Designing customized individual and Group Retirement products. Thats why we are your retirement company. Additional support has been provided by and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. From the tisch wnet studios at Lincoln Center in new york, megan thompson. Thompson good evening, and thanks for joining us. Authorities in dallas, texas, say the man who shot a dozen of the citys Police Officers, killing five, acted alone in carrying out his attack, and that he used the same style of Assault Rifle used in recent Mass Shootings in an orlando, florida, night club; a newtown, connecticut, elementary school; and an aurora, colorado, movie theater. Joining us now from dallas with the latest on the investigation is our Hari Sreenivasan. Hari . Sreenivasan hello, megan. While Officials Say the sniper, who was killed in a standoff early yesterday, was a lone gunman, they have not ruled out the possibility of coconspirators or accomplices. About a mile from where the shootings occurred, mourners are leaving flowers at a makeshift memorial outside Dallas Police headquarters. Today, the f. B. I. And state and local Law Enforcement continued to probe the area where 25year old Micah Xavier Johnson killed five Police Officers and wounded seven others. Texas Governor Greg Abbott says johnson acted alone, but the investigation is far from over. I think good Law Enforcement means that we continue down every rabbit trail until they are exhausted, ensuring that we eliminate any other possible suspects or coconspirators that may have aided this gunman in any way. Sreenivasan the Authorities Say johnson seen here firing thursday night in Downtown Dallas was armed with a militarystyle ar15 rifle and wore a bulletproof vest during his attack. Following yesterdays search of his residence in the nearby town of mesquite, Dallas Police say johnson had stockpiled more rifles and ammunition and bomb making materials. Police say they found manifestos about combat tactics written by johnson, who served in the Army Reserves from 2009 to 2015 and was deployed to afghanistan for nine months. Officials also say johnson followed black militant groups on social media, liking organizations on facebook that have advocated Violence TowardLaw Enforcement and white people. Dallas police chief david brown has said johnsons comments during the standoff indicated he was angered by this weeks Fatal Police Shootings of black men in louisiana and minnesota, the subject of the protest thursday night in dallas where johnson opened fire. Protesters across the country continue to denounce those killings of alton sterling in baton rouge and Philando Castile in st. Paul. In the weekly white house address today, Vice President joe biden called for americans to stand up for the police and speak out against disparities in the criminal justice system. Those killed and wounded, were protecting the safety of those who were peacefully protesting against racial injustices in the criminal justice system. Those who were marching, were marching against the kind of shocking images we saw in st. Paul and baton rouge, and have seen so often elsewhere, of too many black lives lost. Sreenivasan because the authorities believe the gunman acted alone in carrying out the shootings, dallas mayor Mike Rawlings says the city is safe and can start healing. Rawlings is a texas native who was previously the c. E. O. Of pizza hut, is serving his second term as mayor after being re elected last year. He sat down with me to talk about this weeks tragic events. You wake up and you see this on the front of your paper, its kind of the mayors night mayor. It is, you know, you talk about being mayor, there are a lot of joys but you know at any time an orlando could happen or, you know, Something Like this, um, and all you could to is be prepared to deal with it. You know, its its tough to predict it and keep everybody from harms way and you know that youre not powerful enough to do that. How do you help a city move forward from Something Like this . Well, i think first of all you have to be honest. I think if you put a mirror to yourself, you just say, where are we . And you know, this city moved tremendously after the kennedy assassination in 63, i mean, one of the great cities in the world was created through that, and so you use these opportunities to be honest with yourself, and i think we realize that you can hold two thoughts in your mind, you can hold Police Officers accountable for a few situations, and tough situations, but at the same time realize its our Police Officers that keep us safe. And theyre the ones that are putting their lives on the line and support them, and i think a good city, a Good Community could understand how to put those two thoughts together. What do you do in the interim . How do you get to that point where a young person who was protesting yesterday sees the value of the person who was protecting them . Yeah, i think they will. Through this. Sadly people died, and there are going to be those individuals that were in the protest saying, we love our police. They wouldnt have said that if those folks hadnt died. So i think thats a positive start, but this is a bigger issue than just a city. This is a country issue. This is obviously media issue. This is a Political Leadership issue. We get the people on the same stage that have opposing views and be able to disagree agreeably and not exacerbate the extremism that many of us have naturally. We want to be passionate about things. We want to tell the world that were right and everybody else is wrong. And just like just chill out a little bit, and lets listen to one another. The chilling out is actually one of the the deescalation is actually key to what your Police Officers have been trained to do. Very much so. You know, very much so, and were so proud ive seen some situations around the country and ive talked to our officers and they said we would have never done it that way, because we know how to deescalate situations. Heartbroken at the same time,d because we have those skill sets but yet, theyre dead today. You know, you mentioned that as tragic as it was, the kennedy assassination was a turning point for this city. It was. Five years from now, 10 years from now, is this going to be one of those turning points . What do you hope the city turns into . Well, i have always wanted the city to be the city of the 21st century. Were a young city. 160 years old. Weve got good infrastructure. Were the place where more Small Businesses come. We have jobs being created. But hopefully this will make us more, um, passionate about dealing with the income disparity that we have as a city. Um, because i think its that disparity that these things start to kind of take seed and pop up, and hopefully as we go forward, well deal with our education issues better. Well deal with a job creation for those individuals that are as opposed to saying its someone elses problem. How does this tragedy put a fine point on it . How does it get people to think about the deep underlying issues that are so huge . Well, what i know is that everybody wants to be safe. And when a Police Officer is killed by a random gunman, people realize, oh, im this close im this close. If it wasnt for them, id be that individual. And i think theres a sobriety that takes place and we need to rally around that foundation we have of public safety, um, and then say, ask the question why is this happening. A report released yesterday thompson a report released yesterday by the center for policing equity addresses the growing concerns about racial bias in policing. While most interactions with police in the u. S. End peacefully, the survey of Police Departments in eleven small and mediumsized cities and one county finds in those jurisdictions, africanamericans have been more likely than white americans to be subjected to the use of force by police. Looking at 19,000 incidents between 2010 and 2015, researchers found blacks are 3. 5 times more likely than whites to experience use of force. Joining me now from washington, d. C. , is one of the reports authors, jack glaser, a professor of Public Policy at the university of california at berkeley. Megan first of all, professor, can you tell me, when were talking about use of force what are we talking about exactly . Thats a really important question, because different departments define it somewhat differently. That was one of the challenges of this Research Project was to harmonize data across different departments so we can meaningfully compare them in terms of what theyre identifying as use of force, but generally, what were talking about is when police use physical force to detain or move or bring into compliance a civilian theyre dealing with, and that could arrange from their mere presence as a threat of force to gentle hands on to all the way up to tasering and use of lethal force like firearms. Megan the report also refutes the notion this happens more often to more africanamericans because they have more contact with police, right . Can you walk us through that . Yeah, that is one of the general arguments put up to try to explain a way the Racial Disparities and use of force and what we did was to test whether the disparities that we see in the population hold up even when you consider the rates at which africanamericans and other minority groups relative to whites have contact with the police. And so it is above and beyond their higher rate and they do have higher rates of contact with the police for lots of reasons but above and beyond their rates of contact with the police, and above and beyond their rates of offending, they are still subject to a disproportionate level of use of force by the police. Megan do we know anything now about what helps explain these Racial Disparities . One thing is probably training. And there are departments around the country, some of which may be included in this data set that have been engaging in very rigorous training on use of force, with several goals that seem to be effective in reducing rates of use of force, one of which is just generally deescalation and finding more time and distance between the officer and the civilian subject but another is putting officers through more realistic conditions in which they might encounter and have to use lethal force, so that when they do encounter that, theyre a little more acustomed and maybe a little less terrified in the situation and able to use some of their higherorder functions instead of a pure fightorflight response which i think is responsible for a lot of the rarge disparities were seeing in lethal use of force in a lot of cases of lethal force with unarmed subjects. Megan how have Police Departments received your findings so far . I understand youve been meeting and discussing your findings with some Police Departments. In my experience, theyre well received. Theyre glad to have the actual data and to be able to do this comparison across departments so that they have a sense of what they might be doing right or wrong relative to other departments and we can start sharing information about what departments are doing so they can start improving their practices. Megan jack glaser, professor of Public Policy at uc berkeley, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Thompson hear from those who live in the same neighborhood as shooting suspect micah johnson. Listen to the report from Public Television and Radio Station kera in dallas by visiting us online at www. Pbs. Org newshour. Many africanamerican parents have what is called the talk with their children what to do and what not to do if they are pulled over or confronted by a Police Officer. A forthcoming documentary on pbs called the talk explores this in depth. In this excerpt, christi griffin, explains the ethics project, which she launched in part to curb the problem of Police Shootings of unarmed black men. It its so much a part of our nature, its so engrained we cant let our sons out of our front doors without giving them instructions on how to come back alive. Im christi griffin, im a retired attorney who founded the ethics project in 2007. To address the injustices of our criminal justice system. When i moved with my son into an allwhite school, i didnt expect him to ever be in trouble but they dont have to be. They dont have to do anything, which is the problem, and so when the Police Officer pulled him over, i just happened to be with him. I heard something in my sons voice i didnt realize existed. He knew he had not done anything wrong. I heard an anger. He wasnt disrespectful. My son kept asking him what did i do . And i have absolutely no doubt in my mind that had i not been there, that situation would have escalated to where my son was constantly harassed to the point that someone would have happen happened. And the police man never even attempted to give him an excuse for pulling him over. Take the drivers license out right now i dont want you reaching into your back pocket. I dont for any reason to have to get a phone call that tells me my son is has been killed by a Police Officer because he feared for his life, because my son reached for his wallet. Thompson while griffins son is alive, in this second excerpt from the talk, we hear from the father and stepmother of abdul kamal, a 30yearold black man who died after a confrontation with police in new jersey three years ago. He had already started drinking alcohol. He gets to his wifes house. She wouldnt open the door. But at the same time, she could see him. She calls the police. The cops show up with their guns drawn. They didnt even investigate what was going on. And im talking less than five minutes, abdul was dead. We had the wrong im talking you dont see them. Thats what our talk was. As a parent, i thought i was doing the right thing. You know, i gave him a false concept actually. You are just as good as any other no, youre not no, youre not, son you cant do that. I came from the ghetto, the projejts projects. My son never lived in the projects. We thought because we made a certain amount of money that we could protect our children. And yet instill and yet and Still Society so what im telling you, wake up. This affects us all. We all lose. Children, theyre murdered for no other reason than he was too tall, he was too big. I mean, the list goes on and on. A white boy could run in a movie theater, open fire and kill 14 people and stand trial. Our kids can walk down the street and get gunned down and the people who kill them, nothing happens. Absolutely nothing. We just found out that one of the officers that killed abdul got promoted. How does that happen . Its not a day that goes by that we dont think about abdul. And then what can we do to save another parent, another family from this loss . Thompson in light of the sniper shooting that killed five Dallas Police officers, president obama is cutting short his european trip by one day to return to the u. S. Tomorrow, and visit dallas on tuesday. At todays nato summit in warsaw his last as president obama addressed the tragedy and said the dallas killer was demented and not representative of all americans. We cannot let the actions of a few define us. A few define all of us. The demented individual that carried out attacks of dallas is no more representative of africanamericans than the shooter in charleston was representative of white americans or the shooting in orlando or San Bernardino were representative of muslimamericans. Megan at the summit thompson at the summit, the u. S. And the 27 other nato countries committed to station military forces in afghanistan through 2020. The u. S. Still has more than 8,000 troops there. Nato also agreed to boost military aid to countries in africa and the middle east fighting islamic extremists, and to deploy Surveillance Aircraft to support forces fighting isis in iraq and syria. Yesterday, nato approved the deployment of multinational battalions to poland, lithuania, latvia, and estonia to deter russia, in light of russias actions in ukraine. Joining me now by skype, from warsaw, Washington PostBrussels Bureau chief michael birnbaum. Michael, russia has been a huge topic at this summit. Well, the decision taken here in warsaw over these past two days are really a huge change for natos relationship both with its own most members. In poland as you mentioned and also with russia. Theyre planning to send a total of 4,000 troops to these countries that it were would aim to deter any sort of russian aggression. Now, after russia in 2014 annex beed ukraines peninsula and helped the conflict in Eastern Ukraine but russia has said natos decisions right now are Real Security set. They have said theyre very unhappy about it. Theyre planning to bolster their own military deployments to their west. Megan how about britains decision to exit the eu . Hows that affected the talks . Isnt pulling out of nato. What leaders are saying publicly is that britain is more committed than ever, but in private, a lot of people ive been talking to here say theyre worried that the british decision to split from the European Union say bad sign making it harder to send money on security and defense, and also distracting the policymakers over the next couple of years. Megan nato also announced a new effort in the mediterranean to curb the flow of migrants. Can you talk a little bit about what the plan is there . Thats right. Nato is planning to send some naval vessels, nato members are going to send them there to the mediterranean where its also considered a bit of a security set for europe because they have a stream of people coming in. Nato is going to try to defend europe but also to make sure that those who are coming over, often the smugglers arent thinking and dying sinking and dying and drowning as weve seen happen again and again. Megan the summit is being held in poland. As i understand, its calling attention to domestic policy issues in poland. Can you tell us what is happening there . Poland has a new government since last october. Since theyve come in, theyve taken a number of steps that critics say challenge the rule of law here, changes to the constitutional court, the countrys top court, changes to press institutions. President obama yesterday meeting with the polish president said that the United States was concerned about what is happening in poland and that has been something thats been on the mind of a number of people here. Megan all right, a lot of issues to Pay Attention to. Michael birnbaum. Washington post, thank you for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. Thompson by one measure, the ability of isis to spread its extremist ideology online has diminished. Citing u. S. Officials, the Associated Press reports twitter traffic by isis operatives has dropped 45 over the past two years. The a. P. Says this is partly due to a campaign by the u. S. To combat violent extremism online, including countermessages in arabic about isis atrocities and how poorly the terrorist group treats women and children. Data obtained by the a. P. Show antiisis content online outweighs proisis content by six to one, and isis twitter accounts typically have only 1 5 of the followers they had two years ago. The democratic partys Platform Committee handed a victory to senator Bernie Sanders today, approving a plank that calls for more than doubling the federal minimum wage over time from 7. 25 to 15 an hour. Meeting in orlando, the Platform Committee also rejected a sanders proposal explicitly opposing the proposed Trans Pacific trade deal even though presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton also opposes the pact. Sanders is expected to formally endorse clinton next week. Delegates will finalize the platform at this months Democratic Convention in philadelphia. Federal health Officials Say a person in utah who died last month is the first confirmed zikarelated death in the continental United States. The centers for Disease Control and prevention wont say whether the Salt Lake City resident was a man or a woman but did say the victim contracted the mosquito borne virus traveling to a country with a zika outbreak. The c. D. C. Also said the person was elderly and suffered from another Health Condition that may have contributed to the death. More than 1,100 people in the continental u. S. Have contracted zika, and so have 2,500 people in puerto rico. Megan finally, tonight marks the final curtain for lynn manual miranda, star and creator of the musical hamilton which won a pulitzer prize, grammy for its cast and a host of tony awards. Miranda is bow ing out after 350 performances as the founder father. The show is sold out months in advance. It was a record day at wimbledon for serena williams. She won the womens singles championship for the seventh time beating germanys angelique. It was her 22nd grand slam title tying her with steffi graf for the most. She returned to center cart with her court with her sister, venus, to win their sixth doubles championship and 14th grand slam trophy together without ever losing a final. And please join us on tomorrows program. Well have more from Hari Sreenivasan from dallas. Im megan thompson. Good night. Captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org pbs newshour weekend is made possible by bernard and irene schwartz. Judy and josh weston. The cheryl and Philip Milstein family. The john and Helen Glessner family trust. Supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. Sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. Corporate funding is provided by mutual of america designing customized individual and Group Retirement products. Thats why we are your retirement company. Additional support has been provided by and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Hi, im haylie pomroy. Would you like to lose 20 pounds in 28 days . Get a great nights sleep and feel energized when you wake up . Finally have the health you deserve . 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