People's Tribunal on Police Brutality video part 21
Creator: Puncture the Silence |
Date: 2015-04-11
Collection: People's Tribunal on Police Brutality | Tags: Clarence Jones
Collection: People's Tribunal on Police Brutality | Tags: Clarence Jones
Clarence Jones, father of Brandon Jones, testifies.
~ Puncture the Silence, “People's Tribunal on Police Brutality video part 21,” A People's Archive of Police Violence in Cleveland, accessed March 29, 2024, https://archivingpoliceviolence.org/items/show/79.
Show Archival Record
Dublin Core
Title
People's Tribunal on Police Brutality video part 21
Description
Clarence Jones, father of Brandon Jones, testifies.
Creator
Puncture the Silence
Date
2015-04-11
Identifier
CLE.001.025
Format
.mp4
Language
English
Coverage
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Video Item Type Metadata
Duration
11 minutes, 30 seconds
Transcriber
Puncture the Silence-Stop Mass Incarceration
Transcription
Alice Ragland—“Can I have Clarence Jones, followed by Brenda Bickerstaff?” (Child crying)
Clarence Jones—“How's everybody doin'? (Audience: “Alright.”) I'm Clarence Jones. Brandon Jones was my son. (Pause, breaking down) I don't even know what to say. (Audience: “Go ahead, tell it, brother.”) (Carol Steiner: “Tell the panel.”) I miss my boy. I had some run-ins (Coughing, Panelists: “We can't hear you, sir. Speak a little louder, please.”) They've jumped on me, they've beaten me, kicked me in the head, maced me, I been through it all, you know. Like the lady said, our son, we know our kids. We know they good; we know they bad. I did my best; I raised my son. I never been... He really wasn't a bad kid, you know? He was 18. (Child crying) He didn't start gettin' in trouble till he was 16. You know what I'm sayin'? He was a kid when he died. He was still a kid. He didn't get a chance to turn over from a boy to a man. But he was in that stage; and he was tryin'. (Audience: “Go 'head; get it off...”) My son had been through a lot. You all need to know... (Audience: “Go 'head.”) He'd been shot 4 times. He'd been shot in the head. Almost dead. This has been a year. He had been through a lot in a year. You know your kid; I knew mine. You taught them well; I taught mine well. They don't listen all the time. They don't. They do something bad, first thing. Why they do it? We don't know that. All we know is what we taught them. You see what I'm sayin'? And they didn't get a chance to use it. He was a good kid, you know what I'm sayin'? And I'm still sayin' there's a lot of things I can't do no more, except weep for my son, who got killed. We went out and did some shoppin'. We got these little...from Popeye’s, they're still sittin' in my freezer. (Weeping) And every time I look at it I cry. I don't want nobody to touch it. You know? That's my guy. You know what I'm sayin'? My son, he had been arrested before. He had a little Juvenile record. He know not to fight with the police. I tell him, you know? Week before he got shot, yeah, week before he got shot, they tried to tow my car. It was parked on the street. Good plates on it, tires full. Plates good. My other son got a car, so we basically drivin' his car around. You know? They come tow my car; I'm out doin' somethin'. My son called me, ‘Police out here, fixin' to tow the car.’ I asked him to go out there and ask them if they could hold up a minute; I'm fixin' to come and move the car; I'm on my way. He say he go out there talk to 'em. First thing the police say, 'Get away from the car, or we're gonna take you to jail. Get back up on the sidewalk. Get away from the car. We're takin' the car. Now nothing you all can do?’ You know what I'm sayin'? I tell my son, 'Don't worry about it'. And I make it there before they took my car. I'm tryin' to show my son, different things. I'm out there, ‘Please, officer, don't take my car. Give me 2 minutes; let me move my car, push it in my driveway.’ 'No, we ain't doin' nothin'. They sittin' over here talkin' all crazy.' ‘What they got to do with me? I'm beggin' you’; you know what I'm sayin', I'm pleadin' in front of my son, tryin' to show him another way. Show him, say, talk to police officer, makin' good. They didn't want to hear shit I had to say, excuse me. (Panelist/ audience: “That's ok.”) They didn't want to hear nothin' I had to say. 'Don't worry about it; we're takin' your car, because they was talkin' smart to us, 'cause they was sayin' this.' I'm on the phone... talk to the officer. He's on the phone; I hear him say, 'I ain't givin' you nothin'.' ‘Hey, officer, my nephew he's not arguin' with the man, he's not talkin' crazy with the man.’ You know what I'm sayin’? So, I finally pulled up; I go talk to the officer; he rolled up the window. I see another car. 'I wasn't the one who put the ticket on it.' ‘There's no ticket on my car; where's the ticket?’ 'Well, we came up here the other day and marked on the car.' ‘Where's the markin’ at?’ He said we mark it on the tire. They'd marked on my tire. You couldn't a just put that on my tire; where's it's worn? You barely see what it says; you can't even see what it really sayin', you know what I'm sayin'? ‘What did you write on there? You put number? You put date? You can't even see it.’ I'm steadily pleadin', I'm pleadin'. My son, 'Dad, ain't got to bag ‘em; they gonna take the car anyway; they gonna do what they wanna do.' ‘Boy, shut up, let me handle this, let me do my do.’ You know what I'm sayin'? 'Alright, Daddy.' I'm standin' out there pleadin' with em, ‘Please, please, please, don't take my car.’... I'm talkin' to the lieutenant, the sergeant rather, I'm talkin' to him, 'It's out of my hands.' ‘Come on man, just let me move the car.’ You know what I'm sayin'? He says, 'I'll tell you what, if you can get a tow truck here and get the car and move, you can have the car.' I said, ‘Hold on a minute, your tow truck on the way; your tow truck was on the way before I got here, so what you tryin' to do to me? What're you feedin' me'? This is some bull crap you're feedin' me. If I get a tow truck, it's gonna take me 30-45 minutes to get my tow truck here; yours on the way; yours be pullin' up, soon as, before I can get it on the bump.’ And sure enough, soon as I get on the phone to call my tow truck, here comes the tow truck down the street. I said, ‘What type crap is this?’ You know what I'm sayin'? Another cop was sayin' that, 'Well, your son they said they was tellin' off an officer.' ‘Was you here when I was talkin' to him?’ 'No I wasn't here, but I believe my officer.’ ‘So, ... a prayer book now?' ... prayer book?’ I said, ‘That's why people don't like ya'll. Ya'll have no compassion. Ya'll have no understanding.’ You know what I'm sayin'? 'We like us.' ‘Well, I don't.’ (Audience: Laughs) With that I said, ‘Ya'll be ..., ya'll towin' my car; ya'll can be in my face; I'm gone.’ You know what I'm sayin'? He lookin' at me smilin' and laughin', and I turned back, ‘It ain't no joke; this is serious; you think ya'll have to tow my car.’ You know what I'm sayin'? ..., that's why we don't like ‘em now. I say, ‘I feel you, man, but you don't got to be like that towards them like that all the time.’ You know what I'm sayin'? I used to feel that there's some good officers out here, but now today? Hell, no, I don't believe it. I could never look at another cop and say, he might be good. (Audience/panelist: “That's right.”) I could never say that. It's just like they look at all these little black kids runnin' around these poor neighborhoods, they all bad. All cops are bad. (Audience/panelists: “That's right!”) All these kids out here, what they doin'. You sayin' ain't no good ones out here, then all you cops out here killin' these people, beatin' these people, doin' us, there ain't no good cops. There ain't no good cops. I can't believe there are good cops, because one cop see a cop doin' bad, he's not goin' step up and say, ‘No, don't do it.’ He goin' stand here and watch it. He goin' watch it, you understand? I feel what she said, my life ain't goin' never be the same. Yeah, I'm hurtin' 8 times. Every time I see my wife, I see her cryin' for my son, I hurt 'cause she hurt. I see my kids; I see them cryin' cause they want they brother. (Crying) That's another pain on me, you know what I'm sayin'? I'm already hurtin' for my son, now I hurt because my kids hurt, because they big brother gone. He was a good brother to them. He made sure they didn't get in no trouble. He made sure they did what they was supposed to do. He... he wasn’t bad, you know? Nobody sit there and say, ‘No, he shouldn’t ‘a did what he did.’ He shouldn’t ‘a did what he did. It’s a lot of things we shouldn’t do, but we do. I been wrong; ... I’m 42 years old; I still make bad decisions. You know what I’m sayin’? I still make bad decisions. But we learn, you know what I’m sayin’? My son can’t learn no more. He learned all he gonna learn. You know what I’m sayin’? (Audience/panelist: “Could you tell your story about your son, because we..., for the people that’s in the room that don’t know your story?”) Well, Brandon Jones, he was shot on Parkwood, comin’ out of the store. He broke into the store. He was comin’ out of the store with 2 bags in his hands. The same lady that called 911, and told them that my son was breakin’ in the store, witnessed the whole thing. She say she watched the whole thing from the time she called to the time they shot my son. They came up to him; they grabbed a hold to him; both of ‘em grabbed a hold of him. She said they talked with him for 4-5 minutes with a gun in his throat, talkin’ to him. My son was sayin’ something back to him, and the gun went off, and they dropped my son to the ground. One of them checked for a pulse, told another one there’s no pulse. He called back-up; then he called 911. Said they came, got my son, didn’t do CPR on him on the ground, didn’t do no CPR or nothin’ on him, got him in the Cleveland ambulance, took him. You see that’s all they did, you know what I’m sayin’? And I told the lady, ‘What you did, you called the police, don’t feel bad about that. Don’t feel bad about that; you was right; you did what you’re supposed to do.’ She said, ‘I didn’t have no idea they was goin’ to kill your son.’ She said, ‘If I’d ‘a knew they was goin’ to kill your son, I would ‘a let him got away.’ She said, ‘I feel bad, because I feel like his death was on me.’ And I told her, ‘No, his death is not on you, it’s on the man that shot my son. That’s who his death is on—the man who shot my son.’ (Audience: “And who was that?”) I don’t know the police officer’s name. (Audience: “Ain’t that a blip!?”) I don’t know his name; I don’t know his badge number; I don’t know nothin’; they haven’t made a statement on what happened to my son. (Audience or panelist: “Was it written up?”) I don’t know, no, nothin’s been written up. There’s no statement from the police... (Brenda Bickerstaff: “Excuse me, I can speak on that because I’m a private investigator workin’ on that. I can’t give out too much information.”) OK. (“But you know it’s goin’ through the court system.”) Yes, I understand. (“Your lawyers do have the name of the perpetrator. And I did interview the young lady who called the police. So, the names, they do have them.”) OK. (“So, you can talk to your lawyer; they got it.”) OK. Fine, but like I’m sayin’, my son was shot at 2:30 in the mornin’; I didn’t find out till 5. And when they came, this is what they told me, ‘Your son been shot by Cleveland Police. I don’t know no more, I wasn’t there, I don’t know nothin’ else, he’s just dead.’ They walked off. And we called around; and the guy that was supposed to be investigatin’ it; he was on vacation for 2 days. We had to wait 2 days for him to come back, and when he finally came back, someone else came to talk to us. He came to my door and he said the same thing, ‘He got into it with the police; there was a little scuffle; he dead; we don’t know no more. All we got to do is wait for everything to come back, and then we gonna check it for you.’ With that, that’s all I got to say, you know.” (Panelists/others: “Thank you. Thank you.” Applause)
Clarence Jones—“How's everybody doin'? (Audience: “Alright.”) I'm Clarence Jones. Brandon Jones was my son. (Pause, breaking down) I don't even know what to say. (Audience: “Go ahead, tell it, brother.”) (Carol Steiner: “Tell the panel.”) I miss my boy. I had some run-ins (Coughing, Panelists: “We can't hear you, sir. Speak a little louder, please.”) They've jumped on me, they've beaten me, kicked me in the head, maced me, I been through it all, you know. Like the lady said, our son, we know our kids. We know they good; we know they bad. I did my best; I raised my son. I never been... He really wasn't a bad kid, you know? He was 18. (Child crying) He didn't start gettin' in trouble till he was 16. You know what I'm sayin'? He was a kid when he died. He was still a kid. He didn't get a chance to turn over from a boy to a man. But he was in that stage; and he was tryin'. (Audience: “Go 'head; get it off...”) My son had been through a lot. You all need to know... (Audience: “Go 'head.”) He'd been shot 4 times. He'd been shot in the head. Almost dead. This has been a year. He had been through a lot in a year. You know your kid; I knew mine. You taught them well; I taught mine well. They don't listen all the time. They don't. They do something bad, first thing. Why they do it? We don't know that. All we know is what we taught them. You see what I'm sayin'? And they didn't get a chance to use it. He was a good kid, you know what I'm sayin'? And I'm still sayin' there's a lot of things I can't do no more, except weep for my son, who got killed. We went out and did some shoppin'. We got these little...from Popeye’s, they're still sittin' in my freezer. (Weeping) And every time I look at it I cry. I don't want nobody to touch it. You know? That's my guy. You know what I'm sayin'? My son, he had been arrested before. He had a little Juvenile record. He know not to fight with the police. I tell him, you know? Week before he got shot, yeah, week before he got shot, they tried to tow my car. It was parked on the street. Good plates on it, tires full. Plates good. My other son got a car, so we basically drivin' his car around. You know? They come tow my car; I'm out doin' somethin'. My son called me, ‘Police out here, fixin' to tow the car.’ I asked him to go out there and ask them if they could hold up a minute; I'm fixin' to come and move the car; I'm on my way. He say he go out there talk to 'em. First thing the police say, 'Get away from the car, or we're gonna take you to jail. Get back up on the sidewalk. Get away from the car. We're takin' the car. Now nothing you all can do?’ You know what I'm sayin'? I tell my son, 'Don't worry about it'. And I make it there before they took my car. I'm tryin' to show my son, different things. I'm out there, ‘Please, officer, don't take my car. Give me 2 minutes; let me move my car, push it in my driveway.’ 'No, we ain't doin' nothin'. They sittin' over here talkin' all crazy.' ‘What they got to do with me? I'm beggin' you’; you know what I'm sayin', I'm pleadin' in front of my son, tryin' to show him another way. Show him, say, talk to police officer, makin' good. They didn't want to hear shit I had to say, excuse me. (Panelist/ audience: “That's ok.”) They didn't want to hear nothin' I had to say. 'Don't worry about it; we're takin' your car, because they was talkin' smart to us, 'cause they was sayin' this.' I'm on the phone... talk to the officer. He's on the phone; I hear him say, 'I ain't givin' you nothin'.' ‘Hey, officer, my nephew he's not arguin' with the man, he's not talkin' crazy with the man.’ You know what I'm sayin’? So, I finally pulled up; I go talk to the officer; he rolled up the window. I see another car. 'I wasn't the one who put the ticket on it.' ‘There's no ticket on my car; where's the ticket?’ 'Well, we came up here the other day and marked on the car.' ‘Where's the markin’ at?’ He said we mark it on the tire. They'd marked on my tire. You couldn't a just put that on my tire; where's it's worn? You barely see what it says; you can't even see what it really sayin', you know what I'm sayin'? ‘What did you write on there? You put number? You put date? You can't even see it.’ I'm steadily pleadin', I'm pleadin'. My son, 'Dad, ain't got to bag ‘em; they gonna take the car anyway; they gonna do what they wanna do.' ‘Boy, shut up, let me handle this, let me do my do.’ You know what I'm sayin'? 'Alright, Daddy.' I'm standin' out there pleadin' with em, ‘Please, please, please, don't take my car.’... I'm talkin' to the lieutenant, the sergeant rather, I'm talkin' to him, 'It's out of my hands.' ‘Come on man, just let me move the car.’ You know what I'm sayin'? He says, 'I'll tell you what, if you can get a tow truck here and get the car and move, you can have the car.' I said, ‘Hold on a minute, your tow truck on the way; your tow truck was on the way before I got here, so what you tryin' to do to me? What're you feedin' me'? This is some bull crap you're feedin' me. If I get a tow truck, it's gonna take me 30-45 minutes to get my tow truck here; yours on the way; yours be pullin' up, soon as, before I can get it on the bump.’ And sure enough, soon as I get on the phone to call my tow truck, here comes the tow truck down the street. I said, ‘What type crap is this?’ You know what I'm sayin'? Another cop was sayin' that, 'Well, your son they said they was tellin' off an officer.' ‘Was you here when I was talkin' to him?’ 'No I wasn't here, but I believe my officer.’ ‘So, ... a prayer book now?' ... prayer book?’ I said, ‘That's why people don't like ya'll. Ya'll have no compassion. Ya'll have no understanding.’ You know what I'm sayin'? 'We like us.' ‘Well, I don't.’ (Audience: Laughs) With that I said, ‘Ya'll be ..., ya'll towin' my car; ya'll can be in my face; I'm gone.’ You know what I'm sayin'? He lookin' at me smilin' and laughin', and I turned back, ‘It ain't no joke; this is serious; you think ya'll have to tow my car.’ You know what I'm sayin'? ..., that's why we don't like ‘em now. I say, ‘I feel you, man, but you don't got to be like that towards them like that all the time.’ You know what I'm sayin'? I used to feel that there's some good officers out here, but now today? Hell, no, I don't believe it. I could never look at another cop and say, he might be good. (Audience/panelist: “That's right.”) I could never say that. It's just like they look at all these little black kids runnin' around these poor neighborhoods, they all bad. All cops are bad. (Audience/panelists: “That's right!”) All these kids out here, what they doin'. You sayin' ain't no good ones out here, then all you cops out here killin' these people, beatin' these people, doin' us, there ain't no good cops. There ain't no good cops. I can't believe there are good cops, because one cop see a cop doin' bad, he's not goin' step up and say, ‘No, don't do it.’ He goin' stand here and watch it. He goin' watch it, you understand? I feel what she said, my life ain't goin' never be the same. Yeah, I'm hurtin' 8 times. Every time I see my wife, I see her cryin' for my son, I hurt 'cause she hurt. I see my kids; I see them cryin' cause they want they brother. (Crying) That's another pain on me, you know what I'm sayin'? I'm already hurtin' for my son, now I hurt because my kids hurt, because they big brother gone. He was a good brother to them. He made sure they didn't get in no trouble. He made sure they did what they was supposed to do. He... he wasn’t bad, you know? Nobody sit there and say, ‘No, he shouldn’t ‘a did what he did.’ He shouldn’t ‘a did what he did. It’s a lot of things we shouldn’t do, but we do. I been wrong; ... I’m 42 years old; I still make bad decisions. You know what I’m sayin’? I still make bad decisions. But we learn, you know what I’m sayin’? My son can’t learn no more. He learned all he gonna learn. You know what I’m sayin’? (Audience/panelist: “Could you tell your story about your son, because we..., for the people that’s in the room that don’t know your story?”) Well, Brandon Jones, he was shot on Parkwood, comin’ out of the store. He broke into the store. He was comin’ out of the store with 2 bags in his hands. The same lady that called 911, and told them that my son was breakin’ in the store, witnessed the whole thing. She say she watched the whole thing from the time she called to the time they shot my son. They came up to him; they grabbed a hold to him; both of ‘em grabbed a hold of him. She said they talked with him for 4-5 minutes with a gun in his throat, talkin’ to him. My son was sayin’ something back to him, and the gun went off, and they dropped my son to the ground. One of them checked for a pulse, told another one there’s no pulse. He called back-up; then he called 911. Said they came, got my son, didn’t do CPR on him on the ground, didn’t do no CPR or nothin’ on him, got him in the Cleveland ambulance, took him. You see that’s all they did, you know what I’m sayin’? And I told the lady, ‘What you did, you called the police, don’t feel bad about that. Don’t feel bad about that; you was right; you did what you’re supposed to do.’ She said, ‘I didn’t have no idea they was goin’ to kill your son.’ She said, ‘If I’d ‘a knew they was goin’ to kill your son, I would ‘a let him got away.’ She said, ‘I feel bad, because I feel like his death was on me.’ And I told her, ‘No, his death is not on you, it’s on the man that shot my son. That’s who his death is on—the man who shot my son.’ (Audience: “And who was that?”) I don’t know the police officer’s name. (Audience: “Ain’t that a blip!?”) I don’t know his name; I don’t know his badge number; I don’t know nothin’; they haven’t made a statement on what happened to my son. (Audience or panelist: “Was it written up?”) I don’t know, no, nothin’s been written up. There’s no statement from the police... (Brenda Bickerstaff: “Excuse me, I can speak on that because I’m a private investigator workin’ on that. I can’t give out too much information.”) OK. (“But you know it’s goin’ through the court system.”) Yes, I understand. (“Your lawyers do have the name of the perpetrator. And I did interview the young lady who called the police. So, the names, they do have them.”) OK. (“So, you can talk to your lawyer; they got it.”) OK. Fine, but like I’m sayin’, my son was shot at 2:30 in the mornin’; I didn’t find out till 5. And when they came, this is what they told me, ‘Your son been shot by Cleveland Police. I don’t know no more, I wasn’t there, I don’t know nothin’ else, he’s just dead.’ They walked off. And we called around; and the guy that was supposed to be investigatin’ it; he was on vacation for 2 days. We had to wait 2 days for him to come back, and when he finally came back, someone else came to talk to us. He came to my door and he said the same thing, ‘He got into it with the police; there was a little scuffle; he dead; we don’t know no more. All we got to do is wait for everything to come back, and then we gonna check it for you.’ With that, that’s all I got to say, you know.” (Panelists/others: “Thank you. Thank you.” Applause)