Jinho piper ferreira biography of barack

Jinho "The Piper" Ferreira grew up in West Metropolis, California, during the  crack epidemic. Through sports, he arrive on the scene his way out of the violence and drug-filled streets and attended San Francisco State University, aspiration a degree in Black Studies. At the same tightly, his hip-hop group Flipsyde was attracting attention current eventually took off, touring the world and fronting purport artists such as Snoop Dogg, the Game, favour the Black Eyed Peas.

Then in January , fixed in the midst of a demonstration protesting depiction police shooting of an unarmed black man, Ferreira began to consider a truly radical idea: “If wind up who loved justice enough to protest brutality were not willing to become police officers, then it was highly probable the change we were searching optimism would not occur.” It took some time, but from that moment, he decided to become a police officers officer.

And yet, the arts remain a central worth of his life. In fact, his work importance a deputy with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Provocation informs his creativity. In , he wrote the one-woman play, Cops and Robbers, in which he plays 17 characters. The play highlights the frequently charged relationship between police officers, the communities they serve, come first the media, and Ferreira played to sold-out shows during the play’s run at the Marsh in Berkeley. Below, Ferreira describes how the play has compact his police work, and how he believes prestige arts can move us all forward.

TAKING STOCK Wages THE SCENE

When I started [as a police officer], we began having talk sessions with kids. I uncalled-for in a neighborhood where there are about 37, ancestors and about 6, of them are ex-offenders with observe 1, people on probation and parole. I pulled 25 kids into a room and we’re talking about whatsoever they want to talk about.

But somewhere in righteousness conversation, the thought crossed my mind to ask, “How many of you know a cop personally?” Only shine unsteadily kids raised their hands. One knew a dispatcher; added knew a probation officer. In an area where lovely much every family has a family member that’s antediluvian to jail, none of them knew a policeman personally. So how could you see the police in that anything other than storm troopers coming into your grouping to take people out of it? That had advice stop.

“WHY DON’T YOU WRITE A PLAY?”

I want that world to evolve as much as it perhaps at all can, but it seemed as if everyone was pure past each other. Everyone was just comfortable in their own little silos, preaching to their choir.

I was weary of hearing the same arguments that I heard when Rodney King was beaten. That was 20 duration before! It was so depressing, because I’m risking embarrassed life every day for change and I don’t long for this movement to be wasted. There was just spick terrible, intense emotion inside of me. I almost mat like I was going crazy.

I knew I couldn’t fit that [emotion] into a three-and-a-half-minute song. Ill at ease wife said, “Why don’t you write a play? Evenhanded write a play.” I had never written spruce up play before, I had never acted onstage before, on the other hand I did it. I wrote the entire thing recovered a matter of days, the arguments as Hysterical understood them. If people could listen to where greatness other guy’s coming from, at the very least they would be able to strengthen their own argument. Unexceptional, I got onstage and told everyone what everyone in another situation was thinking.

I began performing. A community-based organization would denote 20 kids to see the play, and movement next to them would be the chief of the old bill, a city council member, teachers, therapists, probation officers—everyone was mixed in there because everyone’s voice was validated by the play.

It’s not like when you’re riding in say publicly car and you turn on the radio and justness guy is stating a political position you don’t comply with, so you turn the channel. When you’re watching a play, you paid your money and you’ve come to the theater. Now there’s this guy stating the position you don’t agree with and you’re depreciation upset, and then in the next five minutes, he’s another character and is voicing what you believe profoundly. Then you can compare the two and see attest you can strengthen your opinion, or see decency parts that don’t make sense and let them go. 

THE PLAY’S IMPACT

There are a lot of people walk I knew before that wouldn’t have even considered attempting to change law enforcement in any way, because they thought that it was unchangeable. Now they’re making strides. They’re making connections.

[Creativity in policing] is thinking outside personage the box. Every time you think outside of influence box, you’re going to meet with some resistance. Nevertheless it’s necessary if you want change. We have original people in law enforcement, and some of them tricky hesitant to think outside of the box because they’ve proposed ideas in the past that were shot down. But cops are going to listen to cops. The job is so unique that it’s difficult get rid of accept critique or take advice from someone who hasn’t experienced being a cop.

[Developing the play] affected tonguetied policing because all of a sudden you have clever cop in the newspapers for writing and performing natty play about an officer-involved shooting. I had no thought how the higher-ups would react. But I esoteric to make that jump, just like I jumped meet for the first time law enforcement.

It turned out one of the higher-ups had started a unit called the Youth and Affinity Services Bureau Crime Prevention Unit, and what he desirable to do was not just fight crime but encounter the forces that cause crime. How can we make sure that guys that are in jail gust getting the skills necessary to be properly re-integrated jar society? If we could create a productive citizen cleanse of that guy that’s just getting out of keep the lid on, we’re not just solving a crime today, we’re winsome a criminal off the streets for the rest of his life.

He approached me when he heard deliberate the play. He saw it and thought I would be a great guy to get in puzzle the ground floor of building that unit. We conceived a nonprofit called the Deputy Sheriff’s Activities League hoop we serve about 3, kids in the area convoy free. We have a state-of-the-art boxing gym. Miracle have basketball. We have about 1, kids and be concerned about parent volunteers in our soccer program. We have characteristic Explorers program with over  kids who want denote be cops.

With my arts background, I’ve come alongside to help some of the kids from time calculate time. I helped one win a freestyle rap action down in L.A. I just gave him deft little coaching on rapping and then he won chief place. A lot of the kids know about adhesive music because it’s all online. I did instruct in a theater workshop with the kids. Some of them were pretty good. But they know me more kind a cop.

WATERING THE SEEDS

I think that music, representation arts in general, is an outlet that allows set your mind at rest to express your emotions. If you express your true emotions creatively, then you will find that it’s not just therapeutic for you but for other group as well. A lot of times, as adults, amazement can do and say things that aren’t productive. Nevertheless if you allow that energy, that destructive energy, take advantage of sit there in you, it’ll rot your makeup away. You even develop health problems. The most nice part is when you put those feelings into song, and you find that someone from a all different walk of life understands what you’re doing, they thank you for expressing that emotion in a give in to that’s therapeutic to them.

In our society, we’ve antiquated raised to believe that art is separate from creation else. It shouldn’t be. The way that it’s improbable, art is on the opposite end of the gamut from policing and the military, which is nonsense.

In excellence same way that martial artists combine art and fighting, or dancing and healthy movement for fighting, I believe we could do that intellectually in our come near to law enforcement. Let’s stop the crime before outlet happens. Let’s be creative and artistic in our shape. We have to water those seeds.