Glen Cove’s spiritual leaders address killing of George Floyd 

When the death of 46-year-old George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police Department officers was captured on video, a movement to address police brutality and racial inequality was sparked across the nation. 

Among the communities across the country that were outraged and wanted to address issues relating to race relations and law enforcement is Glen Cove. The city’s spiritual leaders, in an effort to prevent what happened in Minneapolis from happening at home, said they are looking to have open and honest conversations with community leaders and residents. 

“I think that while the relationship between communities of color and the [Glen Cove Police Department] are good, that many people in the community of color would like for . . . an apparatus to be more attentive to some of the things that are there that may not be paid attention to,” said Rev. Roger Williams, a pastor at First Baptist Church of Glen Cove, a historically African American church. 

Williams said that he wants members of the Glen Cove community to ask themselves some tough questions. “Be objective with oneself and be willing to learn outside oneself about what it means to be racist,” he said. “And then ask the tough question: Do I tend to have impulses and instincts that are not checked that might be racist that I may not be aware of? Am I blatantly racist? Do I decide that is just the way I want to be?”

Bias is alive among some residents, he said.

At the Black Lives Matter Rally & Walk in Glen Cove on Sunday, Rev. A.H. Sparkman, the pastor of Calvary African Methodist Episcopal Church in Glen Cove, said that he is hoping for change. 

“I am interested in promoting a public discourse that promotes change in departmental cultures that protect officers engaged with illegal behaviors,” Sparkman said. “I am interested in promoting public discourse that sets new standards of monitoring the mental health of anyone given the authority to be a police officer. I am interested in promoting a public discourse that acknowledges the reality that racism affects how police work is done in various communities.” 

He added that while he is someone that respects the work done by law enforcement, what he saw on the video that captured the death of Floyd by Minneapolis police “was not only unfortunate, but outrageous.” 

Rabbi Irwin Huberman of Congregation Tifereth Israel in Glen Cove said that members of the Jewish community, including himself, were also horrified by the video.

“A lot of the times when it doesn’t happen to us, we don’t act strongly and quickly enough,” Huberman said. “It appears in this typical case that this has been a watershed moment for all of us across the United States.”

After the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in 2018 that resulted in 11 deaths, members of the local African American community were there to support congregants of Congregation Tifereth Israel, Huberman said. And “whenever there has been an attack against the African American community, the Jewish community has been appalled and has rallied to the aid and the support of the African American community.”

Huberman, Williams and members of the extended clergy are working together with the leaders of the community to reinforce that they are outraged by the events in Minneapolis. “We need to ensure that such events that are not prevalent in Glen Cove, never find an opening to rear its head in our community,” Huberman said. 

Members within the community, Williams said, have a moral obligation to confront any existing bias within themselves. And, with conversations between himself, Glen Cove Mayor Tim Tenke, Glen Cove Police Department Chief William Whitton and Deputy Chief Chris Ortiz, any existing biases within local law enforcement and the community can be addressed. 

“What helps us out here in Glen Cove is that we are willing to have a conversation, to the credit of the chief, to the credit of the deputy chief and to the credit of the mayor and myself,” Williams said.