The first section has all the speakers from the community who detailed the problems citizens face. The first person to speak was the Assistant Director of the NAACP. He told stories of police misconduct involving people of color. He had multiple examples of discrimination and brutality they experienced. He commented that the last time he spoke someone accused him of using dated material and he agreed. When he spoke to the commission, he said his data might sound old again but it was because nothing much had changed in the intervening years. There were spokespersons there from the National Gay Task Force, the League of United Latin American Citizens, National Urban League and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. Each had stories dealing with police discrimination against the people they represented. Sometimes the stories were about police physically harming people and others were about the police not answering calls or refusing to enter complainants or investigate crimes against people the police thought were not worth the time.
The next several sections are filled with speakers from different organizations discussing police practices, regulating these practices, how to evaluate and monitor police departments and finally what remedies could be used to solve the problems citizens face. It is interesting to read all the different perspectives because it really gives you a sense of what people were thinking. The speakers presenting the problem were giving specific examples and some of the people talking remedies and such were cautious about using the data the first speakers gave. You get a feel for what all sides were saying.
This document is good for people looking to get some history on civil rights and police practices. It shows you how far we have or haven’t come in the past decades. There are examples that are terrible and some that come from unexpected sources. There are no charts or graphs but plenty of first- hand accounts to make an impact on the reader. Come by and check it out.