A group of Rochester clergy is saying Police have to look at themselves not as warriors…but as protectors of the community.
United Christian Leadership Ministries called today for local implementation of the report from President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The Reverend Lewis Stewart of UCLM says there are 59 recommendations in that report, starting with a blueprint for building trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
He says officers out of their cars and walking the neighborhoods, engaging people, is a much better idea than officers sitting in cars in parking lots watching people. He says that’s the only way police can win people over.
Stewart says he’s just as upset at the injustices he sees against Black Americans, who he says are treated differently by police than White Americans, as the organizers of last week’s “Black Lives Matter” demonstrators. But Stewart says UCLM sits down with police at least every other month about its concerns, and he says area police chiefs should sit down with community leaders to map out how to improve the situation between the two groups.
Stewart also says City Council should engage with the group BLACK that organized last week’s “Black Lives Matter” protest, at which 74 people were arrested.
Black wants the charges dropped an an apology from the city and Rochester Police.