I did not want to watch.

As a people, we have witnessed the horrors of police violence again and again—so much so, that some of us are now immune, desensitized against the trauma. Others of us look away because, frankly, we are not. In the end, I could not turn away.

My own son, Joshua, is but a couple of years older and—but for time and a slight crossing of the stars—it could have been him on that pavement. Several years ago, my middle child was handcuffed in Atlanta with a weapon pressed against his back, after officers falsely accused him of stealing his own MacBook. He is alive today. But, I know things could’ve turned out much differently.

There can be no debate about the brutality that led to 29-year-old