We've allowed a vocal minority to monopolize the conversation: Rev. Markel Hutchins
Civil rights leader Rev. Markel Hutchins discusses how to restore public safety and trust in policing on Sunday Night In America.
Civil rights leader Rev. Markel Hutchins discusses how to restore public safety and trust in policing on Sunday Night In America.
"Law enforcement officers have been, rightly or wrongly, demonized and demoralized and really disconnected from their communities over the last three or four years in a way that has had a detrimental effect on crime and violence, on law enforcement as a profession and by extension, on communities," Reverend Markel Hutchins, the organizer of National Faith & Blue Weekend, told Fox News Digital this week.
Over the weekend, Hutchins flew to several cities across the country engaging with law enforcement officials in coordination with thousands of events nationwide for Faith & Blue Weekend, highlighting the need for more police officers, stronger communication between police and communities, and an end to the stigmatization of law enforcement.
As cities across the country grapple with crippling police shortages in the wake of the defund movement — including Washington, D.C., where crime is surging and the police force is short 400 officers — Hutchins told Fox News Digital the people he spoke with over the weekend resoundingly opposed police defunding.
"The truth is that more than 70% of African-Americans and Hispanics and more than 80% of white Americans, according to recent polling, want the same or more law enforcement," Hutchins said. "That is a narrative that has not been heard enough that people actually what police everyone wants to be policed with fairness and equity and people want to be treated fairly by law enforcement. That is crystal clear."
"Most people understand that most police officers go to work and do a good job every single day. So this underlying message that we've heard too much in the media that somehow the American people are not supportive of law enforcement just isn't true. And that was demonstrated in the thousands of activities that happened over the course of Faith & Blue weekend."
In past years, Hutchins has been a vocal critic of police and he recently penned an article for FoxNews.com with the headline, "I used to lead protests against the police -- now, I'm working with them to keep communities safe."
"There was a time when my civil rights leadership was limited to protests and marches," Hutchins told Fox News Digital. "I have expanded that leadership, as time has grown I've matured, my thought process, my thinking and my strategy has evolved... I still very much believe in protesting and marching but right now our best march is not on law enforcement, it's with law enforcement as a matter of strategy."
Hutchins outlined his belief that both sides of the police brutality debate have acted too extremely and that the best path forward is to find common ground.
"We've seen over the last several years, marches and protests that often are more of an expression of anger and animosity, understandable anger and animosity, but they've not been curative," Hutchins said. "All the marching, all the protesting and all the demonizing that we've seen back and forth from Black Lives Matter and from Blue Lives Matter, we've not seen any improvement in terms of less officer involved tragedies or less attacks on our law enforcement professionals or less crime."
"So we have to choose a more excellent way. And the more excellent way, in my estimation, is to turn to each other and not turn on each other. And that's what we're doing with national Faith & Blue weekend and that's what we'll do with the continued expansion of our program."
Hutchins, via his group MovementForward, Inc, organized an inaugural police training conference earlier this year that was known as "Professionalizing Law Enforcement Community Engagement Training." He told Fox News Digital that program will continue next year.
"We're expanding our programing, we're looking at additional tools and resources to be able to provide to law enforcement agencies and to communities to build these bridges," Hutchins explained. "There's no more important issue in America today, in my estimation, that than healing the wounds or bridging the divides between police and communities."
"Because ultimately, when police officers are better trained, they're better equipped, they understand their communities better, that's the way in which we're going to see a decrease in attacks on our officers. We're going to see a decrease in officers committing suicide. That's the only way we're going to see a decrease in violent crime and an increase in mutual respect between officers and communities."
Reader Comments
We can all be stupid, we can all see the light, some later than others. My assumptions wasn’t made by the colour of his skin, it was the ignorance and stupidity of his comments. BLM was and is a George Soros organisation. I’m sure he soros reprobate has your interests at heart. And BLM was only a diversionary manipulation to point brother against brother.
Let’s make remedies to the corruption of the laws so all are equal before the law, and fairness is the common denominator. Regardless of race colour or creed.
Anyone that looked at what happened with the George Floyd death knew from objective evidence that the dumb-ass killed himself by swallowing the fentanyl. He was complaining he couldn't breathe BEFORE they put him on the ground. The cops called for an ambulance, then they increase the code to get the ambulance there faster. They were trying to save his life.
Then the media spins the 'can't breathe' to him being suffocated by the cops. Just more of the media spin like 'hands up, don't shoot'.
The pastor is supposed to be a leader in the community and yet he went along with the bullshit. Just like the jury did in the trial. He demonstrated a lack of substance, a lack of interest in the truth. Now it appears that opinion on the street is changing and he's decided that he should change his opinion.
How long will it take you to call me a Nazi? Or Hamas sympathiser??
"This is why I'm standing down from my position"
Suggests he's licked his finger, held it up to the air, and worked out which way the wind was blowing.
That much is obvious.
I still and always will differentiate between ordinary every day English or Americans and their respective middle-eastern nasty neighbour governments forcing peoples perspectives of the former. Both the English and Americans do not have much self determination outside of tax paying serfs, not even with their own domestic banking infastructure......I admire the Americans wont give up their guns.
I love Scottish, Welsh, English, Irish, American, Australian, New Zealanders, South Africans, Norweigians, Swedish, Germans, Dutch etc etc.....I love WESTERNERS.....I just despise their collective governments leading them over a cliff influencing other nations to see them all as something they are not, which the same repeat offenders here ignore.
I've just got no time for people like that.
Why would I have?
Neither have the wit to know any better. Both Full of bigotry racism and ignorance to there fellow man. Don’t dare be coloured or black skinned both consider themselves racially superior though there educational ability speaks for themselves. .
Both quite willing and prepared to step on the back of his fellow English man or American man, for the sake of fulfilling his greed and selfishness regardless how much he has, nothing satisfies that greed.
Yes that about sums them up. But the next worst thing would be an American woman. I understand why Americans plump and decide on Philippine brides. Who wants a Loud mouth targer, a braying feminists with the charm of a slug. Behaving No better than bitches in heat. English women are changing and about three to five years from now, they will be no better, but in some aspect They are already caught up. They used to call men who behaved in that manner a lethario, women here now behave no better! Not someone I could ever take home and introduce to my family. I’m glad I’m Scottish. The women here in the highlands castrate sheep using there teeth!! No argument from me, with them!
Americans with their former Black president and Floyd fanaticism and free loot are trying to make Black lives matter more, so not sure how that could of happened in a racist country....
I heard Scotland is doing it's bit for the cause also, building a few mosques.
It to
Put things in perspective I’d rather the taliban came over here rather than the English.
Aye and there are two terms here, they are English or they are English people. Not much difference in statements but a hell of a difference in how one is treated. You will also get English people up here using these terms such is the reputation of the English. Or perfidious Albion.
"Who the OG now?"