Surviving Encounters with the Police: I Can’t and You Can’t Fix a Dead Son or Nephew.

Surviving Encounters with the police: I can’t and you can’t fix a dead son or nephew.

I have received a lot of feedback about not only the book, but the content of my blogs. I have decided to post a few of the questions asked and the answers given. I think it is important to highlight that the motivation and purpose of the book was and is to save lives.

I am aware that there are different perspectives and positions. I do want to be clear. It is not my goal to get you to think what I think. I am just encouraging you to think.

I have an 11 year-old son, two nineteen-year-olds, an eight-year-old and a tenyear-old nephew, who are old enough to be killed by the police.  I also have a daughter and three nieces who are old enough to be killed by the police. My perspectives and motivations are rooted in wanting to see them as well as your sons, daughters, nephews, nieces and loved ones live long and productive life. I want to see them reach their full potential.

• It is my interest to have my and your loved ones armed with tools that will greatly decrease the likelihood of them being injured or hurt during some police stop.
• The goal is to get them home alive. We can deal with what went wrong before, after and during the stop once they get home alive.
• No matter what happens during the stop we, the family, can fix my son, nieces or nephews when they get home when he/she gets home. But I can’t fix a dead loved one.

Now on to one of the questions sent.

Please tell us what you think about the need to even write a book about surviving encounters with the police? And why you felt the need to dedicate two chapters fully to black males

It was distressing and difficult to have to write such a book. It is even more upsetting when I consider that our American history shows that millions have been beaten, lynched and have even died fighting for many of the basic rights that I speak about in the book. However, the new and available data is showing that they’re killing young black males at alarming rates.

In many hearts, we had always prayed and hope that the many stories and media accounts of sudden black youth deaths at the hands of police officers were rare or even overblown. But for the first time in history we have new, reliable and verifiable data that shows we have an American crisis:  black males are being killed at a disproportionate rate and other Americans are being killed at higher rates than ever imagined.

Yes, we must be unrelenting and undaunted while fighting for basic human rights.  The fight should never stop. We have to define fighting and when to fight which is outside the scope of this question. But being innocently killed by the police does not fall under my definition of fighting.

My book does not clash or distract from the goal of basic inalienable rights. Combined with the great efforts of black activist, social activist and books like “Sermon to White America” by Dr. Michael Dyson there has been a unique space created that does not distract from the social, political, moral or legal goals of any organization. In fact, it supports them – the goal is to immediately start saving lives.