MURDER TRIAL - Derek Chauvin

The question here is Law Enforcement finally be held accountable for their actions?

"Derek Chauvin’s attorneys blame drugs, witnesses in George Floyd’s death" PBS NewsHour 3/29/2021

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SUMMARY:  The murder trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin opened in Minneapolis with dramatic video of his fatal encounter with George Floyd.  It showed Floyd pinned by Chauvin's knee on his neck - for nearly nine and a half minutes.  Lawyers for the prosecution and defense began to lay out their cases, with the latter arguing drugs and health problems caused Floyd's death.  Yamiche Alcindor reports.

 

 

"‘He was terrified:’ Witnesses offer emotional testimony about Floyd death in Chauvin case" PBS NewsHour 3/30/2021

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SUMMARY:  The second day in the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin was emotional and tense.  One eyewitness to the death of George Floyd told jurors in Minneapolis that Chauvin, who is charged with second and third degree murder and manslaughter in Floyd's death, was cold and heartless.  Yamiche Alcindor has our report.

 

 

"Trial of Derek Chauvin, charged with killing George Floyd - Day 3" PBS NewsHour 3/31/2021

 

 

"Floyd’s girlfriend gives tear-filled testimony of his life on Day 4 of Chauvin trial" PBS NewsHour 4/1/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Prosecutors continued to lay out their case on day four of the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is charged with second and third degree murder and manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd last May.  Jurors heard from Floyd's girlfriend about his life and struggles.  Special correspondent Fred De Sam Lazaro has the story.

 

 

"For some, ‘an extra layer of trauma’ surrounds Derek Chauvin’s trial" PBS NewsHour 4/3/2021

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SUMMARY:  The trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin—charged with murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd last year—wrapped up its first week of testimony yesterday.  The prosecution opened its case with testimony and video from eyewitnesses, emergency responders and police officers.  Minnesota Public Radio's Brandt Williams is covering the trial and joined Hari Sreenivasan from Minneapolis.

PORTLAND OREGON - Trump's Police State a Reality

"Portland Protests Grow Despite Violent Crackdown from Militarized Federal Agents & Local Police" by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! 7/21/2020

Heavily armed federal officers without name tags have carried out nightly attacks on antiracist demonstrations in Portland, Oregon, and snatched people off the streets into unmarked vans, sparking widespread outrage.  “What we’ve seen is a continuous escalation in violence against our protesters,” says Lilith Sinclair, an Afro-Indigenous local organizer in Portland.  They note the federal violence follows many years of “severe police brutality” from local police.  “It’s left the people of Portland not only worried about their safety, but, even more so, justified in the fight that we’re engaged in.”

AMY GOODMAN:  We begin today’s show in Portland, Oregon, where militarized federal officers continued their nightly attacks on antiracist protesters Monday, shooting gas and projectiles at demonstrators outside Portland’s courthouse, in a scene that’s become all too familiar in recent weeks:  camouflaged U.S. agents deployed by the Department of Homeland Security waging a campaign of violence against largely peaceful demonstrations in Oregon.

The harrowing scene in Portland has drawn increased outrage in recent days, with Oregon Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden demanding federal forces be removed from the streets, and an investigation into reports that unidentified federal officers have snatched protesters off the streets into unmarked vans and detained them.

On Saturday, Navy veteran Christopher David, who went to the site of the protests to question the officers about their use of violence, was hospitalized with his right hand broken in two places after the officers beat and pepper-sprayed him.

On Monday, Trump praised the use of unmarked cars and unidentified officers against the antiracist protesters and vowed to deploy law enforcement agents to more U.S. cities.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:  We’re going to have more federal law enforcement.  That, I can tell you.  In Portland, they’ve done a fantastic job.  They’ve been there three days, and they really have done a fantastic job in a very short period of time.  No problem.  They grab 'em, a lot of people in jail.  They're leaders.  These are anarchists.  These are not protesters.  People say “protesters.” These people are anarchists.  These are people that hate our country.  And we’re not going to let it go forward.

AMY GOODMAN:  Acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli echoed Trump’s comments on CNN Monday.

KEN CUCCINELLI:  We backed up the Federal Protective Service, which is responsible for protecting the courthouse there and other federal buildings, with other DHS law enforcement components.  And that — and we’ve been there ever since, wearing, by the way, the very same uniforms every day, and the crowd has seen them every day.  … If we get the same kind of intelligence in other places about threats to other federal facilities or officers, we would respond the same way.

AMY GOODMAN:  But protesters in Portland say they won’t be deterred.  This weekend, a group of mothers joined, formed what they called a “wall of moms” outside the federal courthouse to shield protesters.  This is one of the mothers.

PROTESTING MOTHER:  Their actions are terrifying.  I mean, we, as a democracy, we need to stand up.  I am 60 years old.  I probably shouldn’t be here in public.  But this is beyond acceptable.

AMY GOODMAN:  For more, we go to Portland, Oregon, where we’re joined by Lilith Sinclair, an Afro-Indigenous organizer, along with an ASL interpreter.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Lilith, if you can start off by describing these last 50 days, why you’re out in the streets protesting, and what has been the response by not only the state but these federal officers that have not been — unclear who they are?

LILITH SINCLAIR:  Thank you so much, Amy, I want to say first, for having us here and for helping us to provide accessibility to this interview, which is something that we’ve been really focusing on in Portland for the last 50 days, starting on day one and staring two years ago.

It’s hard to encompass the depth of what we’ve experienced in the streets here in Portland.  This movement originally started with a single Black mom coming out to the streets and leading the call for an occupation here in Portland on the federal court steps to demand change.  And what that has swelled into is a movement, thousands and thousands strong, that has really proven to unite so many of our people here.

What we’ve seen is a continuous escalation in violence against our protesters.  But something that is important for us to understand is that here in Portland we’ve been facing severe police brutality, even from our local police force, for years, years, years and decades.  The movement that we have right now, what is happening in response to, as you mentioned, an international, really, uprising against police brutality, racism and, I would say, even more than that, against oppressive structures, because this isn’t just a movement about police brutality.

And so, what we’ve been experiencing is a solid escalation.  It started out with, as per usual, our local Portland Police Bureau engaging in a lot of not only intimidation tactics, but violent brutality against our protesters.  We’ve had officers that have been deploying flashbangs after flashbangs after flashbangs, while simultaneously deploying CS gas and other munitions, tear gas and all of these different types of pepper spray bullets and new things that we actually haven’t even seen, once the federal government has come in.  But this has been a long-term engagement with a militarized police force.  And it’s important for us to recognize that the federal occupation has escalated it, especially because of the rhetoric that we’re seeing from those who hold office.  But what we’re noticing is that the violence, as per usual, is continuing to rise.

We’re seeing these disappearances.  I think it’s important to note that these unmarked cars that are going around in the street are unmarked rental vehicles.  They are full of men in uniforms, no badges, no IDs.  They refuse to even answer the question of “Are you or are you not law enforcement?”  And it’s left the people of Portland not only worried about their safety, but, even more so, justified in the fight that we’re engaged in — a recognition that especially during an international global health pandemic, as you talked about these numbers rising and the continued push of normalcy in the midst of all of this, especially from not just Republicans but also Democrats, too, who are continuing to hold this pressure to reopen, like here in Oregon, where we created the new reopening and then saw people now, weeks later, experiencing higher rates in cases, being once again laid off from their jobs, being once again failed by the unemployment system.

And what’s happening in Portland is what’s happening all across the country.  The people have a moment to understand and truly see the failures of this capitalist, white supremacist system, because they have nothing but time on their hands.  And so, what we understand is that the movement continuing to go forward is only swelling.  It’s why we see moms coming out to line up a wall.  That was followed up last night with the dad bloc, a lot of amazing, amazing folks that came downtown last night after watching people get brutalized on a nightly basis.

We are spending our nights in terror.  We can’t sleep on one side of the city or the other due to the flashbangs, due to the tear gas across the entire city.  It’s affecting our houseless communities.  It’s affecting our neighborhoods.  And it’s gone unaddressed by both our state officials and also our local officials here in Portland, with nothing but well-meaning words, which is only further causing a very rightful sense of frustration, anger and a need for justice from the people here.  It’s why we see these things continuing to grow.

AMY GOODMAN:  So, Lilith Sinclair, can you talk about what you’re referring to, the elected officials?  You have everyone from the state attorney general to the two senators, the governor.  This is Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler criticizing Trump for deploying federal troops on the streets of Portland.

MAYOR TED WHEELER:  President Trump has used our city as a staging ground to further his political agenda, igniting his base to cause further divisiveness, and, in doing so, endangering Portlanders.  President Trump has gone so far, is vowing that federal law enforcement will, quote, “dominate,” unquote, protesters and mobilize federal agencies to operate in cities.  This is an explicit abuse of power and places federal officers and Oregonians in danger.

AMY GOODMAN:  That’s Portland mayor and police chief [sic] Ted Wheeler.  That might surprise some people that he occupies both positions.  But, Lilith, can you talk more about what the elected officials are saying, your agreement with them in this particular case, but disagreements with them in others?  The significance of them leading this charge, which now mayors are picking up all over the country, saying to Trump, “Do not send federal officers here”?

LILITH SINCLAIR:  Yeah.  So, I do want to make a slight correction, just because I heard you say “chief.”  And Mayor Ted Wheeler is our police commissioner and also our mayor.

So, I’d like to break down a couple of things, actually.  Thank you so much for that fantastic question.  I think one of the most important things to understand is that our mayor here in Portland, Ted Wheeler, has one of the best PR teams — and simultaneously the worst PR teams — because as much as we can play the words that were just shared here on the broadcast today, it’s important to understand that, for instance, something that made national headlines this month was when federal officers fired at a protester holding a speaker over his head, clearly unarmed.  That man is — sorry, it’s a little bit hard to handle because it made international news for our federal military officers to shoot an unarmed protester in the head and cause severe damage and hospitalization in that way.  However, it’s important to note that a year ago, during protesting against white supremacy, which is really, really, really, really, really present here in Portland, as a city within a state that was founded on a history of white supremacy and genocide — and what we know to be true is that even a year ago, when we were protesting white supremacy, our local Portland Police Bureau officers were firing flashbang grenades at point-blank range.  They actually hit a protester, wearing a very thick helmet, directly in the back of the head with a grenade.  It concaved both their helmet and also resulted in very severe skull fractures.  If they weren’t wearing a helmet, there’s almost no doubt that they wouldn’t be alive with us today.

And something that is important for us to understand is that Ted Wheeler is not leading the charge to anything except for his reelection campaign.  What we know is that we’ve been fighting for steps forward in regards to change around policing for years, in regards to the union police contract that we’ve been discussing here in Portland, that our mayor has been dragging his feet on for weeks — or for, I should say, years, in tandem with so many of our city officials, who I and others have had the opportunity to meet with.

And, you know, I think that something that’s the most poignant about it all is something that Ted Wheeler told a group of us as we literally cried, cried and yelled and expressed our frustrations in the Rose Room of City Hall, about the tear gas, which is an abortifacient, which affects all of our community members, which is destroying the lives of our houseless members and our neighbors and residents in the middle of a global health pandemic.  And Ted Wheeler’s response was to announce that they were considering doing an investigation.  And when we asked him when or how long that would take, he told us that there were no decisions on this yet, despite the fact that the day before, the Seattle mayor had actually already declared that she was going to be halting tear gas use by her police force.  And Ted, as the police commissioner, with the ability to do so, told us that he would not do so.  And he told us that he hasn’t gotten tear-gassed because he doesn’t want to.  And so, the recognition is that there is a disconnect.  We can’t look a politician in the face who says that he hasn’t gotten tear-gassed because he doesn’t want to, as though the millions of people across the world getting tear-gassed fighting for our rights and our safety and security don’t want to get tear-gassed, either.

And that is — that sort of inaction has been really evident all the way up the chain in regards to what Kate Brown has done about, for instance, perhaps pardoning prisoners in a state where we held for the longest time the, quote-unquote, “right” to process prisoners with nonunanimous juries.  That’s recently been overturned by the Supreme Court, and yet we still have prisoners that are sitting across Oregon jails and prisons that have been convicted with nonunanimous juries, wasting away, at risk of death of COVID.

And so, it’s an intersectional issue that we know is not centered on the police only, but when we talk about the Black Lives Matter movement, it’s important that we understand we’re talking about an intersectional movement that’s focusing on not just stopping the police from killing us, but stopping the entire system from killing us, whether that means a lack of access for the disability community, who also is Black; for members of the trans and queer community, who are also Black and are experiencing these things; houseless people, who are also Black; women, who are significantly underbelieved and at risk of death by our health system.  The issues are myriad and multiplied.  And the root of all of these issues, that we know to be true, is that all of this is based on the same colonialism, genocide, capitalism and white supremacy that is the foundation that this country was built on.

And here in Portland, we’re really making sure that we’re prioritizing education.  We’re prioritizing history.  We’re prioritizing teaching our people how to take care of one another.  And I think that that’s why it’s been so frustrating to consider what it is that our elected officials are or are not doing, because no matter what steps they take forward within — in regards to reform inside a system that is already broken and crumbling, we know that these, no matter what, are not steps that will save us.  And instead, we need abolitionist steps forward, fighting for the abolition of the police department, the militarized police, looking for the demilitarization and defunding of the entire U.S. military budget, understanding that we also mean abolition of the prison system and abolition of ableist, white supremacist, homophobic, transphobic and all these other oppressive systems that are all combined together, including anti-Semitism and all of these other things.

AMY GOODMAN:  Lilith Sinclair, I want to thank you so much for being with us, Afro-Indigenous local organizer in Portland, Oregon.

When we come back, we’ll look at the legal battle to protect protesters and remove the federal agents from Portland streets.  Stay with us.

OPINION - Shields and Brooks 6/5/2020

"Shields and Brooks on race in America, Trump’s response" PBS NewsHour 6/5/2020

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SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the latest news, including public opinion of the nationwide protests over police treatment of black Americans, President Trump’s response and use of force to dispel protesters and the reaction of prominent military leaders to his handling of the situation.

Judy Woodruff (NewsHour):  To help us make sense of a week that brought protesters to the — into the streets in more than 700 American cities and towns, the analysis of Shields and Brooks.

That's syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.

So, hello to both of you.

What about these protesters, Mark?  I have just been talking with Mayor Garcetti of Los Angeles about it, but, as we said, 700 cities and towns across the country, thousands and thousands of people in the streets.  It started out about George Floyd.  It's become, I think it's fair to say, something much bigger than that.

What do you make of it?

Mark Shields, syndicated columnist:  Judy, it's quite unlike anything I have ever seen.

The — most protests here in Washington involve the usual suspects on both sides.  Those are committed partisans, in some cases, zealots, who show up regularly.

This is remarkable in its composition.  It's people who are not protesters, who are not political activists.  At the same time, even though it's spawned by, inspired by the tragic death of George Floyd, it is not specifically racial.  There's a very large white composition in it.

And that, to me, is rather remarkable, the reach of it.  It's reached not only the major cities, but small towns worldwide.  I think this is of enormous significance.  And it can't be of little consolation to George Floyd's family and loved ones, but his death is having — his murder is having an enormous impact on this country.  And it will not be just transitory.  I think it will be permanent.

Judy Woodruff:  You think it will — David, do you think this is a different moment?  We have seen moments of protest.  We have seen police-involved killings of black men.

What's different this time?

David Brooks, New York Times:  I would say it's a combination of things.

I sort of think of it as a hurricane that's happening in an earthquake.  The earthquake started in 2014 with Ferguson, with a lot of terrorist killings, then with the election of Donald Trump.  And we saw ravines open up in our society.  We saw divides in politics.  We saw racial divides, economic divides, obviously.

And into this comes first a pandemic, just pouring water and exposing all the divides, and then this killing, this murder, which exposes them more.  And then you get this generational turnover.  You have had a generation of people under 35 who've seen the financial crisis, who've seen a bit of the war in Iraq maybe, but who've seen nothing on global warming.

And so this is a generation that is fed up.  And, frankly, a lot of people in the African-American community are fed up.  The word I keep hearing is exhausted.

And so I do think, when you calculate the depth of the ravines that are being exposed, with a generational change, with a sense of America finally turning to race as maybe the central storyline in our history or our story right now, these are just big, epic shifts.

And I do think it's like one of those big shifts that happen periodically in American history, '68 or 1890 or 1830.  And I think we're in the middle of something — I agree with Mark.  I think it's not just a moment.  It's a climactic shift.

Judy Woodruff:  Mark, a shift.

Will it lead to something distinctly different, though, from what we have today?  Because these protesters, as we have just been discussing, they want police departments defunded, or they want budgets cut.  They want real change.  They want more African-Americans elected to office, and many, many other demands about — around education, around housing, around communities.

Are those things really going to change?

Mark Shields:  Well, Judy, I think there's demands, and there's demands.

I think Mayor Garcetti made a good point that both the African-American community and the police need each other.  They truly do.  I mean, African-Americans disproportionately live in high-crime areas.  And they do want an engaged, principled and activist work — police force working to preserve peace and order in their community.

But I think we're far beyond the prayers and thoughts, reaction.  I think there's an awakening in this country to the fact that African-Americans, people of color have been treated — and it's irrefutable — been treated differently in law enforcement, and unfairly.

I don't think there's any question about that.

I do find it encouraging that two institutions that have been sort of sidelined, it seems, in our country that were so much involved in the American civil rights movement and were — played principle roles this week.

I thought Bishop Budde of the Episcopal Church here in Washington spoke up so forcefully about the photo-op using and abusing her church.  Archbishop Wilton Gregory, the African-American Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C., spoke out strenuously, emphatically against using religious places and symbols to exploit political advantage, especially when the message isn't one of inclusiveness or justice.

So — and the United States military — it's no accident that the United States military, the most integrated institution in our society, that the words of people like General Martin Dempsey and Admiral Mike McMullen — Mike Mullen, to add to Mike Hayden, Stanley McChrystal, and Admiral McRaven, as well as, of course, General Mattis, you know, and the reaction of the military, I think, was encouraging.

And so I'm hopeful.

Judy Woodruff:  David, I do want to ask you both about the President and bring in the use of the military.

But, just quickly, do you think there will be real change coming out of what we're seeing?

David Brooks:  Yes, I look at the polls.

And we never used to get polls where it was 50 — where it was above 55 percent for anything.  We were completely an evenly divided country.  And now we had a poll, PBS/Marist poll, 67 percent disapproving of the way Donald Trump is reacting to this moment, 67 percent reaction to the lockdown.

We had 67, 77 percent.  Again and over the course of the last three months, we have had polls in the 60s and 70s.  It looks to me like we're a less divided country than they were, Joe Biden opening up now an eight-point lead on the average polls.

So, I mean, the dumb thing to say is, we're moving left.  And the pandemic and this event have just underlined the inequalities in America.  And whether you like it or not, I just think that's the reality, if you look at the evidence.

Judy Woodruff:  And, David, let's — let me turn you to what Mark brought up.  And that is the President invoking the military, I mean, having the military, armed people out in the streets, troops clearing the streets forcefully to make way, so that he could walk across the area, the — Lafayette Square, to hold the Bible in front of St.  John's Church.

A lot of pushback, as Mark reminded us, from former military officials.  Even — we're even seeing current military leaders pull back.

Is this a moment of turn for this President, do you think?

David Brooks:  I do.  I mentioned the polling.

But, listen, he's [Trump] been a bully for a long time, but he was a bully over Twitter, and maybe he was a bully to the press.  But now he's using U.S. troops to be a bully.

I think what set General Mattis off was just watching the military, which is a fine, unprofessional and unpoliticized — I mean, professional, but unpoliticized organization, suddenly turned into a prop in a campaign video.  And I think that turned his stomach, as it should turn all our stomachs.

But I think what mystifies me — and it goes back to what you were talking about with Mayor Garcetti — is, you have a President who's taken this authoritarian line of domination, be dominant, unleash vicious dogs and dangerous weapons.

And that's not only just talk anymore.  And it swings through the Republican Party and Senator Tom Cotton's tweets about no quarter given.  We're going to dominate our fellow citizens, as if they are enemy.

And then I think it bleeds down to the police and the videos we have already seen tonight.  It's a theme that is coming from the top, from the White House, a theme of brutalism, of mental brutalism.  And it affects people.

And what we have seen coming out of the White House has been a more dangerous contagion than even with all the outrages of the past.

Judy Woodruff:  Mark, David raised the — it's term, and the President used it again today.  We need to dominate, he said, even as they are now announcing they're going to pull uniformed military out of the streets of Washington.

But the orders are there.  I mean, we know what happened this week.  We know that the President talked about calling out the National Guard.  He urged governors to use the National Guard.  He said they were weak, would look like fools if they didn't.

And we're left with the reminders of this.

Mark Shields:  This is the world of Donald Trump, to be very blunt about it.

Admiral Mattis may have put it best at the Al Smith Dinner in New York last fall, which I'm sure didn't escape the President's attention, when he said, I earned my spurs.  'I, General Mattis, earned my spurs in battle, and Donald Trump earned his spurs in a doctor's letter.'

And that's the toughness, that's sort of the phony toughness of Donald Trump, the swagger.  When his number and his chance came up to serve and to get tough, he, of course, ran and scurried personally.  But he's somebody who wants to bully other people.

And he does not — I guess what bothers me more than anything else — I saw him today in act that Jack Reed, the senator from Rhode Island, a very respected member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has called pretty and preposterous, pulling 9,500 American troops out of Germany to — why?  Out of spite and out of pettiness, because Mrs. Merkel declined his invitation to be part of the photo-op of the G7 at Camp David next month, because — on the very legitimate grounds of coronavirus.

So, I mean this is — the President, he does not understand the military.  It's kind of a crazy swagger, John Wayne movie version of it.  Most military people — I just miss John McCain so much.  If John McCain were alive today, it would be scorching and scalding, the rhetoric he would be directing at this President of his own party.

JUSTICE IN AMERICA - The "I Can't Breathe" Controversy

"What Eric Garner case says about federal prosecution of police officers on duty" PBS NewsHour 7/16/2019

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SUMMARY:  Eric Garner’s dying words, “I can’t breathe,” served as a rallying cry for protests against police brutality.  But the Justice Department announced Tuesday it would not file charges against the officer involved in the incident.  The decision closes the door on federal prosecution, as the statute of limitations expires Wednesday.  Yamiche Alcindor talks to Katie Benner of The New York Times.

BRIEF BUT SPECTACULAR - Police Brutality vs Respect

"Tetrina Blalock on police brutality and demanding respect" PBS NewsHour 3/4/2019

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SUMMARY:  Police shootings in African American communities have prompted public outcry in recent years, triggering a national conversation on the need for reform.  A year ago, Tetrina Blalock's cousin was killed by police after being shot more than a dozen times following a narcotics pursuit.  Blalock reflects on that experience and her own encounters with law enforcement in her community.

JUSTICE IN AMERICA - No Real Justice

"Outrage over police shootings and accountability boils over again in St. Louis" PBS NewsHour 9/18/2017

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SUMMARY:  Protesters gathered for a fourth straight day in downtown St. Louis to denounce the acquittal of Jason Stockley, a white former St. Louis police officer who was tried for the 2011 fatal shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith.  William Brangham talks to Tony Messenger of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about the case and the broader concerns about police brutality that are driving these protests.

POLICING IN AMERICA - The Questions

"What is it like to be a black police officer in America?" PBS NewsHour 7/15/2016

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SUMMARY:  NewsHour's Hari Sreenivasan sits down with the President of the Black Police Association of Greater Dallas for a deeper look at police misconduct, the code of silence, and what it is like to be both a police officer and an African American in 2016. 

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  How long do you think until this community heals itself from this?

LIEUTENANT THOMAS GLOVER, President of the Black Police Association:  I'd like to say we're on our way to healing now but all it takes is the next bad actor to upset that…

HARI SREENIVASAN:  We went to see Lieutenant Thomas Glover in Dallas two days after the police shootings.  He's the President of the area's Black Police Association and has the perspective on what it's like to be a police officer and an African American.  I started by asking him if it's possible to want criminal justice reform while at the same time valuing the life of every police officer.

LIEUTENANT THOMAS GLOVER:  I think it is, as an individual I'm that way, as an African American man, in America with over 35 years on the police department, I am that way.  The majority of the police officers that I know, we all want to see behavior that is improperly exhibited by a police officer criminalized.  You have to do your job as a police officer and then, on the other hand, when you remove your uniform and badge and you go home many of us spend our times in the black community.  The social organizations we tend to become members of are black, the fraternities, sororities, alumni associations so we go from being police officers who work in a process where its our duty to do what we were sworn to do and that's uphold the laws but then you have some very heinous things that happen.  I will not compromise my convictions, as an African American male for the convenience of being a police officer, just can't do it.  I have reported misconduct.  I have reported what I believe was to be excessive force and I have vigorously tried to call out people who openly practice what I would say were discriminatory acts or racist acts of treatment of people of color.  And so that crossroads is very evident as an African American police officer because first of all you are a part of the community.  There's nothing I will ever be able to do that will dissolve my black skin, nothing. 

"A long, violent battle over policing meets hope for change in Newark" PBS NewsHour 7/15/2016

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SUMMARY:  Forty-nine years ago this week, Newark, in New Jersey burned in rebellion against police brutality and racial injustice.  Today, activists and authorities continue to grapple with many of the same issues.  In this segment, hear perspectives from protesters and police at a Newark rally in the wake of the shootings in Dallas, St. Paul and Baton Rouge. 

"Social media plays major role in national debate on police violence" PBS NewsHour 7/15/2016

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SUMMARY:  Last week, news broke on social media on the shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, and of police officers in Dallas.  Platforms like Facebook Live provided audiences with a front row seat to violent and graphic imagery that sparked national debate about police brutality and race relations in America.  At the same time, social media provided a platform for messages of support and pleas for unity.  Hari Sreenivasan reports. 

"Would eliminating low-level offenses stop police shootings?" PBS NewsHour 7/15/2016

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SUMMARY:  Newshour Weekend special correspondent Chris Bury reports on new efforts in the Twin Cities of Minnesota to change how and when police interact with residents.  In almost an opposite theory to what's been called “Broken Windows” policing, there is an organized move to eliminate many low-level offenses.  This approach raises the question:  Would many of the police shootings of young men of color happen, if they were never pulled over or stopped in the first place?

"Finding common ground amid civil unrest" PBS NewsHour 7/15/2016

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SUMMARY:  Monifa Bandele, the senior campaign director of MomsRising.Org; Journalist Ian Tuttle, a fellow at the National Review; and retired NY police detective Marquez Claxton, director of the Black Law Enforcement Alliance, discuss their thoughts on how to find common ground on policing, protest and race.