By Venice Buhain | The Olympian
OLYMPIA – The national chapter of the Hip Hop Congress will hold a forum Friday and later will sell copies of an album to help The Evergreen State College reimburse the Thurston County Sheriff's Office for vandalism during rioting after a Dead Prez concert.
What's next
A continuation of a community forum held last week will be at 4 p.m. today in Lecture Hall 1 at The Evergreen State College.
A debriefing with Hip Hop Congress national president Shamako Noble and a screening of "It's Bigger than Hip Hop: The Truth Behind the Evergreen Uprising" will be at 3 p.m. Friday in Lecture Hall 1.
"I'm hoping it's more of a dialogue," said Shamako Noble, president and chief executive officer of the national organization, which has 80 chapters. "I'd be interested to know some direction we can take as a community."
The album will be distributed in record form and will feature hip-hop acts, including Dead Prez. It will be sold nationwide, said Buster Ross, an Evergreen student who is helping the the group with its Friday event. A release date isn't set.
Also Friday, a video will be screened that offers the Hip Hop Congress' analysis of events at the concert. The video, which is critical of the law enforcement response, can be viewed at www.theolympian.com.
A crowd of concertgoers blocked an Evergreen police car Feb. 15 to protest the detention of Kaylen Williams, 24, of Olympia during an investigation of a fight between a concertgoer and volunteer security. Williams was released at the scene and faces charges of misdemeanor assault.
The event escalated as other concertgoers joined in and law enforcement officers from Thurston County, Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater arrived for backup.
Internal review
A committee of faculty members, staff members and students is looking into whether campus policies are adequate for a large event such as the Dead Prez concert, which brought in 800 people.
Committee leader Phyllis Lane, the college's dean of student and academic support services, said in a campuswide e-mail that there was insufficient security for a concert of that size.
"Some of the specific, established procedures for coordinating such a concert were not executed," she wrote.
She described the breakdown as a glitch in communication between concert planners and police.
Ross said he didn't think there was insufficient security, adding that volunteer security workers wore lanyards and dressed in black to identify their role, and some were trained in security. He said it's not clear that more security would have helped.
Police complaints
Student Bruce Wilkinson filed a complaint this week questioning the Olympia Police Department's role and use of force at the event.
Wilkinson claims police did not use sirens and lights and did not give adequate warnings before deploying batons and pepper spray, and he says the protest largely was peaceful.
"I didn't hear any call to disperse," he said.
He thinks the documents released by Evergreen police Tuesday bolster his claim.
"There seems to be inconsistencies in different reports," he said.
Olympia police will investigate the complaint, and the findings will be passed along to the police auditor, said Lt. Ray Holmes.
Wilkinson said he supported creating a citizen board to oversee such complaints.
"More people would be apt to complain with a citizen review board," he said.
Venice Buhain covers education for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-5445 or vbuhain@theolympian.com.
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