About two hundred Princeton community members gathered last Wednesday night for a forum sponsored by the town, the school district, and the religious community in response to recent police shootings of black men and sniper attacks on police. 

The event, held in the John Witherspoon School auditorium, featured speeches and a dialogue between African-American Tone Bellamy, former Trenton gang member, now Stone Hill Church elder, Sunday School teacher, facilities associate, and hip-hop artist and Princeton Police Officer Bill Kieffer.

The loudest, longest applause of the evening came when Mr. Bellamy asked police officers in the audience to stand.

“Right now in our country law enforcement officers are under extreme amounts of pressure and in need of encouragement,” Mr. Bellamy said. “We appreciate you. I thought it was important to do that from this platform.”

Emphasizing the key note for the evening, he continued, “We must humanize first. And we must learn to empathize, to create space to listen to people who have different perspectives than we have. We must create contexts like this where people can come together and create a sense of familiarity. We must humanize and empathize. Then and only then we can begin to change the narrative.”

In her opening remarks, Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert framed the proceedings, “The haunting images and videos we’ve all watched have been forever seared in our minds. These have been difficult and painful events to process and they can have the terrible power to deepen divisions and fears, but at the same time they can also compel us to come together, to create the kinds of relationships and the kind of community where every single man, woman and child feels belonging and connection.”

She continued, “It is my hope that by coming together as a community tonight and by having conversations like the one we’ll have this evening, by understanding a multitude of perspectives and taking steps towards reconciliation, we can be a community of openness and trust, of belonging and connection.”

Stating that Princeton is not without its problems and challenges, Ms. Lempert asserted that on issues of race and community-building, “the work in communities like Princeton will set the national model.”

Stone Hill Church pastor Matt Ristuccia explained that the goals of the forum would be “to learn, to listen, to understand, to humanize” in response to the recent tragedies and an appeal from President Obama to hold community gatherings where people on different sides of the issues get together and talk.

Mr. Bellamy, who labeled himself “pro-cop and anti-police brutality,” was candid in sharing “his feelings and fears as a black man in America.” He questioned “When will Dr. King’s dream become a reality?” and added, “I am an angry black guy, and I am tired.” Mr. Bellamy described being pulled over frequently by the police and having difficulty empathizing with white police officers, often failing to see them as human beings like himself.

After recent positive interactions with white police officers, including one-on-one meetings with Officer Kieffer and with Princeton Police Chief Nick Sutter, learning something about their lives and their families, Mr. Bellamy stated, “I’m learning to empathize with those who have different narratives than me.”

He made three different appeals to the audience: to the head, the need to revisit history in striving towards healing (“We can’t address the hurts of today without first revisiting the hurts of yesterday”); to the heart, in a call to share feelings and experiences, what it looks like and feels like to be a black man, a white cop or a resident of Princeton and to understand, empathize, and humanize the other; and to the hands, a call to action “to begin to change the narrative.”

Officer Kieffer, one of 53 members of the Princeton Police Department (PPD) and vice president of the officers’ union, spoke about his perspectives and feelings as a police officer in the current climate of tension throughout the country. About a dozen police officers were in the audience.

He described his reactions to news of the shootings of officers in Dallas following a peaceful protest. Mr. Kieffer was on night duty as the news came in about the ambush, the planning and purposeful pre-meditation, and he was “bewildered, confused, and scared.”

He mentioned the numerous jobs required of a police officer, one minute enforcing traffic laws, the next serving as an animal control officer or a family counselor or a mental health expert or even a plumber — “watching their toilets overflow with them and giving them advice.”

He mentioned that traffic stops and domestic disputes were the two most dangerous assignments for police officers and pointed out that the PPD had taken a proactive approach, emphasizing sensitivity training, profiling training, cultural diversity training, and de-escalation training (learning to take the extra time necessary to calm down potentially volatile situations).

Mr. Kieffer and Mr. Bellamy both talked about their families’ concerns for their safety. They clearly expressed and showed the respect and friendship they have developed for each other.

“It’s not normal for a black man and a white police officer to be in the same space and feel comfortable,” Mr. Bellamy said, but, he continued, “I’ve learned to appreciate the person behind the badge and his family and to humanize him as a person and an officer.”

Rabbi Adam Feldman followed up with comments and questions for the two speakers, before the gathering broke up into three smaller discussion groups.

“This evening was beyond what any of us hoped for, so incredibly worthwhile in so many ways,” stated Mr. Ristucchi, who was one of the organizers of the forum.

“Tonight’s not just about tonight,” Rabbi Feldman said. “it’s about the dialogue that’s started between these two great men — a dialogue that we need to continue to have.”