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Vice President and Delaware Chief Justice on MLK Day

library of congress

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - Vice President Joe Biden says minority communities around the country need to work to bridge the separation between police and the residents they serve.

Speaking Monday at a breakfast honoring slain civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., Biden said communities and police departments need to build relationships of trust.

"There's no reason on earth we cannot repair the breach that we've recently seen between law enforcement and minority communities," he said.

Biden did not mention a weekend incident in which several gunshots were fired from a vehicle speeding by the driveway of his Delaware home. Biden and his wife were not home at the time, and there were no reports of injuries.

Police continue to investigate the incident, which prompted the Secret Service to boost security at Biden's home.

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Reflections

Credit Don Rush
Chipman Cultural Center (Building of the first African American church in Salisbury)

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Delaware Chief Justice

Delaware’s Chief Justice said yesterday that the state could no incarcerate its way to public safety.

Credit courts.delaware.gov
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courts.delaware.gov
Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Leo Strine Jr.

During an address on the national holiday for Martin Luther King Junior Chief Justice Leo Strine said he was appalled at the violence that has hit Wilmington.

Strine told the state bar association that even though the African American community was around 22 percent of the state’s population 60 percent of those in prison were black.

Locking up so many people in overcrowded prisons, he added, has not made Wilmington any safer.

He also noted the high jobless and high school dropout rates for the African American community.

The Wilmington News Journal reports that the First State has around 57-hundred people in prison with around 23 percent held because they cannot post bail.

Delaware State University Observance

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Delaware State University logo

Yesterday afternoon many showed up at the Delaware State University campus for the annual observance of the national holiday for Martin Luther King Junior.

The celebration comes in the wake of the past year that has been dominated by the deaths of two African American men by police and the discussion of how far the nation with the issue of race.

14-year old Dudley Magee told the WBOC that she has experienced racism at her school adding, “It just hurts sometimes, because there’s nothing we can really do about it.”

Meanwhile, Anwar Dyer of Camden told the television station that the holiday was a moment to reenergize the nation through King’s ability to overcome in the era of civil rights.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.