SEAN BARRON
YOUNGSTOWN New Youngstown police Chief Carl Davis said that rebuilding greater trust and better relations between police and those in minority communities begins with what can be a painful admission.
“We should acknowledge the history of racism in this country regarding how minorities have faced injustices from police,” said Davis, whom Mayor Jamael Tito Brown hired earlier this month as the city’s top law enforcement officer.
Davis was among several Mahoning Valley police chiefs who shared their views on policing during Tuesday’s Next Steps Coalition’s fourth town hall meeting.
About 30 law enforcement personnel, community activists, religious leaders and others attended the one-hour virtual session. Jaladah Aslam, the Youngstown / Warren Black Caucus president, served as moderator.
Correspondent
YOUNGSTOWN Throughout the 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. recognized how fluid, evolutionary and transformational the civil rights movement was and, many people contend, had the wisdom to adopt and shift his strategies with it for achieving a more just society.
For example, it was one thing for black people to gain the right to sit at what had been whites-only lunch counters, but another for them to have greater economic power to afford what was being served.
The movement continues to evolve today to include tackling disparities in access to health care and education, as well as unequal treatment by police, many say.
Correspondent
Correspondent photo / Sean Barron
The Rev. Abby Auman, the Mahoning Valley United Methodist Churches organizationâs district superintendent, makes her feelings known about the police killing of two black men in the Columbus area, during a vigil Sunday afternoon on the Mahoning County Courthouse steps.
YOUNGSTOWN Systemic racism and the continued unjustified killing of black men by white police officers still tear at the fabric of society, but the difference people of goodwill can make begins with speaking against both, several students say.
“When you see a wrongdoing and do nothing about it, you’re being a silent witness,” Lekeila Houser, a Youngstown State University senior and Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past member, said. “These men were wrongfully killed by those who are supposed to protect us.”