Peaceful march ends with call for police chief’s resignation

A Sunday afternoon march by East Palo Alto residents and their supporters in protest of racial profiling ended at Palo Alto City Hall with a call for the resignation of Palo Alto Police Chief Lynne Johnson and an economic boycott of the city, effective immediately.

Nearly 200 people of all races, ages and ethnic backgrounds marched peaceably from East Palo Alto’s city hall down University and Hamilton avenues, waving to onlookers who came out of their homes and inviting them to join in the march. As the group walked 3-mile route, the protestors smiled at police who were stationed at barricaded intersections, some saying “thank you” as they passed by.

The marchers took a pledge outside East Palo Alto City Hall to nonviolence, regardless of the reaction they might encounter from Palo Alto citizens or police. Religious leaders, East Palo Alto Mayor Patricia Foster and City Councilmembers Ruben Abrica and David Woods and San Mateo County Supervisor Rose Jacobs Gibson were among the participants.

Pastor Mary Frazier of the Bread of Life Church in East Palo Alto, a march leader, said the protest was a way to speak up for young black and Latino people, many of whom have experienced being stopped by police officers for no apparent reason.

“This is the beginning of the change Barack Obama has been talking about,” said march organizer Dr. Faye McNair-Knox, executive director of One East Palo Alto and a member of the East Palo Alto African-American Leadership Coalition.

Two Pacific-Islander teens beat a drum, with sticks carved from wood with images of island gods; Palo Alto pastors marched in solidarity; teens wore T-shirts asking “Am I a suspect?”

By 3:20 p.m., a crowd had already gathered at Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza in front of Palo Alto City Hall, awaiting the marchers. City staff had set up a podium, sound system and bottles of water for rally attendees.

Palo Alto Mayor Larry Klein greeted the crowd.

“Welcome. I want to use that word again: Welcome,” Klein said to the cheering marchers.

“I’ve lived here 41 years. It’s clear beyond any doubt that Palo Alto did engage in racial profiling and that was wrong,” he said.

Klein promised the crowd that the city would not tolerate any racial profiling and that the new city manager, Jim Keene, and an independent police auditor are looking into police-department practices. Profiling will not be tolerated, and anyone found to be engaging in it would be subject to dismissal, he said.

Organizers said they applauded the mayor’s comments but would hold the city to his promises of zero-tolerance for profiling and his offer to continue dialogue.

The Rev. Anthony Darrington, pastor of the Jerusalem Baptist Church in Palo Alto, said the city has a 47-year verifiable history of profiling.

“Why can I not find a man of color who has spent more than three weeks [in town] without being stopped by Palo Alto police including myself?” he said.

Darrington said members of his church have been targeted by Palo Alto police even after Johnson’s Friday, Oct. 31, apology. A member who works in downtown Palo Alto was stopped on last Wednesday and asked what he was doing downtown at that time of morning.

“It’s none of your business,” Darrington said, to cheers.

Expressing long-held frustrations with the Palo Alto police department, organizers of the march came up with a seven-point plan they want instituted in Palo Alto. Besides Johnson’s resignation, they called for an immediate boycott of Palo Alto companies.

“East Palo Alto residents support businesses in Palo Alto. We are calling for an economic boycott starting today,” said Glenda Savage, CEO of the Children’s Preservation Network of East Palo Alto.

Goro Mitchell, a member of the East Palo Alto Planning Commission and other city groups, and a recent candidate for City Council, said the pattern of racial traffic stops is statistically clear.

He said 56 percent of all traffic stops for “vehicular failure” — such as tail or brake lights not working — are for cars driven by African Americans or Latinos.

“We want Palo Alto to know that we will not stop until we receive the dignity and civil rights the Constitution gives us,” Mitchell said.

Palo Alto leaders who attended the rally, including Klein, Vice Mayor Peter Drekmeier and Councilwoman Yoriko Kishimoto, expressed reservations about the boycott idea.

“It would be too bad for Palo Alto businesses to pay for someone else’s mistake,” Kishimoto said. “We should put our energy toward correcting the problem [of racial profiling]. I understand that emotional reaction, but I would ask them to reconsider.”

“I think there are other ways we can accomplish things,” Klein said. “It’s not a healthy way.”

Drekmeier agreed.

“I don’t see it as being as constructive as the dialogue. It’s a tool to create dialogue,” he said.

Other points on the seven-part plan included the immediate halt of racial profiling in Palo Alto; an increase in hiring of police to reflect diversity in the community; information to be provided by officers who make stops that would include the officer’s name and badge number and where videos of stops can be viewed, to be indicated on a business card; hiring an ombudsperson who reports to the Palo Alto City Council about racial profiling and assembling of a citizen-advisory group of Palo Alto and East Palo Alto residents to dialogue about race and cultural-competency training; and a review of all videos capturing police stops of African American drivers.

Some East Palo Alto residents said they feel a profound sense of suspicion and “otherness” when they cross the bridge into Palo Alto.

“I’ve been followed around in stores,” East Palo Alto resident Patrisha Ragins, 49, said, echoing the stories of numerous rally-goers.

“You are shopping, and these women or men are following you. You are never asked if you need help. You think you are shopping alone, but you are not. They are there watching you to see if you are there to steal something,” she said.

“We all need to come together to work together as a whole. We need to learn to communicate. We and Palo Alto have been divided. Seeing the president-elect be of two different races, why can’t we do that? As they say, this is a melting pot,” she said.

In past times, the two communities have had a much closer dialogue, Drekmeier said.

He called the connection between Palo Alto and East Palo Alto “a special relationship. This is an opportunity to address issues that have simmered for many years,” he said.

Palo Alto Councilman Pat Burt said he hoped the rally would be the first step in revitalizing collaborations between East Palo Alto, Palo Alto and Menlo Park, as existed in the 1980s and ’90s.

He envisions the three cities working together on emergency preparedness, youth programs, environmental initiatives and public safety.

“We have a lot in common,” he said, adding that collaborations would involve not just city government, but community groups, religious institutions and nonprofits as well.

LaDoris Cordell, retired Santa Clara County Superior Court judge and a former Palo Alto council member, said Johnson’s recent remarks about race touched into something deeper.

“There is a sense that people of color who live here [and in East Palo Alto] have a feeling of ‘otherness,'” Cordell said. “We’re strangers in a foreign land.”

Johnson’s comments offer an opportunity for Palo Altans to examine their community and how people feel, she said. Palo Alto has many residents who are white and liberals and who maintain that there is no discrimination in the city, she added.

The election of Barack Obama has opened the door to dialogue, she said.

“Race is no longer one of the elephants in the room. Let us engage. It’s inspired people on both sides of the freeway,” she said.

Monday nigh, the Palo Alto council is expected to approve a statement condemning racial profiling.

For Kishimoto, the issue has already hit a nerve. She called last week’s council meeting — during which Johnson apologized for her statements and African American residents spoke out against racial profiling — “the most emotional meeting I’ve been at in my six years” on the council.

Reflecting on the rally, she said she is mindful of the city’s ongoing problem with street robberies as well as the need to examine and correct police procedures.

“Obviously a lot of damage has been done,” she said. “I strongly believe there should be zero tolerance for racial profiling.

At the same time, “the underlying crime issue is still there. We need to address them in the same breath,” Kishimoto said.

Managing Editor Jocelyn Dong contributed to this report.

Managing Editor Jocelyn Dong contributed to this report.

Managing Editor Jocelyn Dong contributed to this report.