HYANNIS – “I did watch it,” said Jesse Barboza of the video of the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police. “I kind of wish I didn’t.”
“It was really traumatizing,” he said. “I don’t think people understand the effect it has had on a lot of people.”
For Barboza, 33, of Hyannis and the founder of the group, People Of Action, previous news of police violence against black men – a litany of names like Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling and many more – “all seem like the same day to me.”
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It was, in fact, difficult for Barboza to recall which event was the impetus for the formation of People of Action, a loosely organized group of 12 African American men who have taken it upon themselves to do what they can to strengthen ties between their community and the local police department.
The group was founded in 2016, but Barboza and others from People of Action interviewed for this story at first recalled the police shooting and killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri as the reason for the group’s founding. But that happened in 2014.
Unstuck In Time
With so many events, it is almost as if those interviewed for this story have become unstuck in time like Billy Pilgrim, Kurt Vonnegut’s protagonist in the novel, “Slaughterhouse Five.”
“These timelines, I’m surprised by how far apart they are,” said Barboza when told that the shooting of Michael Brown was in 2014.
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