Dozens of local activists, politicians and former law enforcement officials debated today about Baton Rouge’s deep racial divide and offered wide-ranging solutions to the issues underlying a recent spate of violence that has roiled the Capital city.
“We need to understand the black culture,” former Baton Rouge Police Chief Pat Englade told a group of about 50 assembled by the Chamber of Commerce of East Baton Rouge Parish. “And the black culture needs to understand the police culture.”
Former East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff and Baton Rouge Police Chief Greg Phares, who headlined the event with Englade, defended law enforcement and urged people to wait for the Justice Department to conclude its investigation into the case of Alton Sterling, whose shooting death by police—captured on video and widely circulated—has ignited protests against police use of force in black communities.
Many spoke out against the shooting of three Baton Rouge law enforcement officers by Missouri resident Gavin Long. The last of three funerals for those officers, which were attended by thousands of members of law enforcement from all 50 states, was Monday.
“[BRPD Chief Carl Dabadie] hasn’t caught his breath yet,” Englade said. “My heart is breaking for them.”
But black activists and elected officials in the room railed against what they see as an undercurrent of tensions between police and black communities that has existed for years, and a seeming inability for law enforcement to rid itself of “bad apples.”
“We need for more officers to de-escalate situations,” said state Rep. Edmond Jordan, a newly elected Democrat from Baton Rouge. “Far too often they’re escalating them.”
“When Alton Sterling happened, we could not find a white politician. They were MIA,” said Gary Chambers, publisher of The Rouge Collection and outspoken critic of police use of force. “This room went home when people went to Airline and Goodwood,” the site of the Baton Rouge Police Department’s headquarters where hundreds protested Sterling’s death.
Many warned of a new wave of tensions between law enforcement and black residents if the Justice Department does not charge the two officers who killed Sterling.
Englade and Phares discussed community policing and their experiences heading the city and parish law enforcement agencies, as well as training officers. Englade urged people to wait for the Justice Department’s decision whether to charge the officers and respect that decision. Other “concerned citizens” and elected officials advocated for more dialogue and even training citizens how to interact with police when approached.
Some saw Tuesday’s meeting, held at Cafe Americain, as a productive first step in attracting diverse crowds to discuss policing and race. Englade called it “real dialogue, not fluff.”
But others said it did not go far enough and that discussions like it miss a large swath of residents.
“The problem I see with this meeting is you’re not talking to the demographic you need to be talking to,” said Redell Norman, a local black activist.
—Sam Karlin
