams said. “Our parents didn’t teach us that; life did.”
The officer in that childhood memory was searching for a man with a warrant. Williams said his father helped to defuse both situations.
Also during Wednesday’s meeting, educators shared their students’ stories and residents shared their experiences of being arrested as teens. And a mother raised concerns about a large police response to reports of juveniles vandalizing trash cans.
Ben Imlay, a teacher at a school near 61st Street and Peoria Avenue, advocated for the Police Department to acknowledge implicit biases, the unconscious attribution of particular qualities to members of certain social groups.
“I have a saying that I hung up above my desk at school, … that I hold implicit biases,” Imlay said. “It reads: ‘Those who fail to manage stereotypes and biases will be less safe, less effective and less just.’”
He advocated for implicit bias training for Tulsa police officers, saying he would be an ineffective educator without the training. He also argued that forgoing the training makes officers “less safe, less effective and less just.”
The City Council has scheduled another public meeting for Saturday that is being dubbed as a Community Listening Session. Councilors, in an effort to ensure that all Tulsans have a voice in the process, will receive comments for four hours on any of the topics to be discussed at later special meetings on the Equality Indicators. The listening session will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Rudisill Regional Library, 1520 N. Hartford Ave.
