The Community Police Relations (CPR) effort of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center (MSPJC) held a milestone meeting on Friday, November 16, 2012. For the first time, the CPR Community and Police core groups came together, after meeting separately for the past several months. The meeting provided a space where attendees from both the Community and Law Enforcement circles were open to share their own personal stories and experiences related to the current state of distrust between members of the two groups. Both Law Enforcement and Community participants had many emotions about how this first combined meeting would unfold, including fear and skepticism, but after four hours of heartfelt, honest, respectful sharing, participants are hopeful about the next steps of the CPR effort.
After an opening welcome from Melissa Miller-Monie, MSPJC Coordinator of CPR, facilitator Laura Sullivan explained the context, purpose, and guidelines for the meeting, reminding everyone that we were all there to address past difficulties between the community and law enforcement and that we all have the best interests of the city and all of its people in mind.
Next, partner Playback Memphis, led by director Virginia Murphy, created a space for individual participants to share stories of their experiences with community-police relations. Through a unique combination of storytelling, improvisational theater, community and dialogue, Playback Memphis helped CPR begin the important work of relationship-building. Community and Law Enforcement participants reflected on questions such as, ‘What inspired you to become a law enforcement officer or community activist? What experiences have led you to have the views you have of one another? What hopes do you have for the future community/police relations of Memphis?’ Everyone was very open about their experiences that relate to the barriers that cause distrust between these two groups. Playback Memphis took stories and brought them to life before the eyes of those in the audience and the impact was powerful.
The experience brought laughter and tears and feedback, and revealed that participants share a strong sense of importance of taking time to deeply listen to one another and better understand what it’s like to walk in the shoes of those with whom we often feel in conflict, a process which allowed them to feel the pain of others.
Building upon the themes and conversations drawn upon in the Playback Memphis performances, facilitator Laura Sullivan suggested some questions and concerns for everyone to address and encouraged everyone to be real about their feelings. Members of the Community and Law Enforcement groups shared their fears, frustrations, grief, and pain over the struggles between the two groups as well as over the difficulties within each group. They also shared their gratitude that we were meeting together and speaking so honestly about the institutional, economic, social, and emotional barriers to creating trust between the two groups.
This combined meeting between Community Leaders and members of Law Enforcement was the first of its kind in our city. While participants realize that one meeting will not lead to an overnight miracle, we view it as an important step towards building a vision and process to continue the dialogue and, ultimately, towards creating an action plan that includes solutions at all levels: political, economic, institutional, and psychological.
The next combined meeting was held on Friday, December 7 – watch for more details as we continue to work towards:
*Safety *Security *Solutions
For more information about bringing Community-Police Relations to your community, please contact:
Melissa Miller-Monie
Organizing Coordinator, CPR
Office: 901-725-4990
e-mail: melissa@midsouthpeace.org