NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Elm City’s faith leaders are now working with in conjunction with police after graduating from an 8-week course with the New Haven Police Department.
This comes on the day of Breonna Taylor’s decision on whether or not the officers involved in her death were justified.
Wednesday, the state released that only one out of the three officers would be charged.
Officer Brent Hankerson is being charged with three counts of wanton endangerment.
Dr. Lorenzo Boyd who works at the University of New Haven, says this has not been taken well in black and brown communities.
“There’s a lot of pain, there’s a lot of hurting and we need to acknowledge people’s pain and one way to acknowledge that is levels of accountability,” said Dr. Boyd.
Dr. Boyd says with the other two officers not being held accountable it’s not too far of a stretch to say more protests will spark, and not just in Kentucky.
“Even in professional sports, even in the NHL you see things that say #JusticeForBreonnaTaylor so this has become a social movement,” said Dr. Boyd.
The city of New Haven already taking steps to show they are committed to change with members of the cloth graduating Wednesday from a New Haven clergy academy program that is putting faith leaders as mitigators between the police and the community.
Rev Wayne McCrae said, “We see hands-on from the experience what the officer goes through on the daily basis and it’s really enlightening that we can be that caregiver and that spiritual guidance.”
“We could only face the many challenges that we are trying to address in the city together and that collaboration in the community is vital to make our city successful,” said Mayor Justin Elicker.
Chief O’toniel Reyes also chimed in on the impact of the program and said, “It’s not about religion this is about the community this is about building a community and improving on outcomes.”
Outcomes that will be tested in time, but within the crowd of clergy.
One graduate says as she reflects on the state of Kentucky that people need to recognize the pain and look beyond the protests.
DR. Rev. Marcia Smith said, “They are a community that is in pain a community that has hurt, a community that is trying to heal so there’s two dynamics or multiple dynamics that show that show my perspective not the entire picture so I want to make sure that people understand that there is a calm there that there is love there. “
Dr. Rev. Marcia Smith along with her daughter was at a protest in Kentucky and has observed many outlooks on Taylor’s death and says people need to remember we are all family.
Dr. Rev. Smith said, “When one of our family members are hurting should be concerned about that family member, Breonna Taylor‘s family is my family that’s how I feel so numb and disconnected about family there’s some other issues I think there is going on in that person.”
The New Haven Police Department clergy program started before the George Floyd protests but was delayed due to the pandemic.