Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford in one of his first days on the job in 2019 gathered the hundreds of staffers from his office together for a meeting.
As part of the conversation, he detailed the three types of communities that coexist with government and law enforcement: some fully support law enforcement agencies; others have faith — just declining trust in them; and then there’s the types of communities like the one he “came from.”
“Sometimes law enforcement comes into the community when something bad happens,” Ford said. “But sometimes bad things happened when law enforcement came into my community.”
It’s a reality leaders in the criminal justice system should recognize, because otherwise “you’re turning a blind eye,” Ford said today during the “Racial Justice and the Justice System” panel at the College of Southern Nevada’s Cheyenne campus.
Ford was joined by the leaders of the biggest law enforcement entities in Nevada for the two-hour panel, including: Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, Clark County District Attorney Steven Wolfson, Las Vegas FBI Special Agent in Charge Aaron Rouse, Nevada acting-U.S. Attorney Christopher Chiou, and Franciso Burrola, special agent in charge of the Department of Homeland Security’s investigative arm.
Some of the roughly 80 attendees cheered, jeered, sneered and booed as the panelists answered questions about community trust and outreach, police brutality, prosecutions and diversity within their ranks.
The event was hosted by the Las Vegas chapter of the NAACP and sponsored by the LVMPD Foundation, Metro Police’s independent fundraising arm.
The panelists, who at times were interrupted by shouting audience members, mostly spoke in generalities about what their agencies’ role is in the community, how they address injustices, what programs and policies are in place to gain trust, and changes that are coming through criminal justice bills passed at the Nevada Legislature earlier this year.
They were asked about what safeguards are in place to weed out extremists within their ranks, and how they investigate allegations of bias and brutality.
In the question and answer portion of the panel, in which moderators asked questions submitted from the audience, Lombardo — a Republican candidate for Nevada governor — drew some of the ire from the audience.
A moderator asked Lombardo about a Sun story from last month that quoted him saying he was a supporter of legal immigration but had “zero-tolerance” for illegal immigration. He disputed the reporting and said his campaign asked the newspaper to clarify, an effort that was rebuffed.
The comment comes from a June 28 news conference to announce his run for Nevada governor, where he said: “America is a nation of laws that must be followed with borders that must be protected, but we’re also a nation that should welcome legal immigration; working with a system that rewards … rule followers but has a zero-tolerance policy for those who don’t.”
Lombardo this afternoon clarified that he was talking about deporting the “worst of the worst” alleged criminals.
Wolfson addressed racial bias in the criminal justice system, noting that the six attorneys in his office that scan the roughly 80,000 annual cases recommended for prosecution don’t consider the race of the defendants when pushing the case forward.
Lombardo was asked what he would say to someone turning on the TV and seeing an instance of police brutality. What would he tell them so they can trust Metro?
“I would want them to have trust in me as their sheriff, that we would (take) any allegation or any concern of allegation or any concern of improper use of force, we will conduct a robust investigation...and people will be held accountable,” he said.
The event concluded with audience members chanting, “How do you spell murder?” Their response, “LVMPD.”