In last week's Stranger, we recommended that members of the city's Citizen Task Force on racial profiling resign ["The OTHER Closed Meetings," Josh Feit, April 26]. We pointed out that these closed-door meetings were more egregious than the widely publicized private Mardi Gras task force meetings because, having been created by a formal city council resolution, the closed racial-profiling meetings were breaking state law. We also pointed out that the so-called Citizen Task Force didn't include any young African American males (the people most likely to be profiled). However, it did include a former assistant city attorney, a member from the mayor's office, and a staffer from City Council Member Jim Compton's office.
Soon after we published the article, we got word that one panelist, Shelbi Scott, was discouraged with the committee. "I am considering stepping down," said Scott, a youth project manager at United Way. "I was bringing youth to the meeting, specifically young African American males. However, that got a mixed reaction from the committee. In fact, I have not attended the last two meetings because I can't figure out what to do. I took the task force appointment because I thought I would be able to bring some youth ... and get them involved. [But] there was tension brewing between the task force members, and I didn't feel comfortable escalating [that tension] by bringing in the public. I truly think it was a mistake to close the meetings to the public."
Scott's comments are particularly noteworthy because shortly after our article ran, another task force participant contacted The Stranger to say our story had gotten it all wrong by reporting an absence of youth on the task force. This indignant task force member cited Shelbi Scott as an example of youth involvement.
Nice try. However, we weren't concerned about the absence of youth. As the article stated, we were concerned about the absence of African American youth. "Oh, I missed that part," the task force member admitted. And for the record, Shelbi Scott--in her own words--is "a little blond white woman."
Moreover, even if we were simply concerned about youth representation, Scott doesn't fit that bill, either. "I am 30!!!" Scott wrote in an astonished e-mail message after learning about the youth role she was evidently fulfilling. "Youth. Gosh that is a good one!!"
However, Scott has decided to stay on the task force. Here's the scary reason why: Last weekend, Scott's boyfriend, who is black, was followed by two police cars when he drove to and from the Texaco station a block away from his West Seattle apartment. The three cops who stopped Scott's boyfriend as he pulled back up to his apartment explained that "an alarm went off in the area." The cops proceeded to run his license plate number, finding nothing. Next, they asked him for his driver's license. Scott's boyfriend had left his license in his apartment, located just 12 feet away. "Do you want me to get it? It's right up there," he said, pointing to his apartment. The cops declined and wrote him a ticket for driving without a license.
Armed with a story like this, Scott ultimately thinks she'll do more good by staying on the committee.
