An estimated 4,000 community events nationwide will mark the fourth National Faith & Blue Weekend, when churches and law enforcement meet to build bridges of understanding.
From a kickoff event at the National Law Enforcement Museum in the District of Columbia on Friday to barbecues, games and service projects throughout the holiday weekend, Faith & Blue events are planned in all 50 states and for the first time in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, organizers said.
Faith & Blue is not merely about having a good time, says the Rev. Markel Hutchins, chairman and CEO of MovementForward Inc., the civil rights organization behind the annual observance. The events have the potential to save lives, in part by allowing law enforcement and community members to get to know each other and see each other as human beings, he said.
“This weekend is about saving lives, and it’s about saving careers,” Mr. Hutchins said in a telephone interview. “If the officers that killed Tyre Nichols in Memphis had the benefit of the kind of engagement with the community, that officers and deputies and FBI agents and others will have over the course of Faith & Blue weekend, I would argue Tyre Nichols would still be alive today.”
Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, died in January after a beating by members of the Memphis Police Department’s street crimes unit. The five officers were fired from the force and face charges of second-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, official misconduct, and official oppression.
“What Faith & Blue is doing is it is connecting officers to the humanity of the people that they’re policing,” Mr. Hutchins said. “We have got to transform the hearts and the minds of our law enforcement professionals. If we’re going to decrease the number of officer-involved tragedies.”
He said a change in the narrative of community-police relations has to take place “if we’re going to change the animosity that has been directed at our law enforcement professionals.”
“We’re going to have to shift the conversation away from this us-versus-them dynamic and [have] discourse towards one that focuses not on the things that divide us but the things that unite us,” Mr. Hutchins said.
Because divisive protests tend to grab more attention than the engagement events staged for the National Faith & Blue Weekend, the group is holding what it calls “marquee events” in 12 cities, beginning in Washington, that will draw attention to the positive, community-building focus the organization promotes, he said.
“We’ve heard too much from the vocal minority who want to defund the police, who want to displace law enforcement,” Mr. Hutchins said. “And we’ve not heard enough from the silent majority. That’s what we’re raising through the National Faith & Blue Weekend operating through these faith-based organizations.”
Along with the Friday kick-off at the National Law Enforcement Museum, acting D.C. police Chief Pamela A. Smith has invited area clergy — “every pastor, every rabbi, every imam” — to a bridge-building luncheon, Mr. Hutchins said.
The Metropolitan Police Department did not immediately respond for comment.
Additional information on the National Faith & Blue Weekend events can be found online at www.faithandblue.org, Mr. Hutchins said.
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.