Specifically d. C. , i grew up here. My grandparents with her first immigrated High School Class so it is very personal. You keep seeing these shootings, and indifference to black life. I think now we are dealing with 400 years of tragedy and i think a combination of factors that come together they are not going to allow us to ignore. When you look back at the video, the difficult video to watch of george floyd under arrest, the Police Officer with his knee on the neck of george floyd for eight or nine minutes, the reaction of the people in the crowd, obviously theres filming going on. Does it surprise you these tactics still exist in American Police forces, given the presence of not just social media but media in general, given the presence of changes of leadership and Police Including minneapolis, promises to change Police Practice . It does. Inherently, it surprises me but given what we continue to see, it doesnt. You would think withyok camera, but the abundance of social media and when things go, when people see a camera, he would think it would change the otters attitudes but we are seeing the opposite. We saw the Police Officer in minneapolis knowingly keep his knee on someones neck not only when they are not responding but knowing the camera was pointed at him. I think that is the scariest things. Changes behavior doesnt when they are being watched and everyone can see what they are doing. In the days after the officers werewe fired, derek has been arrested and charged with thirddegree murder, seconddegree manslaughter, initially, what message do you think that sent to the public . I think the hiring was quick and smart. They needed to be fired. In terms of prosecution, i think the da made a mistake by coming out and saying there wasnt enough evidence, it looks political. I will say people in minneapolis and around the country are going to hold the people in minneapolis and Police Departments and officials all over the country responsible. Theres not going to be a continued effort to cover these things up and normalize it. People are demanding change and i think the country is listening. The federalw involvement in the george floyd case, the headline task force has echoes of rodney king, ferrite the justice departments civil rights investigation into the death of george floyd Minneapolis Police custody but attorney general bar at the center of a high profile racially charged reminiscent of one he handled in his first in the 80s. He oversaw the departments response to the video tape Police Beating of rodney king ultimately led to the los angeles riots in 19921 he was attorney general under age george h. W. Bush. How confident are you attorney general part bar can handle the case of george floyd and prosecuted to its fullest . Im not confident in general bar at all. After his response to the Mueller Report and his manipulation of the evidence in his rhetoric overall. I have zero conflict. Which is sad because the justice isnt the attorney justice. I have no confidence they will not only protect black liveses but the lives all across this country. Michael starr hopkins, democratic strategist here with us to talk about the unrest over the country, reaction to the George Floyd Killing and racial relations in the u. S. Lets talk about the other case, ahmad are very in georgia which happened earlier in the year but the in march headline in the nbc news says d. O. J. Is considering possible hate crime charges in the omid opry shooting. What you see the difference between that and the george floyd case, given the suspects involved . Ve clear difference iss one stae actor versus our breeze case which was civilian. You have those individuals hunt down mr. Marbury and order him and on camera. The floyd case, you have some other situations where an s officer humanely, the life of someone on camera. Those two minutes and 28 seconds mr. Floyd was unconscious, the officer continued to put his knee on his throat, taking away any oxygen. What sort of police modifications or reform needs to come out of these recent cases . One of the things d. C. Has done which has been successful in one of thehe reasons growing up, i didnt inherently have a fear of police, most are from the area, there from here. They are our neighbors, people we see every day at restaurants so there is a sense of belonging from shared community. A lot of police needs to get back to that. New york, for example, only one in seven new york Police Departments, police work in the five boroughs, that is problematic. Many people policing areas where they live, a shared interest there. You said you dont have a fear of police growing up in washington d. C. Area, let me ask you about a piece published by john flake an opinion piece that says the headline says theres one epidemic we may never find a vaccine for, fear of black men in public spaces. He writes in this piece that in terms of the videos that have been out there, recent events, i dont look at these videos anymore because they are so soul crushing. We have depressing familiarity to black men, its part of the ambient racism of our everyday lives. Why do you suppose blackman that White America according to his has that fear of blackman . Stereotyping, movies like birth of the nation which we place in the oval office, 60, 70 years ago. As always been characterization of africanamericans, especially animalistic, over sexualized. Those have stuck. Now we are dealing with moving forward is blackman, their skin color pink weaponize. We are seeing that africanamericans being shot and videos. As a psychological effect as well. When im walking through the city, if there is a white woman in front of me i make a conscious decision to slow down and fire enough behind her or speed up the walk ahead of her because of inherent fear that i could be accused of something that she will think im following her, its things like that. Last night, i had to put on when i put on a sweatshirt, i was cognizant that i was dressed in all black. Needed to make sure i have color on so its more friendly, welcoming. It seems things like that every day, every minute things that are survival instincts that i dont think fellow americans consider. Your folks have been part of the first integrative high school in d. C. How early do you recall your mom or dad saying to you, giving you guidance on being in public and the potential ramifications of that . I would imagine four, five, as soon as i could begin comprehending and being able to participate the things going around, i was told when you go into a store, pick things up because you could be accused of stealing. If the police stop you, if you take your hand out of your pocket slowly, calmly, dont flinch and it wasnt so i wouldnt get in trouble, so that i would get home, so i could make it home. One of the things that i am of age were my friends and i, people are getting married, and never hit me or a lot of my friends that would would still be having those conversations, we would be sending kids out, wondering whether they were going to come home. Lets get to our colors. We go first to brad in san diego. Im pushing for africanamericans, the protests are not taking over city stree streets. Protests is not to intimidate or be a predator trying to create a reaction from the police department. Know what you are protesting about. How are they protesting something that happened 200 years ago . You have problems in the community because you have that apple people dont call them. You need help jesus. I think we need to make a distinction between cap people protesting and people who are writing. I was in a protest in d. C. Saturday in front of the white house it got scary really quickly. During the day there were protesters there, young people, families, kids. They were making their voices heard peacefully. They were not bloody, writing, breaking things. At night, things changed. People who work during the day showed up. Those are the people who use the dressed in Tactical Gear for breaking things and i think theres been a disservice done to whats going on because there are writers but those people, at least in my opinion seem to be coming from outside influences. Those are not the people there marching, chanting, asking, begging for their community. These people have another agenda and they are coming for ulterior motives. So when they showed up, did you make a conscious decision to get out of there . I wanted to stay as long as i could because im covering so i want to know whats going on speak to it from firstperson perspective but after a certain time, i did have to leave. There were a lot of explosions, doctors were being set on fire, police were moving forward shooting rubber bullets so it was. Heres john on the republican line in pennsylvania. Good morning. Thank you for shes been so i believe we should be having the conversation about race, that hasnt been advocated for many years but it has to be based on an open, truthful fact based discussion. I did believe it was appropriately for the police meant to be charged with murder. Thats going to play out until people know according to fbi statistics, black males make up six and a half of the population but commit over 50 of the homicides or quarters. Also, according to fbi statistics, about 90 of the interracial pilots is black on white. Guess, you educated lawyer. I let you go out there, shes been on our show multiple times. I want to touch on the statistics. Second. When you talk about the high crime rate among african americans, lets remember how historically we got there. When you take a group of people and get them education, no opportunities and put them in a condensed area, there is certainly going to be crime. When you throw over policing and that and put a police force primarily in poor neighborhoods and specifically looking to break up crime in those neighborhoods, youre going to raise that rate even higher. In terms of the interracial crime plate, unlocked specifically what that speaks to but what i will say is as a former public defender in manhattan, you can make statistics say anything and when you look at the rate of crime among africanamericans, their specific historical reasons why there are those. When you look at the crime rate white on white, black on black, they fall apart very quickly. Going back to your comments earlier about your observation on the washington protest on saturday, these outside influences observed coming into the d. C. Protests, could they be taking advantage of that situation . Using it as an accelerant to their needs, not only in d. C. But other areas . Absolutely. Thats absolutely what it appeared to be. They have plans, they were able to communicate with each other. We would seek the Police Coming in to break up things and then you would start to see people in Tactical Gear move out, spread out and or two hit areas where police were there. These were people with signs, they want people in shorts and a tshirt this from the community. They were prepared. That is the scary part because there was a clear distinction among was there to make their voices heard and who was there to cause anarchy. Thats what some of them for their to do. Democratic line. Good morning. Mr. Hopkins, out to ask you a question, were you at the protest in louisville the other day . When you said paintballs, when they were shooting those balls or something, thats what they were using here and taking no if thats where you are when you are referring to being at the protests the other day or not. I did want to add my 2 cents. I keep listening to all these people this morning, some calling in about simple words, we need a civil war and all of this and no, we dont need work. Weve had enough war as it is. I think weve had it up to here with work right now. What we need is reform. Also, i sympathize with people that talk about a Resistance Movement but i personally dont agree with resistance because it doesnt go far enough. I say we probably need a driver move party to rival the coffee and tea party right now. Quite frankly, it doesnt help matters much when we have to leader of the free world equating champions of social justice with domestic terrorism back in 2017 during the charlottesville tragedy. We will let you go out there and hear from michael hopkins. One of the biggest problems we are seeing right now is a vacuum of leadership normally in times of tragedy, our president comes before the country using this pensions. We saw that with bill clinton. We saw with george w. Bush, barack obama after shootings and everything from runners in south carolina. We are not seeing that now from our president. I think thats causing fear and frustration among American Public but also its allowing people to cease on the lack of leadership and thats where you icing writers and anarchists coming in. When theres no one to come before the country and ease the tensions, i think people just kind of freeze. Right now, we are seeing already a country very divided among racial lines, partisan lines, become even more divided. I think until the leadership, whether its president , barack obama coming forward and make a public treatment, not just one infighting but to really speak to the country. I think we will continue today, we continue to hurt. The commonwealth of kentucky the family of breanna taylor. For the last several
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