He Was Philando Castile’s Friend. Now He’s Running for Office.

[sirens] I hated that it had to get to this. I hate that it had to get to where we’re burning down our own establishments in our community. I feel like I’ve known George simply because of the way he died. I’m a black man, and I could suffer the same fate. I’m from right here in the state of Minnesota, man. My best friend was Philando Castile, who was murdered in 2016 by the St. Anthony police officer, Officer Jeronimo Yanez. There’s no doubt in my mind Philando was racially profiled and killed. We’ve always knew that nothing was going to happen to that officer. [crying] I’ll be cool. Some days, I’m cool. Some days I’m not. But I miss my friend. We keep having to deal with police killing black men in this state, and legislation — legislators not doing anything. I still cry about Philando being murdered. And here I am now crying about George Floyd. I can no longer show up, and have my bullhorn, and go to these listening sessions, and they give you two minutes to speak. Like, who are you listening to for two minutes? So I’m just going to jump on the other side of the table. I’m running to be the next State Rep of the Minnesota House of Representatives, because there has to be an accountability piece put into legislation. And the only way we get it into legislation is by becoming legislators, because they’re not going to do it for us. My community is sick and tired of being sick and tired. My community is sick and tired of asking people who can change laws to change laws, and they don’t. Running for office is the hardest work I’ve ever done in my life. But if I don’t, who’s going to do it? Are you scared of the police? Are you scared they may kill your daddy? They tell me that all the time. They’re scared the police may kill their dad. And so I have to show him, what I’m doing right now, that he can do that right there. He could definitely be the next president. He could be the next mayor. But if I don’t show him, who will? For the longest time, there’s always been a room full of white people making decisions for my community. And if we don’t have somebody from the community that has a direct connection, then we get another George. We get another Philando. Does that make sense? If we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu. I’m tired of being on the menu.