Dwayne Bryant joined 411 Teen to discuss The Stop: Improving Police and Community Relations which educates youth to stop, observe, and reflect during an encounter with law enforcement. He teaches the principles of mutual respect, shared responsibility, and personal accountability.
Source: http://news.wfsu.org/post/411-teen-police-community-relations
During a March 22 Chicago City Council hearing on police-community relations, West Side Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) offered his perspective on a resolution, introduced by Ald. Ed Burke (14th), that is ostensibly designed to improve police-community relations.
Last June, Burke, a former Chicago police officer, introduced the controversial “Blue Lives Matter” ordinance, which have made first-responders a protected class—meaning crimes committed against them could be prosecuted as hate crimes. The ordinance prompted considerable backlash from residents and city officials alike, including Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th), himself a former police officer. Many of the measure’s opponents felt that it was unduly divisive.
This most recent proposal introduced by Burke sets a much more conciliatory tone, but at least one prominent community activist said that it still doesn’t get to the heart of why the relationship between the police and the community is broken in the first place.
Burke’s resolution calls for all Chicago Public Schools to incorporate the Support Teaching of Principles, or STOP, lesson designed to teach youth how to properly interact with police officers. It also called for the representatives of various city departments to appear before a joint committee and explain what they are doing to mend the broken relationship between police and the public.
Read the full article here.
Dwayne Bryant joins Good Day Chicago to talk about his book “The Stop: Improving Police and Community Relations” and how he wants to mend relationships between communities and authorities.
The STOP: Improving Police and Community Relations is a book that every family—especially every black family—needs to own and read.
I would often wonder after hearing of a fatal police encounter, what went wrong? Why didn’t that person know how to interact with the police? Why aren’t people taught how? Even if the police were in the wrong, was there anything the person could have done to defuse the situation?
Now I don’t have to wonder any longer.
Dwayne Bryant, a son of a police officer who has himself been stopped by police seven times beginning when he was in elementary school, has written this necessary book.
That sentence alone needs to give us pause. Bryant doesn’t look suspicious. He’s rather a nice-looking regular guy who smiles easily and has intelligent eyes. Yet he’s been stopped seven times beginning when he was in elementary school.
He has never been arrested. He has no criminal record. What is it about Bryant that should attract such attention from law enforcement? As Bryant says in a video on his website, black men get stopped “for breathing.” His book and the social-emotional curriculum developed from it aims at keeping such encounters from being fatal.
From The STOP Bryant has developed a successful social-emotional learning curriculum that has been used within the Chicago public school system for about a decade. Called The Vision, this 21-week curriculum for urban youth in grades 3–11 is based on the STOP principle, which stands for Supporting the Teaching Of Principles.
Bryant, founder and CEO of Inner Vision International Inc., believes that the curriculum, designed especially for urban youth, can prove successful in cities nationwide by equipping and empowering its readers. The book and curriculum
Teach youth how to interact with police in a respectful manner;
Provide a framework for teachers and community leaders to engage in a meaningful dialogue with youth about their expectations for their lives;
Offer practical solutions to bridge the gap between the community and law enforcement, creating a positive relationship.
“Before you change your world, you must change your vision,” Bryant says in a statement. “A positive outcome goes a long way for our community and nation.”
Source: Robin White Goode of Black Enterprise Magazine
SEATTLE – Author and youth advocate Dwayne Bryant has been on the front lines in Chicago helping young men and women be intelligent peacemakers within their community, amongst each other and police authorities. Bryant travels all over the country teaching youth about the power they have within as well as how to put away fear and find mutual respect with people of authority.
“I just want police officers, I want students, I want families to understand that everyone is responsible for creating mutual respect, shared responsibility and accountability. It’s not just the police, it’s not just the community, but we all have to have a role in that.”
His book The STOP: Improving Police and Community Relations is a national call to end violence between community members and authorities. Bryant shares seven real-life personal encounters with law enforcement from his childhood into adulthood.
Dwayne joined LIVE with Hal Clark on iHeartRadio to share his experiences as an internationally renowned motivational speaker and trainer. They also discuss the The STOP.
Dwayne stopped by the WGN studios to share some insights on building community relations and discuss The STOP.
Author of The Stop Dwayne Bryant appears on CounterPoint with Gerrard McClendon to discuss the book, respectful relationships and more.
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