RESIDENTS' STORIES AT NAACP FORUM ALLEGE INSTANCES OF LAW ENFORCEMENT
MISCONDUCT

Sparked by the recent fatal shooting of an unarmed man by a sheriff's
deputy, about a dozen Columbus residents took to the microphones
Wednesday night in a public forum, airing emotional accounts of
alleged racial profiling and misconduct by local law
enforcement.

Before a standing room only crowd of more than 150 that included city
officials and department heads from the Columbus Police Department,
the Muscogee Marshal's office and several officials with the Muscogee
County Sheriff's Department, one by one, the citizens told how they
were stopped, in cars or on foot, and met with guns drawn -- only to
be released minutes later by authorities.

In several of the instances, the residents -- mostly black -- spoke of
alleged treatment from officers who, as one woman said, "assumed we
were guilty first then asked questions later."

A transcript of the hearing, organized by the state and local chapters
of the NAACP, will be forwarded to the U.S. Department of Justice,
local NAACP president Edward DuBose said.

"They will investigate any patterns of misconduct if the evidence
warrants and be in a position to offer a fair and balanced judgment,"
he said.

DuBose said he hoped the symposium would show the reality of profiling
against African-Americans in Columbus.

The forum at the Liberty Theatre comes six weeks after Kenneth B.
Walker was fatally shot Dec. 10 by a Muscogee County sheriff's deputy
during a traffic stop of a GMC Yukon suspected of having armed drug
traffickers inside. Walker and three others were ordered from the
vehicle. No drugs or weapons were found, and no one in the vehicle was
arrested.

Police Chief Willie Dozier and Sheriff's Capt. Joe McCrea bore the
brunt of pointed questions posed by a panel of civil rights attorneys
and area civil rights groups. McCrea came in place of Sheriff Ralph
Johnson, who was out of town Wednesday.

Dozier and McCrea defended most of the instances in which citizens
were stopped, saying that the officers were acting on information
called in to 911 or from information on warrants.

"We regret when these types of things happen but officers have to
respond based on the best available information they have at the
time," Dozier said. "These things do happen. The courts know they
happen. Hopefully, officers will make the best decision at each given
time."

When asked what instance calls for an officer to resort to using his
gun, McCrea said it came down to a judgment call, if an officer felt
his or others' lives were at risk.

Both Dozier's and McCrea's remarks on "officer discretion" prompted an
immediate response from Ethel Munson, a civil rights attorney on the
panel.

"Speaking as a civil rights attorney, I think it is at those times
when you rely on discretion, that's when the discrimination usually
occurs... when you have the discretion to treat one group of people
differently and when there are no objective standards and it's left to
individual officers."