American Skin

How you doing tonight? - Doing well, Officer.

Can I see your driver's license,

registration and insurance, please?

Of course. My license is right here in my wallet.

I need to reach past my 14 year-old son

to get my registration insurance from the glove box.

- Is that all right? Sure.

Okay.

One second, my son.

You live in the area?

No, sir.

Where you coming from?

Picking up my son from a friend's house.

Here you go.

You're on parole or have any warrants

- I should know about? - No, sir.

Are you aware your insurance has expired?

Uh, it must be an old copy...

The car definitely has insurance.

Uh, I might have a new copy...

Hey, keep your hands where I can see them, sir.

Relax. Right here, sir. Right here.

It's okay. It's all right. It's all right.

Oh, thank you.

Can I have you step out of the vehicle?

Uh, sure. Undo my seatbelt.

It's okay. It's all right.

- - It's all right, Son.

Hands up. Hey, hey, hey, hey.

Wait, wait, wait.

- Sir, sir, sir he's a kid. - Put your hands on the dashboard

right now. Drop the whatever you have in your hand.

- Put the phone down. It's my phone.

- It's my phone. - Sir, it's a phone.

It's a cell phone, it's just a cell phone.

- - Put the phone down.

Exit the car and put your hands in the air.

Officer, please. He's just a kid.

- I can talk to him. Please, he's just a kid.

Exit the car with your hands in the air.

He's gonna get out. Okay, get out of the car son.

Easy, easy.

It's just a phone. - I need you to put the phone away.

Put the phone away and sit on the curb.

He's unarmed, okay. He's just...

- Sir, just let us do our job. Put the phone away and sit on the curb.

- Put the fucking phone away. - Put it down!

Put the fucking phone away!

May I help you?

Linc, I'm Jordin King.

We talked a few times on the phone.

The student filmmaker.

We spoke about me possibly doing some interviews with you

around what happened to your son.

Come on in.

Come on.

Come on.

A mark.

B mark.

Just put the belt pack on.

Who will all this be seen by?

My class mostly.

Professors, staff.

If people respond to it,

we'll try and get it into some festivals.

Festivals?

A festival is like a group of public screenings.

Only, it's curated.

People get dressed up, they go see it,

and when it's over,

everyone looks around for reactions.

If the right people hate it, it dies,

and if the right people love it,

we get a chance to bring it to the world.

So this could be seen by people over the world.

It's possible.

What's that?

That's B cam.

Just another angle, something behind the scenes.

So I've got some questions,

kind of all over the place.

Some easy stuff, some hard.

Anything you don't feel like answering,

you don't have to.

Can you say your name into the camera?

Um, Lincoln Jefferson.

I go by Linc.

By now, a lot of people know about KJ

and what happened to him.

But few people know who KJ was

or what he was like. In one word or a sentence even,

how would you describe him?

You know, um, I can show you

better than I can tell you.

What happens when old people act like they're young people?

Is that you?

Kind of.

I'm not trying to spend Christmas in an emergency room.

Okay, y'all know me and how much I can do.

Oh!

It was all the time, every day he was um...

He was just funny.

Um, smart,

uh, just an all around good kid, you know?

Mm-hmm. - Yeah.

Can you tell me what happened on July 3rd of last year?

Put it away! Please, listen...

All right. Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

Oh, no, I'm good. Thank you.

Oh, no, I'm good. Thank you.

Okay.

You just put this right here.

All right.

And you can put the belt pack on yourself.

Oh. Okay. Thanks.

Linc said you helped raise KJ when he was a baby.

Yeah, I did.

I helped raise all my grandkids.

You know, Linc and Tayana

well, they kind of started out young,

like, you know, a lot of people do,

but you just do what you can to help.

You know, he went to the service.

Iraq. Kept us safe.

Did what he had to do and for him to come back

and for them to treat him like they do...

- Mom. - No. Now, you know that ain't right.

Now he did good by KJ.

He had him, going to one of those top schools, too.

On the pass.

A pass?

A pass is like a permit.

Yeah 'cause I worked in the district.

That was how I was able to get him into school.

Yeah, that KJ, he was a good boy.

I mean, he started, you know, acting out a little

when Tayana and Linc split.

But, I mean, that's normal for boys at age 13.

That's when you lose them.

But when he moved in with Linc, you know,

it settled him down.

A boy needs a man in his life.

I mean, he ought to have one.

I mean, how else is he supposed to know

what a man is supposed to act like

or if he's one himself?

That boy was all that Linc had

and they took him away.

For nothing.

I mean, if, if it would have happened,

you know, if he lived in this neighborhood,

it would have made more sense.

Make more sense how?

These young boys get beat down

by the cops or worse all the time.

More instances of police brutality in poor communities?

No, baby. More instances of police brutality

in Black communities.

- Seriously? -

Come on, I get these priceless moments.

- Why? - First day of school, new school.

Tell me how it went.

It was... It was crazy.

Okay, crazy good or crazy bad?

Crazy weird.

Lockers outside,

they play rap during lunch, which is hilarious.

Mmm-hmm.

Gucci Mane on the loudspeakers.

Gucci! -

White people everywhere, heads bobbin' off-beat.

It was like a Key and Peele skit.

But everybody's cool.

A lot of them extra cool.

Probably just want to say they're hanging out

with the only black kid in school.

But no drama.

They have like these mini restaurants in the school.

And you can have just about anything you want.

And there wasn't even one fight all day.

How do you feel you two splitting up affected him?

It's hard to tell, but I'm sure it did.

You know, Tayana, she's...

She was such a great mother.

I mean, great mother

and we wanted to make it work.

But once I got back from the military,

everything changed.

You know, I had some... Some things I wanted to do when I got back.

Some dreams.

And people don't really talk about the thing you face

when you come home.

Financial hardships,

dealing with unemployment,

problems trying to get help from the VA.

You know, all that stuff can really hurt your pride.

Hmm, it just... It really took a toll on us.

Hmm.