By Juan Peralez / Herald Forum
Unidos takes this opportunity to publicly thank the co-sponsors and panel participants of the Summit on Changing Police Culture held on June 29 at the Carl Gipson Center in Everett. We also extend our thanks to the kitchen team for serving our delicious food and to the support from the Carl Gipson Center Staff.
The summit was co-sponsored by The Washington Coalition for Police Accountability, the American Civil Liberties Union, NAACP, and the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility. We would not be able to host events like these without the support of these co-sponsors.
Unidos is extremely grateful for the presentations from the Impacted People’s Panel, which consisted of individuals who have had a relative killed by police in our state. One can only imagine the pain of talking about a family member being killed by police, and we thank the members of our panel — Tonya Isabell, Katrina Johnson, Monet Washington, and Po Leapai — for sharing their stories and putting out the call to stand with impacted families in the ongoing work of changing police culture.
Unidos is very thankful to the Summit’s Sheriff’s Panel participants, which included Sheriff Susanna Johnson and former Snohomish County sheriff and current state Sen. John Lovick, as well as the members of the Police Chief’s Panel, which included Everett Police Chief John DeRousse, Algona Police Chief James Shrimpsher, and former Police Chief of the Winfield, Mo., Police Department, Betty Jane Frizzell. Both panels agreed that change in police culture is needed and that ongoing dialogue between law enforcement, legislators, community advocates and those served in the community is critical for building trust and generating this needed change.
Additionally, Unidos is thankful to Jessica Pishko, attorney and author of the book, “The Highest Law In The Land; How the Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy ” (being released this fall), and her discussion on the constitutional sheriffs movement and the threat they pose to our democracy, as well as to Andrew Villanueve, of Northwest Progressive Institute, and his analysis of poll data demonstrating that the most of Americans agree that more accountability and transparency is necessary to create more public safety for all.
Unidos is also extremely thankful to state Sen. Manka Dhingra, who is currently campaigning to be our next state attorney general. She supports the need for ongoing dialogue to advocate for more transparency, more accountability, and more trust to save the lives of community and law enforcement members.
Finally, we are thankful for everyone who attended the summit, particularly state Reps. Lauren Davis and Bill Ramos who sit on the House’s Community Safety, Justice and Reentry Committee. We recognize that we cannot hold successful events like these without our community’s support and look forward to this being another step on the road to creating safer and more united communities for all.
Juan Peralez is president of the Snohomish County chapter of Unidos.
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