Sometimes here we see some unfortunate trends. One of these is a vocal minority of people who take every opportunity to denigrate police officers. This takes several forms: From name-calling ("pig" still seems a favorite), to factually inaccurate hyperbole ("All cops are killers!") to apparent satisfaction when a cop is killed. When one diarist was reminded of the murders of two police officers in Arkansas a few weeks ago, his response was, "I feel sorry for the families."
These people seem to fall into a few distinct camps. One group consists of people who honestly have been mistreated by the police. These folks have a legitimate concern, and my intent is not to second-guess their understandable generalization – though generalization it is. Another group is people who have simply bought into that old sixties-era "Cops are the man; fight the power!" cliché. Their hatred of cops is based on nothing other than anecdotal experience. The third group is people whose interactions with the police have been, quite frankly, self-imposed: People who have been legitimately arrested and jailed for breaking the law. Rather than learning, "Don’t do that," they blame the police instead of themselves.
For the record, there most certainly are bad cops. The recent news from New Orleans proves that beyond any doubt. But one can no more say this proves all cops are bad than news reports of plane crashes prove all planes crash. Some do; most don’t. Same goes for police officers.
Trooper First Class Wesley Brown was one of the good ones.
From WUSA, based on an AP report:
Police are searching for a man who shot and killed an off-duty Maryland state trooper early Friday about a half hour after the trooper escorted him from a restaurant over a disputed bill, Prince George's County police said.
Trooper First Class Wesley W. Brown, 24, escorted a disorderly customer from an Applebee's on Thursday evening. That customer shot Brown when he left the restaurant around 12:40 a.m. Friday, State Police Superintendent Col. Terrence Sheridan said.
Brown's cousin Kenneth Pollard, 48, also visited the scene Friday morning.
"He was a good guy and he tried to do the right thing and somebody took his life," he said. Pollard said Brown had eight older sisters and an older brother.
Kids could visit Brown anytime at the modest home he shared with brother, said another of Brown's cousins, Otamere Oronsaye. Brown worked the second job to help pay for the group's activities and was sponsoring a trip to New York on Friday, he said. He got engaged last month.
Relatives were coming and going from the house on Friday, and people were leaving teddy bears and roses on Brown's Ford F-150 pickup truck parked out front.
Trooper Brown,who was wearing a protective vest, was shot seven times. One bullet entered under the vest and struck the young man in the heart. Covered in blood, he managed to crawl into the restaurant. He was declared dead at Prince Georges Community Hospital.
Trooper Brown, who has eight older sisters and an older brother, had mentored hundreds of people through the mentoring group he founded in 2007, called Young Men Enlightening Younger Men. Brown had been in trouble as a young man, including being kicked out school for fighting. He managed to turn his life around, and was working to keep other young men out of trouble. He took the part-time job at Applebee's to raise money for the foundation.
According to the NBC affiliate in Washington, Seat Pleasant Mayor Eugene Grant said,
He reached out to them, those in his community. He saw the conditions that they lived under. He understood the pressures that they had to deal with every single day. And as a result of that, he reached out to them to let them know that there is a better life.
The following is taken directly from the "About Us" page of Trooper Brown's foundation:
Welcome,
My name is Wesley Brown and I am the founder of Young Men Enlightening
Younger Men (YMEYM). In September, 2007, my friends and family and I came
together to show the young men in the community that there is a bigger and
brighter future ahead of them with unlimited possibilities. YMEYM meets together
as a group at least once a month to take a field trip somewhere outside of our
community and spend time bonding and mentoring. Between field trips, the
mentors stay in touch with the young men and encourage them to stay in school,
do the best they can in school and in extracurricular activities, respect themselves
and each other, and to talk out any conflicts instead of resorting to violence.
All of the mentors have committed much of their personal time and finances
during this formation period. YMEYM’s meeting location was my residence, where
we would sit back and talk about whatever was on the boys’ mind. Our goal is to
listen and understand their problems and issues. Then we talk together to reach
positive solutions to solve the problems. This way, the young men can think
before they act, which sometimes results in unjustified punishment.
So, what we created is more than a mentoring program, a tutoring program,
or a community service program. This is now a brotherhood of more than 20
young males with distinct personalities and different goals in life who are coming
together to be a part of something positive. After researching some of these
issues, we found that the majority of today’s young men just want to be a part of
something and that is why gang violence in the neighborhood is growing so
rapidly.
The school system requires that students have a 2.0 GPA in order to play
sports. What happens to those who try, but who just don’t make it because of
poor school systems or a lack of support from home? Where does he go? Who
can he turn to? We believe that if a young man is trying to make himself a better
man and a productive member of society, then we are PROUD of him – and we tell
our young men that. We are proud of them and are here to push them to reach
their full potential.
As a young man myself, some may wonder why I am trying so hard to reach
these young men, as if I am their parent. Well, I believe that if the community is
not encouraging our youth to stand tall and become someone special, what makes
us think that the outside world will? After they are exposed to the world outside of
their immediate community, reality hits them. They must be prepared and they
must be shown the importance of responsibility and accountability and then they
will go far in life.
During these teenage stages is when young men develop different
characteristics which will continue to live within him during his entire adult life. Too
often young men underestimate their own capabilities and greatness. It is our
responsibility to step up to the plate and make a positive change. One young man
at a time.
Wesley Brown, Founder
Young Men Enlightening Younger Men, Inc.
This afternoon, members of the Maxx Ryder's Bike Club held a car and bike wash at Free State Cycles in Capitol Heights Maryland. Proceeds of the event will be going to Trooper Brown's foundation
Trooper Brown was the 42nd Maryland State Trooper to die in the line of duty. The family announced that there will be a public viewing at 4 p.m. June 18 at Abyssinia Baptist Church in Capitol Heights. Funeral services will then be at 10 a.m. June 19 at Jericho City of Praise in Landover, followed by burial at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland.
UPDATE: I just found out this diary made the Diary Rescue last night. Thank you all.