Several minutes later he discovered a handgun tucked in the pocket behind the driver's seat. He unloaded the bullet lodged in its chamber and then placed it on top of the car next to the box of ammo he pulled from the glove compartment when he began his search. Within minutes, the history of the weapon was sent to the scene. It was connected to a larceny and a drive-by murder. What began as a suspicious vehicle stop and the presence of marijuana smoke unexpectedly shifted instantly. The heaviness of the dusk of the evening seemed to shift its weight to the shoulders of the four young men who were passengers of the vehicle. Now sitting handcuffed on the curb of the parking lot within a subdivision in Triangle, two of them slowly hung their heads on their knees.
I watched these two officers handle these young men as well as two female friends who arrived on scene with an incredible level of mature professionalism. They moved through their responsibilities with firm and careful authority that was remarkably quiet and gentle. More than anything, it was crystal clear that our officers uphold the charge of public safety from the careful attention of their heart more than the wielding of their badge. But the residents did not have the in sight of my vantage point and the benefit of the information that the officers knew. I certainly did not know that they could run the history of a weapon that fast and receive it while on patrol. I overheard a resident on the phone say, The police are out here harassing people,and I wanted to shake him and tell him to hang up the phone because he did not know what he was talking about. But of course I couldn't. As part of the ride-along program for the Citizen Police Academy, I was present to listen and learn, and could not cross that line. The resident's perception was not being framed by what was actually occurring before his eyes. Within the current national climate and media reporting of officer involved shootings of unarmed Black and Latino men, the coloring of his reality was not hard to discern. Though faulty, I understood. The impact however should
not stir negativity or offense towards law enforcement who are simply showing up to duty.
As I sat watching televised news reports from Ferguson, the pain in the eyes of Michael Brown's mother gripped my consciousness and would not let go. A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more. The piercing violation of human rights that I immediately recognized was the fact that they let his body lay out in the open for over four hours, without or intentionally disregarding any sensitivity of the trauma that inflicts on his family, the community and the whole world watching. Criminal or not, a human person should not be derived of the inherent right to dignity. This glaring lack of dignity for the dead is a marker that there was an absence of respect for that life. I traveled to Ferguson to document in images and interviews primarily accounts of mothers and women in Ferguson and St. Louis and their response within the evolution of events and how it has impacted the lives of their families. Once on the ground, the level of community activism was so incredibly heightened and intense, I began to document the work of local organizers as well as national organizations that came to support their efforts. In my research, I examined the social, economic, political, health and spiritual issues that shaped the context of events.
When I came home, I asked myself, How does this work translate to my community? I kept hearing people say, We are not Ferguson! Sounds affirmative but we cannot say it while overlooking the very evident socio-economic parallels that undoubtedly exist in the Black and Latino neighborhoods that sit in the far reaches of the Route 1 corridor in Triangle and Marumsco. I put my findings from Ferguson in a pamphlet that examined the parallels but also the distinctions with Prince William County, and then through the lens of human rights, created a framework of five best practices that impact these issues.
Conversations with the eastern district police commander about my documentary helped me further shape the pamphlet as I learned that the county implements all five practices, and led to his recommendation that I attend the Citizen Police Academy to augment my work and learn the operations of the department from the inside. The greatest insight I gained from the Academy is that the department’s zero tolerance policy on lying is directly responsible for the high moral character distinguishing our officers. My ride-along was an amazing experience seeing this embodied up close and personal. What remained consistent throughout that evening shift I accompanied Officer Jones was a genuine concern for others and a sensitivity of the impact of how they handled themselves and others.And though guided by the best training and the highest standards of officer conduct in our region and quite possibly the country, the police force is still challenged with gaining traction in establishing strong
community relations in certain neighborhoods. I determined for myself that it was within those areas I needed to bring my work to bear to help build community trust and reinforce the community outreach efforts of the department.
The district commander granted me permission to schedule a series of ride-alongs over the summer to document local police-community relations, which fostered a special space to create a unique dimension to my project by lifting the model of law enforcement upheld by our officers. One need not always condemn the dirty glass, for the placement of a clean glass next to it will speak for itself. The images of The Fire Shut Up in Our Bones documentary have taken on greater meaning in the expanded scope. This exhibit has been curated to juxtapose the initial photographs from Ferguson with the outcomes that were propelled from that work, and are displayed with a coinciding Respect For Life poster, Best Practice of Healthy Police-Community Relations and an excerpt from My Ride-Along Diaries.
Bridges are higher. They stretch across divides that can be long and arduous to cross, if not outright impossible without endangering our lives. Though it may be unsettling and discomforting to open our eyes to the realities of life that surrounds us, we cannot be afraid to look, to focus, to speak, to engage around these issues, for that would be the truest demonstration of marginalization of the most vulnerable. I look upon the best practices that our officers try to implement and I see the arc of humanity that they uphold in their mandate to ensure public safety,but the community –citizens — through our civic organizations, residential associations, educational institutions, houses of worship and businesses must recognize our role in stretching forth a connecting arc in this bridge of police-community relations. We bear an equal mandate to invest ourselves in the public safety of our communities. Bridges are higher on purpose.
This work seeks to raise an awareness that will inform our conversations and ground our actions around public safety on the local level. We each have a role to play in our circumference of life and fields of activity, but this work will call you to stretch into new spaces until we each connect in the arc of our common humanity.