A 43-year-old Black police officer, military veteran and father took his own life outside of the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office on Monday after leaving a series of haunting videos on social media explaining that he’s “had enough” of racist policing and no longer wanted any part of it.
“I’ve had enough of all of this nonsense. I’m serving a system that does not give a damn about me or people like me,” said Clyde Kerr III at the beginning of his video.
“This killing that’s going on, especially by police, which I am, I can’t abide by this no more. I’m not having anything to do with this nonsense anymore.
Kerr cited the police killings of Botham Jean, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Trayford Pellerin, who was killed by Lafayette Police Department officers in August, as part of his frustration with the profession.
“If this feels right to you as a person, then something is wrong with you,” he said.
“I understand we have a tough job, but we signed up for this. We need help. Because when you deal with the bottom rung of society, that does not give us an excuse to just do whatever you want, and that’s what we’re doing and we’re not being held accountable.”
Kerr served in Afghanistan and Iraq before returning to Lafayette and working as a police officer in 2015. In two of the videos, taken on Friday, he sat in his cruiser outside his assigned schools; children could be heard on the playground in the background, as Kerr mentioned sharing a last wave with the students who were unaware it would be their final interaction with him.
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“My entire life has been in the service of other people … y’all entrust me to safeguard your little ones, your small ones, the thing that’s most precious to you, and I did that well. I passed security clearance in the military … but that has allowed me to see the inner workings of things.”
Kerr said repeatedly that his decision to commit suicide was made in his right mind as a “protest.” He also said the need for “dramatic and bold” action was made clear to him a week before his death and intimated it was part of a higher calling. He said he would “pass this baton to the next guy” if he could, but this was his mission.
Kerr also expressed disappointment that he would not be able to hold out long enough to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, particularly with two “Purple Knights” from St. Augustine High School in New Orleans playing against each other – Tyrann Mathieu of the Kansas City Chiefs and Leonard Fournette of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
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