Event is about one hour and 30 minutes. Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon, everyone. There we go. My name is dr. Malcolm woodland, i have the pleasure today of introducing congresswoman Frederica Wilson. Im a staff member in her office and i want the congresswoman to know she has worked so hard to make sure this panel is a success. We are excited to see you here today. We are excited to see the 5000 role models. We are excited to see Eastern High School and everyone else in the building. The congresswoman made it a point to go through every question and make sure every person, panelist would be right. This is her lifes work. I am so excited to bring to the stage congresswoman Frederica Wilson. [applause] rep. Wilson wow, good afternoon. Thank you so much for joining us here today. This is what i call riveting and ground breaking. This is a discussion that demands to be heard. Because we must interrupt the school to prison pipeline. [applause] and, Frederick Douglass said, it is better to build strong children then to repair it is easier to build strong children then to repair broken men. We say, dont build a jail for me, prevention, not detention. I want to thank you for coming and i want to thank the commissioners and staff of the commission of the status of black men and boys for joining us today. Will all of the commissioners and staff please stand so that we can welcome you. [applause] thank you so much. I want everyone from this point on to call me congresswoman fredricka prevention wilson. I want to ensure that each of the young men that you see in this audience today and the women sitting proudly, who look so good in the front row, have the opportunity to be successful. That is my goal, that is my lifes work, and that is what i have been doing forever. We want a nation that builds school for children, not prisons. We want to ensure the Police Officers see you as their children and neighbors, not as criminals just because they see you. Im afraid we have so much to do before we can reach that point, but we cant stop working, we have to keep moving. The United States has more than 20 of the world prison population. Our incarcerated population has far outdated crime. We must prevent our children from being swallowed up by the school to prison pipeline. And held in bondage through mass incarceration or the new jim crow. That is why we are here today with the u. S. Commission on the social status of black men and boys. The commission is here and we are working towards these issues. Perhaps, most importantly, we have present the 5000 role models of Excellence Program. The 5000 role models Excellence Program is a program that ive founded that i founded 30 years ago. [applause] it is in School Districts across florida. In Miamidade County we have 6000 boys in grades three through 12 grades. When they graduate, we call them will them scholars and we send them to college. We have 30 wilson scholars with us today period we could not bring them all. Will the wilson scholars please stand and lets welcome them here today. [cheers and applause] thank you so much. You know i love you. You will always be a part of me and i will always be a part of you. We are. We are. Got it. I also would like to acknowledge young people from Statesman Academy and eastman high school. Will you please stand. Lets welcome them. [applause] these are sons and daughters and children whose lives are on the line. These are our children that we must hold onto and make sure that they survive. Lets give them another round of applause. [applause] thank you so much. You may be seated, darling. Whatever we do today, we have to get it right. No more excuses. We have spent too much time watching our Young Children fall behind in schools, file fall victim to mass incarceration, slip down the drain of school to prison pipeline and are victim to public house disparities, such as gun violence. There are too many damn guns in america. And this has to stop. The best way to end this is to stop it before it gets started. Thats what prevention is all about. You dont wait until we get the children into prison, then we give 35,000 a day to keep them there. Its more to keep a young person in prison then an older person because they have to have a certain amount of ounces of milk, according to state guidelines. Its more expensive to keep children in jail than it does adults. So this has to stop. The best way that we are going to be talking about this, i will be giving you examples of why it must stop. We are responsible for ensuring that these young people have opportunities to succeed and thrive and not be killed by Police Officers for no reason. Later on, our next panel is going to be called policing in the black community. I am also holding myself accountable. I am Holding Corporations accountable. I am holding the government accountable. I am Holding Everyone accountable. Every single solitary person is accountable for these children. The future of these children is in our hands, and we are going to make sure that they make it. Remember, dont build a jail on me. Prevention, not detention. Our first panel is going to be moderated by my dear friend mr. [applause] mr. Don lemon. You all remember don lemon, lets hear it for him. [applause] i want to introduce him to you. While most of him most of us knew him from watching him rise as a journalist hosting the don lemon tonight show, his fight has long been way longer than that. His fight for Racial Justice began when he was a young man. His father was a prominent attorney who was part of a lawsuit successfully challenging segregation of Public Transportation in baton rouge, louisiana. His father raised him on the principles of equal justice. Since then, he has risen to prominence in the journalism world. From holding the Top Administration accountable, to reporting on hivaids in africa, his journey stands out. I personally gave him a congressional record about four years ago to honor his legacy forever in the library of congress. He is an author, an awardwinning journalist, and a friend. You all know him, we all love him, don lemon. [applause] come on up, don, come on the stage. Don this is your show, i want to make sure im in the right spot. Rep. Wilson you stand right here with me. Before we turn it over to don, im going to ask our role model to please come forward. He has a special speech that he wants to deliver for us today. [applause] good afternoon, everyone. Im a proud and grateful member of the 5000 members. Grateful is the keyword as we stand grateful to congresswoman Frederica Wilson for beginning the program to support the mission for mentoring minority boys for more than 30 years. We are grateful for the thousands of men who have heated the congresswomans call to walk hand in hand with us. The Program Recognizes the principle of Frederick Douglass. Its easier to build a child than to repair a man. The role models nor any other of my brothers right there. We want prevention, not detention. It will interrupt the school to prison pipeline and provide success. Many of us dont have available role models at home. We need men who stepped up over the decades to guide us from childhood to manhood. In most cases that means a College Education for men who never achieved never dreamed that it was for us. Those who stand before you in the Nations Capital are members of the class of 2024. I in a senior at the senior high school. The group here has benefited from the expansion of the miamidade of Public Schools to duvall county Public Schools in jacksonville, florida. As the program expands, we are recipients that through mentoring, minority boys can graduate high school, go to trade school or the military. In general, be good citizens. It is prevention and mentoring that can have the greatest impact in the ongoing crisis in the lives of minority boys, the intervention provides us with the alternatives that leads us away from a life of crime, drugs in the pits of despair. This formula has impacted more than one million families worldwide. No other Program Provides access to venues like this one. No other program has the heart and soul of congresswoman Frederica Wilson. Pouring her energy into it for more than three decades. Thank you for all that you do on behalf of our children. I would like to say, we are . Group 5000. Don hello, everybody. Am i the only person in this room . Hello, good afternoon. I like that, we are . All right, now. Im happy to be here because of you. Mostly because of the young men sitting in the front row. I often feel guilty about saying im one of the lucky ones. One of the lucky ones who hasnt had an issue with the criminal Justice System. Although, easily, it could have happened. I want every young man in this room to be one of the lucky ones. Until we dont have to say, i am the lucky one, it becomes the norm in our society. It becomes rare or rarer towards young men of color to have any sort of association with the criminal Justice System, except that they are a lawyer. Sitting on the others of the desk. Congratulations to you young men. Im happy to be here. Can we stand up and give a big round of applause for the congresswoman. [applause] we would not be here without her. Congresswoman frederica prevention wilson. Thats her new name. I would like to invite someone else up to give a few remarks before we get into the conversation. Want to invite up the assistant attorney general to give some remarks. [applause] how are you doing . How are you . Good morning. I also want to thank congresswoman wilson for her leadership in for creating this space for us to dive into this incredibly important topic today. And thank her for her leadership and for leading a commission that is helping to bring focus and attention to the issues and crises facing our black men and black boys. The subject today is an important one. The school to prison pipeline channels far too many of our children. From schools to court. Juvenile Detention Centers and sometimes even the prison. What we often referred to as a pipeline is really a series of institutional failures. We rely on our schools to nurture and protect our kids, but too often they single out some children, too many of them black children for unequal punishment, including suspension, expulsions, and even in schools arrests. The data speaks for itself. Black students make up over 16 of our Public Schools, they account for nearly half of all students receiving multiple suspensions. Black students account for nearly one third of all schools related arrests and are suspended and expelled more than three times as often compared to white students. And students who are suspended and expelled our three times more likely to come into contact with the Juvenile Court system. We cannot tolerate these kinds of statistics in our country today. We know some of these Juvenile Court systems failed to protect constitutional rights. Our children may find themselves in juvenile detention facilities , too many of which subject those kids to violence and unspeakable mistreatment. These failures only magnify the challenges already faced by these children who are often the most vulnerable among us. At the Civil Rights Division of the u. S. Department of justice, we are fighting every day to confront the school to prison pipeline. We are working to ensure that School Districts that administer discipline do not do so in a racially discriminatory manner. In recent years, we have let investigations that resulted in agreements with School Districts from california, utah, alabama and elsewhere. These agreements are requiring real system changes. From changes to disciplinary procedures, staff and teacher training, independent monitoring and more. In one investigation we found that black students were routinely disciplined more severely than white students. The school suspended black students were even charged them criminally for socalled disruptive behavior. While white students involved in similar incidents would only need to attend a conference. Black students also reported that their teachers tolerated racial epithets, including the use of the nword and other harassments against them, to the point that many black students felt there was no point in reporting racial abuse. We are working across the country to ensure our Juvenile Court systems provide equal justice to the kids who appear before them. This spring, the Justice Department issued a Dear Colleague letter regarding the assessments of fines and fees by state and local and Juvenile Courts. Our letter makes clear the constitution the constitutional principles regarding fines and fees applied to adults and makes clear that jurisdiction should presume children dont have the money to pay these hefty fines and fees. We are also investigating Juvenile Court systems across the country. For our youth to end up in detention facilities, we are fighting to make clear that they do not surrender their constitutional and civil rights at the jail at the jailhouse door. We are fighting to address the unconstitutional conditions that we see inside these juvenile detention facilities. They are often designed to look like jails and prisons, but they should be places that help to transition our kids back to school, their homes, and back to society. For example, one longterm residential facility in South Carolina, we found it subjected children to violence at the hands of Staff Members and other children. The facility routinely use solitary confinement as punishment, despite evidence showing that children are uniquely vulnerable to trauma and lasting damage from such isolation. We entered into a Settlement Agreement with that facility, the South Carolina department of juvenile justice reformed that facility. That agreement is in federal Court Requires they change their staffing policies, put in place programs to reduce violence, and more. Right now we are conducting these investigations in mississippi, puerto rico, california, ohio, and we know more work must be done. These investigations can be difficult, but they can but they are important. At the Justice Department we are using every tool available to fight the school to prison pipeline. But it should be all of us. It should be everyones goal to keep our children out of these facilities, to keep them out of the criminal legal system, and to identify Creative Solutions for keeping children enrolled in nurturing, supportive and racially just school systems. Thats why this session is so vitally important. I want to thank congresswoman wilson for creating this space for us to tackle these issues. I think you for the opportunity to address you all today. Thank you for the opportunity to address you all today. [applause] don thats why this is so important. Thank you assistant attorney clark. I want to acknowledge someone in the room. I recognize that profile over to my left, its a maryland resident. The congressman is in the room. A role model for all of us. Big round of applause for the congressman. [applause] thank you for coming. Im sure the congresswoman appreciate your support. Without further ado, lets get to the reason why we are here. Congresswoman, you talked about who they are, i dont need to in traduce them introduce them. Thank you all for doing this. I had a panel earlier today, now i have one now thanks to reverend sharpton, the reverend got called away to do some important business. We appreciate reverend sharpton, dont we. Amen. [applause] i am going to start with the first question. My first question will go to mr. Paul. Are you ready for the question, sir . You have spent your professional life in spaces which you have worked to uplift young black men. From your perspective, i would like to know, what are effective communities state and National Practices that we can participate in to prevent young black men from falling victim to the school to prison pipeline . Paul thats a multifaceted question. For multifaceted question like that, it speaks to whats necessary, a multifaceted approach on the Different Levels that you talk about. Community, state, and national. At the community level, its mentoring programs like the 5000 role models of excellence. Like statesman. Like the young men and women from the high school, establishing those mentoring programs and providing our young men and women with images of emulation. That they can look at, like yourself, and say, i want to be that. Thats not a rapper, thats not an athlete, thats a professional businessman that i want to pattern myself after. I think its important for that at the local level. We need to get back to community policing. I grew up in a time where the officers in my neighborhood my name, knew my moms name, they knew my family. If something was happening, they would take me home. The officers grew up in that community, so they understood the dynamic of the community. Thats important. In regards to statehood, reforming the School Discipline policies. Giving away expansion and expulsion, using more Restorative Practices many of you know whats going on around florida. Thats a travesty. We need to get back to those types of things there yet things. Do you think that is harmful . You need to have teachers that relate to the community. As a 20 year teacher, i was built in emulation for my young men and women. We are not talking about history, we are going to repeat our history. If these young men and women today dont understand what happened in black wall street and those types of things, we may lose that momentum that these future generations need to continue to make a difference. This is a big issue thats happening. Does anyone else want to weigh in on that . One must know their history. If you are not talking history, then what . You are living a lie. Right . Go ahead. I work for the ymca nationally. Michael duvall. One of the things we like to tell people is we start with history. Maybe you dont know this. Here in 1853 was the first in those first 100 years, we were only for boys and young men. If you look at the 22 you hbcus that the y was working in, it was because of those gentlemen. The system was built for you. We have to put the train back on the track. A means in your own town, you go back to figure out what they were doing in that town. Black men, black men and boys. We are talking about issues with education and whats happening socially. You have immense knowledges knowledge. What are your thoughts on the role at the private sector that the private sector can play in dismantling the pipeline . I think the onus is on the private sector to work handinhand with private public partnerships. At amazon, we are customer obsessed. They are the backbone and propel everything that we do. These are our customers. These are communities that we engage in, participate in, have civic engagements in. It is so important for the private sector to make sure that you are investing at every level. Its not just at a collegiate level. Its not just in tech hubs. You need to go to rural areas, urban areas, start soon. K12 education is imperative. Elementary School Education is imperative. I read a statistic that the amount of thirdgraders who cant read is how they project the amount of prison beds. Thats why its crucial that there are policy initiatives that really start at the k12 level. You were shaking your head at some of the responses. Did you want to weigh in on that . I wanted to weigh in on mr. Wilsons comments around educator diversity. We talk a lot about having the wrong matters role models in school. There was a study where she found when black children had exposure to the same race teacher, the amount of exclusionary discipline practices increase. When they had a black teacher, they were less likely to be sent to the principals office. What was nuanced about this story is there was one particular designation on the Office Referral that is most given to black boys. That is willful defiance. When they had a black educator, the percentages of students who got Office Referrals decreased overwhelmingly. I want to connect this and move on. The same is true inside of our system. We talk about School Resource officers and black boys. When we started putting resource officers in schools, the percentage of black children who were arrested in school went up by 21 . We can take resource officers out of schools and put more black teachers inside of schools. We can shift outcomes for black and brown boys. [applause] as you mentioned, the head of the u. S. Congressional and Political Affairs in addition to working at amazon to Howard University school of law. [applause] where i was two days ago doing a panel with Howard University. This is my week of panels. Im enjoying it. We know who mr. Wilson is and who his relatives. We are happy about that. I want to bring in mr. Lawrence to talk about this. You were in the classroom for 30 years. Youve been in education for 45 years. Im staying on this longer than i should because i think this issue of school and teacher diversity is very important. Having a diversified school. Would you like to weigh in . I absolutely would. First of all, you cant be what you cant see. So if you are not represented, in the classroom as a teacher or in the school as an administrator, how does a young person see themselves becoming successful, becoming a leader . So what ive seen is, school has to be a welcoming place. If its not, dr. Bell fans from baltimore said, by the third grade, students have decided whether the school thing is for me or not. It makes a lot of sense to me that we need to frontload our resources. We need universal prek. We need allday kindergarten. We need resources at that level. At the end of the day, we need to educate we need education and not incarceration. Thats where i want to stay on that point. All right. I wasnt sure if you are going to ask questions. I would love to follow up on that. Next go on. So we focus on 11 to 17yearolds. I do think we have to invest early. You have to remember Identity Development happens between 11 to 17. If we dont give the academic support necessary come 80 of our kids who understand that they have a career in mind graduate from high school. Graduation from high school is a byproduct of a career focus. What we have to remember is we have an obligation. When we started the work in 2018, 50 4 of black boys in low to moderate income schools were chronically absent. Chronically absent. I like to work and facts. Im a journalist. You bring statistics and numbers when it comes to the school to prison pipeline. Talk to us about that. Yeah. I want to talk about the teacher diversity part because ms. Wilson has done so much. 40 of the students of color are expelled from u. S. Schools each year. That means the other 60 is other. The rest of the other is black kids. We have 70 of students involved in in school arrests. 70 of those are black and brown children. Black students are 3. 5 times more likely to be suspended than white students. Its troubling. I want to uplift one other part. Next year is the 60th edit anniversary of brown v. Board of education. Folks Like Congress woman wilson have been supporting things like the hawkins Second Data Center of excellence to get more black teachers inside of the school system. We are worse off today in terms of the share of black teachers inside of classrooms then we were brown v. Board of education. It would behoove us to make sure that these young boys have a fighting chance in this world, that we get behind the work of ms. Wilson and her members of congress to make sure we have black teachers. Wow. I told you he would bring the facts. Im going to give you the last word. Sum this up because we brought over a number of topics. We focused a little bit more on teacher diversity and having diversified schools. Thats at the core of it. You need attention, action to deal with this. I will give you the last word. Given your very prominent and hard work with young black men and boys, are there core assumptions that we as a nation are making that we need to change in order to advance the work that we must do to prevent mass detention of young black youth . 100 . Some of those core assumptions are criminality based on appearance, right . I grew up in the 90s. People would look at me and cross the street. Im a square. Criminality based on appearance. Assumption that young black and brown young men are intellectually inferior or that they have a crippled proclivity for violence. A lack of empathy or a disinterest in education. All of these things, these young men right here will dispel every single one of those assumptions that anyone has about black and brown young men. Everything the one of them are going to college. Every single one of them are going to be productive and contributing members of our Society Despite the core assumptions, despite the obstacles, despite the stereotypes. I think really looking at them, they are the future. Looking at these young man, this is the future. We are old. Im old. We are you are the soldiers in the field that will have to pick up the mantle and continue the great work of the individuals on the stage, of congresswoman wilson, everybody thats doing all of this great worth work. Its going to fall on your shoulders. Im glad you are plugged in. Dont listen to the assumptions and stereotypes. Keep looking at these images of emulation, all these other fantastic africanamerican men and women around here. Keep striving to be the best. Thats your future, ladies and gentlemen. I prefer og then old. Im older than you but im in og. We are looking out for you guys, ok . So thank you and keep striving. That concludes the first part of the panel. Theres a very important second part coming up. Can we get a big round of applause to our panelists . Thank you everyone. Enjoy the rest of the day. Good afternoon everyone. Im congressman hakeem jeffries, House Democratic leader. Thank you for the introduction and for your kind words. Im thankful that year after year, reverend sharpton has been laboring in the vineyards of our community. It can be said without a doubt that hes the hardest working man in the peoples business. Civil rights champion, voice for the voiceless, and the defender of the disenfranchised. Hes also from brooklyn. We are thankful for him. Its an honor and privilege to greet all of you today on this tremendous occasion. Let me think representative roderigo wilson for her incredible leadership. The godmother of this commission. An amazing champion for ensuring that young black boys and men have an opportunity to bring their talent and ability and dreams to life. Frederick douglass once said that its easier to build strong children than it is to repair broken men or broken women. Thats what fredricka wilsons life mission has been all about. Thats what the commission on the social status of black men and boys is all about. Intervention efforts that provide preventative programs and alternatives to juvenile person ration are critical to stopping the school to prison pipeline that are young people fought to confront. We must provide our young people with the opportunities necessary, academically as well as athletically, musically, and in every field of human endeavor to give them the opportunity to succeed. We democrats will continue to put people over politics and do whats necessary to lift up all of our children and young men. Through the commission. Thank you for your work and we look forward to our continued partnership. Because of that partnership, im confident that the best is yet to come. [applause] hello. Im chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. I want to thank congresswoman wilson and the commission on the social status of black men and boys for tremendous leadership. Today, its intolerable and unacceptable that many black men have come to believe, often for good reason, that the American Dream is not available to them. Centuries of systemic racism have caused significant economic educational, and social disparities for black men and boys in our country. As a result, many of us dont see government or engaging in the political process as the solution to the issues that we face. Too many of us too often feel left out or are pushed out of the political process through felony convictions, voter intimidation, and misinformation and disinformation campaigns. I was proud to be one of the original cosponsors of the commission on black men and boys , to study the conditions affecting black men and boys including homicide rates, arrests and incarceration rates, poverty, violence, fatherhood, mentorship, income, and school performance. These are just a few of the issues that black men and boys face in this country. But we are not powerless to fight back and to have our voices heard. Thats why the work of this commission is so critical. Because of your work, we are on the path to finding Real Solutions to addressing these issues and making sure that the future for black men and boys is a future worthy of our struggles. As chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, i will make sure that we continue to do all that we can to support the work of the commission in its efforts to make the American Dream a reality for all of us. Thank you. [applause] hello. My name is quentin williams. Its an honor to be here. Im with an organization that was founded for the purpose of educating society about justice. Im very thankful that congresswoman wilson invited me here along with this great panel. Before we get started, she wants to say a couple more words. If you will, congresswoman. [applause] there is so much happening here today. We do have the National President of the naacp mr. Derek williams who was supposed to moderate this panel. He got called to the white house. Knowing him, he decided he was going to stop by before he does that and bring you greetings from the naacp, our oldest Civil Rights Organization in the nation that makes the most impact on people who look like us. Thank you. What an important topic to have to talk about black men and boys. More importantly come to zero in on the criminal justice crisis we have here in this country. A crisis that we need to focus more on the solution as opposed to regurgitating the problem. We know its a problem. Its always been a problem. Its a problem that can be solved. The role of the Congressional Black Caucus is that they are the key to solve the problem. We cannot get there until after the 2024 november election. Lets be clear. We cannot get there until after the election. That election will determine the rep direction we will go in in terms of true criminal justice reform. Quick example. Tennessee last year. Election. District attorney. District attorneys across this country have wide discretion about who gets charged and what crimes people will be charged for. There are huge disparities between individuals who commit crimes and the crimes they are charged for, if they are charged at all. Ones badge should not be a shield from accountability. As a result of that election, naacp and many groups in shelby county, should i say memphis, turned out the black votes unexpectedly. The incumbent who was disproportionally much harder on africanamericans and poor white people. A new d. A. Came in. Weve seen those heinous pictures of those Police Killing that young man calling for his mother. Within two weeks, because there was a new District Attorney in office, they were terminated and charged with the crimes they should have been charged with. [applause] what was the reform . The reform was the election. Whats the need now for reform . The election in 2024 so members of congress can do whats necessary to put forth the reforms that will be required to keep our communities safe from the individuals who are sworn to serve and protect us. Accountability means that theres a National Registry of bad actors for Police Officers who jump from agency to agency causing harm. Reform means that theres a heightened accreditation for police, lawenforcement agencies to ensure that the proper trainings are put forth. You dont send police in harms way because they are going to households of trauma. You sent social workers there and Mental Health professionals. [applause] this brain trust is to talk about those solutions. Lets be clear. Theres no solutions without an election. The election will require all of you in here to make sure we turn out the vote next november so that members can have a working majority in the house. [applause] and we can have a true sense of compassion to do whats necessary to make sure we have the type of reforms thats required in order for our communities to be prosperous, safe, and something we can call home. Peace and power. [applause] thank you. Thank you so much. Our moderator today got ahead of me. Mr. Quentin williams. Let me tell you, a little bit about his history here. When i was first elected to congress, my first order of business was to get the Justice Department to put a Consent Decree on the city of miami Police Officers. The Police Department because they had killed seven men in seven months. Seven unarmed black men in seven months. My community was about to explode. So i was able to get the Obama Administration to move them down to the bottom of the list. So that when you put a Consent Decree on the police force, that means that the federal government comes in and they come up with prescriptions and everything for you to get better, to do better. Mr. Quentin williams, according to the Police Department, trained every single miami Police Officer. We had a Police Department that would shoot without asking questions. They would kill anybody. Especially black men and black boys. Under this Consent Decree, it took at all took almost 10 years. I think you came up at the end. Hes a retired fbi agent. Weve been working with him. Hes been working all over the nation, training Police Officers on how to deescalate situations. How to be sensitive to whats happening in our diverse communities. Lets give him a big round of applause. [applause] thank you congresswoman. Again, thank you for inviting me to be here. Thank you to dr. Woodland and your entire staff. Incredible job. Im quentin williams. I just have to start off by saying, does anybody here follow whats happening in boulder, colorado . So you might recognize what im about to say. Its personal. Its personal. Its personal for me because in 1994, i found myself in the backseat of a cruiser in newport, rhode island with caps on. Arrested for fitting the description of someone who committed a Violent Crime earlier in that day. I was on vacation. I had just arrived. Of course, i didnt do it. As a matter of fact, i was in fbi agent at the time. Went on to become a federal prosecutor, then blessed my whole journey has been blessed. So this is personal. I wrote a book for my son called, how not to get killed by the police. He is 11 years old. We shouldnt have to write these books. Working in miami has been an honor. Thank you, congresswoman. We need a paradigm shift. When you look at coach prime, he is creating a paradigm shift in the nation when it comes to college football. It will not operate the same way as it has in the past. We need the same thing in Law Enforcement. We need a paradigm shift. No better accrue to tell us about how to have the paradigm shift occur then these three gentlemen. Incredible. I would like for you all to keep in mind, as we are listening to these experts, i would like for you to keep in mind the three pillars that i believe are very important for that paradigm shift to occur. Selection, training, accountability. We need to select the right people, train them well, make them accountable, reward them well. We need all three live those things at the same time. If we only get two of the three, its a house of cards. Everything in those categories must happen. As you look at the stage, going from left to right, we have dr. Cedric alexander who is a senior Law Enforcement analyst for msnbc. Hes a former police chief of numerous agencies across the nation. He was the commissioner in minneapolis after george floyd. He is an author and he has a consultancy called cl alexander where he teaches leadership. To his left, we have attorney walter calves who has a long history of public service. He was a public defender for 17 years in los angeles. Hes a former senior staffer in the chicago mayors office. An independent Police Auditor shes one of those professionals who follows up when something bad has happened. Now hes a vp of criminal justice at arnold ventures. He will go into more detail about arnold ventures. And then to his left and further down on your right, eric cumberbatch. Again, a longtime Public Servant as all these gentlemen are. Hes a former staffer with the new york city mayors office. Hes a Senior Vice President of what i call cpe, the center for policing equity. Weve done some things with them. Tracy kesey is there. What a great crew of people. I would like to start this off if i may with mr. Cumberbatch. What specific policy changes or initiatives do you believe are most crucial for improving the relationship between the black community and Law Enforcement in the United States . Hello . Grateful to be here. Thank you for having me. I think if we are going to talk about policy, we have to be steeped in truth telling. We are going to do some truth telling today. We have to look at the culture and the history of which these policies have been made from. We cant talk about policies without going back to the root. The root is, lawenforcement agencies historically have been galvanized, mobilized against black men. Thats the truth. We have to be cognizant of that truth. When we talk about Law Enforcement agencies and the relationship with Law Enforcement agencies, if we are not looking at the reality of lived experience that we have in the history of policing, the culture of policing, the relationship is exactly where it is because of that dynamic. Policing has not been your friend. Policing has not been on your side. Policing has been mobilized in an attempt to affront and stop all things blackness. Thats the truth of American History. So we have to be cognizant of that truth. In terms of relationship, i have a 17yearold son. My little man. I dont hear people forcing relationship with doctors, forcing a relationship with lawyers, forcing a relationship with teachers. But for some reason, we force a relationship with police. [applause] why . Why . Why do we feel we have to be surveilled . Why do we have to be occupied . Why do we have to like it . Thats the real question. Why . When we talk about the relationship, my 17yearold son should have a relationship with the sanitation worker because my son has to put out the trash and sometimes we have some extra bags you have to get them into the truck. Thats who we should have a relationship with. His teachers. Because it shouldnt be an expectation that we have to engage with Law Enforcement for all aspects of our lives. When we talk about policy, we have to look at, what are the things that actually produce the footprint of policing in our lives . How do we remove policing from our schools, when we talk about gender, when we talk about housing, all of these places. Police are embedded in all of these places. Its infectious. We really need to look at that. There are policies that exist that reduce the harm of policing. Those are policies that remove policing from spaces and actually position police im not an abolitionist. I believe theres a report role for police. Well position police where they are most appropriate which is responding to Violent Crime. Not qualityoflife crimes. Not because of lack of social services. Not because you are having a Mental Health episode. There are other professionals that actually do that work and do it well. The number one difference is, its not a moral policy. When we talk about policies, think about budget. Im in cities across the country where we talk about raising the budget for Law Enforcement agencies while simultaneously cutting the budget for department of education. [applause] how can we clearly state that we believe in Public Safety by cutting the future . Thats the opposite of Public Safety. The budget speaks. Thats the moral contract. If we are going to talk about policies that actually work, heres the policy. You fund and right size every city agency, every institution that is supposed to serve people at the same rate as lawenforcement agencies and you will see so much upstream that happens that it would not be a reliance for a need on Law Enforcement agencies so far downstream. Thats the policy. Thank you. [applause] there are a couple things you said about the history we have to acknowledge. We have to acknowledge the history or we are not going to move on. We all agree. In florida, we are having issues with acknowledging history. Lawenforcement, slave patrols. Lets acknowledge my Law Enforcement started, how lawenforcement started in our nation. Theres one thing i have to push back a little bit because there are going to be people watching you might push back. When somebody needs something, they call 911. So, the relationship is also forced upon our community by the system that requires people in their mind to call 911 when johnny doesnt go to school. So i just want to push back on that. We will cover that. I just want to move on. Lets understand that in some places, 70 to 90 of the calls for service are not even criminal. So lawenforcement officers are being cast to handle those issues as well. We have to figure that out as a system so that there are other resources. You mention the resources. Lets resource these other things. Great answer. Thank you so much. Mr. Katz. What do you believe are the key strategies or reforms that american Police Departments should prioritize to strengthen trust and collaboration with the black community . Thank you very much. Thank you for the question. I want to respond to that question and to my brother here at the other end. Everything he said is true. The only difference for me is, someone who has been achieved in three major cities in the country, i dont believe reform is going to help us. Its going to be the transformation of policing in this country. Im going to tell you the difference between the two. Reform is when we talk about writing policies. Reading policies mean nothing. We want you to do a, b, c, d, e. Transformation is that we are going to have to change the way we police in this country. Number one, the things that we saw that were done to people of color and black people in this country. We still see those issues played out today in modern times. We have the technology to be able to prove the things that weve been saying for hundreds of years thats been taking place. We have to transform policing. Its as if we have to do away with how we see policing today and really narrow the scope of what it is we want police to do. Those qualityoflife issues that you are asking me to respond to need to be given to people who can work those very specific kinds of things. The whole reason for policing when it began in europe in the mid1800s was about prevention. It was about prevention. In this country, it was never used for prevention. It was used to keep us on another side of the track in laws that were imposed upon us, then in force by police. Using police at a number of different historical events, they were there when three civil rights workers were killed in mississippi, we worth they were there when George Wallace stood up, weve seen police throughout the course of history being used to keep us marginalized throughout the course of history. We can write a policy and change all of that. Thats not going to happen. Heres what i would ask that you think about. When you go back to your respective communities, you want to transform your Police Department. You want your Police Department to be downsized so that police are responding to very specific certain kinds of calls. Number one, you want Mental Health workers inside of your cities. You want people who deal with homelessness. More importantly than anything else, you let your elected officials locally off the hook. The reality of it is, if we dont change the policy in our community, better education, Better Health care, all of those social issues that we are aware of that keeps us in this place we are in this country, you are not going to change policing solely by itself. You have to change the whole thing. We can write policy all day long. Its not going to make a difference. You want policing in your country and in your neighborhoods right now to be in a place where, these are the calls of service where we are going to answer, these are experts who are going to respond to other calls. In addition to that, we are also going to work and support policing in our country, in our neighborhoods. Constitutionally, legally, and respectful policing. Those are the basic standards that we should require. Policing thats going to be constitutional, legal in its actions, and respectful. Thats not just a catch rage phase. That becomes an expectation. We have to utilize more technology as well. Theres a lot of emerging technology that allows for technology to do the work sometimes that other people dont have to do. The less interactions we have with police, the better off we all are. When we call the police, we want to know that we are calling the police who are going to be accountable, who are going to provide a service regardless of who the complaint and may happen to be. Thats not a whole lot to ask. But its transforming police and its transforming our nation into doing Something Different than writing policy. Policy gets eaten for breakfast every by Police Culture which is a whole other dissertation i could give you. But i will stop right there. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate you. We have just my nine minutes left. I want to leave time for a few questions that we put aside. First, i want to get to mr. Katz. The technology, what kind of technology . When the commissioner was talking, he mentioned that the calls for service have to be reduced. In miami, theres a Police Officer who came up with a solution while we were training. She said, she gives a onepage cheat sheet to everybody who she encounters who calls for service because 90 of her calls are not criminal. She gives a cheat sheet with all the services in the city and the providers, which helps immensely. Now it reduces the number of calls for service. Some civil guidelines can help. How can Technology Help in this regard . And then we will get to the questions about the woodland. Thanks for having me. Technology can help and technology can hurt. It all depends what its used for. In the example of this question of 911, Congress Passed important legislation creating the 988 system. 988 is the new number for the suicide hotline and can be used when somebody is in a crisis and they need help. Theres that alternative. It a lot of cities also have 311 systems which are for nonemergency calls. Those are for qualityoflife calls. Not Everybody Knows that those systems exist. The default for a lot of people is to call 911. It should not be on the citizen to have a cheat sheet to figure out who to call and where the services are. When a call comes into the call center comic center, the call taker should be asking the right questions and making important decisions. Is a Police Officer really needed for this type of call . If that question will be asked and other options would be available, rather than a Police Officer showing up eight out of 10 times, they are only showing up eight out of 100 times. Now going to the technology question. Technology can hurt or help. What kind of technology are we talking about . Technology thats used for surveillance . Or technology that is used for accountability . When i was in the chicago mayors office, i was the deputy chief of staff for Public Safety. Not a week went by that some vendor didnt show up or want to show up at my desk and pick something, some new system so there wouldnt be vehicular pursuits, or how to use drones to fly over chicago. We didnt need that. How is it being used . When congress or city council is asked to pass a budget, they need to be asking really important questions about whats inside the budget. The secretary just talked about that a moment ago, the responsibility on civilian policymakers. I could not underscore that enough. City councils and mayors, they are the ones who approved budgets. They are the ones who ratify collective bargaining agreements. They are the ones who sign off on legal settlements for all sorts of Police Misconduct and brutality. Ive seen them from Southern California to Northern California to chicago not asking the right questions. Not asking the tough questions. What are we paying for . Whats in this budget . Whats in this Police Contract . What is the technology thats hidden inside this budget that will be used for surveillance black and brown people that we dont know about . I think elected officials need to be educated more in asking the right questions to understand the right questions and ask them. When it comes to technology not only the efficacy does the Technology Work but also what are the Civil Liberties implications of this technology . Who is it being used on . Is it for a net plus or a net negative . Absolutely. Great answer. Thank you. [applause] i know we have some questions. I have one question. What should we do about the disproportional arrest of black youth . If you can take 30 seconds each maybe. We want to make sure we hit all of the questions. Yeah. One thing is that its critically important to keep in mind this. I said this a few minutes ago. As we go through this place that we are in now, particularly around young black men being stopped by police over frivolous stops and a host of other things in which we end up engaging police, which creates a great deal of angst and depression with us. I think one of the best things we can do is make sure all of us in this room that are adults, along with your friends and peers, that we are very supportive of each other as we go through this process. This has been going on since the beginning of policing in this country and its going to continue to go on until we do something very different around transforming police from what we know it to something very different. And your input, like your question, your input, your ideas, its young people. You are the future of this country. You are the future elected officials. You are the future police chief send mayors, governors, president s of the United States. You have an opportunity from right where you are at this very moment and hearing this discussion and other discussions. Your responsibility going into the future which is now, not tomorrow but at this very moment. You are going to be in a position where you can have a voice and you do have a voice. You have a collective voice, regardless of who you are. Its young men and women who are sitting in this audience. So we have to fight. This fight does not end with one stroke of a pen or a policy. This is a fight thats been going on before me, before my parents, before their parents. We are just in a very modern time in American History where we can utilize all of our assets, all of our benefits and technology and skills and everything that you are learning every day to change the outcome as we know it now. Theres no one solution to this. You aint going to hear it on this stage. You are the future of resolving that complex issue. Thank you. Im going to take another question. Yes. I was a National Investor for washington, d. C. What can District Attorneys due to understand black and brown boys . Thank you so much. Great question. Give us 30 seconds. My first part of my career, i was a public defender for 17 years. I watched District Attorneys dehumanize the people who were charged with a criminal offense. I also saw them victimized as well. They demonized victims. To understand the true experience that victims and people accused of crimes are going through. Alternatives are in place but they are only used if the person they are dealing with is humanized. That is where some of the challenge is. Its all about making arrests, sending people to prison sentences for as long as possible, and treating juveniles like they were adults. Theres a whole mechanism in place to try juveniles as adults. I see young people who have no idea what just happened to them. I dont know whether they were guilty but they were being treated like hard adult criminals. That was incredibly toxic find for the wellbeing of communities. We cannot go down that path again. Absolutely. Empathy is necessary. Yeah. This is just an overall message. It catches the theme of both questions. As long as we stay in a place of asking people that do not have the lived experience, do not have the historical past as you, theres no change thats going to happen. You have to become the change. You have to be empowered to make the change that you want to see. So we have to get out of this space of asking others to do something for us. As long as you are black in america and you are asking people who dont reflect you, who have not respected, you will fail. Do it yourself. We have to come together, unify, do it ourselves. Thats what we have to do. [applause] absolutely. Empathy, action, action for through voting. Make sure you register. Voting and being part of the system instead of allowing the system to only be a part of you. We have one more question. Yes. Im a student at houston high school. How can we work to develop a Safe Community for black males fighting against president s prejudice . I have a great example. In the city of chicago, i will be going home next week and i will be running a panel there. The city decided they need to ask serious questions about whether or not to have police in schools. They went through a whole safety plan conversation across the city at all the various school sites so the individual schools and their local councils could decide what they wanted their safety plan to look like. Many of them decided they want to have a School Resource officer or Police Officer on their campus. They wanted to think about safety in a different way. Using that as an example of community empowerment. Thats what Community Members are brought in and they designed what Community Safety should look like rather than it being imposed upon them from outside. I think that would be an a really important step to take for communities to take safety into their own hands and decide, what is it that we want . Take action, take safety into your own hands. Thats a great response. Im going to call up congresswoman wilson because shes going to close it out. As a final note, let me say that i started this thing with, its personal. Its personal for all of us. My son is 11 years old. My daughter is nine. My desire is to ensure that they live in a safe environment, never have to be on the others of it like i was in 1994. With donovan like these appear, with folks who are working Like Congresswoman wilson to make life better, we have a chance. Heres the catch. We need action from the next generation. Weve been talking about this stuff for centuries. Now we need action. These youngsters right here are the future. Make sure you vote. Another thing that you need to make sure you do is be a part of the system. Be a part of the system so you can create the system we want. I thank you for having me today. Now im calling congresswoman wilson up for closing remarks. God bless all of you. [applause] thank you so much. This has been riveting. I just wanted to say, i agree with everything that you say. Thank you so much for coming. In the meantime, these boys have to stay alive. They have to stay alive and they have to stay free of the criminal Justice System so they will not have criminal records. So in your seats, theres a pamphlet that was written 30 years ago. It was a partnership between the 5000 model of excellence and the association of chiefs of police, the miami herald, and children in the 5000 role models of excellent. What it is is like the talk that you can give your sons when they reach a certain age, when they get a drivers license. The gentleman on the last panel mr. Wilson is my son. I had to have the talk with him. His father had to have the talk with him. Because we knew what was going to happen once he got a drivers license. And it happened. I dont think theres a black man in america who has not been stopped by the police. You have to determine how you are going to survive. The first thing it says is, if you are ever stopped by police, freeze. Do not move unless you are told to do so. Never run from the police. Always remain calm. Always keep your hands in plain view of the officer. Think comic cooperate think, cooperate, speak clearly, ask questions if you dont understand, always carry identification, never fight a Police Officer, remember the officers name and badge number. When its over, always tell a responsible adult about what happened and then you report the incident to the proper authorities. On the back, it has all the phone numbers of the Police Departments in Miamidade County. Police explained to them how to do that so that this particular officer can build a record and they can keep that in his personal file. There is tension between black men and the police. That tension has been there since slavery. It is still there. The only way youre going to have to live in this nation without risking your life, that tension has to be reduced. Police and use form. We bring in 1000 police and 1000 boys who looked just like these, put them in a room and they roleplay. The Police Become the students and the students become the police. They talk about incidents and the fear and the hate and the animosity and the tension. I can tell you, it has saved millions and millions of lives. So if you need some of these, you want more, let me know and i will let the chief of the Chiefs Association of police in Miamidade County send you some for your schoolchildren. Thank you so much for coming today. This has been absolutely amazing. This is a story and situation that will be talked about for years to come because this is just the beginning. Thank you young men. Stand up, all of the children in the audience. Lets give them a big round of applause for being here today. Thank you. [applause]
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