This is an opinion column.

I don’t want to see the video.

I don’t want to see the final moments of a promising young man’s life.

I don’t want to see his eyes. I don’t want to see his fear.

I don’t want to hear what Jabari Latrell Peoples may have said before his short life began to slip away near the Homewood Soccer Park on a Monday night in late June.

I don’t want to hear George Floyd again, don’t want to hear, “Mama.”

If Jabari were my son, though, I would want to see the video — desperately.

I wouldn’t be able to sleep, wouldn’t be able to stop crying. Crying out loud.

I wouldn’t be able to stop hurting until I saw the video — until I saw what caused the final moments of my son’s life.

Until I saw his eyes, until I saw his fear.

Until I saw his goodbye.

Show them the video, y’all — Alabama Law Enforcement Agency folks. Show Jabari Peoples’ family the video of how the 18-year-old Aliceville native lost his life.

Now.

Show them what they must see before they can begin to heal.

‘We’re broken,” his father said Wednesday. “We’ll never be healed.”

Jabari’s birthday is today. His parents said he wanted an F-150 truck for his birthday. Instead, they’re planning his homegoing.

Show them what they deserve to see, what they need to see — desperately.

Show it to them. “Ongoing active law enforcement investigation” be damned.

Show it to them as you did almost seven years ago while still investigating the tragic Hoover police shooting of Emantic “E.J.” Bradford Jr. on Thanksgiving night at the Riverchase Galleria. The 21-year-old Hueytown native died on the floor of the mall, bleeding from at least one gunshot wound to the face, after a dispute between at least three men (including Bradford) that began at the FootAction store inside the mall, escalated to gunfire and resulted in Bradford, who had a gun he was permitted to carry, being gunned down by police amid the ensuing chaos.

Just one week later, on Thursday, November 29, Florida-based civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump Jr., along with Rodney Barganier and Frankie Lee of Birmingham, viewed about 30 seconds of the deadly encounter at ALEA’s offices. Members of the family did not attend because it conflicted with final preparations for the public viewing of Bradford’s body.

Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr and Bessemer Cutoff District Attorney Lynneice Washington attended the video viewing with the attorneys.

“It was a courtesy to the family and the lawyers,” Carr said at the time. “But also, because we believe in total transparency for this process.”

This process is no different. Not if y’all, ALEA, believe in total transparency.

If you don’t, just say so.

Don’t blame potentially impacting the investigation for your decision to withhold the body-cam and police car dash-cam video. After a two-month investigation into the killing of Bradford involving dozens of witnesses and hundreds of pieces of evidence — cell phone videos taken by shoppers, mall surveillance video, body cam video, text messages and Facebook posts — Attorney General Steve Marshall shared a report stating that the Hoover police officer shooting was justified.

The report identified the shooter as Officer 1.

“After an extensive investigation and review, the Attorney General has determined Officer 1 did not commit a crime under Alabama law when he shot and killed E.J. Bradford,” Marshall’s report said. “The facts of this case demonstrate that Officer 1 reasonably exercised his official powers, duties, or functions when he shot” Bradford, the report continues.

Showing the video to the Bradford family’s representatives and offering to show it to the family, as well, did not impact the investigation.

Neither will the video of what happened on that awful night at Homewood’s soccer field.

 It shows what it shows. It may not tell the whole story, as often happens with video. It may not clearly convey guilt or innocence.

It might even enflame already-fragile emotions. It might hurt. Hurt badly.

But what it shows must be shown to the family and their attorneys.

They deserve to see it. They deserve to see it just as the yet unnamed officer saw it. In real time. In tragic, likely horrifying real time.

Just as I’d deserve to see it. Just as I’d demand to see it. Just as I’d cry out loud to see it if Jabari were my son.

Show it to them. Now.

Let’s be better tomorrow than we are today. My column appears on AL.com, and digital editions of The Birmingham News, Huntsville Times, and Mobile Press-Register. Tell me what you think at [email protected], and follow me at twitter.com/roysj, Instagram @roysj and BlueSky.