Civil rights leader Rev. Markel Hutchins is shining light on the ongoing challenges of trust between law enforcement and communities across America.
“We’ve got to turn to each other, turn to our faith in one another, and our faith in the divine to begin to reset conversations around police community engagement,” Hutchins told “Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy.”
FOX News host Trey Gowdy began his conversation with Hutchins by reflecting on the importance of trust in law enforcement.
FORMER MEMPHIS POLICE OFFICERS CHARGED IN DEATH OF TYRE NICHOLS FACE FEDERAL INDICTMENT
“Police officers have difficult, dangerous jobs seeing people at their worst, their lowest, their most desperate. Officers also have awesome and unique powers. The power to arrest, and search, and seize and impact reputations, jobs and freedom, the right to use force, including deadly force. Most police officers are good stewards of those powers, and they don’t abuse the public trust, but there are officers who do not deserve the uniform and the badge and their actions have lethal consequences for innocent people,” Gowdy said.
“Some of these incidents have shaken the bonds of trust between police and some communities within the American family, and that puts all of us at risk. Police need the public. They need witnesses and information and that depends on trust. And people need to know when they call 911, the person who responds is worthy of trust. The key is a relationship.”
Gowdy then highlighted the case of Tyre Nichols, a motorist beaten to death by uniformed officers in Memphis, Tennessee, and asked Hutchins how communities can bridge the gap with law enforcement in the aftermath of such tragic incidents.
Hutchins said, “What we have seen over the last several years, whether it was Tyree Nichols of George Floyd or any of the other incidents have really been used in a lot of instances to drive wedges between law enforcement and communities when the truth of the matter is, the vast majority of the American people, despite our ideological or political differences, overwhelmingly support our law enforcement professionals.”
He added by arguing “the vocal minority” has monopolized the conversation regarding sentiments towards law enforcement and claimed the level of crime, violence and carnage seen in Memphis may have driven those police officers involved in the Nichols tragedy to “a place where they no longer had a sense of humanity about the people that they’re policing.”
“It’s incumbent upon all of us, despite whatever differences we might have, to come to tables of reconciliation and healing and begin to really build some bridges and get communities involved with public safety in their local communities,” he said.
Hutchins shared his experience leading protests, marches and demonstrations, and staunch support for civil rights and social justice. However, he criticized recent “divisive protests” and “demonstrations that have turned rioting” for failing to be meet the “spirit of nonviolent social change.”
“We’ve never progressed when we turn on each other, we’ve only progressed when we turn to each other. So our idea now is that the marching and protesting has not done a lot to deal with some of the social injustices,” he said.
Hutchins also shared his involvement in launching the largest police community outreach project in American history, the national Faith and Blue Weekend initiative, as “an apparatus where faith-based organizations of every kind can collaborate with law enforcement, not for religious purposes, to give access to the community residents that these officers are sworn to protect and serve.”
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