PORT ANGELES — “It’s the ugly conversation no community wants to have.”
But City Councilwoman Karen Rogers says she and a task force of city and community leaders — looking into Coast Guard reports of racial slurs and being denied service in local eating and retail establishments — will have many such conversations in coming days.
The focus: address how “the community needs to promote that we don’t tolerate racism,” she said.
“Zero tolerance for racism — we are a community that appreciates and embraces diversity.”
The special task force, formed by city, school, police and Chamber of Commerce officials who earlier this month received copies of a critical “social climate incident report” from the Port Angeles Coast Guard commanding officer, met Friday for the first time.
Ironically, as the afternoon meeting at City Hall evolved, news crews from Seattle TV stations KING and KIRO — which had received word of Capt. William W. Peterson’s report outlining nine incidents of alleged civil rights harassment and vandalism — showed up at the Coast Guard station on Ediz Hook.
————–
The rest of this story appears in the Sunday Peninsula Daily News. Click on “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.