Dallas Faith Leader Prays for Charlotte
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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) — Rev. Dr. Sheron Patterson has spent the past 25 years calling Dallas home. She serves as Communications Director for the Methodist Church of North Texas.
After the killing of five Dallas area peace officers on July 7th, she was summoned to lead a community prayer during the Dallas Memorial Service led by President Barack Obama.
Her passion for officers in blue was formed as a child, growing up in Charlotte, North Carolina. "My father William Covington, was one of the first African American police officers in Charlotte", Patterson proclaimed proudly. Patterson reminisced about her father as an homage to community policing, and a stand against police brutality.
On Sunday, she wrote an opinion column for the Charlotte Observer newspaper, urging unity between police and the Black Lives Matter movement. " I am an African American clergywoman who supports the Blue, and the daughter of a retired Charlotte policeman who supports Black Lives Matter. I endorse both without betraying the other because they are not mutually exclusive. Also both are organically in my DNA", she wrote.
Two days after the publishing of her editorial, a Charlotte police officer shot and killed a black man.
Peaceful protests outside the Charlotte police department were jettisoned from national media coverage when others took to the streets. Police used tear gas. Some protesters used bricks.
"As a police officer's daughter, I have a vested interest in policing in Charlotte, in Dallas, and across the world. I know not all police are bad, but in my support of police they must also be held accountable", she said in Dallas today.
Rev. Patterson believes too many police are apt to use deadly force against black men, yet cautions against all police as being anti-black.
"I wanted to let Charlotte know what my dad told me, there's still hope. Don't let go".
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