Frustrating, more damaging to your soul then when you know you are following the rules and being treated like you and i. But make no mistake, no matter this turmoil, these issues should not lead anyone to any conclusion other than to abide by the laws. Dr. Martin luther king jr. Said it so well. Rejoining violence with violence only leads to more violence and , nights toker nights paraphrase without stars. There is never, ever an acceptable reason to harm a member of our Law Enforcement community. Ever. I dont want anyone to misinterpret the words i am saying. Even in the times of great darkness, there is a light. There are hundreds, thousands of who that officers who go beyond the call of duty. Ms. Taylor at the dallas incident was covered completely by at least three officers who were willing to lose their life to save hers. Opportunity to be grateful and thankful for our men and women in uniform. I shared another story on monday night as well. While the one i want to tell you today does not involve a tragic loss of life, it does show support that meant a lot to me at the time it occurred. I believe it is my responsibility to hang out, be with my constituents as much as possible and hear their concerns. When we arrived at the event, the organizers seemed to have a particular issue with me coming into the event. He allowed my staffers to go into the event, seems to be allowing the officers to go to the event who both said they werent going in if i wasnt. A real tensevoid situation, i opted to leave because there is no way of winning that kind of debate ever. I was so proud and thankful for those too long was went officers who were enraged by this treatment. It was such a moment that i will never forget and a situation i would love to forget. Situation happens across the country whether we want to recognize it or not. It may not happen 1000 times a day but it happens to many times a day. Help me understand why this issue, wounds that have not healed in a generation. It helped me to appreciate and understand and hopefully communicate why it is time for the American Family to have a conversation about where we are and where we are going and how to get there. Must find a way to fulfill these cracks in the very foundation of our country. Return with myl final speech in a threepart series. On solutions and how to get to where we need to go by talking about the policies that get us there and the People Solutions because i, like you, i dont believe all answers are in government. Today, however, i simply ask you this. That just because you do not feel the pain, the anguish of another, does not exist. Does not to ignore their struggles, our struggles does not make them disappear. It simply leaves you blind and the American Family variable marble. Some thirst so hard to explain away in justice that they are slowly wiping away who we are as a nation but we must come together to fulfill what we all know is possible here in america , peace, love, and understanding. You, mr. President. May i say to my colleague how much i appreciate his frank discussion today. Have you blessed to and cory booker here. We dont have enough diversity here. As much as all of us want to walk in each others shoes, because because each of us has different experiences in our life, eight really matters who is in the room, who is at the microphone, who is sharing the truth and you have shared a truth with us today. Other senators have shared similar stories with us. It is lifechanging for us. I so appreciate everything you have said and it makes us better to have you and cory booker here that, i came to discuss a similar topic, the status of Race Relations in America Today because i dont think you and cory booker should have to be the ones to carry this forward. Because when i was a little girl when i was 10, i came facetoface with ugly, vile, stupid, dangerous discrimination. I cheered on Jackie Robinson with all my girl power to counteract what my dad said with hatred aimed at jackie because howhe color of his skin and blessed was i when i worked hard with a republican colleague to make sure Jackie Robinson got the congressional medal of honor. Mother,n i was with my 10 years old, 1950, i saw African Americans forced to sit in the back of the bus. I got up to offer mysql an elderly woman. She must have been 55 at the time. Stood up she refused me. She said no and i was hurt. I said to my mother, what is happening here. Why wont the woman take my seat and my mother said segregation. This made no sense to me. My mother could have let it go. Instead, she told me to follow her to the back of the bus, not that anyone noticed but we knew what we were doing and i felt part of her team, part of the team against this craziness. Where people have to go to the back of the bus simply because of the color of your skin. The Civil Rights Movement has made in normas progress in our loss. The trouble remains in our hearts. Heres too much regardless of the color of your skin if you are a Police Officer, kissing his or her family goodbye in the morning, or the parents of a young africanamerican teenager, they will not see their loved ones at night. Et that is a truth in america that has been witnessed by a couple of our senators. Fear thatuld have to they wouldnt see their loved ones at night because of this type of hatred. Time to paint whole groups of people with a broad brush because when you do that, that is the definition of prejudice. You could not broad brush a because of the color of their skin or because they are religious or who they love. What we need is the deescalation of suspicion and an escalation of trust. It is long past time that we look inside our own soul and banish the hatred. Look at us each as gods creation. Men often hate each other because they fear each other. They fear each other because they dont know each other. They dont know each other because they cannot communicate, they cannot communicate because they are separated. That is what Martin Luther king said. In man who taught us to block in each others shoes. Ande need that conversation we started by breaking down the very errors that separate us, bridging the gap between Law Enforcement and establishing trust. There were police versus community issues. I recommended in the colleagues concurred in a new system of Community Policing. What does it mean . It means you get the police out of a central precinct and you move them into the community. Relationships develop. It seems so right, it worked so well that i would shocked when i got out of local government that i realized not enough communities were following that same method. Theres cooperation and True Protection in the community and its an obvious step should be implemented widely. What can we do . Love. Not force people to. E can suggest it we cant force people to be tolerant. But there are certain things we i ventured his legislation called the pride at that would start us off by giving getting sisters statistics we need. How many shootings are there in our communities by the police to the community . Believe it or not, we dont really collect those numbers. We would provide funding to states for the use of force training, for Law Enforcement agencies and personnel, including deescalation and bias trading. And Public Awareness announcements to gain information. Its a very balanced piece of legislation that looks at the problems on both sides. Secondly, we need to better support Law Enforcement agencies that work to advance the practices of the community. We can do that by increasing funding for the Justice DepartmentCommunity Policing development program. That provides lawenforcement toncies with funding implement innovative Community Policing practices. But the funding for this critical program, which may well be one of our most important, is 8 million a year. For the whole country, its not enough. We should provide dedicated funding for Justice Department programs to initiate formal gatherings, to Bring Community members and police into one conversation. Anyone who looked at dallas understand how hard they are trying, how much they have done. When i saw president obama with mrs. Obama and president george w. Bush with laura bush, i was so happy. They are starting that conversation. One of the founders of black lives matter said we had so many different experiences that are rich and complex. We need to bring all these experiences to the table to achieve the solutions we desire who hasne listening heard the stories or read some tothe words, we have a lot learn. A United States senator being stopped seven times . I heard senator scott say. In one year . Because of the color of his skin. Just too much for these people to their and we need to policies. Change yes, we have so many different experiences that are rich and complex. And we need to bring those experiences to the table. My friend the senator from alaska is here. We are only 20 women out of 100. I think our colleagues understand we have brought something to the body. We have brought our experiences to the body and it transcends partisanship. When we are in the room, its a bit of a different conversation because not that were any better, but we have had different experiences and when our africanamerican colleagues tellis, look at our lives, look at what we have been through, they have the same job as you. Sevene we pulled over times in a year . Why have we been scared . There is something wrong and we cannot turn our back on it and we cannot leave it up to those colleagues to lead us. We need to help them and Work Together and have this conversation. Formally recognize and encourage Police Departments who epitomize what it means to be a keeper of the peaceful. That is what they want to be. Those officers who attend Community Meetings after work, who spend their saturdays playing basketball with the neighborhood kids, who attend Church Services sunday can contact with the congregants, who take lower income children shopping for gifts for christmas, who stopped to check in on residents just because they care. That is happening all over the country. We cant paint people with a broad brush. Its wrong. At a Police Department knew something had to change so they invited the public to participate in no changes. Door Community Meetings, created the citizen advisory board, invited residents to experience their Training Simulator and you give them a new perspective on what police experience, see it through our eyes, they said. And lets deescalate attention and escalate the trust. They put a high importance on hiring officers with a connection to vallejo and wanted to serve the public. They even started a latenight Youth Program at the local high school. A started change from within that community. Should have a Community Policing innovation department,tice which would reward Law Enforcement agencies and localities who are doing the. Ight thing we just heard senator Barbara Boxer talk about her proposal to create a Community PolicingInnovation Fund at the Justice Department. Josh letterman, what are other members of congress doing on police and Race Relations . Seen a lot of members of Congress Take an interest in this what its difficult to find solutions that can have happen as a result of new laws. Some of what you have seen is a renewed conversation about congress has talked about for quite some time. Criminal Justice Reform that congress has yet to be able to make a lot of solid progress on. The other being gun control, something the president has talked a lot about. Last month, Senate Republicans blocked legislation that would prevent people on the terror list from buying guns and we have seen other challenges for democrats on that issue as well. For theorking group met first time. Tell us about that group. They have met. They have been discussing some of the Things Congress would try to do to try to find solutions for this a but things are really getting heated and you have a political issue like this that is so controversial, theres not a lot of optimism congress will move on something major on this anytime soon. Recentlyent obama signed the active Shooter Training bill. This allows Law Enforcement departments to access federal funds to improve their training for active shooter situations. This does not create new funds. These are existing federal funds that can be direct did to that effort. The president signed it and didnt do any major ceremony but signed it in private and it has now become law. Several senators have also a back the blue act. What would that do . That would create strict minimum sentences for people who are targeting Law Enforcement officers and you see that coming from republican members of congress. As the issue spotlight continues, we will hear about one families encounter and the police chief takes part in a panel on lawenforcement perspective. It begins with a five minute documentary on the incident. They called me at work about 5 15. They said im going to take the kids to my mothers house. I said ok. I can meet you at your mothers house. I got to vickys house at about 6 00. We were sitting in the backyard, joking around. Me if theyd cj asked could ride their bikes around for five more minutes. I said fine. Am sitting on the couch in the house and i hear my mother begging on the door, the police are outside. As we are coming out the door, you see three White Police Officers walking toward my son, putting their gloves on. On whenloves you put you want to rev somebody up or frisk somebody. E walks over to the fence you, come here. Being the dad, i walk over hold up. Montagne he said youre not going anywhere. Why do you want to talk to myself . And he said who are you and i said im his dad. Is there a problem . , i wasntf all calling you. Second, we got him for fleeing a scene. This is what he said. I said ok you got him fleeing the scene of what . Do anythingidnt but when i called him to come here, he kept on going and didnt stop for me. Bike, ariding a big three wheel tricycle bike like for your grandma, you know. I was going at a steady pace. A pace if they really wanted to get me, they could let out the car and walk at the same pace. Turning to come into my grandmothers alley, they tod that is when he told me get off my bike but i heard no police, i didnt even see a car. Their explanation was he ran from the police. That gives us the right to stop insert your son because people run from us on bikes. That is not probable cause to stop somebody child. Supposed to say ok, come on, find . No. Why . He tells me, since you are getting in my face, i should lock you up right now. I said well since you feel like im up in your face, im going to back up so i backup and thats when i said can you just call your supervisor because this is getting out of hand. The station is across the street and i would appreciate it if you called your supervisor. I just need someone to talk to who isnt angry right now. Kind oft know what distress signal he sent out but he sent out a distress signal that led to maybe 30 or 40 police cars lining up my mothers alley. Please back up. Please. Please backup. How . For a 15yearold. For a 15yearold. A good 15yearold. Deandre, i need you to go in the house. A 15yearold. One. They cant tell me i cant do this. Dont worry about it. 115yearold. One 15yearold. What . Let me talk. Now he is just now saying this. In like just taking it all this for a bike with no light. I was just like if that is what you wanted, why did you need to search him or do anything else . A 15yearold. One 15yearold. One. Mother, moved before they touch you. The one in the black shirt. [applause] we are going to talk about what we just saw but before i do, let me introduce who we have on stage. You will recognize some of them. A filmmaker and founder of loudspeaker films. Carletteike a davis harris and Amonte Harris and calvin davis. Film. W these three on i imagine this was difficult to watch this over and over again. Emotional. The only thing i think that could have change this is the police listening to us. Why is it that you want to search our son . Us, if you just talk to then we might have said ok, but then again, i dont know. I dont know what the reason was. It is just so frustrating. We see it is because your sister was filming it. As soon as it happened, she started filming it. She just pulled out her phone and started filming. You have had a relationship with his family for some time. You were not drawn to this because of this incident . Know, calvin was the last person on earth i would expect to be arrested. We were already filming the family and continue to, just following him through high school and beyond, filming his cousin and his parents. It just happened during the time. Story, thankthe god that her sister found it. I dont think we would have been able to tell it very well if she had not taken video of the actual arrest. Im wondering if it would be hard to even get people to understand what happened that night. It,ou werent able to see listen to th