A sit down with firefighter Khari O’Connor

Steve Ahlquist — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 09:16:10 +0000

Khari O’Connor

Khari O’Connor was two weeks shy of 10 years old in 1997 when his 17-year-old brother, Malik, was shot and killed in a drive by shooting. Khari remembers hearing the voices screaming for his parents on the answering machine in his home that night. He was too young to understand everything that was going on, but he knew something had gone wrong. Malik and two friends were sitting in a car when the bullets struck. Malik’s friend was hit 10 times, and lived. Malik was hit once, and died.

Years later, as Khari stood inside the Providence Public Safety Complex watching the Providence Ferguson Protests, activists chanting, “All Black Lives Matter” stirred thoughts of his brother. The activists had been burning an American Flag, but the fire was all but out when Khari noticed a sign, held by a protester that said, “Equality.” Almost unbidden, Khari’s arm rose in solidarity with the ideas of equality and the importance of black lives.

I caught Khari’s act on video, it was brought to the attention of Providence Public Safety Superintendent Steven Paré, and now Khari faces official censure from the Providence Fire Department for the vague reason of “not being neutral.” Khari feels that if he accepts the punishment being meted out by Paré, he’s essentially admitting to raising his fist in support of the flag burning.

Worse, despite Khari’s anonymity being protected by Paré and department brass, his name has been spread all over the comments by anonymous trolls who have a lot of inside information about Khari and his position on the force. Rather than admit to something he did not do and suffer the rumors and innuendo that will inevitably follow him in his firefighting career, Khari has decided to fight.

Khari looks young, but he’s 27 years old, lean, easy going and soft spoken. He’s a good looking man, and radiates sincerity.

“I would never desecrate my country’s flag,” says Khari, “I would never support that.”

Khari comes from a family of veterans. His father and his uncle were both Marines, and both earned Purple Hearts in the Vietnam War. His grandfather servedin the Army in WWII, and one of his two older brothers was a Marine. “There’s been an American Flag in front of my house for over 20 years,” say Khari proudly.

Khari’s father confirms it. “You can ask any of our neighbors,” he says, “It’s been there forever.”

Khari can name almost all the houses on his parent’s street where veterans live. One of his high school friends lost his legs in Iraq. For Khari to support the burning of an American Flag is unthinkable.

“It’s preposterous. That’s not who I am. I was raised by a moral family.”

Malik’s death was the reason Khari joined the Fire Department. “I applied so I could help someone in [Malik’s] position,” says Khari, “To give back to him in a spiritual way…”

Malik has inspired Khari in other ways as well. When Malik died, Khari discovered the music cassettes his brother had left behind. With the greatest of care Khari would listen to his brother’s music, and learn about the artists from his brother’s magazines.

This love of music led Khari to his other career as DJ Knockout (Knockout, or K.O., are Khari O’Connor’s initials.) As DJ Knockout, Khari has hosted a radio show on WBRU Sundays for almost a year now.

Khari feels that the judgment by the Fire Department to censure him was rushed. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” says Khari.

Some community leaders and activists agree. At the “March 4 Khari” rally held Thursday night outside the Providence Public Safety Complex, Ray Watson implied bias when he asked the crowd “How many times have we complained about misconduct on behalf of law enforcement officials and we ain’t never seen a reaction as swift as we’re seeing with [Khari].”

A woman speaking at the rally pointed out that the police officers working on the night Khari raised his fist “didn’t agree with our message and had no problem showing it. They were yawning, they were laughing, they were texting, they were taking pictures- They did not take any of this seriously.

“When they say that Khari, standing in solidarity with his people, incited violence and incited a crowd that was going to uncontrollable, that’s a lie,” the woman continued, “What incited violence was that police officer that pushed that brother down with his own skateboard.”

Shortly after our interview, Khari was due at work for 4:30pm. An interview he had done with Channel 6 news was due to air at 5pm, and there was a rally in support of Khari scheduled to march on the Providence Public Safety Complex scheduled for 5:30pm. I wondered how all this was going to affect his job.

Khari didn’t know.

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Khari O’Coonor – RI Future

A sit down with firefighter Khari O’Connor