Transcripts For CSPAN Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20140830

Could be ahead. I really do. We have the infrastructure and the Education System and the people and the entrepreneurial spirit is still out there. People want to be able to create a better life. All washington needs to do is create that environment. Washington does not create jobs but a can create the environment for success and the environment for failure. Right now theyre heading down the wrong track. There is an opportunity to take a new direction. Lets embrace it. Do not throw in the towel and say this is the new normal. What say we can do it, we always have. We will figure it out. It will require leadership and finding that common ground. Thank you. [applause] i would like to acknowledge the [inaudible] a fellow dartmouth alum. The best seven years of my life. I enjoyed every year. The state senator from district 20 is also here. I also wanted to thank him for being here. It is often said that lou would go to the opening of an ampulla. He would go to the opening of an envelope. A great public servant. He is a very serious lawmaker and we do not have enough serious lawmakers who think an awful lot about the problems we have an goes a step further to say i think i have some ideas. Some of them outside the box as he alluded to. That may cause some witticism criticism and arrows being directed at him but he is willing to do that in order to move the country forward. To grow the economy so we can have 4 , 5 growth. We need people like the senator in the u. S. Senate so we are fortunate to have him here today. I would ask before we leave if we could have a moment of silence, a thought for james foley and his family, that they find strength in the next coming days and months and years ahead. He is a neighbor in rochester and a friend to many people. With that, a moment of silence for james foley and his family. Thank you very much. We look forward to seeing the senator in washington and new england. We want to thank him for being here today and we thank our sponsors for making this a Great Success and thank our leader here. We wish you a happy labor day coming up. Thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] next at town hall meeting looking at ferguson, missouri. Live at 7 00 a. M. , your calls and comments on washington journal. Busboys aannd poets held a town hall meeting on the ferguson shooting. Danny glover made remarks. This is about two hours and 20 minutes. This is about two hours 20 minutes. Good evening. Sisters and brothers. I am the director of communications. I will be the moderator for this evening. This is ferguson and beyond. It is an open discussion on the crisis of Race Relations in america today. , andhalf of the institute our cosponsors, a continuing talk on race series, the institute of policy studies based in washington, d. C. , it is my pleasure and honor to extend to you all a warm welcome to this famous d. C. Landmark. [applause] a unique place that combines good food for the pallet with great food for thought. I want to extend a special welcome to all those in the audience who joined us after the protests today. Justice toarched for be with us today. [applause] to thosereetings across the country and around the world watching this event live on cspan and on the internet. To those across the d. C. Ropolitan region lazing listening. Also to Cable Television viewers in cambridge, massachusetts. The institute has invited a Stellar Group of human rights leaders and legal experts and youth activists and religious leaders to be among the panelists and respondents at this town hall meeting. I want to welcome them all and thank him for accepting the invitation. We will move into the discussion and dialogue. I want to bring on a righteous brother and a dear friend. He will personally welcome you to his house. He is an artist and an activist and a prominent civic leader in the d. C. Area. He is a very successful entrepreneur who is built a franchise of three thriving busboys establishments. He is about to open two more. I am talking about the owner of busboys and poets. Lets give it up for brother andy. [applause] good evening. I know you have friends he havent seen in a while. This is an important time and a joyful time in many ways. If you could take a moment to just say im not going to talk to you until the end of the program to your friend sitting next to. Let them know that. Youll have plenty of time to reconnect afterwards. We are here until past midnight offended past midnight. Give us your undivided attention for the next few moments. On behalf of the front of the house staff and the back of the house staff, i would like to welcome you to this moment this evening. A ferguson townhall. When we opened we had the intention of creating a place where racial and cultural connections are consciously uplifted. If you have wondered what that looks like, this is what it looks like. I want you to turn to the person next to you and give them a hug. All right. We are also a place for art and culture and politics come together intentionally to collide. Part of this art in culture, i want to open up the program none other than ayanna gregory. Give her a welcome please. [applause] [singing] we who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes. We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes. We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes. Oh freedom. Oh freedom. Oh freedom. Before ill be a slave i will be , buried in my grave. And go home to my lord and be free. This is a freedom song meant to go around the world. Critical time everywhere in the world. Wake up as we stand at war. Ask yourself what youre living for. We are living in some troublesome times. The truth has been hidden. The values we have to, live. Oppression so deep, we are desensitized. As we stand in the final hour. You cant afford to give away your power. They think youre going to fall but they dont know you well. Earth is going to tremble. You just stand your ground. You have to realize the battle is hard. We go to war with the honor guard. Let your fire burned down on hypocrisy. Finally become what you were meant to be. I see the fire in your eyes. Take back your life. Take back your life. I see the fire in your eyes. Take back your life. Take back your life. Thank you. [applause] when we first started thinking that this brainchild, it was don rojas who came up with this idea to have a town hall meeting. What we decided to do was have it on august 27. He told me this about eight days ago. Eight days is a long time. People will forget about this and move on. They wont remember this. I want to thank the people of ferguson. I want to thank all of you for being part of this and making sure that we will not forget. We will at the police know that it is not ok to be militarized. That our Police Departments about a dumping grounds for the pentagon. We are tired of institutionalized racism. We are tired of being eavesdropped on and spied on and marginalized throughout the world, not just in a ferguson but everywhere. Ferguson is the rallying cry that we have come around. I want to thank the people of ferguson. I want to thank mike brown, may he rest in peace, for making this possible and giving us this wake up call and saying were sick and tired of being sick and tired. You are in Great Company for that. Welcome to the club of being sick and tired of being sick and tired. We will not rest or stop. This will not go away like many things have gone away. We will continue in this struggle until we have peace and justice. If you dont have justice, there is no way to have peace. Even though mike brown was not the first brown person killed by the police, i want you to think about and say he will be the last one. He will be the last one to be shot by the police. That is it. I look forward to having this conversation with you. Thank you for being here. [applause] thank you. Tonightsd brothers, program we will not have time to recall what happened in ferguson, missouri. We will focus on the meaning and the implications of ferguson for the Africanamerican Community across the country and for the nation at large. Where we go from here . What needs to be done the week and months ahead . What recommendations and actions can we come up with tonight . What are the lessons to be learned from ferguson . Was this just another cliched teachable moment or was it a significant turning point . Will this moment evolve into a new movement for political change and for social and Economic Justice for black and brown people in this country . These are some of the questions that our, lest will address shortly. Panelists will address shortly. I would like for us to ask for a moment of silence for Michael Brown and for eric gardner and so many africanamerican men killed by White Police Officers in different parts of the country. A moment of silence. May they all rest in peace. On monday, thousands of people attended mike browns funeral. More mourned his loss across the country and around the world. The media tells us that in recent days everything is calm and ferguson. Life is back to normal. Kids are back in school. That implies the crisis is over. Is this the case . Many young activists say that mike browns dignified funeral was a time to press forward. Press the pause button on the protests. The resistance continues. For many of us aging activists, the resolve and the determination of courageous young people in ferguson and from around the country who have been leading the resistance is truly inspiring. They reflect the use of yesteryear who were involved with the panthers back in the 1960s and 1970s during the lack liberation struggle. They provided the energy and the passion. The hiphop generation is doing exactly the same thing. We are delighted to have a few of these young activists leaders with us tonight. Along with dozens of other youth from here in washington, d. C. Drove by bus all the way from washington to ferguson last week to participate in the protests. I would like to invite one of the activists to give a brief report on the trip to ferguson. Sister erika, please come forward. [applause] i just want to make a correction. I was not one of the ones who went on the bus. I went before there came to be some peace and ferguson. I wear this shirt because i want to be reminded of what happened to the people there. I have not brought myself to be able to wash this. I dont want to forget. This is not the first time that black people have been attacked. This is not the first time and it will not be the last. I went down it just tanned in solidarity with the people of ferguson. I know it easily could have been our city. It will be our city. It happened in brooklyn last year. There were tanks rolling in brooklyn. This is the response when black people rise up. Please understand that. This is the response from our country when black people rise up. Wake up. We are under attack. It has not stopped. We have been under attack for long time. Bombs, you dont have have to compare us to another country. For us, this is america. This is what is happening to us. I want to tell you, i stand with the people that you called looters. They were resisting. Because what happened was when i talked to them, they said you know what, you dont care about our lives. We dont care about your property. And i stand with them 100 because thats when people start waking up. In this capitalistic society, you got to start breaking stuff to be heard and that is what they did. I want to tell you, a lot of people dont want to talk about this but i will give you a story from us being in ferguson. One of the organizers that i was with, as we were running, it was like a cookout at the quick trip. It was a family reunion. People were passing out food. It was free. Children were cleaning up the trash, cleaning up the canisters of tear gas that were there. Children, babies cleaning this up. Nd about 8 30 we went to go to the mcdonalds, famous mcdonalds you all see, and it facetimedceful i even with my mother and let her know i was ok. Five minutes later, well before kerr few, we see a group of Police Officers run behind a building and come back with tear masks or gas masks on, excuse me, and sticks in their hands. So we know something is about to happen. One of our organizers asks why are you carrying sticks . And he said, to beat people. This is at 8 30. Thats when the tear gas comes. So we start running, and im running ahead of them. The organizer behind me is running and a white man is running toward her and punches r in the face and says sit down. That happened and thats real. There are people there that want black people to get shot at, as for the national guard, we know the history of the national guard. I went to a. N. C. There are bullet holes in our walls from the national guard. We know what they did in newark, new jersey, ok . This is our history. So stand with the people in ferguson. They are resisting, theyre showing us what can happen in our city. And we know what the response is going to be. So this is a time we have to come together and honor the people of ferguson. Honor mike browns life. Were not going to go back to business as usual. We cant afford to do that anymore. We cannot afford to do that anymore. Thank you so much. Erica. For air ca thank you. Now its my pleasure to introduce dr. Ron daniels, president of institute of 21 century and istinguished lecturer out of new york cloth, city of new york, who will provide the town college for this evening. Ron . Thank you very much. Lets give it up for the sister with the eyewitness report from ferguson. Lets give it up for her. First of all, i want to quickly say because time is limited were an institute of the black world 21st century delighted to have as our director of communication someone as distinguish of don rojas, general manager of wpfw but more importantly the former press secretary for maurice bishop. Give it up for don rojas. We also quickly again want to thank andy and busboys and poets for sponsoring this event and open societys foundation, drug policy appliance for the support of the work of the institute of the black world 21st century. One wonders if one went back and read the accounts in the british newspapers of what they would have said about the boston tea party. And i say that because of what the sister talked about, the spirit of resistance. People calling it riots. People calling it all kinds of things. Never, ever have called any of newark, los angeles. They are rebellions. They reflect peoples resistance against the violence being committed against them. And we in the institute of the black world 21st century have been saying for years theres a state of emergency in black america, a state of emergency. Now for some people, there are two black americas quickly. Some people are doing quite well unless get stopped for driving while black. They live in the exof suburbs, whatever. In the urban inner city areas, what i call americas dark getters. As malcolm would say, people are catching more hell than ever before. That state of emergency is a created state of emergency. They took out the jobs. They disinvested in our communities. Industry left. Work has disappeared. They created what they call dangerous communities and the media helped create the image of the dangerous black man. And then they had to police it with the war on drugs. The war on drugs is a war on us, and we must end the war on drugs. And president obama could do it with a stroke of the pen. If nixon created it by executive order, it could be ended by executive order. The other thing is, as sisters said, we talk about looting. We have been looted of our jobs, looted of education. Theres been the ravishing of our communities. Then we have been violated by Police Violence and terror killings. We say in the institute of the black world 21st century, everyone doesnt have to agree with what we say. We say end the war on drugs. The attorney general can do that tomorrow, simply stop having the Justice Department pay for the tanks and all of this military equipment. We Say Community policing will speak to Community Policing ought to be the order of the day. It may not yield a lot but we want obama to have the opportunity to clearly say he has a priority and that priority is not the military model, it is Community Policing. And the next, we need a domestic marshal plan. Somebodys got to pay for all of the damage thats been done to our communities. We need a domestic marshal plan. We need our communities rebuilt so our people can breathe and have jobs and Economic Opportunity in a way that we dont have now because every community you go in all across this country, i read in the New York Times today, the Washington Post, how education is being deprived. How in missouri, theyre making money off the tickets. Theyre defining people. The brothers cant pay for the fines. They go to jail and they still owe fines. Because of the small government nonsense, theres not enough investment in our community. Lastly, we think there ought to also be a kearner commissiontype study. Some of you may not recall in 1968 after the insurrection, there was a kearner commission to study why does this keep happening . We have a black president , and yet we have a state of emergency in americas ghettos. We need the president of the United States to call a commission to study why do the Police Killings keep going on . Why do we have such violence in our community . Why do we have such economic underdevelopment . We need answers and president obama can take the lead in providing those answers. So those are some of the ideas were putting forth. We are sure the panel will share many, many others. But the main thing is we have to iftain this movement and say there isnt going to be no nuts, there certainly is not going to be no justice, there certainly is not going to be any peace. [applause] thank you very much, dr. Ron daniels. Sisters and brothers, moving right along, we now want to introduce to you our distinguished panel, seated up here next to me on my left and im going to introduce them from left to right, and im going to ask each of them to make a very brief, two minutes at the most, opening comment on the crisis in ferguson. You can focus on any aspect of the crisis and after which i will pose a few questions to each of you. Thank you so much. Om my left we have brother hillary shelton. Hillary shelton is the director of the Washington Office of the naacp. Please give it up for brother shelton. [applause] next to him is sister barbara ernwine. The president of the Lawyers Committee for civil rights. [applause] and next to her is brother joserix, hiphop artist, activist out of pittsburgh, pennsylvania. [applause] on his right is brother ron hampton. Many of you in washington, d. C. Are very familiar with ron hampton. Hes a former executive director of the National Black Police Association. [applause] twpheeia. Nakiti [applause] she is a senior policy analyst for criminal Justice Matters at he open society foundations. Welcome, sister nakiti. Opening remarks, beginning with brother shelton. Thank you very much. First i dont know if everyone can hear me. Cant hear me. Thank you so much. It is so important to have an opportunity to actually respond to whats going on in ferguson, missouri, and so many other places. It just so happens im one of the few that actually grew up in st. Louis, missouri. I know ferguson very well. I saw its transition from being a community that was predominantly white to one that is now 67 africanamerican. But i have also said what has happened with the systems that are in place that are supposed to be democratic in nature and very clearly they are not being responsive to the concerns going on there now. If you look at the city council, those who are making decisions with the people who live in ferguson, you will see it is not representative of the 67 of africanamericans that live in that township. If you look at the Police Department, you recognize we talk about 67 of the population being africanamerican but out of the 53 Police Officers that actually worked that community, only 3 are africanamerican. We look at those challenges and other issues of addressing the real concerns, we see democracy is not working and as such, the Law Enforcement entity that is put in place to quote, serve and protect, is doing neither. So if we saw what happened to Michael Brown, it is not surprising people finally got to that tipping point. Just to give you a tiny bit more foundation about st. Louis, st. Louis, missouri, is a community that was 55 africanamerican in the inner city area. But even as such, even in 1968, when dr. King was assassinated, it was one of the few communities across the country that did not rise up in rebellion. Peace was maintained. So how is it we got to the point that we did behind the murder of Michael Brown . And do you recognize the concerns are the issues are not being addressed. When you have a scenario in which everyone is set up as some kind of Occupying Force, and that Occupying Force is one that actually suppressing rather than providing the real protection of those communities, you end up with the kind of response we got with Michael Brown. You end up with an 18yearold that was one more week on his life would have started his first day in college. You end up with a community that came out as it did because there seemed to be no more response they could bring. As we talk about whats going on as my time is ending now, thank you so much, sister, i want make sure we have an opportunity to talk about beyond solving the case and right culprit being held accountable for what happened. That we dont treat it as if we want to restore or come back to a point but how things were prior to Michael Brown being killed. In essence, if we dont take this issue on in a manner in which we fix all of the problems and speak far beyond the shooting, we will be indeed exercising a point of futility which so many have defined when you do the same things in the same way, expecting a different result. In essence what you have done is define clinical insanity. Lets talk about how we make sure we bring some sanity, not only to ferguson but the rest of the country. [applause] thank you very much, brother shelton. Sister . Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, good evening, everyone. Good evening there we go. Two months ago all over the World Everybody was tweeting and talking about bring back our group. Now nobody is talking about it. The issue for us is having stood after year dly year burying our children, burying our older People Killed by police. The question is, as reverend here would say, can we move from the moment to a movement . Can we do whats necessary to make this our lifes work . That is the challenge for us, and what i want to really point they are here, this statement, unity statement of black organizations on what we can do to make sure that we dont see this again. There are things that can be done, my brothers and sisters, and we need to look at those. For example, in d. C. , right body we require bob worn cameras . Do we require cams in every Police Vehicle . Do we require reports of every who complains of Excessive Force and delivers it to the public . These are issues we can control. We must make sure that no federal dollars goes to anybody. My last point without having these requirements, my last point is that im here because i want to say one thing, the sisters, the black women are also being killed dont miss that dont miss that black women, a black woman was shot just the other day. Bodies, we these dont censor these bodies. Black women, black girls must understand we can heal half a community. We must heal the entire community and save all of our lives thank you [applause] thank you, sister arwine. Brother . Check. Check. Im up. I want to start by saying that issues of the you black world for coming. What happened in ferguson is the result of an action of an officer named Darren Wilson. He was the one who saw a young man in the streets and if the audio on cnn they just released is correct shot his gun six times, paused and shot five more times, shooting Michael Brown at least six times, twice in the head, which was consistent with what the witnesses were saying he was shot ten times. Then when the community attempts to have a peaceful vigil, the police roll up with an army of military army and begin agitating the community. I keep hearing people saying the protesters need to be peaceful. The protesters need to be peaceful. Somebody needs to tell the police to be peaceful. Its the police thats breaking the peace [applause] im saying i just came back from ferguson. I was on the strip myself, david banner and some other folks. We were having a conversation with a young brother. Like you said it was peace. It was like a family reunion. It was a saturday night. It was hot outside. Everybody was out. People were playing music. Food was being given away and for no reason at all, 15 Police Officers come from our left side, 15 to my right side, arrested two of the young men we were talking to for absolutely no reason. And i went up to captain johnson, who is different than the one you see in the media. Wasnt smiling and laughing and joking and leading marches that night. He was surrounded by hundreds of officers. I asked him why he arrested these men for doing nothing and he told me, i dont have to talk to you. Youre not from here. This is what is happening on the ground. Last thing i want to say is despite all of this, there are Young Leaders that have came up, they are highly sophisticated, they are intelligent, organized and formed a coalition. Give it up for them [applause] if not for them, it would have been a lot more destruction you were seeing. But they united under a name called hands up united. You can go to handsupunited. Org. You can see their list of demands. You can donate to different things. I encourage you, go to handsupunited. Org and support these Young Leaders trying their best to keep resisting despite a heavy military police presence. [applause] thank you. Thank you very much, brother. And brother ron hampton . First of all, let me say good evening to everyone. Good evening. He said keepyou talking. My comments will be in the nature of putting this in some context. We cannot look at the Michael Brown killing as a single incident in time. It is a continuation of assault and attack on black men and women in the black community. Just for a little history. The militarization of policing started after vietnam. Police departments received military equipment after vietnam, after desert storm and as we see now, iraq and afghanistan. That equipment is being used in the war on drugs, used in the war on drugs, war on black people, in the community. Black men and women in a Police Department is not the only answer. You can add six more Police Officers or 20 more Police Officers in ferguson but if were going to begin to address systemic issues around culture, policies and practice is in the Police Department, there will continue to be as brutal as the Police Officers. [applause] dr. Daniels talked about Community Policing. Community policing is result if Community Policing results are real, it must work for us. If not, we must find the strategy that will work for black people in the black community. We talk an awful lot about Community Policing but we have not seen the benefits of Community Policing in our community. The kind of aarrests that have been taking place in new york and all over the country as a result of walking while black, riding while black, marijuana, other drug arelates, is not the result of Community Policing. It must be real Community Policing. We need to be involved in that thing, in that process. E also must begin to replace policies and practices with those policies and practices that again will work for our community. I want to add my voigs to recommendations. We must end the war on drugs. We must end mass incarceration in our communities. We must have more jobs for our people, calling for race in the Justice System. Beer buster in the backyard and think that will solve problems with race and policing and call for a study of our criminal Justice System. Ron, we havent had one in over 30 years. Its time to have a thorough evaluation and nall sis of the criminal Justice System in our country because its not working for us. Thank you. Thank you, ron hampton. Sister . I saw a photograph on social media recently of a lynching juxtaposed with the lifeless body of Michael Brown, who was laying in the street for hours. You see, when an enslaved person was hung, the lynchers would leave the body in the open for hours to do what . To instill fear in the hearts of other enslaves. It was terrorism then. And i submit it is terrorism now. It is one thing for people to be murdered, but even more egregious for the perpetrators to be those who wear badges and have been sworn to uphold the law. Victims of Law Enforcement abuse , oscar grant, johnny, david garner, all of them, theyre crying out from the grave for justice. As we now grieve for young Michael Brown, let us vow that this time, our outrage not just be for a moment, which would dissipate with time but for a movement with justice that would seize a time. This is a movement that must in addition to the critical demands that the Civil Rights Organization have made, that have must also upped the ante and internationalized the struggles. The United Nations code of conduct for Law Enforcement officials and basic principles on the use of firearms required Law Enforcement use force and firearms only as a last resort. And thats the amount of force must be proportionate to the threat. What about the International Convention on the elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination . What about the International Convention on civil rights . What about the International Convention on torture . What about the International Convention on the pro pension and punishment of the crime of genocide . We are in a revolutionary moment right now. And it is incumbent upon all of us to seize it by building a focused justice movement. We must base the ante and have the audacity to advance Creative Solutions to break the criminal punishment system once and for all and to fashion new systems of justice based on prevention rather than punishment. Compassion rather than criminalization. And i submit in closing we need a new narrative that only embraces human rights model so justice does not become just us. We need innovative people that are not afraid to think out of the box and to push the envelope for change. Thank you. All right [applause] thank you, sister. Give it up for the panelists, ladies and gentlemen. Sisters and brothers, one other the ist, brother keenan, senior counsel on the democratic side of the House Judiciary Committee has been held up. Hes traveling. Just got back into the city and trying to make his way here this evening. He may show up. Also, brother danny glover is currently on a film shoot in utah. And he is a little bit delayed. Hes in the middle of filming a scene as we speak. But hes promised to call in around 7 30. So stand by for that. We hope to bring him in very shortly. Couple of housekeeping matters before we move into our dialogue session. There are yellow cards being circulated by i. B. W. Volunteers around the tables. Please fill them out and volunteers will come pick them up before the end of the program. We also are encouraging folks to treat live this tweet live this event. Th the bw hands up wi hashtag. Tweet while the Program Moves along. I want a lot of complex questions exposed by the crisis in ferguson, issues of race and class, poverty, systemic and social and economic inequality, none is more central than the issue of policing. More specifically, Police Misconduct in black and brown communities across the country. We have a former Police Officer on our panel with ron hampton. I will ask him the first question. Ron, you did mention early about Community Policing. Its been a buzzword for a number of years. But recently its been sort of on the back burner. What aspects of Community Policing would guarantee a greater degree of accountability and transparency in americas Police Departments . The answer to the question is accountability and transparency has to take place even before crisis takes place. Because those are the kind of ingredients that that will overt a crisis. I use theres a former Police Commissioner in the city of baltimore, his name was thomas frazier, and we struggled with Community Policing nationally for some time now. Commissioner frazier has a concept that he said worked for him when he was in baltimore. And the concept was that he believed in the development of community capital. Because he said, Police Citizen relationships was like married individuals. Sometimes its good, sometimes its not. Thats the way relationships is in our community. He said when you develop and create capital, then sometimes when things are not that good, you can call on the community to assist to be with you until you get information to them or some additional kind of things. If you wait until this incident that happened, then thats too late. And there was an example in st. Louis less than three miles away from when mr. Powell was shot and killed, vanishing a knife when two Police Officers came up on the scene. Now quite frankly, im in the satisfied with the answer. But at least the police chief came out on the scene. They had also been able to obtain the video that was taken by a witness and then he released the information on the scene and we didnt have an incident. I submit to you that the reason we didnt have an incident was because of the transparency and information thaft given to people on the scene but the other thing that needs to happen is that you cant wait until the crisis in order to get it done. You got to develop the crisis. As i was talking about Community Policing, generally in our community we have not had the experience with police with trust and confidence is an everyday kind of thing. They come talk to us about turning in our brothers and sisters but they are not talking to us about developing the relationship and Public Safety policies and practices we need to have in our community. You will continue to have crises if we dont have it. Thats why im at the stage of saying if that model of Community Policing sent working for us, lets find one that will work for us. Ok, great. Brother, you talked about officer Darren Wilson. Probably thousands of Darren Wilsons in Police Forces across the country. Racist, triggerhappy crops infused with sickness of white supremacy, unfortunately. Some have said Darren Wilson ould probably not be indicted, given the peculiarities of missouris Justice System and given the procop history of the prosecutor, the county of st. Louis prosecutor. Ziri respond toji that. But i also want to ask this question to the two attorneys on the panel, sister arwine, what are the realistic possibilities for Darren Wilson to be indicted and brought to trial for murder . Well, i will start. Do012 i made a song called we need to start a riot. I made that song because of the report the Malcolm X Grass Roots Movement did in 2012 313 black people were killed by Police Security guards or people like George Zimmerman which amounted to one every 28 hours. Ultimately when i asked the question do we need to start a riot, im really asking what doe we have to do to get justice . That if we are continually shot down and no one is to blame, then what do you think will eventually happen if this is something that happens over and over and over again . So you know, ferguson is simmering right now but so is new york city. So is chicago, illinois. So is l. A. And so is d. C. So i would be if i was them, i would be careful. Zimmerman was found not guilty. Michael dunn guilty of attempted murder but not in the murder of jordan davis, the person he shot and killed. And now if Darren Wilson is not indicted, what do you want us to do . Because if youre not going to give us justice, then we have to ask, are we wrong if we then take justice in our own hands . All right, now. All right, now. Two legal question, things. Its very clear that mccullough, the prosecuting attorney in st. Louis isnt about zeros. We should not be expecting much. Hes already started off in a horrible way by saying hes going to have the officer testify before the grand jury. Thats almost unheard of, people. This is a very unusual thing. We also have been watching the police force do everything in eir power to uphold this gentleman, this officer by saying that he was, quote, being bomb rushed by mr. Michael brown when he been shot at repeatedly, ridiculous accusations but we are knowing a lot of that is coming from the Police Department and from the police union. So i am not expecting much from the state. The question is, what is the department of justice going to do . Ecause they have the authority to bring civil right charges. If theyre going to do it, they cant drag their feet. Remember, this administration goes out in 2016. They will be over in december of 2016. So it is imperative that if were going to have a prosecution that charges are brought right now, as early and as soon as possible. All of the elements that are required are there. The question of intent is the one that will be the hardest they will have to deal with. But still you this is will be a great case. Its a case thats worth of department of justice pursuing. We dont want to be sitting here a year from now like we are with zimmerman saying what happened . We got to keep the pressure up, my brothers and sisters. We have to demand a prosecution we have to demand this man be brought to justice. We cannot expect anybody to pursue justice here if we dont make it happen through our actions thank you let me just add on to what my sister said because the department of justice does have a high bar. There is that hurdle, hurdle of intent. Same hurdle that stymied up time after time after time after time after time. And thats why i keep harping on the need to not limit ourselves within the confines of the u. S. Jurisdictional law. We need to up the ante. The International Racial Convention Treaty says you can circumvent intent if you can show discriminatory impact theres no question in terps of discriminatory impact. But its not within u. S. Law to be able to use that even though the u. S. Senate has ratified that treatment. However, we need to be creative. Theres the ninth amendment to the United States constitution which states the provisions of is constitution cannot be denied or disparaged its a gateway to International Law basically. Rights repaid by the people. What is one of those rights . One is the right to International Human rights laws. Thank you. Brother shelton, you are a senior representative of the oldest Civil Rights Organization in the country, naacp. You are also a lobbyist on apitol hill. I want you to talk a little bit about the official government response from the obama administration, from congress, from the senate, to the crisis in ferguson. Theres been deathly silence on the part of some of our National Political figures. Some of whom have already began the race for president. But theres also been sharp criticism of the president s response from several prominent black public intellectuals like dr. West, dr. Michael eric dyson. First of all, the response of the Civil Rights Community to the crisis. We have not seen Many National ofil rights leaders in front the demonstrations or in front of the cameras. Why is that the case . Let me first start out by saying the new president of the naacp, cornell williamsbrooks, was on the ground in ferguson, missouri, the very next day. In essence, he hopped on a plane, i dont know which one of these works best. He hopped on a plane the very next day and was on the Ground Holding a Community Meeting at the same church, quite frankly, the funeral was held in. So were there and been there. The difference between naacp and some of others is we have a branch that actually represents all of st. Louis county, which ferguson is a part of. In addition to that, our state conference president came in and our st. Louis city Branch President came in from st. Louis city and been on the ground and part of those working. Heres the challenge we have right now. What were seeing is the classic move towards suppression. That is if you look at all of the moves that were taken, when you start arresting reporters, its about suppression. When you implement a nofly zone so that news helicopters cannot come overhead and look down at whats going on, were talking about suppression. [applause] were talking about standard processes that are utilized to make sure the truth does not get out. We have seen all of those playing out in ferguson, missouri. When you walk into american icons like the mcdonald hamburger store and you arrest a reporter from the Washington Post and the Huffington Post while theyre charging their computers to report on the story, when thats going on, you know suppression is under way. So when we see whats happening with Police Officers that are actually defending other Police Officers, you know theres a problem. Thats like saying to me, my taxes arent being done right. I would say to the federal government i appreciate you raising that issue, i will investigate myself. Indeed when you have the Ferguson Police on the ground in ferguson protecting one of their own and suppressing information coming out of the community with the strategy we are seeing played out, indeed what we have is the strategy of suppression. So heres what were doing. We are moving to go far beyond this case and were on this case too. Step by step. Justice has to be done for the brown family and Michael Brown himself. Secondly, the right signals have to be set out when these things happen to unarmed africanamerican teenagers in the streets, we will not stand idly by and say oops, another part of Collateral Damage being played out in this very militaristically manner in which were addressing whats going on in ferguson, missouri. Its not the first time. Dont forget we were in cleveland, ohio, less than 10 years ago because a 14yearold kid was shot in the back by a Police Officer as he ran in the other direction. Question is what happened then . There were no changes. We need to pass a number of pieces of legislation. Number one, every community should have Police Accountability review board with real power of subpoena, power of independence, has independent resources so that police when these situations happen are not investigating themselves. Local Police Accountability review board with real power. Secondly, we have to pass to end racial profiling act now pending in the u. S. Congress. Congressman conyers and senator carter both introduced this legislation. The whole Police Department is accountable. Cut off their funds when they misbehave themselves. Not one dollar to misbehaving Police Departments. Thirdly, weve got to pass a Law Enforcement trust and integrity act. Let me ask you a question, you dont have to answer this now but i have to give the microphone to somebody else, heres the question, if youre going to determine that some Police Officer is actually misusing force, the abuse of force, dont you first have to define what the acceptable use of force is . Should not the question be, if you have an unarmed teenager shot to death in the street, what happened, what happened to the nondeadly use of the force . Hat happened to the baton . What happened to tasers . What happened to billy clubs . What happened to other forms and tools that say if somebody is misbehavior, we will capture them, we will actually address them and make sure they get a fair trial before we act as executioner in these particular cases. Let me say we have a full agenda to move forward. What i have here is i want to pass out everyone is all of the pieces of legislation that we believe needs to be passed by the u. S. Congress again fixing this problem and again eliminating the insanity factor by making sure we dont continue to do the same thing over and over again and in the same way and expect a different result. I look forward to more questions. [applause] thank you. Sister, youre also an active person on capitol hill. Yes. And your organization is as well recognized and respected in the legislative chambers. What is your take on what brother shelton just said . Yes. My take is that the reforms we know what this congress is about. First of all, everyone, you should have circled almost engraved in your foreheads november 4, 2014. That is election day, every Single Member of congress will be up for reelection. Every single one. In 2010 during the last midterm election, 25 Million People voted in 2008 did not turn out. The average Congress Person was elected by how many votes do you think . Less than 2,000 votes. If we turn out, if we do our jobs, we will have a Better Congress because every piece of legislation thats talked about here is meaningless without the right congress. But heres what we can do, while we wait to get the best congress, im going to tell everyone that the department of justice has a guidance that has not been read into since 2003 on racial profiling. 2003, and i will ask administration, we need to update that guidance. Its the one that sets the framework for what is racial profiling by police. Its the guidance who says who gets money from the department of justice, department of defense and department of Homeland Security. All of that comes under that guidance. Yet we have not demanded of this Administration Six years they update that guidance. That has to happen. Secondly, the department of justice has been called upon by the Legal Defense fund. We join them in saying they need to publish and collect data on every Police Department thats out here shooting and killing kids and killing young people. And they need to publish that data and they need to stop giving him any money because the abuse is happening through their actions. So we are saying theres a lot that can be done by executive order, by guidance, by practice and by funding. Dont underestimate the amount of money that Police Forces get from the department from the federal government. You guys i, you probably know, that three years ago almost in november, that the swat team invaded my own home and held my family at gunpoint for three hours, threatening to kill us. Never produced a warrant. Threatened to batter down my front door. Lied to the press about what they had done after wards. Still lying. And they came in my house, they made ferguson look like chumps. They had counterriot gear on. They had sniper rifles. They had every kind of shield. Everything you can imagine. And they threatened to kill every one of my family members, including me and my 80yearold mother. So let me be very clear, this is Prince Georges County im talking about. Maryland accounts for more swat team action than any other state in the union. And we need to be very clear that when i started telling people about this, they thought i was lying. They thought i was exaggerating. They said this doesnt happen in america. Now we see it. So its very, very important that were very clear that this can be stopped. They can stop giving them military equipment. They can stop having these Police Forces have all of these swat teams that are running around thinking theyre in iraq or afghanistan in Prince Georges County. We can change this. But we have to unite and make the change. Thank you. Thank you, sister. [applause] sister, youre a Senior Analyst at the open society foundations, which has been doing for a number of years excellent work in trying to stop the war on drugs. You have been involved in this campaign yourself. I would like you to draw the parallels between the war on drugs and the militarization of the Police Forces across the country . It has been said the reason the department of justice, the reason that the Homeland Security and department of defense have been sending military equipment to the Police Forces is socalled fight the war on drugs as well as counterterrorism. Throughout the United States. Can you comment on that relationship, please. Yes. Thank you very much. Many folks do not realize this, ince 1995 the pentagon has distributed 5. 1 billion in surplus military equipment to u. S. Police departments. I just want to give a little background as a context of the time in which this happened. This happened in the wake of the crime bill of 1994. Were talking about the same crime bill that saw the larningest expansion of the Death Penalty in modern times. Same crime bill that had proliferations, scores of mandatory minimum sentences for 12 and 13yearolds as adults, ederal three strikes bill, incentives for money to build more prisons to long more people up for longer periods of time. All of this was part and parcel of the war on drugs. This was a backdrop for the militarization of the domestic u. S. Police force. Were talking about the things that barbara was speaking of when they came and knocked down her door. Were talking about armored tank. Were talking about mineresistant vehicles. We have a situation we have officers in ferguson running around in camouflage. Why do they need camouflage in the inner cities . They have these huge boys that had been collecting dust in the warehouses. They are looking for any excuse to bring these weapons of mass destruction out so they have taken the war on drugs, used the war on terrorism as an excuse. And are using these things against our people. There are measures in congress right now, they are speaking about measures to limit the use of militarystyle equipment in domestic Police Forces. We need to look at this. This sent just coming from progressives. We have conservatives such as senator rand paul, who has been speaking out against things like this as well. This is very, very important. My time is up. But theres a definite connection. They are all related and we need to make sure that we connect the ots. Thank you, sister. Brother jaziri, passionate young hiphop activist, tell me how the hiphop Artistic Community has responded to ferguson, and what are they doing to keep the memory of ferguson alive within the Artistic Community . I think first, i mean, the word was spread through social media. Really, the word was spread by the young people in ferguson that witnessed what happened to mike brown and took pictures of it, that put it out. You know what im saying, they began to organize on social media. Naturally when it began to be spread on social media, kind of hiphop artists stepped in. You know what im saying . One, young jeezy actually had a show in st. Louis the next day. He said he actually wanted to cancel the show or wanted everyone to donate the money from the show to the family. He wasnt able to convince everybody to do that but he came, he put a mike brown shirt on. He went to the quick trip after that. You had hiphop artist jay cole make a song about it. Didnt do any press. Just went to speak to the community. They were so happy. There with david banner, the people were so happy to see him. Not only is he actor and hip hort artist thats well known but defending the community, defending them on cnn. One of the things that somebody said to him was, we didnt want al sharpton or Jesse Jackson to come down. We wanted you to come down because of how he was representing that community. Theres been a lot of people, myself included, that used our hiphop to raise awareness about this issue, t. I. , john legend was on twitter, you know what im saying, trying to take him for a joke. But then theres also been quiet or silence on some of the biggest hiphop artists right now. Theres been silence from a lot of these white artists that coop black culture to make millions of dollars and then they dont say, you know, when something happens to the black community, dont say anything. I say as consumers, we need to be mindful of that. We need to hold these guys accountable. If you will not speak to us when we need your voice, when were suffering to and having pain and your album comes out and want to tweet and facebook and have questions, were not going to support you if youre not going to support us. [applause] can you hear me . Hello . All right. Thank you, brother jaziri. Sisters and brothers, bear with us. Were trying to get brother danny glover on the line here. Hello, danny, can you hear us . I can hear you. Can you hear me . Sisters and brothers, you will have to keep it down so we can hear danny. This is the only way we can get im to participate. Hello . Danny, hold on. O ahead. I havent had a chance to have can you guys hear him . No. I will tell you what, lets see, how can we do this . This is up to the max. Try it again, danny. Hello, danny. Ry it again. Thats what i think we have to do. Hold on. We will try to solve this technical problem. Sisters and brothers, bear with us. Danny glover, as i said, is on a film set in utah as we speak and taking a quick timeout from filming to call into the town hall meeting. Were going to try to hook him up. In the meantime, why dont we do another couple housekeeping matters. The yellow cards, sisters and brothers that have been circulating, please instead of giving them there are too many people here, on your way out, there are baskets at the door, please just put the yellow cards into the baskets. We also are encouraging everyone here to tweet the event live, the hashtag is ibw hands up. Ibw hands up. We are still trying in the meantime, i would like to take this pause to recognize a number of of especially invited guests, Community Leaders, religious leaders in the d. C. Area. And im going to call on them to each stand as i call your name and to be recognized. Reverend dr. Joseph evans from the mt. Caramel Baptist Church is here with us. [applause] attorney Jesslyn Mccurdy from the aclu. [applause] brother saleem from the National Black united front. [applause] reverend can you hear me yet . Can you hear me . Do we have him now . Hello . Can we get danny on now . Hello terrific. Youre on live. Im on live. Thank you, thank you, everyone [applause] first of all, first of all, to all the people hearing me, if you can hear me, i just want to first of all, like so many i have not had an opportunity to listen to the program but ertainly we give, first of all our condolences to the family and the family in ferguson. We know how important it is. Unfortunately, i cannot be with you today. As you talk about ferguson and beyond. Critically as the information us. We have able to. Information that we uncovered over these periods of time since august 9, hopefully that brings us into focus a clear picture of the work that we must do. But we cannot do the work unless understand the historical significance, not only significance but historical significance of this moment and understand clearly, clearly the culture and history around racial violence in this country. We are out here now, were grapping at stones, you know. We tend to compartmentalize things within our own reaction to what has happened. Theont often contextualize incidents in regard to historical and patterns, and i think most of us do it. When we talk about the police a primary force, primarily working class force who act as agents to the state. Their responsibility their responsibility is to have some sort of social control. They use it to stay in control. Michelle expresses that in her book. How they maintain control. She outlines the history of control. We have to understand the context of this control. The control they exercise is because of the potential of those people. We know the black Panther Party was organized based on Community Control of the police in selfdefense. It was organized around education and health care. We witnessed that. A young man murdered by chicago police. We should not only put the resources to educate and employ our young men we have to understand that role. How they sustain that stress. That is why we are here today. We are here to use this moment as an expression of outrage and moral condemnation. The attorney journal has said there is a distinct pattern. If we dont understand the historical connection and how they find themselves resonating in the 21st century, we live under these conditions we live in, which is endemic poverty. People in the School Systems were not able to afford to allow our children to grow. We have opportunities available to us. We see this constant threat and fear in our community. That is what we have to deal with. Understand that. As we move across the country, we have this opportunity, this unique opportunity to use this moment to mobilize ourselves. What should the police force look like . We have to be the architects and design the narrative. In the presentation of that narrative. It is more than just right in front of us. We have to take it case after case an understanding it is important for us to move forward. Im sorry i cannot be with you. I know there will be millions in this discussion. Thank you very much. [applause] we want to say a special thanks to brother danny glover for taking time out of his work schedule in utah on set. We were in the middle of recognizing some of the Community Leaders who have joined us this evening. I would like to recognize Abdul Mohammed of the nation of islam [applause] brother cory stewart for the network of returning citizens. [applause] brother Tyrone Parker of the alliance of concerned men. [applause] dr. Pat newton of the black psychiatrists of america. [applause] brother Malika Burnett of the drug policy alliance. [applause] brother Layton Watson from the Howard University student association. [applause] sister dr. Marcia coleman. [applause] you also have carol schwartz, a candidate for d. C. With us this evening. [applause] and we have several members of the color of change organization in the house. They have asked me to make this very important announcement. Tomorrow 5 00, color of change in their allies will have 900,000 petition signatures demanding justice for Michael Brown. Theyre calling on president obama to define his legacy by putting policies in place aimed at ending racial profiling and racially motivated police pilots. They are inviting all of us to meet up in front of the white house, of course. Adjacent to Lafayette Square tomorrow at 5 00. Excellent. We also have a special guest in the house. Reverend dr. John mendez and reverend dr. Brooks. [applause] they are from the progressive black baptists convention. Sisters and brothers, we are going to be getting back to the panel. We want to wrap things up here with final wrapup statements from each of the panelists. And then we are going to invite some members of our special guests to be respondents to what the panelists have said. Very brief comments of their own. Im going to start from the opposite direction at this time. If you are ready to give your concluding remarks. I will ask the panelists to please a focus on recommendations. Action items. What is to be done in the days and weeks ahead. Thank you very much. For a system to be just, the public must be confident that at every stage in the process of the initial investigation of a crime by the Police Officer, for the prosecution and punishment of the crime that individual is in like circumstances are treated alike. Today, our criminal Justice System strays far from that ideal. We have to look at the recommendations of the unified Civil Rights Organizations. I want to point out the use of cameras. Body cam cameras. So we dont have to rely on individual people out there on the streets with their iphones. It should be part of the Police Department. I would like to think the institute and the other sponsoring organizations. Provide equal are providing this vehicle. [applause] thank you. I would like to thank the institute of the black world also. In every movement, there should be a strategy that communities begin to organize themselves. I met with darrell ackerson. He is involved in a process where they are organizing, they have done their homework, the statistical work, what the police do and dont do. They are organizing this community to back the police out of their community. To take control of the Public Safety issues and concerns that affect their communities. We did that a long time ago and we can do that again. It gives us the control of the kind of things [no audio] [indiscernible] [indiscernible] we know that is not true. [indiscernible] [applause] darrell and i are organizing our community. We are taking control of the issues impacting our communities. So that when we call the police, they can concentrate on doing their jobs and not devastating our communities. I want to put that on the table. If you want to do this, we have to have something thank you. [applause] i want to let the audience know, we do have someone taking notes of the recommendations. [indiscernible] and i have seen that. The conversations we had about the racial divide in the United States one of the issues young people have not today, the new generation dealt with is when black power came and they fought with their elders, they left they could 20 years old or younger. They turn on the tv and they are being diminished the role of they need to hear these panelists and here you challenge these other elders that are constantly evaluating the resistance struggle they showed us. Secondly, lets support these Young Leaders. There are Young Leaders on the ground. They are united. Theres hands up united. Org. Black youth projects. Lets support these they need lawyers and medics and resources and money. Some of these on leaders quit their jobs. They quit their jobs. One dude just got out of jail after being arrested for three days and went right back to work. Theyre strategizing. Lets support them. Lets not try to go down there and i was sent to ferguson. I was sent to ferguson by an organization. They met with 4050 hiphop artists last year to give us guidance and direction, to help us begin to use our arc to talk about issues like mass incarceration, pilots and our community, pilots against women violence in our community and violence against women. He is using his wisdom to guide and direct us. Hes guiding and directing us to use our arc to raise the confidence of our community. Support the Young Leaders on the ground. Guide us and directness and back us and we will win this thing. The last thing i want to say black people, we have the godgiven right to defend ourselves. When i put my hands up, i put my hands up like this. Best believe it. Peace. Yes thank you, my brother. Final comments . A couple of things, my brothers and sisters. First of all, again, vote you should be on the phone calling every Single Person you know and every state you know making sure they vote. In ferguson, 12 voter turnout. 67 black. One black city council. The mayor white is saying how his city has no racial problem. Everything is an example of the need for us to fight back. Fight back with what weve got. Fight back with our economic power. Its very important. I saw that special many people saw last night. I tweeted the following. You cannot think that by preaching a gospel of personal responsibility that you can solve systemic Structural Racism problems. [applause] you cant. As we take on the police, there are problems with the School System in ferguson. As we take on the police, there are problems with unemployment in ferguson. As we take on all these issues, they are all related, my sisters and brothers. Systemic, Structural Racism has to be dismantled before justice will ever prevail. We have to understand that nobody is safe. It doesnt matter what your title. It doesnt matter what your compliment. Going forward, every single one of us, lets make the following pledge. We are in this to win. We are not in this for the moment. We will make sure we do something. Dont think you can change this from sleeping and wishing. It has to be movement and unity. Join the movement and make sure that you work for these recommendations. Get the unity statement. Go to lawyerscommittee. Org and get the unity statement. Follow me and all of these great leaders on twitter. We are dropping knowledge constantly about everything. Lastly, i want you to say, this is my plan. My plan to Michael Brown senior. The same pledge i made to when the cameras are gone, when people are not seeking interviews anymore, i will be there. I will have the back of the people in ferguson who have in put in jail. I will have their backs because this is not about them. Its about us. My heart cant sleep as long as these injustices are taking place. Next month the trial starts for the Police Officer who shot and killed the boy in chicago the sister in chicago who was innocent. These are the people we have to be here for. Lets not forget every community where there is a need, that we are their voices and that we are making the change. I know i will. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for bringing this all together. To have the kind of conversation we have to have as a family. It is clearly time for a new paradigm. A time for a new paradigm. Its a new reality and new expectations we have under the circumstances we are living. We need to describe all of these victims of gun violence at the hands of Police Officers. All of these victims of death. Yet, we keep coming back and having the same conversation over and over again. I remember having this conversation an African American standing in the building in new york city. Shot over 20 times. All he had in his hands was his car keys. As we talk about what happened with Michael Brown, its a new set of expectations and new rules of engagement. We must change the law from the bottom up. As a local community, we have to talk about how we screen or do not screen those who we have to many cowboys with police guns and police cruisers. We have to make sure we have the protections in place. Video cameras at every step. Yes, there is a video camera for a gun called a gun cam. From the time you take the gun out of your holster, it begins recording everything in front of your gun. We need police gun cams and body cams. Make sure we see what you are doing. You have rights of the people dont have, including the right to kill. We have to make sure those rights are being observed and we have to monitor what you are doing. We need body cams. Cams in police cruisers. When the car pulls up, it monitors the police from that site as well. We need dash cams. We need an independent review board. We have to make sure when the Police Brutality board finds there is a problem, they dont have to ask permission to move forward. Promote all charges can be brought. We need a Police Accountability review board. We have to pass the end racial profiling act to make clear what racial profiling is. That its illegal and you will be punished and kicked off your Police Department. We have to pass the end racial profiling act. We have to be clear on what the accessible use of force acceptable use of force is. What is legal and what is illegal for police to do. We should hold everybody accountable. The issue was raised about the number of people that have been killed at the hands of Law Enforcement officials and how there is no central manner in which to collect that data. That has to end. We know what the strategy is and what the reality is in order to manage a problem. You must first measure it. Every time a Police Officer kills someone or anyone working in an official Law Enforcement capacity, that data must be collected. The death and custody act passed the u. S. House of representatives. We must pass that bill before the u. S. Senate. We must not allow them to go home until we have the most basic of tools to collect the data. There are two websites i want you to look at. One of them is the naacps website. The website address is naa cp. Org. Make sure all that data finally, here locally, there is a great process going on now. A process in which we are kind to collect the data close to home. Dcpoliceproject. Com. You can begin collecting that data and making sure that as this moves toward, not only do you show up at programs like this one, but you are engaged at every step of the process. It is not a spectator sport. It is always driven by us. Thank you very much. [applause] sisters and brothers, lets give a warm applause to thank our panelists for a wonderful presentation this evening. [applause] when we have instituted the black world and decided to put this form together, we wanted to make it a town hall meeting and give an opportunity for not only these panelists, but for others to be heard. We are asking several of our special guests to come forward and make very soon sink 16 to remarks succinct remarks. I will call on leighton watson. If you can come up to this mike c right here. See right here. Good evening. Im the student body representative at Howard University. [applause] if you cant tell by the headsup picture or the vigil be hosted or by this friday when howard goes down to ferguson with 50 descendents, Howard University stance by Michael Brown in the city of ferguson. That is very clear. I am very impressed at the number of great ideas. [applause] but, my thing is, the discussion is one portion. We have to have a second part to this discussion. Where we talk about how to merge our individual efforts into one collective effort. That is the second half of this conversation. I know my students, what we are doing on september 17, we have invited all to our universitys campus. We are going to have students do sessions and then go to capitol hill to lobby on voter registration, Voting Rights and gun violence. [applause] the one thing i think about every time that we go through this is that the enemy they are counting on the fact that we cant take the next step. They are counting on the fact that we cant sustain this effort. They are counting on the fact that we cant get over our individual egos and come together and make something happen. We have to be very real with ourselves. We are 13 of the population. We dont have room for division. We dont have the luxury that individual separate efforts. I thank you guys for this conversation, but there is definitely a part to and know that Howard University will be part of that part two. Thank you very much. I will call now on dr. Pat newton. Can you make it up here . I want to thank dr. Daniels. The black psychiatrists sit on the vanguard of the immediate and longterm healing. There are damages that are going to be well into centuries after this verdict. Let us not forget, we have to be in this for the long haul. Unless the congress believes that police should be screened before they are ever hired and they have to have training that includes cultural sensitivity and cultural diverse the, not just a psychological test cultural diversity, not just a psychological test. We have to put men and women behind that badge tool service well in terms of etiquette and compassion and caring for our people. We want to recommend that our relationship is not over because we have posttraumatic and acute dramatic stress as a result of what has happened. These children are going to be damaged for centuries. We just got the data about how trauma affects people into future generations. We are looking at talking about civil issues related to not just the criminal side, but what you are going to do to defend and Bring Community effort and money and Economic Resources from both the federal and state level to make sure that they get treated. We want to partner with the black Police Association to make sure that we develop the kind of tools that are needed to save our people. [applause] thank you, dr. Pat newton. Let me say quickly that the black psychiatrists of america are one of 23 National Organizations that comprise the black family summit. A grouping that ibw has put together. For more information, please visit our website, ibw21. Org. Black power. This is an issue of reparation. Its another reason that people of black dissent are owed reparations. Justice will take place in the street and the voter booth. We are going to 8th street to shut down 8th street. If there is justice, they wont have no damn economic piece. Last week, we shut down chinatown. This week, saturday, were going to meet at 8th street. If we cant get no justice, there will be no economic piece. Salima adolfo of the united black front. I want to bring forth the drug policy alliance. [applause] thank you so much for having me. Im a medical doctor and a policy manager here. The nations leading drug policy organization. I wanted to offer something, and idea to think outside the box. We will leave this town hall on the ferguson, missouri protest heard it will air you have got to register to vote. It is critical. Secondly, you have to vote on initiative 71. Vote yes on initiative 71 on november 4. Thank you. Thank you. To call on the reverend. Next i want to call on the reverend. Thank you. The panel has done a tremendous issues. King down the we need to talk about also the training that goes into the Police Forces. You have foreign governments training Police Departments on how to occupy communities. Lets be clear about that, that is what is going on. Me inher was with palestine in january. He knows there is this training that goes on with every single Lease Department in america on how to occupy, how to make your presence known, which is to keep a community contained. When we talk about military station, with to talk about home growing those on the lease force. In d. C. You need to years of education to be able to, fight and go on a Lease Department. You cant come out of high school and apply for the Police Department. You can go to the military which is a High School Diploma and come out of the military you can go on at the Police Department. Does that make sense when we have 40 unemployed in housing projects . For me to open up opportunity so that women and men can go on and serve their cities in their community in which they grew up in. They come into a community and occupy and scare the residence. Thank you. We will move on to the final two respondents. Thank you. Give it up for them. [applause] , on the significant edge, organization that has brought us together, ibw. If youre outside, please join in. Ibw 21. Org. There is a combination between race, economic, politics. Boy. He something. To know they are still lynching black men today. One of the most significant places you can go is the Nations Capital because the current mayor has not been indicted for anything here that no charges have been put against him. Gentrification israel in washington. Me tell you, all the dominoes will fall. Talk aboutt politics. Im talking about a black man who was lynched simply because he is a black men in charge. They will get rid of them so that the city will no longer be a majority black people. Wake up, d. C. It is going on right in front of you. Im out. Thank you. To recognize kare em. Im here. Thank you, brother. I want to give it up to you. Youre one of our mentors. One of the things we realize is that in till we deal with the issue of reparation, we are going to continue to have these types of things happen time and time again. It is seen in a black community. An average of 20,000 murders. Most of the murders are committed by people who look like himself. What we did is we challenged comcast and the yahoo and google because they are now owning and distributing content. We challenge them to put together a fund. We believe there needs to be at least a 3 trillion fund together to not only provide once and for all corporation,. Ut also to give us content no more should be only see black people as villains. We should see beautiful brown and black and red and yellow people being scientists and technologists and physicians and mathematicians. That is what we are challenging all of the colleagues who are on capitol hill. Were having them showcase the form of the pepco gallery. Thank you. Please come up to the microphone. First of all, thank you for allowing us to come here and gather today. What do you think . Basically the young people of today have spoken. We need to stop the black on black crime among Young Brothers in the street. We need them to stop shooting each other every single night. Let stand together. Doing thepeople are right thing in a great nation. Thank you and god bless. Thank you, brother. Sister