AKRON, Ohio — Seven podiums for seven candidates, all wanting to be the next Mayor of Akron.
Current Mayor Dan Horrigan has decided not to seek a third term, leaving the field wide open. As the May 2 primary gets closer, the candidates (all Democrats) gathered Wednesday for a debate to answer questions coming from city residents, ranging from racism to schools to the future of young people.
However, the biggest issue continued to be the shooting death of Jayland Walker by Akron officers, coupled with how the candidates would improve relations with police and what they might change. All this occurred as protestors sat in silence holding up a sign
"We need a real leader who is going to take the charge in making sure that equity, justice, and accountability are not the exception, but the rule," former Akron Small Business Program Manager Mark Greer declared.
"I respect the service of every single member of our police department," Ward 8 City Councilman Shammas Malik added, "but I deeply, deeply, deeply feel that we need policy and culture change in how our policing systems interact, particularly with our Black community."
Watch the full debate below via Ideastream:
Others focused on the way Walker died: 46 gunshot wounds following a pursuit. A grand jury is now meeting to determine whether or not the eight officers who shot him will face criminal charges.
"No one gets shot 46 times," Keith Mills, who works as a teacher in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, said of Walker's killing. "That leads to the impersonal effect, OK? They don't treat, in this case, Jayland, as human, OK? Deer get treat[ed] better."
The only woman in the group at the Akron-Summit County Public Library was Tara Mosley, councilwoman for Ward 5 and a former candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Ohio. If elected, she would be the first female mayor in the city's history.
"You have to be able to have a real hard conversation during collective bargaining," Mosley said of how she would engage with the police department on what needs to change. "You have to be willing to have those hard conversations so we can have a common ground that works for everyone."
Most saw the need to build more bridges between officers and citizens as a must. This included Deputy Mayor Marco Sommerville, who has Horrigan's support.
"There is no one on this panel that has worked hard[er] on police-community relations than I," Sommerville declared. "When I was a member of the NAACP, we worked to make sure that we got more African Americans hired."
"We need to build trust with the police and the community," cell phone store manager Joshua Schaffer said. "We need to build trust by community policing and by substations."
Still, whoever becomes mayor would likely face an arduous journey to make things better.
"I have respect for any of the ladies and gentlemen that put on the uniform and run into harm's way for us as a community," Summit County Councilman Jeff Wilhite told those assembled. "That said, there are challenges that we have to look at as to of what we expect of them and they expect of us."
The debate, the final one before the primary, lasted 90 minutes. With no Republican candidates declared eligible to run, the Democratic nominee seems almost certain to be elected mayor in November.