The Daily - ‘Who Replaces Me?’: An Update

This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened in the time since they first ran. Scott Watson — a Black police officer in his hometown, Flint, Mich. — has worked to become a pillar of the community. And he always believed his identity put him in a unique position to discharge his duties. After watching the video of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May, his job became a source of self-consciousness instead of pride. Today, we call up Scott once again and ask how he’s been doing and how things have been in his police department. Guest: Scott Watson, a police officer in Flint, Mich. For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here. Background reading:Lynsea Garrison wrote about interviewing Scott in an edition of The Daily newsletter.Many Black and Hispanic officers in New York City have found themselves caught between competing loyalties in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Duration: 51m
Broadcast on: 30 Dec 2020
Audio Format: other

This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened in the time since they first ran.

Scott Watson — a Black police officer in his hometown, Flint, Mich. — has worked to become a pillar of the community. And he always believed his identity put him in a unique position to discharge his duties.

After watching the video of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May, his job became a source of self-consciousness instead of pride.

Today, we call up Scott once again and ask how he’s been doing and how things have been in his police department.

Guest: Scott Watson, a police officer in Flint, Mich.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

Lynsea Garrison wrote about interviewing Scott in an edition of The Daily newsletter.
Many Black and Hispanic officers in New York City have found themselves caught between competing loyalties in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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This podcast is supported by TikTok. Sometimes the most interesting discoveries are the ones you weren't looking for. That happens every day on TikTok. A science experiment can spark a whole new interest. A recipe you stumble upon can become a meal you make for the people you love. And a restaurant you've never heard of might become your new favorite spot. That's the thing about TikTok. Follow your curiosity and see where it leads. Your next discovery is waiting on TikTok. Hey, it's Michael. This week, the daily is revisiting our favorite episodes of the year, listening back and hearing what's happened in the time since they first ran. Today, a police officer looks back at his career.

It's Wednesday, December 30th. Have you ever looked at like the state police graduating classes? Okay. Do me a favor. Go back and look at their classes, their graduating classes. See how many black people you see. We need our police departments to mirror the communities that we're serving, and we need those officers to come from within those communities. That'll make the change. When people start seeing we really and truly care for our hearts,

people will see police in a different way. From the New York Times, I'm Michael Bobaro. This is a daily. So, of course, it is disturbing the number of African Americans that are killed by police. And, you know, this is raising a conversation, a number of questions about what are the issues that need to be tackled within police departments. And one of the things that comes up has to do with hiring practices and diversity. There's a growing consensus that to change American policing. Police departments must look more like the communities they serve. I think to many looking in from the outside, it's hard to understand how the police force could be majority white and the community, majority African American. How can there be such a disconnect or a discrepancy between the two? Today. We're hiring. We're hiring. Get off that protest line and put an application in. And we'll put you in your neighborhood, and we will help you resolve some of the problems you're protesting about.

The Daily's Lindsey Garrison spoke with one officer in Flint, Michigan about his experience serving the community he grew up in. It's Monday, August 31st.

Okay, press that button and then try talking. Do you see what I'm talking about? So I called up Scott Watson. Okay, I'm talking it to the actual phone now. He was on duty the night we talked, so he left his police scanner on just in case he got a call. I'm I'm ready as I'm ever going to be.

So my name is Scott Watson. I'm from born and raised in Flint, Michigan, 53 year old black male. And I've been a city of Flint police officer for the past 23 years. And Scott's story begins in 1966. So my mom had me when she was 16.

So you can imagine, you know, having a child at 16 back then wasn't, you know, it wasn't easy coming from a single parent household. Honestly, I mean, we were we struggled. Scott and his mom, they move into the lower level of her brother's house. It's in this neighborhood called St. John's, which is just on the edge of the Buickar plant. They were it was still segregated for the most part. And Scott's mom had a job at Sears, you know, I was a loaner child and my mom never had to like get me up for school and give me dress. I from tight lot on, you know, I could get myself up and get myself together. I didn't require much.

You know, my mom was very nice. You know, she did the best she could, but she was in love. She was in love with basically a bad boy. You know, high school, he was one of the still football players, but he liked the streets and, you know, so he ended up going to prison. And he says as a child, he didn't think much about his dad. My first real memory of him was going to Jackson prison and visiting him. It was just we went somewhere to visit a man that I really didn't know who, you know, come to find out was was my dad. But he at some point within the next couple years, you know, he got out of prison and

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