SAN ANTONIO – The Second Baptist Church sports complex hosted a community event Thursday night focusing on community relations with law enforcement. The event was inspired by high-profile incidents across the country as well as some in San Antonio.
"San Antonio is not immune from individuals across this community who are upset with law enforcement officials with the way they handle their jobs," said James Myart, chief operating officer of Acquiring Leaders of Tomorrow Today, Inc., which helped organize the event. "By and large, police officers are good people, but there are some who routinely and unconstitutionally violate the law and break the civil rights and civil liberties of individuals."
The group planned to split up into ten different committees focusing on certain issues including police abuse, racial profiling and civil rights and civil liberties.
"It's an educational effort. It's a effort to educate young people how to handle police stops, how to not become victims of police abuse," said Myart.
At the conclusion of the night, each committee planned to come up with three recommendations to take to city and law enforcement leaders, who declined invitations to attend.
"I was under the impression that the San Antonio Police Department was interested in sitting down with the community. I don't think that's the case now," said Myart. "I think they think, 'We'll let them make some noise and it'll go away.' But we are determined to make this work and to make our voices known."