AMHERST — While members of the Town Council seem to agree that consensus needs to be reached on what happened when police interacted with Amherst teens during their response to a noise complaint on the morning of July 5, formulating an action plan for addressing community concerns about the matter remains elusive.
Despite meeting with the Community Safety and Social Justice Committee for more than six hours Tuesday evening, a joint session that ended shortly before 1 a.m. Wednesday, the best approach for moving forward has not been identified after a majority of councilors rejected a plan that would have formed an ad hoc committee to develop a “proposal for repair and reconciliation” by Feb. 6.
District 1 Councilor Michele Miller said her proposal was for a concrete plan to make sure incidents like that over the summer, when a police officer was captured on a cellphone video telling youths they have no rights, doesn’t happen again.
“I’m asking us to take a leap of faith and to work through a process together that I truly believe will allow us to go deeper, and have the more meaningful discussions we need to have,” Miller said.
Her plan called for the ad hoc committee to be made up of representatives of the Safety and Social Justice Committee, the Human Rights Commission and the African Heritage Reparations Assembly, as well as a police liaison.
At Large Councilor Ellisha Walker said the proposal would allow the panel to review police policies and recommend changes, and ensure the input and perspective of people affected by incidents like that over the summer.
“Our (council’s) priorities don’t necessarily align with the actual people in this town, and that’s what makes this conversation so difficult,” Walker said.
District 3 Councilor Dorothy Pam said she supports the work of the committees. “These committees are not just window dressing to make us look virtuous,” Pam said.
Joining Miller, Walker and Pam in support of Miller’s motion were District 5 Councilor Ana Devlin Gauthier, District 4 Councilor Pamela Rooney and District 3 Councilor Jennifer Taub.
But Council President Lynn Griesmer said councilors need to keep a sense of perspective of what’s doable, and that the Town Council is not an adjudicatory body.
“Our police department is considered one of the best in Massachusetts,” Griesemer said. “It doesn’t mean they’re always right.”
At Large Councilor Mandi Jo Hanneke said it would be better for Town Manager Paul Bockelman to handle the investigation and delegate the work, rather than having it be done by an ad hoc committee.
With Griesemer casting the deciding vote against, she joined Hanneke, District 5 Councilor Shalini Bahl-Milne, District 4 Councilor Anika Lopes, District 2 Councilor Pat DeAngelis, District 1 Councilor Cathy Schoen and At Large Councilor Andy Streinberg in defeating Miller’s motion.
The council, when it resumes discussing the matter at Monday’s meeting, will move to what is being called Motion 6, in which tasks as recommended by the Safety and Social Justice Committee, including creating a justice compensation fund, initiating an immediate review of police department policies, and helping to create a Resident Oversight Board, would be handled by the town manager.
The joint meeting brought out 75 or so people virtually, and at least one attending in person at Town Hal. Many of those who spoke asked for a formal apology from police for what happened on July 5, that the town accept responsibility and acknowledge there was misconduct by police — even though the town’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion director’s final report says there was no wrongdoing — and create a repair fund for people who are affected by police actions.
Birdy Newman, a lifelong Amherst resident and a student at Mount Holyoke College, said the community is asking for justice. “This would involve an apology by Amherst police and establishment of a compensation fund to support them in healing and joy after experiencing mistreatment by police,” Newman said.
“It is just insane that white people continue to engage in these misbehaviors against the Black and [BIPOC] citizens of Amherst,” said longtime resident Kathleen Anderson. “One would think people in this community would know better.”
“This is an opportunity for the elected officials of Amherst to show sincerity, open-heartedness and real concern for the real lives of people in their town,” said North Amherst resident Megan Lieff.
Rani Parker, a downtown resident, said without an apology from cops, reconciliation will not be possible. “We’re here to talk about our children who have been humiliated and are suffering trauma,” Parker said.
Pamela Nolan Young, the director of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Department, reported there was no misconduct by police, though the officer erred in telling the youths they had no rights.
A final report has also been issued by Police Chief Scott Livingstone, who has said that the officers feel badly about what happened that night. But the youths, who were kept at the scene until parents and guardians arrived, got home safely.
Councilors said the matter is complicated by more information received, including a letter from William Stewart, a Leverett parent who was on scene and has since provided more details of his observations. He is concerned by the police actions, contending the response would have been different if all youths were white.
Taub notes that Stewart’s letter shows the trauma involved and that the youths didn’t become a group of nine until they were “rounded up.” “I can’t imagine how that must have felt,” Taub said. “I’m struggling with it badly.”
Walker, though, said the incident illustrates what she has known as a person of color. As a member of the Community Safety Working Group, she spent a year elaborating on the changes that need to occur to make the community more welcoming. “This incident is very concerning,” Walker said.
The meeting began with Griesemer apologizing for how a previous joint meeting ended abruptly when Hanneke used a councilor’s prerogative to postpone a discussion on the incident. Griesemer said discussion could have continued, even if no vote happened.
“In retrospect, that motion need not to have stopped the discussion,” Griesemer said. “I learn from my mistakes, and will always strive to do better.”
Bockelman also used the meeting to praise the police leadership. “Scott Livingstone is one of the strongest, best police chiefs I have ever seen in the state of Massachusetts,” Bockelman said. “He is also very progressive in how he has approached things.”
But later in the meeting, Miller said that while she finds Livingstone to be both charismatic and caring, she can’t understand why no apology has been made.
“The fact that he hasn’t come forward with a direct apology, I don’t know how the town manager can’t acknowledge that,” Miller said. “We don’t even have that most basic thing.”