ANC2C02 Forum

On the notice board in the foyer of the Third Baptist Church at the corner of 5th & Q, it says "All Are Welcome." This church hosts meetings of the ECCA which is definitely not welcoming to all.

At the October ECCA meeting, the ECCA board derided a local resident for being a homosexual. After that meeting Leroy Thorpe, the president of the ECCA, said that this same local resident would be barred from future ECCA meetings. That resident, subsequently, spoke with several MPD and other government officials and was told that such a bar was not enforceable or legal.

When this resident showed up for the ECCA meeting this evening with a neighbor, Mr. Thorpe brusquely instructed both of them to leave. The two police officers initially present at the meeting escorted the two residents, who live on the same block where the meetings are held, out of the meeting without conflict or fuss.

After a half hour or so, Sergeant D. Bracey and Sergeant M. Jackson arrived on the scene responding to the first two officers' repeated calls for assistance. Sgt Bracey was quite emphatic about the fact that Mr. Thorpe had no authority to bar these citizens people from such a meeting, she was overheard making a fews calls to speak with her superiors at the MPD to keep them abreast of the situation and confirm procedure. Then, all four police officers escorted the two local residents back into the meeting.

At this point Mr. Thorpe walked to the foyer where he loudly started an arguement with the police. Meanwhile, Armond Spikell from Roadside development was speaking about the O Street Market development, and struggling to be heard over Mr. Thorpe's yelling which was filtering through the door. Next, Mr. Thorpe left his own meeting to hustle home and grab a copy of this complaint letter, presumably to vindicate himself. When he came back and the police clarified that the complaint didn't bar any citizen — or MPD officers, for that matter — from a civic association meeting, he had another temper tantrum in the church foyer.

One of the Third Baptist Church trustees (left) attempts to calm Mr Thorpe down during a heated exchange with an MPD officer (right).

After collecting himself, Mr. Thorpe reentered the meeting, clearly defeated, silently (but fuming), and then announced that the public part of the meeting was over and demanded that all government officials including a representative from the Mayor's office, MPD, and nonmembers leave the meeting. Oddly, at least one favored nonmember was allowed to stay, though, according to the ECCA bylaws, she cannot be a member since she to lives outside the boundaries of the ECCA. Aren't double standards great? Once again, after several vehement requests, Sgt. Bracey demanded to re-enter the building, but as she and the ejected citizens re-entered the meeting, Mr. Thorpe gavelled the meeting to a chaotic close.

Why is he so fearful of dissenting voices? Maybe he does not want any discussion of the ECCA computer scandal in the meeting.

Second Northwest Coop Tenants Assoc. President, Ann Hil, and Earline Matthews, another member of the board of Second Northwest Coop, took the badge numbers of all the MPD officials; there were threats of going to the Third District headquaters to file PD99 complaints against the officers. And if that weren't enough, before the entire fiasco ended, Earline Matthews, threatened one of the individuals ejected from the meeting — who was attempting to video record the incident with his handy point and shoot camera — saying, "I'm gonna get my sons to beat the hell out of you!" At this point, all of the MPD officers present surrounded Ms Matthews, informed her of the illegality of making such a public threat, and detained her on the street until she came to her senses. The recipient of that threat, at this point, apparently has no intention of filing the appropriate misdemeanor charges against Ms Matthews in hopes of de-escalating the entire problem and sparing her and her sons from any conflict with the justice system.