-Police Officer and Pastor LaDarian Brown
The theme of the recent prayer rally is found in Micah 6:8, which reads, “He has shown you, oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Though Minneapolis is distant from Longview, The Longview Clergy Coalition, the Longview Area Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, the Longview Baptist Ministers’ Union, sundry and numerous concerned East Texans congregated at and around the Gregg County Courthouse to “pray together for justice” after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Houstonian George Floyd’s neck until Floyd suffocated.
Coates is one of many who cannot understand why the other police officers and bystanders failed to pull Chauvin off Floyd, who was clearly heard saying he could not breathe.
As a matter of fact, First Lutheran Church Pastor and president of the Clergy Coalition Jeff Borgwardt saw the courthouse gathering as a positive response to Floyd’s killing.
Borgwardt also pointed out how Longview Police Chief Mike Bishop and Gregg County Sheriff Maxey Cerliano were present, indicating local law enforcement agencies’ support for this community function, and observed how the community support both Bishop and Cerliano.
