Vice pres. Biden hi. Thank you all for being here. I t want to remind everyone this event has been set up to adhere to social distancing guidelines. Keep your mask on when you are speaking. Thank you for being here. At the end of the program, we will give you guidance to take a socially distanced photo. Vice pres. Biden in case you want one. I thought i was supposed to come up this way. Ok. Hats [indiscernible] vice pres. Biden good afternoon, everyone. I can hear you. Good afternoon, everyone. Lets get energy. Mahomes. S tim i appreciate everyone being here. I want to thank reverend barker for your hospitality and for convening what we know is a very important discussion in our community. Biden, dr. Ent Joe Jill Biden is in the house, i believe, somewhere. She always does. Id like to welcome both of you here for what you know is a town or f love, unity and compassion. You spent most of your career unifying people, bringing people together. Much like your hometown, scranton, youve often talked about family values. Working class families. Kenosha is that kind of town. Where we come together as people, and what unites us in our inner soul is love, compassion. On this time of healing and hurt and pain, we need that love and compassion. And, we know your leadership is all about unity, not division. Its about healing. So, we thank you for being here today because we know your leadership is important in kenosha and in our country. Clear, know lets be black americans face systemic racism in a variety of areas. Much like many marginalized communities. Far too long. We know, with your vision and your leadership and your sense of urgency to dismantle systemic racism in health care, workforce development, education, affordable housing, we know your vision will heal this country. We know your vision will bring neighborhoods back together, and we thank you for that. Now, it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you our host, reverend barker. Everybody. welcome, it is a real privilege to look out on my neighbors here in kenosha, and i can see so many coree who have had the of their life seeking welfare for our city. It is a privilege to have all of you here today. It is a real privilege to have Vice President joe biden here today to listen and to seek healing and justice for us in kenosha. Thank you for taking the time this afternoon. Offer aise as i prayer. Let us pray. God, we continue to lift up jacob blake. Lord, continue to bring healing to his grievous wounds. Miraculously enable him to walk again. Lift up his family. Bring them comfort during this tumultuous, challenging time. Justice, we ask for justice for jacob blake. We ask for justice for our community here in kenosha. Who anoints leaders to guide us, we ask that you anoint the leader of our country in november who will at their core seek justice, love mercy, humbly walk with you an, and loe their neighbor as their selves. I have great confidence that you will make that happen for us in november. I pray all of these things in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you, reverend barker, for those inspiring words. Tim i want to thank you for the great work you do in the neighborhood. Not far from here, we have devastation and destruction. We know your church has a leadership role that recovery so thank you for that and many blessings. Here we are, ladies and gentlemen, here to have a community conversation. A few ground rules. In the interest of safety and health, that we protect four selectedwe speakers we will start with. I will call them up, let them speak. Speak to the mic closest to you. After they are finished, we will call up folks. We ask that you practice social distancing. The microphones will be here. Take your time. We will give about five minutes per person. I have been told i have the right to put the mask over your mouth and shut it down a little bit, but take your time. Because you know, Vice President joe biden is here to listen, learn and help us heal. Fair enough . Ent and im former marine. Thank you for coming today. What i would like to talk about thats occurring in wisconsin is something that is an american issue, and that is about race inequality. When we talk about race inequality in america, we need to move beyond the conversation of programs. We need to start putting money behind the programs and putting things into action. Several years ago, ben carson sorry, ben gordon with the naacp said, we know what the problems are. We need to start putting money behind the solutions. We know with the problems are in the africanamerican community. Win over the problems are in the hispanic community. But when you were looking at consideredwhich is the worst place in the united 34 es for people of color, of afghan americans live in poverty. 24 of hispanics. 28 of native american indians. And 18 of people who are asian descent. So, when you talk about that race inequality, it also means about inclusion and taking those steps that we need to address those issues. We need to address the issues of employment. We have all of these jobs around here but we dont have the medium income and the difference between white families and africanamericans in the state of wisconsin is 50 . Whate earning 50 of th those family incomes are. If we are not paying People Living wages the Automotive Industry that was here, the White American brass were a community that built things. We have a lot of intelligent people, a lot of skills that are still here. It is just tapping into those resources and creating those opportunities in employment. When i was the hr director in a municipality, one of the things we did was band the box. We dont need to look for new employees. We are pushing them out of the prison system each and every day. When those individuals come back to our communities, we need to start providing Second Chances for them. We also need to address the gaps within our education system. Not that we dont have a Public Education system, but we have a Public Education system that is not equitable. We need to make sure that each program and every school is the same. We need to make sure that black sports programs and white sports programs are funded the same. We need to make sure that science programs and art programs are funded the same. Not that they just exist, but that they have the same quality and they are the same quilt. Because you cannot build programs that do not have the same resources and economic ability to push those forward to be successful. The biggest thing i see going on right now, and it just breaks my heart, when we talk about race inequality, we need to look at housing. We look at whats going on during this covid. We have so many people right now because of not having that economics, not being at work at this time. They are losing housing. If you look over, it is heartbreaking to see all these people in the middle of a pandemic, in the middle of just having a hurricane come through this area, and now they are being placed on the streets with their belongings. We have to move beyond that. The other thing that is still out there is we need to create jobs. We need to create living wages and opportunities for people that they can be apart of that American Dream. I wanted to talk about the criminal Justice System, but we have such a wonderful person here that will be able to follow up on that. We have to realize we have to stop pushing people into jail. We have to start Getting Solutions such as rehabilitation. When the crack epidemic hit america, it was in the black community. America solution was jail, jail, jail. Now that we have opioids in the white community, the solution is to provide police and firefighters with narcan, send them back to their families and make sure they have the rehabilitation services. We need to take a look at the criminal Justice System because we dont have the Mental Health services and we dont have the drug addiction and other services needed to prevent people from getting caught up in a cycle that takes away from that American Dream and takes away from that opportunity for equity. Thank you. Vice pres. Biden thank you. Tim. Thank you, jeff, would you please come forward . 30 years of service in the firefighting. Thank you, jeff. Thanks for coming. Thanks for listening. Our members are tired after this past week. Some of them are beat up pretty good, but their spirtits are high. The reason why their spirits are high is because of their appreciation and love our community has shown us after the fires. Everything that has been dropped off at the firehouses to people stopping us on the streets telling us thanks. It may be think about appreciation. I think a lot of people at a lot of Different Levels need to start showing appreciation for one another, and letting people know that everybody matters. I know i feel good when i feel appreciated. I think its a basic human thing that everybody else does, too. One of the interesting things in the Fire Department is that we have an opportunity to see so many social and economic problems in peoples homes before there is a program, before there is access to health care, before this is an actual problem. Ive seen it for 30 years. Id like to tell you that it is Getting Better every day, but its not. One of the things that we see, particularly in the areas of people of color, is their ability to Access Health care a time when it is when it has the chance to be preventative, to be healing. So many of the things that we see are a result of chronic ability not to get that health care. Those small things turn into chronic things. The most chronic things turn into emergencies. Thats when we get called. As a result of that, our systems are being taxed. In many cases we have even asked people why did you not seek help from your doctor . I dont have a doctor. Why did you not take this heart medication . I cant afford it. Now, we are at a point where you are taking a trip to the emergency room. At times, we are the only health care that some folks have access to. We never failed to show up. We show up damn fast. And sometimes even thats not enough. So, those are some of things that we see with regard to a problem in the community that needs attention. Or therewere clinics were availability for lowlevel health care access, we wouldnt see quite so much of what we have to deal with from an emergent standpoint. Pride, dedication and courage thats what we all signed up for. Our thumbs are up and were forging forward and we would like a whole bunch of other people to be able to feel the same appreciation we do. Thanks for being here. Appreciate it. Tim thank you for that. And thank you for keeping kenosha safe. Wouldars of service you come forward please . Can i touch this . Thank you, joe, for being here. It is a great honor for me to be invited here. My name is barb. My sister and i have a framing and art gallery two blocks down the road. Our great grandfather started our business and our business has succeeded through recherche depressions and all the difficulties that happen, but we have never, ever seen anything as devastating as what has gone on in our community. Were very fortunate because they didnt start our building on fire, like so many of them in the uptown area have been burnt to the ground. They did break our windows, get into our store. They looted and they tried to start a fire, but a Good Samaritan came by and took this rack of our beautiful scarves out into the sidewalk and put it out. Otherwise, our store would have been up in flames. I look at the buildings in our immunity that are gone and just i dont think ive really grieved as much as i feel i should because, being a business owner, i have to keep going. I have to keep working. The day after this happened at our store sunday, they went downtown and did their devastation. Then on monday night, they came in our area. Tuesday morning, we had a group of fellas come up and board up our building and we were open for business. Weve been continuing to be open for business even though it is boarded up. Compassion in this community has been overwhelming not only to us, but the whole community. People are coming together and showing respect and love towards each other. It makes me so very proud to be in this community. Thats what we do when we have difficulty. We support and help and love. So, thank you so much for allowing me to come here and give you a business perspective. Were lucky we are still standing. Thank you. Tim thank you, barbara. You know the community loves your story very much. Anything we can do to help rebuild you, we will. Sir, you are about to hear from one of the sharpest, youngest legal lines in kenosha, angela cunningham. Please come up. Vice pres. Biden your reputation precedes you. Thank you. Good afternoon, mr. Vice president , and thank you for joining us here today. Reason kenosha is in the spotlight right out is because of the shooting of jacob blake. I will never forget that sunday afternoon. I was watching a live video of someone who was on the scene and trying to figure out what was going on. I was reading the comments and i saw people commenting about the fact jacob blake had been shot by officers. Then, i saw the video of the actual incident. I dont even think i have the words to describe how i felt when i saw that video. I do remember texting my group of friends and saying this is really bad. This is really bad. Theres going to be protests, theres going to be writing. I knew that right away after watching that video. My mom called me. I have a 20yearold black man for a son. My mom called me shortly after the news got out about what happened because she knows we live in kenosha and her first thought was is sean ok . Is he all right . I knew he was ok because i knew he was at work. Im president speaking into the mr. President part mr. Vice president , as an attorney i know legally why a lot of officers who kill black men and women are not held legally responsible, criminally legally responsible for their actions, because the law protects them. I recognize that and i know that. I dont agree with it but i recognize that and i know that. I hope that if and when you are elected president , that that is something your administration chooses to try to address because i feel like the law protects a lot of Police Officers. I know a lot of those laws are at the state level, but if at the federal level something can be done to incentivize states to not give so much Legal Protection to Police Officers who kill black men and women. Anlso want to talk as attorney, i have my own law firm. Part of my practice is doing criminal defense work. Im also a former prosecutor out of milwaukee. I have been on both sides of the aisle. What ive seen in the criminal fair treatmenta between white defendants versus black and brown defendants. Theres over policing in our communities. You have black and brown people who are picked up for a lot of times what could be minor things. Then, they have a criminal record. Then, that criminal record means they have a stamp on their back that makes it difficult for them to get jobs and, more likely, to stay involved in the criminal Justice System so then you get a resume that gets built. I would love to see legislation put in place to try to address some of the over policing in communities. I would also like to see some transparency in policing and prosecution and sentencing. Courts, well, i used to before covid, but sit courts all day and listen to cases and see whats going on, im able to see the differential treatment in charging and offers that are given by the prosecution and in sentencing that is given by judges. Anybody whos not in court every day wont see that. And, that data is not readily available. I would love to see a nationwide effort put in place that requires police departments, district attorneys offices, and also courts to collect the data about arrests, about charges, about sentencing, about offers that are given so that the light can be shown for people who dont sit in court all day to see that we are not just talking, there really is a discrepancy. I think thats the first step that needs to be taken in order to make a difference. Then, once we know what the actual numbers are, start putting some legislation in place to address some of those discrepancies. Thank you for your listening today. Tim thank you to our four speakers. Mr. Vice president , would you like to take a few moments to respond and chat with the community . First of all,en thank you for giving me the opportunity. I hope i dont know how much time you have after i say a few words, we will hear from more of you as well. Let me respond to the little bit i have heard so far. First of all, i can make a generic point. The words of a president matter. No matter good, bad or indifferent, they matter. No matter how competent or incompetent a president is, they can send a nation to war, they can make peace, they can make markets rise and fall. They can do things that i have observed that can make a difference just by what they say. You know, i got out of law school and i moved back to delaware. I had a partial scholarship. We didnt have a law school in delaware. I went to syracuse law school. When i came home from law school, what happened was my last semester the only two political heroes i had both were assassinated. Dr. King and bobby kennedy. Kennedy was assassinated the day i graduated. I came home and my city was the only city in the United States of america occupied by the military since reconstruction for 10 months. Every single corner, and military person was standing for 10 months. I had a job with a good law firm. One of the oldest law firms in the state. I concludede, that i was in the wrong place. They were good people, but i quickly became a public defender. Have interview my clients and what they call the northeast corridor, where amtrak runs from washington new york. That area goes through my city. And, i used to interview clients down in the basement of that train station before they were arraigned. Was we had the eighth largest black population in the nation. We work to our great shame a slave state, although we were one of those border states that fought on the stat side of the , thank god. To make a long story short, what happened was i thought blacks city,ites would be, in my with each other again. One i am 40 years later jan