A Sacramento First

For those that don't know, last week the Sacramento Bee published a story about a report that stated, "Black motorists are twice as likely to be pulled over by Sacramento police as nonblack drivers..." This of course is a prolific finding because the Police Department has for years denied these claims. In light of the report the City Council had a town hall to address the report and to get feedback from residents. Yesterday our YP President and Sacramento resident LaMark Barclay (Sport) attended and wrote an email to us about the meeting, the report and our responsibility to our city. I have posted it below for your reading pleasure.

For the complete article: http://www.sacbee.com/crime/story/1141651.html

Ashe' Young Professionals,

I was able to attend the town hall discussion yesterday (re: Racial Profiling), to my pleasant surprise. Citizens expressed their disappointment, passion, and concern over the lack of progress to curbe this troubling epedimic -- I understood the session was televised. Mayor Heather Fargo began the session with an apology to all communitites of color, specifically the black citizens of sacramento, for the findings and (argued) conclusion that black drivers have been target unfairly.

A few major concerns expressed included:
- Lack of Police Department acknowledgement that this progrem exists
- Lack of community representation within the Police Department (17.9% minorites)
- Lack of officers residing within the city limits they patrol
- Fear of police presence instead of welcome within specific neighborhoods

Laruen Hammond (District 5) dated this agendized issue beginning November '97 -- 11 years later we haven't made many strides. It was reported black drivers were two times as likely to be stopped within the city limits in comparison to the normal standard benchmark for stops. Far more than any other group identified. (I do not have all the report's specifics, just what was generally referenced).

Robert Fong (District 4) called the report's finding "unacceptable".
Ray Treathway (District 1) called this a "Civil Rights" issue. Steve Cohn (District 3) and Robbie Watters (District 7) expressed disappointment that the stopping officer's race was not reported or even considered.

The consultants hired stated the officer's race - even if captured - was not a significant factor in basing any conclusions from the findings of this report. Their professonal experience is that "officers of all races conform to the values, beliefs, and culture of the organization they serve in"; meaning a officer of color is as likely to pull over a citizen of color if that is the practiced, whether taught or observed, habits of the department.

The police chief expressed his intent to move forward to correct this issue, address the major concerns and seek community involvement for resolutions. I offered my 2 cents worth as a citizen, a young adult, and a representative of the Greater Sacramento Young Professionals organization to be a community outreach starting point. As an emerging generation, we should be inclusive of any discussion to fix the social issues affecting the neighborhoods we live and work in. We represent the poeple beign stopped all too often. (I Had my own personal expereience some month and a half ago). Mr. Shelby provided a few words also - the Urban League was in the building - holla!!

The committee, comprised of elected officials (Districts 1 - 8), the city clerk, city manager, and the mayor, adopted the report, its recommendedations, and commissioned the police chief to provide progress reports in October and January regarding the department's efforts to restore the public's confidence on this issue. The committee recomended developing performance measure to institutionalize the philosophy that racial profiling will not be tolerated within the Sacramento Police Deparment (SPD).

I left encouraged that progress was made, but that much more work was to be done. Three addtional town hall meetings are scheduled this week:

Today (8.13), 6:00 pm at the Natomas Community Center
Tomorrow (8.14), 6:00 pm at the Oak Park Community Center
Friday (8.15), 6:00 pm at the Meadowview Community Center

I'm planning on attending Friday's town hall.

I (selfishy of course) feel odd encouraging you attend tonight's town hall meeting when we have a general body meeting, but our community is imporant. Our represenation at these types of forums is important. So if you don't make the General Body meeting, I'll understand, otherwise we'd love to see you tonight at 6:00pm.

In the Movement,

Sport Barclay
President
GSUL Young Professionals

Marc Morial Welcome

Not the best picture of us with the NUL President but its not the last!

A video from the Keynote Address.

Day 1: Wednesday

To recap the Day 1 Keynote Address as given by NUL President Marc Morial I would say: inspiring. It took 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to his address but I didn't notice until it was his turn. Sponsors were introduced, the Governor and Mayor of Florida and Orlando welcomed us along with a Nulite from the Orlando chapter. Marc Morial introduced a new program that 60 affiliate chapters will get the honor of running. It will be called
Restore our Homes and the chosen affiliates will open Homeowner Centers to aid their communities to get fixed affordable rate loans, strenghten advocacy in state governments, develop affordable housing and connect people with that housing. Marc Morial focused his address on the many effects of the housing crisis on our chapters and during the speech he quoted these statistics:

The US spends 275 million per day for the war.
1 month of no Iraq spending would:
fund No Child Left Behind
create 120,000 new units of housing
Fund Health insurance for 6 million children

2.5 days of n spending would:
Fund college for 463,000 children

The US spends 50 Billion per year on incarceration and 35 percent of those incarcerated are African American men.

1 month of prison money would:
Create 400 million summer jobs for our children
Create 100 million new schools to educate our children

Wow. I was shocked but not that suprised. We obviously have some work to do. Morial then noted the importance of the Volunteer Corp of the Urban League. The volunteer corp being the Guild and the Young Professional chapters. He has a mandate of sorts that by "...2012 every Urban League should have both." It is a mandate for the future he stated and we must grow our volunteers in order to effectively continue with our vision.

He left us all with this:

Will We Thrive?
Will We Own?
Will We Prosper?

NUL Conference 2008

Well, I'm not that great of a blogger. I try, but being in the biz of blogging may not be for me. But...this week I will try my hardest to post the latest from this years NUL Influencer Summit conference activities. From the daytime to the nightime, GSUL YP you will be in the know! I plan on camping out to see Obama again, last year I was in balcony seats this year, front few rows maybe?!

So far my arrival in Orlando went well. Note to everyone: arrive earlier in the day so the rental places will be open. My original arrival time had me getting in at midnight and that wasn't going to work so I changed it to the daytime and that is much more enjoyable! Well enjoyable except for the...weather! I've been to Florida before and it has not changed. A nice 88 degrees going on with a load of humidity thrown in. I'm sticky and this will take some getting used to definetely! The host hotel, Orlando World Center Resort - Marriott is magnificent, a true testament to Orlando's theme parks. I've never been to a hotel so big. I had to take a shuttle from the parking structure to the main lobby! (Once I get access I'll post up pictures)

That's all for now, stay tuned for more updates. Tell your friends and let's show all the other chapters how technologically in tuned we can be!

-Christine Hopkins
on site reporter :)

Urban League Conference

Hello and greetings from the Urban League Conference, Influencer summit. I have finally had the time to sit down and upload some photos of this wonderful conference and I will share a summary of some of the events that myself (Christine), James, Jerome, Sport and Melanie have been to.

So far this conference has by far exceeded my expectations. From the opening lunch to the workshops we are definetely being exposed to our peers in the Urban League's world and the nation itself. The pictures to the left are from the Opening Luncheon 1st is Marc Morial and the second is Howard Dean. He was a suprise visit and definetely strove to inspire us all to get involved in the political process. As the resident "google girl" I have taken notes whenever I can and will type them up once we all get back to Sacramento. Many of the things that I have witnessed and recorded can be used to help us stay on track and get out into our community even more than we do now. For those of you that have time go to www.nul.org to look at the web casts of many of the weekend events.

Its now time for a YP dinner so thank you all for reading and I will post again sometime tomorrow.

live from St. Louis,

christine hopkins
GSUL YP
PR Chair




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Check it Out!

Interested in having/hearing a positive discussion and how black men and black women can begin to understand the dynamics of the development of a relationship whether parenting, society, influences, and other related topics? Then come to Underground Books for this event. It will be a blessing for sure!

Underground Books 7-9 p.m.
Just $3.00 Underground Books 2814 35th Street (35th and Broadway) Sacramento (916) 737-3333

Saturday, July 21, 2007

BLACK WOMEN EXPRESSING TOUR (Emcee Taylor Williams)

Welcome

Welcome to the Sacramento Young Professional blog! On this blog we will include updates on our activities and post articles and things that we think pertain to Sacramento Young Professionals!

Stay tuned and add us to your favorites...

-SacYP