LEWES, Del. - Local organizations and members of the Delaware Department of Justice participated in a Town Hall to address hate crimes in Sussex County and across Delaware.
The Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice hosted a Town Hall at the Lewes Public Library at 6 p.m.
Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice Town Hall at the Lewes Public Library to address hate crimes.
The six person panel was made up of six panelists including the public information officer for the Millville Volunteer Fire Company, Gary Caunitis, Kurt Bacon, the president of the Sussex County Branch of the NAACP and the State Deputy Attorney General.
This event comes after two former volunteer firefighters at the Millville Volunteer Fire Company, Jay Droney and Jordan Hastings, were arrested and now face hate crime charges after they chased a paid employee with a rope tied as a noose.
Jay Droney and Jordan Hastings, two ex volunteer firefighters accused of chasing a Black employee with a noose at the Millville Volunteer Fire Department.
The focus of the event was on hate crimes and even more so, a message for victims of hate crimes.
"That hateful behavior has no place in Sussex County," said Joseph Lawson.
Joseph Lawson, the Executive Director of the Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice says he thinks the meeting showed some progress.
"I'm feeling like we came up with a couple of things that really need to happen. There needs to be a much closer relationship between the fire departments and the communities in Sussex County."
Mics traveled around the room as attendees asked their questions and shared their points of view.
Attendees asking questions at the Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice Town Hall at the Lewes Public Library.
Gary Caunitis, the public information officer for the Millville Volunteer Fire Company said after the event he was feeling "energized" and appreciated being able to hear first hand from the community.
Since the incident came to light in April, Caunitis says the fire company has stood firm on their promise of updating their policies.
"We took all of those individual things and we consolidated them into a new, revamped policy, that covers both members and volunteers and auxiliary, and it's one singular, cohesive policy that people can find, people can read," Caunitis shared.
"People have to actually now sign and attest to the fact that they've read them, and understand them. Moreover, we instituted the other policy as well that gives the board and the company the ability to have much faster response to things that require discipline," he continued.
Caunitis says one of the new policies give the board the permission to handle situations that require immediate discipline the green light to do so in a timely manner without having to go through other channels within their department.
Caunitis says that policy is only for extreme cases, such as hate crimes.
One of the points that were made is that victims of hate crimes experience a range of things after the incident, including trauma.
That is why Angelo Reynolds Sr., who provides trauma informed care was on the panel.
"There's not an underlying solution to it. That's why we come out, share resources and learn from each other so that we can get a better hold on it," Reynolds explained.
As the event came to a close, Lawson made it clear that the conversation about racism, hate crimes and victims does not stop here.
"We created a dialogue and dialog can create progress. We can build on this discussion to actually have progress and we will," said Lawson.
Jay Droney is expected in court at the Sussex County Courthouse on Thursday, May 22 at 9 a.m.
Hastings was due in court on Thursday, May 1 at the Sussex County Courthouse but did not show since he waived up to Superior Court.