I was scanning my CNN report while waiting for lunch today and I read the news that another black boy had been shot by police.

This story hit me like a ton of bricks when I remembered an incident with my youngest son.

The boy who died was twelve years old.

My son was 12 years old when he was picked up by the police.

This boy was playing with a gun.

My son had a birthday party and some of his friends stayed overnight.
I didn’t know that my son and one of his friends had slipped out into the dark of night carrying air soft guns. These guns looked like pistols in the dark.

Someone called the police on the boy who was in Cleveland.

A neighbor called the police when they saw my son and his friend lurking around the houses with what appeared to be guns.

The sweet black boy in Cleveland did not threaten the police with his gun.

My son didn’t either. The police officer picked him and his friend up and took them back to my house.

I was furious with my son for being so stupid and I immediately threw those guns in the trash, stating emphatically that he would never get another one.

The parents of the black boy in Cleveland did not get the chance to discipline their boy. His life was taken by the police officers.

My son started college this semester.

Those parents will never see their son enter college.

I felt immense grief for the Cleveland family when I realized that what happened to the child in Cleveland could have happened to my son just as easily.

The only difference was the cop.

I am thankful to God for the self control the police officer had when he picked up my son. After I gave my son a tongue lashing he said. “I think you got this handled Ma’am,” and did not give him a citation.

I don’t remember this cops name. I do remember one thing though.

He was a black cop.

So if a black cop can respect a white kid. How come a white cop can’t respect a black kid or man?

Police brutality has got to STOP!

This post was originally published on November 23,2020.