White County Sheriff Neal Walden speaks during a forum on community safety at Travis Chapel United Methodist Church.
The forum was organized by Methodist minister and former law enforcement officer Travis Gaston in the wake of recent police shootings and civil unrest across the nation. Pictured, L-R: Gaston, Walden, Cleveland Mayor Shan Ash and Cleveland Police Chief John Foster.
(Cleveland)- Following police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota, and police officers killed in Dallas, the pastor of a Cleveland church decided it was time for the community to discuss current topics and concerns about the safety of the community. The pastor of Travis Chapel United Methodist Church, Travis Gatson, who is also a retired Major with the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office said he wanted to make sure the community is protected from violence.
About 55 people filled the church Sunday afternoon and heard from White County Sheriff Neal Walden, Cleveland Police Chief John Foster and Cleveland Mayor Shan Ash. The three answered questions about personnel, training, hiring process, connecting with the public, traffic stops and more.
At the beginning of the forum, Police Chief John Foster said, “we have lost respect for ourselves and we have lost respect for other people even more than that.” As an example Foster said, “How many times have you been lying in your bed at night and some jerk drives by your house with his radio blaring wide open at one or two o’clock in the morning to wake you up, to me that is disrespectful.” Foster said, “I think that is where a lot of our problems come from and I think that is something we’re going to have to get back to, we’re going to have to teach our kids that are coming up and we’re going to have teach our officers to have respect for other people .”
When asked about officers using deadly force, Sheriff Neal Walden said, “My folks are going to use everything they can to use less lethal force before anybody is going to pull out a gun and start shooting.”
Body cameras were mentioned as as a way to protect the officer and the suspect, but both Sheriff Walden and Chief Foster agreed that the cost of providing those cameras and storing the data for the legal time limit is astronomical.
It was pointed out at different times during the forum, that this is Cleveland, Georgia not Cleveland, Ohio, things and people are different here.
Pastor Gatson, said he was pleased with what was accomplished with the forum, “You can’t make everybody happy, but it’s about the whole community and that’s what this was about and I was so happy when I went outside and I saw all the cars lining up and people showing up it made me feel people are here, they want to help, they want to be involved and I believe this was a good step and it’s not stopping right here, we’re going to continue on,” said Gaston.
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