GreeningFrogtownJulyAug17

FROGTOWN NEWS
younger kids to the park, banged on the
neighbor’s door to ask if she wanted
anything from the store. “With him, I
didn’t have to worry about anything.
Whatever would make you happy, that is
what he’d do.”
He made mistakes along the way. An
assault charge landed him in Totem Town,
but after he got out he took a job at
McDonald’s and signed up for a
bricklayer apprentice program.
On March 1 0, 201 6, he asked his mother
for $20 so he could go out with his cousin.
Later he called his mother to say that the
cousin had a gun. He wondered what he
should do. Broyles told him to bring the
gun to her, and she would take it to the
police. Then she waited for him to show
up. He never did.
John and the cousin headed for a party at
the Days Inn Motel on University and
Prior. There they encountered Rayshon
Brooks, with whom the cousin had an
ongoing beef. The way Broyles
understood it, the cousin had spoken
disrespectfully of Brooks’ dead mother.
Brooks had a gun. John was holding the
cousin’s gun. Brooks waved his gun at the
cousins. They ran, but John turned to fire
some shots in Brooks’ direction.
Broyles thinks she understands what
happened. Of her son, she says, “He was a
protector. He loved his family with his
whole heart.” She can imagine him
shooting in Brooks’ direction to scare him
off. “But he wasn’t scared off. He had a
gun, too. He just kept coming.” John was
shot and died on the sidewalk.
In the aftermath of her son’s murder, just
shy of his eighteenth birthday, his friends
came to Broyles and told her they wanted
to settle the score. “That’s not going to
bring him back,” she told them.
If you ask Broyles for her idea of
solutions to gun violence, she says that
parents have to be more involved with
their children. You can’t have babies
having babies, she says. Children want to
have children, but they don’t want to be
parents and they don’t have the tools to do
the job right. She sees too many children
who look to her like their parents just
don’t care. “They look like they’re not
being fed. Their attitude — there’s a lack
of respect.”
In her own home, she says, “You respect
me or you get out.” When her relative’s
children visit, they know to greet
everyone politely. If they get a plate out
they know to wash it when they’re done.
If you’re talking to her you don’t doubt
that all of this is true. There’s not a hostile
note in it, but you know that she means it.
But in the end you’re left with a riddle.
OLD-SCHOOL FOOD PREP AT FARM CELEBRATION: Brothers Ben (L) and Alex
Buhr try their hand at mashing rice for patties as Shawn Mouacheupao of Hmong
Cultural Experience coaches. The mash-fest was a part of the day's activities at
the Backyard Farm Fair at Frogtown Park and Farm. The June event featured free
food, music, a climbing wall for kids, and loads of information from local
organizations. Farm staff figured 700 people attended.
Her child was, by both Broyles’ account
and that of neighbors who knew him, a
charming kid. He was raised by a loving
mother and surrounded by neighbors who
were concerned about him. And he died in
a shoot out.
Later, forum organizer Tia Williams tried
to make some sense of that contradiction.
Her own kids were roughly the same age
as John Broyles, and were raised across
the street. "He was the kid who would
poke his little chubby face up against my
screen and ask if I wanted something from
the store," Williams said.
Continued, Page 11
JULY/AUGUST 2017
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