Atlantic City police hold community walk to unite law enforcement, religion

Press of Atlantic City

By John O’Connor

ATLANTIC CITY — Police Lt. Will Santiago believes the annual Faith & Blue Walk is crucial to building a relationship between law enforcement, religious organizations and the general public.

“This is a phenomenal event for us because we share the city,” Santiago said. “Police officers need the community and the faith-based groups, but it also shows them we’re in this together. During traumatizing times, we all look for someone to speak to, and this brings us all together. Some people know what we do, while others don’t. When we bring the public, faith-based and police together, we can work on differences to move forward.”

Members from faith-based organizations, along with representatives from the city’s Police Department, the Pleasantville Police Department, the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office and the city’s Police Explorers program gathered Monday at Kennedy Plaza on the Boardwalk for the third annual walk.

Police Chief James Sarkos, Assemblyman and former Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian, R-Atlantic, and members of the Police Department’s chaplain program led the group on the half-mile walk from the Boardwalk to the city’s Public Safety Building on Atlantic Avenue.

A portion of Atlantic and Pacific avenues was blocked off after participants turned down Iowa Avenue to allow the procession to continue without interruption.

Following the walk, attendees heard remarks from a few speakers before several religious leaders led the audience in prayer.

“I’m glad we were able to do this again this year,” Sarkos said. “The Faith & Blue community walk is something we want to expand each year. It gets all of our different religious groups together, and I think that is the best part about Atlantic City. It’s a true melting pot with so many cultures and religions working together in harmony. Today was all about showing that we’re united and we’re more in common than we believe. Everyone here is working toward the same common goal for the betterment of our society.”

Local community members were searching for answers and showing support for Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr., his wife and the city’s high school principal Tuesday evening in the wake of last month’s police activity.

Faith & Blue, an initiative created by MovementForward Inc., strives to unify communities by strengthening police-public relations. Founded in 2020, the movement, which wrapped up its celebratory weekend Monday, held more than 1,000 events across the country, according to its website.

Santiago, who helped organize the Atlantic City event, said it shows off how diverse the community is.

“We have multiple groups,” Santiago said. “We have Muslims, we have Buddhists, we have Christians and more. We want people to heal, love and get to know each other.”

The Rev. Eric McCoy, who is a chaplain for the Police Department, credited the youth who turned out for the event, as he believes children aren’t respecting adults the way they should, which in turn means they don’t respect police.

“When you lose respect for the authority of God, you lose authority of yourself, so you don’t respect the patch,” McCoy said. “I’m in the school system, and I’ve never seen kids disrespect adults the way they do today. Faith & Blue should complement each other so people will see that authority does reign. First respect authority of God, then respect the authority of yourself and then respect police. Every one of these officers want to help you.”

Charles White, 62, of Atlantic City, attended the event for the third year in a row because he enjoys catching up with law enforcement.

“I stand by the men and women in uniform, so I always love coming out to support them in any way that I can,” White said.