Excuses that once found even an iota of validation from “areas of uncertainty” are being thrown out the window because expedient technology and social media are coloring in those grey areas with the brightly-colored, red-hot truth.
Bold Facts.
The reason?
Knowledge.
Common phrase “knowledge is power” may be a cliché, but it is an undisputed one.
Possessing a skill and having familiarity, experience, or expertise is NEVER a disadvantage…. especially when your life is on the line.
What if simple bits of information could save your life or change the outcome of a situation where the odds are already not in your favor?
Would you take action to protect yourself?
Solomon’s Shield is a new app available in the Apple and Android app stores for managing emergency and non-emergency law enforcement engagements.
Hopefully you never find yourself in a situation where you feel compelled to save your own life at the hand of law enforcement, but the reality is that if you are a person of color, if that day hasn’t happened… it’s really that that day just hasn’t happened yet because statistics show that this dreadful, ridiculous encounter may just be right around the corner.
Did you know that black people are most likely to be killed by police? Not a total shock unfortunately, right? Did you know that they are 3 times more likely to be targeted than white people, though? In more detail, 13 of the largest United States city police departments kill black men at higher rates than the nation’s murder rate.
In 2015, 99% of cases resulted in officers involved in crimes NOT being convicted. Meaning, that that year, there was literally a 1% chance of proving an officer’s guilt in performing criminal activity!
The judiciary and legal system is designed to uphold that one is innocent until proven guilty, but too often, the reality is that an officer doesn’t operate with this in mind.
Precious lives are being taken because basic human rights are being evaded. And unfortunately, when these rights are evaded, it is 3 times more likely for it to be a black man lying in the middle of the street after lifting his hands in surrender, or a black man choked to death by law enforcement for selling loose cigarettes. The odds are astonishingly different when the melanin level in the citizen’s skin changes. Sounds basic, right? Last year, Dylan Roof, a self-asserted white supremacist and convicted mass murderer of 9 African Americans shot and killed innocent people in a church including a senior pastor and state senator and was the center of a statewide manhunt but when upon being detained by police, he was not met with physical force. He must have been hungry because he was taken to Burger King.
Solomon’s Shield is the brainchild of black men who understand the facts. Attorney James Jarman III says “the stakes are too high”. He explains that the app is designed to do something right now. If legislation is to be changed to more actively protect the lives of all citizens, the lawyer of nearly 20 years welcomes the notion but he has produced a tool that provides the ability to “take action to protect ourselves, right now.”
Jarman and many men like him understand that it is time to change the narrative. He shares, “we have steadily tried to appeal to the ethos of getting people to see how wrong things are to try to make things better but we can no longer simply appeal to a system that is proven to protect us the least. We must do what we can to protect our lives and change the probability of deadly police encounters. The lives of our young men literally depend on this.” Says Jarman.
Jarman graduated from historically black college and universities: North Carolina A&T State University with a B.S. in Management and from Howard University School of Law.
Solomon’s Shield is a black-owned business with its primary purpose being to shield the lives of those with odds against them before, during, and after police and law enforcement interactions.
The app is free and encourages people who are likely targeted by police officers to know the full extent of their rights and how to navigate these situations. Solomon’s Shield features:
- scenarios and suggested responses to shield your life and yield the best possible outcome
- a dictionary of words and phrases so you understand exactly what officers are communicating
- the option to go live and video the encounter so no there’s no chance for the situation to be hear say or an officer’s version of the encounter
If you do not know something in 2017 it is because 1 – you do not want to know or 2 – you are not conditioned to crave knowledge and then – act on this comprehension.
Download the app. Empower yourself and understand your rights and even more than this, learn what to do to shield your life. www.solomonsshield.co
If you are reading this article and you know someone whose life was taken or devastatingly impacted at the hand of law enforcement, share this information to help defy the odds.
