IDEAS FOR ACTION EMERGE AT FORUM

Call to Talk group offers some recommendations

Some 40 people gathered early Saturday to discuss the Kenneth B. Walker
shooting and to recommend how the community should proceed in dealing with
the incident.

Columbus Mayor Bob Poydasheff and City Manager Carmen Cavezza joined other
community leaders and concerned citizens -- mostly African-Americans -- at
Fourth Street Baptist Church to talk heart to heart and see whether they
could reach some consensus in the matter.

Walker, 39, was unarmed Dec. 10 when a Muscogee County deputy sheriff
fatally shot him on Interstate 185 during the stop of a vehicle believed to
be carrying armed drug dealers from Miami. Walker and three other Columbus
men were pulled from the GMC Yukon. No drugs or weapons were found and no
one in the vehicle was arrested.

At the session sponsored by A Call to Talk, opinions were as diverse as the
people attending, with retired Col. Reginald Pugh saying he doesn't see the
shooting by the sheriff's deputy as a black-white issue but an issue the
whole community is upset and concerned about.

Attorney William Wright, however, said there is "a bounty on young black
males. Why is it? At any given time, about 80 percent of the people in the
Muscogee County Jail are black... . Unless or until we demand from law
enforcement that they change tactics, this is going to happen again and again."

Pugh noted that investigations by agencies such as the Georgia Bureau of
Investigation and Federal Bureau of Investigation, which are involved in
the Walker case, can take six months, and that until their investigations
are complete, the community is not going to have all the information about
what happened during the I-185 shooting.

The mayor said he was in New York when the shooting occurred, but as soon
as he was notified, he called to try to get the facts.

"At 8 a.m. the next day, our position was clear," he said. "... We felt you
must have an outside investigation or you could have a feeling or
perception of a cover-up. We expressed that to the sheriff the next day. I
called Mr. Walker's mother. I promised her no stone will be unturned and
you will have an investigation. We all agreed."

Poydasheff noted that because the sheriff is an elected public official, no
one in the city government has control over the sheriff, making it his call
in dealing with the deputy involved.

"An elected official could tell me to 'get the heck out of my office,' "
the mayor said.

Walter Gould had a number of questions about the shooting incident,
including why the car wasn't stopped before it got onto I-185.

"I have no use for drug dealers," he said. "But a police officer who
murders someone needs to receive the same treatment."

There were questions about why the sheriff has not fired the deputy, and
how to get more information about the case released, even after Sheriff
Ralph Johnson's news conference Friday in which he disclosed that longtime
Deputy David Glisson shot Walker.

William Wright noted that the sheriff was not there when Walker was shot
and "he certainly didn't condone what he (the deputy) did. It's not his
fault. The investigation is proceeding as it should proceed. Certainly
there will be criminal prosecution of the individual responsible."

Here are some of the recommendations that came from the group. Alonza
Whitaker, first vice president of A Call to Talk, said at next month's
meeting the group will discuss ways to implement the recommendations:

. Conduct a drive to get as many people registered to vote as possible;
bring them up-to-date on candidates and issues; find and support good
candidates to run for public offices; and get people to the polls.

. Pressure the sheriff through telephone calls and letters to fire the
deputy and to release as much information as possible. Pressure local law
enforcement heads to get rid of those who refuse to do things right.

. Get all groups to work together on the matter.

. Question the law enforcement policies on drug stops.

. Seek legislative review of the shooting case and legislative efforts to
make the sheriff's department more accountable; seek ways to get more local
accountability, including establishing a citizen's review panel to
scrutinize such incidents as well as policies and procedures.

. Work to get corporate Columbus to support OneColumbus and to put its
financial backing behind it.

. Change leadership if leadership doesn't respond adequately.