In a press conference Monday, Dallas Police Chief David Brown told young black men to improve their communities by joining law enforcement in their hometowns.
“Become a part of that solution,” Brown said. “Serve your communities. Don’t be a part of the problem. We’re hiring. We’re hiring. Get off that protest line and put an application in. We’ll put you in your neighborhood and we will help you resolve some of the problems you’re protesting about.”
Brown’s remarks come on the heels of last week’s massacre in Dallas. During a Black Lives Matter protest last Thursday night, a shooter killed five police officers and wounded seven others — making it the deadliest day for law enforcement since 9/11.
Dallas police chief to young black men: "We're hiring." https://t.co/TsLLTM9yCt https://t.co/QF53AV71T4
— CNN (@CNN) July 11, 2016
Over the weekend, more than 100 were arrested at BLM protests held nationwide. In Oakland, protestors blocked a major highway for several hours in response to police fatally shooting two black men earlier last week.
Brown opened up about how he first got involved with law enforcement and why joining the police force is a more gratifying way to initiate change than just protesting.
So when I was graduating high school, I got a full-ride scholarship to UT Austin. And this was 1979. Come back home for the summer. Around ‘80, ‘81, ‘82, around that time frame, the crack cocaine epidemic hit Dallas pretty hard.
My friends who stayed here became involved in that. It broke my heart. And it changed what I wanted to do in college. And I actually left college my first semester of my senior year to come back and apply to the Dallas police department. Do something about what I was seeing in my neighborhood.
My first beat was my old neighborhood. . . I get so much satisfaction that I can do a small thing to help this community. I just love Dallas. I love serving. It’s part of my character. It’s part of who I am. Out of all the crap we have to take as police officers, the satisfaction you get with serving is much more gratifying. . .It’s like that for a lot of police officers in this country.