Documentary Highlights Unlikely Alliance Between Cops, Ex-Cons

In the wake of law-enforcement-related controversies in Ferguson, New York City, and Hollywood, not everybody is protesting. Many in the community are working to build…

Discipleship & Evangelism · Published 12 years ago · 2 min read

In the wake of law-enforcement-related controversies in Ferguson, New York City, and Hollywood, not everybody is protesting. Many in the community are working to build bridges with the police. One such person is Aaron Schwartzbart. “In my 28 years as a rocket scientist, I honed my ability to make decisions off of data and not merely emotions.” said Schwartzbart. “The data indicate that for every one person killed by law enforcement under questionable circumstances, there are hundreds or thousands of people killed by gangs, drugs and drunk drivers. If we care about social injustice, we need to care about the people killed by gangs, drugs and drunk drivers. Questionable killings by law enforcement account for only a small fraction of a percent. According to the data, it is simply not true that law enforcement is the majority of the problem.”

Schwartzbart left the space program in 2013 to devote full time to his charity MOTORGOSPEL Ministries. MOTORGOSPEL Ministries partners with the Los Angeles Police Department, the National Auto Sport Association and Brewline Men’s Fellowship to encourage healthy alternatives for at-risk youth such as amateur motorsports. Schwartzbart is a 3-time-champion race car driver and an ordained minister.

For 2015, MOTORGOSPEL is pleased to announce the release of a 6.5 minute mini documentary on the MOTORGOSPEL Peace March. The peace march united about 60 hardened ex-cons with the Los Angeles Police Department as they walked shoulder-to-shoulder to call for peace in the Safer Cities Initiative zone of North Hills, CA. Featured in the mini documentary is Eddie Clark, a Vietnam Vet who 40 years ago had PTSD and hospitalized 3 cops. At the time, he was facing 500 years to life. Eddie is now out of prison and is united with the LAPD in calling for peace in the community.

This is good news for North Hills which has been plagued by gang violence and as recently as January 22, 2015 saw a gang-on-gang killing in a church parking lot.

Schwartzbart is quick to credit LAPD Captain Todd Chamberlain with making it very easy for MOTORGOSPEL to support the community, emphasizing that “Todd has earned a reputation for minimizing the politics and the bureaucracy.”

Together, they hope that the MOTORGOSPEL Peace March mini documentary will encourage others in the community to build bridges with law enforcement in addressing a host of issues such as gangs, drugs, drunk driving, illegal street racing and human trafficking.

(Source: Christian Newswire)