Nearly 500 members of 21 different churches and non-profit organizations gathered at St. Thomas More Catholic Church for the Orange County Justice United public assembly Thursday evening.
Justice United is an organization that fights for social justice within Orange County, Chapel Hill and the Chatham County areas. On Thursday evening, the groups met to address affordable housing and unlicensed drivers in the area.
Reverend Richard Edens of the United Church of Chapel Hill began the assembly with a prayer.
"The power of corrected lament can be transformative," he said. "Transforming tears into hope, survivors into citizens, the childless into mothers and fathers, the orphans into brothers and sisters and raising those who are economically, constitutionally, legally dead into the newness of life.”
In Orange and Chatham counties, approximately 7,541 total drivers were charged for no operator’s license during the past seven years, with about 77 percent of those charges being against Latino drivers.
Kathy Kaufman, the social action chairperson of the Kehilah Synagogue, and Deacon Luis Royo of St. Thomas More Catholic Church explained the need for strengthening the community’s relationship with law enforcement because of the concern of prejudice against Latino drivers at checkpoints.
“We heard many, many stories from Latino drivers in Orange and Chatham, about being stopped by law enforcement under the suspicion that they were an unlicensed driver even when they had not committed a driving infraction,” Kaufman said.
Reverend Patty Hanneman of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Hillsborough echoed Kaufman's sentiment.
