An Imperfect Union brings together two people on opposite sides of an issue to work on a project in their community. Watch full episodes on Facebook Watch every Wednesday at 9pm ET.
Matt
Fresh off college graduation, Matt Yoder applied to every law enforcement agency with an opening. He opened a phone book to find the big cities. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department was the first to call.
That was 23 years ago.
The veteran Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer worked as a K9 handler for 19 of those years and just recently transferred back to patrol.
“Everybody has their way of doing things. It’s not a right way, it’s not a wrong way. Some officers choose to be a little bit more professional, I’m a little more down to earth. I just have a different approach,” Matt said.
Matt, while proud of his profession, realizes that the community doesn’t always feel the same way.
An officer who’s been “on the big calls, the car crashes, the SWAT call outs” knows that police mistrust is still a huge issue.
“What I wish people knew about police officers is that we are humans and we do make mistakes…but we’re the best at what our population has to offer. But people slide through the cracks. We don’t always get it right.”
Corry
Corry Dawkins doesn’t make excuses when talking about his past.
As a kid growing up in Charlotte, North Carolina, Corry couldn’t have planned for the darkness ahead.
He was a kid with big dreams to become a professional wrestler. He had a contagious smile and plenty of friends.
But then his innocence was ripped away by someone he trusted.
At 12 years old, Corry was sexually abused by a family friend. The experience unleashed a different person to the world.
“That type of trauma makes you angry because you realize you were robbed,” Corry said. “You were robbed when it’s sickening to be robbed. I was robbed when I was an innocent child.”
During Corry’s junior year of high school, he was expelled. Over the next decade, he developed a reputation as a man with a short temper who couldn’t control his anger.
“On the outside looking in it does look like ‘well this is an angry looking individual’,” he said.
His more than 20 arrests include communicating threats, disorderly conduct, failure to disperse and even assault with a deadly weapon. Corry’s trouble with the law landed him homeless, angry and searching for a new path.
“It’s not a good feeling to wake up in a homeless shelter behind sixty other men…to wake up in a jail cell waiting for a food tray through a trap door.”
The Meeting
Matt and Corry met for the first time on a rainy summer day in Charlotte.
Tasked to hand out new sneakers to the homeless, they came together at RunningWorks, a non-profit working to end the cycle of poverty, homelessness and mental illness through running. RunningWorks is familiar for Corry. The group helped him turn his life around by securing an apartment and two jobs.
“What was your worst interaction with a police officer?” Matt asked while the two packed bags of shoes.
For Corry, it’s an experience he doesn’t shy away from sharing. He describes being thrown to the ground and hogtied after trying to put his phone away before an arrest.
Watch the full episode below to see how Matt and Corry's experience unfolds.
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