Community Meeting Aimed at Avoiding Police, Civilian Conflict

News

CLEVELAND, Ga. — For two hours Sunday afternoon, blacks, whites, men, women, young, old civilians and law enforcement officers gathered in a tiny wooden chapel near the heart of Cleveland for a community meeting.
The goal: Prevent the kind of conflict between police and civilians that have taken place in cities like Dallas, Baton Rouge, St. Paul Minnesota and Atlanta.

Travis Gaston, pastor of Travis Chapel United Methodist Church, called the meeting and 40-50 area residents dutifully responded, including Cleveland Mayor Shan Ash, Police Chief John Foster and White County Sheriff Neal Walden.

Gaston, said that as a black man and a retired law enforcement officer, he understands and can sympathize with both sides. But he told attendees, “We must look inside ourselves and ask what each of us can do to make this world better.”

Foster said, “The problem is we have lost respect for ourselves and for other people. That’s where a lot of our problems come from and what we’ve got to get back to.” He also encouraged police and civilians not to develop what he called “an us vs. them attitude.”

Walden said he couldn’t remember a time in 38 years as a law enforcement officer in White County that police had used deadly force. But he encouraged citizens who have a complaint of any kind to file a written complaint at the Sheriff’s Office and it would be investigated.

“If we don’t know about it we can’t do anything,” he said. “Complaining on social media or to one another doesn’t do any good. If there is a problem, we want to know about it. File a written complaint and it will go to Division Command and investigation will get started.”

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