'If these tears do not shake America, the tears that we shed as mothers will be the tears that break America.'
You may not understand the pain that a mother endures when she loses a child, particularly a child who was unarmed and innocent yet was murdered by police. For me, it felt like I went into labor all over again. There is an emptiness in your stomach where you secured that child for nine months. I don’t know whether that void will ever be replaced and if that pain will ever go away.Courtesy Allison JeanVery early in life, from the time he was a year old, Botham just gravitated to everyone.
Being a Black mother from the Caribbean, I shudder every time I think of telling a young child to seek college opportunities in the United States knowing what my son suffered at the hands of police officer Amber Guyger. Guyger’s hasty, wicked action took the life of my son who was in the sanctuary of his living room looking forward to the first game of the NFL season.
Botham Jean, right, was described by his mother Allison Jean as being “like a glue, like a gel” in their family. Two years and there have been so many after Botham that during George Floyd protests, when I heard them calling a number of names, often, Botham’s was missing. A demonstrator holds a sign for Botham Jean while marching during a demonstration, June 9, 2020, in Revere, Mass., for George Floyd and other Black Americans killed at the hands of law enforcement.Every time I hear of a new family losing a son or daughter, Sept. 6, 2018, comes back all over again. It brings me back to my daughter walking into that room.. I just have to keep reliving that over and over, a day that I would really want to forget. But every single victim … it is just terrible.
I have the strength to fight, keeping his name alive, keeping his story alive, because I know that it needs to stop and trying to ensure that another family is not impacted in that way.My question is, should we put our heads in the sand and give into perpetual battering or should we stand up and let you know that enough is enough? I choose the latter because I will no longer accept police actions as the norm and do nothing about it.
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