LAGRANGE-Louis Decmar wants to “interrupt the past” to reconcile and restore relations between law enforcement and the African-American community.

“The police Department has been involved in lynching, either through inaction or by order,” he said, speaking in a conference room at the police Department. Dekmar, who is 64, wears a police chief uniform with black and gray hair cut short.

Dekmar’s apology won him much praise. But he attributed the event at Warren Temple United Methodist Church to the community’s efforts. He said the local NAACP and a bi-racial group, Troup Together, have brought people together for city leaders to recognize decades-old injustices.

The society of St. Thomas More, an organization of Catholics working in the legal profession and the judiciary, honored Dekmar with its St. Francis of Assisi award on October 10.

Others recognized by the organization at its annual red mass were Georgia Supreme court Justice Robert Benham with the St. Thomas more award for encouraging and enhancing professionalism among Georgia attorneys and attorney Susan Jamieson, founder and former Director of the disability integration project for disability advocacy in institutions.

Delmar appealed to the community of LaGrange in the service of reconciliation in 2017. He spoke of his Department’s lack of protection, which led to the lynching of Austin Callaway. The historic United Methodist Church of Warren Vistula held the funeral of Callaway, and it was a place full of apology Declare.

A marker sits on the Church grounds memorializing Callaway and three other men who were killed in the area: Willis Hodnett, Samuel Owensby, and Henry Gilbert. More than 4,000 racial lynchings were carried out in the United States between the civil war and world war II, according to the equal justice Initiative.

LaGrange is 49 percent African-American, the largest racial group, in a city of about 30,000 people, according to census data.

Callaway, a young African-American, was arrested on charges of “assaulting a white woman” and was awaiting trial in prison, said Dekmar, who is white. However, the veteran police officer said the charges were vague given the Jim crow era.

“This young man was arrested for assaulting a white woman, which in 1940, could be anything from a physical assault to failing to prevent your eyes as he passed by,” he said.

“What should have been the safest place in the world, they were able to kidnap this young man,” Dekmar said. “There was no indication or record that showed there was any search for him, that there was any investigation.”

Dekmar, whose father worked in an ammunition factory in new Jersey, moved to Oregon when his parents divorced. His path to police work began as a scout associated with the local Sheriff’s office. He remembers how he conducted the search and rescue operation on search of tourists, lost in the Cascade mountains.

In part, he attributes the rescue experience to his career in law enforcement. He learned more about police work with the air force serving in the United Kingdom. He’s been with the police for over 40 years. He most recently served as President of the International Association of chiefs of police. He and his wife Carmen, who works at a local hospital, have two adult children.

Dekmar said he relied on his Catholic faith to guide him on his path to the African-American Church.

“We all have social obligations. When we see things that need to be worked on, need to be addressed or improved, you have a duty, for the good, to address those things that you know you can influence, or you can deal with those things, ” he said. Plus there’s always “Catholic guilt” to do more, he said.

He credits his maternal grandmother for her influence of faith. Leaving a widow after a mine accident killed her husband, she persevered as an immigrant from Hungary who learned the language to clean houses and a waitress while caring for a daughter with polio.

“They killed our people,” one of the women said.

Dekmar’s colleague told Him. He had been there at the time for 22 years and had never heard of the murder.

This sent him on a chase to find out about the murder with a few notes. No police arrest log for review. No custody records to study. There is no report on the prison to retreat. He found pieces in Newspapers with national coverage like the Washington post, Chicago Tribune, New York Times.

This is what Dekmar learned. Callaway was arrested on Saturday, September 7, 1940. His age is unknown, but is believed to be in his mid-Teens to early 20s. He was held in the basement jail cells of the city hall. The old cells are now storage spaces.

Five or six hooded men came and took him at gunpoint. Callaway was found hours later outside the city at a place called liberty hill road. He was shot five or six times. Callaway died at a local hospital some time after his arrival.

Seventy-seven years later, community leaders apologized to the African-American Church.

Dekmar said he has faced rebuff, from the white community with accusations of inciting the past and from the black community skeptical of his words as a window dressing.

The head expressed hope that these efforts will improve relations as cooperation leads to safer communities and better policing.

The community has formed a so-called trust Initiative.

“We are still able to do our job and hold people accountable in terms of their appearance in court, but not to further aggravate their lives,” he said of the changes contributed to the effort.

She focused on overhauling policies that Dekmar said had caused unnecessary complications for the poor. For example, a person will no longer be held in weekend custody for a minor offense. Instead, the police arrested, recorded, and then released the perpetrator. People’s jobs are not at risk now because they can’t afford bonds, he said. She reviewed the background checks of employers. The Department hired a case officer to help people released from prison.

Dekmar knows that blacks and whites have different experiences of policing. Whites tend to be more trusting, seeing the problems of the police officer as an individual within a fair system, he said.

But not in communities where police are seen as heavy-handed, he said.

“That’s not what they’re looking at in silot. This is a bad result on the bad results page in the bad results book in the bad results library. And so there is an accumulation of errors, ” he said.

Dekmar’s words cannot rewrite history. But the words and actions of the heart can shape future outcomes, he said.

“We can’t change history. But in addressing him, we interrupt the story. And we put an end to this story to show that, well, that was then; that’s now.”

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