‘I do my 100% best not to judge every cop,’ teen says

Part Two.

Matthew Brown is 17. He loves music and how it can capture feelings.

A debate program taught him to discuss issues with people who disagree with him and find common ground.

Matthew went with friends to protest police brutality. It was important to show up.

“Mass matters,” he says. He was heartened to see people of all colors and religions there. It made him feel hopeful.

He knows that Tamir Rice would have turned 18 this year. The 12-year-old Black boy was shot and killed by police in November 2014 while playing with a toy gun at a park in Cleveland. He was 12.

Too many Black people have been killed by police. Each is a lesson for

Matthew.

His mother taught him how to conduct himself around police. Don’t wear his hood. Keep his hands out of his pockets. Be polite.

“It frightens me, but I do my 100% best not to judge every cop,” Matthew says. He’s seen as many videos of officers doing good things as bad.

Even with his interest in government, Matthew doesn’t want to run for office.

“I feel like politics is too corrupt. I feel like it would corrupt me,” he says. “That’s not the fight I’m in for.”

Matthew decided to attend Phoenix

College, where he’ll take classes in audio production and business.

Someday, he’ll have his own music label.

“I have all the tools I need,” Matthew says. “I’m going to use them right to create the life I want.”

What scares him most is how he will be remembered when he’s gone.

“What kind of effect am I going to have in the world?” Matthew asks. “Will I be remembered?”

He hopes it’s for his music.