Brian Raniere

Title

Brian Raniere

Interviewee/ Narrator

Brian Raniere

Interviewer

Connor Caparos

Date

February 14, 2024

Location of the Interview

Chicago, Illinois

Length

21 minutes, 53 seconds

Abstract

Brian Raniere, Originally born and raised in Chicago, always wanted to be a police officer growing up. As he got older, he accepted a job as aviation officer flying helicopters for Chicago PD, after attending Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. In the interview, Brian received the news of the BLM movement when he was on the job and the aviation unit requested him to do a flyover, and he thought it was absolute chaos seeing the protests going on in Chicago, objects on fire, broken glass, burned police cars, and more. He stated, “There was no rhyme or reason of what was going on.” He talked about the protests and how 3 or 4 police cars would be on fire a day in Chicago, and none of it would be showed on the media. When I asked him if he saw anything on social media, he said he was not on social media, but he pays attention to the news and watches the news daily and saw these protests on the news. Brian being a police officer, thought that the whole goal of this modern BLM movement was to stop police brutality, and he said that it worked to the extent that policemen in Chicago are mostly hands off now. Implications by their general orders that they are given, and they have said that they are not really allowed to do any proactive work. Brian also said that the movement has impacted the way he talks with people because even though everyone has their own opinion, some people wont take others opinions into consideration. When asked if the movement has succeeded, he said that he thinks it has succeeded because their opinions had been brought to light. The only way he though it has failed is because the media covers up things that people don’t want to see. All in all, Brian was a good person to talk to because of his experience in the BLM movement, covering all of the things he saw while in flight for the news and the Chicago Police Department.