Manage Fear — Acknowledge the Past and Apologize

David CouperFebruary 22, 2016February 22, 2016Leadership, police

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/how-one-chief-tried-to-reverse-police-wrongs-of-the-civil-rights-era/

This recent interview with Chief Deputy Kevin Murphy (formerly chief of police in Montgomery, AL) begins at 30:58 minutes into the program.

It is an interview that every police officer in America should view and then deeply discuss because it provides a way forward.

Unknown — Chief Kevin Murphy of Montgomery offering an apology and his police badge to Freedom Rider and Congressman John Lewis.

Who’s responsibility is it to understand our history? Blacks or white police officers? Knowing there is tension in every inter-racial police contact should help police in their efforts to rebuild trust.

It is ironic that it is a white southern police officer who figures this out. And, at the time, John Lewis and other Freedom Riders were assaulted by police in Montgomery in 1961, a time when Chief Murphy had yet to be born!

Now see Murphy’s powerful 2013 apology to Congressman John Lewis — and let’s begin the discussion.

[Thanks to Chief Larry Hesser for this post idea.]

Published by David Couper

I served over 20 years as the chief of police in Madison (WI), four years as chief of the Burnsville (MN) Police Department, and before that as a police officer in Edina (MN) and the City of Minneapolis. I hold graduate degrees from the University of Minnesota and Edgewood College in Madison. I have written many articles over my years as a police leader. After retiring from the police department, I answered a call to ministry, attended seminary, and was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church. After 25 years leading two Episcopal Churches in Portage and North Lake, Wisconsin, I now serve as Associate Pastor in a growing, dynamic, and Spirit-filled Lutheran congregation in nearby Mazomanie. View all posts by David Couper