Public stonewalled at CPD meetings

The Compton Bulletin
May 26, 2010

By Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin Editor

COMPTON—Of the few who turned out to meetings held last week regarding the return of the local police department, many walked away concerned or upset.

As the last two meetings wrapped up last Saturday, one thing was clear — a majority of the attendees opposes the move.

While the City Council has yet to consider whether to re-establish the CPD, information provided during four meetings held last Thursday, May 20, and Saturday, May 22, illustrated that the city fully intends to move forward with the plan regardless of what taxpayers have to say about it.

City officials did all the talking at the meetings, and residents were discouraged from voicing their concerns under threat of being kicked out.

That’s exactly what happened to Donald Smith, a 49-year resident who spoke several times at the 1st District meeting on Saturday. When Assistant City Manager Rico Smith asked him to leave, Donald Smith at first refused, saying his taxpayer dollars were funding the meeting and paid for the community center at Gonzales Park where the meeting was held. But as two Municipal Law Enforcement Services officers approached to forcibly remove him, he called the officials “crooks” and grudgingly left the meeting.

Donald Smith does not want the CPD to return. He said that “anyone” who lived in Compton prior to the CPD’s being shut down can recall the days when local police officers spent hours on the clock playing dominoes in liquor stores and participated in the sale and distribution of illicit drugs.

Outside, the angry resident called city officials “communist.”

“They don’t want us to voice our opinions,” Donald Smith said. “They don’t want us to voice our opinion against what they’ve already decided to do.”.