GREENFIELD — When Theodore Griffin, the lead pastor of Brown’s Chapel Wesleyan Church in Greenfield, was new to the community, he was having car trouble. A parishioner lent Griffin a car so he could get around — a Mercedes. Griffin, who is Black, wasn’t surprised to be pulled over on U.S. 40 when he was speeding while driving the expensive car.
“The car was not mine, I could not find the registration,” Griffin said. “So here I am, new to the area by just about two months, searching frantically for the registration, and I couldn’t find it. My saving grace that day was the fact that I am the lead pastor of Brown’s Chapel.”
Griffin, along with several members of his congregation, attended a panel at Hancock County Public Library on Thursday, July 9 called “Just Mercy: The Conversation Continues.” The panel was hosted by the Hancock County League of Women Voters and moderated by board member Betty Tonsing. Panelists included Indianapolis pastor Charles Neal; Fran Watson, director of the Wrongful Conviction Clinic at IU McKinney School of Law; and Michelle Wade, a Hancock County prosecuting attorney. A fourth planned speaker, former police officer Michael Cunegin II, was unable to attend.
Griffin didn’t think of the encounter he had with the officer who pulled him over — Jeff Rasche, who was then the chief of the Greenfield Police Department — as a negative one. He said Rasche handled the encounter well and had clearly been trained in how to confront such situations.
“I think, had there been more officers like him, we would be better off,” he said.
Policing was a major topic of discussion at the panel, which allowed audience members to drive the discussion by asking questions about any topic related to racial inequality or the justice system. Panelists and participants discussed Black Lives Matter protests, the slogan “defund the police,” and what kind of training officers should receive.
Tonsing raised an issue that was discussed at the first Just Mercy panel, held in May, about the conversation that Black parents often have with their children about what they should do when interacting with the police. During the May panel discussion, the Rev. Patty Franklin, a member of Evangel Church in Greenfield, said she encourages her grandson to avoid those interactions by doing things like taking the bus at night rather than walking.
“Who’s telling the police, ‘Stop shooting?’” Tonsing asked.
Watson said it can be important to take steps to avoid individual harm when interacting with police, even while pushing for systemic change.
“You should absolutely tell your kids not to run,” Watson said. “You have to start somewhere, and the place to start is to tell them, ‘Stop, or they’ll shoot you.’ It’s not right that you have to stop, it may not be constitutional that you have to stop, but you have to start somewhere.”
Neal said he believes in engaging with police officers on the topic, saying he plans to host Indianapolis officers at his church to participate
“I think in our policing, there needs to be more cultural acceptance and cultural competency with officers,” Neal said. “If you get an officer from Hancock County who now becomes an officer in Indianapolis, he’s going to go through a regimen of cultural training so he can better understand that you’re not in Hancock County now, you’re Indianapolis, where you have a more multicultural community. You have to understand that. And the police officers are now being taught to become immersed in that culture,” he said, adding that some white officers get their hair cut at Black barber shops or spend time talking with people at popular restaurants owned by people of color to become more connected to those communities.
County resident Susan McAmis said she doesn’t like the phrase “defund the police,” but does believe that fixing the relationship between police and the community could include cutting budgets.
“The budget for education in the United States has been cut and cut and cut, at the same time that police forces have gotten more and more and more,” McAmis said. “During the time that police forces were getting more, they were getting more used military equipment, becoming an army.”
Neal said police officers are among those who could learn from the messages shared in “Just Mercy,” a book by an Alabama attorney that chronicled race-based inequities in the criminal justice system. The book was part of a community reading campaign in the spring.
“When you think about mercy, mercy in the Hebrew is ‘ahaba,’ and it means, ‘I give love,’” Neal said. “This is not taught in our systems of policing.”
Tonsing said she was proud of the members of the community who attended, and that more events on topics like policing and mental health might be held in the future. She added that county officials, including the county council members and commissioners, were invited to Thursday’s event and that she thinks the community would benefit from hearing from them.
Wade advised people who are concerned about the issues discussed to keep elected officials in mind when it’s time to vote in the next local election.
“When people say, ‘what can I do?’ I think the biggest thing you can do is listen, and vote,” Wade said.