IN MARCH 2015, as video after video of police violence flooded the nation with outrage, grief, and hashtags, an unarmed homeless man named Charly “Africa” Keunang was shot and killed in downtown Los Angeles by the LAPD. In a city still bearing scars from the ’92 uprising that followed the beating of Rodney King on live television, Ferguson and all that followed was but the latest reminder of what happens when black grief is met by a militarized police force.
As a young pastor in downtown LA, I wanted to respond but didn’t know how. After reaching out to local community leaders for wisdom, I called Officer Deon Joseph, a 20-year veteran of the LAPD, adored by some and abhorred by others on Skid Row. Together, we agreed to form a team of pastors, officers, and community members to restore trust between the community and the police. We held a community vigil to honor Brother Africa and hundreds came; the officers in attendance bitterly wept.
We also launched a trust-building effort called “Trust Talks.” Over the next two years, we brought together more than 500 nearby residents to engage in honest, professionally facilitated conversations around tables with local police officers. Partnering with local universities, service providers, activists, and faith leaders, the tables focused on hearing the community’s pain and crafting proactive solutions to change policing and save lives. The work spread quickly throughout downtown and across LA.
In 2017, we partnered with PICO California, a faith-based organizing network. This partnership enabled us to train police recruits on implicit bias and systemic racism in policing. We were also able to advise the LAPD on the education and training of all officers. We collaborated with other activists to pressure the LAPD to honor the solutions that citizens and officers prioritized at the Trust Talks.
Changing policing in America is an immense task and Trust Talks are, in many ways, inadequate to meet the most intractable challenges presented by police unions, the officer bill of rights, and a mountain of cases that favor officers over citizens. Yet as a believer and a pastor, I am compelled to hold two truths in tension: The table is the place where Jesus truly shows up as Lord, yet Jesus turns over the tables of injustice. Trust Talks are an effort to first bring officers and the community to the table—and then decide which tables must be overturned.
Delonte Gholston is lead pastor at Peace Fellowship Church, a multicultural, multi-socioeconomic community in the Deanwood neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
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