Benjamin Brooks, 83, has spent the last six decades of his professional life — first with the Pennsylvania State Police and now with his own consulting firm — modeling how to de-escalate conflict before it spirals into rage and violence.“We say there are two perspectives. You react when you don’t know what to do. And every time you react — it goes wrong,” Brooks said.last year. Brooks said we first need to stop reacting.“It isn’t being properly addressed.
Friends since elementary school, McDowell and Brooks graduated high school in May 1957 and decided Elizabeth City had too little to offer. After a brief military stint, they left home, moved in with their respective aunts in Philadelphia, and after a string of factory jobs proved dissatisfying, hatched another career plan.
“There was Klan activity and atrocities were committed, especially at night,” Brooks said of his childhood in relatively peaceful Elizabeth City. He recounted stories of white men driving the highways with hooked sticks to grab Black men walking at night.PSP had its own growing reputation for blatant racial discrimination, but Brooks said his professional life proceeded without much overt racial animosity.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Bolden becoming the lead plaintiff in a class action suit against the PSP, which found racial discrimination was rife within the agency. During his two years in the city, he graduated from the FBI National Academy. In 1982, he was the first African American to be promoted to the rank of captain.
I bet getting this guy to name one problem in the black community is hard. Can’t solve problems if you are unable to be truthful