As a former Law Enforcement Officer, I have seen first-hand violations of citizens’ rights. In all my years on the job, I witnessed police brutality, the planting of evidence, racial profiling, targeting certain neighborhoods and people groups, as well as the abuse of power by superior leaders in command.
When law enforcement was first implemented in our nation, their objective was to enforce legislative laws that would protect the “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” of the citizens within our country. That’s how things were supposed to be.
The question many have been asking over the past few years is “When the very people whom ‘we the people’ gave power to protect our rights, becomes the violator of our rights, who do we turn to now?”
Over the past decade, Americans have been gripped by shocking videos of high-profile police brutality. Every video of an unjust shooting or unlawful tazing has moved many to march on the streets in organized protesting. The emotional overload of these events incited several quotes within me by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that summoned me to get involved with being one of the many solutions to justice and equality for all.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.”
“To be silent is to be an accomplice to evil.”
“There comes a time where silence is betrayal.”
These quotes moved me and left me with no choice but to act. With my knowledge and experience, it would be wrong for me not to do something to answer those questions and speak to these feelings.
That is why, based on the 8th and 14th Amendments, I started “J.A.E.F.A. 814. (Justice And Equality For All) I could no longer stand idly by and watch citizens be subject to the violation of their rights. Justice and equality must be for all. I want to do my part to make sure of it.