Two Hour Town Hall With Law Enforcement Puts Spotlight on Progress and Problems
Image credit: Lyndsay Dunn/NOISE
By Elle Love
A town hall at the Fabric Lab turned into an evening of activism when community members shared their negative experiences with law enforcement in Omaha. On Mar. 22, Preston Love moderated a community meeting with Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer and Chief Deputy Sheriff Wayne Hudson. The stated topic for the evening was policy and practice regarding “no-knock” warrants in Omaha and Douglas County, but it expanded to a wide-ranging discussion of problems and concerns including dangerous neighborhoods and a feeling by some community members that their problems are not addressed when they report them.
LB 920 and 980 - Criminal Justice reform bills
Before the meeting started, Love invited Teela Mickles, founder and CEO of Compassion in Action to share information about LB 920 and 980, two bills sponsored by Sens. Steve Lathrop and Terrell McKinney that would create improvements to sentencing, release, reentry, and supervision of convicted persons and allow those sentenced to life to be evaluated for parole after 25 years of incarceration because people mature and are no longer a threat to society. LB 980 would also provide for compassionate release for prisoners who are gravely ill.
“It is a prison. It’s not a morgue. These people are alive,” Mickles said. She added their lives must have a purpose. “You can call your senator. Tell him you’re supporting this [bill].”
Love followed Mickles remarks by making a plea for the compassionate release of his childhood friend Edward Poindexter, 77, who is serving a life sentence and has been incarcerated for 51 years and is now on dialysis. He said many people in the community believe Poindexter is innocent. Regardless, Love said he has been an exemplary prisoner earning a college degree and publishing books while incarcerated.
Law enforcement progress on reducing shootings
Schmaderer spoke next. He said that before he was appointed police chief almost 10 years ago, there was an “epidemic level of shootings,” with 250 occurring per year which has been brought down to an average of 100 per year. He said 40 homicides used to occur yearly and that has been cut in half.
“We really attribute that to robust police-community relations. The next step in taking Omaha to that next level of reduction in crime is to address the root causes [of crime]: poverty, breakdown of families, educational gaps, etc.” Schmaderer said other cities of similar size are envious of Omaha’s progress with violence reduction.
Need for minority representation in law enforcement
Chief Deputy Sheriff Wayne Hudson, Preston Love, Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer. Photo credit: Kietryn Zychal/ NOISE
Hudson explained that in addition to Douglas County, the sheriff’s office has jurisdiction in the unincorporated areas outside the city. As an African American, he spoke about the need for minorities to apply for jobs in law enforcement. “If you don’t go into law enforcement, who do you think is going to be patrolling your community? Who’s going to know about the culture? Who's going to know, instead of taking that kid to the youth center, you take him down to grandma’s house and grandma’s going to take care of him?”
Later in the evening, he introduced Sherie Thomas, an African American woman and native Omahan who is the current acting deputy chief of the Omaha Police.
Hudson said both he and Schmaderer support the North Omaha Recovery Plan and he encouraged the audience to contact their senators about it.
No-knock warrants
The discussion moved on to “no-knock” warrants. Schmaderer said after Breonna Taylor was killed in Kentucky in 2020 during a no-knock raid, Omaha looked at their no-knock service and tactics. “We decided at that point in time that we would focus mostly on ‘knock and announce.’” He is against breaking down doors and rushing in because it puts both residents and officers at risk.
Regarding the shooting of Amir Locke in Minneapolis, Schmaderer emphasized that Locke was not the subject of the warrant and that he was a legal gun owner who picked up his gun when police opened the door to the apartment with a key and woke him up as they announced themselves. “I’m a legal gun owner, right? If somebody… kicks my door without knocking and announcing or whatever, I’m going to be upset about that as well. To me, his actions seemed reasonable,” he added.
Polling place changes and support for release of Ed Poindexter
Audience member Vicki Parks started the public comments when she held up her polling place notification and stated that her polling place had been “sneakily moved’ and she implored the crowd to check theirs as well, and to vote.
Parks shifted to a personal story about her involvement, along with her husband, on the first defense committee to support Ed Poindexter and Mondo (David Rice) through the Calvin Memorial Presbyterian Church in the 1970s. She claimed the minister believed they were innocent and stated, ‘They ran that preacher out of town.’ Commenting on Mondo’s 2016 death in prison, Parks vowed to take the ‘battle for Mondo and Ed’s freedom’ to the state Capitol.
Parks offered to pay for a bus to take community members to Lincoln to share their concerns with senators. “Because if we want something done in this racist city, and in this racist state, we gotta take it to ‘em,” she said.
Dangerous neighborhood conditions
Celeste Butler described the danger that exists in her neighborhood because of a building at 3483 Larimore that had once been Immanuel Hospital, which has been vacant over 20 years. The building is currently owned by OEDC (Omaha Economic Development Corporation). Butler told of methamphetamine activity in the alley behind the building and parties on the roof ‘almost daily.’ She said the neighborhood is made up of hard-working mothers, their children and grandchildren.
Butler said 200 shots were fired last May and police were called.
An abandoned building at 3483 Larimore St. The doors on the alley are wide open.
“I was terrified when officers pulled up to my house. Rifles loaded. Guns loaded. Front and back side of my house and I was scared that the Breonna Taylor accident was getting ready to happen to me in that moment. I ran to my basement and hid on the floor because it was the lowest place in my house that I could hide without the bullets riddling my house.”
She said her emails and calls to OEDC president Mike Maroney, the city and the planning department have done nothing to improve the situation. She implored the panel: “Shut that building down or tear it down.”
Keiria Lowe (left) and Celeste Butler (right) at the Fabric Lab on Mar. 22, 2022.
Keiria Lowe shared similar feelings about the neighborhood of 24th and Pratt where police were called multiple times because of crack cocaine use, stating, “The only time I was able to get something done was when I contacted John Chapman at Channel 6 news.” She said contacting the police had not resolved her issue, either.
Schmaderer explained that officers responded with rifles because of the high number of shots that were fired in Butler’s neighborhood. He said law enforcement marked that location for extra patrols. Butler said she had not seen any. The chief said he would personally check on patrols in the area.
Butler invited news crews to go to 3483 Larimore to photograph the building’s condition. Love told Butler that her comments to the police chief at the town hall had made a difference.
And much more…
The meeting lasted almost two hours. Some of the other questions posed included the status of the investigation into the Jasmine Harris homicide, the school to prison pipeline, the role of Student Resource Officers in schools, and an incident at King Science and Technology Middle School where students were sprayed with mace. Hudson said SRO’s should not be disciplinarians in school. Their role is to protect students because of the danger of school shootings across the nation.
“We are here if you need us. Let’s try to arrest the violent offenders and have knowledge of who they are so they’re not hurting the community. And let’s leave everybody else alone.”
Schmaderer criticized police departments that adopt a military style of policing in communities. “That mindset is wrong,” he said. He explained that he tries to instill a guardian mentality in his officers. “We are here if you need us. Let’s try to arrest the violent offenders and have knowledge of who they are so they’re not hurting the community. And let’s leave everybody else alone.”
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