A Black policeman uses his role in York, SC to deliver a powerful message of change
Pierre King sat in his York, S.C., home in May 2020, unsure what to do.
Details of George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minnesota police officer dominated what he saw on TV. King was in his fifth year as York Comprehensive High School’s resource officer, a law enforcement job he loved.
But in that moment, King said he wondered what perhaps many other Black officers have wondered: “Can my identity as a police officer co-exist with the one I have when I take this badge off — a Black man, a father with two sons?”
“(The George Floyd death) affected me tremendously,” King said during a recent interview with The Herald. “I was kind of in the middle of like, ‘Well, should I continue doing this?’”
King then made a vow.
“I told myself that leaving this field is not going to help this situation. It just wouldn’t,” he said. “So I was at home one evening and said, ‘What can I do to help change things?’ And my last name is very powerful, ‘King.’ And I said, ‘If I want to help, I gotta be the king of change.’”
In October 2020, after talking with his wife and family, King called Sweet Tea Refills, a t-shirt store that prints custom designs. He ordered 10 shirts with a single message: “Be The King of Change.”
A blue line, a common symbol for law enforcement, filled in part of King’s name, and below the text was an image of hands shaking. One hand was black and one white.
The message behind the shirt is simple, King said. He wants to close the divide and build trust between the entire public and law enforcement.
“You hear all the time, ‘We gotta change, we gotta change.’ But until you take action? I mean … We’re putting in place (this unifying message) that people will see,” he said. “And what bigger billboard than what people wear?”
King wore one of his shirts to a family reunion. He said he was surprised how many people wanted them. (“Ten shirts, gone in three minutes,” he said.)
A week after that, he ordered more. And then more. A month in, he thought it might be good to sell the shirts, not for a profit but to recoup some of his money and reinvest in more.
Demand poured in.
He said he received calls from people he either didn’t know or hadn’t heard from in a long time. He said his favorite part of the sales process was when people asked about the meaning behind the shirt design.
He created an account with BSN Sports, a company that provides athletic equipment and apparel to nearly all the high schools in York County.
“I’m not kidding you, it has blown up,” said Terrance Biddix of BSN Sports who works directly with King.
Biddix said he saw King putting in multiple orders a week and encouraged him to place larger orders. After all, he told King, the more you purchase at once, the more quickly you can sell and the farther your message can spread.
The result? King said he’s sold hundreds of t-shirts and raised thousands of dollars, all of which has been reinvested in more t-shirts.
“It’s been crazy, the response, just to be dead honest,” Biddix said. “I honestly went into this with those rose-colored glasses, doing this as a favor, and the next thing you know, it’s incredible. He’s ordered several times — and it’s not ending.”
Meet Officer Pierre King
A huge reason the t-shirts are selling is King himself.
“The people who know Pierre — the students, school officials, all of his friends — they know he is living exactly what he’s preaching,” said Capt. Brian Trail of the York Police Department. Trail said he has known King for years as an employee and as a good friend, and is “proud” that King is the godfather of his grandson. Trail said King is just a great person with a great heart, and he’s “never heard anyone say a bad word about him.”
“What he’s doing,” Trail added, “and the brand he’s promoting, is truly what he is.”
King grew up in York, a small town of just over 8,000 people in western York County. He spent most of his childhood living on Green Street, specifically, a little nook in York he described as a “predominantly Black neighborhood.” He grew up without much money and in a one-parent household, he said. But there was a lot of love — everyone in his neighborhood knew everyone else; his aunts and uncles helped raise him.
He went to York High School, at the old site that now is home to York Middle. He earned his diploma in 1994 and enrolled in the U.S. Army.
Military service matured him to adulthood, he said. When he returned home on reserve duty, he worked as a district sales manager at The Herald newspaper and at Founders Federal Credit Union. He got his chance to be back as a frontline worker in uniform when he was hired in 2010 as a York City police officer.
King said he was nervous about being a cop at first. He said he and his friends hadn’t held law enforcement officers in high regard growing up.
But that nervousness ended on his first patrol.
“On the streets, people already kind of knew me,” he said. “People started talking to me, getting to know me. And when their kids got in trouble, they said, ‘Hey, come talk to such-and-such.’”
In 2015, York Comprehensive High School’s leadership wanted King to be their school resource officer. (King even knew York’s principal, Christopher Black. They went to school together.)
He’s been there ever since.
A message that grows
King’s message has carried farther than he expected.
“Be The King of Change” now has an online store, and sells multiple products, from t-shirts to mugs to hats. Before a baseball playoff game last season, the York team gathered in the infield for a picture, wearing “Be The King of Change” shirts.
One student at his school, who races cars in his free time, asked King if he could make “Be The King of Change” stickers for his vehicle. So King did.
“Everyone in the York community is touched by Officer King,” said York baseball coach and colleague of King, Tripper Crisson. “He’s such a great leader for the York Police Department and York Comprehensive High School. He loves sports, we love him, and we just wanted to show support for Officer King and his message.”
Why has “Be The King of Change” been shared among so many people? Sometimes the messenger is more important than the message.
There’s the fact that King is a “hero” of sorts. He was honored by S.C. Rep. Ralph Norman after saving a stranger’s life in June 2019. But more to the point, the harshest criticism of police departments is that they don’t fully represent the communities they serve. King is in a community that trusts him. He is York.
“So many people are just so supportive, and it’s kind of overwhelming because he’s from York, he’s a police officer in a small town… and the unity is needed,” said Sandra King, Pierre’s wife. “I support it 110% because (the conversation) is very much needed right about now. It is. And I think it’ll always be.”
King said he doesn’t feel there’s an unfair burden on him to promote unity between the public — particularly Black residents — and the police department. He said, he’s embraced how his identity as a Black police officer can spearhead meaningful change.
“The community needs to see that their own care, you know?” King said. “And with me being from here, the thing that I was more concerned about is the thing that’s really helping me. The community knows me, and they know that I’m not going to stand for anyone treating anyone wrongly in this community, including myself.”
‘The only way’
King also is a public speaker. He attends almost every basketball, volleyball, football and baseball game on the YCHS campus. He’s helped lead a few community relations events with the York Police Department — a central and renewed focus in the YPD since police chief Andy Robinson arrived a decade ago. One such conversation is scheduled this month called “Conversations with Cops,” a program at which King will talk directly to teenagers in York.
King isn’t naive. He understands that cultivating trust between the public and the police will take time. He said he still gets nervous at traffic stops with his sons. He knows there will be setbacks. (Last month, three nights of race-related protests broke out in nearby Rock Hill after an arrest where two Black men were shoved and wrestled to the ground. A Rock Hill police officer was recently fired and charged with assault in connection with the incident, which called into question the officer’s use of force.)
But he said what he’s doing — sparking conversations and reminding his community that most police officers are like him — is a start.
And the t-shirts continue to sell.
“As much as I love that you get the shirt because you like Officer King, wear the shirt because you want to live by that message,” he said. “Live by that message you’re wearing. That way people see, ‘Let’s make a change between law enforcement and the public.’ Because if we don’t come together as one, we’re not going to win.
“Unless we come together and say, ‘We believe in the police,’ and the police say, ‘We want to do right by the community,’ that’s the only way we’re going to win. The only way.’”
This story was originally published July 22, 2021 at 12:50 PM.
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