by Nick Castele
Johnny Holloway and Robert Roberson meet regularly with other students at Outhwaite Homes in Cleveland to take part in Teens Achieving Greatness, a leadership program for young people who live in Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority apartments.
Robert is in the 11th grade, and Johnny is in the 10th. We sat down recently to talk about police.
鈥淚 think community policing, it should be like the police interacting with the community more often, instead of using deadly force all the time,鈥� Johnny says. 鈥淭hey can take the necessary approach before using deadly force or even鈥攍ike, using their strength that they don鈥檛 need to use, and they can put it toward something else that can better build a relationship between the police and the community.鈥�
He says Cleveland isn鈥檛 close to that yet.
Robert says police can see young people playing around and misinterpret the situation.
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 just be doing stuff,鈥� Robert says. 鈥淏ecause the police can take anything wrong, make a big situation, make a big thing out of nothing, make it seem like you did a whole bunch of bad stuff, but it wasn鈥檛 no big deal鈥ay you鈥檙e playing with your friends, and they thing you鈥檙e fighting and just come slam you or something like that. Police do something like that.鈥� He adds, 鈥淚 got slammed by them before. They鈥檒l take anything, especially when it鈥檚 close to nighttime, they鈥檒l take anything the wrong way.鈥�
He says when he hears about cases like the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by police, he thinks, that could happen to him.
And despite the police reform agreement Cleveland signed with the Justice Department, Johnny says he thinks police will still do what they鈥檝e always done.
鈥淭he Justice Department is not really doing nothing in Cleveland to change what鈥檚 going on with it,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e just saying it so we can feel safer that the police are out, but in actuality we鈥檙e scared that if we call the police, either they鈥檙e not going to come, or they鈥檙e going to get the wrong person鈥nd you just think, when you see the police, to either stay away from them or try to be as respectful as you can, so nothing bad happens to you.鈥�
Johnny also says when people hear about encounters with police, they may not always hear the full story from the officer鈥檚 perspective.
If police have a bad reputation in the community, Robert says it鈥檚 because force can affect many people.
鈥淲hen you slam somebody for no reason or kill somebody for no reason, yeah people are going to hate you, because you鈥檙e killing somebody that could have been them,鈥� he says.
But Robert says police do have a role to play in Cleveland.
鈥淭hey need to protect more little kids, because more little kids really get shot,鈥� he says. 鈥淟ittle kids shouldn鈥檛 be getting shot鈥nd they ain鈥檛 doing nothing about it.鈥�
But interactions with police don鈥檛 define the lives of these two students. Robert says he likes doing projects in science class鈥攖he other day, he learned about DNA. Like a lot of high schoolers, he鈥檚 not sure exactly what he wants to do later in life. But he does want to have ownership of something.
鈥淚鈥檓 going to go to college for like marketing or business. I want to own something,鈥� Robert says. 鈥淟ike a company or鈥擨 don鈥檛 know, but it鈥檚 going to be something that I can call mine, though...I feel that I should own something. I don鈥檛 know, I feel that, why do other people got the right to own something or tell somebody else what to do? I want to be a boss and to make my own money.鈥�
When Johnny graduates from college, he says, he wants to give back to Cleveland.
鈥淚 always wanted to become a paramedic, or I was thinking if not becoming a paramedic becoming an emergency room doctor,鈥� he says. 鈥淚鈥檒l be watching TV shows, and the adrenaline, you got to to think at that time what you need to be doing, and how you need to do it, so you can save that person鈥檚 life.鈥�
He says he wants to succeed so, in his words, 鈥渢hey can stop building prisons for us.鈥�
鈥淚nstead of building other prisons somewhere, we can build a school and let people who don鈥檛 have a lot of money come to that school and study to become a doctor or something that they want to do,鈥� he says, 鈥渋nstead of them thinking that African Americans are just bad people, because we鈥檙e not.鈥�
