Five Cincinnati officials have cancelled their participation in Monday night's Ferguson Commission meeting, following the shooting deaths of an officer and resident last week in Cincinnati.
The commission has scrapped its original agenda in favor of a public open mic, audience polling and small-group discussions.
The commission was to address social unrest after the police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson. It had been scheduled to hear from "key representatives" of the Cincinnati Collaborative Agreement, a settlement agreement reached in 2002 .
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The Ferguson Commission said that the Cincinnati agreement offered "real insight and perspective for the many complex layers and challenges the 最新杏吧原创 region finds itself faced with today."
Five were scheduled to attend Monday's meeting:
鈥 Alphonse Gerhardstein, lead plaintiff counsel in the ACLU lawsuit against the Cincinnati Police Department
鈥 Kathy Harrell, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Queen City Lodge #69
鈥 Captain Maris Herold, Cincinnati Police Department
鈥 Pastor Damon Lynch III, former president of the Cincinnati Black United Front
鈥 Iris Roley, Cincinnati Black United Front
The five are now "needed in their home city," a Ferguson Commission spokeswoman said in a release.
The Cincinnati officer was responding to a 911 call Friday when he was fatally shot. The man who shot聽Officer Sonny Kim聽died in a shootout with other arriving officers, according to police. The city's police chief said the man made the 911 call himself and described the shooting as "suicide by cop."
The Ferguson Commission was also prepared to update the public on the work of the Citizen-Law Enforcement Relations, Municipal Courts and Governance, Child Well-Being and Education Equity and Economic Inequity and Opportunity subcommittees.
But following the deaths in Cincinnati, plus the church shooting in Charleston, S.C., the commission has decided to "lean into this moment and provide a safe-space during Monday's meeting to allow for community members to process the effect of community level trauma and toxic stress."
The commission said it will ask the audience:
鈥 "Have you experienced trauma or toxic stress? This can be described as one鈥恡ime or on鈥恎oing deeply disturbing experiences often brought on by physical, economic, cultural, emotional or environmental assault."
鈥 "Do you think the community you live in has experienced trauma?"
鈥 "Do you believe someone can be traumatized by racism?"
鈥 "Have you experienced any trauma due to racism?"
鈥 "How many people in your community are coping with past trauma or toxic stress?"
The meeting is from 5:30 to 9:00 p.m. at 最新杏吧原创 Community College at Meramec 11333 Big Bend Road in Kirkwood.
