For its third annual conference uniting local law enforcement officers and clergy, the Wilmington Police Department turned to a speaker who oversaw strife of the type that city leaders hope never happens in the Cape Fear region.
By inviting Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Ronald Johnson, participants of the department’s Peacemakers conference on Friday, Oct. 9 heard inside stories of the chaotic, prolonged and sometimes violent protests that gripped Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014 following the police shooting death of Michael Brown. Johnson was brought in to help lead police protection of the protesters after repeated clashes with police in the days after the shooting.
Johnson told the attendees, which included Wilmington police, New Hanover County sheriff’s department officials and local religious leaders, that a partnership between the clergy and police helped calm tensions after the shooting death, especially when police were distrusted by protesters.
“The ministers gained their trust,” Johnson said. “One protester told me, ‘I wish you were a fireman so I could be your friend.’ That’s what we need to get back to. We have to be better.”
Johnson discussed several events that occurred during the protests that made national news over the course of several days in 2014. In one incident, he described trying to calm nerves between local religious leaders and protesters. In another, he talked about the frustration after a shop owner refused to move his inventory, despite police help, and then couldn’t protect the store from looters. He showed photos of armed citizens, police and National Guard taken during the protests.
“Citizens protecting their own property. The military patrolling the streets of our country,” Johnson said. “This can’t be.”
At one point during the fray, when the media expected Johnson to show off weapons seized in the prior night’s protests, he instead brought the coloring books, sock puppets and crayons given to him by children attending a temporary school set up at a library.
Johnson said the Ferguson protests were as much about poverty and opportunity as about race, saying similar protests could occur in many places across the country, including Wilmington.
He said a critical way to prevent this type of violent strife is to create more opportunities for police and the community to interact. He said the Ferguson protests cost the Missouri Highway Patrol nearly $3 million and, combined with costs for other departments, the protests cost the state more than $12 million.
“Could we not have spent that money in a wiser way earlier?” Johnson asked.
The presentation made an impression on attendees, many of whom took lessons from Johnson’s message.
“I have the same mindset as he does,” Wilmington Police Sgt. W.W. Hyman said. “We’ve got to treat each other as human beings.”
Warner Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church Pastor Clifford Barrett said Johnson’s presentation was informative but also presented challenges for both police and clergy in Wilmington.
“For the clergy, we have to go back into the streets, to cross the line and talk to the kids,” Barrett said.
Paul Lawler, a candidate for Wilmington City Council, said many of Johnson’s recommendations were “small scale things” that would be reasonable to implement.
“He talked about many simple, human-to-human things, like hugging people,” he said. “They aren’t huge initiatives.”
Johnson also gave a closed-session presentation on managing police crises for law enforcement officers only.
Other sessions during the two-day conference included a discussion with families of slain law enforcement officer officers and citizens, statewide best practices models, restorative justice and male rites of passage.
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