The Orange County Human Rights and Relations Commission is sponsoring a Community Conversation on March 21: Unraveling the #DefundThePolice debate. Presenters from the NAACP, the Orange County Sheriff's Office and El Centro will discuss the issue and what it means to the community.
"The goal of the event is to try to find common ground for the meaning and understanding of #DefundthePolice," said Annette Moore, Orange County Human Rights and Relations Director. "Since the term has a different meaning for people, we want to hear what Orange County residents' understand the term to mean and how their defined meaning of the term would look in Orange County."
Moore says she hopes the event will result in a “community understanding” of the term and an action plan of next steps. The information will be given to the Board of County Commissioners.
The session will begin with a panel of community leaders discussing the issue. After that, participants will break off into Zoom breakout rooms for small group discussion prompted by a series of questions.
Registration is free. Visit www.orangecountync.gov/communityconversation to sign up.
Panelists include:
- De’Ivyion Drew, Community Activist
- Major Kevin Jones, Orange County Sheriff’s Office
- Eliazar Posada, Interim Director of El Centro Hispano
- Anna Richards, Third Vice President, Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP
- Latarndra Strong, President, Northern Orange NAACP
- James E. Williams, Jr., Chair of NC CRED, former Public Defender of Orange and Chatham Counties