Can Tucson experience a Trayvon Martin tragedy? That is the question to be addressed at Monday night’s forum at the Dunbar Culture Center. Trayvon Martin was a 17 year old Black American teenager who was shot & killed in Florida on Feb 26, 2012. Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman (Hispanic/White 28 year old) has been charged with 2nd degree murder in Trayvon’s shooting.

Correct address for this “Project Hoodie” forum is 325 W. 2nd St. (not what is listed on the poster), just east of Main Avenue, south of Speedway.

Invited speakers:
Tucson Police Department Chief Robert Villasenor
Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall
Pima County Public Defender Isabel Garcia
Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance Pastor Elwood McDowell
Black Women Task Force Annie Sykes
Tucson Urban League Jonathan Peck
Ward 5 City Councilmember Richard Fimbres
NAACP Dr. Patricia Harris Monroe
Attorney Krisian Salter
Mount Calvary Church pastor LaBryant Friend

When people of color/racial minorities are stopped by the police or security officers, they don’t know if it is prompted by their race (black hair, features, skin color) or because of any wrongdoing.

Ask any minority person if they feel they have been racially profiled by the police and you will be surprised by the answer. At a recent UA Law School forum on political discourse & civility I asked that very question of a Black-American male Yale Law School professor (one of the presenters) who lives in Connecticut, and he answered in the affirmative.

This forum is sponsored by the Tucson branch of the NAACP and the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance (IMA).

Got a late notice to attend a candidate community forum sponsored by the NAACP – Tucson chapter, Tucson Urban League, and the Tucson-Southern Arizona Black Chamber of Commerce, held tonight at the Dunbar School Auditorium, 325 W. 2nd Street (at Main Ave.) As I walked in Jonathan Peck, President of the Tucson Urban League was announcing that all Republican, Democratic and 3rd party candidates (statewide) and for Southern Arizona had been invited to attend & participate. About 100 people, mostly African Americans, were in the audience.

These were the state legislators that participated tonight (1st panel):
LD 25 House Rep. Pat Fleming (D)
LD 27 House candidates Sally Ann Gonzales and Dr. Macario Saldate (Ds)
LD 28 Senator Paula Aboud (D)
LD 28 Senate candidate Dave Ewoldt (I)
LD 28 House Rep. Steve Farley (D)
LD 28 House candidate Bruce Wheeler (D)
LD 30 House candidate Andrea Dalessandro (D)
LD 30 Senate candidate Dr. Todd Camenish (D), came in late

Also attending to participate in the 2nd panel were U.S. Senate candidate Rodney Glassman,
Attorney General Terry Goddard running for Governor, Sec. of State candidate Chris Deschene, and State Mine Inspector candidate Manuel Cruz, all Democrats.

Questions asked of the panelists were basically about steps they would take to improve education, to bring economic opportunity to minority populations, to strengthen public health for communities of color, to provide quality health care, and to insure equal treatment in the criminal justice system for minority populations. Being as these were all Democrats (and one Independent, formerly a Green Party activist) their answers were quite uniform in advocating and trying to restore funding to all these areas.

Of note: Sally Ann Gonzales mentioned that she is of Yaqui heritage, Chris Deschene is a member of the Navajo Nation, and Manuel Cruz and Dr. Macario Saldate are Hispanic, and provided their ethnic backgrounds and expertise to their responses.

The last question was about what steps could be taken to insure a fair and just dialogue re: immigration reform, and both Rodney Glassman and Terry Goddard said that could be done by “retiring John McCain.” Chris Deschene repeatedly asked the audience to elect Democrats to the state legislature, where he currently serves as House Rep. in LD 2.

Also in attendance tonight were former Pima County Democratic Party Chair Paul Eckerstrom for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and former Democratic Pima County Supervisor Dan Eckstrom. Fellow blogger “3 Sonorans” (David Morales) was there as well, and will be posting a video capturing the panelists’ answers to some of these questions. I’ll link to his blog once he posts it. UPDATE: Unfortunately neither David nor I got a lot of advance notice of this forum, so his cell phone video did not tape well (see his comment below).