NC Central Coach LeVelle Moton Speaks on Personal Experience With Police Brutality
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00:00As the world mourns the death of George Floyd,
00:02the voices in the sports world continue
00:04to get louder and louder.
00:05And one of the voices at the forefront
00:08is North Carolina Central coach LaVell Moten.
00:12LaVell, what's going on, my man?
00:14JJ, what's happening, man?
00:15Thank you for having me.
00:17Absolutely, absolutely.
00:18So I want to start with the beginning,
00:22because you were one of the first to speak out and call out
00:27the silence of white coaches in college basketball,
00:30and just the silence of white coaches at every level, right?
00:34So how do you feel about them coming out
00:37after your big, everything that you had to say about it,
00:42after the fact?
00:44How do you feel about that?
00:46Honestly, I didn't pay attention to everything
00:50that happened afterwards.
00:51Social media, man, is a place that I often
00:55have to take a break from.
00:57So I was aware, obviously, there were plenty
01:00of people that were telling me that statements were being made
01:04and now they were coming to the forefront.
01:07And the way I looked at it, that was progression within itself.
01:10Like, I'm not here to judge anyone.
01:12I never wanted to shame anyone.
01:13I'm not that type of person.
01:16Anyone that knows me knows my heart
01:18and knows that it's predicated off of love.
01:21But in those initial times, I just
01:24felt like we all needed to stand up
01:28for people with the complexion of George Floyd
01:31and be there for those student athletes
01:33that we coach in the same manner that they've been there for us.
01:37Absolutely.
01:38And obviously, your passion is coming
01:41from a place of experience.
01:44So talk about your experience with police brutality.
01:47I mean, you've spoken about it before,
01:49but I kind of want to hear your story
01:51and kind of give your perspective on the mentality
01:54that you, as a Black man, have on the most basic traffic
01:59stops by police.
02:01Oh, man, and I tweeted the other day
02:04that my incident with the police and the police encounter
02:09in 2005, which involved myself and Raymond Felton, who
02:12was, at the time, the point guard of North Carolina's
02:17championship team.
02:18And for me, I come from those impoverished neighborhoods.
02:22I come from poverty.
02:23I come from where we're marginalized as a people.
02:28I come from where we're often targeted.
02:30And so when I spoke out, I wasn't
02:33speaking as a basketball coach.
02:34I was speaking as a young man who's
02:38often had to walk that walk of being marginalized.
02:44And so I've had several encounters with the police.
02:48The one I tweeted about was just the first time
02:50they pulled the gun to my head.
02:51And it was 2005.
02:54And myself and Raymond Felton was driving
02:57in one of my old neighborhood.
02:59And I had a truck.
03:00And at the time, it had tinted windows.
03:01And I was on the phone with my mother.
03:03And I knew I was being followed, because I've
03:05been followed so many times.
03:07So I told her, look, ma, I'm going to call you back.
03:08I'm being followed.
03:09She said, no, stay on the phone.
03:11And so I made a couple of left turns and right turns.
03:14Just like I thought, the cop continued to follow me.
03:16And not long after, he put his siren on
03:18and put his lights on.
03:20And I pulled over.
03:21And once I pulled over, by the time I put my truck in park,
03:25my door was being snatched open.
03:27And I was being snatched out of my door.
03:29And it was two officers.
03:31Once the initial officer snatched me out,
03:35his backup, or his partner, rather, had a gun to my head.
03:40And they never went over the routine.
03:43They never went over the protocol.
03:44They never asked for driver's license or registration.
03:47They just went straight to, you know,
03:50you and Ray fit the description.
03:51That's some dope boys, turn around, spread angle on the car.
03:54And each time I turned back around to question them,
03:58you know, he put the gun closer and closer to my head.
04:00So obviously, I was terrified.
04:02I hear my mom coming through the phone, crying and panicking.
04:05So he handcuffed me, took my head,
04:07and mushed me down on the curb.
04:09Mind you, it was raining.
04:11And I had on all white that night.
04:13And, you know, before long, his backup come.
04:16And he drove up on the concrete that I was sitting on,
04:20on the curb that I was sitting on.
04:21And he probably stopped maybe five, six feet away from me.
04:25And he get out the car.
04:26Now he's drawing his gun.
04:28And because he's taking upon the same energy
04:30that these other two cops had.
04:32And once he drew his gun, he had a backup guy with him.
04:36And the backup cop began to look at me
04:39as if I looked familiar to him.
04:41And I'm just sitting on the curb.
04:43And, you know, the initial officer comes up.
04:45And he says, man, I need to check your car,
04:48go in there and get the license
04:49and your driver's license and registration.
04:51So he finally asked me for my driver's license registration,
04:53maybe 10, what seemed like 10, 15 minutes
04:56after the initial stop.
04:58And I said, no, you're not, I'm not reaching in that truck.
05:00You're not gonna shoot me and kill me and justify that.
05:03I said, so if you want my driver's license,
05:05I've memorized my driver's license for that very reason
05:08since I was 15 years old.
05:09So I said, this is my driver's license number.
05:11So you don't wear my plates and tags
05:13and do what you have to do.
05:14But I'm not reaching inside of this truck.
05:16And the backup officer's partner calls everyone over,
05:22all the cops over, and they're huddling up
05:24while I'm sitting on the curb.
05:25They don't even know Ray is in the car at this time
05:27because both of the cops ran up on my side of the truck.
05:31And I guess they're talking about me
05:34because they keep looking back.
05:37And I hear someone say, LaVell Moat.
05:38And so the cop, the backup cop comes over.
05:42He says, man, what's your name, man?
05:44I said, LaVell Moat.
05:45He said, man, that's what I thought.
05:46So he walks back over there and he's telling them,
05:48like, I guess, I told you so, I told you so,
05:51whatever, whatever.
05:52And I said, man, I've been telling them that
05:53since they pulled me out here.
05:56So by that time, my mom is still crying.
05:59I hear her coming through the phone frantically.
06:01And Ray is talking to her on the phone,
06:04trying to get her to calm down.
06:05And he finally rolls the window down.
06:08Once he rolls his window down,
06:09they run up to his side because he scared them.
06:11They never knew anyone else was in the truck
06:13because they never even bothered
06:15to search that side of the truck.
06:16And so they got their hand on their gun
06:19and he runs up to the side and see Ray.
06:21And he said, man, you're Raymond Felton.
06:24And he said, man, these guys ain't no dope boys,
06:27just Raymond Felton and LaVell Moat.
06:29And it kind of helped in that situation
06:31that Ray had just won a national championship,
06:34maybe 30 days prior.
06:35So that was my story.
06:38And it was the first time I felt humiliated.
06:40I sat on that curb because it was the first time
06:42I felt like less than a man, right?
06:44And all the stories that my grandfather and his friends
06:47had told me when I was a young kid about,
06:51you know, just being targeted
06:53and what they had to go through and endure,
06:56you know, from police officers and things of that nature.
07:00I was no different than them.
07:02And I just thought we should have had
07:03some kind of progressive change.
07:05Unfortunately, I can relate to a lot of the stuff
07:08that you said.
07:10One of the things that you said I thought stood out
07:12was something, another thing I can relate to,
07:15and that is memorizing your license number.
07:16People think that that is crazy when I tell them that,
07:19but just expand that.
07:21I, talk about why.
07:26You know, again, man, just where I'm from,
07:29we were trained and conditioned to do certain things
07:33to protect ourselves and make sure.
07:35My mother always told me,
07:36your job is to make sure you get back home.
07:38See where I'm from, every day we walked out of our door,
07:42we had to make a life or death decision
07:44to get back inside the home.
07:46And that wasn't a sense of normalcy for a kid.
07:48And that's just what we had to go through and endure.
07:50And we never complained about it.
07:52It's just what it was.
07:53And so once I received my license,
07:57my godfather told me, listen,
07:58this is what's gonna happen to you, right?
08:01So we're not teaching you how to drive this car
08:04just for the sake of going to speed limit
08:08or two and three point turn or parallel parking.
08:10There's another attribute to this
08:12that you're gonna have to understand.
08:14And so he taught me right there.
08:15He said, memorize your driver's license number.
08:18And that became second nature to me.
08:20And I know my driver's license number
08:22better than I know my phone number.
08:23Somebody asked me my phone number,
08:25I'll stutter a little bit,
08:26but my driver's license number,
08:27I can roll that off the top of my head.
08:29And it was just for that reason.
08:30In case you get pulled,
08:32oftentimes cops was using that as built in excuses
08:36to harass and beat people and possibly shoot them.
08:41And in some instances, in some cases, they did shoot them.
08:45And their justification,
08:46when they went before the judge was saying,
08:49well, I thought he was going into his car
08:52to pull out a gun.
08:53And he grabbed something that looked like a gun.
08:55And at the end of the day, it may have been a wallet,
08:57but it was probable cause for them.
08:59And so I said, man, if I can help it,
09:01I'm not going to be another statistic.
09:02And we saw that in the Tamir Rice situation,
09:05God rest his soul, that young kid, if I'm not mistaken,
09:08in Cleveland was playing cops and robbers with a toy gun
09:11and they killed him, right?
09:13You know how many times I played cops and robbers
09:15with my friends with toy guns growing up?
09:18And so, I just thought enough was enough, man.
09:21And it was time to speak out and share my experiences
09:24because I do understand that I've been able to be a voice
09:29of people who probably don't have a voice.
09:32I've been able and fortunate to sit at some tables
09:35that other people that look like me
09:36probably couldn't sit at.
09:38The truth is I've lived in poverty over half of my life.
09:42So I can always and will always directly relate
09:46to people of those background and that demographic
09:48and that population, and they need a voice.
09:51And that's what I've always done my entire life
09:53is speak up for those who may not have a voice.
09:55And here we are.
09:57Absolutely.
09:58So important to hear that perspective, man.
10:00I definitely appreciate that.
10:01And also as a by-product of all of this
10:03that's going on right now,
10:05you got a lot of five-star kids stepping up and saying,
10:09hey, maybe we need to look at going to HBCUs.
10:12So there's a renewed, there's a new interest.
10:15I can't say new, cause it's not new,
10:16but a renewed interest in HBCUs right now.
10:20What do you think will come from that?
10:22Do you think this could start a new trend?
10:25You know, I think it started a new trend across the board
10:28and not just particularly in recruiting,
10:32but just across the board in our culture, right?
10:35And just dealing with black people.
10:37You know, for many years,
10:39we've been victims of systemic racism
10:41and that has to come to the forefront.
10:44And in the midst of that,
10:46now that it's finally being viewed and televised
10:51and everyone is witnessing this first and forehand,
10:57like I just think it's critical that we educate,
11:01you know, people that look like us
11:03and people that don't look like us properly.
11:06And through that true education
11:08is gonna come some decisions that may go against the grain
11:12of how we traditionally have done things,
11:14whether it's how we interact with one another,
11:17how we have our business practices,
11:20how we select schools, how we select coaches,
11:23you know, do we sign with record companies
11:28or just do we do it independently?
11:29Across the board, the black culture,
11:32I just feel a movement and a change
11:34that's happening right now.
11:35So even in terms of the recruiting,
11:37I think the recruiting is just a by-product
11:40of the metamorphosis that we're seeing nationally.
11:44Absolutely, absolutely.
11:45Well, hey, I definitely appreciate your time, coach.
11:48And more importantly in this time,
11:50I appreciate your voice.
11:51Thank you so much, JJ.
11:52I appreciate you for having me.