Greg gated neighbors and Police Mistrust reside. A revolution faster than you can hold down the refresh bar, a riot on twitter. Hear from those in ferguson who helped lead the stream of information in the death of unarmed black teen, michael brown. My kobe host and digital producer waj is bringing live feedback. As far as this stuff unfolds on t. V. T happens so much faster on line . You mentioned a fast and mad on twikker. Ha ferguson story out and near realti realtime. Here is the hash tag, ferguson, Online CommunityGlobal Community talking about the press conference right now and someone from the press conference, catherine johnson, is now trending. Check out my page. It happened that quick. Speaking about the trending hash tag, this started a Global Solidarity movement. We have the hash tag, dont shoot. Young boy holding a dont shoot sign. Another one, if they gun me down, what picture would they use . A picture on the right. A gentlemen said they would probably use the picture on the left. Thats been retweeted. 21 times. And the woman who started it on the show. Yeah. How did we get here . What has led to the racial tensions in ferguson . We are glad though have tashara jones. She is the treasurer for the city of st. Louis and one of the people who started the hash tag dont shoot it is considered one of the leading public publications and cj conrod is a ferguson native. He watched this unfold practically from his doorstep for the last six days. Thank you for being here. Cj, wanting and i were talking about it. Highway patrol captain ron johnson. The captain talked about walking to the quick trip this morning, ground zero. It was the first thing he did, first order of business, hugs and shandshakes, he said. He declared his task to be ensuring the safety and the health of citizens. He said that the people of ferguson must have their voice and they must have their right to gather maintained. So no question on anyones mind that he was there solely as part of the people. How is his message changed . Its a night and day difference. The calm now. There was so much tension and frustration prior to this and right now, i mean its there really arent words for it. Its just completely different. There is a whole another love in the air. He should have been here three days before, quite honestly. It doesnt seem like he did much other than show up and say, i hear you and we are going to keep you safe is it that simple . I dont know what reason that didnt happen before. As i was down there at quick trip, as you call it ground zero, i saw him walking through the crowds listening to what some said. They are sting angry and outraged. He allowed them to express their outrage and was not threatened by it. He did not call in Armed Police Officers for it. I think just those people seeing that he cared was enough to quell the protests. So things are moving in the right direction. Tashara, you started the hash tag dont shoot. We love social media. Its great. It can be fickle and fast. People move so quickly. Now, youve got peoples attention for a second. What do you do with it before they are on to the next trending hash tag . We started dont shoot, a group of young concerned citizens and myself to get their attention and then, also, to see what we can do next. So there are a list of demands on our website dont shoot mo. Com that are evolving as this situation evolves. Just today, we met just before this show and we realized that our number 1 concern Going Forward for this to be a fair and transparent investigation and for justis to be served is that a special prosecutor needs to be assigned by the Missouri Attorney general. We are talking about social media. Here is a tweet my 7yearold wrote this. All of her words. I only helped with the spelling and format. She used the hash tag mike brown ferguson. Dear police it was not nice to shoot mike brown and i did not like twhu threw the pregnant lady on the ground. Stop hurting people. Sincere will he alan h. 7. Do you think the world would have known, would have cared about whats happening in ferguson, what happened with mike browns unarmed the shooting of an unarmed teenager without social media . No way. Definitely not this fast. It was mind blowing to see it had gotten across the nation overnight and internationally by the next morning, but there was there is no way this could have happened without social media because the local media wasnt covering it to the same extent they are now on saturday or sunday. The narm media wasnt covering it. It was after we kept speaking hosting articles over and over and, you know, grassroots reporters came in. Thats when it was like, oh, this is something we need to Pay Attention to. Itshmael asked would the world have known and he asked can the world Pay Attention . My question to you how do you sustain this in how do you make people Pay Attention to the point where you actually see change . The first step in this, people making sure their voice is heard and people making sure that that mess alexander is positive. I dont believe that the Media Coverage would have been the same without the violence, which is unfortunate. But now that the media is watching, the protestersors have to remain peaceful. They have to have a positive message like tashara has the website, the list of demands. I think people need to come together, have a mention thats on the same page to be resolute with it. And the leaders will be forced to listen. You work in local government. Daughter sense racial tensions in your environment there . Yes. There are sometentions there and they are more covert rather than overt when you get to local government. Andives experienced it and in slight ways but this position allows me the power to speak truth to power. So, i just move past it racism is one of those things thats always going to exist. The way we have to deal with it is to make sure we call it out as we see it and we have those Uncomfortable Conversations with our peers about how what they said made me feel. Its simple psychology. When you said this, i felt like this. And until we have those conversations and make sure that, you know, our peers see where we are coming from, i think i think we will still have that issue. Lisa, you and shara talking about existing racial tensions. The conference at ferguson reflects deep and existing problems not only ferguson but also in america. We asked our Community Action what are those problems . How can it be fix did . Mistaken said the question should be how do we fix systemic racism and dismantle White Supremacy . That would be the good question. Gary says income inrequest equality, stacked deck, coolest 1 focused politicians and one more, vern says systemic profiling, mistrust of the justus stem, lack of community outreach. Pick one. Cj, what are the deep and existing problems that in the nation that are reflected by whats happening in ferguson right now . I think all of that was said is valid quite honestly its got a en to the point where racism isnt as overt anymore. Its all under and there is no way to pinpoint or point out thins until it becomes a physical or verbal or violent thing, it seems as though. But its deepseated. And i dont know how we could change it without totaly changing the system, quite honestly because its what this country was developed on. Cj makes a good point when he talks about changing the system because we look at ferguson, the makeup of ferguson. Ferguson is twothirds africanamerican but they have little to know representation on the school board or the county counsel or the Mayors Office and we have to make sure that, you know Going Forward, we encourage people to participate in the process and we make that easy to participate in the pros. Our secretary of state tried to get early voting on the ballot this year quo to make it easy for people to participate in the civic process. Issue male, disproportionate representation is an issue. These kind ofration tensions dont happen overnight. I am thinking of some of the more nuanced things like a lot of these lower socioeconomic areas. They dont have Good Community parks, good Public Transportation to places where there are jobs. What are some of the things that are fundamentally embedded in the system that keep these tensions just percolating right under the surface . One of those, the key is education. We see in a lot of our lower sor sorry i dont economic districts, we have struggling schools. They dont get the funding that they need. They dont get the proper resources. Thats a big issue. We also see a lack of businesses in these areas. So, i think until we get the community, until we get them to a higher socioeconomic, until we provide them with more opportunities, that tension is going to exist. Also here in st. Louis county i believe there are 91 municipalities and there is an issue with officers who dont necessarily represent the community. They look at the Community Members specifically young black males as a threat and in the piece that i wrote, you know, i was pulled over. I am estimating more than 50 times. I know it was more than 50 times between the ages of 18 and 25. 50 . 50. Absolutely. Would you whvp there were a handful of times where i did deserve to be pulled over. Most of those times, the officers would say, well, what are you doing . Where are you going . Or they would tell me, you know, hey, your license plate light is out. When i got out and checked it, it was on and shining brightly. So any time you have that type of situation where you feel that you are being picked on or you are being preyed upon by the people who are supposed to be protecting your liberties, they then you are going to have this built up tension. Thats what caused a lot of the reaction sunday night, the looting and things like that. All right. People were fed up. A little later in the show we will talk more about that and what has to happen to create change. No shortage of criticism directed at criticism police for everything for how they have handled peaceful protests to looting. A former police chief who says st. Louis officers were overly aggressive. What should have happened and what can Americas Police force learn from this . We will way in on all of those issues. You should, too. Use the hash tag, ajamstream. Heavily armed, combat tactics every little podunk wants their tank and their bazooka. With s. W. A. T. Raids on the rise. When it goes wrong, it goes extremely wrong. Whats the price for militarizing our police they killed evan dead faul lines, al Jazeera Americas hard hitting. There blocking the door. Ground breaking. We have to get out of here. Truth seeking. Award winning investigative documentary series. Deadly forceve adly forceve. We are back. Ferguson missouri has become a flash points bringing to the surface some of americas most hotbutton issues. One of which is the military like appearance adopted by an increasing number of Law Enforcement agencies. A little i know sight in that area. Chuck served as an officer with the Police Department for 2 fine years and as police chief for three. He is widely considered an expert in the field. Chuck, a lot has been made of the type of gear police used, the vehicles, the weapons they displaced and we can get into all of that in a minute. Opinions aside about whether communities should get surplus military gear. Talk about what the appearance of that kind of fire power does. Can it, alone, escalate tensions . There is no question about it does escalate tensions. Equipment shouldnt be brought out until it is absolutely necessary that you need that type of force not just to show force. Equipment does nothing but fuel the fire and incite people. And you create a warfare. Environment when you do that. Chuck, is there a case to be made for local police to have that sort of equipment on hand and have better discernment . Some has value. Ballistic material, helmets, ballistic vests, there is rescue exhibit that you can get from the military to help with dive teams and Fire Departments and so forth to help rescue people. So there is value in some of the equipment. But we can i think it becomes has become over kill. I want to bring in Georgia State representative hank johnson joining us live on the phone. Representative johnson, appreciate you being with us. He is drafting some legislation. He is going to propose to restrict the Defense Department flam already exists that provides military surplus equipment everything from machine guns to m wraps to local enforcement or Law Enforcement in general around the u. S. For free. Representative johnson, why are you proposing this legislation to restrict this dod clause . Thank you for having me. This kind of militarization of Police Forces across america is did he believe different from the kind of life that americans are used to leading. Its a step away from a form of government towards a martial law government. We dont need to have that type of kind of we dont need our citizens to feel that they are under the coercive influence of a militarily equipped Police Department when there is no actual domestic need for a show of force like that and so, i am concerned about it from that angle and i am also concerned about what happens when a small municipality finally, gets the bill for an overhaul of ansyn on an mwrap or a need for some new tires on one of those tactical tactical armored vehicles, something breaks down and then they decide to just declare the property surplus and sell it at surplus city equipment. Then, anybody that wants to buy it can come in and, you know, spends 25 or 50 to take it off of the hands of the agency. Uhhuh. Representative johnson action our social community was asking how can we inform law en phosments. Baki asked said they should be retrained on how to deal with people. Leader says quit trying to be likely army. Realized they are citizens like the ref of us. Joe said it wouldnt solve everything. Not having a 95 white police are force in a an overwhelmingly black community couldnt hurt. You are a Law Enforcement officer. How can we regain trust. This is going to be a long, long road, not somethings going to happen overnight. There has been so much damage that occurred between the community and the police. The police have a long way to fight back so to speak, the gain, the trust of that community. They have lost it. They lost it a long time ago. There is no trust between the two groups for sure. There is going to need to be a change. My honest opinion is there is going to need to be a change at the top of that Police Department and that city because the city leaders have allowed that to happen. Chuck, hang on. I want you to continue that thought but i want you to here and you may have already heard it. It was from captain ron johnson of the measure e highway patrol. He was talking about trust when he got thrown a question from the audience. We know this isnt a perfect world. You said you have a barber shop. Every barber isnt good. There are some bad barbers. Okay . But thats i mean, thats the way of the world. I tell you what. When you go home and see your kids tonight, when i got home, my daughter sent me this. She said, daddy, were you scared . And i said, jurt just a little bit. She said, daddy, you want you to remember when jesus asked peter to walk with him on the water. And she said, when peter got scared, jesus picked him up and said have the faith. And i am telling you today, we need to be just like peter because i know we are scared and he is going to pick this community up. Chuck, he is talking about having faith to rebuild or maybe build trust in that community but it seals like when we talk about mistrust, we are talking about communities not trusting police. Isnt the other side of this a fundamental lack of trust on the part of police when it comes to the community . There is no doubt about it. It goes both ways and the police show that clearly when they refuse to release information. They dont talk to the community. They dont talk to the family. Remember that somebody lost one of their family members. You have to go and talk to those people and explain to them whats going on, open up your investigation, be more transparent and the police are not doing that because they dont trust the community. They show when the protests started and came out with such a use of force with canine dogs and rivals and so forth that they show they dont have any trust. Its a we and them relationship. The police need to look like the communities that they serve, you know, ferguson has 55 officers and only five are africanamerican or minority. Thats a stark contrast to the makeup of the community and another one of our demands for ferguson is to hire at least 10 africanamerican or my onty Police Officers by january 2015. Still ahead, what has to happen next so the death of a young man is not any vain and so a community can learn and grow from a strategy . Stay with us. My name it is lid. Aim Civil Rights Act visit. I am in the stream attention. Life saving technology. I definitely slowed down as a result. Transforming the way you drive. Maybe crashes wont happen any more. Smart cars of the future. Whoa. I would have driven straight through that. Tech know, every saturday go where science meets humanity. This is some of the best driving ive every done, even though i cant see. Tech know. Were here in the vortex. Only on al Jazeera America. Al Jazeera America presents a Breakthrough Television event. Borderland long held beliefs. Im really pissed off at the mexican government. Give way to compassion. If you feel tired, would you turn around and come back . Our teams find out first hand how treacherous the migrants journey can be. We make them take a trip