Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Making His ‘Enemy’ an Ally: A Conversation with Leon Ford: Part 1

Transcript

Making His ‘Enemy’ an Ally: A Conversation with Leon Ford: Part 1 · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Learning to love ourselves and our messy and complicated truth
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: is hard enough. But what happens when you have that
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: feeling of otherness just hanging over your head, where you
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: don't feel understood even within your own tribe. How do
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: you confidently grow into your own skin or maybe even
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: grow out of it when the road to acceptance and
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: healing is so rough and bumping. Welcome back to in
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: the deep stories that shape us. I'm your host, Zak Stafford.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: If you've been following us since day one, you're familiar
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: with the stories of hardship. Our guests have shared those
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: struggles of identity, discrimination, or health, and how these people
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: have managed to move forward despite their circumstances. And if
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: you're new, well check those stories out. You won't regret it.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: We're going to continue listening to these stories from black
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: and Latin X people, hoping to gain clarity and get closer,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: even if just a little, to a road of healing
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: and understanding. I think by now all of us have
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: had some understanding that many black people living in America,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: especially black men, have that other type of talk with
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: our family, the one that teaches you to keep your
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: hands on the wheel or respond with yes, sir, no
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: sir answers when interacting with police, and regardless of how
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: much you prep in advance, no matter how many different
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: scenarios you recreate in your head, can a person really
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: be fully prepared for those human reactions, those feelings of anxiety,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: or that fight or fight feeling that can take over
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: in times of danger. As a black man myself, I've
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: had my own experiences with the police throughout my life.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: I've had the cops who follow you around town, hoping
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: you miss one stop sign, do one thing they can
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: deem suspicious. And as a journalist, I've dedicated most of
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: my life to exploring how these cops misused their power
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: towards people that look like me all around this country,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: much of which has been inspired by my own personal experiences.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: But through all of these years and countless stories, I
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: have yet to ever sit down and have the conversation
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: you're about to hear to day, a conversation with a
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: man who was pulled over, was shot by the police
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: five times, and became paralyzed at the age of nineteen,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: and today is working to not defund the police, but
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: rather change them from within. Leonford's powerful story brings up
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: so many questions for me personally and challenges me even
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: more because even more than his body of work, Leon's
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: journey begs the question can you truly heal and continue
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: to help others all while facing your inner pains and
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: stigmas that have plagued you in your community for a
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: long time? And even more powerful, can you take this
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: healing and turn the people that have wronged you, those
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: that have hurt you into a sort of ally for change.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: So I am from the east side of Pittsburgh in
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: a neighborhood called Garfield. It's like a small town, you know,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: we're all one degree of separation away. And so I
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: was fortunate enough to build relationships with, you know, all
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: of my different relatives all throughout Pittsburgh. I was a
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: kid that always wanted to be outside. They used to
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: call me professor because I was also I was also
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: the kid that could have a full conversation with any adult.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I remember just being at the table while my grandmother
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: and aunts and uncles were playing spades. The games used
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: to be rowity, but there was like a lot of love, Whereas,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: like you know, towards the corner, my cousins would be
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: shooting dice, and my grandmother would say stay away from
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: the dice game because you know, you just never know,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: like somebody's gonna fight or something, you know what I mean.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: I played football growing up. I didn't love it as
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: much as my son loves it. I have a night
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: year old son, and he loves so Paul. I mean
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: in each hands that I like, could skip football practice.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: I was definitely doing. At what were you doing when
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: you skip football practice? Just hanging out with friends, right
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: and uh, dirt bikes and just hanging out. Would you say,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: this time of your life, you're pretty happy with everyone
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: and everything going on, Absolutely happy. I was spoiled. So
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: when I was five or six years old, my dad, uh,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: he was indicted by the FBI for conspiracy to sell
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: drugs and he actually served maybe fourteen years in federal prison. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: so that was my first huge shift in my life
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  Speaker 1: where my dad was a very active father, you know,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: supported the Little league football teams and things, and then
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: you know, he was snatched away. Something that really stands
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: out in Leon's story. It's just this idea of manhood
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: of fatherhood because on the one hand, he has his father,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: his own personal superhero, but on the other he has
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: the world's opinion of his character. It's almost like living
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: in between two worlds, one where his father is very present,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: a great man, friend, a great leader, even, and another
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: where he's getting hurt, stabbed, shot, or even arrested. I
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: can relate to that feeling because my dad was also
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: hurt like Leon's. He was even indicted at one point two,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: and there's feelings of anxiety that feeling of am I
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: next are incredibly difficult to shake. So I felt like
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: I lived in two worlds. In one world, always was
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: like a star student, and the teachers treated me really
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: well because they knew that my parents were engaged. And
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: then once my dad was indicted, they kind of looked
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: at me like deferently, like I was a problem child,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: you know, like I had done something wrong, and my
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: relationships with school changed because of that. I instantly felt
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: my blackness, right, I felt my privilege kind of be
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: stripped away, because I do feel like I was privileged.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: My father was very well respected, and there was like
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: this deep reverence for him as a as a person
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: because he's just a stand up guy, you know, Uh,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: He's a person who keeps his word. He took care
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: of so many people, from you know, saving homes from foreclosure,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: to paying taxes, supporting youth sports, and just you know,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: being someone that people in the community felt they could
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: lean on. But that has a huge heart. So one world,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: I'm revered even though my dad went to prison, and
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: people are like treating me well and trying to look
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: out for me since my dad was gone. On the
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: other side, you know, these predominantly white teachers were treated
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: me like I was a criminal. So that was very confusing,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: and I was struggling with why. You know, five and
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: six years old, I didn't have the language to say,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: maybe because I'm block and they think my dad's a criminal,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: and so they think I'm going to become a criminal
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: or you know, I don't know the reason, but I
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: certainly felt it. I felt the shift. I still have
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: the first letter that my dad wrote me when he
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: went to prison. He basically said that I'm not to
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: blame for him going to prison. My mom wasn't to blame.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: It was his fault, his the choices that he made.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: He broke down the importance of rules, how rules and
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: laws are similar, how all laws and rules aren't right,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: but until we change them, we have to follow them
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: right in a way. And he said, you know, wrote
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: about how h he wanted me to, you know, listen
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  Speaker 1: to my mom, follow her rules, and he wanted me
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  Speaker 1: to become the best part of him, not the worst part.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, in reading this letter and being so
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: close to my father, I thought about the possibilities of
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: me being incarcerated one day, and that certainly frightened me.
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  Speaker 1: So even now I go to therapy and I'm a
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: huge mental health advocate. There's certain things that I experienced
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: from my father that made me who I am. But
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: I won't necessarily do it to my son or say
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: those things to my son, right, So I appreciate them,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: and I appreciate my father for him doing his best.
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  Speaker 1: Just because I've been exposed to a different way of
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: engaging with trauma and healing doesn't negate the lessons that
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: he learned throughout his life. And so I'm like moving forward,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: but I'm also acknowledging the past. And you know, I'm
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: acknowledging the lessons from my father and my grandfather, even
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: those lessons that society today may say are very harsh,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: which is complicated, you know, what you're saying takes me
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: back to something my dad said to me. He said,
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  Speaker 1: I want you to be better than me, and what
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  Speaker 1: that requires of you is to be different than me
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  Speaker 1: and to deal with things different than me. So I'm
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: still be me and treat you how I know how
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: to treat you, but do not be me. Be different,
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  Speaker 1: because you will be better. So here is Leon existing,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: living his life, listening to his father's advice be different.
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  Speaker 1: But then on a regular Sunday morning, he gets a
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: call from one of his cousins to hang out. Something
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: tells him to stay, but he decides to go anyway.
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  Speaker 1: Leon and his cousins are really into fitness. They work
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: out all of the time. They're so close. They boxed
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: together and even have a packed not to do drugs.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: But on this day, his cousin is hanging out with
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: a girl and Leon gets a whiff of weed. His
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: cousin has broken the pact. They all decide to go
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: to their grandma's house, but Leon goes alone in his car.
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  Speaker 1: I got my car and drove off. I drove to
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  Speaker 1: the corner to stop saying made a left, and so
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: I was driving the correct way on the one way street,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: and then I saw a police cruiser coming towards me
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: the wrong way with no lights on, just illegally driving
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: down the street. And so when we passed each other,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: I had to like move over a little bit, and
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: I locked eyes with those police officers and instantly knew
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: that they were going to pull me over. I get
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: asked this question often, like how did you know? It's
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: just an instinct. It's just hard to explain to people
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: who have never had that experience what that is like.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: And so I get to the next stop. Sound, made
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: a left, drove about a block, made a right over
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: a bridge. As I'm driving over the bridge, guy said,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: I say, behind me, police cruiser and they are speeding.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Through investigations, we know that they were driving about ninety
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: mile an hour trying to catch up to me. They
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: call it fishing. That's the term that they used. Uh
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: so they we're definitely fishing. And so this police cruise
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: just speeding behind me. I knew they were going to
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: pull me over, and so, you know, I began to prepare.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, I didn't have my seatbelt on, so I
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: put my seatbelt on. You know those types of things, right,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: I want to stay, put their lights on and out
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: immediately pulled over. I used to keep my driver's license
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: and registration in a little zip block bag, so I
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: got that for them and the officer immediately I just
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: came to the window and just snatched my license and
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: it's you know where you going up, telling what's going
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: to my grandmother's house, and h eggs and them that
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: I do anything wrong, and he said, I ran the
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: stop up saying he went back to the cruiser to
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: run my name. Everything came back Claire that the car
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: was registered to me. But then he decided to type
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: in Elford. So you can imagine on their system typing
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: al Ford, every name from Linda, Larry, any name or
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: social the al that's gonna pop up, and so he
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: just basically decided to pick lamont Ford. I get frustrated
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: a lot with this because the media, they would say, oh,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: they thought he was a gang member, or they thought
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: he was a criminal, and he wasn't this criminal he was.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: He wasn't this game. He wasn't this bad person who
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: they thought he was. The reality is that la Montford
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: didn't even have a active warrant that night I was shot. Yeah,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: and so life for the record, he didn't have an
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: active work. So even if it was, even if I
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: was al mont Ford, La Monteford wouldn't have deserved what
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: happened to me. The idea of justice in Leon's story
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: is so complicated because even if you think, well, damn,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: he shouldn't have driven off and stayed and complied, this
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: idea of being punished for having a human reaction feeling scared,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: feeling worried, feeling defenseless, isn't usually a means for such
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: a drastic punishment. I've seen this time and time again
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: in my own career, especially when I covered police in
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: these incidents. At times, cops play the parts of both
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: juror and prosecutor, tipping the scales to their favor and
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: hopes of gaining a couple more informants for their needs.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Going back to Leon for a second, think about it.
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  Speaker 1: He's nineteen, the police are confusing him for another person,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: and lamont Ford, he's scared, and no matter how much
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: he pleads, they are not taking no for an answer.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: It's his word against authorities. At that point, I was terrified.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: You know, nineteen years old, gave my driver's license, registration
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: and car insurance. These officers. Now we're telling me, well,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: how about you get out of your car and come
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: to our car and look at this photo of Lamont Ford.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: I never heard anything like that before, so I told
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: them I don't need to know what lamant for looks like,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: and saying we'll get your block ass out of the
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: car before we pull you out. It was that moment
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: where I kind of thought, well, I'm not getting out
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: out of this car because I felt safe inside of
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: the car, and one of the officers reached in through
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: the window and locked the door, opened the door. Two
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: officers both grabbed me and tried to yank me out
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: the car. So when I put the car and drive,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: the officer on the passenger side immediately jumped inside of
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: the vehicle and within a half a second begin firing
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: shots point blank range. And I was shot once in
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: my neck, twice in my chest, once in my arm,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: and once in my hip. One of the bullets that
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: went through my chest is the bullet that paralyzed me. Wow,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: you said that you felt safer in your car, you know,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: and I'm sure you grew up knowing that police were
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: that s aggressive in your neighborhoods. What do you think
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: was in you that day that said, I better hit
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: the gas to the pedal, because you know, that's something
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: when I talked to white people especially and they look
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: at these reports, they'll say, well, you shouldn't have driven off,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: you should have stayed. You would have just listened. But
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: it sounds like everything in your body was saying, get
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: out as fast as you can. And the fact here
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: is that you were right, you were in danger. You
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: did get shot. But why do you think your body
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: said try to get out? In that moment? I did
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: not feel safe around these police officers and they weren't
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: taking no for an answer, and I felt like they
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: were going to harm me, and so you know, I
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: thought my best bet was to drive off. My parents
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: told me, you know, don't drive with your hood on,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: don't have friends in the back seat, don't blast music. Right,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: So my parents gave me information. However, I didn't have
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: the language to say, hey, I don't feel safe. I
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: would like for a supervisor to come to the sea. Now.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that would have changed anything. However,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: I feel like it's a duty of mine to equip
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: young people and people in community in general with the
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: language to protect them, to potentially prevent them from experiencing
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: what I experienced. And even with those words of caution
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: in his head from his parents, Leon woke up in
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: the ICU. He wakes up to a police officer in
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: the room without his family. Confused. I remember there was
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: a suction tube that I would use to get out
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: of the saliva out of my mouth because of the tubes,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: and I was hooked up to all these you know,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: i VS and things, and I accidentally dropped the suction
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: my mouth. You know, it was full of saliva and
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: I'm like China, spit it out. But I began to choke.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: And as I was choking, you know, I was banging
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: the bed to get the police officers attention, and he
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: turned the TV up. Wow. As I was choking in
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: the machines are going off. And then you know, nurses
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: ran into the room and they, you know, they got
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: the saliva out of my mouth. They were so upset
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: with this police officer, but they too felt powerless. But
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: it was just like man, I had so much fear
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: and anger that began to crystallize into hatred. I was
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: shockled to the bed even though they knew I was paralyzed.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: I was arraigned from my hospital bed because I was
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: charged and I couldn't see my family for almost two weeks,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: and I didn't even know why. They actually had to
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: hire an attorney to figure out a way to see me.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: I was devastated. When my family came to visit me,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: I was I was so happy, man, and I would
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: just remember their sadness. They're worried and just like my
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: dad when he was shot. You know, I was in
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: the hospital bed saying I'm okay, I'm good, even though
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: on the inside I wasn't. The mental emotional leaving physical pain.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: It was unbearable, you know. I remember hitting the button
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: repeatedly to take more fame to get them to come
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: just knocked me out. I just wanted to sleep, and
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: so when I would wake up, I would be out
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: for a while and it felt like a dream, and
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: then I would soon be knocked out of gain Battam Murphy.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: I think most people would have grown resentful or maybe
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: just given up on life after something so traumatizing, but
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Leon's journey never ended with this tragic day, and though
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: he was left with conflicting emotions at times, he quickly
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: realized that if he wanted to heal, truly heal, he'd
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: have to open himself up to things he never even
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: imagined and with people he never thought would be willing
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: to lend a hand. And this is something we will
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: cover in Part two, because Leon's journey is as complex
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: and beautiful as it is powerful, and proves how healing
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: yourself can sometimes come by lifting others up along the way.