An ex-cop's journey to racial justice advocacy: 'I choose my people, I choose my community'

The path to becoming a community and youth advocate wasn't straightforward for 30-year-old Federal Way resident, Evan Cook.

Cook, a former Eastern Washington University Police officer, shared his journey from the force to the front lines of community activism.

W

hen I went into college, I wanted to be a football player — it was NFL or bust, you know. So I signed up for the general communications athlete degree. But then I was like, "Oh, I don't want to have that cliche type of degree." So I was like, "I'll do criminal justice." I like Law and Order — I love that show.

I kind of had no ambition of going into law enforcement whatsoever. I was just interested in the law and the degree; I really enjoyed the classes. One professor really spoke to me, and it's probably the first time I even thought about it. I was just, you know, a class clown or whatever.

I went to the [Eastern Washington University] police chief and was like, "What do you think about me pursuing a career in law enforcement?" because I did an internship for them. At 23 years old, I never had a real job like that — no career or anything. So it was pretty exciting, to say the least.

I have a theory that people who commit crimes aren't criminals. A criminal is somebody who is purposely out here trying to wrong people for their self gain, right? Crime is [done by] somebody who's kind of forced into situations and has to commit certain acts to survive.

Stealing is a crime, but a person who steals a pork chop to eat — which is another situation I ran into — that's not a criminal. That person doesn't deserve to go to jail or have warrants out for their arrest, or be in handcuffs.

Law is money, law is power. So whoever's got the money, whoever's got power influences law. And whoever lacks money, whoever lacks power is subjected to having that law enforced upon them. If you think about it, police are just there to rule and control the poor class.

There was a situation that happened to me in college where an officer showed discretion — it was a white officer too. I had to thank him when I actually became a cop because he could have hooked my ass up for a DUI, but he didn't. Why? Probably because I played football and had influence on campus. If I can do that just on the university level, think about what your prosecutors and [district attorneys] are doing when they get certain cases that come across their desk.

I ran into a situation where I had to investigate a theft, and it was this kid. He said he forgot something, the cashier said she saw him put something in his pocket. But the kid said he had every intention of paying for it. So I said, "Is it okay if he pays for it? The cashier says, "Yes, it's okay that he pays for it."

I thought that was a great justice moment right there — the kid could pay for it, she said he could pay for it. I mediated the situation, and nobody went to jail — he was a young man of color too, I think he was Samoan — nothing was stolen. Even if he couldn't pay for it, I would have paid for the shit and gave him a lecture. Boom — he walked away. To me, that's justice.

He asked me, "Do you want something ?" My breath was hot at the time so I'm like, "Yeah, get me a pack of gum." I closed the case and said it was just a misunderstanding. I think that was my mistake — I probably should've went and did a police report.

I was about to go leave on vacation for my honeymoon and as soon as I got back, they call me into the office and are like, "You know you're under investigation for abuse of authority?" They asked me to resign.

I was pumped because honestly, I was kind of going through it being there. This is 2014 and Eric Garner is already dead, Mike Brown's already dead, and so many others. So I'm over here walking around like, "Fuck this badge" anyway.

I used to look in the mirror before work and be like, "Do I really want to go do this?" I can't speak up on behalf of my people and by wearing this [badge], I feel like I am advocating for the police, which is the system that continues to lock our people up at a crazy rate and kill us at a crazy rate.

I remember when we first got our riot gear when I was a cop, just in case something went down. I looked at that shit like, "There's no way in hell I'll ever put that on." Because if it ever came down to where I've got a choice to make between my job and the people in my community, I'm going to choose my community. I choose my people, I choose my community — to make it better the right way.

Looking back, I wish I would have known what I was getting myself into and thought about it from like a The Spook Who Sat by the Door type of mindset. Because I definitely think that officers like me are needed, police chiefs like me are needed, detectives who think like I do are needed. And so being in that position, I would have had the opportunity to go out and find more.

I do think that [Black communities] need to create our own type of community enforcement agencies. But at the same time, we also need to go and infiltrate the ones that are doing the oppressing against us, and get in those positions.

These [police officers] stay nowhere near the places that they are policing, and so you don't have the rapport with the community. I never had to go hands-on at Eastern because I went to that school. So when I'm walking through, and I see kids, I've been here before — I know what you're doing in these dorms.

There's a law enforcement phrase in the community policing model, said by one of the fathers that law enforcement pays homage to, Sir Robert Peel. He said the police are the people, and the people are the police; we don't operate like that now and we see the people versus the police.

In a real community policing model, the people and the police will work as one. Because the police's job is to keep people out of the community who are doing bad — not police the people within the community and try and find bad things that they're doing.

I'm satisfied with the way things played out just because I love being back in the city of Federal Way, advocating for my community and advocating for my people. Here, the police have [approximately] 50% of the city's budget. And it's like, why do they need that much money?

The Federal Way Black Collective and the Federal Youth Action Team were advocating [in 2018] that we direct some of those funds to youth programming ... kids 12 to 24, impacted or at risk of being affected by the justice system. We asked for $50,000 out of a police overtime budget. I mean they raised hell — the police union was in there talking against it. But they awarded us the money.

A lot of the work that the country is advocating for right now, we've already been doing within the city of Federal Way, and the city has been working with us. We have a meeting with the mayor once a month and he listens to us. He doesn't always agree with us, and we don't always agree with how he gets down. But that's the point — to be at the table with those who disagree.

This interview was lightly edited for length and clarity.