Masten District voters are dealing with an unusual race in which three people and a write-in candidate are vying for a vacant seat.
The Buffalo Association of Black Journalists had Sharon Belton-Cottman, Lamone Gibson and Ulysees Wingo on stage while write-in candidate Yvette Suarez had a table outside pushing her chances.
The seat opened when Majority Leader Demone Smith left to run a job-training program. It will be filled by appointment next month and is on the September primary ballot.
Questions covered several city issues, especially the touchy relationship with the Buffalo Police Department. Belton-Cottman says too many African-Americans are ruled psychologically unfit to be cops.
"If I remember right, in the fall, there was something on the news that said that the City of Buffalo had been court-ordered to put more African-Americans as police on their staff. Who's monitoring it? What's going on?," Belton Cottman told the audience.
"When I see cops pull over, I think about the Ku Klux Klan."
Another view was offered by Lamone Gibson who says he works with youth and is a Peacemaker and trains future cops at the Police Academy to help them understand the people they will patrol.
"I also had a best friend of mine apply, pass the test, get all the way to the psychological evaluation of the Buffalo Police Department, was told that he was psychologically unstable by the Buffalo Police Department, but is now a fire fighter," Gibson said.
Working as a youth minister, Wingo says he has come to realize that police respect communities which organize to protect themselves.
"What we found out in our research and in our work was that streets that have active block clubs have fewer instances of crime, fewer instances of burglaries, thefts, violent crime, gang-related activity, shots fired, because the people are looking out for the people," Wingo said.
"The police respect the fact that you live in a neighborhood where the people are looking out for one another. Granted there are commandos out here."
All three say police should be required to live in the city, something now required under the new PBA contract which requires officers to live in the city for at least the first seven years and about half of the force lives in the city.
