Politics

'Raised by Hendersonville,' Charlotte cop urges hometown to help youth

Andrew Briggs speaks at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Breakfast.

By Bill Moss, Published: January 19, 2015

A former street cop, homicide detective and drug squad officer who now trains police officers, Andre Briggs urged an audience at the 15th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Breakfast to honor King's dream by doing good beyond their selfish iPhone-centered lives.

"For us to live up to Dr. Martin Luther King's dream, it has to be bigger than just us," said Briggs, a 1984 graduate of Hendersonville High School and a Charlotte police officer since 1987. "I can't stand here before you and say that this is an easy challenge. It's not. Because you're going to have to stand up for those people you've never seen, don't know, maybe don't even want to know. That's the way we're going to be successful."
The son of Loretta and the late Donald Briggs, Briggs grew up in the 800 block of First Avenue West. He was raised "by the G.E. community," where his parents worked.
"Hendersonville raised me, by the things that I saw, the people I became involved with, my friends in high school," he told the audience of several hundred. "I couldn't be here today" without mentors. "My hope is, if you have a dream, you act."

"We have the power, the opportunity to do better in our own lives," he said. "We have the power to also do better in our neighbors' lives, our brothers' lives, our sisters', the community, people we don't even know. I've made a promise to myself that this year I'm going to do things for other people, I'm not going to do it just for my family, I'm going to touch somebody's life once a week. That's the purpose of everybody in this room and that's the thought you have to have for everybody to be successful."
With racial tension rising from police engagements with young black men across the country, he noted, people understandably are upset.
"I make a promise that I'm going to be the one to make a difference. Because you know what, I have choices and everybody has those same choices. I'm telling you, you cannot be afraid to stand up when something's wrong," he said. "It's a hard choice to make, I get it. Dr. Martin Luther King died for it. I'm going to stand for what I believe. I need you to stand, too."
Now just a year and nine months away from retirement from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, Briggs said he plans to found a mentoring program in Hendersonville for at-risk kids. He exhorted the audience to join him in reaching out to help at-risk youth, to save an "angry young black man" from bad choices.
"We can live out the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King but that's only if we're willing to step outside the box and not be selfish," he said. "This isn't about one man or one woman. This is about Hendersonville. This is about what Hendersonville did for every person in this room — whether you played sports or not, whether you danced in a group or not. This is about Hendersonville and what Hendersonville has an opportunity to do. ... "
"Here's my hope: that we can be people that just don't talk, just don't post something on Facebook or Twitter," he said. "We don't point the finger anonymously. And guess what, when a police officer in New York does something wrong, we feel it in Charlotte, too."
The program also included performances by Sandra Suber, Shanita Jackson, Annie Demps, the Speak Life Dancers and Releve dance studio.