#57: A Police Chief Apologizes for a 1940 Lynching

photo: [name] (CC BY-SA 2.0)

photo: [name] (CC BY-SA 2.0)

 
 

A chief of police has to lead officers toward a strong relationship with the communities they serve, but in the past, the same department may have participated in or enforced racial discrimination and injustice.

That history can prevent healing and can make police reform a nonstarter.

One police chief decided he needed to apologize for an incident 77 years ago: a lynching in his small Georgia town in 1940.

LaGrange Police Chief Louis Dekmar explains why he apologized for a crime that occurred years before he was born and why it should still matter to residents today.

InterviewsDavid Harrislynching, lagrange, louis dekmar, racial discrimination, racial injustice, jim crow, 31-60