The over 100 peaceful demonstrators that gathered in Dow Park on Sunday in response to the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd were able to engage in dialogue with local officials, including Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist, city police chief and director of public safety Harry Snellings and Chautauqua County Sheriff Jim Quattrone.

The demonstration came six days after the death of Floyd. Derek Chauvin, fired Minneapolis police officer, was charged with murder and manslaughter in a complaint filed on Friday after being captured on video pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck, who after several minutes went unresponsive.

“It has been my goal as the mayor of this city to start to bring people together as soon as we safely can and to be more inclusive,” Sundquist said in addressing the crowd. “One person said that they’re going to hold me to that: you better. We have our sheriff and our police and our officers here today to be with you guys to support that, to bring that voice together. We are one community here in the city of Jamestown and we’re not going to let anyone forget that.”

Among the chief topics explored were the opening of three positions in the Jamestown Police Department and if any of those positions would be filled by a person of color.

“It’s always been a struggle for us,” Snellings said in response. “We have two officers of color in our department currently, but we are bound by Civil Service and we have to go off of their list and that’s what we are doing. Once we get the list, whoever is available, that’s who we have to choose from. One of the challenges that we do have is having our communities of color get involved in the criminal justice program and pursue a career in law enforcement.”

Asked how the department is currently working to increase diversity among officers, Snellings cited several examples.

“I’m actively engaged in the criminal justice program at BOCES. I helped initiate a citizenship academy, there’s a Hispanic criminal justice club at Washington Middle School that I’ve come and I’ve engaged because another challenge we have is that we don’t have bilingual officers. I have one. I had two. We’ve tried that outreach, but we also need people to do the work and we can help guide them to get to that position.”

Tensions rose at one occasion when the crowd asked the officials if they believed Floyd’s death was a murder at the hands of Chauvin.

“When I saw it, I was disturbed because it’s not something we teach, it’s not something I condone and it’s not acceptable,” Snellings said. “I would tell you that as a person if (Chauvin’s) actions directly caused that, my answer is ‘Yes.'”

Snellings also explained that the tactics used by Chauvin in restraining Floyd is something that the department does not engage in.

“One of the things that I first took over, we changed our defensive tactics specifically because of that and it’s been a progression over the years and we’ve done away with some of the stuff that you continuously see in other areas, in other states,” he said. “We train on this at least twice a year where other areas do not.”

“I watched several of the videos because I do not like to rush to quick judgments for anything. I watched the video and I cringed the whole time,” Quattrone said of Floyd’s death. “The tactics that, that officer used is not what we teach.”

After being asked again by the crowd, he added, “I do believe based on the videos that I saw and through the videos, that what the officer did cause the death of George Floyd,” Quattrone said. “I do think he was killed by the officer and I do not think he was justified in doing that.”

Sundquist was also asked.

“From what I’ve seen, I think it was a murder,” Eddie Sundquist told the crowd.

Still, the demonstration remained peaceful and all three officials are hoping that the dialogue continues.

“I think what I heard from the protest, the conversations that we had is that we are a community in need of healing, a community in need of more inclusion across the city of Jamestown and that’s one of the promises I’ve made to that group today is that we would get together with our different leaders across the community and bring in more diversity and more inclusion into the work we do here with the city,” Sundquist said.

“We came out here as a show of support for our community, to hear some of their grievances and their concerns, try to address them the best that we can,” Snellings said. “We don’t accept what happened either. It’s not something that we agree with and it’s unfortunate that it’s what brought us here today. We’re looking to get members of our community to participate.”

“This protest with Black Lives Matter was a great turnout,” Quattrone added, noting that he had spoken to organizer Chloe Smith over the weekend. “What struck me was the diversity of people that were here, the dialogue that was going on. It’s a dialogue that needs to continue though. We’re trying to get some stuff scheduled. I think we need to do it before, rather than later. We can get together in a social distanced way and still communicate and get dialogue going.”

Snellings also hopes that the conversation continues.

“What I hope, is that if it does come about it becomes long term and not something that is short-lived which is usually what happens when there’s a major event,” he said. “People react, they’re very supportive, they’re involved and then it dies off. I think it’s very important for us to continue that dialogue and for people to be involved long term. ”

“It has been pointed out, this is a centuries worth of systemic racism and that’s not something any one person is going to fix or any group of people,” added Quattrone. “It’s going to take the community working together. The diversity that we saw here was a great start and we’re looking forward to getting that dialogue going.”