On Monday, July 18 Black Lives Matter Phoenix held a community meeting hosted by Rev. Reginald Walton, the pastor of Philips Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal Church with a panel discussion and questions from the community for Mayor Greg Stanton, Arizona State University Prof. Dr. Matthew Whitaker, indigenous American civil rights leader Amanda Blackhorse, Phoenix Police Asst. Chief Mike Kurtenbach, constitutional lawyer Stephen Benedetto, community leader Clottee Hammons, and Richard Crews, Community Impact Manager of Thriving Together for Valley of the Sun United Way.

People absolutely packed the little church and braved flash floods and heavy rain to get to the meeting, and since there was such a turn out, many stood for hours and listened and wrote down questions for the panel. 

It was a uniting, productive, peaceful meeting where it felt like all were heard and had the power to speak up. Police and community shared their struggles and people left talking about what they could all do to help their community. I hope conversations like this are happening all across our country.