Daily Dose of Protest: Children – Chastity

Album cover for Chastity’s full length debut Death Lust, due out on July 13, 2018. Captured Tracks

“Children” is the lead single for Chastity’s full length debut album, Death Lust, which is due out on July 13, 2018. Chastity is the brainchild of Brandon Williams and he uses heavy music to tackle heavy issues.

“Children” addresses an incident of police brutality that took place in Whitby, Ontario, Canada on December 28, 2016. An off duty police officer Micheal Theriualt and his brother assaulted a 19-year-old black man, Dafonte Miller, with a steel pipe. When Miller tried to call 911, Micheal grabbed his phone and told dispatch that he was arresting Miller. From there, Micheal’s father John, a retried detective interfered with the investigation and both the Durham Region and Toronto Police were accused of being involved in the cover up. The two brothers have been charged with aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and public mischief and the trial is scheduled to resume in May.

In a statement made to NPR Music, Williams stated the following about the intent of the tune: “This is a close-up on the practice of institutional racism that’s revealed itself in my hometown by members of the police.”

The video also features powerful images which highlights the unifying power and righteous indignation of youth. Music videos is an artistic medium that Williams is known to effectively use to convey the socially conscious message of his music. This fact was highlighted on Chastity’s Bandcamp page: “Visuals play a meaningful role in this world with Williams using his penchant for crafting consistently sleek, challenging imagery to personalize the narratives running throughout all of Chastity’s music — most discernibly, a call for the disruption of status quo. ”