- Hi, I'm Terry Watson and I'm your neighbor.

(upbeat music) (gentle music) Years ago I was at home and my father called me and he says, "Oh, they're naming they street after your great-grandfather."

So after I hung up with my father, I started doing some research on Moses P. Cobb and I found some amazing things about him.

He was born a slave.

He walked from Kinston, North Carolina to Brooklyn, New York.

And Moses P. Cobb was the first African American to have a full career as a police officer in the City of New York.

So I started telling the story of Moses P. Cobb and his brother-in-law, Samuel J.

Battle.

Samuel Battle was the first Black sergeant, the first Black lieutenant and the first Black parole commissioner for the NYPD.

Whilst I was telling their story, people kept asking me, "Where are the police officers of today who speak out on injustice?"

So I started interviewing law enforcement.

This is Terry Watson.

Welcome to another episode of Moses's People Speak.

Again, I'm your host, Terry Watson.

SFJ stands for Strategies for Justice.

Our tagline is empowering the future with untold history.

- You know, white folk, they wasn't quite comfort with a man looking them straight in the eye and saying you do, yes you do.

Until she said, "Not for people like you."

- Wow.

- So I know what she meant but that happened to me.

- [Terry] We focused on in SFJ is we have workshops, the symposium and the speaking bureau.

We try to get law enforcement community members, you know, politicians, all that in one space to discuss this topic with the plan of bringing that back to their communities.

Which is work that could be polarizing.

Hello everyone.

Welcome to Moses's People Speak.

I'm your host, Terry Watson, the founder of Strategies for Justice.

We do talk about some sensitive, serious topics and some topics officers do not talk about as a community.

But as a police department you should be able to have certain conversations.

Now, they get together every morning to do a debriefing.

If you're able to do a debriefing, you're able to talk about certain topics.

You should be able to get together to say, "You know what?

Let's talk about racism.

How do we deal with racism in our community?"

That should be an honest conversation within law enforcement.

How do we deal with mental health in our community?

And that should be an honest conversation in law enforcement.

- White, Black, different or in otherwise looking for one thing that you can do.

I don't have those answers for you because there wasn't one thing that made African Americans in this country tired.

- [Terry] I would say to folks that if you are unhappy with the way things are especially if it's your neighborhood, be involved in your local politics some way somehow.

It doesn't gotta be with politicians.

It could be with organizations.

It could be with your faith-based, whatever it may be, be involved some way somehow.

And then ask that question, how do I contribute to the thing that I am currently unhappy with?

If you answer that questions honestly, you will find there are things that needs to be done and you go do those things.

I'm happy everyone is joining us.

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