Gbef Linecut State Of Emergency Call To Action On Policing & Criminal Justice Reform-
Transcript
00:00 Hello, everyone.
00:01 We've got to get better than that.
00:04 Hello, everyone.
00:05 Yeah.
00:06 So we just had a conversation about affirmative action, about D&I, and now we're shifting
00:15 and having a conversation about policing and criminal justice reform.
00:20 And to have that conversation, we have the one and only Angela Yee.
00:26 We have personality Angela Yee, the one and only, who has graciously agreed to moderate
00:32 this panel.
00:36 And joining her on this panel, we have Mark Morial, the president of the Urban League.
00:50 And of course, the one and only, the attorney general, as he's often called, Ben Crump.
01:01 Okay.
01:05 Thank you so much, Ben Crump, Mark Morial, who I never get to see dressed down.
01:11 All right.
01:12 Well, it is a pleasure to be here today alongside Ben and Mark.
01:17 Thank you guys so much, amazing panelists for us to have with us.
01:22 And as we know, they have spent their entire careers fighting for social justice, and there's
01:28 no issue more urgent than policing and criminal justice reform.
01:33 Here we sit.
01:34 It's been three years since George Floyd was brutally murdered, and that did shine a bright
01:39 spotlight for the whole country to see.
01:42 A lot of people did think this might be a turning point when the nation was finally
01:47 forced to confront the policing crisis that communities of color face every day.
01:52 But right now, as we sit here, this crisis is as urgent as ever.
01:58 As a matter of fact, data is showing the number of black people killed by police in America
02:03 has actually risen every year since George Floyd's murder.
02:08 So this is a very urgent conversation for us to have.
02:11 All right.
02:12 So awareness is not enough.
02:14 And what we want to do today is while we're aware there's a major crisis, there's a state
02:18 of emergency, what can we actually do?
02:21 That is the mission of the Global Black Economic Forum.
02:24 So let's talk about this.
02:25 All right.
02:26 Let's start with you, Ben.
02:28 Three years after George Floyd, have things changed, and is it better or worse?
02:34 Well, like everything, progress is something that is measured one day at a time.
02:42 And we have made great progress since George Floyd was tortured to death.
02:49 I mean, when you think about it, Marc Morial, Angela Yee, 20 years from now, police killed
02:55 us unjustifiably, unnecessarily, unconstitutionally, and nothing happened.
03:05 Absolutely nothing happened.
03:07 And because of you all being my co-counsels, we were able to get, for the first time in
03:15 history, a police officer in the state of Minnesota convicted for killing a black man
03:22 of guilty, guilty, guilty.
03:27 But it didn't stop there, Angela, while we are making progress.
03:31 And I know I'm singing to the choir, but the choir has to sing louder.
03:35 We have to keep pushing because Breonna Taylor, our black sister, was killed just as unjustly
03:45 as George Floyd.
03:46 But yet, there still hasn't been justice for her as there has not for many black women.
03:53 I mean, when you think about what Malcolm X said, Angela Yee, he said that the black
03:59 woman is the most disrespected, neglected, and unprotected person in America.
04:07 And so we think about, you know, Sandra Bland.
04:11 We think about Atyana Jefferson.
04:15 And we then look at Breonna Taylor.
04:18 And we can never, ever give up the fight for our people, because when we fight, we win.
04:25 Breonna Taylor killed us for the first time in history, thanks to Kristen Clark, a black
04:35 woman leading the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, for the first time
04:41 in history, bought federal charges for police officers killing a black woman.
04:48 Think about how many black women police killed in history.
04:51 Never once have there been charges bought.
04:55 But because we're standing together and we refuse to let them sweep it under the rug,
05:02 that's why we're going to win and get justice for Breonna, too.
05:06 And so, whether it's Ahmaud Arbery, Andre Hill, all these people who have happened since
05:10 George Floyd, they have been officers charged and convicted.
05:16 We didn't see that.
05:17 So, we're making progress.
05:18 Now, what can we do?
05:21 What do we have to do?
05:23 Because since they're not going to pass the George Floyd Justice Policing Act because
05:29 of the political gridlock in Washington, D.C., homework assignment, y'all can say, you know,
05:37 black America attorney general gave us a homework assignment in essence.
05:41 You all got to go to your cities and you got to see, in your city, has the chokehold been
05:49 banned?
05:50 I bet you all would be surprised to know that the chokehold is still legal where you live.
05:57 So, don't worry about what's going to happen in Minnesota.
06:01 You need to worry about what's happening in your own hometown.
06:04 Go to city hall and say, "We're going to ban it."
06:07 And I'll say these two things before I pass it back, Angela.
06:13 You all do understand, and I don't think Minnesota is different from many places in America.
06:20 Over 90% of the time when the police applied the chokehold in the state of Minnesota, it
06:30 was against a man of color, even though black men in Minnesota only made, black people in
06:37 Minnesota only made up 6% of the population.
06:41 Think about that.
06:42 6% of the population, but every time they say they're going to choke somebody, it's
06:46 a brother.
06:49 No knock warrants.
06:51 Breonna Taylor.
06:54 Y'all do understand that Louisville is about 30% black, but almost 95% of the time when
07:06 the police said they're going to execute a no knock warrant in violation of the Fourth
07:14 Amendment constitutional rights against unlawful search and seizure, it was against a black
07:20 person, a black household.
07:22 They weren't kicking in our white brothers and sisters' doors at 1 o'clock in the
07:26 morning.
07:27 So, it was foreseeable that you were going to have somebody innocent like Breonna Taylor
07:32 when they kicked in her door at 1 o'clock in the morning.
07:36 You think about it.
07:37 Well, everybody's saying they have a right to guns and people kicking in your front door,
07:41 you don't know who it is?
07:43 You right.
07:44 Her boyfriend Kenny had an absolute right, Mark, to try to defend his home and defend
07:50 his castle and defend his woman when they came in and kicked in the door.
07:55 So, you got to also go back to your city and say, "Do we have a ban against no knock warrants?
08:03 Where's Breonna's law in New Orleans?
08:05 Where's Breonna's law in Birmingham?
08:07 Where's Breonna's law in Atlanta?
08:10 Banning the police from executing unnecessary, unjustifiable, unconstitutional no knock warrants?"
08:18 Because they ain't kicking in white people's doors.
08:21 They kicking in black people's doors.
08:22 So, you all need to ask that question.
08:25 And so, that's what we can do, Angela.
08:27 We don't want to wait on the Supreme Court to save us.
08:30 No, we're going to save ourselves.
08:32 Well, we definitely can't wait on the Supreme Court to save us.
08:36 Mark Morial, I want to ask you this.
08:38 Since you talked about local laws and what's happened locally, you are formerly the mayor
08:43 of New Orleans.
08:44 And when you came to New Orleans as mayor, the police department was terrible.
08:49 All right?
08:51 Can we talk about some things that you did locally?
08:54 Is that something that we're talking about right now?
08:56 What did you do to actually improve the police department?
08:59 Well, thank you very much.
09:00 And it's good to be with you.
09:01 Happy Ascens to all.
09:02 So, I took over as mayor of this city in 1994.
09:08 I was 35 years old.
09:10 I was elected on a wave of young, new elected officials.
09:16 And we had a situation where we were having, we had 421 murders in the year before I took
09:25 office.
09:26 More than one a day in a city of about 500,000.
09:30 And number two, we had the highest number of civil rights complaints against the New
09:38 Orleans Police Department.
09:39 So I decided from day one that I needed to institute significant change.
09:45 So I literally bulldozed the operation.
09:50 Bulldozed the operation and completely overhauled it.
09:53 What did this mean?
09:54 And let me tell you the lesson.
09:55 And Ben has made this point.
09:57 The power to change policing lies in city hall.
10:05 Mayors choose police chiefs in most cities.
10:09 Mayors can hire and fire police chiefs.
10:14 Mayors can set the budget, can set the policy.
10:18 Police is a function of local government.
10:22 So apropos to what Ben has said, we can't wait for Congress or anyone else to fix this
10:30 problem.
10:31 We have to apply pressure, and yes that means on black elected officials, on white elected
10:37 officials, on friend and foe alike.
10:40 Pressure to bring about change.
10:42 So we overhauled the New Orleans Police Department.
10:46 First thing we did, I cleaned house.
10:49 We fired almost 100 officers over a period of 36 months.
10:54 Number two, we changed the philosophy of policing to a community oriented policing system, which
11:01 means police officers were on patrol, on foot, on bikes, and made relationships with leaders
11:10 in the community, with ministers and community leaders.
11:14 And we brought the crime rate down while reducing the number of arrests.
11:19 This is important because we went to a preventive model, a preventive model of policing involving
11:26 community policing.
11:27 I put into place a public integrity division, an internal function which could in fact investigate
11:36 officers when there was a citizen's complaint.
11:39 I took the public integrity division, moved it out of police headquarters, put it in a
11:45 neighborhood so people didn't have to feel intimidated by going to the police department
11:50 to file a complaint against the department.
11:53 Number two, if we found a rogue cop, we turned him over to the FBI.
11:59 We turned him over for prosecution.
12:01 There are two New Orleans, former New Orleans police officers today on death row.
12:09 Two.
12:10 Len Davis and Antoinette Franks.
12:13 Two on death row for killing people and in one for ordering a hit on someone that filed
12:23 a complaint against him.
12:25 I, in a short period of time, in five years, reduced the murder rate by 60 percent, the
12:30 violent crime rate by 60 percent, and brought the complaints down.
12:36 Now here's the point.
12:38 My police chief, Richard Pennington, the late Richard Pennington and I, when we left office
12:45 in 2002, it took two years for the department to retrench to the way it was.
12:53 Because the people that succeeded us were not committed.
12:57 They were not committed.
12:58 I took the position.
13:01 I took the position that I would not be intimidated by any police unions.
13:07 I would not be intimidated by any right wing politicians.
13:11 I was not going to be deterred in carrying this out.
13:15 And I told the public that if you want a thriving community, we had to have a safe community
13:22 and we had to have a just community and we had to have a police department which respected
13:28 the people.
13:29 This is an example.
13:30 I did this without a consent decree, without the Department of Justice oversight.
13:36 I did it because I was committed to it.
13:39 And I left office here with a 70 percent approval rating.
13:43 Right?
13:44 So what I did was not only effective, but it was popular.
13:50 And I was very up front in saying to people, we're going to clean up this police department.
13:58 And we're not going to brook any opposition.
14:02 And we're not going to be intimidated by anyone.
14:05 I told the business powers that be that they needed to support me.
14:11 I enforced a city residency rule that required police officers to live in the city.
14:20 I withstood lawsuits that challenged that.
14:23 I took the position that if you're going to work for us.
14:26 Now, I did some interesting things.
14:28 I raised the pay.
14:30 I upped the standards.
14:32 I changed the training.
14:34 I allowed lateral hires.
14:37 But I did that only after two to three years I put in place a reform system.
14:42 What's the lesson?
14:44 Go to the Urban League website and look up the 21 Pillars Plan.
14:49 We have promulgated 21 ideas that mostly can be implemented at the local level, at the
14:58 local level, with local energy and a commitment from public and elected officials to do the
15:06 absolute right thing.
15:08 So policing, while we need the George Floyd bill, while we need an aggressive Department
15:14 of Justice to prosecute, while we need all of these things, there is a lot of power in
15:20 City Hall.
15:22 There's a lot of power in City Hall to make a difference.
15:24 So we have to be in this moment with this state of emergency on affirmative action,
15:31 this state of emergency on black history, this state of emergency on the justice system,
15:36 this state of emergency with the assaults on black America.
15:41 We have to use our power and our pressure locally, locally to bring about these sorts
15:48 of changes.
15:49 And so I just want to encourage that to each and every one of you, because sometimes we
15:55 think, and sometimes we have some elected officials, and I can talk about some politicians,
16:01 because I used to be one, right?
16:04 And that is, they sit on their hands, they make excuses, and they're afraid to be assertive.
16:11 I was assertive, and I never, ever had an approval rating below 60% in this town, because
16:20 I went all through the community, community meetings, churches, and told people exactly
16:26 what we were going to do.
16:28 And if someone challenged me, I said, "Where is your plan?
16:33 Where are your ideas?
16:35 Put it on the table."
16:36 One of them admitted, "I have no plan."
16:40 So if you don't have a plan, get on out of the way.
16:45 And that's what this is about, tangible things that we can do.
16:48 Now, Attorney Ben Crump, I know we have some people here also who have joined us, and...
16:54 Yes, we do.
16:56 And just like Mark was saying, it's up to all of us to use our collective influence.
17:02 Our friend, Reverend Al Sharpton, always says, "One of the hardest things to do is to preach
17:08 the eulogy of an insignificant Negro who had influence and could have made a difference,
17:15 but chose to play it safe."
17:17 So I'm real proud when we have brothers and sisters who have influence not be afraid to
17:23 use that influence when it matters most.
17:26 And we have a couple of them with us today.
17:29 Our good friend, actor Jonathan Majors is here with us at the Essence Fest.
17:38 And Mark Mariano and Angela Yee, we have a sister who's always been using her influence.
17:44 You look at her social media, she's always there fighting for us whether it was back
17:48 to Trayvon Martin.
17:51 And so we grew up with this sister.
17:54 We first saw her in a movie called "East Bayou," and then she was in a movie called "Stomp
18:01 the Yard," and then she was in "Think Like a Man," and now she has an award-winning show,
18:09 "Harlem."
18:10 Y'all give it up for y'all homegirl, one and only, Megan Good.
18:19 Y'all stand up for Megan because Megan is doing this from her heart.
18:27 This wasn't planned.
18:31 She was just enjoying Essence Fest and said she would come up here and talk about what
18:37 we can do to help our people.
18:39 So thank you, Megan.
18:40 And Angela, I'll turn it back over to you.
18:44 Yes.
18:45 And by the way, Megan, this was totally for her.
18:47 She just was back there doing her own makeup, like, "I gotta go out there even though I'm
18:50 not on the..."
18:51 So part of it is for us knowing what can we do as people who are individuals that are
18:57 not in politics, we're not attorneys, but what is it, what are some things that we can
19:01 do?
19:02 Because the main question people ask is, "Well, how can I assist and how can I help?"
19:05 And we don't wanna ever feel helpless.
19:08 And so, Attorney Ben Crump, we are seeing a huge rise in the number of stand your ground
19:14 defenses as an excuse for killing black people.
19:18 So how can we reverse this?
19:20 And I know you have something really important you wanna talk about.
19:23 And I thank people like Megan and Marc Mariel and others because we all have to educate
19:29 ourselves, we have to engage ourselves, and we have to empower ourselves in our communities.
19:36 And I mean, Trayvon Martin was killed by citizens.
19:42 We can't just say it's the police killing us because they have laws like stand your
19:47 ground that are encouraging people to be violent against black life.
19:55 We saw it with Trayvon almost 11 years ago.
19:58 We saw it with Ahmaud Arbery when he was lynched for jogging while black, not in 1940, not
20:06 in 1950, but in 2020.
20:09 We saw it with our own eyes and they still didn't arrest his killers.
20:13 They went home and slept in their bed at night just like Trayvon's killer.
20:17 And most recently, we saw a black woman in Ocala, Florida, who was going to get her children's
20:28 laptop after a white 58-year-old woman called them the N-word, called them little slaves,
20:37 and that this isn't the Underground Railroad.
20:41 And she knocked on the door and the white woman shot through a locked metal door and
20:49 killed A.J.
20:50 Owens in front of her 9-year-old and 12-year-old little boys.
20:56 And now more than ever, we got to have people like Megan, who got influenced just like we
21:02 did with Breonna Taylor, say her name, A.J. Owens, because if not, they will sweep it
21:08 under the rug.
21:09 And yeah, and before I pass it to Megan, if I could, Angela, I want to acknowledge the
21:16 mother of A.J.
21:17 Owens, who's present with us, to just stand and be acknowledged.
21:23 Pam.
21:24 Pam, here, why don't you?
21:27 Thank you.
21:32 Thank you.
21:37 Thank you.
21:42 It's so sad that I'm here meeting you, speaking in front of you under these circumstances,
21:49 but I appreciate each and every one of you.
21:53 As Benjamin Crump said, my daughter was shot and killed with her 9-year-old son standing
22:00 next to her, simply just to get an answer as to what happened, as any mom would do.
22:07 Now, she leaves behind a 12-year-old son who had to make the necessary calls, a 9-year-old
22:14 who was standing next to her, a 7-year-old daughter, and a 3-year-old.
22:23 I am now the primary caretaker, and it is a senseless act, but this is where we are
22:29 in 2023.
22:32 A single mother gets shot for simply knocking on a door.
22:37 It's sad.
22:38 But I thank you all for acknowledging this and for not letting it be swept under the
22:44 rug as Marion County Oak County.
22:48 We love you.
22:49 We love you.
22:50 Thank you.
22:53 Justice for AJ.
22:54 Justice for AJ.
22:55 Justice for AJ.
22:56 Justice for AJ.
22:57 Justice for AJ.
22:58 Justice for AJ.
22:59 Justice for AJ.
23:00 Justice for AJ.
23:01 Justice for AJ.
23:02 Justice for AJ.
23:03 Justice for AJ.
23:04 Justice for AJ.
23:05 Justice for AJ.
23:06 Justice for AJ.
23:07 Justice for AJ.
23:08 Justice for AJ.
23:09 Justice for AJ.
23:10 Justice for AJ.
23:11 Justice for AJ.
23:12 Justice for AJ.
23:13 I think the biggest thing, the place that I come from is that many of us feel like we
23:14 have no idea how we can get involved, what we can do, if our voice can be heard, if it
23:15 makes a difference.
23:17 The biggest thing is that I want to encourage you, the more that we band together, the more
23:21 that we constantly project and make noise and share these conversations and educate
23:28 ourselves and educate each other, together we can actually do what we've been doing and
23:33 we continue to go in the right direction.
23:36 I can't say that I'm the most eloquent speaker on this.
23:38 I can't say that I know everything.
23:40 I'm constantly learning and evolving.
23:43 Because of that, for a long time, it made me feel very insecure about getting involved.
23:47 Can I make a difference or should I just be quiet?
23:49 I'm just an actress or whatever it is.
23:51 But learning that simply even me just amplifying my voice, the way that I can amplify my voice
23:56 is if you amplify my voice and then this person amplifies your voice and this person amplifies
24:01 your voice.
24:02 I can't do it by myself, but if we all do it together, that's how we're able to support
24:07 Attorney Crump and support Mark and support AJ's mother and really, really make a difference.
24:12 The same way that we did with Breonna Taylor where, again, we were talking backstage.
24:16 This was a case that had happened months prior that we weren't even aware of.
24:20 As soon as we got activated and as soon as we all started talking and marching and doing
24:26 everything that we can within our personal power is when we gave people who have more
24:30 power the power to do the things that need to be done.
24:35 For me, the biggest thing is I just want to encourage us to know that every single one
24:39 of our voices, it really, really does matter and it really, really does make the difference.
24:43 We need each other in order to force the hand and to make the change that we have to see.
24:48 Great.
24:49 Amen.
24:50 Amen.
24:51 Amen.
24:52 Amen.
24:53 Mark and Ben, I want to ask you both, when we think about solutions, what do you think
24:59 about community policing?
25:00 What role does technology play?
25:03 How are these things that can be game changers?
25:06 Community policing is important.
25:10 It can make a difference if it is defined for what it really should be.
25:15 Community policing puts a focus on prevention.
25:20 It puts a focus on working with and building relationships of trust in the community with
25:27 the idea that you can prevent violence and prevent crime and that you can also focus
25:33 in a community on the things that the people want you to focus on.
25:37 In most communities, people do not want to see a focus of harassment of young black men,
25:44 arresting people for minuscule and minor things, which is what I call lazy policing.
25:51 What they want is a focus on those things that really hurt people, shootings, violence,
25:58 sexual assault.
25:59 What community policing does is it centers the work of a police department around the
26:06 things that people assign as priorities and it puts a focus on prevention.
26:10 To do it right, you have to train officers how to talk to people.
26:16 You have to train officers on how to respect people.
26:19 You have to train that a police department is not a military occupying force.
26:27 Protect and serve means something.
26:30 Number two, I think today community policing does not go far enough.
26:35 I think you have to have mechanisms that address other challenges we have in the community,
26:42 like unhoused people, like people with substance abuse and mental health issues, which can
26:49 be responded to by people who are not armed, people who are trained as social workers and
26:55 psychologists.
26:57 We have to do things differently than perhaps even what I did in the 1990s with a focus
27:04 on community policing.
27:05 If I were leading now, I'd place great emphasis on nonviolent dispute resolution.
27:11 So Roz Baraka, the mayor of Newark, anybody here from Newark, anybody here from New Jersey?
27:19 So Roz and Newark have put into place, and other cities have done it, a nonviolent dispute
27:26 resolution system where you have brothers and sisters, sometimes they were formerly
27:32 involved in gangs, whose job it is to diffuse the kind of beefs, rivalries, and disputes
27:40 that create the escalation of violence and retaliatory violence.
27:45 So we have to address today's problems with new strategies.
27:51 Community policing, yes, but we need to do it right.
27:54 It's not a slogan.
27:55 It is a comprehensive approach to how you do policing.
28:00 And I'll talk about technology.
28:02 The George Floyd case was made possible because of Darnella Frazier's courage.
28:12 Now let's understand, this young woman had the presence of mind to coolly and calmly
28:22 turn on her phone and record the entire incident from beginning to end.
28:29 Let me tell you what that meant.
28:32 If this case had occurred 15 years ago, it would have been he say, she say, we say.
28:40 You'd have heard that George Floyd went to grab my gun.
28:44 You would have heard that George Floyd resisted arrest.
28:48 You'd have heard all kinds of things, and it would have been as it always is, a dead
28:54 black man's word against living white police officers' words in front of a jury or in front
29:01 of a grand jury.
29:03 So that instance, so we have to make sure, and there are efforts around the country to
29:10 suppress a person's First Amendment right to tape interactions in a public space between
29:17 the police and citizens.
29:18 That is our right.
29:20 All a phone is, is an extension of my eyes, and all I'm doing is recording what my eyes
29:26 see.
29:27 So technology, body cams, and the use of technology can be an important tool if used right.
29:38 But do not expect any type of technology to on its own and by itself to solve what is
29:45 essentially a challenge of human dynamics and human behavior and institutionalized racism.
29:53 It has to be much more.
29:55 So I embrace technology, use right with the proper safeguards, but I don't see it as a
30:02 panacea.
30:04 But that video made George Floyd, that meant people in New Zealand, Austria, Mexico City,
30:14 and all across the United States could look at that video and on their own make a judgment
30:20 that what they saw was the murder of an innocent man.
30:26 It made all the difference in the world.
30:30 All the difference in the world.
30:31 And we've got to recognize that and understand that a simple device like an iPhone can be
30:37 very, very instrumental.
30:38 I'll tell you one last story.
30:40 I was in a train station in Newark and all of a sudden there was loud noises.
30:49 An argument began to ensue between a man who was, I think, had some mental challenges and
30:58 about six police officers.
31:02 Almost instantaneously there were half a dozen black women who moved on this site and every
31:11 one of them was there with their phone.
31:14 Every one of them.
31:15 And I said, this is such a powerful thing, right?
31:17 They're going to record what happens in terms of this incident.
31:21 And so the power of our ability to be watchdogs, to be observant, and therefore to be part
31:30 of this accountability, we cannot underestimate the value of it.
31:39 You know, I want to say about technology and then I want to talk about community policing.
31:46 But more importantly, Mark and Angela and Megan, talk about community.
31:51 You know, when I think about technology, obviously you think about George Floyd, you think about
31:56 Ahmaud Arbery, where we captured on video, and you really, I remember I got asked this
32:02 question a lot after George Floyd did interviews.
32:05 They said, what's the difference, Attorney Crump, between Rodney King, who was killed
32:11 in the 80s, brutalized in the 80s by cops in Los Angeles, and George Floyd?
32:18 And my answer was always very simple.
32:21 The quality of the iPhone.
32:24 Because the video was better.
32:26 Because black people have been saying for decades, the police brutalizing us.
32:30 They using excessive force.
32:32 Nobody would believe us.
32:33 But now we get to see it.
32:35 And y'all, just like we said on January 6th, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then
32:43 a video is worth billions.
32:45 Billions.
32:46 And that was George Floyd video, Ahmaud, and now with Tyree Nichols.
32:53 Y'all think about that in Memphis, Tennessee, how that narrative would have went.
32:59 He was erratically driving, he was not complying, he assaulted an officer, and then when we
33:07 saw the video, Jonathan, man, Tyree couldn't have been more compliant.
33:13 What did he say?
33:14 What did I do?
33:15 He said, I'm just trying to get home.
33:16 And if we didn't have that video, those officers wouldn't have been charged.
33:17 I'm not going to do nothing.
33:18 And if we didn't have that video, those officers wouldn't have been charged.
33:22 I know I got limited time, so I can't be on my soapbox, but just like they terminated,
33:28 arrested, and charged those five black police officers, that's the new precedent now.
33:33 So the next time white officers are brutalized and kill us, we won't deal with the rest of
33:39 the two in five days.
33:41 We can't have two justice systems, one for black America and another for white America.
33:47 And that's what technology has helped us make the argument even more crystal.
33:51 I'll say this last thing, because when I think about community policing, Mark, and you did
33:57 a great job.
33:58 Y'all give Mark a round of applause for New Orleans.
34:01 I mean, incredible job, Mark.
34:05 But I think that it can't just be the responsibility of our community leaders.
34:11 It has to be each one of us.
34:14 And we have to, you know, I want y'all to remember this now, and I'm talking over music,
34:20 and I'm going to make it loud because this is more important than the jam.
34:26 We have to have, understand the lesson of upstream.
34:34 And what do you say, Attorney Crump, by upstream?
34:38 It's this here.
34:39 It's a great book.
34:40 It's simply this.
34:43 There was a brother walking one sunny afternoon down river, minding his business.
34:51 All of a sudden, he heard a young black child in the river screaming, "Help me, help me,
34:59 help me.
35:00 I'm drowning.
35:01 Help me.
35:02 I'm going to die.
35:03 Help me."
35:04 And the brother all of a sudden jumped in the river, and he saved the young black child's
35:08 life by dragging him on the riverbank.
35:10 He said, "My God, thank you.
35:13 If I wasn't here, that young black child would have died."
35:17 And just after he was gathering himself and he was getting the water off his clothes and
35:21 so forth, he heard a second black child saying, "Help me, help me.
35:27 I'm drowning.
35:28 Help me.
35:29 I'm going to die.
35:30 Save me.
35:31 Help me."
35:32 And so, Mark, the brother jumped back in the river again, and he dragged the second black
35:36 child to the riverbank and saved his life.
35:39 And he said, "Thank God I was here.
35:42 Had I not been here, that young second black child would have died."
35:47 And just as he was trying to get the water out of his hair, Jonathan, getting himself
35:50 together, Megan, he heard a third black child say, "Help me, help me.
35:56 I'm drowning.
35:57 Help me.
35:58 I'm going to die.
35:59 Save me."
36:00 And so, the brother jumped back in the river for a third time, and he dragged the third
36:05 black child to the riverbank.
36:08 But this time, as he was dragging the child to the riverbank, he said, "What I want to
36:15 know is who the hell upstream keep throwing our children in the river, because it's too
36:23 late to save them once they get downstream.
36:27 So we all got to go upstream.
36:29 We got to prevent them from throwing our children into the system, getting them caught up in
36:35 the school-to-prison pipeline, getting them caught up in the cycle of violence and black-on-black
36:41 crime and street violence and drugs.
36:44 We got to be upstream and be strategic and be intentional about making sure we can prevent
36:51 our children from getting caught up.
36:54 It's not just about policing.
36:56 It's about all kind of injustices for our people.
36:59 So if y'all remember nothing, let's go upstream and prevent our children before they get in
37:06 the system."
37:07 Drop the mic.
37:08 Okay.
37:09 And listen, I know our time is limited, but I want to make sure that we end on this, because
37:19 I know this is a question that Megan Good asked when she came on stage.
37:23 What can I do?
37:24 For everybody in this room, in this audience that has the question, "Well, what can I do?
37:29 How can I help?
37:30 How can I support?"
37:32 What are some things that you would say to them that are tangible things that we can
37:35 walk away from and say, "This is what I'm going to do right now, today, and in the future"?
37:40 So I'm going to say, and I'm going to bet that the people who are in here are already
37:46 involved in community.
37:48 So I want you to be a member of the National Urban League.
37:53 Go to NUL.org.
37:54 But here's what I say, be a member and be a part of something.
38:00 The worst thing we can be is in the gallery, in the stands, watching and observing, and
38:09 moaning and complaining, and not active and involved.
38:13 We have to be involved organizationally, online, in the church, through civic organizations.
38:22 We have got to be involved, and when we are involved, our organizations have to be relevant
38:31 in addressing the issues of today.
38:35 Not just be about social, not just be about platitudes, not just be honorific, but address
38:43 the issues of today.
38:45 Number two, we better understand that the most precious power we have is the power to
38:53 vote.
38:54 Now, I'll tell you, because I watched this, and I've watched these mayor's races across
39:02 the country over the last three years.
39:05 How can we have these races and have 25, 35% voter turnout?
39:14 When we made great progress in the '70s, the '80s, and '90s, you look at these historic
39:20 mayor's races in places like Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Atlanta, even Houston
39:29 in the 1990s, you had 50 and 60 and 70 and 80% voter turnout.
39:37 Now, I hear people who say, "You know, my vote doesn't count."
39:42 Man, let me tell you, every time you say that, the right wing is cheering.
39:49 Let them be that dumb and that stupid that they think their vote don't count, because
39:54 you know what?
39:55 Then ours counts for more.
39:58 We've got to fight voter suppression, and we've got to battle self-suppression of our
40:05 own power.
40:06 So, I'm not going to say that voting is a panacea, that politicians will save you.
40:15 I'm not going to say that.
40:16 I'm going to say that voting is a tool that we have.
40:21 Protesting is a tool that we have.
40:24 Being active is a tool that we have.
40:27 We have to use every single tool at our disposal to fight and work for the change we need today.
40:38 We have to be active, and we have to be involved.
40:43 Some of this is basic.
40:46 It's not complex.
40:48 It's not overly sophisticated.
40:51 Those who are looking for magic bullets, the fight we had when we were fighting our ancestors,
40:59 our fathers and mothers, were fighting against legal segregation.
41:03 It was about passing one or two laws.
41:07 In today's world, it is more than that.
41:10 The problems are far more complicated than the work we have to do.
41:14 So I'm going to just ask you, if you are involved, get your friends and family members involved.
41:21 We cannot stand on the side.
41:25 Let's give Megan the last word.
41:30 I will say this real quick.
41:31 What I want you all to do for me, though, when you all get that jury notice, to come
41:37 and serve on jury duty, you all do understand the hardest thing for a black lawyer is to
41:44 go in the courtroom with our black client.
41:47 And the only other thing we see black in the courtroom is the judge's robes, because Negroes
41:53 got the jury notice to come to jury duty, and they said, "Oh, I can't miss real housewives."
42:02 They come up with every excuse in the world not to come and serve on that jury.
42:07 And you know what, Mark?
42:09 It's so deep, because they all say black lives matter and all this stuff, but the one time
42:14 they really can save a black life is coming to serve on that jury and save a black child
42:22 from becoming a convicted felon.
42:25 And so that's all I ask.
42:27 Megan going to get the final word, but you all, please, please, just one of you all in
42:33 the room, just one of you all in the room, it could be everybody else on the jury could
42:38 be white.
42:39 It changed the whole dynamic of what they going to do.
42:44 Megan, good.
42:46 No pressure.
42:49 The biggest thing is that I just want everybody to truly take it personal.
42:55 We can't just be at home and watching our TV and watching our social media and having
43:00 an opinion and crying and saying, "Oh, I feel like I'm getting to a point where I just don't
43:05 want to see this anymore.
43:06 I don't want to talk about it.
43:07 I don't want to hear about it," and all these things.
43:09 We have the ability to really, really be the change that we want to see.
43:16 It really is that simple.
43:18 And it is complex and it is hard, but it's also that simple.
43:23 We need to educate ourselves on who we should be voting for and who stands for what and
43:27 who has said that these are the things they've been involved with and these are the things
43:31 that they want to change and all of that.
43:33 And we do need to vote.
43:34 At the end of the day, so many people are caught up on, "Well, I don't think it makes
43:38 a difference."
43:39 It's not going to hurt.
43:41 And the chance that it could make a difference could make all the difference in the world.
43:46 And the only way that it matters is not if you and me and me and me and you show up,
43:50 it's if all of us show up.
43:52 And so I just wanted to encourage everyone to just take it personal because these are
43:55 our lives and so many of us, we're not moving at the magnitude that we should until it's
44:02 somebody that we know or until it's our own children or until it's our own father or sibling
44:07 or brother, whatever it may be.
44:09 And so the biggest thing is that we have so much that we can do.
44:13 And if we all, as Mark said, use every single tool that's available to us, then we can have
44:17 peace knowing that and we can also have peace knowing that things are changing.
44:21 Well, thank you so much.
44:25 This was an amazing panel to be on.
44:28 And Pamela, thank you so much too for joining us.
44:32 Give it up for Angela Yee.
44:35 That's right, way up with Angela Yee.
44:38 And I also want to encourage people to run for office too, okay, because you can also
44:43 run for office or encourage somebody you know who you think would be great in that position
44:47 who you support, who's a great community leader, run for office.
44:51 All right.
44:52 Thank you, Essence.
44:53 Thank you, Essence.