Thousands of americans protesting the death of george the an armed black man killed by a white Police Officer in minneapolis. This has sparked days of mostly peaceful protests across the nation. At times Law Enforcement used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds who re calling angrily for reform and justice. Earlier this week the san rnfrancisco district at announced siificant proposals to improve the citys legal and policing systems. We are joined now by skype. District attorney, have you personally participated in any of the protts this week . Good to be with you, yes i have. I have been to at least two different protests. What has the atmosphere been like for you . It has been wonderful. Righteous rage, creativity, diverse groups in terms of age and race ngd background co together to demand longoverdue change ulpeac in an exuberant exercise and First Amendment rights. There have been incidents of burglary, anvandalism at the beginning you had brought charges against people suspected of being engaged in those activitiesst in the six days, have you charged anyone for criminal activity during the protests . We have absolute continued to file criminal charles against peengaged in and looting or commercial burglaries or arson. That is a tiny, tinyminority of what is happening. It is a distraction and i do not view the folks engaged nd that activity as being associated with the protests. There are people using the protests as cover, buthey are not part of these protests. Say you have brought . Uld you idont have the exact number. I know that on tuesday alone we filed 18 felony cases. Do you have concerns about the San Francisco Police Departments response to these protests . Are you investigat g the polipartment for its handling in the past week . I have rtt heard reof Excessive Force at the hands of the San Francisco Police Department. I am proud to say we have avoided some of the horrific videos that have come out across the country from buffalo and beyond. I have, however, scene and seerwhelming police respto peaceful protests. Disobedience or peaceful rights. E of First Amendment reporter what are your thoughts on the curfew in San Francisco . Should that have been imposed . I do not support curfews, particularly because looting and vandalism and arson are already crimes which the police are equippedto arrest and investigate. Rfews in a context like this serve one role, and that is to curtail peaceful protected first viamendment ac. You came into office as a change candidate. This feels like a moment of change. Do you feel energized by it . Does it feel in line with your beliefs . Absolutely. The movement that got me elected is the same movement we are seeing in the streetfrom icago to cincinnati, from new york to nebraska, all across this country people are excited for change. The majority of amicans are lice policies and practices so that we can have a systac where lives really do matter. You made some change , this we least a proposal along with seven San Francisco supervisors d proposed to prohibit the Police Department from hiring any new officers with known history of serious misconduct. Frankls i think i surprised by this. As the San Francisco Police Department currently hirinew officers with a known history of previous misconduct . We are now up to nine members of the board of supervisors that are cosponsoring that resolution. You have to wonder why the other two are not willing to support a common sense policy that urges the Civil Service commission to prohibit hiring officerswith serious misconduct. The reality is we dont know what exactly is happening and who is being hired, it is a the reason for it is california makes it very hard if not impossible for the public to has committed serious officer misconduct. We need transparency and accountability and we need to ensure that we are not putting people on our streets with guns in uniforms and the ability to y arrest if have a history of serious misconduct. This woesd only adnew hires, not those already in the Police Department. Why isnt it broar . That is correct. We are working on other forms that would address people currently on the Police Department. We really need to work with the Police Commission to ensure un acbility and transparency and new policies. The Obama Department of justice in 2016 issued a scathing report that lihited 272 urgently needed reforms. Here we are four years later and less than 15 of those reforms have been made. He time is now. Why has it been so slow . We see tremendous resistance from pice unions. Former aclu please accountability experts were thjust quoted in press today saying that the Police Unions in this country are to poce reform whatthe nra is to gun control. There a toxic influence on any effort to hold Police Accountable or to reform the way that we engage with Law Enforcement. You know the union spent a lot of money against you the november election. This week you and other das proposed banning unions from funding prosecutors. G who is goto be making that decision, and what is the tiline . I want to be clear on wh we proposed. The Supreme Court of the atunit has interpreted the First Amendment in a way that allows unions including Police Unions to spend unlimited moneyo influencinl elections. Nothing in the proposal seeks what we are doing is asking the state bar and the American Bar Association to prohibit candidates for district ritorney or current di attorneys from seeking political or financial support. Directly from police unns. It is to avoid a conflict of interest that presents itself every single time the District Attorneys Office like my own is tasked with investceating an of force or murder. Use want to turn to an incident in january. There was a young black man who was arrested. And, during that arrest a female San Francisco Police Officer put her knee on his neck in a method that seemed similar to george floyd. There were five body cameras there on the police ofcers, but it was not until bystander video emerged in the last week thatabwe were to really see what happened in that situation. Ed once you vithat bystander video you dismissed all the charges against the young man and put a new policy into place by which all other prosecutors have to review not only by the camera footage but also independent video footage before filing charges for resisting arrest or for her incidents. Now, my question here is, are co you aging everyone to pull out there cameras and record all Police Action . The reality is the more n angles we have recording a particular incident the better se. E can do arging the that is not limited to interactions with police. But, we benefit tremendously from Surveillance Footage from stores and markets acrossthe city when investigating and prosecuting cases. That is true in this instance as well. The video we saw last weekend led me to personally take a look at that case. Even more than the arrest itself, the other church that had be the basifor the arrest was unfounded. We reached out to the alleged victims in the case ended a closerof the Police Report that had been done and realize there never should have been an arst in the rst place and that is why i personally went to court and dismissed all charges. Earlier this year you fulfilled a Campaign Promise by eliminating cash bail in San Francisco. The union says you are creating the largest criminal justice revolving door ever in San Francisco will pay a price for it. What would you y to people who are worried San Francisco is less safe now that you are district attorney. Look at the numbers. Crime is down significantly. Crime across the city is down more than 35 , and the reality about money bail is it kes us less safe. Eliminate it makes us safer. Money bail is a system that allows wealthy people to buy their freedom no matter how dangerous they are while poor people who are perhaps innocent, wrongly accused, or who present no public risk languish behind bars because of their poverty. Lowing wealthy dangerous ty people to buy their freedom and undermines equal protection by keeping poor people incarcerated. We have replaced that wealth based system with a riskased syst and we are all safer as a result. Hank you so much for being with us. When cases of Police Violence against black people become public protests often follow. There is talk of Police Reform including the neit for impl bias training and reducing the use of force to prevent such misconduct infrom occu but now we see a shift from talk of reform two proposals for cuttinback on the number of police. This week essentials in san cut Police Funding sending the money instead to support services in the minority communities. Joining me from massachusetts is alex vitali, the author of and of policing and with us from los angeles is law profesr jody davidarmor, and author of the hidden costs of being black in america. K thu both for joining us tonight. I want to start with you. You are a los angeles resident. He announced he would take 150 million from the lapd department and reinvesting it in communities color. What is your reaction . That is the right move that we are looking at the budget itially proposed at most 54 of the 5. 5 billion roughlyo annual budget gointhe lapd. That meant that was money that was not going towards social services, social workers, housing, education, you can walk through skid row down hein a, one of the largest really, the largest homeless encament in the country. It is one of the fiercest expressions of structural violence in the country. Uryou look to left and right and you will see 75 of the k. Faces are bl money could be going towards those folks, getting them out of that atdespplight and not going into the lapd. I think that is justified. In San Francisco one of the supervisors nounced yesterday at a press conference that they are going to be redirecting a portion of law enforcemt budgets to communities in need. Could you talk urus through vision of a radical restructurg of society based on our budgets and Law Enforcement systems . I have been advocating around the country that communities should be doing very specific Community Needs assessments. They should be looking at thwha are Public Safety challenges that they face that have essentially been turned over to police to manage, and ti then begin iding the kinds of specific targeted interventions that uld address those problems in ways that dont rely on coercive and punitive methods which are the tools the police have to deal with these proble and then they need to make the kinds of demands of their elected officials to bring those resources in the community in a way that allows us to dial back our reliance on police. If we are talking about large sums ofthe budget going towards Law Enforcement in los angeles as we heard, but 50 , oakland has been 40 in the past. Whrcentage do you think of a budget should be spent on Law Enforcement . We dont know the answer to that. There is a huge variability in the way the spending is organized. Cothere are hidden s, Pension Funds and cameexpenses. So, i think this is about a process, not about some predetermined end goal. I think that we start with the obvious things, about removing police from schools and replacing them with counselo and Restorative Justice programs. We look at why we are using police to respond to mental alth crisisor police to manage mass homelessness in our cities. As we dial those things back k th will get a better sense of what is going to be left at the end of this process. Jody, you have spoken in favor of Police Reform but you have since lost faith in reform. I would like take minneapolis as a case study. They went through a threeyear 5 million Reform Program to be build trust een the community and the police through training such as implicit bias. Obviously, George Floyds death represents a feeling of rerm measures there. Are there other metrics you aren to measure the efficacy of Police Reform . Yeah. Whenev we have these incidents, it is like a wash rinse and repeat cycle. It could be a commission. We have many by people at the hearing and then we say body cams and implicit bias ey training and have not solved the problem and so now we are hearing what you need to do is not protest in that particular way but just exercise your right and cast the ballot. In someplace like minneapolis you had a democratic mayor, city council, 13 out of 14 mocratic. And a lot of cities around the country the marchers see that when you exercise the ballot it does not seemto solve the problem. The problem i think has to do supply to the police force so that we can divert some of those funds to Crime Prevention at the front and with social thing, number two, then make sure that the resources go towards getting that kind of crimes that to the black community and every other Community Wants to have addressed, that ismurder, rape, violent assault, robberies. When you have a lot of your resources going after turnstile jumpers and lowlevel nonviolent offenses, then they are not going towards the kind atof investigative work it takes to solve murders. So, it is just a matter of reframing your priorities and also making suthat you take on the Police Unions and the collective bargaining agreements oinen have built them all kinds of protections for police. Charlie becker, the former police chief said i want to get rid of bad i appl but cant because my hands are tied by the collective bargaining agreement. So making those kind of changes. So, you know, lii would to take a look at the types of aggressive pw,icing we see even during these protests. In los angeles there waa recent example of a woman tased. There have been reports of Police Vehicles driving into crowds of protesters. Do you think this behavior by Law Enforcement is going to po lead to cy change right away . Well, it is sad to say, but the police making our argument for us. Theyre showing that these reforms have t worked. The implicit bias training, the deescalation training, th efforts ofprofessionalization and Community Police partnerships. When push comes to shove we are seeing that police are by their nature violence workers and that when we return problems over to the police to manage there is going to be violence. If we dont want that violence we need to try tofigure out other ways of managing our problems. Alex, those are strong words. We are in a time of crisis and i have spoken to many who say the polishould definitely not be defunded right now. Maybe later, maybe they see a the police to keep them safe from violence that may break out in their neighborhood. What do you say to people who are worried about their besafet willreduced if police nde de . Of course, the disorder that we see on the streets right now is the product of problematic policing. But, nobody is talking about a situation where tomorrow we flip a switch and there are no police. This is about an ongoing process of critically examining the particular roles that we have turned over to police and is developing alternatives as we go. So, this is going to be term process. Ace for police, or dothyou k they should be done away altogether . How far are you ing here . Im not going away to abolition, but i do say that i think folks are starting to recognize that the only trust and confidence between the police and community is by making them adopt policies that are more humane and show r re respect the dignity of the pople they are policing actually reduces crime. People a more willing to report crime. They are willing to be witnesses against others in the long run, you are making yourself safer by making your police force more comfortable, more transparent, and in some cases smaller. Is there a place for police in our society . I want to say that even the things that jody ntions, homicides, rapes, we have a lot of good evidence about alternative ways to engage in preventative measures to try to reduce those problems rather than waiting for police to come and take a report. You kn, lets look the credible messenger model. The use of cure violence programs to work with young people who are at risk of involvement in violence. These programs, when they are properly funded anhawellrun shown dramatic success in reducing shootings and homicides without relying on policing and mass incarceration. It is time for these big city mayors to take these programs seriously. We can put them everywhere overnight. We need planning an develop the programming that goes. With th this is the future of reducing violence in our neighborhood. Thank you so much. Joe jody davidarmor, thank you so much. As we have seen the public outrage to George Floyds killing has motivated tens of thousands of people across the nation to protest. E even in thmidst of a pandemic. E well, many wearing facemasks but gatherings of large crowds make social distancing difficult. Protesters say racial inequality also results in Poor Health Outcomes which are reflected in the higher covid 19 mortality rates among blacks and latinos. In jome by skype is an obstetrician and gynecologist who works in alameda. Ic she paated in a protest organized by her colleagues this week at kaiser campuses in the east bay. Kaiser permanente did not officially sanctioned the event. Thank you for joining us thank you for having me. Was there a specific moment that catalyzed your decision to protest . You know, that is really interesting, because therwas not a specific moment. And i actually had my doubts about what this protest would mean, so when i l that morning i grabbed my black lives matter sign out of my backyard and i went atto see would happen and it was really moving. There were four sites. We have alameda, richnd, oakland, and pinole, and it was with very little planning, a coordinated effort with people from the toebs staff nursing to technicians and the physicians, a lot of the mas. Peopr came with thown handmade signs. Think they knew it was not organization, but nonetheless, they took to the streets ouside of each respective site and it s incredibly powerful that we took a knee for the length of nine symbolic minutes. Do you think there will be change that comes from these pru ests . What are hoping for . I hope there is change. There seems to be, and i cant i have been ing a lot of thinking about what is different about this . Is it that it is a covid 19 pandemic . Is it that there was deaths . There is definitely more sulfone footage of these deaths and they so violent and something seems to have switched and im hoping that will bring change. An you know, usually is not handed down from thtop. So, i dont expe that from the organization. I think one of the most beautiful parts of the protest was a classic example of civil disobedience. So, here was i ellipse just wanted to talk specifically, since you are an obstetrician and gynecologist te about al health. And the issues that impact black lives, more than white lives from cial disparity, from stress, and how that impacts mothers and newborns. So, there have been a lot of studies, there have been a lot of hypotheses ovme about why there are different outcomes in black women compared to their white counterparts. And what it comes down to is that it seems like it is institutional racism. When you control for all other factors socioeconomic, education, you will find that a woman who isvery educated, who you ow, upper class or has enough means will do more poorly than a poor white woman. How bad are these outcomes . How diverse and different are they . You see an increase in hypertensive conditions, pre gestational diabetes. Hemorrhages, and mortality, black women are 2. 53 times more likely to die in childbirth. It is shocking. Can you tell us what you see in your practice since the an pandemic b are you seeing more stress and mothers . Absolutely. I see more stress because we dont, you know, this virus iz sore and you know, i think it will take time to see specifically onmaternal g term. Morbidity. And, so women are very nervour thrvous. They want the best care of course for the best outcomes of ththr pregnancy, and is a group of people, a group of st patients thal need to be seen. Ng so, they are coand exposing themselves. They are not able to bring their partners. It is a scary time. We are now allowing a partner in labor. You ow, there was a wild that they were not sure if they would be able to have their bloodapartners with them in labor. So, this is a really unique provide that kind of reassurance. Fore, that they are going to ad be okay. The and as a healthcare practitioner, as you have ne out and participated, what is your concern about people gathering . It is interesting, because i have had people calling me. People who have taken this paoremic anthe rs to stay home very seriously. And, yet they feel compelled to protest and they have friends who have not left their home since the beginning ask you d so i have done a lot of thinking about what is going on here and you know, ifyou look at what the World Health Organization defines as what we should be doing, they are redefining that social distancing really should be called spatial distancing and i think that is an important ellipse buthat is obviously still something that cannot happen in these protests. People are much closer together. So, if youtalking about the specifics, i think that being outcome outdoors is safer than indoors. Wearing a sk, i think mutually ofawearing masks is safer than not wearing any masks at all or one person aring a mask d the other one not. And, so we are trying to be safe aspossible while we are spatially distancing. And, t while we are socially connecting because i think that social connection and solidarity is an important part th the heof society. And, so what you have here is that ople are willing to risk theilives. They are willing to take a risk. They are aware of what is going on. It is similar to what we are doing as healthcare practitioners going in, knowing we are taking care of patients when there is an infectious risk. We are doing thour best the tools that we have. Here in the bay area, and i where we are aware that there might be another spike later. But, people are real passionate, much so that they are willing to risk their lives to make a statement against e unmitigated Police Brutality and they are willing to do it to say that black lives matter. Thank you so much for thing s today. Thank you for having me. As always, you can find more coverage at kq. Org tran01 newsroom. You can reach me through my social media handle. Thank you fowatching, good night. Captioning sponsored by wnet sreenivasan on this edition for sunday, june 7 demands for justice and change as protesters continue to rch in cities and towns around the world. Those stories and more next on pbs newshour weekend. Pbs newshour weekend is made possible by bernard and irene schwartz. Sue and Edgar Wachenheim iii. The cheryl and Philip Milstein family. Rosalind p. Walter. Barbara hope zuckerberg. Charles rosenblum. We try to live in the moment, to not miss whats right in front of us. At mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. Mutual of a
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