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ASU's Center for Community Development and Civil Rights
Hosting Community Forum to Seek Dialogue
By Eduardo Barraza
BARRIOZONA
October 15 , 2009
Phoenix, Arizona - TArizona State University’s Center for Community Development and Civil Rights is hosting this Friday,
October 16 , a Civil Rights Forum. The event brings back to Phoenix Rev. Al Sharpton, Director of the National Action
Network, three months after he visited local leaders and met with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The forum is also
featuring recognized civil rights leader Raul Yzaguirre, and Arizona Representative Kyrsten Sinema (D-Phoenix). The
panelists will participate in an interactive question-and-answer session. Event attendants will be given the opportunity to
engage with the panel to lend their voice in shaping a national debate.
The forum is taking place on the same day when the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department (MCSO) is expected to
conduct one of their highly controversial sweeps, deemed "crime suppression operations."
Local civil rights groups have also invited the community to participate in another march and protest, aimed to "repudiate"
the Sheriff. Activists are expecting people to assemble in Downtown Phoenix to also send a message to the Department
of Homeland Security to terminate the section of immigration law that allows local law-enforcement agencies, like the
MCSO, to arrest and turn over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) individuals suspected of being in the
country without authorization.
Previous operations conducted by the MCSO have lead to heated protests in Maricopa County, as well as to accusations
by members of the community of practices of racial profiling and civil rights violations.
Friday's Civil Rights Forum will offer participants the opportunity an create an intimate dialogue on contemporary civil
rights. The forum is the seventh in a lecture series featuring the nation's most widely recognized figures in contemporary
civil rights issues. Due to the volatile social atmosphere prevailing in Phoenix, and elsewhere in Maricopa County, the
forum is expected to bring up the current situation regarding MCSO's role in the enforcement of the 287 (g), and the recent
changes to this law that may prevent the Sheriff;sto continue enforcing it.
The forum will be held from 8:00 to 9:45 a.m., in the A.E. England Building, 424 N. Central Ave. at Civic Space Park, in
Downtown Phoenix.
Copyright © 2009 Hispanic Institute of Social Issues
Grassroots Journalism
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Nationally-recognized leaders, Arizona Representative to lead panel, participant's discussions.