Leaders in Paulding County held a town hall Wednesday evening to address racial tensions and policing tactics.
The town hall at Oasis Church in Dallas featured a panel with the Dallas police chief, Paulding County sheriff, Dallas mayor, Paulding County's commission chairman, state Rep. Kimberly Alexander and two pastors from the area.
The event was originally scheduled to end at 8:45 p.m. but was extended by an hour as members of the audience asked questions of the panelists. Some offered solutions to the racial tension, such as more police presence in the community and turning to the church.
Rep. Alexander asked those in attendance to provide suggestions for legislation to address racially biased policing. Sheriff Gary Gulledge explained his open-door policy and emphasized the importance of reporting incidents with officers.
"There is no one answer," Oasis Church Pastor Anthony Murray said. "Tonight's not going to fix this. But what it can do is alleviate that pressure."
Michael Scott, a member of the Paulding County Board of Elections, asked the sheriff directly about social media posts made on the Paulding County Sheriff's Facebook page regarding the rumored Black Lives Matter protest Tuesday afternoon that never happened.
Scott pointed out a specific line in a post that asked residents who “support law enforcement [to] please stay home and don’t instigate any problems with [Black Lives Matter] protesters.”
The posts made by the sheriff’s office were greeted by nearly 4,000 comments and shared more than 3,000 times.
“The racial inflammatory comments that followed your statement,” Scott said to Gulledge at the town hall. “I never knew this community had such disgusting, ugly and violent comments."
"If we could get an official apology, that would begin the healing process," he said.
Officer Ashley Henson, spokesman for the Paulding County Sheriff's Office, wrote the Facebook posts and replied to Scott's comments publicly during the town hall.
"I want to see how I can do my job better," Henson told the crowd. "But I wrote that and I take full responsibility."
Scott plans to meet with the Paulding County Sheriff's Office with other members of Black Lives Matter and people from the community to arrange for an official apology.
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