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EXCLUSIVE - Major law enforcement organizations at the international, federal, state and local levels are partnering with social change group Faith & Blue for its annual weekend of activities as part of the "largest nationwide police-community initiative," Fox News can exclusively report.
Leaders from the National Faith & Blue Weekend announced Tuesday their plans to make history in partnering with "every major national law enforcement" group in hosting its second-annual national event from Oct. 8 through Oct. 11.
Speaking during the Tuesday morning press conference, Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, emphasized that the 800,000 men and women in law enforcement are also members of the communities that they represent, but "were demonized just by simply wearing their badge."
"During this period of time, we'd rather talk at each other, rather than with each other, Yoes continued. "We need to do some work in this country. The powers that law enforcement officers have, the very powers that we have in order to be able to police our communities, are directly related to the trust and interrelationships we have within our communities."
Patrick Yoes, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, speaking during a Faith & Blue press conference on Aug. 31, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Fox News Digital) (Fox News Digital )
Other law enforcement groups working with Faith & Blue on the event include the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association, the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Black Police Association, among several others.
"We need a movement in this country," the weekend’s lead organizer, Rev. Markel Hutchins, told Fox News on Monday.
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"We cannot continue to have some Americans standing in one corner yelling, ‘Our lives matter,’ and a different group of Americans in a different corner yelling, ‘Our lives matter,’ he continued. "Because it's just going to continue to perpetuate this chaos that has permeated our culture, our politics and every other facet of our existence as Americans."
The idea for Faith & Blue came in April 2020, after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and its inaugural weekend kicked off in October of that year, Hutchins said.
Protesters carry a fake casket during a silent march in memory of George Floyd a day before jury selection for the trial of former Minneapolis police offices Derek Chauvin begins in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States on March 7, 2021. (Christopher Mark Juhn/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Floyd, a Black man, died in May 2020 after a Minneapolis police officer named Derek Chauvin held his knee on Floyd’s neck for several minutes, despite his shouts that he couldn’t breathe. Chauvin was later convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter and sentenced to more than two decades in prison.
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And Taylor, a Black emergency medical worker, was fatally shot by Louisville, Kentucky police in March 2020, during a botched drug raid at her home. Police opened fire after Taylor’s boyfriend fired at and struck an officer during the raid. Investigators did not recover any narcotics.
"We have to deal with the tragic deaths of people like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and so many others, who have died in tragedies involving law enforcement," he explained. "But we also have to deal with the crime and violence that is pervasive in communities of every kind across the country. National Faith & Blue weekend has as its mission to deal with both sides of these issues at the same time."
Black Lives Matter protesters march, Friday, Sept. 25, 2020, in Louisville. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
Hutchins said law enforcement officials in 47 states will join the federal government and even international groups for public activities in local communities. The organization will partner with the faith-based communities for events that include town falls, forums, vigils and picnics.
Faith-based organizations, Hutchins said, "have unique and unprecedented and unmatched influence in local communities." And the high crime trends and recent high-profile law enforcement-involved deaths have bred "an enormous appetite for solutions," he said.
"But the solutions to the challenges we face when it comes to crime and violence, as well as police-involved tragedies, the solutions will not come in a piece of legislation nor an executive order. They are relational reformations that are needed," he explained. "So, while there's a lot of focus and attention being placed on the need for police reform and – there are some needs for reforms around use of force and those kinds of things – the greatest need for reform is how law enforcement officers and community residents see each other, how they interact."
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He called Faith & Blue "the largest and most collaborative police community outreach project in American history."
Lynda Williams, immediate past president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, recalled Tuesday how, growing up in Memphis, Tennessee, there were "two entities that were there: There was the church, which we referred to as faith-based, and the police.
"Even after this tumultuous year, it is my hope that we emerge stronger, wiser and better, but a greater respect of our fellow man as human beings," she said. She later added: "Together, we can be the change that we wish to see."
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