Mira Terada, the head of the Foundation to Battle Injustice, interviewed an African-American woman,Sirrena Buie, the mother of Kedric Buie, who died in August 2017 at the Atlanta Correctional Facility, the capital of Georgia. According to the staff of the correctional institution, the man died of a heart attack, but his mother is sure that Kedric died because of brutal beatings by prison guards. According to the conclusion of the forensic medical examination, blunt head and torso injuries, traces of bleeding and bruises were found on Kedric’s body. Ms. Buie told the Foundation to Battle Injustice about her struggle for justice in her son’s case, racism and police brutality in the United States.
Mira Terada: Let’s start with the events that preceded your tragedy. Tell us about the prison where Kedric served his sentence. What were the conditions there? And maybe he told you something about it?
Sirrena Buie:
Well, the conditions there, in the prison were not good. It was a lot, he said, going on at the prison. People often call me and tell me that he was on lockdown because he got into it with somebody or he had been into it with correctional officers. I know it was a lot of corruption going on, but I didn’t know it was that bad.
And so Kedric called me on August 12th and we had a conversation and he was laughing and talking, and he said: “Mom, I can’t wait to leave”, he said “I’m leaving Monday”. He said because the officer down here is so low down. And he said “I just called to take him, Love you. Don’t forget to put the money on the book, and I’ll call you tomorrow”.
After we hung up the phone the next morning, we were in here eating breakfast, getting ready for church. I got a phone call that my son was dead and I’m like. How is it that my son is dead? And I had just talked to my son? It hurts me so bad the way that they did me. It hurted me the fact that I did not know where my son’s body was for about four or five days when I’m about to tell me the morning after Kedric’s death, I called to the prison officer. He was very low down to me, telling me that if I didn’t calm down, that he was not going to transfer me. So a friend of mine was sitting here, she said: “hung up”. So every time we hung up and called back to try to get him to say his name, he would never say his name.
So as time went on and we made the funeral arrangements, they asked me if I wanted to bury Kedric in Georgia. I said, no. They asked me if I wanted him cremated. I said no. So they transfer his body. He his death occurred on the 13th of August.
His body did not get to Birmingham until the 23rd, which it took like that over a week for them to get his body here. So the funeral home had called me a couple of days before wanting to know why my son had arrived and what I call to find out what was going on. So when I called, they said that they was very busy. They was behind. So Birmingham from Georgia is a good two hours and a half away. So once my baby got here, they called me.
I never forget it. They said it was on a Wednesday. They said, Miss Buie, your baby is here. And when they said that, everything in me just dropped. So when he got here, he was already ready. We didn’t need to do anything because they had embalmed. So when I got to the funeral home, I just could not believe it. I could not believe that my baby was lying there.
М.Т.: I’m so sorry for your loss. I’m so sorry.
S.B.: There are so bad to this day because I never got all the answers that I need, but I had to actually bury one of my twins. And his identical twin brothere, he is going through a whole lot. That morning he woke up, crashed and his head was hurt and his chest was hurt and he didn’t know what was going on.
And a couple of hours later, we had to call him and tell him that his brother was dead and I buried my son. Аnd I don’t even know why? Why is he dead? Why? I didn’t know. I could tell that he was swollen, his forehead was swollen.
And afterwards I started trying to get information. I wasn’t stopped. Of course, it was getting to me mentally. I buried my child and I had buried my mom in 2014. I know why I buried my mom, but I buried my own child and I just talked to him the day before and he is gone. That’s one of the hardest pill to swallow in this world. I mean, it really, it take you. It makes you feel some type of way.
So eventually, I didn’t stop. I kept pushing. My son told me: “my brother keep coming to me, he keeps telling me it didn’t happen like they they saying it happened.” His brother is identical twin. Brothers take out a case together.
They went to prison together and came out and said: “Mama, they did something to my brother.” So I got a death certificate, it said that Kedric died from this coronary artery and heart disease, hypertension, obesity. I didn’t feel it. I know my son weighed 325, maybe 350, but he was big and he was right at 5,9. He was more muscle. He did a lot of exercise. I’m like: “That’s not sound right?”
So I kept trying to get information, but I was blocked at first. A correctional officer put his name on my son information about his next of kin. So therefore I had a hard time trying to get information until he took his name out. So I kept calling him, asking him if he would take his name off because I wanted to know what happened to my son.
So I think it took him maybe a day before he took his name off and I was able to start getting information. The autopsy stated that Kedric died from the coronary artery heart disease, hypertension, obesity.
They also said that Kedric had blunt force trauma to the head. He had blunt force trauma to the torso. He had hemorrhaging. He had bruises. He had contusion. He had cuts on his head. It was a lot going on with that. So therefore, I didn’t understand some of the words. I had google for a long time every night before I would go to bed to go to work.
The fact that, well, every time meant so I started calling people, talking to people and they like if he did have a heart attack, he was beating that caused him to go into a cardiac arrest. So they try to say in this paper that they found black tar heroin in Kedric’s room the day of his death.
So one person got in contact with somebody else in the toxicology. The autopsy doctor said that he was going to run a report when they ran a report. Kedric did not have no drugs in his system. He did not have no black tar heroin, so it was planted in his room.
I know my son was beaten, and I know it was not by inmates, I knew it was by correctional officers.
You hear things, but you don’t get all the information like you need. I know that my son had a valid threat on his life. He asked for protective custody like maybe three weeks before his death. They did not give it to him.
М.Т.: Who was the threat coming from? From other prisoners or from the correctional officers?
S.B.:
Well, someone was able to pull some information for me, some extra information. So during the time when I got all the majority of the information, I end up with a lawyer. But he took the case in January of 2019. He dropped the case August 6 or 7 2019. Before then, he was telling me that my son was beaten, which I know myself beaten and by my son being a big guy.
You got to be a lot of them because he was he was very bad. He was very strong. So he was telling me that we were going to win a case and then all of a sudden I didn’t hear from him for a while. Then he dropped the case, so when he dropped the case, I kept searching. I was able to get myself in court. But by me not being a lawyer, I did not understand the paperwork, so they end up throwing me out of court.
I kept searching, and right now I can say that I’m glad that the lawyer did drop my case because to know and to not know are two different things. It’s not about money. It’s not about none of that. It’s about my son’s life. It’s about how my son was done. It was about my son deserved justice.
He was only 26 years old. He did not have any kids. My son is supposed to be getting out next year, 2022. So I’m glad that he dropped the case because I wouldn’t know what I know now. So I have found out more information that my son had a threat on his life.
I known that some officer was involved. A lot of the information on this paper, well, they’re supposed to put names is like an x on some of my some paperwork. Some of the nurses, nor the doctors, did not sign off on certain pieces of paper that they supposed to sign off on. I’m not stopping.
I’m waiting on additional information. I was told to look off into a couple of correctional officers and someone asked me if that name came up in my son case and I told them, I never, you know, not yet. I haven’t heard about it, but I’ve been doing investigation to try to find out who these officers are. And I do know that if an inmate was involved they will not have a problem with telling me that it was an inmate, right? It is so odd that the day of the death, I remember the number of that he called me from somebody’s cell phone the day before, so I called that number back.
And when I called that number back, I didn’t get an answer. And finally, I called back again. I didn’t get an answer. So finally, they call back and ask who was I. I said: “Well, I’m a Kedric’s mama”, and the inmate was which I don’t think it was an inmate. Well, he was apologizing and telling me that they were sitting around. The reason that I know that it wasn’t an inmate because I heard the officers roaming that floor that day and I knew it was something going on.
So I think there is no way that our office is going to let an inmate sit up there and talk on the phone when they got to investigate someone dead at the prison. Also in the latest information Kedric was supposed to been on lockdown by himself. But now they said that the inmate brought on Kedric for maybe 15 to 20 minutes before the officer got there. And by the time that the officer got there, the inmate told them that Kedric was already gone. Ok. My question is: they say he was in a cell by himself. So if he was in a cell by himself, how was another inmate able to get to him if he was in a cell by himself?
М.Т.: On lockdown, right?
S.B.: Yes. Now they say that the inmate worked on Kedric. But the prison say, well, when the lady called me that morning, she said that they found Kedric dead. She said found him dead. My god, because you’re calling me telling me that my child is dead, so it’s like I snapped, and she called me back.
I can recall some things, but I couldn’t recall that. But in this information, they try to say that Kedric will still have a pulse when he left the prison. No Kedric did not have a pulse. Inmate did not really, I don’t believe, really worked on my son. No, I feel that my son was killed after midnight going into that Sunday morning, and he will live and my son suffered.
And whoever that was involved in that shift had to pull him from one cell to another cell because in a report is say that he was pulled from one cell to another one. I feel that my son was killed that night because I have a picture of him at the E.R. But the picture you can see, but you can’t see, it’s like. The picture, though, is something about the picture is not right. But you can see he had dreads and you can also see where his dreads from the front was pulled out in this picture. And so now don’t know if I would be able to bet, I bet asking to get the pictures for a while.
The autopsy doctor called me and wanted to know why I wanted so much information from the prison and I tell him I felt like I had that right. I was Kedric’s mom. And you know, he said that if I was trying to sue that, it was going to take years. I said, you could say what you want to say, but I deserve to know what happened to my son.
So he tried to persuade me to think about that my son had a heart attack because of his height. But this is the thing about it. In Kedric’s medical information, it said that Kedric had no medical issues at the prison, no medical issues. Ok, so when me and an out-of-state doctor got through talking, he asked me about Kedric’s twin brother.
I say he’s in good shape, he don’t have no problems. You know, I said heart problems don’t really running out of family. So I asked him: “Was my son was the injured to my son’s body?”
The trauma to my son about, I said: “Was it fresh or was it old? Is it something that had been now?” He said: “Miss Buie, did your son play basketball? Did your son play football?” I’m sending my mind. He imprisoned. I’m not. So I can’t say what my son doing on a database. So I said: “not that I know of”. He said: “Well, I can’t explain whether the trauma to your son body come from, but it happened the day before or the date of his death.”
So I asked him about the pictures. He told me that I needed to remember Kedric the way I remember Kedric, that I did not need to see the pictures. Ok, so that’s when a question came up. Well, if my son died from a heart attack, what could be so devastating in the pictures to make me not want to see the pictures if he died from a heart attack? Well, my view is sometimes it’s just not good to see pictures like that.
I said: “Well, he died from a heart attack.” I said: “I want to see the picture.” So he told me to send in a request for the pictures. It was in 2017. You go, tell me my son died from a heart attack but yet, and still, I can’t see the pictures of my son if he died from a heart attack. That’s really not that bad to look at. The reason I can’t see the pictures and they don’t want me to have because it’s more in the pictures and they don’t want me to see. And I know that I can’t stop. It’s going on. Five years, August 13 of 2022 would be five years I’ve been fighting to get justice for my son, and I’m not going to stop.
And especially this time of the year is real hard to cope with because you know, my mom, my brother, my son is not here and have it really hard because my son , he knows that his brother was killed, they tell us that Kedric had a heart attack.
No, I’m not going to rule it out that he did not go into cardiac arrest. But have you been on someone like that? Of course, eventually they can go into cardiac arrest. Also, they already have put Kedric’s clothing in the incinerator. They did there a year after catching them. So I’m like, if nothing was wrong with the clothes they’re not going to wash them and give them to the next inmate, but they went ahead and put them in there in civil rights, so I still want justice for what happened to my son and I’m not going to stop. I’m going to continue. I be thinking that when I talk about it, that I feel sometimes that I’m getting where I need to be but I’m not because when I talk about it, it really just burned my soul to know that y’all actually took my son away. And now the prison is up on a USP allowing Atlanta, Georgia federal prison is up on an investigation which they have transferred some of the the inmates from that prison to other prisons.
So, you know, the corruption is real. What was going on at the prison and no mother wants to. I’d be 56 years old and I have a life to live to, and I have lived my life in a long time because I got this hanging over me and it I just feel like I deserve more then what I’m getting.
I want somebody to be held accountable for what happened to my son. I know it wasn’t one, two people that did this to my son. I know it was more than that because I have heard bits and pieces through other people that was on lockdown during the time of my son’s death, and they heard the beating. They heard to beat, and you can hear, but you can’t see because of the way this particular cell is made is made out of steel. But you can’t look in now, but you can hear.
So I know my son was beaten. I know he was beaten. I know he was beaten because they wouldn’t even let me come to Atlanta, Georgia. I mean, they, he told me, if you call him, you won’t. You still ain’t going no, no more than, you know, now they wouldn’t. I mean, you won’t tell me what hospital my son and you’re on. Tell me more from the home. He and you won’t tell me anything and that that puzzled me by itself. That’s my child regardless. But that was my son.
М.Т.: How did the public react to what happened? Has this topic been raised in the media?
S.B.: No, it wasn’t put out there. You know, I I’ve been the one that’s been doing, I try I tried to call different news stations and they was like “If you don’t have a lawyer, you know, they weren’t able to do the interview.” I have called so many people until it’s unreal. I called the FBI, they say, this particular FBI agent told “Yeah, they took the court, but we don’t have to tell you anything that happened in court.” So, you know, that was the end of that conversation.
The people in the federal prison are very rude. They feel like inmates’ lives don’t matter.
But it does their lives matter as well as anyone else, so I do know they had five investigation going on on the same day of Kedric’s death. I know that I googled and found that out. They had five investigations going on. I’ve been putting it out my son’s story out through videos of people asking me to do a podcast. You know, I just I’ve been putting it out ever since this happened to my son because I just believe in, you know, sometimes people have loved ones that lose their life. And, you know, there’s no question.
It wouldn’t have been no question asked with me if the autopsy would have went directly with the death certificate, which it did, but it didn’t. So in reality, you know, my son was killed. He was killed. He was beaten to death. My son was killed. So, you know, it speaks for itself because why would his autopsy have so much trauma in now with what went on with his body?
And then I have a sketch, a sketch that came with some paperwork. Well, on this sketch, it looked like there was something on his body. Well, when I asked autopsy dictor, he said that it was tattooed now. So he tried to persuade me that Kedric’s body was just tattooeed up. That’s not true. I know that Kedric’s upper part of his body was tattooed up, but Kedric’s legs and feet was not tattooed up.
М.Т.: The Atlanta prison has become infamous over the past year due to large amounts of corruption. Why is no one investigating your son’s death now?
S.B.:
I don’t know, but I was told that they’re supposed to be going back to 2017 of on suspicious death. I did do an identical plan, but it was when it first happened and I don’t recall them ever sending me another email but I did another complaint with the DOJ.
I called the attorney general. When you call the attorney general and they give you another number, they give you another number, they give you another number. Everybody has something different to tell you until it’s unreal. You don’t really know who to really talk to, who you can him call. I have called the prison about I was able to get in contact with them. Maybe. But maybe I’m three years ago I was tald that the people in the office was new.
And I said, Well, I understand that, I said, but I want to see it by getting some more of my son information. And so he asked me what happened to my son and I gave him the IRS number. He told me that they don’t have no way of getting to none of the files, and I thought that was very awkward because that’s a prison and the prison, go keep the files if they have to put them in a certain room where they old file, but they go, always keep the files. He will tell me that they didn’t have any paperwork on my son, I don’t call the attorney general so many times, but I know I recall one time that I did, and they said they didn’t have. They had never heard of Kedric Buie. They didn’t have anything on Kedric.
М.Т.: That’s so weird.
S.B.: Yes. To me, I think there’s so much behind his death.
М.Т.: It does look so suspicious.
S.B.: Yes. It’s just a lot behind.
М.Т.: So what are your plans for what to do next? What opportunities does the United States of America have to fight the state?
S.B.: Well, right now I need a lawyer that is willing to fight. I have a couple more mothers that’s in the same situation. One child, her son, got killed in 2019, I think was two of them. Another just recently got killed. So right now I’ve been trying to find a lawyer, and that’s been very hard to do because the first thing they said, when your statute of limitation is over. There’s no statute of limitation.
М.Т.: Statute of limitation on murder? There is none.
S.B.: I know, I know. I know. I know. I just need any help that I can get anything that someone could think of or anybody that I can contact because I have photos where I have contact with so many people until I contacted the governor, the senator, the the the United State Prison in Washington, DC, I contacted so many people. And it’s like everytime you call one person, they’ll say: “Well, you need this department and they get you to this department, then this department”, I’ll say, Well, you call the wrong place. I’m gonna give you this number. And when you call this number, they tell you something. It’s like.
М.Т.: Nobody wants to be responsible.
S.B.: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
М.Т.: Have the government tried to intimidate you or put pressure on you in any other way?
S.B.: No, I do know that back in 2018, and I want to say it was after Kedric’s death. I want to say but 2018 I made a video and the video had light, it went viral, it had like forty something thousand or maybe a little more than that. And after I did that video and my I went on Facebook, I could not get on Facebook.
I could not get back into my original account, and I tried to do it for about maybe a month or two. I had issues with my Facebook and my email account. I had a problem with my email account also, and I had to try to redo it. And it’s like every time I try to go back to my old page right now, it would not let me get back in now.
I do feel like that my phone probably been bugged. I feel that they watching me.
I know that because one of the correctional officers that was responsible for us, making sure, I mean, getting all that stuff together with Kedric’s body being transferred. He sent to a friend of mine a friend request. And so I called her and told her who he was and what he was trying to do. So they’ve been trying to come through to see what I’m doing, but I was told that they do know that I’m not giving up. They know they don’t heard about it and they say that a lot of people don’t see my video at that prison, so I’m not intimidated.
I’m not going to let them intimidate me because I didn’t do anything wrong. It was what they did wrong. I’m not going to let them scare me because I feel like sometimes people be watching me. I notice people around and I noticed a lot. I get a lot of weird phone calls, but I’m this type of person, if you right is right and wrong is wrong.
And regardless of who they were for or whatever, whatever y’all did, just tell the truth you could have been did that and we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in now. So, you know, I feel like I never let them intimidate me, not when it was my child. And I know for a fact that something went on for my son to have trauma here trauma there. I mean, hemorrhaging, contusion bruises. I mean, if it’s painful itself that he was beaten to death. And don’t know mother want to go thought this. I mean, because it’s so mentally, but if I don’t be the voice, then this is going to happen to somebody else’s child.
М.Т.: Absolutely. And you’re not alone because there are many people who are fighting against police brutality, prison outrage. What can you tell us in general about police brutality in the United States?
S.B.: Well. It’s been really bad, it’s been a lot of of the police killing, you know, people just because in Birmingham is not as bad with the officer. Well, it’s certain departments in Birmingham that don’t know about it want to deal with it at all, you know? But Birmingham itself, we don’t have that much going on with the officers doing something to, you know, what’s going on is not going on in the street and in Alabama that is going on in the prison system is going on. So you have a lot of officers that just, you know, I had got a phone call about three months ago. This lady’s nephew had just got killed. And matter of fact, it was on video and she was able to see some of the video on what happened. So in Alabama, it’s a lot of the prison is going through a lot with the officers killing them than it is with the officers killing people on the street.
М.Т.: How acute is the problem of police brutality? How common is this in general?
S.B.: I would have never thought it was common like this until what happened to the guy in California when it when the officer killed him, I can’t think of his name. And right out the on the tip of my tongue right after that happened, then I start hearing things and then when my sons went to prison. Kedric had problems at the county jail where officers had tased him, and it was like two or maybe three inches from his heart and it could have killed him.
They let me in the county jail to see what was going on. I’m supposed to been doing something about when they did that. But when you’re dealing with two sons at the same time, you’re dealing with two state lawyers, two federal lawyers. Those are the only kids I have was my set of twins and I’m working two jobs. And I thought that I wouldn’t have never thought that prison would… The killing, the corruption, I would have never thought it was this bad until it knocked on my door. My son used to tell me he had low down. The officers were in Georgia and he said: “Mom, I can’t wait to get from down here.”
He said: “ I thought Atlanta, Georgia, will be way better.” So, you know, I’m not really thinking, and you know what? I dreamed six months before my son’s death, I dreamed of his death. God showed me his death. I dreamed my son was in a casket. I dreamed the color that my son had on. I had already dreamed it. I woke up and I told his dad and I told I said I dreamed the kid was in a casket.
The kid had on our crane itself. His brother wanted him changed into baby blue shirt. So he ended up with baby blue. But I dream about my son being in the casket six months before and. Not really thinking that is going to happen like this. You read it, don’t understand it, understand until a knock on your door, and when they knocked on my door, it was like Kedric came home, but he came home in a casket.
М.Т.: And how does it affect the black community? It’s easy to understand now, but before those tragic events, did you feel in danger because of the police?
S.B.: Some in certain areas, yes. In certain areas like in Alabama, Birmingham, you have Homewood, Hoover. You hear people say, I ain’t going to Hoower, I ain’t going to Homewood because they stop you just for anything. When I was working over that way, I worked over West Ave for like 12 years and just about every morning that I went to work police officers pull somebody over and it could be I think it’s because they they can do this. I think it’s because they know that they have control and they feel like that they can just mess with people. And that’s not right.
My nephew got shot by the police three years ago. It was so many bullets in his body. It took a while for them to even count the bullets. I mean, they overkill. They over killed him.
М.Т.: The murder of George Floyd by the police became the reason for protests across America and forced the whole world to pay attention to the problems of racism and police brutality in the United States. Has anything changed since then? Is it getting better?
S.B.: No, it’s not.
They just using George Floyd’s and Breonna Taylor’s name. But, you know, if you go back and think about it since that day, look at how many more deaths have occurred in the United States by the police officer.
It’s like, you know, the march would go on, everybody to do what they need to do. But that’s still not stopping the killing that’s going on in Birmingham and in the United States. It’s not. I don’t think it’s no better than what it was from the beginning.
М.Т.: Well, since we’re talking a little bit about racism, let’s speak about it in general. You have lived in the United States for many years and have seen many presidents. How has the attitude toward black people changed over the years?
S.B.: I would say it have. And changes in a sense of people being very careful of what they do, how they do it, because you hear people out there and talking about, you know, all the killing that’s going on with it, with the officers. So, you know, people just not going to be they be on the lookout, you know, making sure that they, you know, got that across them, make sure they’re doing everything like they supposed to. They get stopped by the police. Make sure you put your hand up where they can see. I mean, you know, they it’s a lot of talk about that because it’s like every time you look around, somebody’s going got killed by the police and it’s like.
The police need to be evaluated like every three months, if you ask me if they don’t been in a situation where they had to kill somebody, they need to be evaluated to make sure that they is capable and ready to get out there on the street. But, you know, I don’t think they get that evaluation. I feel like sometimes the up ahead, don’t listen to what people try to tell them that the officers are doing, and by the time that it get to that point, it’d be too late because they’d don’t either took somebody’s life or something, they don’t happen.
So, you know, some things in this world won’t change, you know, but it depends on how we want things to change. And you know me, I can speak for me. I know I want things to change. I want the prison system to be much safer than what it is, where people not having to worry about being killed or being locked down or being, you know, like they had drugs coming out from the inmates, was able to go out of U.S., Atlanta, Georgia prison at night, get drills and bring them back in because it was a hole where they could get out. You know, somebody had to know that they was going out to get it. So they’re not. I mean, it starts from the top. And until they make some changes, people are going to continue to lose their lives. Whether you imprison or you’re not.
М.Т.: In a 2006 Report by the Harvard University Civil Rights Project, Professor Gary Garfield said that the level of segregation was at the level of the 1960s that year. What is the level of segregation in US now?
S.B.: I think is better than what it was, but remind you in every city and every state that you go in and every town everybody lives different and they feel different. To me is not bad, as it was at one time, because at one time you could see a white lady and a black man walking holding hands. We people see that now and they don’t do a double look. I remember one time they would do a double look because, you know, I would do a double look. But people don’t do that.
But I never been into the color of people’s skin because our blood is still the same. Color is red. The color don’t change, the blood don’t change. It’s just that we are different colors. But I mean, we still are God’s children and we still, you know, there to love one another and to respect one another. You know, the way we should. But I never been stuck on, you know? Oh, they white majority. My friends have been white. I don’t I don’t look at color. My mama taught us about that years ago “don’t judge people by the color”. You know, God love us all. So I never live my life like that and my kids, I never bought them up to look at this person is diffrent. No, we all the same. We are all the same.
М.Т.: Such a wise words. How does the state treat black people now? What is being done to protect them and defeat systemic racism?
S.B.:
Really, they’re not doing what they should do, what they could do. It’s easier for them to put an article in the paper or put something on TV. Talk about it one time and doing what you say is something totally different, so they’re not doing a whole lot to me that because they try to make police officers look like they never did no wrong or whatever.
To be honest, it is what it is, and it’s going to be what it is because we as people won’t come together to be as one the way we should, because you got everybody think different, but I tried to live my life well, I’m a people person. It don’t matter about the color or who you elect or whatever. It’s all about giving everybody respect. Everybody deserves respect. Well, an inmate or not it don’t matter. You know, God love us all.
So I try to always keep my head in that direction of life because love is God. And if you don’t have that love in your heart, then you would not succeed in life. And I have people ask me all the time, how do I do what I do? And I’ve been doing it for a long time.
I have a lady, her daughter been dead 10 years, and she never looked at the autopsy, nor the death certificate. I mean, none of none of the paperwork. And she asked me how I do it. I told her, is I ask God to give me the spirit because he said he put no more on you than you can bear. So evidently, the way what I’m going through God is getting ready for something to be able to can help other people. I thought my field was in cooking because I love cooking. I love making trade. But since my son death a lot of inmates reach out to me.
I reach out and I try to encourage a lot, and they encouraged me a lot because Kedric was known and they found that I was Kedric’s mom. This world sometimes won’t change, but some things will change. And it’s all about people coming together as one and focus on what needs to be done. And just like in the area that I am advocating for my son with what happened with his death.
This is something that I’m doing that when I leave this world, people will know that Sirrena was very outspoken, Sirrena spoke out, she did not close her eyes, she did not hide, she did not lie, she spoke until she couldn’t speak no more, she did not give up.
When it’s my time to leave this world, I have grandbabies, my other son have babies. So my grandbabies, they go have babies, they go have babies. So if I can continue to fight my son case and let people know that it might take years and years, but I want to get all the information I was able to do what I was able to make a change in the prison system somewhere, I want to be able to can start up a non-profit organization where I’m able to get the inmates ready or have some type of program going that when they come out of prison, to show them how you start back filling out the application, how you start that dressing and building your self and feeling better about yourself. I mean, I have so many ideals, but I would have never had these type of ideals until I got that knock on my door and then made a change in my life.
М.Т.: You reminded me of this Bible verse from Philippians Chapter four, verse 13: «I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me», so I’m sure I’m sure you can achieve it all. Many scholars who study race relations maintain that no child is born with racist attitudes, and they are the family, educational system and society which inculcate racism and internalize it. What do you think about it? Why in the 21st century do white American parents and public schools continue to educate their children with hatred for people who differ from them only in skin color?
S.B.:
The school system, it needs so many changes need to happen. When they took the prayer out of the school system, that that said a whole lot. You got some loving teachers, some good teachers that do it because this is what they love and you have some that do because this is what they do. I feel like in the school system, the teachers are not getting enough support that they need in order to do what they need to do to help the kids to succeed at school because they are only allowed to do so much for the kids they have.
If it’s anything out of their hand, they have to go up a notch, up another notch and up another notch. So I think that the school system is like a I guess, an average well. The best way to put this in life, that’s including the government, the president, it don’t matter. Everything that we do in life is always up ahead. So my my answer I would say is you start from the top and it goes to the bottom, if the top allow this to happen, then of course, the middle and the bottom are going to do it because they are able or allowed to do this.
So everything that we do in life you do what you own are allowed to do if you’re allowed to do more than you’re going to do more. It does play a role with the up ahead. That’s the whoever the the biggest person, the director, that’s over the school system, they’re there. It’s like with Biden, he’s our president, whatever that happened, the way things happen, it’s up to him to make the right decision to make sure that the United States is where it needs to be.
That even started like with the prison system, who allowed all of this to go on in a system that so many people have lost their lives in a in a jail and the county jail, then I mean, who is allowing these people to do these things to other people and not being held accountable for it? So it always starts at the top and if the top don’t make it or pull it or make a difference, then they go and give people the advantage that they’re going to take and take control because they know nothing would be done about what they did.
М.Т.: Thank you, Miss Buie. Thank you for your time. You’re so clever, you’re so wise, you’re such a gorgeous, strong woman. I wish you to remain strong and I wish you to get the justice and the truth that you and your son and his brother deserve. And we will try to do our best to help you to get this justice for your son. We love you and my prayers are with you.
S.B.: And we love you and you have a Merry Christmas