CLEVELAND — Following police shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota, and five 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.
Travis Gaston, pastor of Travis Chapel United Methodist Church and a retired major with Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office, said he wanted to make sure the community is protected from violence.
About 55 people filled the church 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 processes, connecting with the public, traffic stops and more.
"We have lost respect for ourselves and we have lost respect for other people even more than that," Foster told those gathered. "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. 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."
Asked about officers using deadly force, 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 a means to protect the officer and the individual, but both Walden and Foster agreed 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, Ga., not Cleveland, Ohio. Things and people are different here.
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," Gatson said. "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."
