Panel On Policing In Manhattan Beach To Answer Questions Live

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — The City of Manhattan Beach will hold a virtual Community Forum on "Policing and Partnerships" on Thursday, July 9 from 6-9 p.m. A panel of community members will discuss police policies and practices in Manhattan Beach, community partnerships, and implicit bias. The meeting will be held online via Zoom, which also enables participants to listen via phone should they not be able to go online. The meeting is also being livestreamed. (Links at end of article.)

Panelists scheduled to participate include

• Chief Derrick Abell, Manhattan Beach Chief of Police
• Nicole Watson, LCSW Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health
• Breanna Jaijairam, MSW Regional Coordinator for Adults – SPA 8 Harbor Interfaith Services
• Kelly Stroman, president and CEO Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce
• Dr. Michael Matthews, Manhattan Beach Unified School District (MBUSD) Superintendent
• Reverend Mark Petiss, Manhattan Beach Community Church
• Rabbi Joshua Kalev, Congregation Tikvat Jacob
• Mitch Ward, former Manhattan Beach Mayor
• Jemal Williams and Dalia Feliciano, former Mira Costa High School students

Chief Abell has been with the Manhattan Beach Police Department since 1991, rising through the ranks to become chief in January 2018. His law enforcement career began in 1988. Matthews, an accomplished educator, took the helm of MBUSD in 2009. Stroman, whose two children attended and graduated from MBUSD schools, has worked extensively in the community, both in her current position and as the executive president and CEO of the Downtown Manhattan Beach Business & Professionals Association.

Ward, a Manhattan Beach resident, served on City Council for eight years and championed the renaming of a parcel of land in the city that once belonged to Black Americans, Charles and Willa Bruce, who purchased the land in 1912 and set up a resort for Blacks in a time of segregation and tension. Members of the Ku Klux Klan and residents unahppy with the resort's existence, demanded that the city not allow it to exist. The city took the property using eminent domain in the 1920s. In the 1960s, the property, which had been vacant for decades, was made into a city park first called Bayview Terrace Park, then Parque Culiacan. In 2006, under Ward's leadership, the city council renamed the park, "commemorating our community's understanding that friendship, goodwill and respect for all begins within our own boundaries and extends to the world community. All are welcome." Bruce's Beach was officially designated during a public ceremony on the land on March 31, 2007.

Williams and Feliciano are part of a group that organized the June 2nd Black Lives Matter protest that took place at the base of the Manhattan Beach Pier, continuing to march down The Strand and beach bike path to Pier Plaza in Hermosa Beach where more speeches were made. They and Ward will address the "implicit bias" portion of the forum. Chief Abell, Watson and Jaijairam [the two are mental health professionals] will discuss police policies and practices. Matthews, Stroman, Rabbi Kalev and Rev. Pettis will discuss community partnerships.

Questions may be emailed in advance to CommunityQuestions@citymb.info. The meeting will be held online via Zoom and is also accessible via phone for voice only by calling 1 (669) 900-6833. The Meeting ID for both the online Zoom and phone is 983 6568 2559. The meeting is also being livestreamed here.