Claude Motley was shot in the face in Milwaukee in 2014.
A new documentary “When Claude Got Shot” shows how his life changed forever that day.
What does he think about the gun violence we continue to see today?
Motley sat down with Libby Collins on WTMJ Conversations.
Listen in the player above.
A portion of the conversation was transcribed below, courtesy of eCourt Reporters, Inc.
LIBBY COLLINS: You look back to 2014 and, yes, there was a lot of violence in the city.
CLAUDE MOTLEY: Yeah.
LIBBY COLLINS: But now as we move to 2022, I mean, a night doesn’t go by —
CLAUDE MOTLEY: Right.
LIBBY COLLINS: — every weekend, I mean, sometimes double digits —
CLAUDE MOTLEY: Right.
LIBBY COLLINS: — of people, usually young people, who were shot in the city.
CLAUDE MOTLEY: Right.
LIBBY COLLINS: What’s going on, Claude?
CLAUDE MOTLEY: You know, I don’t have — I don’t have all of the answers to that. You know, one of the things I can say is that when you talk about what happened in 2014, and these are situations in which compound, you know, it’s almost like momentum. You know, it’s very hard to say, hey, look at this situation, let’s stop it, because you have so many inputs on why these things happen — happening. And that’s one — that’s one of the things. A lot of things are interconnected of why these kids are doing the things that they are doing. It’s not just about picking up a gun and having fun. You know, when you talk about education, when you talk about the social — you know, the criminal justice system, when you talk about community resources. When you talk about all these different things that interact that have been not handled properly, that’s when you get a situation where people just do not care.
LIBBY COLLINS: Do you blame the parents at all?
CLAUDE MOTLEY: Oh, absolutely — I mean, you know —
LIBBY COLLINS: I mean, we started out, you said what great parents you had —
CLAUDE MOTLEY: Yeah, yeah.
LIBBY COLLINS: — how you lived a straight and narrow church-going kind of life.
CLAUDE MOTLEY: Right. Right. Right.
LIBBY COLLINS: But what’s the difference now from when you were growing up and your friends were growing up?
CLAUDE MOTLEY: You know, and I think that, you know, not to get too deep into the social, you know, thought process of it, but what you do have to say is that I think my parents were — they had more stability within the family. There was a lot more stability. There were lot more, you know — a lot of people that were able to come together within the community and support each other, and right now we just do not have that. You know, we have a lot of things that were stripped away for the — for the resources. When we look at — when we look at Milwaukee, unemployment is three times higher for African-Americans than it is Whites. You know, and if you talk about, you know, just looking at that one instance and that one aspect, and you have people that are struggling. Your uncles, your cousins, your father’s friends, you just see all these people who are struggling to work and struggling to, you know, make ends meet. As a kid, how does that — how does that affect your thought process and the things you’re going to put together as in the choices that you make when you might have adults. And, you know, then you add in the education, then you add in the community resources. There are so many things that are interacted where these kids are doing this, and we really need to shine a light on what are we doing to invest in our kids, what are we doing to — or not invest in our kids. What are we — what are we doing to make sure that these kids come up in an environment in which they don’t have to make the choices. They don’t have to say, “I don’t have nothing to lose,” and pick up a gun. We want them to say the opposite, “I have everything to lose.” And that’s one of the things that we lose sight of.
