There has to be a problem if a church is calling the police on a regular basis.
Via LA Times:
Standing on the front steps of First Congregational Church of Oakland late last month, Nichola Torbett issued a declaration.
“We can no longer tolerate the trauma inflicted on our communities by policing,” Torbett, a white church volunteer, said in front of churchgoers who held photos of African Americans shot dead by law enforcement. The church, she promised, would never call the cops again in nearly every circumstance. Dozens of members had agreed to do the same.
“How do police help? They often don’t,” Torbett later said in an interview. “So, especially as white people, why call them?”[…]
“We recognize that Jesus was killed, not for anything he did, but for who he was, and we see the same happening to black and brown people today,” Torbett said. Still, “we’re still debating its limitations,” she added about the no-police agreement. Nothing has happened yet that would typically warrant a call to the cops.
Those questions about limitations came up recently after a Sunday church service. Church leaders sat in an office, discussing their nascent effort and hopes for the future.
Marcia Lovelace, a volunteer worship leader, spoke about training church staffers about what to do when people won’t leave the building.
The church, which sits on a small hill just north of downtown Oakland, frequently opens its doors to the homeless, mentally ill and those who struggle with drug addictions. It offers a food pantry, transit cards and a place to nap. But it draws the line at hosting people overnight.
“We once had a street person who needed mental health care and wouldn’t leave,” Lovelace, who is 70 and white, said as she described an incident before new policy. “Police were called and church members who fit the description were hassled by police. For those of us who have the skin color that keeps us from having those experiences, it made things real.”
According to current guidelines, church members would not call police if such a situation arose again. In lieu of police services, the church has secured a $10,000 grant to train its members and other community groups on de-escalation tactics and self-defense.
Carol Robison, another volunteer church leader, proposed an idea for dealing with burglaries. The buildings has no security, and thieves have taken purses and backpacks. Doors are unlocked during the day.
The building’s property insurance requires police reports for claims. But “we’d rather not attract more police,” said Robison, who is 62 and white. She suggested going “to the police station to file a report instead of having the police come into your neighborhood.”
The conversation turned to another aspect of policing: deterring and solving crime. Church leaders said they could prevent crime by forming better relationships with neighborhood residents. Their theory, put simply: Friends won’t steal from friends. But if crime still happened, church members prayed they could make peace between victims and perpetrators directly without police or courts.
HT: Feet2Fire