Staff Writer
While working for a gang-violence suppression team with the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) in 2011, officer Jason Lehman received intelligence indicating that gangsters were plotting to ambush him and his team of officers in a nearby park.
Lehman’s team avoided the ambush, but this personal experience with local violence in Long Beach inspired him to gather information on local gangs— and possibly stop those who were planning to kill the officers.
He visited schools in the area to speak to children that may have been influenced by gang violence. A member of the school asked Lehman during one presentation if he had an official name for the anti-violence program that he had shared with the children.
“Well, most of the kids I talked to always asked me, ‘Why’d you stop me?'” Lehman told the Signal Tribune during a phone interview about locals who inquire about police encounters. “So, that was the name.”
Why’d You Stop Me? (WYSM) is a phrase pertaining to instances when officers stop citizens for questioning. It also became the name of a nonprofit program that was aimed at defusing tension between police officers and the community members they protect. The program began to spread when it was introduced to the Long Beach Gang Reduction, Intervention and Prevention Program (LBGRIP), a grant that supports anti-gang efforts.
Soon after, WYSM recruited the help of volunteers and shared its goal with communities and law-enforcement agencies. WYSM hosts fundraiser events to continue funding other planned presentations across the nation.
To spread its message, WYSM hosted a presentation called “Power of Partnerships in Community Policing” on Saturday, Jan. 28 in the Packard Building, 205 E. Anaheim St.
The event included a skit on 911-call misconceptions, informative presentations about WYSM and guest speaker Tommy Norman, who is a community policing expert from North Little Rock, Ark.
Lehman spoke with the Signal Tribune on Tuesday to talk about Saturday’s presentation and to explain the program’s main objectives.
“Fear is the root of every act of violence,” he said. “If we can admit to being fearful, then we can begin to understand each other.”
Lehman gave the example that two menacing gangsters aren’t fighting each other because they seem dangerous, but because they are afraid to lose turf or be caught by the police.
The WYSM program aims to put police officers in the shoes of community members and vice versa to understand the other’s point of view. However, not all who attend the program’s sessions believe in this goal at first glance.
While giving a presentation about WYSM in San Jose, Lehman said he encountered resistance from a 13-year-old boy, identified as Ernest, in the crowd.
“He just stood up in the middle of the presentation and said, ‘F-ck the police!'” Lehman said.
The officer said that after the four-hour-long presentation, Ernest’s feelings toward police officers changed. Lehman had videotaped Ernest and showed the video during Saturday’s event. He said the 13-year-old told him that he learned how officers are just trying to save lives, and he would help police officers if they needed it.
According to Lehman, children being raised not to trust the police will never get the chance to be told otherwise— that they are there to protect citizens.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”300px” img=”https://signal-tribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.06.31-PM.png” align=”left” lightbox=”on” caption=”Attendees hold hands at the anti-community violence program Why’d You Stop Me (WYSM) event on Saturday, Jan. 28 as an act of unity.” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off”] Rodney Coulter, an ex-gang member and recovering addict, was also at Saturday’s event.
Coulter found himself behind bars frequently throughout his young adulthood prior to joining WYSM as a community member. He developed a mistrusting attitude toward police officers.
During the event on Saturday, Coulter told the audience about a life-changing moment he experienced in his past while sitting in a jail cell in 2008. He said that a funeral for a slain SWAT officer was being televised, and the words that were being said about the officer were more about the person he was rather than the profession he had. Coulter said that while he sat there and watched the funeral, he began to think the officer could have been his friend.
“Blaming today’s cops for yesterday’s behavior would be like me, as a black person, being angry at every white person for slavery,” he said. “When I was introduced to this program, and I was looking for opportunities to repair the damage I created in the community that I claimed I love, it was a no-brainer.”
Coulter said that changing his views on police officers was a learning process. For example, he said that when police officers pulled him over on the street, he no longer saw the encounter as a threat to his life.
“The moment I made a decision, the struggles were minimal,” Coulter said. “I just had to unlearn some bad habits and relearn some good ones. When you remove a large part of your life, you have to replace it with something.”
A reoccurring topic Lehman spoke about during Saturday’s event was the police-community tension that took place following the shooting of teenager Michael Brown in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. A sense of division and mistrust consumed the city and viewers across the country.
Despite controversial events, such as the recent inauguration of Donald Trump as president, the WYSM program’s goals have not changed. Lehman said that he believes police and community relations are only getting better, and that politics play a miniature role in the way WYSM operates.
“At the end of the day, we want to stop police killings,” Lehman told the Signal Tribune. “We deal with the human condition. It doesn’t matter if it’s President Obama or Trump. That plays a very little role in our program.”
