ICYMI: As nation ponders community policing, Scott and Gowdy hope S.C. can engage in the debate

In case you missed it: take a look at how Senator Scott and I are working to build trust between law enforcement and community leaders in South Carolina.

As nation ponders community policing, Scott and Gowdy hope S.C. can engage in the debate

By Emma Dumain

During the August congressional recess, 12 U.S. House members — participants in a bipartisan group tasked with restoring trust between police and civilians — dialed into a conference call.

U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., provided an update on how his community was doing after Alton Sterling, a black man, was shot and killed by white policemen outside a convenience store in Baton Rouge.

U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., shared local reactions to the news that the New York City Police commissioner was stepping down.

And U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., recalled the “homework assignment” he’d given to his working group colleagues: Talk to people you wouldn’t normally speak to, Gowdy said. Find someone who has had an experience unlike any you have known.

Hours after the conference call concluded, Gowdy was off to follow his own advice. He stepped into the Brookland Baptist Church in West Columbia, joined by U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and nearly two dozen fellow South Carolinians — half of them from the faith community, half of them with careers in law enforcement; most of them non-white.

They were gathered for the first of what Gowdy and Scott hope will be many private meetings made up of the same community stakeholders all around the Palmetto State. The purpose is to share stories, trade ideas and most of all have a forum in which to speak candidly without fear of scrutiny from the public or by the media.

“First we establish credibility,” Scott said. “If you don’t establish the bond of trust, everything else is secondary.”

The two lawmakers are close friends who came up with the idea of forming the discussion group over the course of regular dinners together on Capitol Hill. The working group was formally convened in late July after a series of deadly clashes around the country between African-Americans and police officers necessitated some type of congressional response.

Their life experiences have informed their outlooks. Gowdy, who is white, previously served as the state’s 7th Circuit solicitor and approaches the criminal justice debate from a prosecutor’s perspective.

“I have never been stopped by law enforcement because of my race. Ever,” Gowdy said. “But the African-American pastors around that table have never likely had to sit with the parents of a homicide victim and heard why they have to resolve this case in a way that makes none of us happy because they can’t cooperate with the police. There are certain elements within certain communities where distrust for police and the criminal justice system is so great they will not even cooperate.”

Scott, who is black, recently delivered a series of Senate floor speeches about his experience with prejudice, describing painful confrontations with police officers even as an elected official. He is deeply committed to his faith and the extent that wounds can be healed through love — a theme he revisits when talking about the Emanuel AME Church shootings.

The thought of bringing representatives from churches and police departments together came from an observation Gowdy said he and Scott shared: “The most segregated hour in all of South Carolina is 11 o’clock on Sunday mornings.”

Both men insist their goal is not to walk away with a legislative proposal; that’s for the congressional working group. Rather, Gowdy and Scott want South Carolina to be a part of a national conversation about criminal justice and sentencing policy, about what residents and law enforcement can do to help each other do their jobs and live lives in peace.

In many ways South Carolina is already part of the debate. In April 2015, Walter Scott, a black man, was shot and killed by North Charleston officer Michael Slager following a scuffle during a traffic stop. Then in June, Dylann Roof, an avowed white supremacist, killed nine black parishioners at Emanuel AME. Both Slager and Roof await trial.

“We had an officer-involved shooting and the most serious charge that could be leveled, was leveled,” Gowdy said. “We had a horrific mass killing in Charleston, and the result was the exact opposite of what the perpetrator had intended. (Sen. Scott) always wants to stop and at least take an assessment of how far we have come, and then let’s tackle, ‘how we do go even farther?’ Clearly something already exists here. It’s about seizing what’s already there.”

Scott too was optimistic.

“We had a very fruitful conversation about who we are as South Carolinians,” he said of the first meeting. “One thing that we already recognize is that we are already a national model.”

Full article here: http://www.postandcourier.com/20160903/160909811/as-nation-ponders-community-policing-scott-and-gowdy-hope-sc-can-engage-in-the-debate