Difficult Conversations: Remi and Isak

The first step to a safer Minneapolis is having conversations about policing, safety, and our lived experiences.

“Policing as an institution as we know it is relatively new, but community safety is as old as time.”

Watch as a father and son, Remi & Isak, discuss the challenges Minneapolis faces and the steps we can take to change and expand what public safety looks like for residents of the city. You can find the full conversation on our YouTube.

Join the conversation at safetynotfear.com

Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)

00:02
[Music]
00:09
oh my goodness
00:11
okay question
00:13
how do you remember the moments
00:16
surrounding
00:18
the murder of george floyd
00:20
it’s sad to say but i remember feeling
00:22
almost like
00:24
here we go again right occupying space
00:26
because the minneapolis police
00:28
department are one of the minnesota
00:29
police departments like murdered a
00:31
community member yeah is old news and
00:33
i’ve been doing it since i was uh in
00:35
high school that’s right so i figured it
00:37
was kind of just gonna be um
00:39
another summer of protesting in
00:41
minneapolis i was not expecting
00:44
community members to turn up the way
00:45
they did
00:46
how did it feel to know i was so
00:48
involved in the protests and uprisings
00:51
over the last year it was a mixture of
00:55
pride
00:57
frustration
00:59
anxiety
01:00
uh long nights without sleeping
01:03
and simply because
01:05
i was witnessing
01:07
the fact that society as adults was
01:10
robbing you guys of your youth but proud
01:13
because
01:14
that’s the kind of young man i was when
01:16
i had i was your age
01:18
you guys were telling us adults
01:21
you’re not doing well this has to stop
01:23
and
01:24
and we’re still not listening losing
01:26
power
01:27
if i were a kid growing up in
01:28
minneapolis today
01:30
how would you talk with me about mpd
01:32
in america the context of police is very
01:35
tied to slavery coupled with recent
01:37
events with george floyd it will not be
01:39
a favorable you know
01:41
comments about the police i myself as a
01:44
black man had my share of being
01:46
brutalized
01:47
mentally
01:48
terrorized by the police it hasn’t given
01:52
the the positive return that society has
01:55
wanted maybe it’s given to a certain
01:57
group
01:58
uh but for the most part it hasn’t
02:00
served well in our communities but like
02:02
policing as an institution as we know it
02:04
is
02:05
relatively new but community safety is
02:07
as old as time i think
02:09
maybe people in my generation are just
02:11
like so fed up
02:13
and um are so done with like
02:15
respectability politics and like being
02:17
perceived as like you know a good black
02:19
person or one of the good ones or like a
02:21
good superhero that um
02:23
we feel like sometimes we have nothing
02:25
to lose and you’re right in a sense that
02:27
you have nothing to lose because society
02:28
has not given you the the option to gain
02:31
something right um but i have
02:34
you know done my only 360. since i’ve
02:36
been
02:38
involved with you and you know having
02:40
spent a whole year at george flord
02:41
square since it’s as kind of the
02:43
epicenter uh we had a chance to see
02:46
uh was a barricade with the occupation
02:49
that it’s possible right to have a
02:51
community look at safety differently
02:53
right and whatever craziness was going
02:55
to community we took care of it for
02:57
people my generation you know we
02:59
we tend to look at a police in different
03:01
light but after coming out of this
03:02
experience i’m 100 down with the fact
03:05
that
03:06
we could imagine a society here without
03:08
the police right or in a way that we
03:09
want it yeah what kind of minneapolis do
03:12
you want my kids to grow up in well i
03:15
think that what i want for for
03:18
your grand you know my grandchildren is
03:21
to live in a society where
03:24
they they
03:25
understand
03:27
um
03:28
mental health yeah you know they
03:31
understand the fact that
03:33
resources will be provided and it’s kind
03:35
of weird to think of little izak walking
03:37
around but
03:39
god forbid it would happen so um
03:42
but i think you know in a nutshell is
03:44
how do we uh put the infrastructure in
03:47
place yeah you know like the type of
03:49
building we’re trying to uh erect for
03:52
you know the wellness center knowing
03:54
that a person can
03:56
walk into a building they can have
03:57
mental health therapy they can have a
03:59
yoga class they can have homework
04:02
assistance if a teenage mother wants to
04:05
take a break from a kid we can take care
04:07
of that and it exists already right the
04:10
sad reality that we are buffling over uh
04:12
envisioning when it exists in people who
04:15
live in a suburb yeah have everything
04:17
that we’re discussing yeah we don’t have
04:19
to imagine anything it’s existing just
04:22
redistribute it’s just
04:24
understanding that you know
04:26
one group of people have hijacked the
04:28
process yeah uh and the police officer
04:30
worked really well in certain part of
04:32
town yeah and they’re done in other part
04:33
of town so we’re wasting our time
04:35
reimagining yeah it’s already there you
04:37
just go look through the window or walk
04:40
in certain neighborhood and you know
04:41
that’s there so i think that you guys
04:43
see something that a lot of adults have
04:45
not seen yet
04:47
and there’s they’re they’re kind of
04:48
afraid
04:50
of
04:51
of of you know embracing a future where
04:54
young people are leading the way yeah
04:56
you gave me a sense of a new purpose
04:59
and i’m excited about what the future
05:01
has to uh to offer to know for all of us
05:07
[Music]

—

This post was previously published on YouTube.

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