Brooks: We need to be honest about police vs. African American incidents

Former Bellator lightweight champion and current UFC lightweight ‘Ill’ Will Brooks appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, for a wide-ranging discussion that included ongoing issues between law enforcement and the African-American community.

The fighter made clear that he doesn’t believe all police are racist and he doesn’t believe all the African-American males in the string of incidents that have recently been publicized are right, either. But he explained that he had been pulled over repeatedly for fitting the description of someone the police were looking forward to. He also related that he, his wife who is caucasian, and his brother were once pulled over and police asked for his and his brother’s ID, but not his wife’s. In short, something isn’t right.

“I’m an African-American man,” began Brooks, as transcribed by Marc Raymond for MMA Fighting. “I have no record, I’ve never been arrested for anything serious. I have no police record, no nothing, right? But there are times where I do drive by police and I do get nervous. Not because this police officer may have caught me speeding, pulled me over and give me a speeding ticket or I have to go to court for some speeding violation. But I am nervous because I don’t know if I’m getting that one police officer that is properly trained, that one police officer that is not going to get aggressive when he notices that I’m a bigger male.”

“Am I gonna be that one guy that ends up being a victim of an unjust and unlawful shooting and killed and not be able to make it home to my wife and make it home to my daughter? This is something I think of. This is a problem. And this is not something new. This is something I’ve dealt with throughout my life.”

“Right now it’s just very difficult in the black community. How do you find answers? We’re trying to find answers. Nobody is giving answers. And then you have people who are upset, angry, getting aggressive. Desperation turns into anger, anger turns into violence, and then you have protests in Charlotte.”

“It’s just a really upsetting and depressing thing to see what’s happening in our society right now. I’m just fired up and I feel like we need to start being honest about it. I’m not saying all policemen and policewomen are bad guys. I’m not saying all cops are bad. There are some cops that are making good cops look bad.”

Brooks, who was raised in Chicago, called for both sides to acknowledge faults.

“That means good cops coming out and saying that this cop was wrong, he was wrong for what he did or she was wrong for what she did,” said Brooks. “Or even black people, we have to start saying, ‘That black man may have done something wrong.’ Does that justify him being shot? We have to recognize when it’s wrong to pull the race card.”

“In my opinion, Chicago is dying right now. We’re dying. We’re not doing well in Chicago. The black community is not doing well in Chicago. We’re killing each other, day in and day out.”

“When you see anything in the news that has to do with an African-American male dealing with law enforcement, regardless of he’s cooperating, listening to police … we are still being shot and killed in the street. The bottom line is we’re getting shot and killed. We’re not getting that same treatment, we’re not getting that equal justice. And it’s unfortunate. Now, am I saying every single black man that is getting pulled over by police is an innocent man, that is not doing anything wrong? I’m not saying that, but at the same time there are white men that are doing bad things that are still being taken into custody and alive. When there’s African American men that are doing bad things, in a heartbeat they’re being shot down and killed.”

Will Brooks fights Alex Oliveira on the main card of UFC Fight Night 96 on Saturday, October 1, 2016 at Moda Center in Portland, Oregon.