Episode 74: Dakarai Larriett - Driving While Black

A flashing light in your rearview mirror can change your life, even when you’ve done nothing wrong. Grantley Martelly sits down with Dakarai Larriett, an Alabama entrepreneur and public servant, to unpack a 2024 Michigan State Police traffic stop that Dakarai says spiraled into humiliation, fear, and a wrongful DUI arrest despite a negative alcohol test. What starts as a routine roadside interaction becomes a case study in racial profiling, discretionary policing, and how quickly your rights can feel conditional on an officer’s assumptions.

We dig into the aftermath most people never see: the long FOIA fight for body camera footage, the frustration of partial releases and redactions, and the reality that “charges dropped” does not always mean “record erased.” Dakari explains why qualified immunity can block accountability, how the incident still surfaces in background systems, and why transparency in evidence handling matters for public trust and for ethical law enforcement.

Dakarai shares the thinking behind a proposed Motorist Bill of Rights, including federal standards for traffic stops and real-time video uploads to a neutral third-party cloud so defense teams can access evidence without months of delay. He also connects generational trauma to the present, discusses his memoir Don’t Flush, and explains how this experience helped push him into an Alabama US Senate campaign focused on criminal justice reform, economic opportunity, education, and community-based policing. 

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Transcript

Cold Open: Wrongful Traffic Stop

Dakarai Larriett 0:00

I was dropping a friend off and suddenly saw the flashing lights of the Michigan State Police squad car. And it was just a night of dehumanization, humiliation, terror. And they kind of gaslit me and led me to believe that I was failing all of those tests. They said that I smelled of alcohol. They accused the passenger and myself of smelling fruity. And I think that was substantiated by seeing the homophobic and racist post of the troopers' social media. I was handcuffed, taken to a local hospital, tested negative for alcohol on the spot. They did not tell me until I questioned them about it. Then they just kind of moved the marker again and said that I needed to go to the jailhouse to sober up. And at the jailhouse, I was accused of trafficking drugs by way of ingestion. And that ultimately became the name of my book, my memoir.

Meet Dakarai Larriette

Grantley Martelly 1:10

Welcome to Above the Noise, a podcast at the intersection of faith, race, and reconciliation. And I'm your host, Grantley Martelly And it's my honor this morning to have my guest. His name is Dakarai Larriette. And he has an interesting story, one that I'm sure will keep our attention and cause us to really think about the world that we're living in today and the things that are happening in the world today. And we will end with his run for the for Senate in Alabama. So, but let's begin at the beginning. Dakarai, would you introduce yourself to our audience and then we go from there?

Dakarai Larriett 1:57

Oh, well, thank you so much for having me, Grantley. And again, my name is Dakarai Larriette. And I think above all, I'm a survivor, someone who's been through so much, but I've always tried to turn it into something positive. And born and raised Alabamian, uh son of a public school teacher and an Army serviceman. And my dad's work took us around the world. And after many years of traveling to places like California, Oklahoma, Washington State, Germany, we came back to Alabama. I excelled in school, but could not find work in the state. And then that led me to New York City, where I built a career in public service and supply chain, started my own business. But uh love brought me back home to Alabama in the pandemic. And I did the same thing, got involved with community work here. And due to a false arrest that happened in 2024 when I was actually traveling outside of the state, I finally decided it was my moment in time to enter public service on a full-time capacity and decided to run for United States Senate representing the state of Alabama.

Building A Pet Products Business

Grantley Martelly 3:04

Thank you very much for that introduction. And we're going to get into each of the segments of that introduction there. So let's talk a little bit first about. You said you're a business person. What what is your business that you're doing right now?

Dakarai Larriett 3:19

I uh about 14 years ago started a pet products business out of my garage, and it was inspired by my late poodle, Dada, who was terrified of thunderstorms. And I was looking for a way to soothe him, to put him to bed, uh, so I could actually get some sleep myself. And I experimented with all types of products, so aromatherapy candles. That seemed to work. So then I started formulating and working with labs to come up with shampoos and sprays and other products that complemented the candles. And then that spawned an entire collection of pet care products. And now our products are sold around the world.

Grantley Martelly 3:58

And what's the name of your business or your product line?

Dakarai Larriett 4:01

Gerard Lyriette. So that's my middle name and my last name.

Grantley Martelly 4:04

Okay. And those are available in pet stores around the country or on Amazon, places like that.

Dakarai Larriett 4:10

Yes, online. We've been in all types of different stores throughout the country. Pet Food Express in California was actually one of our biggest accounts, but now we're mostly online, which allows us to get directly to the consumer and interact with them freshly and directly.

Grantley Martelly 4:27

That's great. So tell us a little bit about your youth growing up. You said your parents traveled around a lot. Your father was in the military. So where do you call home? Or did you adopt Alabama as home after that? Or that was actually where your parents were from?

Dakarai Larriett 4:44

So we're actually we're from Alabama through and through. And I would say, you know, Alabama is always going to be home. I was drawn back. And frankly, I just missed my family living in New York City for 15 years. It's very different from Alabama. Uh, and it's very difficult to maintain those relationships with family members you love when you're so far away, especially as they start to age. So Alabama's home, and um, I see myself living here for uh the long time.

Faith Journey And Finding A Church

Grantley Martelly 5:15

So let's switch to your faith journey. Uh tell us a little bit about your faith walk.

Dakarai Larriett 5:23

Well, I would say um it's a hike, maybe not a walk. Uh so it's very interesting. My grandfather was actually a Catholic in the Deep South. And that was the family religion for a very long time. And my mom, my aunts and uncles, they all went to Catholic school, and that that's just what it was. And I was baptized as a Catholic. And when we moved to Germany for my dad's service, some Jehovah's Witnesses came to the door. And when you're on a military base and you're away from home, you're always seeking that community. It's difficult sometimes to find that community when you're moving around so frequently. And that's what the Jehovah's Witnesses provided. And we ultimately converted to Jehovah's Witness. So that's what I mostly remember growing up until about 21, so college age, I was a Jehovah's Witness. And then I, as I became more educated, more traveled, started to question the religion, uh, a lot of its tenets. For example, and ironically, they're apolitical. So voting, even, is a big no-no in that faith. So now I'm running for office, right? So there are a lot of things that I started to see and experience as a college student. I decided that was not the right religion for me. And I actually took a hiatus from religion for about 20 years. And until a friend invited me to service at the United Methodist Church here in Birmingham, I, you know, was faithless. And for the last three, four years, I've been uh worshiping as a United Methodist, and I found that to be a really welcoming home.

Michigan Stop And Jailhouse Humiliation

Grantley Martelly 7:16

I like to ask my guests about their faith journey because that's one of the things that also helps people to ground in and realize, you know, that because sometimes people hear you're running for Senate or you or Congress or you're doing this stuff, and and it can sort of put a distance between them. But well, I'm not, I can't do that. But when we talk about where you're growing up and your faith journey and stuff, it sort of helps people identify, well, he's just like me. You know, he he just like me. He just chose this path. So that's one of the reasons why I like to ask those questions, just help people identify you with the things that may seem that are normal for us and some of the things that we seem that may be too distant for us to connect on. So let's talk about this experience you had where in 2024, I believe, you were driving through Michigan and um you were stopped by the Michigan police. And tell us what happened there.

Body Cam FOIA And Alleged Planting

Dakarai Larriett 8:15

Yes. So it was the early hours, April 10th, 2024, and I was dropping a friend off, and suddenly saw the flashing lights of the Michigan State Police squad car. And it was just a night of dehumanization, humiliation, fear, terror. I was accused of running multiple red lights, which I did not. Then I was put through seven sobriety tests in the cold, and they kind of gaslit me and led me to believe that I was failing all of those tests. They said that I smelled of alcohol. They accused the passenger and myself of smelling fruity, which I took to be a homophobic slur. And I think that was substantiated by seeing the homophobic and racist post of the troopers social media. I was handcuffed, taken to a local hospital, tested negative for alcohol on the spot. They did not tell me until I questioned them about it. And then they just kind of moved the marker again and said that I needed to go to the jailhouse to sober up for marijuana. And at the jailhouse, I was accused of trafficking drugs by way of ingestion, forced to use the restroom publicly in front of the booking officers, the troopers, uh, other inmates, and told don't flush. And that ultimately became the name of my book, my memoir, that talks about that night and how we moved forward from this. And I guess the most shocking thing came about five and a half months after the incident. So my driver's license was confiscated. I was humiliated. And then when we got the body and dash cam after filing multiple FOIA requests that they partially fulfilled, very partially, we found that the troopers were attempting to plant drugs in my vehicle. And that became national news after I shared it on social media.

Grantley Martelly 10:30

So all of this started under the pretext of a traffic stop? Yes.

Dakarai Larriett 10:37

Which makes it so dangerous. And uh for people who look like me to drive. And I've heard so many different things like, oh, well, you shouldn't be out after 10 o'clock. Like, I'm an American. I can drive anytime I want. You know, I just need to, of course, follow the laws, which I did that night. And there was absolutely nothing in my system. I was not intoxicated or appeared at all. And that's what all of the tests showed. This was a racially motivated stop we found in our review of the FOIA that they were making fun of my name, my African name, before they even stopped me. So before we were face to face, they were calling me Dacquiri Dacquiry. I hope you're not drinking Dacqueries, pronouncing my name with a very humiliating accent.

Grantley Martelly 11:28

So they got your information by pulling up your license player before they before they got out of the car. Of course. What did were you actually charged with? Was there actually a charge that came out of all of this?

Dakarai Larriett 11:42

It's so frustrating. They charged me with driving under the influence of drugs. Their own test proved that there was absolutely nothing in my system. No illegal drugs, no medication, nothing was in my system, no alcohol. So even before we got the test results back, the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence. I was never even arraigned. I never saw a judge, nothing. So we're in this weird gray space where I've never actually been arraigned. I've never even gotten a receipt to say, hey, your charges were dropped. In fact, when I talk to the prosecutor's office, they're like, well, it's like as if it didn't happen. And this is part of our legal argument and suit is we need this to be completely erased from the system because I'm going to live with this for the rest of my life. In fact, I tried to get my global entry renewed just a couple um months ago, and I had to explain to the officer what happened in April of 2024. So it is not a race from my record. And it's just so unfair.

Grantley Martelly 12:51

It's still showing up there. It is still showing up on the records.

Dakarai Larriett 12:55

It's showing up as if I were charged for something but never prosecuted. And we need it to be completely removed because it was a wrongful arrest.

Grantley Martelly 13:03

What you're saying sounds familiar to many people of color, because we hear this story over and over and over again. And it seems like it never stops.

Dakarai Larriett 13:32

Let's see. We made it to the jailhouse, I believe, at 4, 4:30 in the morning, something like that. So I was, as they call it, lodged. And then early in the morning, a public defender came by, and those who accepted the public defender were arraigned. So they got to go in front of a judge. I declined a public defender and said that I would seek my own attorney. So within a day after, I retained a DUI attorney. And the funny thing is, I say I retained, but he wouldn't even accept payment. He was so upset by what happened that he made a call over to the prosecutor's office and got the whole thing dropped within a week. So um he wouldn't even let me pay him.

Grantley Martelly 14:25

It was so obviously egregious to him what was going on there. Yeah. So that case is still ongoing. Is that correct?

Dakarai Larriett 14:34

So the criminal matter is ended. However, we need to get it completely cleaned off of my record. After that, we opened a grievance with the Michigan State Police. They cleared their troopers with a three-word rebuttal and said that there was absolutely no wrongdoing. So keep that in the back of your mind. We have them on video conspiring to plant drugs in my vehicle. I was jailed with nothing at all in my system. Even the booking officers at the jailhouse said, This is really weird. Why am I jailing you? Like you're not intoxicated. He literally said, like, this is a very weird situation. Why are we jailing you? So despite all of that, despite the cyberbullying I've received from folks affiliated with the Michigan State Police, they completely dismissed that matter and refused to remove my information from their database. So after all of that, we have sued the state police. And unfortunately, at the lower court level, it was dismissed due to qualified immunity. So the Michigan State Police submitted edited video, video that they thought would exonerate them. So they redacted parts of it. For example, they don't show the torture in the jailhouse and the humiliation of having to use the restroom publicly, being yelled at, things of that nature, uh, conversations that were incriminating. For example, they uh questioned my friend once we were separated, where did I get my car from? Is it really my car? Despite the fact that I provided all the documentation and ID that they requested and was fully compliant. So they were just in disbelief that a black man was driving a Cadillac. That that's essentially what happened that night.

Grantley Martelly 16:25

And it's funny if you played cars too nice for you.

Dakarai Larriett 16:28

Well, it's interesting. Before they pulled me over, Grantley, the white trooper George Kenya goes, nice ride. And throughout the night, they say Cadillac or nice car, or how's the car uh holding up for you? I've never seen a car like this before. There are five or six references to how nice the car is throughout the night, and as if it were not uh appropriate for me to drive it.

Grantley Martelly 16:53

I know your car and not a rental.

Dakarai Larriett 16:56

No, that's my car. It was your car. Your car. Wow. Yes. So after all of that, um we did file an appeal, and now we're sending the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. And that was to be an oral argument on the fifth. It was at the very last minute changed to a review of the briefs. So we're awaiting the results of the three-panel judge review of the briefs.

Grantley Martelly 17:23

Thank you. Again, I'm sorry, I'm sorry that you had to go through this, uh, but it does it seems like it's a no it's not normal, but it's something that we hear about so often for people of color uh driving being, or sometimes you can be being accused in the wrong place, or you know, or driving the wrong car, as though there's some cars that are made for black people, and some cars that are made for other people, right? Right. These kind of things. And it's amazing to me how these officers or these people, these these racist people, don't even have a clue of how their own language and their own statements, and even sometimes the things that they write down in their reports are actually telling the story that they're trying to hide.

Motorist Bill Of Rights Proposal

Dakarai Larriett 18:11

Yes. That is so true. That makes sense. It's so true. And since this has happened, since I went public and shared the video and it went viral, other victims of these two troopers, George Kenya and Matthew OK, have come for it to me. And it's just, it is so upsetting that they remain fully employed by Michigan State Police. And, you know, if you're not upset about a black man being mistreated by the state police, be upset that your tax dollars are paying for the defense of these individuals. Be upset about that, right? Um it's really um a miscarriage of justice. And that's why I've started to author legislation. So I've written what I call the Motors Bill Rights, which protects all of us when we're on the road. And it identifies what are specific, federally agreed upon reasons to stop someone because it's too much of a fishing expedition. And then once you do stop someone and have these interactions, what happens to the evidence? Why does it take months and months of fighting? And in my case, $600 to get the evidence, and then it's redacted in a way and spun in a way to protect the police and to demonize me. So I want that evidence to be uploaded to a neutral third-party cloud in real time that public defenders, my defense can access and use to hold law enforcement accountable.

Grantley Martelly 20:07

So the motor, the motorist bill of rights, is that tell us more about that. Is that a document that you have written that your distribution, or this is something that you're working with legislators to try to get passed as law?

Dakarai Larriett 20:20

So I'm I'm drafting it myself. So I've already written a few op-eds and socialized the main tenants of it, and I'll be building it out even more over the next couple of months. And it's something that I would love to see passed federally because, again, in my situation, I was living in Alabama, and this happened to me in Michigan. So the laws are constantly changing as you move from town to town, state to state. We've got to provide these protections federally. And we continue to see all of these new laws come on, like the uh Back to Blue Act, which is recently introduced into the Congress from 2023, believe it or not. So they they brought that one back. That is basically applying qualified immunity federally. So we're going to get to a point where no one in the public has protections, but law enforcement can essentially mistreat anyone they want without repercussions.

A Family KKK Roadblock Memory

Grantley Martelly 21:17

And it's important that it be federal because we also travel freely across the country. Exactly. People go from state to state to state regularly. And uh, if you live in certain parts of the country, you can go through three states and one day just get into work.

Dakarai Larriett 21:32

Easily.

Grantley Martelly 21:33

So just having it apply to one state would would be good, but it wouldn't uh fulfill the the broader aspect that people are free to travel freely across the country, and therefore they should expect to be treated certain ways as they travel. I want to bring up something else. I you sent me uh a short excerpt from your book, and I I read some of that, and you talked about in the very introduction your grandparents, I think it was, and they're having an interaction as they were driving one night as well with the Ku Klux Klan. And that really stuck out to me.

Writing Don’t Flush As Therapy

Dakarai Larriett 22:16

Yeah. You know, my grandmother hates telling those stories, and I just thank her so much for sharing some aspects of the family history and allowing me to document it, but that story. Was just so painful. And it's one that stays with me now. Like it's almost uh it's like a shared memory. But essentially, they were on a date in 1957 in Birmingham, where I live, and ran into a KKK blockade. So the exactly what you would say uh you see in the imagery and movies with the Burning Cross, and um they wanted them to get out of a car and they refused, and they managed to get away from that fiery scene. And I guess the part that sticks with my grandmother and sticks with me is they looked for folks who are vulnerable. So it was a couple, they resisted, they got away. But as they were leaving, they saw a single black man driving in the direction of the blockade. And it just kind of sits in my grandmother's memory, like for all these decades, like what happened to him by himself, right? Um, going into that interaction. And the whole thing just mirrors exactly what I experienced in 2024. You know, you have an extrajudicial situation, and then you have sworn officers that are abusing their authority and terrorizing the public.

Grantley Martelly 23:47

So this experience caused you to write a book. Tell us a little bit about that book, when it's coming out, and what caught what what was the main motivation for putting this down in writing that you would like your readers and the whole country to know.

Dakarai Larriett 24:04

Well, it began as interrogatory. So small stories around what happened that night for the purposes of the investigation and the lawsuit. And it ultimately became a part of my therapy as well. So just getting the stories out there, off of my chest, lots of crying. And finally, I said, well, why don't I just tell the full story? And not just what happens or what happened, what happens next. And how can we address these issues with legislation, with thoughtful legislation that doesn't demonize cops, it protects all of us, including law enforcement by bringing transparency to the process and very clear expectations around engagement. So it was probably about a nine, 10-month process of writing. And I've never written anything so long before. So I spent a lot of time with editing as well and making sure that we were telling a story that people understood and then could respond to. And I was able to launch the book, I believe, in August of 2025. So it's been out for a few months, and um it's available on Amazon and in select stores in Alabama. And the title of the book is Don't Flush. Don't flush, which kind of harkens back to uh that horrible dehumanizing command that I received from Trooper George Kenya in the jailhouse.

From Wrongful Arrest To Senate Run

Grantley Martelly 25:42

So before we go on, I just want to take a moment here and thank you, my listeners and my viewers, for watching and encourage you to leave a review or subscribe to this podcast so that we can continue to grow. If you're enjoying the story from Carrie and the work that we're doing, your support's really important to us, and we appreciate that. Now back to the story. So your book is available where books are sold, and it released in August 2025, Don't Flush. Out of this whole experience, then the false arrest, the imprisonment, the lawsuit, and the book, you decided to run for Senate in the state of Alabama. Walk us through that journey a little bit, how you came to that point to where you decided to do that. And what is your vision as being a senator, a potential senator in the state of Alabama?

Dakarai Larriett 26:41

Yes, it was certainly not a straight path. I spent the summer of 2024, spring and summer, trying to hold the troopers accountable. So I utilized my own connections, my political connections, knowing folks in government across the country, and secured meetings with legislators, secured three meetings with Governor Whitmer's office, so the governor of Michigan, no one took responsibility. Governor Whitman's office said that they didn't have accountability, even though they appoint the head of police, Colonel Grady, that agency reports into the governor's office. So I completely disagree with that. The attorney general, Dana Nezzle, did nothing. And shockingly, the prosecuting attorney, the one that dropped the charges against me, refused to take any calls, refused to respond to any emails, to show up to any meetings. I reached out to the local city council, to the local mayors. They assured me that they were working on my matter with the state police, but refused to show up for any meetings. And it was that anger that made me say, finally, I am going to do this myself, and I'm going to write the laws and change the laws and show that they work for everyone. So we have a criminal justice system that works for everybody. And I started just speaking to people across the country in Alabama. You may have heard about the documentary, The Alabama Solution, which just was nominated for an Oscar. So it really highlighted our criminal justice system in state, which is also a failed criminal justice system. And as I started speaking more and more to people, I realized it wasn't just these systems that were broken. It's everything that feeds into them. It's the lack of economic opportunity. It is the lack of health care, mental health, it is lack of education opportunities that creates a school-to-prison pipeline. All of these things work together to create a failed criminal justice system. And that was the genesis of the campaign. It was creating policies that are people-centric, that invest in Alabamians, and finally kind of clean up this mess that we've been left with over the last generation of Republican-controlled um government.

Grantley Martelly 29:16

So where where are you in the process now of your run for the Senate?

Dakarai Larriett 29:21

So I filed April of 2025. So I've been out on the road traveling all of the state and uh meeting, gosh, thousands and thousands of people, talking to people on the phone every day. And we've raised our first $100,000, which is a big, big hurdle as a Democrat in the state of Alabama. We've garnered national attention. So I qualified to run officially uh just last month in January of 2026. And we are coming up on the primary May 19th, and then the general election is November 3rd.

Grantley Martelly 29:58

And you're feeling pretty confident that your your campaign is moving forward and that you're you are gonna win the primary.

Dakarai Larriett 30:06

Momentum is building. Um internal polling looks really good, but it is uh a sprint to the end. So just got to continue uh going out and meeting people, um, increasing my name recognition within the state. And I do feel really good about our process.

Grantley Martelly 30:27

So you've gone through a lot, and we've talked about a lot in a very short in a 30 minutes. You know, we've talked about a lot of stuff that could all be a podcast episode in and of themselves. Right. In and of themselves. So this is like the intro to the carry and the work that he's doing. And we will give you many ways that you can follow his campaign and follow him. But the Carrie, tell us in all of this, what are some of the things that you have learned that you that rise to the top as you talk to people, as you share people in the community, what are the some of the things that rise to the top that you just want people to know and understand that even in 2026, these are issues that still need our attention?

Dakarai Larriett 31:24

What I've really taken away from the last almost year is we're much more similar than we are different in terms of what we need and want from our government, from our leaders. And people just want you to be transparent, be ethical, and everyone just wants a fair shot. So that's why we've got to invest in our people again. So everyone wants a fair shot to be a responsible member of the community, to earn a good living, to be able to afford utilities and food. And folks are just struggling. And that's what I've really been able to see is the degree to which people really are struggling. And obviously was aware of challenges within my own family, but being able to speak to thousands of people, there's a lot of pain that we just don't hear about directly. We have a way to fix that if we vote in leaders who have a plan and will implement it and we'll create people-centric policies.

Community Policing And Bad Incentives

Grantley Martelly 32:29

Yeah, that's good. I I I like the I like the way that you put that. I interviewed uh let me preface this. I didn't I didn't I didn't tell you I was gonna ask you this question, so if you don't want to answer it, don't answer it. But I just remembered that I interviewed a gentleman in a previous podcast who actually worked in the Bush and the Obama campaigns on police reform and trying to help uh craft police reform in the country. And there are many things in those reports and they're publicly available. But one of the things that he was saying that they found was when you have when people have opportunity, when people have jobs, when when people feel empowered and appreciated, and all of these things, it helps to reduce the negative impacts of policing on communities. And I think there's some truth to that in some ways, but when I think about your story, you had all of those things. You were educated, you were employed, you were obviously you're driving a nice car, so you were doing pretty well, you know, you all of those boxes were checked, and yet you still have that experience where you are. So I I was beginning to think about is that is that the only answer, right? Because it cannot be just on us to adjust. Right. Right what about the police responsibility to to adjust? Does that sort of make sense?

Dakarai Larriett 34:12

Yeah. Well, the way I see it, you know, the term that we use now is community-based policing. And that is that intersection of investing in people so that they have opportunities beyond a life of crime. And I have a, you know, I've never been arrested before. I didn't know what to expect from that night. It was terrifying. And a lot of that is because my parents invested in me. My mom was an educator, is an educator. Um, education has been a big part of my life. And yes, you know, I was dropping a friend off so that he could go to work, and then I had work in the morning. So that's how you allow folks to feel like a valued member of their community. And that's frankly what keeps people out of trouble. So we saw the COVID. There were a lot of people who were unemployed, that were not active enough. And we saw a surge of violence around the country. Now we're starting to see some dramatic improvements in crime throughout the nation. I think a large part of that is the end of the pandemic and implementing better policies around community-based policing and ensuring that we build trust between the police and the community and implementing mental health supplements. So when there's a mental health crisis, creating those partnerships with organizations that can assist the police so the police can do what they do, and then mental health professionals can do what they do.

Grantley Martelly 35:50

So one of the things that I have I've said for a long time, and I and I still believe this that police should be required, talking about community-based policing, right? Police should be required for a certain amount of hours of their shift, every shift. This is just my belief, what I what I would like to see, to park the car and walk a community for at least an hour every shift. Get from behind the wall of separation. Because it's not just them, all of us. Maybe we get into our cars or vehicles and we're driving. It's like a separation, right? We're driving through communities, we're going here with the thing. But where we park, you know, it's like the difference between going to the drive-thru or going into the restaurant. It's a different experience. Yeah. And I don't know if you have any comments on this or not, but to me, it seems like part of community policing would be to walk and talk to people and share with people as part of every shift. And I know a lot of times they say we'll be busy, we got a lot of calls and stuff. And it's a chicken before the egg, because I also think that could help reduce the amount of calls if you're more in the community. Because if something happened, you're there. Does that sort of make sense more than just policies and procedures? And but what about actually being physically present in that community and building relationships with the people in the community where you patrol?

Dakarai Larriett 37:20

I love that idea. And here in Birmingham, we have our community board meetings each month. And I would say almost every month, we have an officer come in and speak. So again, you're building those relationships. I see my police chief regularly. We work out at the same gym. So um it works being active and accessible in the community. And I love that idea. Now, I think just the layout of American cities is very different than like, for example, in Europe, where you do see a lot of uh police officers on the street. We have suburbs here in Birmingham and uh in Alabama and in the US. So that may be slight uh slightly part of the challenge, but I think it's a great idea.

Grantley Martelly 38:09

Yeah, I mean, to me, I think there's nothing more than those relationships, right? In in terms of because it seems to me if you're always in your car, everybody's a stranger. Unless you have a place to meet them like you, like at the gym, you happen to be at the same gym, or you happen to be live in the same neighborhood, or your kids go to the same school, you see them at PTA meetings. But the other thing that I learned is a lot of police officers don't even live in the communities where they're patrol. Right. So the opportunities to interact with them outside of the uniform and the car for many people is non-existent.

Dakarai Larriett 38:44

That is a challenge, and we see that here too. One, differences have different pay scales. So obviously, right, um police officers will shop for the best uh opportunity for them professionally. And uh we do see that that folks are outside of the urban areas, they come in from the counties, like you mentioned, they're in their car. So we have some work to do in that space, I think. And certainly I would love to see like you have at least a target, maybe not a quota, of folks within the community that are working for the police force that are of the community.

Grantley Martelly 39:26

Yeah. Well, thank you for indulging me on that. That's just something I taught to police chiefs. If I get a chance to talk to police chiefs about, I always say, what do you think about this idea, you know, and and president? Because you see those clips sometimes, uh, not to be layer with this, but you see those clips sometimes on YouTube where the police gets up with the car and they go and play basketball with the kids or they go up to a lemonade stand and you know, try to buy lemonade and a cookie, you know, and it goes on YouTube and it sort of goes semi-viral with, you know, the police officer with the belt and everything on, trying to trying to play two-on-two with a few kids in the community. And even though it may be fun and thing, the reason why it's post is because people appreciate the fact that they took the time to interact with those kids or to interact with those people in the community, you know, or the one that the other day would just stopping to, you know, help the person take their groceries upstairs because he could see that she was really, really struggling and out of breath. And somebody posted that and it was so well received. That interaction with that person just carrying two bags of groceries up the stairs to their door. Most people don't consider that to be anything significant. We would consider that is what we should do. But when a police officer stops and gets out of the car and does it, it's like it takes on another level of community service. Right. It's like it's amazing we see them do this. If you or I did that, people would say, well, that's what Grantley and the car is supposed to do. You see something. When a police officer does it, it's like, wow, it goes viral. Moments are important. Those moments are important to people. And I guess the reason I keep that talk, I talk about this more than we want to talk about it, but as I think about your story, is you know, it's easy for us to dehumanize people that we don't know and make false assumptions about them. And I was reading your story and listening, listening to you talking, reading the sections of the book. That's what came to me was it was easy for him to dehumanize you. He didn't know you, he didn't have any relationship with you, he didn't know what you did, all the things that made you who you are. He had no connection to that. It was just a person, I'm stopping this person, and this person is the color of their skin, and started going down this road without any connection. And I I think I get I think the difference then is the difference between a number and a person.

Dakarai Larriett 42:05

Mm-hmm.

Grantley Martelly 42:06

If I if you're just a number to me, I can treat you any way I want because you're just another number. But if I know the carry and I see you and I'm like, yeah, okay, I can give you the benefit of the doubt automatically just because of our relationship.

How To Help And Stay Connected

Dakarai Larriett 42:23

Yes. And you mentioned a number. I've discussed the situation with the former prosecutor from Michigan and was shocked to learn that they have scoreboards in the back office at police stations where it's like you get X points for a DUI, you get X points for a drug bust. And obviously a drug bust uh is more advantageous and it gets you promoted, and then you are able to have more favorable hours and routes and things of that nature. So we've also got to look at the incentives around policing and ensure that, again, it's keeping us safe. It's not something that's misaligned or revenue driven.

Grantley Martelly 43:07

Yeah, that that's that's so important, you know, that you would get a score for doing things, whether it's real or not. So I I I really want our our guests to identify with you. So uh the last two questions I have for you are you know, what are three things that you would want us to take away from this conversation today?

Dakarai Larriett 43:30

I think it's so important that folks think about how they can get involved politically this year. Uh it nothing perks me more than folks who say I'm not political. If you don't do politics, politics will do you in. So I want people to think about if that is as simple as actively participating in a primary and of course a general election this year, great, do that. But also think about volunteering on a campaign. Find someone who's aligned with your goals, help them to get the word out about what they're trying to do to improve your community. Um, that's the first thing. Second is really try to put yourself in the position of those who are suffering right now. So I think it's very easy to see what's happening in Minnesota, the immigrant community, and those. Who are caring for that community. Try to put yourself in that situation. Obama said it very nicely that reading novels and I guess like extension memoirs taught him empathy because you can really get into someone else's mind. So I encourage that of people and allow that to get your heart to be more open and again to vote in a way that's appropriate with your heart, with your religious conviction. And finally, think about what kind of country you want to leave your children to uh as a legacy and is this it? Is this the best that we can do? And I think we can agree that's not the case. So what can we do differently? So all of the above peacefully protest. What else can we do differently to make sure that we're leaving this country in a better place? That's as simple as sharing a post, do that. And all together, all 300 million of us, it can make a difference.

Grantley Martelly 45:44

So how what's the best way for people to get a hold of you if they want if they want to learn more about what you're doing?

Dakarai Larriett 45:51

Follow us on social, so we need uh folks who are engaged on social media that have great followings to amplify us. That's how ultimately you get the word out. And I would say check us out at Dakarai Lariette for Senate on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and then of course on our website, ducarilariet.com.

Grantley Martelly 46:15

And your book, Don't Flush, is available where books are sold. Yes. So we actually there's a whole bunch of ways for people to get a hold of you and to and to keep up on what you're doing. And my hope for you is that your case will be resolved soon and that you will get the justice that you deserve. And also that your Senate campaign, you get to be elected and to be able to use this experience, what for some people would be a negative, well, it was a negative experience, but to change that negative experience into something that then creates change that benefits the whole country. So I wish you the very best in your in your Senate campaign. I wish you the very best in the resolution to your court case, and I wish you the very best in your business because you still have the business that supplies the festival business. So you've got a lot of things going on. You're a busy man. So thanks for taking the time today to have this conversation, and I wish you the very, very best.

Dakarai Larriett 47:22

Thank you so much, Grantley. It's been pleasure. Thank you.

Grantley Martelly 47:29

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