New Year, New You, New Story

New Year, New You, New Story


On January 21, 2019 at the East Cleveland Public Library, 1:00pm there will be a panel of intelligent, relatable and relevant people to have a discussion about the problem of negative community and police relations.  As the host of this panel discussion I feel that its important for all of us to consider a few questions as we enter the year 2019.


WILL THE NEW YEAR BRING A CHANGE IN COMMUNITY VS. POLICE RELATIONS?


Here is the answer:  
    NO, if we as the community and police officers individually decide that holding on to our pre-set mentality about each other is more important than change.
    YES, if we all understand the power of our minds and use that power to change our thoughts, which will change our behavior, which will change our lives.


I believe that we all must make the decision in favor of change because otherwise we will continue to suffer from negative interaction with police and negativity in our personal lives. 


HOW CAN WE MAKE 2019 A BETTER YEAR THAN 2018?


One definite way to make this new year better than the last year is by planning to make it better.  I’ve found that too many of you sit back and let life happen to you.  You live the exact same life every day without any planning.  The unfortunate result is that many of you are finding yourselves in legal situations, bad relationships, destructive environments and you are depressed about it all.  If you would take just a little time to plan and map out your future many of those situations will be avoided.  I am an obsessive planner.  Though I know that I can not control every possible situation that life throws at me, I am committed to controlling the things that I can. Here is a short list of the things that you can control.
    1. Your friends
    2. Your conversations
    3. The places that you go
    4. The things that you do in public
    5. The effort you give on the daily basis
    6. The attitude that you reflect


I could continue with this list but I believe you get the point. Plan how you want your year to be and live each day making the decisions that will lead you to completion of your plan.  


HOW WILL PLANNING MY FUTURE HELP WITH THINGS LIKE AVOIDING NEGATIVE INTERACTION WITH POLICE?


Please understand that I don’t believe that you can avoid every single bad situation.  You may encounter a bad teller at the bank. You may encounter a bad worker at McDonalds.  You may encounter a bad police officer.  I am not suggesting that by planning your life will be perfect, I am suggesting that when you choose to plan your life you will make “close to perfect” decisions or at least decisions that are right for you.  For example, you can avoid many bad tellers by going to a different bank. The same holds true for a bad worker at McDonalds, go spend your money somewhere else.  Now to avoid negative interactions with police officers, especially those who are considered “bad” these are my suggestions.  
    1. Never argue with a police officer who pulls you over.  Think about it, are you going to argue yourself out of a ticket?
    2. Never run from the police.  You know what they say, if the police have to chase you they are bringing a butt whooping with them.  Well that may not be the case most of the time but how do you think your interaction will be when they catch you.
    3. If you don’t have a license don’t drive.
​
Social Media: @judgedawson