After a string of police shootings in Anchorage, resident Shala Kerrigan said she continues to fear how interactions between her children and police could go wrong.
“It’s always scared me, you know? I’ve never known what would happen if the police were called for any reason,” said the mother of two.
Kerrigan was one of about 60 people who met up Tuesday evening at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church for a community discussion about public safety in Anchorage following seven police shootings in the city that left four people dead. Multiple member organizations of the Alaska Coalition for Justice, including Native Movement, the Alaska Black Caucus and the Pacific Community of Alaska, organized the event.
Kerrigan said her kids are both grown adults with special needs, or “neurodiverse geeks” as she puts it, who are into video games, anime and cosplay. Both like to dress up and go out as characters they like.
“A lot of her video game costumes do include having some kind of weapon or gun or sword or fake knife,” she said about her daughter, Emily. “Even though they’re obviously fake, if you’re far enough away, how obvious is the fake, right?”
Kerrigan worries about her son, William, especially because he’s over 6 feet tall, weighs around 250 pounds and tends to freeze and become nonverbal if he gets scared. She’s heard speculation that 16-year-old Easter Leafa’s size was a factor when police shot and killed her last month. Police said they were called to the family’s apartment because Leafa was threatening others with a knife.
“My son’s bigger than she is. Is that going to be the excuse? That he was armed with being big and brown?” said Kerrigan, who is Athasbascan. “Something just has to go a tiny bit wrong for it to be our kids, and that’s not fair.”
Other attendees shared and vented with each other about their mixed feelings toward law enforcement, bad personal experiences and what they want to see change. The organizers asked the media and attendees not to record or photograph the main discussion, though some attendees agreed to interviews outside.
After about three hours of talk, there appeared to be consensus to lobby the city’s elected officials to create a civilian police oversight panel, and to support ongoing funding in the 2025 city budget for special teams that specifically work emergency calls for people in mental health crises.
Last month, Mayor Suzanne LaFrance and Police Chief Sean Case laid out plans for more police accountability and reforms. Some Anchorage Assembly members have said they also support creating a civilian oversight board.
Some members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation Anchorage who attended the Tuesday gathering called out the organizers for receiving grants from the city government and for sidelining criticism they think should be directed at city officials.
The barbs raised the temperature in the room and derailed the conversation for a while.
Party member Michael Patterson, who’s been protesting local police practices for years, bristled at the slow pace of reform.
“We are way past a conversation,” he said. “We need civilian oversight and we need transparency and accountability. This is just – it’s the same old, same old stuff.”
Patterson said PSL-Anchorage published a proposal for a civilian oversight board in April – before the Anchorage Police Department’s string of shootings began this year.
Eventually, a participant refocused the discussion on next steps.
Shala Kerrigan said she’d also like police hires to go through more background checks.
“Background checks that include looking at their complaint history from whichever departments they’re being hired out of,” she said.
Kerrigan said she thinks these kinds of complaints, especially from people of color and marginalized communities, tend to get swept under the rug.
“I’d like to be in a place where everyone can tell their children, ‘Call the police if you’ve got a problem,’” she said. “But we’re not there. We aren’t anywhere near there. And we keep seeing stories that show we’re nowhere near there. And it’s kids like mine that are getting killed.”
