The Auburn community and local law enforcement met Thursday, Nov. 17 at 6:30 p.m. in the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences Building to recognize lives lost during police interactions and police officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
The night was also a way to “reconcile, reflect and understand the perspectives of both the community and police officers,” said Jade Kiny, the event coordinator.
“Over the summer there were a lot of police shootings coming up and it was pretty traumatizing for some of the people in our program, the Association of Counseling Psychology Students,” Kiny said. “We all got together and we were pondering what we could do in our local community to prevent that from happening.”
The community and local law enforcement ate dinner together and began discussing the topic.
“I kind of foresaw the police officers would sit on one side of the room and everybody else would sit on the other side of the room, but it didn’t happen that way,” Kiny said.
After dinner, the local law enforcement and community recited a unity pledge, written by Kiny:
"I pledge to build relationships with those who are different than me despite their creed, race or religion.
To keep an open mind when I encounter cultural adversity and to recognize that my way of life is not the only way to live.
And lastly, to love because in love there is the strongest force of compassion that mends the deepest of wounds."
“We need to bond and maybe not necessarily look past our cultures because our cultures are very important to us, but just to understand that one way somebody is expressing or is living their life doesn’t mean that is hurtful or harmful to somebody else than someone who is living their life differently,” Kiny said. “We can find fulfillment in different ways.”
Kiny said she’d like to do this more often and encourage the police department to join with the community.
“I think that would help us,” Kiny said. “The police officers there told me that they are training to help students on campus understand how to interact with the police if they ever do interact with the police officers or their paths cross.”
Kiny said she was shocked by the attendance.
“I didn’t think that many people would come out," Kiny said. "I think that everybody mingled with the police officers and actually talked to them which was wonderful to see. People were just opening up in ways that I didn’t think that they would so I was really happy with that.”
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