Whipple and Black Wichitans talk police, race and his childhood arrest for podcast

Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple opened up about his childhood arrest and diversion as part of a discussion on police and race issues in a new podcast.

The mayor, who is white, met with four Black men to listen to their experiences with police and their suggested solutions related to racial profiling and social justice. They recorded the podcast Thursday at the King of Freight headquarters in the former Gander Mountain building in downtown Wichita. They were joined by King of Freight owner Mike Ricklefs.

Whipple said people can get “caught in the system” where they can’t afford a ticket, lose their driver’s license and can’t legally drive to work to support their families. He said when it comes to petty crimes committed by young people, “we don’t want to ruin someone’s life who made a bad choice.”

The mayor then told a story of his own experience with the criminal justice system.

“I was arrested at the end of eighth grade,” said Whipple, who grew up in New Hampshire. “I had to do a whole summer of community service for breaking and entering. They kept me out of the system because as a first offender, I was young. I will tell you, because they were able to give me a diversion program — I was probably 13 or 12, I was stupid — because they were able to offer me this and let me go work, 25 hours of community service in the summer, I was out there painting churches, I was helping stack shelves at the library.

“Would I be mayor today if that record was there or if I didn’t have a way where I could redeem myself to my community and now I’m clean?” Whipple said.

He said he worked with at-risk youth when he came to Wichita and he wants the criminal justice system to “ensure that we don’t slow down your growth as a productive individual.” He added that “there’s a level of privilege for some folks.”

“If you looked like me, or any of us four, would you be mayor today?” asked Chris Barnett, one of the Black men on the panel, after Whipple discussed his childhood crime and diversion. “I don’t think so.”

The discussion came as police reform and social justice concerns have been elevated in recent weeks. In Wichita and across the country, peaceful protests have sometimes turned violent in the wake of the death of George Floyd.

Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died after a police officer in Minneapolis held him to the pavement while kneeling on his neck. The Minnesota police officer has been fired and charged with murder. Three other officers have also been fired and charged in connection with Floyd’s death.

Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement in Wichita have held large demonstrations, but have now turned to public discussions of recommendations or demands for police reform. The Wichita Police Department has already proposed changes to its general use of force policy.

Most WPD policies are available online at www.wichitapolice.com, though the general use of force policy is not listed.

Barnett, who is 36 years old, told of his experience being pulled over for a headlight that was out. He said he explained to the officer that it wasn’t actually broken, it just had a loose bulb. The officer made him step out of the car, and, in front of his family, asked him why he didn’t pay to fix the headlight if he had a job. He responded that the bulb just needed to be screwed in.

“What he says to me is: ‘You can’t spend money to get your headlight fixed, but I bet you can spend money to buy marijuana,’ “ Barnett said. “I tell him I don’t know what that is relevant to, but I can screw in this bulb, and it will be all good.”

In the time it took the officer to go back to his patrol car and write a ticket, Barnett reached under the hood and screwed the light bulb back in. Even after the headlight was fixed, the officer still gave him the citation.

“A police officer’s supposed to serve and protect,” said Aaron Jennings, another man on the panel. “Where’s the serving and protecting? Who are you protecting in that instance? Are you protecting other drivers? Because if that’s the case, you fixed the headlight. You fixed the headlight. So your family is safe. Everyone else on the road is safe. But to make that comment, it’s uncalled for.”

“They say all cops aren’t bad, there’s some bad apples,” Barnett said. “Police forces, there is no room for a bad apple in the police. Can’t be. ... You can’t be a surgeon and be a bad apple.”

Jennings, 26, told of an experience shortly after starting class at a new school as a freshman. He was called into a room with four police officers, a teacher and the principal. They read him his Miranda rights.

“You want to just tell us what you did, or do you want to make us dig it out of you?” the officers asked.

“I honestly do not know what you’re talking about,” Jennings replied.

The officers gave him a minute to think about it before telling him the accusations against him: taking and sending pornographic photos to two white girls. The police and principal pressured him to admit to it. He asked if he could talk to his parents.

“They said no, you made an adult decision, you’re going to get an adult consequence,” Jennings said.

He refused to make a confession and was suspended from school. By the time his suspension was over, the truth had come out: one of the girls had made a false report as part of a teenage love drama.

Jennings said that growing up, he respected police officers and firefighters after meeting them at events where kids would play in the water as firefighters sprayed hoses into the air.

“As a freshman in high school, I get completely blindsided with ‘I thought you guys were good guys and this is how you do?’” Jennings said. “After everything that happened with that, it changed my perspective on police officers. And I don’t know how it would have happened if I was white.”

Another panelist, 32-year-old Andrae Cottner, said he still thinks about — and loses sleep over — an experience from high school that didn’t involve police. He said he was 14 and was riding a bus from school to the gym. He and his friends were cracking jokes. Then a kid stood up.

“Why don’t you just go back to Africa,” the classmate said.

“I was really taken aback,” Cottner said. “It’s one of those situations where it goes from a good time to a terrible time. And as a kid, you really don’t know how to handle it, how to process it.

“It affected me. It affects to a point that as a 30-year-old man, I think about something that happened and something so small, three or four words or whatever. It happened so long ago. I still think about it.”

He said schools should do more teaching on the value of other cultures.

Troy Brooks, a 28-year-old panelist, said he was in a Kansas town when a friend invited him to his mom’s house to give a business presentation. He said the mom was “standoff-ish” and refused to shake his hand. He started the presentation before the mom stopped him and told him to get out.

“Why would you invite this (N-word) to my house?” the mom asked her son as Brooks left.

“I was like, what did I do?” Brooks said.

He went to a nearby coffee shop. A police officer then came and said a report had come in that he was causing problems at the house. Brooks told the officer that he didn’t do anything wrong. For about 30 minutes, he tried to leave as the officer cut him off.

“We just hate your kind,” the officer said. “I don’t know why you got to be here. I was told you were peaking in her windows, throwing rocks at her house.”

Brooks said he has never been arrested, but the experience has stuck with him as he is still leery of officers.

“I think about it now, if I would have stuck up for myself even or got mad, my daughter wouldn’t have a father today,” Brooks said.

The full conversation, including discussion on possible solutions to racial profiling and suggestions for police reform is available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4b8c5pkGc8.