Monday night, the Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service held its first town hall meeting in Ferguson.
The town hall meetings were closed to everyone but Ferguson residents. The media were not allowed. Though I am employed at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, I am also a Ferguson resident. I wanted to attend a town hall and I was allowed to.
Originally we were told there would be three simultaneous meetings: one in each ward. The Ward 1 meeting at city hall (which I was going to attend) was canceled at the last minute, so instead I went to the meeting at Wellspring Church in downtown Ferguson.
Once the meeting was over, I wrote down some observations and thoughts and tweeted them so people could have an idea what happened. I did not name any speakers or facilitators.