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How Would You Explain This?

On June 24, an off-duty Lansing, Ill., police officer was filmed brutally detaining an unarmed 15-year-old African-American boy, Jordan Brunson, and threatening his life. Why? The boy was on his lawn.

According to WGN News, two boys -- one white and the other black -- had just escaped a fight with a group of boys. The unnamed white kid was reeling with minor injuries when they randomly stopped at a house and sat on the porch to tend to the wounds.

In the moments before the recording, the officer found a backpack on his lawn that had a BB gun inside. The boys tried to leave, and the officer attempted to detain them. He grabbed Jordan, shoved his knee in his chest, and began choking him.

Despite their pleas, the officer wouldn’t relent. His wife also emerged, and was recorded saying, “You guys came to the wrong house!” Allegedly, the officer never identified himself.

My uncle, a former police officer, used to tell me, “The uniform never comes off” -- meaning a police officer’s job is always to serve and protect. There is no indication from the boys that the officer tried to assist them.

Some may argue that the boys should just have been compliant. But to see the event makes one wonder: What if my child was being treated like that, while helping a friend? How and why are we becoming a society in which even helping a child is met with suspicion and violence, and many still disregard those uncivil acts?

Do all lives matter? Of course, but this video begs the statement: Black lives matter, too!

I am Joseph Flynn, and that is my perspective.

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