
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 2, 1990                   TAG: 9007020100
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Short

POLICE CHAPLAINS EASE RACIAL TENSIONS AT VIRGINIA BEACH

A fight between a black man and a white man here had turned into a racial argument between the white man's girlfriend and three black bystanders when a man in a chaplain's uniform stepped in.

The chaplain, D.R. Staton, grasped the hand of one of the black youths in a gesture of friendship. He looked him straight in the eye, talking and listening, hoping to respond to the youth's anger with understanding.

Staton was the leader of a team of local ministers who began a mission of peace along the resort Friday night. They strolled the strip looking for trouble, their white T-shirts proclaiming their role: POLICE CHAPLAIN.

The ministers were brought in to help police respond to a series of late-night racial attacks along the oceanfront in the last two months.

Rev. Larry Edwards, a chaplain from Daytona Beach, Fla., flew in last week to train ministers and police to work together to defuse arguments before they become fistfights.

Edwards has helped establish similar systems in Daytona Beach and other Florida cities. He said that in Daytona Beach, which is roughly one-third black, the partnership between police and mostly black clergy has soothed relations between officers and some blacks who mistrust law enforcement.

Black and white ministers from Virginia Beach declared their first patrol a success.

by CNB