St. John’s AME Church Celebrates Third Annual Law Day

Law Day is a chance for law enforcement to be honored and thanked for the services they provide to the community. St. John’s AME Church celebrated the day a little early with a service dedicated specifically to law.

The theme for the third annual event was “Miranda More than Words,” referring to the Miranda Rights. The Miranda Rights are basic rights that every person arrested has, including the right to an attorney and the right to remain silent and not implicate their own guilt. St. John’s hopes their service provided faces to go with the Miranda Rights, faces these officers and lawyers can remember when on the streets.

The guest speaker at the event was Montgomery County Probate Judge Steven Reed, who admits he was not St. John’s first choice for a program headliner.

“My first thought was, ‘Who else did you call before you got to me?!'” Reed laughs. Reed filled in for Glenda Hatchett, former star of the television show Judge Hatchett. Hatchett had a death in the family and was unable to attend the Law Day event. Even though Judge Reed was not excited to have the attention on him, he was happy to share his ideas about Law Day to the congregation.

“Hopefully I got a message across, both to the people who are here as well as those throughout the community on what we can do to make law work for all of us,” he says. “Make our justice system work for everybody. Not just the rich, not just people of a certain background, but everyday.”

Pastor James Arnell thought Law Day went well, and had a wonderful crowd full of both his normal church members as well as lawyers, judges, sheriff’s deputies and police officers. Even with the day’s success, he knows knows solidifying the bridge between the law and the public will take some time.

“It’s an ongoing process and each year it gets higher and higher,” Arnell says. “Not only did we celebrate, but he challenged us. And that’s the important thing, of what all of us can do, as a community.”

Reed’s message asked the entire community, in the law field and otherwise, to band together to fight crime where it begins: in schools, homes and on the streets. He hopes that by encouraging others to talk to their children about breaking the law, and holding them accountable for doing so, the cycle of crime can be stopped.

“Law day has to be every day,” Reed says. “So we have to make sure that we are educating the people and talking about the law, in a way that’s constructive, in a way that is understandable to people. So that they better understand what their rights are. For Miranda, as well as what some of the challenges may be.”