WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — One year ago today, it is a fair guess that most Williamstown residents had never heard of Police Sgt. Scott McGowan, or, if they had, they'd forgotten the name.

 

Bilal Ansari offers his insights.

 

Question: This first question is purposely broad and I apologize for that, but is Williamstown in a better place now than it was on Aug. 11, 2001, the day before the lawsuit came to light?

 

Ansari: That's a good question.

 

That's a feeling question. I think if I'm answering the feeling question, I do feel better, given that the makeup of the Select Board has changed. I do feel better that there's an active search for a new town manager with the possibility of more transparency and more regard for keeping policies up to date and being more attentive to how the operations within the Williamstown Police Department are going.

 

I think, in that regard, with those two things being actively worked on, it does give you a sense of feeling that things are in a better place than things being in a bad place and people not giving attention to it or just keeping things status quo.

 

Q: Has the tone of the conversation and public discourse over the last year been, on balance, productive?

 

Ansari: I feel still that a lot of the momentum and good, positive, organic energy around DIRE was hijacked because of the lawsuit, and it kind of took over the momentum we were naturally building up before the lawsuit.

 

That took a year of … exhausting exchanges and not listening attentively to each other and not being able to have honest conversations because things were tied up in a knot because of lawyers. I think DIRE now is in a better position, and I think the Select Board has a better appreciation now a year out and can look at it differently rather than being under the next shoe to drop from the lawsuit.

 

Q: How much of that, the not listening attentively, was a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that so many of those conversations had to take place on Zoom?

 

Ansari: I think there's a double pandemic nationally that has kind of been the motivating factor behind that platform behind such a forum for being able to reach people, hear people, see people because you're locked in your homes. But then there's the anti-Black racism post-George Floyd and people wanting to contribute to reform and renewal. Yet, you're forced to do it through the online forum where you can't read body language or look into the eyes of people. Sometimes you fall into that trap of missing tones and intentions of people because of the nature of a Zoom meeting.

 

With all that being said, there were positive things. A lot more voices rose up, and also there were a lot of returning Williamstown residents during this time who were leaving the city. There was an influx of that energy. It really created a unique experience which, I think if people step back, they can appreciate it, even with the mishaps and misinterpretations and all that. All that is chalked up as deep concern and engagement about our neighborhood.

 

Q: Were you surprised by some of the more reactionary discourse, by that I mean things like the 'Enough' signs and some of the comments on social media?

 

Ansari: Not really. I can tell you why. I think you were there 10 years ago when Hurricane Irene, or Tropical Storm Irene, hit. There was all of this positive energy about recovery and care. But then, it quickly turned into a 'not in my back yard' kind of thing. It was hard to find a place to rebuild. I kind of experienced that. My shock was back then. This time, I was waiting for it. I knew it was coming. I didn't know how and when.

 

Q: Are you satisfied with the steps the WPD is taking to review its policies and make changes in that regard?

 

Ansari: I don't know what's going on. I did have a conversation with [interim Chief] Mike Ziemba last week about what's going on. I think it needs to be more transparent. There's a national call to look at '8 Can't Wait' or the Campaign Zero initiative. … There's a clearer, transparent pathway forward that could be followed. I know the policies are being reviewed. I know they're being reviewed by an accreditation group. But what is the outcome of those reviews, how are they changing, how are they aligned with the national trends of good governance? I don't know that. I don't know enough. I kind of encouraged Chief Ziemba last week to create a more transparent policy to work with DIRE to look at eight or 10 policies to show what's being done, to show what's thoughtfully being changed and why.

 

That will build trust. I told Chief Ziemba that will start to heal. It's just the whole idea that, 'We're the police department, and we don't have to respond to you. We don't have to listen to you. No questions.' The way you turn that around is you say, 'We realize our policies haven't been reviewed in a long time, and here's what we're doing. What are your thoughts?' That's a whole different approach, and it will endear them to the community.

 

They're not quite there. I'm encouraging them to go that way.

 

Q: How frustrated are you with the pace of change in town over the last year?

 

Ansari: I'm too old to be frustrated like I used to be. This is Williamstown. It's an old place. It's a history of hundreds of years. And change is slow. Change is slow in Williamstown, but it's not a malicious slowness, so why should I be angry? I don't think it's malicious. I think it's the way Williamstown likes to think about things three times before we do it and then talk about it three more times. It's just the way Williamstown works. I'm not frustrated at all with it.

 

My frustration with why I left DIRE is I felt like there was a directed intentionality of ignoring our work.

 

Q: From the time DIRE was formed in June or July [of 2020], how long did it take for that sense to develop?

 

Ansari: The feelings of being ignored were pretty consistent all year. But when I went to that last [Select Board] meeting, I was very hopeful because I thought we were getting to a place where we realized we were not communicating with each other, and there was an acknowledgement in that meeting that we weren't doing it. And then … I felt it really wasn't sincere, and it was going to be a continuation of the same.

 

Q: I know you have spoken about an encounter you had personally with a WPD officer that predates George Floyd and the DIRE Committee. But it felt like even after his murder — and before the McGowan lawsuit — the focus of the dialogue locally was more about the national issues of policing in America and not so much directed at the WPD specifically. Is that an accurate assessment, and, if so, why?

 

Ansari: For marginalized voices, I think the WPD has always been in that conversation. My experience in the [Williams College] chapel — and [former DIRE Committee Chair] Mohammed Memfis was also on that couch when an officer put his hand on his weapon and stared at us — I worked quietly for a year to try to have a conversation with that officer just to explain how that felt as a Black man. I was unsuccessful until George Floyd, until that incident. I told my story to a bunch of alumni at Williams, and they started to call the town manager and the WPD.

 

I wasn't asking for someone to be fired or disciplined, none of that. Just a human conversation about what that feels like. And it's not like the officer didn't want to have a conversation with me. The officer was more responding to the chief, saying, 'Are you saying I have to do this as a form of discipline?' It was more of a union toxic environment. … Even when I did talk to the officer, we had a conversation, and I heard later that he filed a grievance with the union. Even though he may have benefited from that conversation, it's still this litigious, unionized fight. It's not a healthy environment.

 

So the McGowan [lawsuit] thing was just reinforcement. It was like, 'Yeah, that's what I thought.' Because when I was asking for a simple conversation, it was about all this other stuff.

 

Q: From the outside looking in at DIRE, it feels like the last year largely has been about identifying and calling out the problem of structural racism even more than identifying specific solutions. Is that true, and do you see the solution phase in the near horizon?

 

Ansari: I think you're not wrong with that. But I think the root cause of that was that in order for us to work on our problems, there needs to be an acknowledgment that the problems exist. … If we can start with the acknowledgement and build a working relationship, you can get from a place of just calling out what structural racism exists.

 

Q: Before Sgt. McGowan dropped his lawsuit, you said taking it off the table would be a 'holiday miracle.' We've all gotten holiday presents and later realized that we shouldn't have made that wish. Are you still happy with the one you got?

 

Ansari: That's a good question. It seemed like [after the suit was dropped] there was a backlash. There was retaliation. They went full guns blazing. You went after us, we're coming after you. That's human nature.

 

It's taken time for that Police Department to air out and turn around. It's still going through a lot, and the town's leadership is not in a stable place itself.

 

My wish [for the lawsuit to be dropped] was so that we could have meaningful conversations. I think that's possible now without lawsuits hanging over our heads, although there may be another one coming down the pipe if the 20 people who were illegally searched are not dealt with like they did in Lanesborough [where an officer was fired over illegal searches in the Criminal Justice Information System]. I feel like we're still not out from under it yet. We're still underneath the shadows of all that dark stuff.

 

This is the third in series of three articles reflecting on how the lawsuit last year affected the community. Acting Police Chief Michael Ziemba's Q&A can be found here and Select Board member Jane Patton's here.