Twenty minutes after the Town Meeting was supposed to begin on Monday night in the Sanctuary of Bethel Baptist Missionary Church, some thirty-five people began weakly singing. That's when Laurina James got up and made perhaps the most eloquent statement of the evening. She opened the piano and began singing and playing. "Don't Let nobody Turn me Round, turn me round, turn me round."

The reluctant group picked up the power and confidence of her playing and voice and before a few minutes had passed, more people had streamed in and the majority was swaying and clapping and singing along, giving the song the power it deserved. It was the kind of music that reaches in and grips your soul, making you feel the strength of positive community action.

But, as often happens, when people stop singing and start talking, things get much more complicated.

There seemed to be some confusion regarding what this meeting was about. Some people thought they were coming to talk about the State Attorney's actions in the Rosalind Nims case, others about police brutality, and still others about the proposed Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB).

The Rev. G Vincent Lewis said the meeting was called to get citizen reaction and suggestions regarding the CCRB. He also announced that the agenda that had been circulated for the Town Meeting was no longer in force since several notables including the Rev. R. N. Gooden and Roosevelt Wilson were meeting with the State's Attorney, Willie Meggs, in an office in the building.

When asked why the State Attorney didn't come and talk to the citizens who had assembled, Rev. Lewis said that nobody in particular was needed to carry on the meeting.

Anita Davis addressed the group and said that "relationships in the community are often lynched." The Citizen's Complaint Review Board, she said, was not an issue of "black or white." But "right and wrong."

There was a lot of anger and frustration expressed in the next two and a half hours, most of it directed toward the State Attorney's Office, the Tallahassee Police Department, and the Leon County Sheriff's Office. To his credit, Police Chief Walt McNeil, was in attendance, answered all questions addressed to him, and stated that: "The Police Department is not opposed to civilian review."

But, if coming up with some concrete suggestions for the establishment of a CCRB was the goal of the meeting, it fell far short. Most of the time was spent venting anger and frustration, and telling anecdotes about discriminatory experiences with law enforcement.

A number of questions that should have been asked, weren't asked, and so weren't answered.

The fundamental question of whether or not a CCRB could be the answer to the widespread discrimination perceived by some segments of the community, was never raised. According to Lou Reider, a police consultant and former Deputy Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, "about half the major cities in America, that is the top 200, have some form of civilian complaint review board." Most CCRB's came into being directly after some incident in which segments of the community felt the police had used unnecessary force. The intent of setting up a CCRB, therefore, was to gain more civilian control of police policy, especially in the area of the use of force.

But, the effectiveness of CCRB's has been widely questioned. "I've never seen a Civilian Review Board that works as well as what we currently have." Since CCRB's have been highly criticized for turning into rubber stamp bodies for the police department, as in Detroit, there must be some thinking invested in the crucial questions of just how this board would be composed and how the members would be appointed. As one citizen said: "I pray to God we don't let politics get involved in who's chosen." But, CCRB's are inevitably political bodies, and one of the reasons they often don't do what they are supposed to do is that they can't be kept out of politics.

The Town meetings are to continue. Contact the NAACP, the SCLC, or Rev. Lewis. Dr. Johns is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Law and Society at Florida State University and a professor of criminology at FAMU. She can be reached at Lylajean@prodigy.net.