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On Saturday, the Troup County NAACP will host a community meeting and forum at Gardner Newman Middle School aimed at preventing deaths when interacting with law enforcement.

The event titled, Getting Home Safely: A Youth Empowerment and Law Enforcement Partnership, will include local leaders and law enforcement officers to help de-escalate potentially dangerous situations with police.

Organizers say the event will not be an attack on police. They are just trying to reduce tragic outcomes during police interactions.

The event is for the entire family, said Dr. Glenn Dowell, Troup NAACP Education Chair.

Even though police interactions are the sixth highest cause of death among youth in the country, according to a 2019 study, there has been little change since, Dowel said.

“Too many people are practicing law when they’re stopped by law enforcement, and you end up with a situation being escalated, and unfortunately, it ends in tragedy all too often,” Dowell said.

The community meeting is designed to empower everyone so they don’t go hating the police but have respect for law enforcement, Dowell said.

“We hope that in doing so, it is reciprocal, and each person can leave an encounter alive,” Dowell said.

Dowell explained that too many police encounters begin with people talking about how they know their rights, but they don’t really know what they are talking about. While it’s important to know and understand your rights, being a roadside attorney only needlessly escalates things, he said.

Even in cases where people are legally in the right, a situation can end up deadly.

“We’ve seen some horrible incidents, where in Cobb County they were able to help the family and they won monetarily, but the young man lost his life, a 20-year-old young man, because he wouldn’t stop the law enforcement, comply and put his hands on the steering wheel. When he got ready to open the door with his left hand, he was shot and killed,” Dowell said.

It’s situations like these that they are hoping to end.

The forum will include leaders from the Troup County School System, law firms, Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church, trauma and counseling leaders and law enforcement to try to end unnecessary and tragic outcomes of police encounters.

The meeting will include topics on: 

4How to avoid violent confrontations
4What to do during an encounter with police
4Tips to de-escalate tense situations
4Ways to form better community-law enforcement relations

The forum will be held Saturday, April 26, at 1 p.m. at Gardner Newman Middle School at 101 S. Shannon Drive in LaGrange.