OGDEN — While seeing decidedly mixed results in bringing the two sides together, a Tuesday meeting certainly illustrated the gulf between police and the black community here.
"One of the biggest things that was evident to me was that the community and the police were just talking past each other," said Utah Black Leadership Forum officer Forrest Crawford at meeting's end.
Ogden Police Chief Jon Greiner, one of several law enforcement representatives in attendance, found himself the target of several angry community members who accused his department of mistreating blacks. He, Weber County Attorney Mark DeCaria and other authority figures focused on procedure and process while the predominantly black gathering primarily expressed frustration that their voices were not heard.
The two-hour gathering, at the Marshall White Community Center, was the second meeting since an incident in June in which 10 blacks were arrested at a concert at downtown's Union Station.
The incident has energized the black community here. Concertgoers and their supporters maintain that there was no illegal activity going on and that the officers themselves stirred things up, provoking and attacking the concertgoers to have an excuse to arrest them.
Most of the 10 were subsequently charged with felony rioting, inciting to riot or resisting arrest. Most of them are scheduled to go to trial in February.
"We keep getting these things — arrogant, in my opinion — from the police department, and I've had it with that kind of attitude," said Joyce Tillman-Frye, co-chairwoman of the Ogden Community Leaders Coalition, which has coalesced in support of the concertgoers.
Tillman-Frye called the meeting after having gone through police reports and talking with city leaders, including Greiner and Mayor Matthew Godfrey, to see if there's enough cause to file a complaint against the officers involved.
Her proposal to both file a complaint and to get the U.S. Department of Justice involved in the matter was roundly applauded.
"I think some things are seriously out of control," said one woman at the meeting.
The incident's aftermath has grown to the point that the statewide Commission on Racial and Ethnic Fairness has gotten involved, with several representatives — including former Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Zimmerman — attending Tuesday's meeting.
"There are problems, and I'm going to make sure your voices are heard," said Larry Houston, co-chairman of the commission's citizen advisory council.
While much of the meeting was spent excoriating police for their alleged misbehavior, DeCaria, while conciliatory, maintained that there is not enough evidence for it to ask the judge to dismiss charges.
"There hasn't been anything so damaging to the state's case," he said. "(But) if we determine that the case doesn't have the same teeth we thought it had, we will dismiss it."
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