Allie Armstrong 

9/25/20 
Period 3 
 
The Hate You Give Final Essay 
 
As soon as I heard the phone ring that was the second I knew something was 

wrong. Lisa picked up the phone and started tearing up. She grabbed the keys and left 

with Maverick. Something about Starr. When I woke up the next morning I heard what 

happened, Khalil is dead. Our childhood best friend was gone just like that. At least now 

he can see Natasha up in heaven. I can’t believe Starr was there, she must be 

traumatized. I mean losing a friend is a terrible feeling, but seeing them die, totally 

different. News spreads through Garden Heights like wildfire, a police officer involved 

in an ​incident​ resulting in the death of a 16-year-old.  

We got to school on Monday, and I could tell that Starr was feeling distant. She 

seems like she’s in another world just experiencing over and over again what happened 

to Khalil. Going to Williamson has always been a struggle, hiding half of our identities 

just to fit in. Starr’s been having nightmares about Khalil and Natasha ever since that 

night. When we walked towards everyone in the halls, Chris ​approached​ Starr and 

reached for her hand. She ​cringed​ and pulled her hand back. What was ​visible​ to me was 

the fear in her eyes. 

The next day Starr and Lisa went to the station to talk about what happened to 

Khalil. When they got back, they filled us in on how while they said the police were trying 

to ​investigate​ what happened, that the questions being asked about Khalil seemed to 
justify​ the officer’s decision to kill him. After we heard that, I think we were all getting 

more worried about if j​ ustice​ was ever going to be served for Khalil. Starr is probably 

feeling so guilty for what happened, I couldn’t even imagine. His funeral was the next 

day, and I think that had her on edge. 

At the funeral, almost all of Garden Heights shows up. We all said our final 

goodbyes to Khalil and gave our ​sympathy​ to Khalil’s family when King showed up. King 

and his fellow gang members walk down the rows of seats and place a grey bandana on 

his chest. This was a way for the King Lords to pay their respects to a fallen member. 

This was news to many, but Starr had a look on her face like she saw it coming. No one 

could believe it. He wasn’t that type of person, there must have been a good reason for 

Khalil to turn to King. After the Funeral a young woman approached Star. I overheard 

parts of the conversation. I guess she’s an activist that runs Just Us For Justice. Her 

name is Mrs. Ofrah, and she’s also a lawyer. Mrs. Ofrah then said something about 

knowing Starr was the w

​ itness​ and that She wanted to protect her ​privacy,​ but 

represent Starr if they wanted her to. Many people outside the Church marched through 

the streets in Khalil’s honor.  

Statements came out later about the police not taking any legal action against 

the officer responsible for Khalil’s death. The decision to not act against Officer Cruise, 

caused protests to break out all over Garden Heights. By now everything about Khalil 

was on the news. When we got to school one day, Hailey asked us if we knew the “drug 

dealer that was killed” Starr answered, denying that we ever knew him. I wonder if she 

felt guilty about ignoring the existence of our once best friend. Then we heard about all 
the kids participating in a protest. Our closer good friends, not including Hailey or Maya, 

didn’t participate because we knew that they weren’t protesting for the right reasons, 

just to get out of class. 

I noticed the tension between Starr and Hailey. I think Starr was finally over 

letting Hailey be blatantly ignorant and racist. One day Maya decided they needed to 

talk, so she invited us all over to her house. When we got there, I could tell Starr had 

Hailey on thin ice. Maya turns on the TV and she was skipping through the channels, 

quickly a news interview about Khalil passed on the screen, Starr told her to go back. As 

we were watching, we saw that Officer Cruise’s father was talking about how good of a 

person the cop was and that all he wanted to do was go home to his family that night. 

Hailey sympathized with the cop and Starr snapped. They got into an argument and we 

soon left after creating an alliance against Hailey with Maya. 

Back in Garden Heights we were at the store and saw another shop owner named 

Mr. Lewis in front of some camera guys, Maverick approached him, and as we listened 

we realized that he was snitching on King. When the cameras turned off Maverick and 

Mr. Lewis got into an argument because snitching on King was never a good idea. In the 

middle of their argument cops showed up, they started asking questions about their 

argument. Nothing got out of hand until one of the cops realized something. The cop 

had realized that Maverick was Starr’s father, they shoved Maverick on to the ground. 

They soon left as they had no reason to arrest anyone. After this scare in front of 

everyone and the whole issue with Hailey, I could tell that Starr didn’t want to stay quiet 

anymore. 
 A couple of days later, Mrs. Ofrah represented Starr pro bono, and Starr decided 

to do an interview. She was nervous but ended up doing great and leaving people 

speechless. She talked about how she recently found out why Khalil did what he did, and 

how it was to protect his mom from King. Starr talked about how good of a person Khalil 

was and how he never deserved what happened to him. She talked about everything 

that happens in Garden Heights. She talked about King Lords and how they were the 

biggest gang there, basically exposing all of it. Starr dry snitched on King and we all 

knew it.  

The night before her testimony in front of the grand jury, either King Lords or 

possibly even possibly the police threw bricks in our house and shot up the place. We 

were all okay, but this really scared Starr. I hoped that she wouldn’t back out of talking. 

She stayed strong and told the grand jury everything. She did everything she could do to 

help Khalil get justice. A couple of months later, the grand jury ultimately decided to not 

indict Officer Cruise with the murder of Khalil Harris. In a rage among the entire 

community Chris, Starr, Seven, and I went out to where all the riots were happening. We 

were so fed up with the injustice we didn’t care what we did, we just needed to do 

something. That night we all pledged we would forever fight against injustice and 

always remember our beloved friend Khalil Harris.