Today we’d like to introduce you to Andre’ Taylor.
Hi Andre’, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I have a checkered past, I grew up in my twenties hustling, but at 29 my life took a drastic change when I met my wife Dove and did three years in federal prison for money laundering and the Mann Act. I came from a family of hustlers, but when my father Mel Taylor, wrote the all American novel called “The Mitt Man,” I knew I could change my life too. While I was in prison, I too wrote a book called “The Road to Paradise,” The book to me was like a shedding of my past life, it represented a new start and now having a new wife, I was eager to begin my journey. I figured the best thing to do was to start sharing with young people some of the pitfalls of the streets so I began to speak at churches, prisons and lecture at universities. I knew how important it was to build credibility in my name so I continued to build my redemptive story. I went on The Montez Williams show, Trinity Broadcasting Network the largest Christian station in the world and I even had a few magazines write ups. I believe what made people want to hear from me was the documentary movie I did with The Hughes Brothers, called “American Pimp,” The Hughes Brothers were famous filmmakers, they did the movies Menace to Society, Dead Presidents, and The Book of Eli to name a few. I was one of the stars in “American Pimp,” and it became a cult classic. What was important to me at this point was to show that one doesn’t have to be defined by one’s past mistakes and that whatever you have done, you can recover. It was working because people were seeing through my story that you can change. It was in 2016 that one of the most challenging things in my life happened, I got a phone call from my brother’s mother that my little brother Che had been shot by the Seattle police department.
My world fell apart after waiting more than three hours to find out Che was killed! Che was my favorite sibling out of four others, he had he’s many challenges, growing up during the crack epidemic he as a teenager got hook on the drug and became what crack makes you somebody else. Drugs led to crime and crime led to a 22 years prison stint and when my little brother came home in October 2014, it was one of the happiest days of my life. In 16 months, Che was dead! His story is well documented because I would go on one of the greatest “my brother is my keeper” acts of love people would ever see. I rallied, marched went to many news shows, podcasts debates until the organization I started Not This Time was able to do the impossible. We brought all communities together and led Washington State in becoming the first and only state with a police accountability law I. 2018. Washington at the time had the worst law in the nation on police accountability, because in our law it was written, we had to prove a law enforcement officer had to have malice before we could charge them and malice meant we had to know what an officer was thinking at the time of the shooting. Of course that was impossible, so no matter had bad an officer actions were, we couldn’t get past malice so no officer was ever help accountability in over 35 years in Washington state. The initiative we launched called I-940 allowed us to pass legislation and change the law with 60% of the state voting to change the law. Today I speak all over helping with the blueprint on how we was able to bring law enforcement, politicians and all communities together to lead the rest of the county on police accountability.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
One thing I learned was cultural sensitivity. The problems happen if one doesn’t learn this fundamental principle. People are different, cultures are different, but if you take the time and ask questions, it goes a long way when building grassroots movements.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m an activist that have found that bringing people together is the only way to advance a county, city or community. What I’m most proud of is using my work to bring real change in this county with police accountability.
How do you define success?
Success is an ongoing process of not giving up!
Contact Info:
- Email: Andreltaylor@yahooo.com
- Website: NotThisTime.global
