TAMPA, Fla. — Appointed Hillsborough County State Attorney Suzy Lopez spoke at a local NAACP meeting on Thursday night, hearing from community members who shared their frustrations with law enforcement and the state attorney’s office.
At that meeting, she addressed rumors that have popped up regarding her office.
“Prosecution is not just about prosecuting, it’s also about helping people,” she said. “There is a criticism that I’ve heard that our office has cut diversion programs. I am here to tell you that is absolutely not true.”
Members of the crowd were outspoken about their distrust for Lopez and her office.
“Law enforcement is always going to be met on us, and with all due respect, I think that’s why you were brought here. To carry out that will. I really do,” one woman said. “Because, if Ron DeSantis saw value in you, it’s because you were going to come here and cause pain and suffering to the Black community.”
Lopez stood in front of a crowd of about 50 people at the Hillsborough County chapter of the NAACP, speaking about diversion programs offered in the county, initiatives put in place to get youth on the right track, and re-entry simulations meant to teach her prosecutors what it’s like for formerly incarcerated people to try to get back to “normal life” after serving time.
“Our goal is to create empathy,” Lopez said. “To show our attorneys what it’s like.”
Members of the crowd said that empathy has not been felt in the Black community, with speakers saying their neighborhoods have been over-policed by law enforcement, and that it’s usually their word against an officer’s.
“You don’t understand how law enforcement treats us,” chapter president Yvette Lewis said. “Now I have to plead this case to you, and you say, ‘Let me hear what law enforcement says, we’re going to work with law enforcement,’ but you say all these diversion programs…I ain’t seen none of that!”
As far as solutions to the distrust and issues raised, none came tonight.
Lewis invited Lopez to revisit their chapter and to bring along her entire team of prosecutors so that they, too, can hear directly from the community.