Fort Myers pastor calls on non-minorities, law enforcement to help solve racism

A Fort Myers pastor is trying to help make sense of what’s going on around the country with protests and why some of them have turned violent.

Pastor William Glover’s cry for justice during his Sunday service at Mount Hermon Ministries came straight from his heart and was rooted in his own experiences and those of his congregation.

“If you want to know what God requires of America during this time, God requires justice. Justice in its systems! Justice in its law enforcement systems!” he declared.

“What happened with George Floyd was greater than a white man putting his knee on the neck of a black man. That represented systemic racism that exists in law enforcement agencies.”

Glover supports peaceful protests, like the ones held recently in downtown Fort Myers, but he calls looting and violence in other cities “counterproductive.”

“I can’t tell them not to be angry. I can’t tell them not to be enraged. We have to direct it to where it’s not being destructive, but that it’s being constructive,” the pastor said.

“We can’t change the hearts of people necessarily, but we can change the rules and the laws so that there’s some constraint in their heart when they seek to do harm or behave in unjust ways.”

To make that happen, he hopes people of all races will join the effort.

“The minority population don’t have the power to change it by themselves.”

Glover wanted to emphasize his message about racism in law enforcement isn’t an indictment of all police officers, sheriff’s deputies and state troopers. Instead, he’s calling on men and women in uniform to be part of the solution to help rid their agencies of racism in all forms.