RICHMOND, Va. -- There’s a newfound brotherhood in the City of Richmond between Richmond business owner Marquise Rose and Richmond Police Officer Christopher Shore.
The two formed a friendship four days ago during protest in the city when Rose said he made his way down West Broad Street looking at the some of the damage to small businesses.
“Something just told me to just show the world," Rose said. "Get on Facebook and just show them all of the issues that happened that night.”
Rose said he made his way to Lombardy Street where several stores had been looted and damaged. It was there that he met officer Shore.
“So I just went up and just struck up a conversation with him," Shore said.
“And so when I began to ask him questions, my approach to him was more so a guard, like are you one of those?," Rose added.
Rose said once the conversation started his views began to change.
“As we began to talk, the audience came around and we were just still having conversation and I was like wow, not every officer is not the same," Rose said.
“And it was great because they [the Facebook viewers] asked all these direct questions," Shore explained. "What our use of force policy was. What restraining techniques we use.”
His video, recorded on Facebook live, reached thousands of people and was shared hundreds of times.
“We already don’t do choke holds. We already don’t do a maneuver that puts a knee on somebody’s neck," Shore said. "We already police each other, as in if we see an officer getting upset or emotional on scene, we remove them from that.”
“Every officer is not a bad officer. And I want people to know that whether they’re black, white, hispanic, whatever color," Rose said. "But at the same time there’s also bad officers out there and those officers need to be identified, removed from the streets or as we say, retrained with people like Officer Shore who can hopefully train them.”
Both men want the community to know that it’s possible for police and the people they serve, to communicate and understand one another better.
“We need more brotherhood, and I know he’s a Caucasian male and I’m an African-American male but the community starts here," Rose said.
