If I had written a public letter demanding the police stay out of the pride event (as obviously they must stay out of the Pride event) and the response had been an invitation to sit down and have coffee like it was a personal problem and not a matter of policy that had to be urgently addressed, I would have been spitting mad.

At that point there was a little bit could have been done but the shout Holly down and try to make her understand that she was being evil.

There was little you could or perhaps should have done other than to support the effort to educate Holly about why she was being so horrible.

The fact that Holly feels she needs to have good relationships with police officers and the mayor in a situation where that causes harm and pain to oppressed people says nothing very good about Holly, except of course perhaps in her capacity as a politician who feels she has to represent people outside the queer community.

That suggests she has hopelessly divided loyalties and should probably resign from LGBTQ organizing activities.

I don't blame this black trans woman in the slightest for demanding that Holly do better, and for taking offense that Holly tried to make it personal instead of policy.

As you say, the cops in your community are pretty terrible people, and that Black trans woman has every right to expect her allies will fight those cops tooth and nail with her and not work to empower them.

Holly owes her an apology, and Holly should probably step down from her position as a queer organizer until she understands how to be an ally.