Has Anyone Else's life Been Affected by Police Brutality?
 

Over the past couple months, there have been many instances of police brutality and police killings being reported that have garnered national attention – Mike Brown, Andrew Scott Gaynier, Ezell Ford, Dillon Taylor, Dante Parker, Omar Abrego, Jacinto Zavala, Diana Showman, Michelle Cusseaux, Joshua Paul, Joseph Jennings, Guillermo Canas, Chris Lollie, Bryce Masters, and many, many others



I thought I should share my personal experience about how my life has been affected by Police Brutality:


While a senior at PSU, where he majored in accounting, my Dad was a victim of police brutality. He was driving home to KC for the weekend, when an 18 wheeler veered into his lane causing a wreck. The Police arrived, and saw that he was Black, so they beat him - breaking over a dozen bones and leaving him with permanent brain damage. Eventually my Dad received a settlement from the Police Department, but the money didn't erase what they did, and it surely didn't make up for all the lives that were affected in the process.

My mother was pregnant with me at the time this occurred, so I never even got a chance to develop a relationship with my Dad before the incident occurred. I remember telling my Dad I would be going to college in a small town, just like he did, and I remember him breaking down in tears begging me not to... swearing that if I went to college in a small town, someone would kill me before I made it to graduation, just like they tried to do to him. I kept that thought in the back of my mind, every day for the entire fours years that I attended Lincoln University, and especially during my junior and senior years when I commuted twice per week between Lincoln University in Jefferson City, MO and Kansas City, Missouri where I worked as a Supervisor at H&R Block.

I was fortunate that despite his injuries, my father lived to see my 30th birthday. That was long enough for him to see me graduate with my bachelor's degree in business, see the birth of both of his grandsons (my sons), and later saw me graduate with my master's degree in business. My father died at 52 years old, and while it was initially thought that his death was suspicious, it was later confirmed that his death was due to the brain damage caused by a stroke.

On the day my Dad died, I made this post on the planet - http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?p=5845168 - and I am still grateful for all the support that I received during that time.


If you have any comments or experiences with police brutality, please share them below


P.S. For those that are interested, you can follow along as I make updates about this topic on my blog - http://www.asknigeljohnson.com/stop-police-brutality/

My life has. If the cops would have used a little police brutality, my fugged neighborhood in south KC would have been a little safer but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Black guys beat up the white guys all the time.

Yes. Am white.

EDIT: I recount 4 times.

Did you ever consider that maybe the reason you all were getting your asses kicked was because you were a bunch of ****ing pussies, and not because you were white?

the closest thing that ever happened was when I was about 16-17 I was in a car with 3 others and we get pulled over..

Mustve been a rookie cop because he pulled his gun and basically freaked out when he saw a baseball bat on the floor of the back seat area

Once he found out the driver was captain of the (very nearly state champion, locally famous kid) football team...and a couple of us were on the baseball team..he basically apologized and let us on our way...

Obviously not brutality by any stretch, but the dude (rookie cop) was crazy eyed and it scared me.

No. I'm polite and respectful to cops like I am to anyone else and I've never had a bit of trouble.

So was I. Mine came down to situation and/or bias. All were WTF moments.

We were out number big time you dick. It couldn't be helped.

very nearly state champion... LMAO

I've been handcuffed for no reason, profiled for the way I look, received a ticket by an officer then less than an hour later see him sitting in his police vehicle outside my residence. Those aren't all of the instances, just the ones that piss me off. Not what I would consider police brutality. But enough to make me look at them as not as what they say they are.

Talk to my lawyer, he abuses them

So you are just a dickface here then?


I kid

Wow, sorry about your father. That's awful.


Sounds like he would be very proud of you.

Not much, but one threatening situation I had that came out of the blue.

I was leaving my electronics labs in the evening and wanted to get something at best buy. For those familiar this took me from WashU to down Clayton to Hanley across the interstate into Richmond heights. These are pretty nice areas.

I made a turn on Hanley on a yellow. I know because I watched all the way through. Traveled about 2 miles to over the Interstate and then turned on my signal to turn into the Best Buy.

All of the sudden I get lit up.

Apparently a Clayton local had be stalking horse ever since Clayton Ave. I turn in and stop. Demeanor was combative from the start. Said I had run a red back there. I said I don't think I did, but if you determined to the contrary . . .

Now he's swinging his flashlight around the cabin, asked me probably 10-12 times if I was drunk, if I was high, if I had anything in the car, what was in my backpack, why so jumpy, what are you on, all the escalatory codewords.

At most, I was tired from 4 hours of lab work and calculations and startled to be stopped at all. Mind you this entire time I had been following along in fairly heavy traffic and never exceeded 35 MPH and stopped at 3 stoplights, again in the flow of traffic.

It took about 10 minutes, but finally he wrote out the red light summons and an equally bullshit double lane change for turning into Best Buy [at a spot where there were only two lanes].

So much depends on the demeanor and mood of an officer.