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Many local residents have been horrified by the news coming out of Minneapolis, where thousands of federal border enforcement agents have hunted down undocumented immigrants, clashed with protesters and fatally shot residents Renée Good and Alex Pretti. 

Many such residents showed up to Eureka City Hall Tuesday afternoon for the latest quarterly meeting of the city’s Board of Community Oversight of Police Practices (COPP), an advisory body to the city’s police department established in 2022. 

Fifteen residents addressed the board during the 30-minute public comment period at the outset of the meeting, with all but one seeking details about how EPD officers will response if agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) descend upon our own community.

Several speakers characterized ICE’s recent activities as domestic terrorism rather than law enforcement. 

“They are terrifying our people,” said one woman, who identified herself as a member of the anti-authoritarian group Indivisible. She said her children have Hispanic last names and wondered aloud whether they might be taken to a detention center and terrorized.

“In my lifetime, I have lived through many national disasters, but this is the worst that I could ever imagine,” said Kris Well, a speaker who said she spent her career working in health care. “People are dying in U.S. concentration camps unseen, and people are being executed on our streets for all to see.”

Several folks asked for specifics about what training EPD officers have had and whether they’d protect local residents from ICE agents if necessary.

“I’m asking for communication on what EPD expects of community members to keep ourselves safe,” said local nurse Brian Terry, who, at 37, is the same age as both Good and Pretti.

While the speakers had nothing but scorn for ICE, several of them made a point of commending EPD for protecting protesters during recent well-attended anti-ICE demonstrations at the county courthouse. A woman named Krista Boardman, for example, praised the city’s Crisis Alternative Response Eureka (CARE) program while encouraging the department to build trust with migrant communities. 

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Members of the COPP board said they shared the concerns and opinions of public speakers. Board member Lawrence Giventer, in a prepared personal statement, described the thousands of federal agents in Minneapolis as a “militia” that often dresses in “military-like costumes” with helmets and face masks.

“They are armed with and readily use lethal and less than lethal munitions, including handguns, chemical irritants and various grenades … ,” he said. “They act with impunity, violently profiling, targeting and assaulting men, women and children without reasonable suspicion, probable cause or judicial warrant.”

These agents should not be considered law enforcement, Giventer said, because real police officers are “vetted, educated, well-trained professionals [who are] supervised and accountable to local and state elected officials and courts.”

Fellow board member Raul said it’s important for the community to have more information: “Has there been discussions as to, if there are incidents in Eureka, what could EPD do? What might their response be? Or how they would expect to behave?”

Unfortunately for those seeking specific responses, this ICE discussion was not on the meeting’s prepared agenda, which meant city officials couldn’t do any deliberations on the matter. However, City Manager Miles Slattery made some general comments.

Eureka Police Chief Brian Stephens.

“EPD is trained on all instances, as well as anything related to public safety, and this would be a public safety issue, and they’ve been trained on that,” he said. “We have been in discussions about putting out some information, which will likely happen. We’re going to still discuss it internally and we’ll put out that information.”

Slattery said there will be more information coming to the public in the near future. 

A board member asked whether city leaders could take recommendations based on what they’d heard over the course of the meeting, and Slattery noted that COPP is an oversight board rather than the type of government body that can provide policy direction.

“But we’ll definitely be addressing this issue as best we can,” he said.

You can watch the full meeting below.