DCCC forum on race and police sees better days ahead

Delaware County Community College held a wide-reaching conversation about policing Tuesday as a launch event for its newly established Center for Equity and Social Justice.

This segment of “Dialogues for Diversity” focused on policing in the community. These dialogues are part of the Center for Equity and Social Justice, a part of the college’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

“As the community’s college we are excited to engage not just with our students but with the community as a whole in conversations that can lead to greater awareness, greater understanding, common ground and transformational change,” Dr. Joy Gates Black, president of Delaware County Community College, said. “The continuing issues of racism, discrimination, inequity and social injustice in this country have reached a tipping point and the only way forward is for each of us to do whatever we can to bring about the positive change that we all want to see.”

She shared that the protests across the nation motivated the college to focus on the community and policing for its first discussion.

Panelists included Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer; county Deputy Sheriff Danielle Pettyjohn; Media attorney Enrique Latoison; Yeadon Police Chief Anthony “Chachi” Paparo; the Rev. Dr. Wayne E. Croft Jr. of St. Paul’s Baptist Church in West Goshen, Chester County; and Dr. Merrill L. Irving Jr., president of Hennepin Technical College in Minnesota.

Topics of the two-hour conversation ranged from personal reactions to George Floyd’s murder to actions that need to take place to begin to root out systemic racism to hope for the future.

“It made everyone uncomfortable, but it’s a good uncomfortable because it pushed a lot of people to continue to move, to continue to make differences and changes elsewhere,” Pettyjohn said. “It’s unfortunate and definitely seeing all of the news media, literally every single day, that’s what broke my heart because I stepped into law enforcement to make a difference, not just for me but for my community, for the individuals that I grew up around.”

Latoison was born and raised in Chester, where he lived for 30 years before moving to Drexel Hill for seven years and then to Glen Mills.

“A huge amount of the white community has adopted the George Floyd

issue and that’s why this is different,” he said, adding that among people of color this incident wasn’t anything new. However, he said it’s the first time he’s had white neighbors saying, “This is horrible, what can I do?”

“I don’t know if it’s a pandemic issue where people had more time on their hands to pay attention,” Latoison said, “or if it’s a case that this video was one too many and people had an opportunity to watch this video from beginning to end.”

One thing that would be advantageous is honest conversations, particularly between communities of color

and the police, Croft said.

He spoke of his church’s “Two-Way Street” program where members of both meet together to talk and learn more about each other to establish relationships before incidents occur.

“I think that hosting these forums, not only during the moment but even after is very important,” he said. “Bringing people together to talk about race, gender, sexual orientation, color and how biases effect the way people interact with one another whether they are implicit or explicit, I think those are very important. Strong relationships of mutual trust and honest conversation between police agencies and their communities that they serve are critical to maintaining public safety and affecting policing.”