VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION

Speaker 1:
So we have pockets in each one of our districts, but you know, the busiest and the most crime is on the East side.

Speaker 2:
And then every Sunday after church, we used to come to Dairy Queen right here and get a sundae.

Speaker 1:
To be policing the community or serving the community that you grew up in, those kids are the kids that I think we want to be patrolling our neighborhoods, because there’s some ownership and there’s some understanding of that community.

Speaker 2:
I think you got to understand what people are coming from and how you can help them best, because it’s not easy growing up over here. And a lot of people don’t understand that. I would say without Pastor Jay and Shepherd, I probably wouldn’t be where I’m at on the police department.

Speaker 1:
If you grew up in an area and you know the schools and you know the people, you’re just engaged more and that empathy just becomes natural, right? Because this is my home.

Speaker 2:
And this is my old high school. How high school. There were some difficult times, but I mean, there’s definitely fights in the hallways every day, and you have to try to stay focused to learn.

Speaker 1:
The quality of empathy, it’s the only thing that’s going to allow us to have a better relationship with the community that we serve.

Speaker 2:
Over 75% of kids I grew up with, their parents didn’t finish high school. Most of their parents had them when they were in their teens and my mom, she was a teenager when she had me. I’m the first kid in my family to ever go to college and finish it.

Speaker 1:
Having that understanding of how other people have lived is very valuable when you interact with people.

Speaker 2:
I think growing up in inner city, you just understand kids. I try to get them to understand this isn’t life, you can go beyond this, if you put effort in. It’s not easy when you don’t have parents around and all that, but you just have to find a foundation like Shepherd.

Speaker 1:
I think Shepherd community center is providing for, if nothing else, hope. So many of our communities and especially our youth, don’t seem like they have, it’s that hope of something better, and if I do this, this and this, I can get there.

Speaker 2:
Anytime I run into someone with a bad situation, that’s my first thing I tell them is, “Go to shepherd community. Whatever you have problems with, they can help you.”.

Speaker 1:
I would much rather give the community that’s having trouble with violence, get their arms around that somehow in a way where those lives are much better off, rather than going through the criminal justice system.

Speaker 2:
There’s difficult days out here for us and for the people that live over here, but it’s that hope that tomorrow is better. So I try to be that good role model that Shepherd was to me.