- I'm Brianna, this is my mother.
- Hi, I'm Roshunda.
(sighs)
- See now I'm getting emotional.
- Why are you getting emotional, mom?
Are you worried about me?
- I would hate for anything to happen to you.
There's a lot going on the world.
And there's a lot of bad police officers.
- I know.
- There's good police officers.
There's good police officers.
And my fear is that you run across one of those bad ones.
If you run across a police officer,
please do everything that you're supposed to do,
everything that he requests.
If he tells you to stop, stop.
If he tells you to be quiet, be quiet,
do everything that you can
to get back to me.
And also, remember though,
there's good cops out there too, Brianna.
So don't always assume that all of them are bad.
- But all you see on the news
and in newspapers and people saying that all of them are bad
but they're trying to protect us.
- Right, and they assume that you're bad,
they assume that you've just robbed a bank,
they assume that the worst of you
but don't always think that they're all bad.
They're not all bad.
Don't be scared to call them or get help from them.
- I'm not afraid to ask them for help.
- But if anybody, any officer comes up to you baby,
please put your hands up, just follow instructions.
I was driving to work
I had my hood on 'cause it was cold
and I was pulled over by a police officer.
- Oh, it was the black hood, right?
- I can't, I don't remember, it was a hoodie.
And he pulled me over and I was so scared.
And I asked him, I was so scared,
why did you pull me over?
I'm going the speed limit.
He asked me, why are you in this area?
Why are you in this neighborhood?
I'm a pastry chef, I start work early.
Okay, so he got my information
and he went to the back of his vehicle.
He sat in his vehicle for about like, five, 10 minutes.
I'm getting late to work,
I open my door, he started yelling at me.
"Get back in the car."
so I closed the door.
He looked, and saw I was clean,
I had no tickets, so I had nothing on me
but he still kept sitting in his car.
Finally he came in his car,
tossed me my stuff and told me to go to work and left.
And I remember sitting there, just, I was so scared.
I've been pulled over for no reason.
- You were innocent.
- I was innocent.
But again, baby, I stayed calm.
Don't get upset, don't get sassy,
why did you pull me over,
just follow instructions and stay calm.
- Okay.
- Why would a police officer assume
that you did something bad?
- Maybe because of my skin color.
- Is there anything wrong with your skin color?
- No, people make assumptions about people.
Some people are bad.
- Just because of their skin color?
- Maybe there are racist people out here,
out in the world.
- There is.
- Make assumptions about you that aren't even true.
- Yeah.
It's about teaching our children
again, what to do and what not to do
when a police officer stops you.
- I do.
She's coming at the age where she wants to go to the mall
and she wants to go to the movies with friends.
That scares me.
You're supposed to celebrate this time
in your child's life.
Sometimes I'm scared when she's not with me
because when she's with me, I can protect her.
Because of the world that we live in now,
there's some things
that you're supposed to be excited about,
I'm not excited about.
I'm scared.
- I didn't know that.
- If you're at the mall and you see a police officer,
hitting someone, they're handcuffed.
What would you do?
- Honestly, not to be mean or anything,
I would walk away.
- You would walk away?
- Mmhm, to make sure that I Was protected and safe
and they wouldn't handcuff me and put me on the ground
and beat me up.
- It is difficult to say not do anything
but I hear your point as well.
Just get out of the way and get home safe.
Ooh, that's a tough one.
Wow.
I was surprised by her response.
And there's a part of me, good job!
And then there's another part,
wow that person needs help though.
- I'm sorry, I'm looking on the bright side,
hoping that it will get better.
- And I love that, I've always loved that about you.
- I didn't realize it was gonna be hard for me,
but (snaps) I just realized how hard it would be.
- One day, it could get better one day.
But now, no.
The police aren't being policed.
So, no, they get off easy constantly.
Why is it so easy for them to get off?
- I don't understand why.
- Um,
I don't know.