Peaceful Detroit prayer rally saw police and protesters come together

The speakers all focused on the need for the public’s teamwork to curb highway shooting violence.

People like Southfield Police Chief Elvin Barren stressed how much the community’s role is needed in being the solution.

That theme was echoed by Pastor Mo Hardwick’s remarks. He told the crowd he truly believed community cooperation with the cops would change the future of the freeway for the better. The pastor backed up his words with actions when introducing Michigan State Police First Lieutenant Mike Shaw to address the crowd.

Shaw laid out his vision on how the general public could make the jobs of the police easier: “just because someone didn’t use a turn signal, you can’t answer that with a gun. You also know where the bad actor is. You know where the dope man is in your neighborhood. We need your help to tell us. That’s how we end this violence. We know, just up the freeway, because of a narcotics transaction, somebody died, or almost died.”

“I can’t put a state trooper in the backseat of everybody’s car [...] I’d like to. But I can’t. So you got to be that state trooper. You got to be that Detroit police officer.”

(Credit to Brendan Gutenschwager for his video coverage.)