By Rebecca Harrelson, Staff Writer

Published in print Oct. 22, 2014

Last Thursday evening, two meetings took place on the topic of police-community relations. One was in the Multicultural Affairs Office between members of the UNC-Greensboro community and Campus Police and the other was held at Genesis Baptist Church among members of the Greensboro community to discuss police accountability.

At the church, about forty community leaders and concerned civilians held a dialogue about local organizations and changes that they would like to see in Greensboro. They titled it “Police Accountability Community Safety and Healing Initiative.” They began with the song “We are Marching in the Light, Love, Truth and Hope” and prayer to get things moving.

Beloved Community Center, Artists for Justice, Ignite NC and Leaders of New Generations were some of the groups and organizations represented at the meeting. Greensboro Police only had one officer present, who was there as an independent citizen, not as an official representative of the entire department.

A handout authored by the Beloved Community Center was distributed to everyone who came to the meeting. It covered many important points about police presence and accountability in Greensboro, in addition to providing written statements about the issues they found with the department’s behavior and attitudes.

“These are the defining elements of Greensboro police culture that forms a pattern of the abuse of power,” the handout read. “Let me hasten to add that this is not the totality of the GPD; there are good men and women doing their job on a daily basis; however this aspect of culture of the GPD is both real and historical and cannot be effectively denied.”

The discussion focused mostly on pointing out the problems GPD has within its structure, and trying to conceive of ways to rectify those issues. There was also a handful of individuals who communicated a blunt opinion about specific past behaviors and incidents.

Rufus Scales, a Greensboro resident who has pending charges against him from a wrongful arrest by GPD that occurred a few months ago, was present along with his brother Devin, who caught his brother’s arrest on camera.

They thanked everyone who came to the gathering for their support and their active attempts to make Greensboro a better community.

Devin said a few words about how now is a crucial moment to remain active in the Greensboro community.

Meanwhile, in the EUC, the UNC-Greensboro police department was conducting an open meet and greet in order to foster a dialogue and one on one interactions between their office and faculty, staff and students at UNC-Greensboro.

Everyone from part-time student employees to the department’s Lieutenant were there manning information tables and talking to attendees.

At the beginning, they mentioned that the purpose of the event was to squelch any preconceived notions or disagreements the community may have had with the police.

The stations set up included details about Watch for Me NC, a statewide initiative to increase pedestrian and bike safety, programming for rape prevention, campus escorts, student employment and at the front was a table full of information detailing the purpose of the timely warnings we’ve been receiving.

On the table was a large copy of a Clery geography map and a print version of the most recent Annual Fire and Safety Report. The officers at the table said that their main goal was to help students understand the purpose of the timely warnings.

For the two hours that the event lasted the officers were there distributing literature and answering questions about the department’s policies and relationship with the university.