By Conley Grayson, ABC 4 News
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Affordable housing and police accountability are some of the goals of the Charleston Area Justice Ministry.
Monday night, the group hosted the 11th Annual Nehemiah Action Assembly.
They hope to bring change by taking these concerns straight to public officials and giving them the opportunity to voice their support or opposition.
CAJM called on public officials to “do right, right now.”
“It will lead to a more equitable community. It will lead towards policies that give forth more justice,” said Rev. Dr. Byron Benton with Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church.
CAJM addressed the need for affordable housing.
They called on county council members to approve the Housing our Future plan.
Charleston County councilman Rob Wehrman showed his support and said “yes.”
“The need is enormous, and it’s time to start putting the plan into action,” Wehrman said. “It’s one of the higher priorities.”
CAJM also spoke about tackling racial discrimination by police.
“You know, I think that that took a long time to get both Charleston and North Charleston to agree to do those audits in the first place,” Rev. Dr. Adam Shoemaker with St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church said.
Monday night, they asked for implementation, and North Charleston Police Chief Reggie Burgess agreed.
“I wanted to see exactly what our weaknesses were and what our strengths are. I figured whatever we were weak on, we can improve on it. And wherever we were stronger, we could get better,” Burgess said.
While many of the topics addressed public officials who were not in attendance, they encouraged the community to make a change.
They asked citizens to attend council meetings, sign petitions and get out to vote when elections are happening.
