An African American police officer has a message for America in the wake of the recent deadly police-involved shootings of black men and the deadly sniper attack on Dallas officers: stop the madness.
“That’s what’s going on,” Atlantic City police officer Mike Braxton said. “It is complete chaos and madness.”
Braxton, who has been on the force for nearly nine years, released a Facebook video reacting to last week’s shootings. Braxton says that as both an African American and a police officer, he began to feel overwhelmed and pulled in two different directions by people on both sides who wanted to know his opinion.
“Both sides were trying to pull me to choose sides but that’s not what we need to do here today,” he said. “Our voices sound the same.”
Braxton believes both African Americans and members of law enforcement feel similar emotions.
“We’re feeling the same exact way but we’re both yelling so loud that we’re not hearing each other,” he said. "You have to listen and sit down and talk to come up with an agreement.”
Braxton told NBC10 he initially thought about writing his message in a post but his girlfriend urged him to make a video instead.
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“My position is to pull everyone together,” Braxton said. “Because if we stay quiet we let the evil talk. We let evil speak for everything that we’re not even thinking.”
Braxton works in the police department’s office of community relations and spoke Monday at Sovereign Avenue School in Atlantic City with children enrolled in the city’s Junior Police Academy. Braxton says his message of unity doesn’t discriminate.
“Hopefully this reaches someone that needs it,” he said. “And that person’s name is America.”
Watch the entire video in the link embedded below.
