Op-Ed: Soul Food for the Sister Cities

President Obama meets 1 of the 10 young men from Liberty City. Photo by Brother Soul Films.

By Don & Nancy Elisburg
Contributor

“I want people to see cops as their friend,” says Key Biscayne Police Chief Charles Press, who recently organized and led a group of 10 young men from Liberty City to the Obama Foundation’s My Brother’s Keeper Alliance Rising Conference in San Francisco.

For many it was not only their first trip outside of Miami, it was their first trip on an airplane.  After the trip, Chief Press and Watley Clervoix, a former Liberty City Miami Children’s Initiative advocate and mentor, shared their thoughts. Clervoix’s main responsibility was to record the events and experiences for the Chief Press Foundation.

Each of these men had a similar sense of the trip, but from different perspectives.  Each wanted to concentrate on the trip and the impact on the participants as individuals.  A sometimes bumpy five-hour plane ride, a ferry ride in San Francisco Bay, a personal visit with former President Obama and chance to shake his hand, and the conference events themselves made everyone’s head spin.  

Clervoix’s voice tells us all its how special this trip really was:

“This was a cop. This was a white cop. This was a cop taking a group of young men who don’t know what it is to have a normal father figure in their life.”

Seeing these events through the eyes of the young men will be memories they will never forget.  Each saw boys emerge as young men as the trip progressed. “The group went into their hotel rooms as boys and came out dressed to go to the conference as young men,” wrote the Chief.

Press has invested an enormous amount of time working with these young men in Liberty City.  His ultimate goal is to develop an atmosphere where cops are OK, cops can be trusted and cops are their friends.  Listen to Clervoix again: “Here is a cop, here is a white cop and here is a cop who took us on a trip of a lifetime as our friend.”

Says the chief: “Our team was one. No color, no white cop. Just respect and in some cases love for each other.  If they became men on this trip, I became a better man and have a much greater sense of their struggles.”

For all the good thoughts, parts of the conference were not pleasant for the chief, as there were many seminars and speeches that reflected the distrust of the police in areas such as Liberty City. “It was tough, as I had to take a deep and honest look at their reality, not mine,” Press reflected.  

Changing the image, however difficult, is still Press’ goal.  The love and respect this group showed the chief was moving to him and to Clervoix. “The bear hugs and gracious thanks Chief Press received at the end of the trip for all to see when back at the Miami airport will be one more lasting memory,” Clervoix said.

Clervoix is very knowledgeable about the home life, family issues and personal frustrations of those in the group. “It was miraculous for them to be chosen given their backgrounds and family issues. The special part was the journey and not the conference itself. You have to understand that many of these young men have no father in their world, or for some, fathers that would never consider trusting cops – ever. This was the hand of God at work,” he said.

Chief Press continues to have a very strong bond with these 10 travelers. They embraced the journey and absorbed the issues of the conference and understand their exposure to a new world. Press told his family back in Miami, “I am having incredible soul food on this trip, and I mean food for my soul, not my stomach.”

The next step is mentoring help for the 10 young men and to continue to reach out to others who weren’t part of the trip.