Transcripts For CSPAN Use Of Force By Civilian Police 20141207

Ladies and gentlemen, my name is craig floyd, and i would like to welcome you to to the new series called conversations on Law Enforcement. The series focuses on topical Law Enforcement issues on the minds of many. Tonights conversation is entitled when police shoot a dialogue on the use of force. We are proud to be jointly hosting tonights event with a new and longterm partner, the Memorial Foundation, builders of the magnificent Martin Luther king, jr. Memorial. I want to begin by thanking our event sponsor, the target corporation, which has been one of our top supporters over many, many years. Several of targets officials have traveled from their headquarters in minneapolis to be with us tonight and we are very grateful. They are deeply committed to supporting safe communities across the United States and tonights discussion is intended to help foster their very important goal. For those of you not familiar with our association, the national Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund heads of up the national Law Enforcement museum. It formed in 1984. Our mission is to tell the story of american Law Enforcement and make it safer for those who serve. Our vision is to inspire all citizens to value Law Enforcement. In 1991, we established a National Monument here in washington, d. C. , to honor the service and sacrifice of our peace officers. It is located a few blocks from here in history judiciary square. The names of more than 20,000 officers who have sacrificed their lives in Law Enforcement service are inscribed on the walls of that monument. We are now in the midst of building a national Law Enforcement museum right across the street from the monument. The museum is intended to help our citizens better understand and appreciate the vital role of policing in america. With interactive exhibits, the museum will allow visitors to walk in the shoes of a Police Officer and better understand what they do and how and why they do it. One of the major exhibits planned for the museum is a use of force judgment Training Simulator that allows the experience of virtual situations that involve lifethreatening, splitsecond situations just like our officers sometimes our officers have to make. In recent months, there have been several highprofile events involving they youths the use of lethal force by Law Enforcement professionals. Each time, the same questions were asked. Was there not another option . Why not shoot to wound rather than kill . Why were there some and shots many shots there so fired . Tonight, we will pose these questions and others to veteran Law Enforcement professionals and we will examine the impact of police shooting, especially one that ends in death. The u. S. Department of justice tells us, among the millions of percent to come in contact with officers, use of force was used in less than 2 of the time. In fact, the vast majority of Law Enforcement professionals will go through most of their career without ever firing their weapon. But for most americans watching the news and television, some look at the numbers and look at the number of violent offenders confronted by police each year and argue that the figure shows great restraint. Others are mortified that so many lives are taken each year by trained professionals. But no matter what the number, every time an officer is compelled to shoot and kill someone, it is a terrible tragedy for all involved. Tonight we will explore the many issues surrounding the use of cameras,cluding body as well as lethal weaponry, and less lethal weaponry by officers will be discussed as well as communityoriented policing. Most of all, we want to have an openminded conversation that will lead to a Stronger Public Safety Partnership between Law Enforcement officers and the citizens they serve. Now at this time, i am very pleased and proud to introduce my new good friend harry johnson, president of the Memorial Foundation. [applause] thank you so much. Good evening. What a joy it is for me to stand here this evening as we talk about why police shoot. On behalf of the builders of the Martin Luther king memorial, yes, that is the memorial that graces our mall here in washington, d. C. This is where dr. Kings stance together with the Jefferson Memorial and the washington monument, we built the Martin Luther king memorial so the world would have a place to honor and that is it and visit one of our heroes of this great majestic country. This is the first memorial to a man of peace, a man of color, and in nonpresident to be set in a prominent place of the National Mall and among the pantheon of great leaders in our country. We built the memorial not just to recognize the life and legacy of dr. King, but also to accentuate the four major themes of the memorial. Those themes being justice, hope, democracy, and love. So tonight, how proud we are to be and partner with craig floyd of the Law Enforcement museum and target to have a dialogue about when police shoot and a dialogue on the use of force, and hopefully bring to the forefront those four tenets of the king memorial. Justice, the belief that we are all do justice under the laundry w regardless of color, the belief that we as americans have the competent expectation that we can be better, that we can expect better, and that we can do better for ourselves and for a future. Love, the universal doctrine that we are all gods people and that we share love, belief, as much as we love those that we have within us. And finally, we understand that ferguson is not an island unto itself, but a reality in every city. But if we apply the four tenets of the memorial, we will make better families, better communities, better cities, better states, and indeed have a better nation in the world. God bless you and lets speak together tonight. I bring to the podium jeff johnson, a worldrenowned author, commentator, and a good friend of the memorial. Jeff johnson, its your show. Thank you. [applause] the check is in the mail. [laughter] i didnt know who he was talking about at first. It is an honor and privilege to be here and moderate the discussion. Im not going to stay at the podium. I will join our panel sitting down. But i do want to frame i dont think there has ever been a panel that i have moderated that needs less framing in lieu of what our country is looking at and many of us have listened on the way over all of the commentary and the reviewing of what is happening in new york even right now. The grand jury has failed to the ericficers in garner killing. It seems that very sharp lines have been drawn in communities all over the country. Whether it is in new york, ferguson or even now in cleveland, as city officials and Public Safety officials are determining what the next steps are, investigations around the shooting of 12yearold tamir rice, there often isnt a lot of reasonable conversation. Im hoping that the conversation we have tonight will not only be reasonable, but a conversation that begins to point at the practices that we are seeing in certain parts of the country, potential solutions, and even the framework of how those of us who are in this room serve as ambassadors for how we move forward in creating more effective policing, practices, the mobilization for more effective policy, and greater relationships. But not even talking of about allowing there a level of engagement, it helps to bring those things about him as a former activist and youth activist, we understand that even though some policy works well sometime, there is an opportunity to see better policy. Sometimes that better policy only comes when there is unrest. What does that unrest look like . How does it become effective . And when does it become counterproductive . I hope he can have an honest discussion. I hope you all are involved in that honest discussion. As a moderator, i hate panels where you wait until the last five minutes to open up the floor to discussion with the audience and then you hurry up and try to get 35 questions in two minutes and 16 seconds. It never works. My goal is to involve you in the discussion as quickly as we can because i think we have a more robust and True Community conversation when that happens. We have a great panel that is with us and i would like to introduce them before i take my seat. To my immediate left is tom stryker. Mr. Stryker is a principal with greenwood stryker, formally the colonel and chief of the Cincinnati Police department. I was the National Youth director when there was a great deal of strife in cincinnati over the killing of a young man and protests ensued. There was a great deal of unrest in the city under colonel strykers leadership. He now travels the country as a consultant engaging communities in best practices and how to do effective collaborative policy as well as government accountability. Please, a round of applause for tom stryker. [applause] to his left is cedric alexander, who is the deputy coo of his local county police. He has a rich history. He was working as the federal Security Director with tsa and has worked with the state of new york. Please give him a round of applause. [applause] and last but certainly not least is reverend tom watson. He is the chief minister, that means pastor [laughter] of washington memorial Training Ministry in new orleans, louisiana. He is an activist and manifests the prophetic word. For those of you who dont know what that means, he operates in speaking the words so that we can move and engage in communities. He comes from i think a legacy of men and women of god who understand that we cant afford to be apolitical but it is necessary for churches to engage in the communities that they help bring about the change is necessary. Please give him a round of applause. [applause] so if i can join you all mr. Stryker, i would like to start with you. I think there are so many directions we can go into this conversation and the first one, when we Start Talking about why do police shoot, why do officers shoot, talk a little bit about, for those in the audience who dont understand, what training do your officers receive and by and large can we assume that officers receive as it relates to the use of force and the discharge of their weapons in particular . There are a lot of training that goes into this and it is not something that is specific to use of force only. Agencies that do it properly actually teach decisionmaking and that is something that has to be woven through the very fabric of all the training that all of their officers receive. So i have to be able to make a decision over whether or not i will approach you based on constitutional grounds, and my here to introduce myself . Am i here for unofficial reason, official reason and the context of this stop . Is it a stop . Are you free to walk away . These are the things we have to go all the way back before the use of force occurs. If it is a shot fired incident, if it is a use of chemical problems incident, we have to teach officers had to make those decisions in context of their position as a Police Officer, a public official, a person with an enormous authority and power. In fact, i would say to you, it it is an amount of authority and power that no one else in the United States has. No one has more than a Police Officer has, not even the president of the United States. That is a frightening thought on one hand. On the other hand, it is something that we all know we need in this nation to protect the rights and liberties of everyone. So we have this group of people with this enormous amount of authority and power that have to be able to make decisions from the very beginning of a stop, the context of that stop, all the way through to the point where there is interaction between an officer and a person and if that interaction goes awry, how does that officer make that decision. Its not just, oh, boy, i get to use police force now. There has to be a decisionmaking process that unfolds very quickly. One of our hosts, craig floyd said it in the beginning. This is something that can happen in a split second. And then the decision about what type of force and the actual force that is used. Then what is the review process . How do we learn from these incidences . Do we say, ok, is this justified or not justified . We actually go back and look at these situations, take a look at these take a look at what happened. These do not happen in a vacuum. We have to be able to extract exactly what occurred, what lessons are there, how can we apply those lessons to training to help the decisionmaking process in the future so we can hopefully alleviate the new for an officer to use force. That should be the ultimate goal of any Police Agency. Let me build on that a little bit. I want to stay with this training thread before we gone on to other parts of the conversation. As someone who has trained people, i understand through a training process i realize that there are certain people i am training that dont necessarily have the skills necessary to do what it is i am training them to do. How often do we find in these types of trainings through assessment processes that these people probably have more responsibility than almost anybody in the job that they do but they just dont have the decisionmaking skills necessary . Do we find within Police Training that there are those who are assessed to say, wait a minute, you dont really possess the decisionmaking skills possible, necessary to be in those lifeanddeath situations, this series situations and as a result you do not make it through the training course, through the academy . Is that a litmus test for success in the academy . Is that a litmus to remain on the street . If not, should it be . Let me say this. When we think about Police Training and we send a young man or young woman through six months of a police academy, on average, there is a piece of that training that requires self tactics, firearm tactics if you will. If i started class today of 30 men and women who have applied to become Police Officers, there are background checks and all of that that goes along with it. So as an extensive background, investigation, prior history, driving, arrests, whatever the case may have to be, it is a pretty extensive background investigation. So we get a person who is not a class of 30 or 40 Police Officers. And that is probably after we have gone through, believe this or not, probably up to about a thousand applications. Im sure chief stryker saw this as well. You have 40 positions that are open. You have a thousand people to apply. And when the process is over with, you may end up with 30 or 40 candidates for a police academy. So it is a pretty rigorous search of investigative or background process. So you bring these men and women into an Academy Program and you teach them state law, constitutional law, selfdefense, firearms, all of that. Somewhere in there, you will probably lose 10 to 20 of that 30 or 40. Through attrition, failure at firearms, failure at selfdefensive tactics, exams or those that decide this is not for me. At the and of the day, you may have 24 or 25 of those candidates, maybe 30 of them to graduate from your academy. Then you send them off to a Training Program with senior officers. Once they complete that process, Field Training process, then he or she generally in many cities across the country are assigned to go out on patrol. And you have trained them by state standards. Not by my standards, but by state standards. Are generally pretty high. Throughout the course of their career, i have seen a young man or woman Police Officer who, within the first week of the job, made the comment engaged in a firefight. I have seen people do 35 years and never have to draw their weapon. You have training two or three times a year of firearms qualifications in many departments which is not required by me but is required by the state. And they complete firearm training. But the complicated part of all this is that what is very unique, and chief stryker is alluded to this, what is very unique about policing you can start out the morning to a call for a cat in a tree or you can and the day using deadly force. Most men and women who leave home every day hope more than anything else, and i have in in this more than 30 years, most folks that i have come in contact with and i have come in contact with thousands in my career, they dont leave home every day to do harm to anyone. But oftentimes, because of the nature of the job itself, the unpredictability of it, you could find yourself engaged in a shooting and it is that moment in time and in each incident that occurs, they are also different. That is what makes it really complicated because there are so many variables just that go into the time that the moment you pull that trigger. But do we train . Yes. But here is the question. Actually going forward. My question is this in light of everything that has happened. Are we training enough . And are we training young men and women as well, too, to be critical thinkers . Because i think thats the real key here. Because you are going to have to make splitsecond decisions. Oftentimes, before you have to make thats what decision, there are other decisions that can be made. When those opportunities present themselves, and my trained well enough, have i seen enough scenarios, as best as we can provide, opportunities for men and women out there, Police Officers, if they have to make a decision and those are inthemoment kind of decisions, can we train them better . I truly believe that we can. I think that is a great point. Reverend, i want to get to you. But i want to build on something that you said. Even if you had all the training in the world, theres still perceptions that officers bring into situations similar to what we all bring into situations. And those perceptions help drive that decisionmaking. Hence so how are leased how are Police Departments dealing with the undeniable biases that Police Officers as people bring into policing . Part of what is meant to have to happen, in the recruitment process, i think we are going to have to find in recruiting Police Officers is a tough job, by the way. With a thousand applicants, you only get 30 or 40, there is something to be said about that. You train them to a standard. But here is what i know and i have been saying this for some years now we are going to have to train our men and women in our academies to think differently about the job as well, too. Because when you really think about it, this job is really 80 public and 20 everything else. It is not 80 running after bad guys. I want to get to that. I want you to stay right there for a second and deal with do Police Departments currently deal with the biases that we as individuals have in the office. They dont. Heres the thing. I just had this conversation today. We all come with biases. You and i do, too, and they may not be around race to the could be around gender. It could be around sexual orientation. It could be around religion. It could be a number of variables. The important thing that we have to do in our training academies that we have not been doing is that we got to bring into those classrooms, into the scenarios, and even part of the selection process, opportunities for us to begin to confront our biases. Unless that is part of the curriculum or the training, im not going to move past that because the scary part is its not the guy who is consciously racist or sexist. The guy that frightens me is the one who is most unconscious of it and comes out and ask out in and acts out in different places. Well, both scare me. [laughter] i agree with you but i figure it is important to make sure that we deal with the fact that those who are overtly racist are equally as scary when in many cases those who are overtly racist are policing communities of people who those isms look like. Chief stryker, can we accept the fact that we do have problems when the decisionmaking and whether it is Excessive Force, whether it is processing threats, is affected by those isms and we dont have departments dealing with it. From a policy standpoint, training standpoint, what are the correct ways for us to begin dealing with these biases and not allowing them to be the 800pound gorilla in the room that we fail to talk about . It has to be foremost in the mind of everybody in the United States that this is something that is intolerable. You cant have these isms that create bias in policing, especially in a position where people hold so much power and authority. I used to think training and i still believe that training is a big aspect of it, but who does the training and what is the training is the most critical. What about this room here . How many people in this room have something to offer training . Do these training officers perform in a vacuum . Or do they Bring Community people to address Police Officers, be it new recruits or somebody that has 40 Years Experience in policing, 30 or 40 Years Experience in policing who can really learn from having a true dialogue with people about that 800pound gorilla . I can tell you that in 2001, the situation in cincinnati was good , we were fat and happy, everything seemingly fine, suddenly we have an incident where an officer shoots and kills a young man, lied about shooting and killing that young man and exactly what occurred. Next thing you know, we are headlines on cnn and around the world, heres the city of racism and riots in this city. Why . Two days ago, we were fat and happy lazy. Nobody wants to talk about that because its uncomfortable. One of the solutions we found in the aftermath of that in our dealings with the community is that the relationships that we had in our community which we thought were very good and very powerful, we came to realize that they were superficial relationships. We didnt have true relationships with the people in our community. This is something we found takes real work, a tremendous amount of effort. You have to have a lot of thick skin, especially if you are in the position that perhaps is in the crosshairs, if you will, the police. You have to be able to hear what people have to say and know and understand that these are not just excuses the people are throwing out there i feel like the police have a bias against me because of my race, because of my gender, because of my sexual orientation. Thats just what you are thinking, just an excuse. The reality is that these are excuses and people really truly believe whether or not it is true, it doesnt matter. There is a perception out there that exists and something that requires constant vigilance, not just by the Police Agency but more so by the entire community. Look at the reaction we have around this country by this singular incident, and how powerful that incident is. The actions of one Police Officer brought the attention of the entire world the entire world to our city. The entire world. Look at what it has done here and incidents since then. And look at how social media has changed how we address these situations and we have to Pay Attention to them. No longer can we say right or wrong and walk away from them. We have to address this situations. The world has to change and with it policing has to move in that same direction. I appreciate the comments. I remember. I grew up in cleveland. My father lived we beat the browns, by the way. Yeah, you did. [laughter] my dad lived in cincinnati at that time and there was a huge dichotomy. The Cincinnati Police department at that time was an awardwinning Police Department. But certain communities would have said quite the opposite. So i think there is always truth and misperception on both sides. In new orleans, which has had a ton of controversy as it relates to the Police Department, before and after katrina, as it relates to levels of brutality, of misconduct, so on and so forth, how have you found effective ways to bridge that gap that mr. Stryker is talking about . And then Health Community members understand what real policing looks like . How do you help find that balance and have you seen success with that . Whether it is in new orleans or other places where you have been working . I cant measure any actual success, but i can say that, through our notforprofit, annually we put on a summit called the summit on the plight of the africanamerican male. We have taken different approaches to engaging the community at large, government, political officials, and particularly Law Enforcement, from the u. S. Attorney to every day cops and the like. One of the things we realized is that new orleans, like many communities, is the tale of two cities where we have those who function well and dont have any issues with Police Harassment and the like, biases and the like, but then there are those even like myself who im a native, but as you say, every day cops go out and wonder if they will survive getting home. As an African American male, i feel that way sometimes. Im hunted. That is a personal kind of thing. I hope i will not be stopped by police for something silly and end up in another direction. Collectively, collaboratively, we have engaged levels of government, mayors office, city council, state reps, state senators and the like, even our congressman and the like, even our punishment, cedric richmond, and faith leaders, every day grassroots leaders, and our mantra is to say that the connect is going to happen, the trust is going to happen between police and community. It must be bottomup. It cannot be topdown. It cannot be the mayor and it cannot be the governor. A cannot be elected officials giving a mandate on how to fix this. So we have done over the years, and i have a report that i dont mind sharing with the audience, on how we have brought everyday leaders to hash out and to dialogue together in think tanks that go on for 48 hours so to speak. A couple of days we do it, not consistently, but about 48 hours. The point i am making is that its a matter of connecting those voices that are never heard, the ones that are now protesting and screaming and hollering cynically and somewhat cynically and somewhat politically engaged, bring them together to have this kind of dialogue. But beyond the dialogue, putting some reasonable, productive though its together, takeaways that we can work on with police. Let me give you one example. In 1994, new orleans had about 400,000 citizens. That is of course before katrina. But we were called and still get called the murder capital of the world if you will. That is based on the per capita population. In 1994, we had 420 murders on the streets. Where my then Storefront Church where i started out, fortunately i was able to move a little bit beyond that to a church front, but at the storefront level, we were in a neighborhood near a major housing development. What our church did and our notforprofit, we did a protest on city hall. It was peaceful. For jobs. But what we did as a result of that is that we sat down with community leaders, with the chief of police, with other elected officials and faith leaders and community leaders, and we were able to throw the Police Department and the whole city government, bring a Police Substation right in the neighborhood to begin to build trust between police, between community leaders, between everyday citizens. So my point is that we have engaged the community at the Grassroots Level to connect to the Police Department. It is not an easy task but it is one worth doing. Beyond theaunt protests, you have to have some measurable ways that you are going to work through these processes so that you are in it for the long haul. It is easy to protest but you have to have some long and shortterm goals to bring connections together between police and community and neighborhoods. Let me ask you this. Any of the three we can answer this. But chief stryker said something interesting. Look at what this isolated incident has done around the country. And i understood the point that was being made. But i think the folks in who are nowe folks protesting in new york, those that were on the highway in los angeles and oakland, those in other cities dont view this as an isolated incident at all. I know i dont. Incident connected to incident connected to incident connected to incident. And what often happens when these discussions takes place is there seems to be a very defensive nature taken by Law Enforcement. And that defensive nature in some cases because there are legal issues at hand. You are dealing with a specific incident that will result in an indictment or a nonindictment. It sometimes supersedes the larger disconnect between of the community and the Police Department. When people talk about only 2 of policeman interactions and up in shooting, well, that is still too many. If we know that to be too many and we see time after time after time after time im sorry this is such a long set up for the question we see Police Officers not being indicted. We see processes that we find that we dont feel like prosecutors are doing their job. We feel like there are grand jurys that havent been given the right information. We feel like the system doesnt work for us in certain communities. How have you seen them deal with those realities and conversations . Because i just dont think communities are prepared to hear lipservice in the name of Community Relationships when it feels like Police Officer seldom get held on about get held accountable for shooting black kids. Is not just in new orleans. If you google it, we have been under a Police Consent decree. We have been notorious. Its never been isolated in my lifetime from choking civilian to shooting. After katrina, for instance, henry glover, he was not only shot as an unarmed citizen trying to survive after the storm, but his body was burned. Shot and burned. Of the five or so officers or maybe it is four. I believe they are all free now on appeals. They won officer who shot him is off on appeals. The officer that burned him is doing 17 years but still going through the appeal. How do you think we feel in the community . Here is an unarmed man burned and shot. For new orleans, it is never isolated. And again, i believe it can get better. You mentioned training, the cultural sensitivity that is necessary, and here we have a population that is over 60 africanamerican. We have a new police chief who is africanamerican, i believe he is trying hard to mend some of the fences. But it is never isolated in my community. I believe the biggest crisis coupled with training is one of credible leadership. When that leader of the Police Department and that mayor who hires him can be trusted and are transparent, and we are people feeling, you can feel that you can trust what they are saying, then things begin to get a little bit better. But at points in new orleans, post and prekatrina, it has never been an isolated incident. So there is no easy answer to this. And i live by a principal where there is no confrontation and there is no resolution. So we have to continue to confront the issues collectively and be on the protesting have that kind of purposeful intervention and prevention of initiatives that can begin to turn some of this around. I dont disagree with that at all. I want to clarify something. My point was not to say an isolated incident that this only happens once in a while. My point is that the issue of distrust, the issue of discord between Police Agencies in some segments of our communities is so enormous and has been in place for so long that a singular incident can set something off like this and have worldwide effects. This tells me this is at a critical point in the history of america. There are no two ways about it. Even calling it a singular incident, in many ways, it creates i understand that. I am not isolating anything at all. But certainly, who expects it in ferguson, missouri . They would. Exactly, but would the world expected in ferguson, missouri . That is the enormity of this issue. Most people didnt even know there was a ferguson, missouri. If they did know it, where was ferguson, missouri . Who knew where sanford, florida was . I would like to think the people knew were cincinnati was. But one of the questions need to be asked here is are you that comfortable in your community that you believe this is something that will happen somewhere else and not happen here . If that is the case, you probably dont believe to be in the position of power and authority. You probably need to get out of the way and let some the else in here and realize that this is something that dramatically affects each and every one of us as americans. There are no two ways about it. No two ways about it. This will continue to be a complicated situation until as a nation we Start Talking about race. Because at the backdrop of all of this, all we are talking about race. All of this stems from there. If we look at policing in this country and you put it in a historical context, what we are talking about tonight has been going on since the beginning of policing. And those names of people who have illegally lost their lives to Police Officers, we have forgotten them. But we remember those who we are talking about today. But there are those before i was born whoore you was died at the hands of police, sometimes even more violently, right . So this is a longstanding issue in this country and particularly with communities of color. So when you start something you said early on, jeff, the whole piece, someeace of this is perception. Some of it is reality. It all depends on where you stand for fair use it in america. But this is for a lot of people reality. So there is this history. There are these legacies. There are these stories that have been told from generation to generation about policing. So in policing really became more integrated than what it is now, 40 or 50 years ago, we still have these same problems a large cities in this country. But part of the issue is training, yes, but its also a Leadership Void in a lot of these departments because you really have to set an expectation to the men and women that work for you. You train them well, but you also have expectations. But you cannot predict if you got 1200 or 1300 people that work for you, like i did, i cant promise anybody that someone is not going to got tonight and do something foolish. Hopefully they dont or wont. But we cant guarantee that. We have to have policies and those employees must know what the philosophy of that chief is and what the expectation is when it comes to the treatment of people, all people. And how to deal with that. Because i dont think any citizen is looking for Police Leadership to say that they can promise their officers wont do anything. I think what they are looking for is to know that accountability will come to that officer in the event that something does and that they dont feel like officers will be able to hide behind the blue shield before they are forced into a level of accountability. The reason that that exist is there is a Community Called policing and then there is this community in which they serve. What you have over here is a fraternity, an Organization Called policing were people take care of each other. They go out and confront Dangerous Things every day. It builds a relationship, a camaraderie like no other. It is like the military. You depend on each other to get home at the end of each shift. But he also have a community over here. If they dont feel connected to you you know who i always thought my biggest backup would be when i got in trouble . Not when i got on the radio and called for help, but if i saw a citizen saw me getting my butt kicked, that they would come over and help. They are going to get to me first. If i have a relationship with them, that will happen. What happened in ferguson, missouri, and i know this happened because i sat there with the chief after it occurred, and from the time of that shooting on august 9 until i got there, they had never met with the community. Yes. A week later, and when i got to town i said, look, chief, lets speak with some Community Members and he wound up some folks up. But they had never met with the community. Post that shooting, that is evidence of a community and a Police Department that is totally disconnected. Let me tell you another significant piece. Then i will stop. The day of that shooting, you have to remember that that is a small town of 23,000 people, 55 Police Officers. Thats all. All of those Police Officers are not on the street. Maybe 30 of them are on uniformed patrol. How was it, i should know virtually everybody in the community of 24,000 . Place,at shooting took nobody was able to name the officer was. How many people that we see out on the scene, how long did Darren Wilson stand there . But the question that we all went weeks without knowing his name. And Community Oriented policing, they would have been like, that was alexander. That was the tall officer that comes through here all the time. Something. They could not relate to who it was. That is a total disconnect, even in a situation that is not new. How should, how do you see Police Departments dealing with the fact that it is a whole lot harder to shoot somebody you know . It is a lot harder to shoot somebody you are able, with that Decision Making peace, to have a better sense of who is a threat and you know the people in the community. I have talked to people with Community Policing programs. When Police Officers know that this kid is a baby. He might be six feet tall at thirteen. This kid is 43 but he is a killer. And i know that because i know the community. At one point do we stop saying that over and over again . Is it about the fabric of the police policy, or do we understand when we have percentages of officers that live in communities, the officers have a different perception . Policing my Community Versus occupying their community. There is not a singular answer for that. This is a multifaceted issue. I will say one thing, that you got part of the answer yourself. When a Police Agency has a Community Policing program, thats a problem. Is a program where there are six officers . Or is a philosophy . A philosophy woven through the agency. This is how we function. This is how we operate. You are part of that community that you serve. You are not an independent warrior sent in to keep the peace. You are part of the community you serve. You become part of it. That has to be mandated everywhere from the chief through the agency so that when the reverend walks out into an issue and the police shows up, he can look at him and say, let me explain what is going on. Let me explain to what is occurring. Also becomes part of police culture. Also part of your evaluation process. This is, as much as what your score is at the shooting range, what your relationship is with people in the community. But there is a dual responsibility. The other part of that responsibility is the community being able to engage with their police as well. They dont always have to agree come up what they have to be able to do is be in communication and have contact with each other. Because something is going to go awry, just by the nature of the job. Something is going to happen that they are not going to agree on. But if they are able to sit down and communicate because they can communicate, that makes it better. Why does it feel that Police Leadership are looking at two options . A zero tolerance or Community Policing option . I dont believe in zero tolerance. But as we look across the country it almost seems as if , the moment there is a spike in crime, the responses zero tolerance. In many cases, you cant have zero tolerance entity policing at the same time. Why does it seem, from the outside looking in, that we have political pressure to have zero tolerance . Have a mayormay thy workforce somewhere in the United States of america, and we have an emerging crime rate and he or she needs to get reelected. That is a reality as well. Heres another piece we need to be aware of as well, and when you talk about Police Living in communities or cities, we have Police Unions that are very strong and powerful. And they push back very strongly on that. So it is not just police, often times. It is also other entities that may have influence, whether it is elected officials, unions, etc. One of the most important things that can happen, chief striker spoke to this, is developing a philosophy and that becomes part of the culture. We are going to see change in change in policing, and it is going to happen fast. We are at a place right now, in light of everything that has happened and will happen, there is going to be change. I think the president and attorney general are positioning us for the change. Its going to be pushed back. In different places. We still have to fight at it to read we did not get here overnight. The most important thing is for us as a community, an entire Community One thing we know we have to have is Public Safety. Police are not going away. Neither our communities. I want to open the floor after these questions. None of these are easy. When you talk about getting to that place, there is a slogan thrown around which is, no justice, no peace. More and more, it is seeming to be the case. Let me ask this. If we look at the majority of cases over the last 10 years that have involved police shootings, and we understand in many cases there have been few indictments that have come from local judges or state judges. In many cases, when there was an indictment, it ended up being federal investigations that came in and overturned rulings made by local justices. Are we saying those shootings were justified . Or can we acknowledge that in many cases there is a flawed process by way of grand jury, in many cases there are incestuous relationships between prosecutors and police, and we have to provide amenities with other options including special prosecutors as the rule rather than the exception. Great question. No simple answer. We are talking about perception. The reason people do not by the decision in ferguson, the reason they do not buy it, is because people do not trust the criminal justice system. Not just police. They dont trust the court or judge. They dont even trust their governor. That has been their daily experience in that community. Those people have been horribly mistreated by the criminal Justice Community in ferguson. There is no question about it. I dont need to be biased by it. This is not about black or white. It is about what has been wrongly done in that community. Michael brown was just a tipping point. That is all he was. He was the tipping point. It was coming eventually. It happened on his time on this earth. The problem is, if you remember, a few weeks later in st. Louis, a robber fires three shots at a Police Officer. The Police Officer returns fire and kills him. You cant get any more justifiable than that. The problem with the outrage of the community was, the police must have thrown down a gun on the ground. These people are not irrational or illogical. They are smart as anybody else. They support police as much as anybody else. The fact that there was no trust in their whole criminal justice system, that speaks volumes. That is not just perception. If we are honest, in the same time span, the one with the knife. Different than even what the video showed. Within 16 seconds of the Police Pulling up, the young man was shot. He was not lunging towards them, despite that was said. There are reality issues, not just perception issues. How do citizens feel comfortable when in many cases the only option provided in certain cases are a grand jury or judge, neither of which they trust . There is not a rule that says that a special prosecutor come in during certain situations. How do we manage that . Where there is civilian review, do we see more effective accountability of officers . I would say this. Could a special prosecutor coming in making difference . Maybe, maybe not. Cincinnati, a special prosecutor was brought into prosecute the young man who shot and killed a young man and lied about it. He did a poor job. I was a witness to this man admitting he lied. I was never called as a witness. The officer was found not guilty. He moved onto a suburban agency, and he was hailed as an exceptional Police Officer. In his background there was questions of his honesty in killing someone. How do we explain this . I dont think we have an i dont think we have an explanation for that. There was one way to prove the officer had lied. We had started to put dashmounted cameras. We only had them in 15 cars. What is the chance that that car went through that intersection and recorded the entire incident . Can we win the lottery tonight . Guess what happened. That one car with one camera drove through that intersection at that exact point, the exact millisecond when the officer fired the trigger. That is how we were able to see the officer was lying. The officer gave a convoluted statements that made it just a file for him to have fired his weapon. As a police chief, knowing that i have an officer who is not truthful, without that technology, i could not have said we have a dishonest Police Officer. My point here is, technology can help this in the future. Body mounted cameras. I see people Walking Around with them on their chests. If i am training an officer, i am wheres my camera pointed . It is pointed there. I am talking to you here. Im getting a recording of that screen while my decisionmaking is based on what your actions are. We have to not only have this technology, we have to require officers to wear them head mounted. I dont want a picture of the lawn. I want a picture of what the officer is viewing. We need not only cameras on officers but to make the officer, require officers to wear them so that we are recording exactly what the officer is looking at. So the officer has a clear opportunity to explain what he or she did and why he or she did it. Those are the critical questions that have to be answered. As quickly as possible, that information needs to be disseminated to the communitys of the community can understand what the police do and why they do it. Like what you talked about at the beginning and what these two gentlemen have talked about. Exactly. That happened in new orleans. Lets be honest, even when the camera is on, there are people in new york who would say, we have video. There is still a perception between what is Excessive Force and what is not. And how prosecutors are connected. I think there could even be debate among the audience right now about, was the force used against eric garner excessive . There would be members of the Law Enforcement community who would say it is not. Others who say, it is. The video was their favorite human one may have the technology, there are still our perception issues even when we have the technology, there still our perception issues. That alone could be a discussion. The gentleman who are helping me with the mic, if you would stand at the bottom of the stairwell. If you have a question, if you would begin to get in line so they do not have to run around so we can get as many questions as possible, that would be brilliant. As you are getting in line, i would like to ask the reverend there are two sides of this. I think we have admitted there are issues of policy and training. Theres also a Community Side side of this. What are we saying to citizens, young people in particular, about how to engage Police Officers and how to know your rights, but also how to behave in a way, even if an officer is wrong, you can walk away from an incident . Without the Police Officer using force or pulling their gun . How do you communicate to citizens, even in the face of bad Law Enforcement, how to walk away from a situation . That is a powerful piece because it goes back to training. The training is definitely necessary beyond the basic training. Im a military guy. You go through basic and then you are on your way. I believe the training has to be community training. There are pockets in our community that i think would be open and accessible to understanding some of the dynamics you mentioned. How do you deal with dialoguing with police . How are uses of in your day to day operation with the Police Officer who pulled you over . My understanding is the officer in ferguson told the young man, brown and his partner, to get on the sidewalk. Maybe that kind of dialogue, if it would have taken place appropriately, maybe we would not be talking about ferguson. Sensitivity training, curriculums. For instance, with our young people. We have a curriculum that is well known called faking for change. How to think what you do and how you do it. Thinking for change. How to think what you do and how you do it. Not just with police but life. In terms of everyday living. Communities are wide open. You mentioned, i dont know if you are being prophetic. That something down the pike will bring about this best change. Maybe there is something we dont know about. What does that mean for the community . I understand what that means for Law Enforcement, from the president to the u. S. Attorney. We are going to have some Sweeping Changes. What does that mean for the community . How do we ensure, jeff, that at the local level, the neighborhood level, there is leadership built up and trained, ready to go, ready to understand here are ways to build better relationships with Law Enforcement. We have to be honest that a lot of this stuff is not new. We all know the deal. Jay has had money to talk about these coalitions to reduce violence. Or has been Community Policing dollars at the federal level for quite some time. There has to be a well at the local level to make that happened. I want to make sure we get to these questions. As we do that, there are rules. The first rule is, ask a question. Second rule, ask a question. The third rule, ask a question. We proved that everybody who came in the room it is brilliant. You dont have to prove it. If you can, direct it to one of our panelists. Please do not hold the might. It is proven if you hold the mic, you talk 30 longer. [laughter] i want to ask the panelists probably the chief can take this. The issue of the militarization of the police force visavis the infusion of resources into communities that are underserved. There is perception that there is money for militarization but not for education, jobs, and community development. A lot of those materials come from the federal governments wars everywhere else. How do we balance those resources coming but other resources not coming . I think that is a question beyond us as chiefs. That is surplus military acquit meant that we did not buy. Equipment that we did not buy. Every Police Department does not have that equipment. Agencies that have it, part of what you are going to see happen, part of the chain you are going to see happen with this, there is going to be accountability attached to it. The material is not just going to be shipped from the department of defense. It has to go through a process. You have to show calls and training. You cannot use it in civil disturbances such as ferguson be that will not be allowed anymore. We will see some Sweeping Change their. That is nothing that chiefs across the country are funded to do. That is just equipment that has been given to them if they choose to have it. The way that has been done the past has been wrong. You cant just take it and say, give it to a local Police Agency. Without some training or some policies being written as to when you utilize it. You talked about that not being able to happen. Theres not any policy in place right now that the departments will be held accountable for using the equipment properly. There is nothing in place right now. I think the chief would agree with me. If there is a department that misused it like we saw in ferguson, they would be insane. There may be people out there who may do that. You and i both know that is great, but we know insane is a perception. There are Police Departments that can justify the use of that equipment based on situations that are happening. What currently is the litmus . What situation has to exist for it to be used . Police agencies are ruled by local governments. Officers or agencies would have the equipment. I think cedric will agree with me. They will have the equipment for extraordinary situations. We have a sniper who is hurting people. We have to get close to that person. These are the types of situations that were visualized. I dont believe that they were intended for everyday use. I think that agencies that use it responsibly dont use it for everyday. It is a misstep on the part of the government to not have more stringent guidelines and say, specifically you are handing out heavy weapons. We can say that now, 2020. We are in the situation where you have to have common sense. Communities need to help make these decisions for agencies. If the agency is not allowing the community to help them make that decision, they are allowing them to to fail. My question is, will why do i look threatening just as i am standing here leaning on something . I had the occasion to have the dispatcher called the police. I noticed a break in at 3 00 a. M. The Police Showed up. Im standing just like i am right here, well lit in a well lit cab. The officer slid into the parking lot, got his shotgun out, and leveled it at me. Had i moved, im not so sure i could have told you the story. They taught me not to point a gun. My question is, why dont they receive that training . I cant speak for the officer, why he or she perform the duty the way they did. Listening to it from your perspective, it does not sound like a reasonable response. I would offer you this. If it ever happens again, and you have the courage to call the police again, here is where i am. Im going to keep the phone open. Im on the phone. Please tell whoever is responding, i am the good guy. It is difficult. People ask this all the time of police chiefs. I had this happen, why did it happen . I can only ask the officer what he or she was thinking. They may have a reasonable response. Then again, they may not. I doubt they could have a response that was reasonable enough to satisfy you. Difficult situation. Did you report the officer . I did not. I was happy to be alive. [laughter] im going to be honest. If i am white, i do a lot more reporting. [laughter] honest. Ng i know that there are a lot of black men, if they were white, and they would pick up the phone and give a badge number quicker. As a citizen, what are our rights and responsibilities . If we feel we are treated unfairly, what is our options . And how is that viewed . That is department by department. A responsible, Progressive Agency will have the opportunity for you to make a complaint about any Police Officer at any time, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You can make it however you want to do it. That agency, if it is responsible, will thoroughly investigate that incident and get back to you with at least an explanation for what the officer said he did and why they did it. It might not satisfy you. But they do that. If they are very good, they will also explain to you, here are the circumstances. Here is why we do what we do. Hope you understand. Some agencies will not do that. I was at a conference in texas with an agency. Their use of force policy for guns was never take me out in anger, never put me away in shame. Had you make a complaint and that agency . Howdy you make a complaint in that agency . I would say one is horribly wrong and not progressive. The other is what we should expect from our agencies and demand from Police Agencies. We have to demand accountability and oversight not to demean officers or agencies or demonize them. We should know whether we are doing a good job or bad job. If we cannot, something is not going well. We have about 15 minutes. I want to make sure we can get to as many questions as possible. If we can get three questions immediately, we will get the panel to answer them. And then well get to more. Yes sir . Talk about how Police Officers are recruited and whether it needs to be approached as more of a Community Service or National Service type arrangement . A shortterm commitment as opposed to a longterm career . And whether it makes sense to create a pipeline where you are recruiting veterans. Yes sir . I dont know if training will solve this. According to fbi statistics, there is a higher percentage of white shootings on minorities than minority shootings on whites for officers. What will we do about this . You talked about mistrust of the police in the africanamerican community. What do you think as a community you would need to see from Law Enforcement on a daytoday basis to rebuild that trust . Thank you. Three questions. Each of you, please take one. Reverend, you mentioned some of those things. Talk about what you would like to see from Law Enforcement. The other two questions dovetailed in some cases. We are talking about the percentage of africanamerican officers shooting nonafricanamericans. We have fewer African American officers. That goes to the first question to read if you can deal with pipelines, i would love to hear about programs targeting the development of officers from hades of color, communities of color. Are there programs or pipelines you are seeing working . Reverend, and then mr. Alexander. I think i heard him say rebuild trust. We have to first build. We cannot rebuild what has not been built. As jeff said, i have kind of responded to some of that. I think the consciousness across the community has to be elevated from leadership. Not just governmental, political, Law Enforcement leadership. Leadership across the board. In my community, some of my plan. Not my plan but my colleagues is to bring the white Business Community closer to the black Business Community. White churches closer to black churches. In the sense that the collaborative efforts to begin productive dialogue across the board. Young people have to begin to see leaders coming together, not just ceremoniously. Not just to say we had a great conversation and joined hands. But to have serious, short and longterm goals about transforming the village. The former president of Morehouse College wrote, crisis in the village. Ferguson represents a unique situation in terms of trust or mistrust of the criminal justice system. I would say that is not unique to ferguson. You look at mass incarceration across america and the like, mistrust of police is nationwide. Ferguson happens to be the metaphor right now. It is not an easy take. It will take some serious planning, dialoguing. Implementing initiatives that can turn this around at every level. There must be leadership at the top, leadership at the bottom coming together. Holding hands together. Ensuring that we not only dialogue but come up with creative long and short term plans to turn this around. If you could take on part of that question, should we start looking at how we recruit Police Officer differently . Where it is not necessarily a career decision but a Service Decision . Is that a thought process in certain communities . There are less and less career Police Officers joining the force. What we have learned is the millennial population in particular, i see it every day, a lot of the young people coming in at 21 or 22 years, they are moving on. They are not doing the 2530 years as their parents or others have done. They come and stay for a short time and then move on. I see that every day in and around the atlantic community. We are going to have to recruit better. About every thousand young people, they are not necessarily 21, for every thousand that apply, we may end up with 30 or 40 or 60. We train them. I think the training modules are going to have to change in terms of how we train Police Officers. There is much to be done in the area around communication, cultural competence, confronting and facing biases and knowing what they are because we all have them. For every thousand that apply, we may end up with 30 or 40 or 60. We train them. I think the training modules are going to have to change in terms of how we train Police Officers. There is much to be done in the area around communication, cultural competence, confronting and facing biases and knowing what they are because we all have them. Regardless of whether the officers are black or white, what we want at the end of the day, we want a Good Public Service that is going to protect the community at large. Im going to have you give some closing thoughts. The other question asked was about africanamerican officers. Part of the reasoning i hear is about fewer africanamericans applying to be Police Officers, fewer making it through the process. There are young people that make themselves ineligible to go through the academy as a result of things that have happened to them in their lives. Our departments beginning to do a better job of creating pipelines, talking to young people about being in Law Enforcement . Look at some of the schools focusing on Law Enforcement, whether to be a lawyer or Law Enforcement officer . Are there ways to build the pipelines so we can see increased numbers of latino and africanamerican officers, especially in some communities . One of the disconnects and policing is the decisionmaking comes with your tenure. If you have several years on, you are considered a veteran officer. You can to make decisions about how the agency runs. If you have not been there, shut up kid and sit over there. Unfortunately, there is a disconnect, a generational disconnect, and policing. There are people like myself, if you start to talk about technology, i think it is a wonderful thing but i am scared to death of it. I have five grandchildren, three of whom are three years old, who can do things with my ipad i didnt know it could do. We are just now seeing agency start to use things like facebook. Twitter. Things that appeal to the masses. How do we project Police Departments . Would you like to be a Police Officer . Do we tell people there are dozens of not hundreds of different jobs you can do inside a Police Department . You want to be a forensic detective . Do it to be somebody who becomes, what do you think of this term the person who can take different types of images and recordings and put those together and present to you a picture of what occurred based on recordings, both audio and visual . I forget the name of that position for writ there are different expect can be done including just being a Police Officer. Historically, in every single Police Agency across this country, your best recruiting tool at your employees themselves. Your employees will say, i know i kid who lives down the street. He is neighbors with my mother. I think he would be a good cop. Close to that comes from within of the agency. In 1971, most recruit classes were 50 white guys and a black person. Our agency is about 38 africanamerican. 25 female. It will change the way we recruit. We are going to be reaching out to a more diverse community. I think that is the best method for us, moving forward. If you could quickly ask her questions and then we will allow the panelists closing thoughts. This question is for mr. Alexander or the chief. Is there anything in place that routinely or annually tests them psychologically, to determine if they are having anything going on at home . Bringing their problems to work . Or repressed military problems, if they are ex military . Is there anything in place that is testing them for the stress . Thank you so much. Yes sir . Excuse me. Since an incident that happened like this, the entire nation gets involved. I am wondering if it would be feasible, since Police Officers across the country have such extreme authority and power, would it be feasible to have dialogue about federal regulations that govern all Police Departments . I spent the last 10 years working in education. Can you talk to examples of trinity engagement opportunities that Police Departments have taken . As they progress . Initiatives which not to black males or entire schools . Check out the ok program. We only have three questions and 90 seconds each. There is a program called the ok program. Officers come out of a traditional Law Enforcement role and serve as ombudsmen. The young people who have gone through the program for the last 15 years, all them have graduated from high school. 80 have gone on to college. None have been murdered. It is a program and 13 or 14 cities over if 15 your time that you can take a look at. Doing an incredible job of connecting Law Enforcement and young people. Where their role is different than it would normally be. Creating broader relationships. Yes, sir . Let me clear up Something Real quickly. Not a word has been mentioned about the Civil Rights Division of doj. I spent 39 years in the fbi. The criminal section of the Civil Rights Division will look at every single case that comes up that meets certain basic requirements such as in ferguson. Or the rodney king case. People are rioting based on the perception that justice has not been served. It is not over yet. Are there programs to change misperceptions of people that are causing riots . They have done a poor job of maintaining the truth and letting people know what is going on. All right. That last question that could start another twohour conversation. [laughter] i have never moderated a panel with three more prolific people. Which is why you can answer these in 90 seconds each. If you would keep your Closing Remarks to two minutes. Answer the questions or anything that you think needs to be said. Normally, i would make the reverend go last but you are not the most longwinded. I will start with the chief. Dont stop. We have started something here that is a dynamic conversation. Who would have ever thought that the foundation that built the Martin Luther king memorial and the national Law Enforcement officer memorial would come together on an issue as dicey and challenging as race in america . Especially where race affects policing in communities . This is something that has long needed to be done. I speak from a tremendous amount of experience, having been one of the last major cities to host race riots in america. That is not a good legacy to have. This last gentleman who spoke here from the fbi was right. Is there a coalition of people . How good are your relationships between your local agency, federal agencies, and the committees themselves . Are they where you can pick up the phone and make a call . I will meet with you. I need your help getting information into the community. Nobody can do that inside a pickle jar. By the way, now i need your help. It does not work that way. The relationships have to be existing to read they have to be powerful. They have to be trusting. They cannot be temporary. They have to be there and have to be worked on constantly, each and every day. When you become fat, happy, and lazy, it is time to put somebody in there who is truly invested in the community and wants to see the Community Get better. Thank you. Almost two minutes exactly. Mr. Alexander . When i think about this whole thing. I will be short. I am optimistic that we as a nation are going to find solutions to much of what we talked about tonight. I truly believe that. I believe, with the help of the president and attorney general, who have made a commitment i was in a room with attorney general holder last night in atlanta. He has a commitment and has been tasked by the president to do some things to help change this narrative. Here is the bigger threat, from a more global perspective. All of us in this room, not just police or criminal justice, all of us whether we are in industry or government or education we are all american citizens. From a global perspective, we are not going to be continuing to be a strong nation as long as we are divided. We have elements out there, i. E. Isil, who are infiltrating this country. As a nation, from a global perspective, we are going to have to fix our own social problems. We know they will not be fixed overnight. What we do know, if we are working and fixing them together, it will push back those who may threaten the integrity of this nation. That for me is the bigger issue out of all of this. We have been wrestling with race from the beginning of this country. We are still wrestling with it. We are talking about race tonight. We are not going to fix it in some short time period of time. But if we begin to work as a country together, regardless of what side of the ill use it on, regardless of what your race may happen to be, we have to fix this together. If we do not, we will weaken this nation. That is something we cannot do in order to be a strong United States of america. Thank you so much. Reverend . He said he was not going to be long. [laughter] you always have to worry when some restarts with, i am going to be short. Lets make this the last closing remark. I will say, without a vision, the people perish. That is proverbs 29 18. Unless we have visionary leadership, not only in the moment but in this movement, without visionary leadership, we will continue to see our villages in crisis. I represent one of the anchor institutions in every community. That is the local church. It is a nonnominal church and the heart of new orleans. At the end of the day, the faith community, the Business Community, the government community, there has to be the connectedness that cedric talked about. The coalition building. We cant just dialogue and walk away and say, we had a great evening. I would hope that notes are taken and we can begin to talk about how to build on the takeaways. Otherwise we are going through the motions, the processes of coming together. All of this can become more of an aggregate, if we would put it in writing and declare in new orleans, cincinnati, atlanta, across the country. We would have more discussions like this that are purposeful. We walk away with solutions. I go back to shortterm, longterm. This will not happen overnight. There are things that can be done immediately in every community with a great leadership, visionary leadership. Inquiring of the lord as to what we need to do. It doesnt take everybody doing it. If we can entrust not only be elected leaders, but as i said earlier, people on the ground. People every day who have voices that are never heard. If we can begin to process ways with which we hear more about young people, not just protesting, but an equal number of them sitting at home with ideas. How do we coalesce all of that . To say, in every community and neighborhood, we have come up with solutions. Action oriented solutions. Where we have conceptualized Actionable Solutions for every neighborhood to begin to turn itself around. Just on this one issue. Building trust. Building trust between police and everyday citizens. In new orleans come that trust is already there some parts of the city. And other parts of the city, it has never been there. That is why, often times, we are called the tale of two cities. We dont lack resources. We lack togetherness. My time is up. Thank you. [applause] a good preacher knows what two amens mean. There was nowhere to cover all the things that needed to be covered. I think the conversation was a good one. I know one of the things mentioned was young people. Next time there is a panel like this, i hope we have a young person on the panel. If there is an answer to the things that a loss, it is coming from the minds and hearts of young people. So often, they are the brunt of what is being dealt with but we seldom ask them to be in the solution process. One of my mentors is in the house. Dr. Ben. He was part of the wilmington 10. He personified young people at a time that understood no matter what, they had to move and act in a way they thought was necessary. I have seen him and others work with young people all over the country. Even when they are angry, they give us insight on the direction we need to take. When we are talking about Community Policing, many of the young people are the ones being policed. I hope as we talk about solutions, one of the solutions is ensuring we never have a conversation of any kind without young people being at the table and part of the solution. If we do, we continue to talk about them as opposed to with them. I hope we take that as one of the solutions. Thank you, gentlemen, for your insight. Your experience. I would like to say thank you to both of the organizations that have been involved to come together to make the panel a reality. The Memorial Foundation as well as the Law Enforcement museum it is a foundation . I just want to put foundation, because i was can say you need to give them money. I thought you would agree with that. These organizations do need to be supported. Ive pressure the fact that they have come together. There are many people who want to have the conversation but dont want to bring people together not normally involved. We should continue to support that. Hopefully we can make this digital goal on the road. Thank you for allowing me to be your moderator. Have a fantastic evening. [applause] let me close by saying how proud i am we were able to partner with the national Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. And with the Memorial Foundation, the group that built the Martin Luther king junior memorial. What i love the about this evening, we are in a unique position to bring together some of Law Enforcements top leaders. When we ask people like doctor goes under to come and have a discussion, they dropped what they were doing and they were here. You were kind enough to give us reverend watson. You have so many great leaders in your organization. These are men and women who want to help people, bring their community together. Got to have conversations like this. I love the ideas that were spoken. The ideas were all seemingly on the same page. We have got to continue this discussion. It has got to be more than just conversation. Goals and working toward those goals to make sure we have the light right leaders to do so. We could make that happen. Thank you for being here. Abulous job i have a good evening, ladies and gentlemen. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] polls have closed in louisiana. On the statewide ballot is republican challenger congressman bill cassidy has been projected as the winner in todays u. S. Senate race in louisiana. He defeats three term Senate Democrat Mary Landrieu. Republicans are the projected winners in the two house races in louisiana. We plan to show you both the victory and concession speeches in the senate race when they happen. Have it for you on cspan. On the next washington journal eal talks about her experiences to train police out interact with youth. It is being used in los angeles, milwaukee, and san francisco. The reporter discusses how we could protect ourselves from hacking. And the nsa hostage working the processabout the u. S. Uses to recover americans taken hostage overseas. As always, we take your calls. You could join the conversation at facebook and twitter. Washington journal live at 7 a. M. Eastern on cspan. 40 years covering the white house and the administrations of gerald ford through barack obama. Listen to a group of second graders. One interrupted the president. Stunned. Ned i was no one interrupts the president , of second front graders. The president said he had to go. And we heard he had discovered it was two planes down in new york. Here. Ight there are live cameras. The president has to speak there. He didnt want to scare those children. It is an apparent terrorist attack. I must return to washington. At 8 p. M. Onht cspans q a. Announced to louisiana headquarters. Senator Mary Landrieus campaign. We are awaiting senator Mary Landrieus remarks shortly. Republican challenger bill cassidy has been projected as the winner in todays u. S. Senate race in louisiana. We will show the speech when it is made. Coverage oning live cspan. Republicans are projected to be the winners in the two house races also in louisiana. Live coverage on cspan. Coverage oning live cspan. Waiting for senator Mary Landrieu to come to the podium. Republican bill cassidy defeated the three term democratic senator during giving the gop the victory in the fun election of the 2014 midterms. Associated press reporting it this way. Because the democrats the last senate seat in the deep south. Fought the election on her agenda, but unable to a fourth term. And the strong on popularity of the president. Thenpopularity of president. The room awaiting the room of senator Mary Landrieu who has been cassidy portray his candidacy thepeople to cast against presidency. Youre watching live coverage on cspan. [chanting] are you watching this