Sonoma County ACLU honors Black Panther Party founder Elbert Howard

For 40 years, Elbert “Big Man” Howard has spoken out against police killings and injustice, from the Oakland Police Department in the turbulent late 1960s to the 2013 shooting of Andy Lopez that roiled and divided Sonoma County.

And that work has gotten tougher in the past year with the killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., Walter Scott in North Charleston, S.C., and just recently Freddie Gray in Baltimore, to name a few.

In the aftermath of riots and recriminations, and in some cases indictments against police officers, Howard said the solutions needed now are the same ones that he was preaching as a founding member of the Black Panther Party.

“We need community control of police and community involvement. Unless the community gets involved, they are going to be affected by what goes on with the behavior of the police,” said Howard, 77, who went on to become a community activist, author and disc jockey who now resides in Santa Rosa.

Howard and his wife, Carole Hyams-Howard, were honored Sunday as recipients of the Jack Green civil liberties award by the American Civil Liberties Union of Sonoma County at a luncheon held at the Flamingo Hotel in Santa Rosa. Both have been active in the Police Accountability Clinic and Helpline, which Howard helped to found. It records and catalogs allegations of law enforcement misconduct.

“I never thought I would find a Black Panther founding member to be honored in this way,” Hyam-Howard quipped about her husband.

Despite the recent police killings, Howard said he remains hopeful that change can occur. “I got to remain hopeful. All I got is hope,” he said.

For example, he applauded Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby for indicting all six officers involved with Gray’s death. He wants more elected officials, such as President Barack Obama, to “have some backbone and have some sense.”

“That’s a step so far in the right direction,” Howard said of the indictments filed Friday by Mosby in Baltimore. “We just hope she doesn’t get crucified for doing that. .?.?. It would be a great thing if she would stick to her guns and hold fast to her beliefs.”

But work remains on the local level, Howard said. He pointed to the aftermath of District Attorney Jill Ravitch’s decision not to charge Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputy Erick Gelhaus in the Lopez killing. Gelhaus, who shot Lopez in 2013 as the teen was walking down the street carrying an airsoft BB gun that resembled an AK-47 assault rifle, has since returned to patrol.

“What is that saying to the community? Is it saying that child didn’t matter?” Howard asked.

Robert Edmonds, a former board member for the Sonoma County ACLU, briefed attendees on his role as part of a community task force that was formed in the aftermath of the Lopez killing. It will hold its last meeting today and make recommendations to county supervisors this month.

Among suggestions, the task force will urge supervisors to separate the coroner’s office from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office to prevent conflicts of interest, Edmonds said. It also found that the civil grand jury could not provide sufficient oversight of law enforcement incidents.

The task force also will recommend the creation of an independent auditor that would be funded separately from the Sheriff’s Office. However, it would not apply to other local law enforcement agencies, not have subpoena authority and would not be able to release specific details on individual officers in a review, Edmonds said.

“I think these recommendations as a whole represent maybe a preliminary shift toward improving some things, if they are implemented positively and properly. But it’s going to be the continuing increasing involvement of the public, especially at this stage, to move forward to make sure the county doesn’t just put these things on the shelf and nothing ever happens,” Edmonds said.

He noted that a Sheriff’s Office representative on the task force voted against adopting the recommendations, a remark that triggered some groans among those in attendance.

“I struggled with whether or not to adopt these recommendations because of some of the things that were included in there,” Edmonds said. “But it think it is very important that we have to keep working on this.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: The story has been updated to correctly reflect where the Howards reside and the position Edmonds held with the ACLU.