Objections to Kolender as Marshal for Event : Critics Say King Parade Panel Is Out of Step

Minority and civil rights groups Wednesday criticized the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade Committee for naming San Diego Police Chief Bill Kolender as one the parade’s marshals.

The groups claimed strained relations between police and minority communities make Kolender unqualified for the role.

Thomas Penn, the father of Sagon Penn, central figure in a controversial police shooting case, criticized the selection and the relocation of the parade route from Southeast San Diego to downtown San Diego.

Penn told a press conference the new route, scheduled to run west on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way from 22nd Street and wind up at Columbia Street near Pantoja Park, will prevent many Southeast residents from watching the event.

Parade organizer Vince Moran said candidates for grand marshal and four divisional marshals were selected based on their support for the Martin Luther King Jr. Parade over the last six years. Kolender was selected as a division marshal.

Moran denied charges that the parade’s organizing committee did not seek community input. He said the majority of the committee’s 12 members live in Southeast and “we have never shut anyone out of any of the meetings.”

He said the route was shifted to downtown in support of the City Council’s action in renaming Market Street as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way and to give the street’s new name more recognition. Moran added that parade organizers also changed the route to give more San Diegans a chance to see and take part in the parade.

In addition to Penn, representatives of three groups spoke at the press conference in an East San Diego home. They claimed Kolender had not done enough to prevent police misconduct in minority neighborhoods.

Fred Mitchell, a spokesman for Citizens in Action for Justice, an activist group based in East San Diego, said, “We feel . . . that Chief Kolender is inappropriate to serve in any official capacity in a parade commemorating the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a martyr who stood for justice for all people.”

The two other groups represented at the conference were the International Committee Against Racism and the Raza Coalition Against Police Terrorism, a Latino organization that has protested alleged police harassment.

Kolender was out of town and could not be reached for comment.