The Police continue to con churches and communities groups that they promote safety: Faith & Blue 2025 in West Michigan

Last year I wrote about the national event called Faith & Blue, where cops and churches partner on event. In my article from last year I wrote:

The Faith and Blue mission, “was launched to facilitate safer, stronger, more just and unified communities by directly enabling local partnerships among law enforcement professionals, residents, businesses and community groups through the connections of local faith-based organizations.” The partners involved in the Faith and Blue campaign are a few Christian groups, but mostly state, regional and national law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security.

We should see the Faith and Blue campaign simply as a desperate attempt by cops to win over public support and as an opportunity for some clergy to cash in on the funding that is being offered by such programs. 

Last year there were several events in Grand Rapids, but this year there are at least 4 separate events across Kent County, which you can find at https://faithandblue.org/events/. 

• Faith and Blue Basic Food Needs Drive in Grandville, hosted by the Grandville Police Department on October 11. 
• Grand Rapids Police Department, West Grand Neighborhood Organization & Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church are hosting a community crime awareness and prevention fair on October 11th at Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church. 
• Blessing of the Badge event hosted by the Lowell Police Department. The event description says: During our morning service we will have a special time of prayer for law enforcement members. Following the service we will have refreshments and a time of informal interaction between law enforcement members and church community. The event takes place at Alton Bible Church.
• Pumpkins with Police is an event with the Kent County Sheriff’s Department, Graff Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram & Algoma Baptist Church in Roickford, MI. The event description says: JOIN US FOR A FREE FALL CELEBRATION WITH PUMPKIN DECORATING, TRUNK OR TREATING, CIDER & DONUTS, PHOTOBOOTH, COLORING CONTEST, AND MORE! EXPLORE A POLICE ARMORED VEHICLE, MEET A K9, AND TALK TO DEPUTIES. DRESS UP IN YOUR HALLOWEEN COSTUME AND BRING SOMETHING TO COLLECT CANDY IN!

The enforcers of state violence, the cops, have been scrambling for years, especially after the creation of the Movement for Black Lives, to present themselves as a social benefit. 

The world is truly a strange and contradictory place, where you have pastors collaborating with cops with the intent of promoting community safety. The clear contradiction is in the clergy’s failure to understand the history of policing (See Kristian Williams’ book – Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America), along with the fact that cops have been disproportionately killing Black people at a very high rate.(See https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/) 

If your church works with cops you should organize fellow members to put a stop to this sort of hypocrisy, or you could simply end your membership and while existing make a big stink about collaborating with state violence workers.