The Final Call

Organizing community efforts in Fort Worth

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FORT WORTH, Texas—City residents do not feel safe in their own neighborhoods and homes. It was a common sentiment expressed stood outside of city hall and inside a city council meeting. 

The meeting, held Oct. 15 at 7 p.m., was full. Officials opened an overflow room. It filled up in minutes. Doors were closed, locked and no one else was allowed inside the building.

Hundreds of people stood outside in downtown Fort Worth, waiting patiently as bikers revved their motorcycles, and circled city hall’s perimeter over and over again. The bikes were as loud as thunder on a stormy day.

Although angry with the Fort Worth Police Department over the shooting death of Atatiana Jefferson, many were cordial and patient, hoping to get into the city council meeting. The Black woman was shot to death in her home by a White officer with the Ft. Worth police department.

The next day, the Ministers Baptist Alliance held a press conference asking for a federal consent decree and Justice Dept. monitoring of the police department following the death of Ms. Jefferson. Pastors from all over the city convened at Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church on the southside of Fort Worth to push for justice.

Student Minister Lee Muhammad of Muhammad Mosque No. 52 in Ft. Worth is the local representative of Min. Farrakhan and was interviewed for a national publication, The Business Insider.

“Dissatisfaction eventually brings about a change. As the voice of the dissatisfied grows louder, change will come about. Our hope is that the change will come willingly from the top. Continued injustice over time causes and imbalance in the minds of the victims and history has shown us that this leads to unnecessary clashes with a recalcitrant government,” Minister Lee Muhammad said.

A large crowd of protesters gather outside the house, right, where Atatiana Jefferson was shot Saturday and killed by police, during a community vigil for Jefferson on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2019, in Fort Worth, Texas. A white police officer who killed the black woman inside her Texas home while responding to a neighbor’s call about an open front door “didn’t have time to perceive a threat” before he opened fire, an attorney for Jefferson’s family said.

The evening of Oct. 16, a grassroots community organization called The Brotherhood hosted a 10,000 Fearless Conflict Resolution Team meeting at Aleithia Temple to explain the program and sign people up to participate. They officially signed up 16 residents to serve as “resolutionists” who have committed to participate in training that will teach them how to take calls from community residents who have issues and dispatch those who can provide assistance. 

Future plans for Fort Worth include a series of training classes on strategies for making Black neighborhoods decent places to live. One effort includes Community Conflict Resolution Training for the Squash the Beef Hotline lead by Darryl X Leonard of the 10,000 Fearless. “We would like to create an interactive map of active mediators in the city of Fort Worth that will allow us to dispatch mediators from local mosques, churches and other community organizations by zip code who are trained by the 10,000 Fearless Conflict Resolution Team to mediate issues and work in the communities to reduce the recurrence of violent crime,” explained Mr. Leonard. 

Organizations involved in the effort include Emancipate Fort Worth, The Brotherhood, the Nation of Islam, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Youth Program, Concerned Citizens LOC and United Fort Worth.

“We believe implicit bias plays a major role in how police respond in Black and Brown neighborhoods. More stress needs to be given to cultural sensitivity training and implicit bias testing,” said Min. Lee Muhammad. “More of our tax dollars need to be diverted to proper education and cultivating human potential and building the inner city. Finally, we need to seriously look at community policing from the inside out—empowering groups to patrol their own neighborhoods and calling the police only when absolutely necessary.”

A commemoration of the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s visit to Ft. Worth was held Oct. 20. The civil rights leader came to the city 50 years ago. Min. Lee Muhammad spoke and Rev. Al Sharpton spoke via phone addressing the Jefferson shooting. The event was hosted by Rev. Tatum, who officiated the Ministers Baptist Alliance press conference.

Nation of Islam Southwest Regional Student Minister Abdul Haleem Muhammad was scheduled to host planning sessions on city organizing and planning with key leadership, grassroots and other community organizations to help them work together more effectively. Nation of Islam researcher Demetric Muhammad was scheduled to speak in the city Nov. 2-3 and teach community policing classes based on his book, “How to Police Our Own Community.”

Emancipate Fort Worth, an organization that started as a result of the police shooting death of JaQuavion Slaton, 20, in June, had planned an Oct. 27 children’s march. Mr. Slaton was gunned down by police in the backyard of an elderly man on the East Side of town in front of neighbors including children. The march was to be held in front of Masjid Hasaan, which is next door to where Ms. Jefferson was killed. At press time, plans for her funeral were still pending.