National unrest over police and race is playing out in the halls of city authority in Mobile, where three black council members are pushing for police oversight in the wake of the June 13 shooting death of 19-year-old Michael Moore.
Moore, who is black, was shot dead by Officer Harold Hurst, who is white, during a traffic stop. The FBI and U.S. Department of Justice are investigating.
"The shooting death of Michael Moore not only impacts relationships throughout this city, but it also has the city we love at a public safety risk," said Councilman C.J. Small. "Tensions are high all over the community, including City Hall."
Small, along with Fred Richardson and Levon Manzie, are the council's three black members. They say a citizens police advisory council would serve as an independent watchdog of the Mobile Police Department.
But Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, up until Monday, said he didn't see a need for it and pointed to an already established citizens advisory panel consisting of two dozen volunteers assigned to addressing police-community interaction. On Monday, he said he'd support the new group with conditions.
The public dispute over police oversight is occurring at the same time federal investigators look into the circumstances surrounding Moore's death.
Mobile shooting
Council President Gina Gregory said "our city and the country have gone through a lot in recent weeks."
In Mobile, protests and heightened security have been the norm since June 13 when Hurst, a four-year veteran, pulled over a stolen white Lexus driven by Moore.
The traffic stop, according to police, occurred after the Lexus was observed making a left turn across oncoming traffic and nearly caused a wreck. The vehicle tag checked out as stolen and the identity given by Moore checked out as false.
According to the police summary of the incident, Moore got out of the car with a cell phone in his hand. Hurst observed a gun in his waistband. Hurst ordered Moore to keep his hands away from the weapon, thought he was reaching for it, and then shot him. Moore fell to the ground and Hurst, believing he was reaching for the gun, shot him a second time.
An image of Moore lying on the ground mortally wounded or dead in handcuffs has been cited with outrage on social media, but police said it is standard procedure to handcuff injured suspects and that Moore was only handcuffed after being shot.
But questions about the encounter have swirled ever since, especially after Moore's handgun was not recovered at the scene. Instead, according to police, it stayed in Moore's waistband as he was transported to a nearby hospital where investigators recovered it.
Barber has described this as a breakdown of proper crime-scene procedure. But it has also fueled concerns among the black community and Moore's family.
Unlike the fatal police shootings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile in Minnesota, there was no cell phone video footage of Hurst's encounter with Moore. Also, Hurst was not yet wearing his body camera at the time of the traffic stop and no police camera footage of the incident has surfaced publicly.
The FBI is offering $10,000 for any video that clearly shows the interaction between the two.
"We have seven witnesses that have given statements who said they saw Michael with his hands up," said D.J. Larry, a family spokesman and Moore's cousin. "A number of them said they didn't see a weapon at all. (Police) said the next day that Michael had a stolen weapon and a stolen car and all of this stuff. Whether it was true or not, and the family stands against it, that does not have any bearing on the shooting of Michael not once, but twice."
Barber, meanwhile, said "a lot" of investigating is still needed before federal authorities finalizes their work.
'Help communication'
Meanwhile, the shooting has led to disagreements along racial lines in city government.
Both sides staked their positions last week while Stimpson - elected mayor in 2013, following a racially tinged mayoral campaign against the black incumbent, Sam Jones - was out of the country attending the Farnborough Air Show in London in an effort to drum up business for the city's Airbus plant.
Stimpson, in an editorial Wednesday, wrote in opposition of the police oversight proposed by a council-backed group and defended his administration's advisory panel that has, for the past year, assisted the police chief on reviewing incidents related to community and police relations.
His editorial came after Police Chief James Barber called a July 11 news conference to blast Councilman Manzie for a Facebook correspondence he had with a man who posted anti-police sentiments on social media.
Manzie retorted by saying he had not spoken to the man since grade school, disavowed the anti-police rhetoric and claimed that Barber was making political hay out of the situation.
Chief Barber has long been opposed to the council establishing its own watchdog group. In 2014, when the council first considered forming the group, he told them that they might have the "wrong chief of police."
But on Monday, Barber and Stimpson offered an olive branch to the council and said they would support their group if several changes were added. Among them: In addition to seven council appointees, the mayor would also have seven appointees from each council district; that all appointees go through a modified Mobile Police Department Citizens' Academy and participate in quarterly ridealongs with police officers in their districts; and that the group sunset on Jan. 1, 2012.
The three council members, through a spokeswoman, said they appreciated the mayor's new position and called it a "positive step." The council-backed proposal is scheduled for a public hearing on July 28.
"What our Police Department needs is support," Stimpson said. "While I said 'No' to additional bureaucracy from an oversight stand point, I can support a citizens' advisory council if the purpose is to help in the communications between our citizens and the Police Department."
'Eliminate bias'
The council group would not replace the current Citizens Advisory Panel, which already serves in an advisory role to Barber.
Critics of that group - including Richardson -- have said that it's shrouded in secrecy, and that its membership is determined by the mayor and the police chief and not by independent sources or the council.
Barber said that whenever the group meets, its meetings are not closed. He also said that his administration is "working through the list" of its members to see which ones would be OK with having their names publicized.
"No one knows who is part of the current council that the police chief says he has," said Larry, the family spokesman. "I think to eliminate bias, it should be a separate committee set up by someone outside the department. If the council wants to do it, by all means, that is fine. But I think the citizens ought to have some say so."
Ronald Ali, president of the Mobile County NAACP, said he favors the formation of the council's group. "There is value for the City Council to have an ordinance that makes it a part of city government that, no matter who the chief or the mayor is, that those who govern ordain that we have a police advisory group."
Other cities have similar groups, such as Birmingham and Anniston. Similar panels exist nationwide, such as in Asheville, N.C. and Tacoma, Wash.
Both of those cities are overwhelmingly white. Tacoma, with a population about the same size as Mobile, consists of 64.9 percent white and 11.2 percent black. Mobile is split, with 51 percent of the city's 194,288 population black and 45 percent identified as white, according to latest Census figures.
Politically, Mobile has voted along racial lines in recent elections. In the 2013 mayor's race, Stimpson won thanks to a surge in white voter turnout. A Press-Register analysis of the mayor's race showed that he fared poorly in the mostly black precincts.
But Stimpson, in defending his compromise proposal, said he has supporters in all seven council districts and should be allowed to add appointments from each of them.
"There were people in every single district that voted for me also, they just didn't vote for the City Council," Stimpson said. "Why should I not have the opportunity? It's an advisory situation and a communication tool to go back into our community. I'd much rather have two informed voices going back into the district instead of one."
'Ups and downs'
But since the Moore shooting, which remains under investigation, the racial divides have been on public display. The mostly black "Leaders for Truth and Justice" - led by state lawmakers and former council members - have called for more specifics on Moore's death. The group also supports the formation of the council's watchdog committee.
The issue has become the most divisive political issue in Mobile since Jones, the former mayor, was added to the city-county Water Board in 2014.
Small takes exception to the comparison: "There is no parallel to the shooting death of a young black man and the debate around a Water Board appointment. The two should not be compared at all."
But similarities exist when it comes to political posturing. The Jones appointment split the city into two camps - black supporters of the former mayor including the three black council members against Stimpson and the four white council members. Twice, the council voted along 4-3 racial lines against the Jones appointment.
It's unclear how the four white council members view the formation of the police community advisory council.
Acrimony over the Jones appointment became a public spectacle on May 13, 2014, when the entire Stimpson administration walked out of a council meeting after Small, Richardson and Manzie abstained on voting for several unrelated council items. The abstentions occurred after Richardson, who sponsored the Jones appointment, said he felt "disenfranchised" by the white council members voting it down.
Stimpson, on May 30, 2014, urged the entire council to vote Jones in as a Water Board member. He was criticized on social media by his mostly white conservative followers for relenting to the black council members. But the mayor said at the time he felt the appointment "distracted from the issues" that would help unify Mobile. Some praised the mayor for taking a leadership stance on a divisive matter.
Since then, at least publicly, the relationship between the council and the Stimpson administration improved.
That was until the formation of the police watchdog group surfaced on a council agenda earlier this month.
"Like any relationship dynamic, there are ups and downs," said Cooper, the chief of staff last week. "I am reminded of saying about marriage and the administration and the City Council are certainly in a marriage ... 'A perfect marriage is just two imperfect people who refuse to give up on each other.' We are trying to transform this city and improve the quality of life for each citizen. We refuse to give up on both the citizens and other elected officials because we can only accomplish a better Mobile together."
Council President Gina Gregory also attempted to downplay the recent disagreements.
"There are always going to be disagreements and tension between the executive and legislative branches of any government," she said. "Any periodic disagreements between the Council and the mayor, or between the councilors themselves, should not obscure the fact that on the major issues facing Mobile - the financial integrity of the city, its crumbling infrastructure, economic development and quality of life - significant progress has been made."
'Enormous support'
In the aftermath of Moore's death, a series of peaceful protests have occurred throughout Mobile. Police concerns about protestors blocking the Bankhead Tunnel during a recent Art Walk event in downtown Mobile proved false. And, for the most part, there has not been any eruption of social problems connected to the Moore shooting.
Barber said police will continue to monitor social media and other sources and act accordingly if heightened police attention is needed.
"In today's day and time, we cannot afford to not take threats seriously," Barber said.
He also encouraged the public to be supportive of police, and to personally thank uniformed officers for the work they do.
"The incredible amount of support we require to do our jobs and to do it well is enormous," he said.