Black pastor who once led protests against the police organizes mass multi-city rally FOR cops after saying his ‘thinking evolved’ and that he’s now worried by staff shortages

A black pastor who once led protests against police brutality has organized a multi-city tour rallying in support of police after saying his thinking on the matter has “evolved.”

The Reverend Markel Hutchins organized events with law enforcement agencies across the country this weekend as part of what he called a ‘National Faith & Blue Weekend’ aimed at building trust between the public and the police.

He says he is now concerned about shortages of police officers across the US and fears that this could cause increases in crime.

Hutchins, who is based in Atlanta, has coordinated more than 4,000 events nationwide focused on highlighting the need for more police officers and stronger ties between officers and the communities they serve as crime has increased in many American cities.

“Law enforcement over the last three or four years, rightly or wrongly, has been demonized and demoralized and really disconnected from their communities in a way that has had a detrimental effect on crime and violence, on law enforcement as a profession and by extension. , on communities,’ he told Fox News Digital.

It’s a change of heart for Hutchins, who wrote an article for Fox titled: ‘I used to lead protests against the police – now I’m working with them to keep communities safe.’

‘There was a time when my civil rights leadership was limited to protests and marches,’ Hutchins explained, ‘I expanded that leadership, as time grew, I matured, my thought process, my thinking and my strategy evolved. .. I’m still a big believer in protesting and marching, but right now our best march is not about law enforcement, it’s about law enforcement as a matter of strategy.’

Hutchins kicked off the event Friday in Washington, DC, which is facing an increase in crime, with at least 216 murders this year alone. During the event, religious leaders and law enforcement officials shared food.

The Defund the Police movement sparked by the killing of George Floyd by a policeman, as well as the pandemic, has created acute shortages in police departments across the country.

But Hutchins said that despite the “message we’ve heard too much in the media” that the public rejects the police, most people, including minority groups, actually support law enforcement.

“The truth is that more than 70 percent of African Americans and Hispanics and more than 80 percent of white Americans, according to recent polling, want the same or more law enforcement,” Hutchins said.

‘It’s a narrative that hasn’t been heard enough that people actually want police to be policed ​​with fairness and equity and people want to be treated fairly by law enforcement. It’s crystal clear… And it was demonstrated in the thousands of activities that took place over the course of Faith & Blue weekend.’

Cities across the country have been forced to offer big bonuses as they struggle to fill law enforcement positions.

Austin PD’s budget has been rocked with a $150 million cut approved by the Texas City Council following its own scandal following the shooting of an unarmed black man in April 2020 – just weeks before Floyd’s death.

Previously, the AP Association told DailyMail.com that the lasting impact of the defund movement has fractured the ranks, driven officers to resign and made it increasingly difficult to recruit replacement staff.

Since the BLM protests, crime has skyrocketed with homicide rates soaring and the city ranked 15 out of 45 for the most homicide rates nationwide, with desperate 911 callers on hold for up to half an hour.

Austin police have told city residents not to call 911 if they become the victim of a robbery near a bank or ATM, as officials grapple with a shortage of police officers and an increase in crime following calls to defusing the police.

The message from authorities comes as Austin has seen a significant increase in crime, with a 77 percent increase in car thefts, an 18 percent increase in aggravated assaults and a 30 percent increase in murders.

The state legislature passed a law in 2021 requiring Austin to restore the funding it cut, but by then the exodus of police officers retiring or choosing to leave in large numbers had already begun to take shape.

The $150 million cut represents a third of the police force’s budget — by far the largest of any U.S. city that saw funding cut after the BLM riots.

Earlier this year, the city of Alameda found a third of its 88 full-time officer positions vacant as California police departments competed to replace officers who changed jobs or retired during the pandemic.

Police Chief Nishant Joshi then came up with the impressive bonus plan to fill the 24 positions as quickly as possible, and in April the Alameda City Council approved a $75,000-plus write-in.

While Alameda’s bonus is the highest in the state, the city is far from the only one going back to financial bonuses to fill their positions.

In neighboring El Cerrito, recruits are offered $10,000 and in San Mateo $30,000. Meanwhile, the city of Hayward offers a $20,000 bonus to new police officers.

Alameda Mayor Marilyn Ashcraft said that while the bonus is “noticeable,” more “of what she hears is envy” from other local governments struggling to hire police officers.

But retired Redondo Beach Police Department Lt. Diane Goldstein told The Mercury News the situation widens a divide between cities that can afford hefty bonuses and others that can’t.

‘This whole signing bonus thing started a few years back. It creates police agencies of the haves and the have-nots,’ she said. ‘It may be a well-intentioned policy, thinking they can attract the best and brightest, but it potentially creates inequalities in policing.’

While many voters in California demanded more police oversight after George Floyd’s killing by a police officer in 2020, the national sentiment regarding police has changed since then.

According to a January 2023 Pew Research Center survey, 49 percent of American adults now say police funding in their area should be increased.

Meanwhile, in southern California, a former Los Angeles sheriff warned that police numbers are dwindling, and departments are struggling to attract people to the job.

Speaking to Fox News, former LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said: ‘You have a terrible political climate where in the summer of 2020 every politician jumped over themselves to denounce law enforcement.’ creating a very hostile work environment (and) nobody wants a job anymore.

“The political establishment in LA decided starting in 2020, ‘Let’s destroy law enforcement.’ Let’s push them and reduce them because of the efforts to finance.’

Last month, the LAPD approved a four-year, $384 million contract for their police, a steep raise that includes retention bonuses, including $5,000 signing bonuses.