payment and a tax. the political process won't work if the voters don't know its value, right, what they are really saying. that argument works sometimes, right? if the government is doing things in secret, if it is addressing laws discrete, right? if it's asserting some right to some random committee bill that some giant authorization bill. ..

but there is every reason to think voters know exactly what was going on when it was passed and they know plenty of to vote against it if they don't like it. >> got to let adam in on this. >> too complicated to get into but debra has demonstrated the general academic view of how the case was and would come out or should come out and that is not what we -- the court thought the argument making people engage in a commercial transaction with a private company is fundamentally different from paying taxes to the government and getting something in return. i want to make a point to follow-up and come full circle by polarization. there is one way in which the ag -- the aclu is not polarized. this is a testament to steve's leadership. the greeks of the aclu, really

are read with care. i say that in a setting where the briefs are not read with care. you are lucky to make it brief. but i know in chambers on the liberal and conservative sides the handful of outside groups whose briefs get read among those would be the aclu because they are credible and trusted and that is a testament to a really smart legal show. >> last word? >> i will say this. i will thank everyone for joining us especially those who pushed back. you and ted. in your gentle, kind of way. i will just say this. for those of you who disagree with the aclu would never have given their time. incredibly generous to give your

time this evening to comment and engage in discussions. those who wouldn't even the time of day and switch the channel off of c-span. i say this. the context of today's panel was the aclu and american life. the question is what one american life be without the aclu? what didn't exist if america was worse for it? the answer in my mind is america will be worse for it if it didn't exist. we had to create one. even if you never support us or believe in our work, the issues are too we need to be silenced by bystanders. if we do anything right is just to get the far republican right wing part of america saying what is the aclu doing advocating on behalf of citizens united? get their light bulbs to sparkle and see how can i agree with the

aclu on this issue? that is the teachable moment for all of us and american life is all the better when we have these debates. democracy can be a great many things but it should never be quiet and our job is to be as loud and noisy as possible. a great -- thank you jeffrey and all of you. >> this is a huge subject. every one of these issues than a lot of time on and we get to a lot more than i thought and i appreciate students' questions, follow the panelists. thank you very much. thanks to cardozo for having me and hope you enjoy it. thanks very much. [applause] >> little bit of time. a little bit of time. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> april 15th, 1912.

>> caller: hundred parish on a ship called unsinkable. >> once the lookout bells were sounded the lookout cited an iceberg ahead. struck the bills of the crow's next three times which is a warning saying there is some object ahead. it doesn't say what kind of object. with the lookout then did is went to a telephone and called down to the officer to tell them what it is they saw. what do you see? iceberg right ahead. the response was thank you. >> said will help run the truth and myths of that night sunday at 4:00 eastern. part american history tv on c-span3. attorney general eric holder

will be speaking this morning at the annual convention of the national action network in washington. after his remarks a panel of legal experts discuss criminal justice system. this was founded by the rev. al sharpton. he and other speakers will address the shooting death of r trayvon martin and shootings in oklahoma where three americans were shot to death. this will get underway shortly on c-span2. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> live once again with words from attorney general eric holder who will be speaking at the annual convention of the national action network. also likely touching of the death of trayvon martin in florida and recent shootings in tulsa, oklahoma. three african-americans were shot there recently. as we wait for this to get underway other programming on the c-span networks today. un c-span at noon eastern john nichols of the nation will talk about the changing of the u.s. tax code. representatives from self-described progress of think tanks will join him. also included in parts of that discussion the warren buffett will which will require those who earn over $1 million a year to pay 30% of their income in taxes. that will be live this afternoon starting at noon eastern on c-span. also on this network at 1:00 eastern major league baseball

players and players in the major league baseball players association, michael wiener will discuss collective bargaining in baseball. the national press club. we will have live coverage of that at 1:00 p.m. eastern. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> we are bringing you live coverage of the annual convention of the national action network. this morning at speaker attorney general eric holder. he was expected a couple moments ago. we understand he will be delayed another 25 minutes so we will leave this at this point and return when attorney general holder does appear. in the meantime aspen institute symposium was held recently on race in america. we're going to show you a look at how the media covers racism and we will show you as much of this as we can until we get the remarks from attorney-general holder. [inaudible conversations]

>> okay. as i said, the last panel on the impact of race on the news me and vice versa and to moderate this we welcome back one williams. >> i don't have to introduce our first panelist. you know him so well. jose is a news anchor for telemundo and national director of the public program managing editor of their public programs. so i don't have to ask you to join me in welcoming him because you know him. now let me move on and introduce the rest of the panel if i can get my notes in order. andrew rojeki is the black image

and white minds, media and race in america. he is associate professor of the department of communications that the university of illinois at chicago. is research focuses on me and politics as they relate to globalization and race politics. join me in welcoming him. [applause] boris trung is the president of the asian-american journalists association. she is the multi platform editor on universal news desk at the washington post. she has been posed deputy metro copy chief for the extras shepherding a staff of 13 suburban sections and was in a national style department as a copy editor/head editor. she is on the board of unity, the journalists of color and a graduate in this case of an exceptional school, university

of missouri school of journalism. please join us in welcoming her. [applause] our final panelists is jose -- got the wrong person. antoine san quentin of nbc news. he built his career at nbc starting as an intern for the local station w r c. while attending american university. he has also been a producer of notable coverage in africa including reports from the eastern congo and historic interview with the sudanese president al bashir. he is an emmy-winning producer and documentary photographer. please join us in welcoming and one. antoi antoine. let me ask you about something that was mentioned in the last question we had the previous panel.

it had to do with race and media and an unusual affair which was athletics. the star of this moment was the new york knicks' player jeremy lin. when he became the focus of what was called l in sanity. so much extraordinary idea that there is an asian-american basketball superstar the question was how do you cover him and look at this. even espn has managed to offend him with some racially charged with language. look at what this commentator has to say or what this columnist has to say about stereotypes dealing with asian-americans. how do you in directing a news

bureau cope with racial stereotypes in this new age, the 20 first century? >> the challenge is to defy the stereotypes. it begins first and most importantly with the discussion on the inside. when you have a thriving editorial discussion on the inside with the makeup of journal -- qualified journalists who look like america because that is our challenge on the inside to make sure the discussion we have reflects what the audience expects to be served. define stereotypes, this wonderful basketball player who defies the stereotypes and again we talked about this earlier this week about our challenge is to cover the story behind the story. not just going with what you see and what you would expect to kind of imagine in terms of the stereotype.

look at this man's background. how did he get here? let's talk about the stereotypes. >> even though there is a basketball story to a basketball audience we think why is nbc talking about this guy's raise? making the big deal about somebody who just made a mistake? you would say it is part of the sports story. we cannot ignore the sociopolitical cultural aspects. >> can't ignore it and frankly you have to give people what they wanted their interested. it is your responsibility as a news organization to cover it, to discuss it and think about all the angle. >> even if they say we don't want to talk about race. >> we should talk about that as well. >> i want to come to you on the same idea. jeremy lin. a tremendous impact on the asian american community without a doubt but the question is how

should asian-americans be covered in the news media? we have seen so many missteps. have you seen it? have you felt it? >> absolutely. the asian american journalists association was forced to put out a media advisory in late february because there was a preponderance of stereotypical coverage of jeremy lin. some would say it was positive but positive stereotypes are just as positive -- harmful. the larger story of jeremy lin is a lot of asian-american men felt there was finally somebody on the national stage they could really look kind of that person with an powering them because of prolonged major american men have been emasculated and american public media and that is something that is harmful stereotyped we're working against. >> emasculated in what way? >> sevenisation of the asian-american male in the

united states in popular media as well as -- we don't see that with particularly other ethnic groups. there is a machoisation which is just as bad. >> one of the joke about jeremy lin was the size of his penis or something like that. people enjoy this stereotype or this mockery of asian-american men. what do you do? >> that is what we are here to, that as an organization. as good journalists we're here to make sure there is accurate reporting of what is happening and we all know stereotypes are not applicable -- >> you would have suspended the offer of that column. >> it is beyond the scope of my organization to say what happens. >> that is how you fight it? is a suspension enough or simply

produce a backlash of support for the columnist and offensive comments? >> the issue is you have to have whatever in the newsroom, people to police -- you need someone to police it to make sure it doesn't get out into the public to begin with and you need to have those discussions in the newsroom before it goes public. >> this is quite interesting. lots of people say we pay too much attention. while you focus -- just cover the ball game or let people talk about jeremy lin and if something goes wrong, okay. what we are hearing in both cases here is there is preconception built in and people have to pay attention. in your case you focus on the way black/white relations play out in the me and the story of the moment in terms of those black, white relations is trayvon martin. >> the most difficult thing for me to do when i teach my class and race, media and politics itt

largely white class of undergraduates with a few african-americans. who seemed to be thoroughly sick of talking about race. so the way i introduced the topic to them is to sort of give them exposure to the latest psychological research on it which tells us that most racial judgment takes place unconsciously. so i have them take this test which is an online test where you kind of select things like gender specific occupations or gender upper preoccupations or skin color, body size and so on and people are surprised to find out they have a preference automatically for something. in the case of white students they have a preference for light skin which they are horrified to find out about because the norms

have changed. these implicit associations often have an effect on the way people behave. the gravest sorts of things are things like shooter by a swear like in a video game if you see a white target or a black car that you are more likely to shoot the black target more quickly. that is presumably what happened in the case of trayvon martin. unless overlong turn things, it gets done to things like the famous experiment done with sending out resumes that was identical except for the name that was written on it. in one case it was laquisha ended the second case in with family. identical except that emily got 50% more call backs. even the people who were making the judgments about the various merits of these two candidates apparently had some unconscious

preference for one over the other basic on an association. >> tell me how that plays out for someone who is a new director or a reporter or a writer when it comes to covering this? >> i think it begins--and this is something we found when we were doing research for our book -- i did some interviews with whites who lived in suburban indianapolis. ..

where you can predict exactly what the first five minutes of local lose would be like. >> for cyprus of local news in most markets, poor people of color killing each other, a fire, robbery, some horrific event. >> pretty much. you wonder why people watch it because it's not really news the way it is presented. >> it must be comforting. >> well, maybe it is comforting and the sense you don't live in that neighborhood, but i think the more interesting story to be told which is really harder i think for journalists is what happened that led to that last? >> but that would invite a historical discourse. >> even in the case of a particular person that was shot, right, i mean, that's pretty

much what this documentary that recently got an academy award, the inner raptors, where people actually went in the neighborhood where there was violence and took pains to intervene with the person who is about to strike back. and then begin to talk to the person at this sort of interrupted the process. >> but that's not news. >> that's not news but that is precisely the problem. in other words, news is not defined in terms of what it's really substantive. it's just, it's almost ritualistic in a way. >> let me come to you on this very same story. trayvon martin. because one of the complaints about i have heard about coverage begins with coverage of the man who shot trayvon martin. i don't think there's any need for me to the alleged. i think everyone agrees he shot trayvon martin. so first it was described as a white man, and as a hispanic way. or white hispanic.

and then it became so politicized, oh, well, if he's not purely white, then it's a different story. it's not the traditional narrative of white and black. now we've got a white hispanic, hispanic white and black, and then, of course, it was well, then and, therefore, if the person is hispanic it couldn't have been a racial incident. how have you been dealing with this? >> that's a great question, very profound. we at spanish language tend not to label, even hispanic, non-hispanic, white, black, liberal, conservative. just try to be pretty neutral. i'm told i have to go. i want, if i could just leave a few challenges today and some food for thought. it all boils down to one big

issue, but there are two issues i see him in his world. one is the few latinos and minorities who are in the news came to believe that they have more rights than others to say things that are unacceptable to say. i've heard you the challenge, are you black enough by african-americans? what the hell is that? you know, are you hispanic enough? it's okay for me to use words and speak of issues that whites couldn't or shouldn't be talking about. that's i think unacceptable. we and our communities and in our roles are accepting. you're white, hispanic, african-american as you or. and yet we feel we can judge or can say things, well, you are not real black, are you? because i'm color come because

i'm only too. that includes the trayvon martin story a little. but the bigger problem is in our newsrooms management. >> see this discussion in its entirety on our website. go to c-span.org. we will leave this here for comments from attorney general eric holder. he will be speaking this point at the annual convention of the national action network. >> we are also very pleased that the attorney general is with us this morning and we're going to be happy to have him be presented to you. but first let me bring the founder and president of the national action network. there are no words that can really say enough about what reverend doctor al sharpton has done in building the national action network and, of course, in building a movement for social justice across these united states. and not only does he serve in

that capacity as president and founder of the network, but, of course, many of you now enjoy him every evening on politics nation on msnbc. [applause] let's give a rousing welcome to really the hardest working man in social justice, the reverend doctor al sharpton. [applause] >> thank you. thank you, and good morning, and certainly we're very happy to all of you that have come, some are still coming from the breakfast meeting, but we adjusted the schedule because we are honored to have open our convention a man that heads the criminal justice system for this country. let me say in introducing attorney general holder, we have

since his becoming attorney general worked with him and the justice department, not only in our interest in civil rights cases, but in the case of violence in our communities, and gang violence. we are equally committed as a civil rights organization dealing with civil rights and with violence. and with gang violence and young people. and we have found an open door to those discussions and partnerships under his heading that department since they have been in office. and we had enjoyed his speech with us last year, as were other cabinet members that the president, others who worked with her anti-violence legislation you. erika, stand up wherever your.

she had some -- [applause] shed some of the young people work around the country, pictures with the attorney general, and they have that with great pride in their headquarters, mr. holder, showing that they can meet with the attorney general. because clearly we want a spirit in our community where we look up to people, rather than glorified those that do the wrong thing. so i am honored to bring to use the attorney general of the united states, the first speaker at our convention here this year, and a native new yorker for you people that were unfortunate enough to be born other places, attorney general eric holder. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. good morning. >> good morning spent and new york is in the house. more specific, queens, new york, is in the house.

oh, come on now. don't have any met haters. thank you very much, reverend al. i appreciate your kind words. and am especially grateful or your prayers and for your partnership, your friendship, and also for your tireless efforts to speak out for the voiceless. to stand up for the powerless, and to shine a light on the problems we must solve, and the promises, the promises that we must build. it's a privilege to join with you, reverend richardson, and with executive director baldry, and so me distinguished religious leaders, elected officials, activists and concerned citizen, really kicking off a national action network 14th annual convention. i'm honored to be included in this annual gathering once again, and to bring greetings from a friend of mine, president obama. [applause]

each april this convention provides what i think is an important opportunity. not only to observe the anniversary of dr. king's tragic death and to reflect upon the lessons of his extraordinary life, but also to consider where we are as a nation, to examine our values and priorities, take stock of our project and take responsibility for the work that remains before. although 44 years have passed since our nation first mourned the loss of dr. king, it's clear that his spirit lives on. his enduring contribution have allowed me to stand as our nation's first african-american attorney general and to serve alongside our first african-american president upon back and a dream that he shared on the national mall that now includes a memorial in his honor has inspired countless acts of

compassion and collaboration, including the creation of a national -- national action network more than two -- opportunity and justice for all. today, this work goes on in your demand that those in power and in your aspirations for those in need. it goes on in your efforts to safeguard civil rights, to ensure voting rights, to expand learning and employment opportunities, to strengthen our criminal justice system, to achieve fairness, fairness in our immigration and sentencing policy, and to prevent and combat violence and private especially among our young people. on each of these fronts, you all are carrying on an caring forward the work of a leader who i believe does stand as america's greatest drum major for justice. a man of action and of faith whose example continues to guide

us, and whose word still has the power to comfort and teachers. a special and modes of difficulty and consequence. now, dr. king was no stranger to such moments. throughout his life, and most famously on the eve of his death, as he delivered the legendary mountaintop speech there would be his final sermon, reverend kean asked himself when, if given the choice any period in time he would choose to be alive, this question began with a journey through the ages. at each stop whether not a leftist or ancient rome, lincoln signing of the emancipation proclamation or roosevelt's call to fear, only fear itself, dr. king asked himself what era he would choose to experience and to help shape. his own, he ultimately decided. explaining that happiness comes from embracing the blessings and burdens of destiny and the opportunities that accompany

living in times of unprecedented and even heartbreaking challenge. only when it is dark enough, dr. king said, can you see the stars. today, once again, it is dark enough. despite the extraordinary progress that has left for decades and transformed our entire society, the unfortunate fact is that in 2012, our nation's long struggles will become in justice, to eliminate disparities, to bridge long-standing divisions, and to eradicate violence have not yet ended. and while we have not yet reached the promised land, i believe that today, once more, we can see the stars. we can see them in the courage, in the commitment of ordinary people nationwide, of all ages, races and backgrounds, who refused to allow fear and frustration to divide the american people. who continue to fight for the safety and civil rights of all, and who, in recent weeks, in the

wake of a tragedy that we are struggling to understand, have called not just for answers and for justice, but also for civility and unity, and for a national discourse that is reductive, respectful, and worthy of both our forebears and our children. now, this conversation is critical. it must be consistently elevated and advance, and not just in times of crisis. after all, our nation will be defined and its future will be determined by the support that we provide, and the door that we open for our young people, and by the steps that we take not only to keep them safe and to seek justice on their behalf, but also to stamp out the root causes of violence and discrimination, disparity and division. these efforts could not be more important or urgent. and as you'll discuss this week, that's especially true in african-american communities. just consider the fact that even

though overall national crime rates are at historic lows, today the leading cause of death for young black men, those aged 15-24, is homicide. and that on average 16 young people are murdered every day in our nation. how can our nation that is losing so many of tomorrow's leaders, teachers, artists, scientists, attorneys and pastors, the answer of course is that we can't. now, i know that many of you are greatly and rightly concerned about the recent shooting death of 17 year-old trayvon martin. a young man whose future has been lost in the ages. as most of you know, three weeks ago the department of justice launched an investigation into this incident, to remain open at this time. and prevents me from talking in detail about this matter. however, i can tell you that in recent weeks justice department officials, including assistant attorney general for the civil rights division, tom peres, have

traveled to florida to meet with the martin family, the community and local authorities. the fbi is assisting local law enforcement officials and representatives from the community relations service, the justice department peacemakers are continue to speak with civil rights leaders, law enforcement officers, and area residents to address and help alleviate community tensions. we are also communicating local with federal representatives and officials. in all of these discussions where we have seen carefully concerned, we're empathizing the deparle conduct a thorough and independent review of the evidence. although i cannot share what our current efforts will lead us from here, i can issue you that in this investigation, and in all cases, we will examine the facts and the law. if we find evidence of a potential federal criminal civil rights crime, we will take appropriate action. and at every step, the law will

guide us forward. i also can make you another promise. that at every level of today's justice department, preventing and combating youth violence and victimization is and will continue to be a top priority. as our nation's attorney general, but also as a father of three teenagers, i am determined to make the progress our young people need and that they deserve. and i'm proud that under this administration, the justice department has made an historic commitment to protecting the safety and the potential of all of our children. in fact, the first time in history the department is directing significant resources for the express purpose of reducing childhood exposure to violence, and raising awareness, through the department's landmark defending child initiative which i launched in 2010, along with a national forum on youth violence prevention. we are working alongside key stakeholders to develop and

implement strategies for reducing violence. we are also advancing scientific inquiry on its causes and its characteristics, and we are exploring ways to counter this negative impact. we are also making much-needed investments in youth mentoring programs as well as juvenile justice and reentry initiatives. and we're working with the department of education as well state local and committee leaders and stakeholders to dismantle the school to prison pipeline, and to ensure -- [applause] and to ensure that our schools are gateways to opportunity, and not entry points to our criminal justice system. beyond these efforts we're working in a range of other innovative ways to assure fairness and to expand opportunity from successfully advocating for the elimination of the unfair and unjust 100 to one sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses -- [applause]

so launching a new department wide diversity management initiative. and, of course, i'm especially proud of the steps were taken to restore and to reinvigorate the civil rights division and to ensure that in our workplaces and a military basis, in a housing and lending markets, in our schools and in our places of worship, in our immigrant communities and in our voting booths, the rights of all americans are -- [applause] over the last three years, civil rights division has filed more criminal civil rights cases than ever before. including record numbers of police misconduct, hate crimes in human trafficking cases. as our filings and settlements make clear, the civil rights division also is aggressively and successfully working to combat continuing racial segregation in schools, and discriminatory practices in our housing and lending market. in fact, last year the divisions fair lending unit settled or

filed a record number of cases, including a $335 million fair lending settlement which was the largest in our history, the whole financial institutions accountable for discriminatory practices directed at africans, africans and hispanic americans. [applause] in recent months, the divisions voting section has taken crucial steps to ensure the integrity, the independence and transparency in our aggressive enforcement of the voting rights act. and as we signal to our recent action in south carolina, florida, and in texas, we will continue to oppose discriminatory practices -- [applause] we will continue to oppose discriminative practices while also vigorously defending section five of the voting rights act against challenges to its constitutionality. now let me be very clear. this administration will do whatever is necessary to ensure

the continued viability of the voting rights act, our nation's most important civil rights statute. [applause] dr. king so often pointed out, in this great country the ability of all eligible citizens to participate in and have a voice in the work of government is not a privilege. it is a right. [applause] and protecting the right, the right to vote, ensuring meaningful access and combating discrimination must be viewed not only as a legal issue, but as a moral imperative. this means that we must support policies aimed at modernizing our voting systems, that ensuring that all eligible citizens have access to complete, accurate and understandable information about where, when and how they can cast their ballot. and preventing and punishing fraudulent voting practices. it also demands that we engage

in a thoughtful and truthful, truthful dialogue about where we should target our efforts, and where solutions are necessary. now, we might begin by acknowledging the fact that instances of in person voter fraud are extremely rare. a point that groups from different political affiliations have acknowledged, and different studies by organizations from the center to the republican national lawyers association have affirmed. now, despite its rarity, any instant of voter fraud is acceptable and will not be tolerated by the department of justice. there's no dispute on this issue. there's no reason that we should allow it to distract it from our collective responsibility to ensure that our democracy is as strong, fair, and inclusive as possible. let me be clear once again. whatever reason might be advanced, this department of justice will oppose any effort, any effort, to disenfranchise

american citizens. [applause] but achieving this goal cannot be the work of government alone. we will continue to need your help, your expertise, your dedication, and your partnership. and while i'm optimistic about the path that we are on, and the place that will arrive, i cannot pretend that the road ahead will be an easy one. many obstacles lie before us. and there are dark skies overhead. that if history is any guide, and i believe that it is, positive change is frequently a consequence of unfavorable, not favorable, circumstance. progress often times is the product of darkness, not like. remember, it was social frustration and moral obligation that brought an end to slavery and segregation that secured voting rights for women and civil rights for all. that provided health care for our seniors and our poor, to guarantee decent wages for our

workers. it was economic turmoil that brought us the progressive era in the new do. and it was a civil war that inspired the correction of our constitution and the reconstruction of our union. today, despite current challenges we must find ways to renew the sacred bonds of citizenship, and we must reaffirm the principles that, for more than two centuries, have kept the great american experiment in motion. that doesn't mean that on every issue we will always agree. in this country they will continue to be competing visions about how our government should move forward. and there must always be room for discussion, for debate, and for improvement. that's what the democratic process is all about, creating space for the thoughtful exchange of ideas, and creating opportunities to advance the progress that we hold dear. that is our charge, and this, this is our moment. so let us seize the chance before us.

[applause] let us rise to the challenges of our time, and in the spirit of dr. king, let us say but to the world that in america today, the pursuit of a more perfect union lives on. the march toward the promised land goes forward, and the belief that mary that we shall overcome, but that we will come together as a nation continues to push us forward. may god continue to bless our journey and may god continue to bless the united states of america. thank you. [applause] >> attorney general holder. as attorney general, before he leaves, and attorney hardy is going to bring the panel up because we're going to go into a session, each of our sessions will end with panels moving

towards where we resolve. this is a national network, not a procrastination network. [laughter] but i want the attorney general to know that we are very serious about continue from generation to generation. i want hackers our national youth movement director, and i want the tour you to come up. these are our regional youth director. i want him to take a picture with the attorney general. married is 14, and victoria is 12. they see our youth division. [applause] i want them to get a picture. a lot of people ask me about next-generation leadership, their generation behind her. they asked me will be the next al sharpton. i am the next al sharpton. [laughter] let's get that clear. i ain't going nowhere soon.

all right. thank you, and attorney, we do call the others. let's get down to business. the action is on. [applause] >> [inaudible conversations]

>> [inaudible conversations] >> [inaudible conversations] >> [inaudible conversations]

>> [inaudible conversations] >> all right, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to get started. this is our first panel of the day, and for those of you can look at the nametags, i will introduce them, but we have quite, quite, quite a panel of attorneys here for this panel this morning. my name again is michael hardy.

i'm general counsel to the national action network, and, of course, it is indeed an honor and privilege that i have, we say moderate hispanic, but, in fact, i will simply be introducing the panelists. each of them will make a brief statement, probably no more than five minutes. since we are a little tight on time, of course. but the reason why we want to do that, of course is we want to leave some time that may be afforded to us, for you to have an opportunity to at least ask a question or two of his very distinguished and very practiced panel. that topic that we threw out to the panelists is the state of criminal justice in america. and, of course, that is a mouthful, but again we have practitioners here to intersect with the criminal justice system

every day, and certainly within their remarks will be able to focus on a piece of that. but we know that we all strive for equality in the law and whether we're talking about trayvon martin, whether we're in the neighborhood dealing with stop in france, or frankly whether we are defending public officials that have been accused of some misty or another, it is a challenge. many have seen the criticisms that america and garza rates more people pretty much more than any other industrial nation. another issue with regard to issues of what is that we choose to charge people with in our criminal justice system and how that plays out. and, of course, at the end of the day it is the challenges that individuals face when confronted with the criminal justice system. so we hope to touch on some of that this morning. again, i want to thank and give a big hand, initially to everybody on the panel, and then i will take the time to introduce. [applause]

>> i will go in the order that they are sitting from my left. soda might the immediate left is theodore welsch junior, a partner at paul, weiss, rifkind, wharton & garrison pick in 2010, "national law journal" named mr. wells one of the decade's most influential attorneys, i'm sure many of you have seen his work, have watched him as he is defended some of the most high profile people across this country, and some friends in times of need. and we appreciate ted wells being with us this morning. thank you. [applause] next to ted is laura murphy, she's the director of the washington legislative office of the american civil liberties union, and again, what can be

said where this nation would be without the aclu. and thank you for joining us this morning. [applause] next to attorney murphy is e. christi cunningham, she's a professor of law at the university -- at howard university. she currently is on leave. she has been an author of many articles including raising cause of action i can only -- say that -- there you go. and the rise of identity politics. so give her a hand, and we are happy to. [applause] to have her with us. next to attorney cunningham is dr. charles ogletree. doctor ogletree is the director

of the charles hamilton houston institute for race and justice at harvard law school. of course, many of you may also recognize him as one of the mentors at harvard to the president of the united states, president obama. thank you. [applause] next to doctor ogletree is billy martin. billy is a partner in martin & gitner, again, he is a longtime practitioner. is represented people like monica lewinsky, jason williams, which was a great defense in new jersey, for those of you who follow that, among many others, and we are thrilled to have you with us today also. [applause] and then finally we have glenn martin. glenn is the vice president, development and public affairs at the fortune society in new york city, and the fortune society of course interacts with

many of the individuals who come into contact with the criminal justice system. so once again, let's give all of our panelists a big hand. [applause] and in no particular order, but also again because of some kind on 10 time constraints i'm going to ask dr. ogletree to start us off. [applause] >> good morning, everybody. it's such a pleasure to be in this great city once again, and they are attorney general talk about some of the issues that he is concerned about. i have to run shortly, and i will be back tomorrow as well for the conference. but i want to say a few words. in 1978, i graduated from harvard law school and a long conversation with my mother, who is alive been. and i told her first, mom, i'm not coming back to california. she frowned upon that and said

okay, and said i'm going to go to washington, d.c. she said oh, okay, that's a long way from home. i said i'm going to be a public defender. she said great, i'm so glad you're going to be defending the public against all these murderers and rapist, criminals et cetera. so i did make sure she understood it that way. but i enjoyed cutting my teeth are in the city representing poor people who found themselves in the faces of the criminal justice system. and i have to say that as much success as we have had lawyers defending people, it amazes me that from the 1970s to the 21st century, we have quadrupled the number of people who are in our prisons. more and our prisons than any other place in the world, in the world. as a civilized society. and it makes me even more disappointed that one voice that all of us have heard is not here today. some of you may know and some of you may not know that my dear friend and big brother to me, passed away just a month ago.

but he would've been on this panel and talk about the criminal justice system with his phenomenal there should as the naacp's president and director of council. so these remarks are obviously dedicated to him. they are registered we will talk about the issue of guilty, and i was going to talk about the issue of trayvon martin. because in many respects it is the symbol of justice and injustice in the 21st century, and i'm very please attorney general, his office is doing an independent investigation that i think that's important, but we have to tell the truth about what happened. and trayvon martin is dead because of his color, and of what he was wearing. and i think that can't happen in the 21st century. it can't happen. we keep thinking mississippi, alabama, north dakota, south carolina, this is in florida. this is in a gated community where he had a right to be, where his parents were trying to protect them from the sorts of

things that happen to young black men. often by young black men. and then to see this happen, it calls for all of us to rethink the criminal justice system. because no matter what happens we can't bring trayvon martin back. and we can't say at 70 his life was finished because we don't know what he could have been or would've been if he had not been struck dead on february 26 of this year. and so it's a constant reminder, no matter how much we talk about racial profiling, how much we talk about issues of criminal justice system, the overcrowding in the system, we always have to think about the trayvon state because he is now voiceless, and we have to be his voice. if we're talking about reforming the criminal justice system where to look at what happens to a kid who is young, was black, who has no record, who is in a gated community and who dies at the hands of someone else. who thought he was a drug dealer, who thought he was high, who thought he was weird.

he was just a 17 year-old black male, like so many in our communities. so we're talking about putting justice and criminal justice system. will have to save the trayvon of the 21st century. he is a symbol of what's wrong. and just think about changing the race. i want to see the first black man who uses a stand the ground defense and see if it works. i want to see the first white victim, first white victim of the standard ground by a black defendant and see if it works. it's the kind of law that we have to think about and the criminal justice system that is giving people power that they shouldn't have. it's creating an episode of targeting certain individuals. it reinvigorates issues of racial profiling. and any of us could've been trayvon trayvon that night. just what we will bring and the color of our skin would have made the difference. so if we're talking about a just criminal justice system we're to get rid of the propensity to judge people by their color,

where they live, where they were, what a drive, where they walk. that's profiling. and that's one of the major injustices of the criminal justice system. and so as i take my seat and leave, these panelists will talk about some of the things, let me just say this to the attorney general. i'm so glad we reduce the disparity in crack cocaine and powder cocaine from 100 to one. but it should be one the one. and that's the only thing that makes sense. we have to go all the way, not 18 to one. that's just a partial success. that's not the real victory. treat them fairly and equally in the criminal justice system. where to look at the. would look adequate public apology of mandatory minimums. it's a problem and a criminal justice system and it affects us. we have to look at the number of people in prison because of nonviolent drug use. not guns. so that's the issue. so issue is whether we're going

to take, we will all have climbed it will be involved in amount of that. we have to put justice back into the criminal justice system because it has been lost. and has been. it's up to us, it's up to us to put justice back into criminal justice system, and i hope will be able to do that. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, doctor altria. dr. ogletree has to catch a flight, and so we thanked him and please give another round. thank you so much. [applause] all right. next will be laura murphy. >> thank you, michael, and thank you to all of you for coming to this national action network convention. my name is laura murphy, and a director of the washington legislative office of the aclu, and i've spent my entire 36 year

career being a civil liberties advocate of, a civil rights advocate, and the criminal justice reform or. and i want to tell you a little story. my great grandfather, john murphy, start the affable -- afro-american newspaper in 1892, one of the largest -- [applause] one of the largest continuously running newspapers in the nation. and the reason the african about was because we wanted to chronicle the great problem of lynching and violence throughout america. and that problem of violence against african-americans is as much a part of american history has trayvon martin is. and so, i also come from a family of lawyers, but i am not an attorney. i supervise attorney but i am not an attorney. and thurgood marshall sued the university of maryland law school so that my father could become a lawyer in baltimore,

maryland, and later become a judge. so around the dinner table we have always talked about how the criminal justice system singled out african-american men in particular. and i'm the mother of a 22 year-old son, and i have had to teach him completely different protocols than his white classmates. i feel like i could be mrs. martin, there but for the grace of god. i live in a house, i live in a neighborhood that's a development that is gone from mostly black the mostly white in the 16 years i have lived there. five years ago when my son was in boarding school, they were so few black men in our neighborhood i had to send out an e-mail to my neighbors saying, please do not call the police because if you see a young black man walking around in a hoodie, that's my child and he lives here. so, trayvon martin affects all of us. and it affects me deeply.

but i'm not satisfied with the rallies. i'm not satisfied getting mad. we have gone from rodney king to the arrest, to the chain of, to trayvon martin, and the question is, what are we going to do about it? okay? and i'm here to tell you that next week, for the first time in over a decade, the senate judiciary committee is having a hearing on racial profiling. right here in washington, d.c. and i need y'all to come back, and we need to pack the hearing room on april 17 at 10 a.m. in room 226 of the dirksen center office building. and we need to be there for trayvon's sake, and for all of our children's sake. because there is legislation that has been just, just

wallowing, and nowhere bill, in congress. it's called the end racial profiling act. and we must insist that congress pass the end racial profiling act. and what that act would do, it would ban racial profiling in law enforcement but it would mandate training on racial profiling, because part of the history of the trayvon martin tragedy is that the police department has a history of mistreating african-americans. so there needs to be a study of whether there's a pattern or practice of racial discrimination. and i'm so delighted that the attorney general is doing it there. but, you know, what? this attorney general is investigating over 19 police departments around the country. by getting back to the end racial profiling act, we have to condition federal funding and local police departments on the fact that these officers get

training, that they vow not to violate people's constitutional rights. we had the disease in america where it's open season on stopping and arresting african-americans and latinos. [applause] is there something i have to tell you. the problem is not just in black and white. since the events of 9/11, the problem is also with muslim arabs and south asians. they have to worry about flying while blackbeard which led to worry about driving and walking while black. the problem is that the board of our nation with latinos who are american citizens and/or being deported because of the color of their skin. so the problem of racial profiling has calcified, and we must demand that congress pass the end racial profiling act. the other thing that we must do,

and we can't demand it unless we vote now, now, let me just say this. it's very find that we passed the fair sentencing act to reduce the disparity between crack and powder cocaine, but let me take a we couldn't even get all the democrats on the senate judiciary committee to reduce the disparity to one to one, that charles ogletree talked about. and senator schumer, where he was on that issue. okay? so i'm saying to you, unless we pack the hearing room next week, they're not going to get the message. all right? the other thing that we need to do, and i wish the attorney general could have stayed for question, because i would've asked him this question, mr. attorney general, why are you allowing guidance on the use of race and federal law enforcement that was written by attorney general john ashcroft in the bush administration, not to be updated? okay.

we need to demand that federal law enforcement officers be -- he can do this with a stroke of his 10. he doesn't need legislation to do this. so we need to improve the guidance of the use of race and federal law enforcement. and lastly, we need more resources for the attorney general's civil rights division, especially investigation division. under the bush administration that department was starved. and it's been up to tom peres and eric holder to rebuild that department, but we must demand that congress give full federal funding to the civil rights division. because we know there's more than 19 police department that engage in racial profiling. so here's what i'd like to do, because i, you know, you get me started and i can get really upset about stuff, but i want to be known, i want to be known as a leader who is about solution. and i want us to understand, this is a black and white

problem but it is not just a black and white problem. and i want to say to all white americans, when law enforcement uses race as a factor to determine or to predict criminality, they are being incompetent. because race is not a predictor of criminality. we don't offend as people of color any more than white people do, but we are prosecuted more. we are incarcerated more. we are demonized more. so the community isn't safe if law enforcement is using lazy tactics to say oh, let's get all the black people let's get all the muslim people. that's like me saying let's address all the catholic people because they are opposed to abortion, and some of portions national we don't arrest all the catholics because a few bad catholics. we don't do that. that's not an american justice. we investigate people based on the criminal predicate.

we don't investigate people because of your religion, because of your national origin or because of your skin color. so i will end by saying, i have three handouts and i'm going to ask my three aclu colleagues to come forward. let me tell you what these handouts are. one is the description of the end racial profiling act. the second is a press release announcing the hearing, the who, what, when, where and why. the third are the frightening and overwhelming statistics about incarceration in america. we have 5% of the worlds population and 25% of its prisoners. what kind of america is that? we have more over incarceration, which is a national aclu priority, then we had in the '70s. if we wanted to go back to the

incarceration level of the '70s, we would have to remove four out of every five prisoners from jail. four out of every five would have to be returned to the streets, to go back to those levels of incarceration. and what change that? the war on drugs. and the war on drugs is the war on people of color. and we've got to end that war on drugs, which is 41 years old, has not reduced peoples dependency on drugs. and when you have people like george will, conservative george will, raising the question, she we continue the war on drugs, you even have people like newt gingrich raising the question, should we continue the war on drugs. we are not going to solve this. we have to build bridges with republicans and democrats, the way we build bridges to pass the fair sentencing act that president obama signed into law. so i hope you will take these

three documents. they are very simple, and take them with you. and we have to live true to what nan stands for. it's not the national procrastination network. it's the national action network. so help us, please take action. thank you very much. [applause] >> all right. like she says, they're suddenly beginning to throw down the goblet, because she said a lot of this will fall onto your shoulders. before i bring up ted wells, i just want to say sometimes it's never in our material but there's always those have been in the background of the national action network, and, of course, have been one of those that have helped and guided him lend a hand when needed to the national action network, and to reverend sharpton. so ted, we also want to say thank you for being here, and thank you for those years of friendship.

ted wells. [applause] >> i live in new york now, but i am a d.c. boy. i was born here, went to coolidge high school. and when i was growing up in d.c., it was a segregated city and there was no confusion that we were in the middle of a struggle for civil rights. a lot of people don't remember that washington, d.c. was one of the five school districts that were part of the brown v. board of education case. d.c. was formally segregated. i started kindergarten in 55, right after the brown decision was issued. and it was supposed to produce integrated schools. but what happened, most of the way folks moved out of the city by the time i got to coolidge it was all black. but there was no confusion about the struggle. no confusion at all.

the problem we have today is that a lot of people don't even realize there is a struggle. a lot of people want to talk about we live today in a postracial society. they want to say because barack obama is the president of the united states, because eric holder is the attorney general of the united states, well, there is no problem, race is not an issue anymore. and that's the thing i'm most afraid of, and you have a whole generation of people, some black, some white, you are totally confused about the state of racial affairs in this country. if you look and any factor that measures the quality of life, black folk are in crisis. the educational system, is a mess.

employment, we underemployed. if you look at housing, we have been hit by this recession, i'd the subprime crisis more than any other group. now, if you look at the criminal justice system, we have more african-american males incarcerated than in any time in history of this country. it is a crisis. and if you look at the plight of the black male who has the unfortunate luck to become part of the criminal justice system, that person, once he goes into the system from and i don't care how many years he goes in, if he goes in one year, he goes in six-month, his life is basically destroyed. [applause] it's not just about reducing the crack cocaine numbers so that a young black man only serves four years instead of 10.

if he goes in at all, in this society i can tell you right now, he cannot vote if that's taken away from him. he's not going to be able to get a job. can't get a job. now their programs you, you can't even get into certain public housing projects because you have a criminal record. okay, you have to understand that this is a national crisis in terms of number of black males, and its increasing number of black women. started out as a male issue but now it is broaden. it really is a crisis of both black males and females in terms of going into this criminal justice system. because it stars you for life and has ramifications far beyond

the people that go in. because they have families. they have brothers. they've got sister. okay, i've got a daughter. she's looking for a black man to marry. okay, and the brothers are in jail. so i want you to understand, there is a crisis, but part of the biggest fear i have is this notion that there is no crisis. because we are not going to be able to solve this issue just with people from the action network, just with black folk. we've got to have a national dialogue about this issue your if the number of people in prison, in terms of the proportion to their representation of population, if white folk were in prison the same proportion as black folk, there would be a national dialogue, okay? and we need that dialogue, but again, everybody has to realize, as great as the president is, it's great where the attorney general come speak to us today,

there are a lot of people that are trying to use the fact that they are in office as an excuse not to address these issues. and anybody who talks about this postracial society, it's a shame. it's a scam. okay? so what we have to do is make sure, because i know i'm preaching know i'm preaching to the choir here, we've got to go out and talk to others and make sure that we can have this dialogue. because unless we can change these number's, and we are not going to do in an incremental fashion, just kind of narrowing the gap between the crack cocaine issues. and less we can really stop, stop putting so many black men and women into the prison justice system, okay, we're not going to be able to deal with us. and i know one thing. i was born in 1950, i was raised in the city, and people are no different today than they were in 1950. people did not go to jail like that when i was coming up, okay? people suddenly -- didn't

suddenly get bed. this war on drugs resulted in a quadrupling of the number of black males and females in the prison system. these people are no different today than when i was coming up. you have a systematic regime that make sure that a certain proportion of our community ends up in prison but once you're in prison, it's like new slavery. it's like the new slavery. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. next we are going to have attorney martin, billy martin, and you know, those of us in new york sometimes when they say billy martin, you think of the former manager of the yankees, but he's a slugger in his own right. attorney billy martin. [applause] >> good morning.

one thing after losing to the attorney general and after listening to mr. ogletree and ted and laura murphy, you get an idea that when you get up, you got to get up strong. .. i was telling my wife, michele martin who has her own show on npr that trayvon martin happened to me when i was 17-years-old.

vigilante's stopped me and another black friend of mine, a couple of white guys, a group of black guys had beaten up his younger brother and they'd beaten him bloodied him up pretty badly. we were going to get a haircut walking down the street, car pulls up and they were asking directions me and my buddy and walked over and a shotgun comes out of the window and he says which one of you were niggers hit my brother and i thought then that's it. at the time my buddy that was a big lineman told me don't run because i won't be left here, don't run. [laughter] so we stopped and, you know, it kind of escalated and the guy was in the car bleeding and thought is that them? and i've always in my mind thought what if he had said yes. so i want to start their by saying after that i had an interest in being a lawyer and

wanted to go to law school to do some good things. and when i came out of law school, i wanted to go to one of these big firms or to be sec securities exchange commission to do securities loan but when i graduated law school in 1973, they warned hiring. so what did i do? i went into the da's office, the only job that was offered to me when i graduated from the university cincinnati was a position in the da's office in cincinnati. and i thought i can do this, because as a people, we have to understand that we can't ridicule and point fingers at those of our community that work within the criminal justice system. you need people on the inside, you need people to understand that system. we need judges who have come to the system coming and we need people to understand what the system is like from the outside, what it's like from the inside. so my background is one of those

people who decided to understand what the system is from the inside. i will fast-forward for you because i joined the u.s. attorney's office here in d.c.. i rose pretty quickly in the office here in d.c. and out of the 500 lawyers they had running here in the u.s. attorney's office, i was number three so i was chief of operations in d.c. and set a lot of policies. [applause] set a lot of policy and understand policy coming and i can remember when i was running that office that if somebody came into the office with a usable amount of cocaine -- and that might be up to a gram, might be a little less than a gram -- but if they had that in their pocket we would say to them throw it out and dismiss the charges. so when ted talks about all these people were not charged, no, they were not charged because prosecutors exercised discretion and not charging.

so when i looked at -- when we talk about the issue that we talk about the state of the criminal justice system in america the system is the same now that it was 50 years ago. it is a system. now the difference in our system that i believe is we now know how to address the system. we now know how to demand the system deal with us and we can make real change. i thought about trayvon martin and i thought about that might. for years when the crack cocaine war broke out in d.c. i was asked to start a homicide unit as a prosecutor here in d.c. but we started that, and i cannot imagine on the inside of the criminal justice system the fact of this case homicide detective tells me there is a guy following this kid in the car who was told not to get out of the car who got out of the car,

he chased the kid down who had a gun who shot the kid, the kid died and the man claims self-defense. i can't imagine -- [applause] under any circumstances that somebody representing that to me as a screening prosecutor tell you don't say arrest him. [applause] and you say to arrest him because it is not the duty of a police officer to solve that crime on the street. what is the state's criminal-justice in america? we still have people, the system is okay, but laws, are there. the wall should be for all of us triet but we still have people interpreting those with laws. that's where our problem is

because when a police officer decided that this kid was beating you up, wasn't he? that was his racial views coming out and that should never happen. how do we make these changes? it used to be she would say we hire more black police officers but i can tell you that's not the answer and we all agree that it doesn't matter who is implementing and interpreting the laws. somebody has to have justice in their heart and understanding of what equal justice means. ladies and gentlemen, what we talk about the state of the criminal justice in america i keep the system we can make work and i will tell you why. you've heard the members who talk about the state of incarceration. when i go into any jail and head as i do, we've represent white collar people, we do civil litigation and we represent some

gang bangers, represent people who do criminal things. representing a guilty person? never mind. [laughter] every now and then you will say things to somebody what happened and your client did what they are accused of doing so then you try to figure out how do i make the system either prove it, that's what we do. it's not whether it is guilty or innocent, can you prove it, and if they can, make the system work. the one thing i want to walk away saying today is we need to reform our criminal-justice system so that there are more checks and balances so take the ability of one individual to be able to direct the case. a state's attorney down on florida decided we are not going to do that and that is when the

system fails in a black kid that shot a white man can walk away from their when you look at the scales of justice and they are blindfolded we really want the wall to be enforced and a color blind system. we are going to talk today and one of the things i'm going to be very comfortable saying to you is when i go to visit a client or a prospective client that is locked up and i walk in that jail and i don't see anything but black males, it breaks your heart and it troubles you to know i am the father of a young black kid, young black male and i have had to learn to say to my kid shut up at times and even though you are right and we want you to survive and we should not have to do that. if there's one thing that we all

agree on today is that living in america as a black male, as a black female at times but as a black male, you are one word, one bad mood from being a arrested or shot and we shouldn't have a system that allows that. thank you. [applause] >> we are giving you a lot to think about, and3 >> we are giving you a lot to think about, and hopefully we will die in your participation as we get there. we have a couple more speakers. let me bring it now a professor from harvard university professor cunningham. [applause] >> good morning. first would like to give honor to god. i think this is an amazing opportunity. i'm very grateful to be here to speak about these very important

issues. i also want to thank the national action network for bringing this convention together at this important time, and for the work that they are doing. i have to tell you, i am a law professor at howard law school on leave, but i'm also assess the assistant secretary for regulatory affairs of the department of labor. i am speaking to you right now in my individual and personal capacity and as a professional all leave not in my government capacity to get so nothing that i might say should be reflection -- [applause] of the administration. first thing i would like to say is we need to get in a position where we stop asking. [applause]

as the panelists have said, this is not a confusing situation. why are people acting like we don't know what happened? we know exactly what happened. [applause] why? because it has happened so many times before. so let's not be confused, and let's not let people that are saying it is a confusing situation cloud what is going on. let me step back for a second. i jumped in to eat. i will start with a little personal story like everybody else did. i have a 5-year-old daughter and it's strange how god works things out to the it was a cooler day today. was the first i put her in a sweater and we stepped outside and said she needs more than us letters of then i put another little jacket on top of her because, you know, the weather

is changed. as we were getting into the car, i don't know why she said. she said maumee, does this have a hood. i said baby, no, it doesn't have a hood. let me tell another story. i was in kindergarten in the 70's and texas. my parents tried to send me to the neighborhood kindergarten, and they said no because of the color of my skin. do i look that old? so what i'd like to do is i would like to leave out for general stacks. i probably only have four minutes. i would like to lay out for the general stats of what i think we

should start thinking about and doing, and then if we have more time, we can talk about expanding those leader. first is justice for trayvon martin. the national action network, the naacp, operation push, people all over the country and even all over the world have been working to get justice for trayvon martin. we need to continue to do that. but as the panelists have said, trayvon martin is just one child. so, regardless of what happened in this particular situation comedy is just a symbol of what happens all the time -- she is just a symbol of what happens all the time all over the country and probably other countries in the world. step number two is that we need to begin working on the criminalization -- and i'm using

that in a broadway -- of people of color nationally and internationally so that we get to a place where we stop asking. we have been asking in many different ways for a long time. if we remain in that position, and my scholarship talks about is a little bit, you're going to continue to cycle. it's like an abusive relationship. it has times where she's apologized, the abuser is apologizing to you for putting you in the hospital last week. that is the love cities and you get along for a little while. but guess what? a week, a month later he's going to put you back in the hospital and he's going to promise that that's going to be the last time. but guess what? as soon as you heal up, you're going to find yourself back in that same situation.

so, at some point you will either die or make the choice to stay in abusive relationship or make a choice to leave. and what i'm saying is that people of color need to make the choice to leave. and i'm going to -- [applause] i'm going to give just a couple more minutes and give a suggestion and i am probably going to get into a little controversy with somebody on the panel but i'm going to try to get to it. step number two, we need to get ready to be yet if justice does not come in the trayvon martin case, we need to prepare now to engage in non-violent constructive movement forward. we just need to start sending that message out and get i don't know what's going to happen, but we've seen what's happened in the past, and we can get angry and upset because it doesn't make sense.

we need to get ready to not let that become violent because that is a waste. we've been there before. it doesn't help us. we get hurt. our neighborhoods get torn up and nothing can happen so we need to lay the groundwork now comes the message out now. it's going to be non-violent if it goes wrong. and it's going to be constructive because we are moving on. we are moving out to a different place. step number three is we need to deal with the criminalization of people of color, and what i mean by that as the panelists have laid out all of the indicators. somebody needs to come out and just say this comes from slavery. nobody wants to talk about that anymore. we want to say nobody likes talking about this but it was never repaired. we can't forget about.

and it's not just black people, it's native americans come its immigrant population of migrant populations coming in. they all have different stories. but you have to repair the things. so what you get is disparities in health and incarceration, disparities in education, disparities in economic access is all of its. it's dysfunctional. but it's a systematic. but stat three is progress of economic and political collaboration. it's not a black thing anymore as the panelists say. you can't limit it to that. it's got to be across the scope. we need to pick out the factors that we want to address first, whether it's the incarceration,

education, or what i would suggest as a couple but let's study it and pick some out. let's go to the jurisdictions that have the worst evidence of that. let's do some massive voter registration. let's do some massive collision across the organizations. let's pull our money together across races and stop asking. let's set a new generation telling folks we've got our president in power, so it's not necessarily him that we are speaking to we need to identify the target, the local target of who we are talking to now here's where i'm going to get in trouble. we have to step out of this cycle of abuse and stop

wondering why we keep finding ourselves in the same situation. we are not in a post racial world. [applause] but we have to imagine that. that's why it got quiet. we have to imagine what the world looks like it's not directed by the system, the paradigm that slavery created. slavery created this racial paradigm. we have been living in this racial paradigm, this colored paradigm. is this all that we have to work with? is their nothing else that we can imagine? i was doing good before i got

there. [applause] thank you. [applause] >> thank you, professor. before we go to our last presenter, let me just do a couple things because we are going to take some questions and answers. i also want to see the politics panel, and also james sperling, the door of the national council of economic advisers and assistant to the president, also all of that will be happening in this room as soon as we wrap up here. so, i just -- that's what do they call that, in a little station announcement? also, as i look out, i just want to recognize one of our board members is here in the room with us, dr. david jefferson, senior. he's a senior pastor that the metropolitan baptist church, and

also a practicing and licensed attorney in the state of new jersey, and so we welcome him today. obviously has a special litigation going on, for those of you that don't know dr. jefferson. let me bring glenn martin. glenn martin acid is the vice president of development public affairs for the fortune society. [applause] >> good morning. as soon as i walked in the romance of a panel i said as long as i don't go last i'm okay. put me after a bunch of heavy hitters, all right. so, i'm going to be sent send. i would like to think michael for the in like to think michael for the introduction and the. i would like to think michael for the introduction and the national action network for not just talking about these issues but for literally putting soldiers on the ground to deal with this very important issue, because this is a civil rights

issue of our day and the truth is that our children and our grandchildren will be the ones that issued the ultimate indictment of our generation if we don't deal with this issue. so, earlier michael said we have a panel of attorneys. i want to clarify that. i'm not an attorney commanders to many cameras in the room to start playing one now. but i will tell you a little bit about who i am so i can contextualize the rest of my statements. i've been an advocate on these issues for over 15 years now, drafted legislation to remove some of the collateral consequences of that we've talked about today in the various states across the united states to remove barriers of employment and voting and education for people with criminal records. i currently serve as an executive with one of the most well-known agencies, reentry agencies in the country. we've been around 44 years, the fortune society essentially working to help large numbers of men and women coming home from

prison. but probably most important for this conversation is that i served six years in prison and new york state before i started doing this work. and so, as i think about these issues the first thing i would like to say especially to this group is if you care about social justice, prisons are the belly of the beast. and before we start talking about people with criminal records and how we handle people with criminal records and how folks get caramelized, let's remember one thing. if the majority of people who are committing crimes and in that in prison are the people of color, if they are coming from very specific communities and returning to very specific communities, then those are also the community center disproportionately impacted by victimization. and when we think -- [applause] when we think of a victim looks like, we rarely envision a young black man come devotee go to the bureau of justice statistics websites that is the most prominent victim of crime in the

united states. so i want to start there because i have yet to meet a victimizer that didn't start with some sort of victimization in his or her own life. and i will tell as a country we put a value behind every like that we lose in this country. we are going to continue to have people that go from being the victims of crime or connected to the victim of crime to becoming victimizers. so i'd like to give some applause to the current administration. i think the attorney general holder talked about his reentry level cabinet initiatives that brings together members of the president's cabinet to discuss how do we deal with the large numbers of people coming home from prison. 700,000 this year alone to but i'd like to give some of laws to congress for passing the second chance at each year for the past years to create resources for doing the sort of work that we

do at the fortune society reentry related work. however as stated earlier, the problem is so much larger than reentry. we have 5% of the world population, 25% of mobil's prison population, 2.3 million people in prison today. the 7 million people under some form of criminal justice. so, i warn drugs have been a failure, the war on crime has been a failure and it's been a war on poor people and people of color. the broken windows fury has only led to broken families and broken communities come and the racially applied policies like the one in new york city where we stop 684,000 people last year that's not a policing strategy that is a war zone strategy. but reentry programs are not enough. reentry programs are important, and i'm speaking as the executive at a reentry program, but they are not enough. if you believe we are going to

solve this problem by creating or reentry programs then you may as well build a hospital emergency rooms to solve cancer because that is what we are dealing with is a deeply ingrained cancer in our society. so, we need to travel upstream and determine where the bodies are coming from. because for every man and woman that we are able to help of an agency like the fortune society, there are hundreds of others that go right back into the system. a system that has a failure rate of two thirds over three years. 700,000 people coming home, two-thirds of them are going to go back according to the bureau of justice statistics. i don't know any other industry that is allowed to of the operate in that and continue to operate and continue to be fed resources to a $64 billion plus you're spending this year just on prisons alone. so it's not just about incarceration of its more than incarceration. a couple people mentioned it earlier. it's also about the lifetime

punishment attached incarceration. and we haven't been locking people up at this rate forever. in fact if you look at this trajectory in the timeline, it's been pretty linear in terms of the amount of people we put in prison in the united states until the end of the civil rights era. so what we did is we started looking up large numbers of people coming and if you extrapolate that date and you'll notice the large numbers of black men come and increasingly large numbers of black and latino women, and then we attach all these consequences to it. succumb if you have a criminal record, you can vote. if you have a criminal record you cannot go to school here. if you have a criminal record, you can't work here to read all the things we work hard for during the civil rights era if you will e's come ecology come employment, education, enfranchisement have all been taken away. a criminal record based discrimination is now a clear surrogate for the race-based discrimination. [applause]

so a couple of thoughts, and one is on the zimmerman case speaking as an individual and not representing the fortune society on these statements. you know, we are working hard to bring zimmerman to justice, and i think we should be working hard to bring zimmerman to justice but i want to remind the audience of two things. one, zimmerman ain't the only zimmerman. she represents a disease that is never going into remission in america. the believe that a young black man and a hoodie belongs at the business end of a gun. that's all law enforcement approaches young black men. and that the very system that we are asking the prosecute him has proven itself to be equally racist in its application of law. [applause] and in trayvon martin come and course trayvon martin is not the

only trayvon martin. there are millions of others like him to get i see it everyday. i live in harlem. one of the committee's disproportionately impacted by this issue. i can't walk into my building without police officers having young men against the wall issuing tickets for e legally congregating on the sidewalk. where the hell else are you going to congregate in harlem? and when i walk in my building and i'm dressed like this they want to say hello. and when i walk in like timberland boots they want to ask me to get up against the wall and where did you get that car from? so there are millions of trayvon martin's and many of them are doing life in prison on the installment plan. so i want to leave you with a final thought. when i was in prison in new york state during six years i remember to stories, both of them involve correction officers. one was on my way in, where a correction officer took a look at the gravesite on my test and said you know what, your grades are amazing. you should go to college. and he did what he needed to do to make sure we ended up in a

facility that had college. that's one story, right? a story about how one person can touch another person's life and turned around the trajectory of their life. so i want you to hold on to that one. another was a correction officer on the way out. and when we talk and he was asking questions about what am i going to do next in life and so on, there's something he said at the end of that conversation that really struck me. i don't want to screw this up. ..

>> we are going to have time for some questions. again, i'm very, very mindful, and i want to say thank you, thank you, thank you. because some of the attorneys of your have come at great available our/we are certainly keeping them, but we appreciate their willingness to stay and entertain, because trying to have some interaction with you is very important. i say that to say this. this is question and answer. we want to try to keep the questions concise, and wanted keep the answers concise so we can get to as many as we can within the time that we have remaining. also, you know, the attorneys here gave the opening statemen statements. we don't need anybody else to join in to give any opening statements. please, whatever your thought

is, try to put into a question. and the people of your as you see are very versatile and they will be able to help you make the point that you're trying to make i'm sure. so let's try to do that so we can all participate in this. and then again, let me again say i did, when i was making introductions, saying that we had a great panel of attorneys, and i really should've i really should've said advocates everyone here truly is an advocate and can we want to thank you all for being with us. so we will take our first question. >> yes. looks like they turned it on. i'm an independent candidate for congress, seventh district in indiana. i come to say that we need to have a paradigm shift. my question is this. why are we so bent on basing our strategy on nonviolence, and not

on what's legal? if we deal with legality, the law says we have the right to stand our ground. why what we teach our children to do something other than stand out ground? when we, billy, get on it. it's not the law. it's the application of the law. so until we get the courage to stand our ground, then the law will continue to be applied in a way that we get the short end of the stick. it's time for us to stand our ground. [applause] >> all right. i don't know if there's a question in there, but if anyone wants -- spent why do we deal with nonviolence? >> okay, i got it. okay.

i guess, i don't know where the technicians are, i'm assuming the mics on the table are good. so if anyone wants -- let me -- i will make one comment with regard to the. and i understand your statement. i understand your question. and you know, there's a difference between standing aground and the situations. and i think as billy certainly referred to, you have a legal right to do that. there's a difference between that, however, and building a nonviolent movement, which we have participated in building across this country and a tradition of dr. king. and you should never confuse the movement for nonviolence with whatever some private personal situation should be. on the other hand, you always,

and i say this with caution. usurping need to be careful, because we live in a society and we know, again, when you start getting with these notions that communities should somehow simply take on their own self-defense, then you are asking for war and, frankly, i think then you put our people in a very dangerous situation. and so i appreciate, i think the question is a good one, and it deserves discussion, but i think they can't conflate the two. >> i would just say, standing here, if you mean by stand your ground, to take a finish of the legal system that is there, we should do that. i understood your question to be, rather than back down, make the system work, we're not talking going back to the '60s where the panthers and everybody walking around, the shotguns,

we're not talking a standing aground there. but if you're talking about standing there and not letting, that's what we're doing with trayvon martin. legally we are saying we want to stand our ground and make this system work. so i don't think, i hope he is not talking about getting out there with your guns, because they will execute you. but you want to make the system work. >> good morning, everyone. my name is mark matthews from clean slate america, and i'm also here representing the baltimore chapter of the national action network. [applause] this really is not a question come but i know we're here to look for solutions, and to offer ideas. so first let me say that, number one, and this will be a little startling because i like to open with this. i do think that the war on drugs was a success. it did everything it set out to do.

it made millions and billions of dollars for people that want to make sure that they kept us down. they broke up our families. the incarcerated us by the millions, the consequences will last a lifetime. my organization specializes in a criminal record expungements, and everyday i have grown men and women who sit at my desk and cry real tears because they realize now that they've served their time, they have done with a system has asked them to do, that they're not able to find a job, no matter how much training or education they get, they are locked out of the workforce for a lifetime. as was stated earlier, it's not just about that individual. because there someone that is supporting the individual, someone is putting food in the mouth, putting a roof over the head, and hoping and praying to god that they find employment. and at the same time that individual is not just responsible for himself, he or she is responsible for someone else. their children that are hoping that this person finds a way in life. so what we need to do is continue to fight, make inroads

into the local system. what i would like to suggest that all of us do we get back home, in baltimore on june 16 we are having a community discussion on elizabeth alexander's book, the new jim crow. we're bringing people from around the region to discuss the book can also look for solutions so we're looking to build collaboration. so i would suggest that we all consider doing that when we go back on. and additionally and lastly, i have commissioned a study to take a look at the money trail, and offer financial solutions to states to inspire them to change policies that affect people. what i'm talking about is look at how much states spend, millions upon millions of dollars to support those people with records. they are supporting them for food stands, cash assistance, medical assistance, subsidized housing. but if they remove the barriers to employment, they let those people find jobs, instead of spending money to be making

money because those people will be putting money into the system. >> all right, thank you. and i'll invite anybody that wants to comment on the. let me just say i'm glad you talked about solutions because certainly one of the things that we want to come out of this with, and one of the reasons why we do this panel is to help give a direction in consensus to a number of items that we both are at the national action network and collectively across our communities and organizations, items that we can move forward on and deal with. and certainly, i do see one that has come about as a result of the trayvon martin case is a look at the whole stand your ground issue. of course, the racial profiling issue is something that continues to be certainly a major focus. >> i just want to say that the second chance act, which was passed three years ago by congress, is a very good act,

but it is being starved by sending. congress will not fully fund the second chance act. so there aren't enough resources to reintegrate former felons into society. and so i would ask the gentleman who is head of the clean slate program to really go and place great emphasis on seeing senator barbara mikulski from maryland. because she's on the senate appropriations committee, and she is the longest-serving woman in the united states senate, and she has great influence over how much money is spent in many programs. and so i would like to ask you to send a delegation to the maryland congressional delegation, to congress, but start with senator mikulski, then go to senator cardin. of course, you have the support of congressman elijah cummings. we really need to hear what you are saying in the halls of congress. because you would be shocked how

these organizations take advantage of the first amendment right to petition the government for redress grievances. so please have your conference, but please bring them to washington, or to the district offices of that congressional delegation so they can understand how severe the problem is in the state of maryland. >> all right. >> i'm doctor -- really quick follow-up. completely agree with everything that you just said but i would also like to add that the next step, an example of going beyond asking, the economic, if we really focus on building economic coalitions of figure out what it takes to specific locations to do a cross racial economic building, then we can

hire people who are coming out of jails. and we are no longer seeking appropriations. we have the funds. president obama has started an initiative to help small businesses start out. then we have the businesses. we can hire us. [applause] >> i was just seeing if there were any other comments? >> i'm doctor lenora, and i just want -- thank you. [applause] thank god the national action network, with whom i spent many years, and i'm always ready to go back. i just wanted to ask the panel if they think and we think and also want to thank you all, that we, as black leaders in this country have done enough. there seems to be a sense in the

nation that we can have a free range relative to young people of color, and relative to young black men. and when i heard the debate about whether or not trayvon was a good boy or a bad boy, i was enraged because who gives a damn? he was murdered. [applause] and so i think that's an important issue, because i think, i think our kids, i don't think, therefore, their families are poor, a lot of the violence that happens comes out of the poverty in our communities. the kids don't eat, or the stuff that makes them obese. their lives are a mess. and when we most respond is be there when they are most violent each other, or somebody is killing us. so i think that we need to figure out a way to connect to them long, long long before that. and i would just like to know

what we're doing. we have a lot of work ahead of us and we can't just do it out of actions that are just outrageous. i think the reason why this guy isn't in jail in some ways is because they know they can get away with it. so, what are we doing? what new things should we be doing? thanks. [applause] >> glenn? >> hi, how are you? so, i deliberately started out with victimization and drama for that reason, because while police departments tended around this country is to criminalize our folks, whether there are the victimizer or the victim of a crime, right? so they will say things like welcome he got shot and killed and this kid has never even been in trouble before, when he got

shot and killed and he is a criminal record. and you know what? who else sense that same message? the person who stand behind the weapon pointed care, right? i shot this guy because he was a bad guy. here we have our police department saying the same thing to us, or the flipside of the message which is that if they've never been in trouble, then they were good. the flipside of that is if they're bad to deter to get shot and killed in the street. so i think to push our police departments not to be putting that sort of rhetoric out there, and as i said when us up at at the podium, to treat every issue of victimization the same, to put the same value on every single life. and then if i can turn the lens on us for a minute, us in this room, i would urge folks for not use language like phelan, ex-con, presenter, and any other word that dehumanizes people that involved and the criminal justice system. because it's part of what makes

it okay for people to attach the collateral consequences that i talk about what is at the podium. if we're not talking of people that it's okay to stop them from going to school. it were not about people that's okay to stop them from voting. but if we turn the conversation around and change the language as we've done in many of the movement, many other civil rights movements, then we set the tone of the conversation. [applause] >> i would add something to that. and one of things i also did is i get involved in police training, i'm not a trend of police but as a lawyer, i get involved in the cities to look at -- you heard the attorney general talked about the investigation of the entire police department. they have a federal statute called, you know, a policy of practice, successful use of force. by the entire department. and to assume a excessive use of forest fires, doj comes in and conducts an investigation.

there's been a seachange in the way police officers are trained. before 9/11, do you remember the thing of officer from the? officer for and it was a police officer was trained to learn to get into the neighborhood and become a part of that neighbor. they were friendly presence. well, 9/11 changed all that. if you were 60, 70 years old, white or black, and you get pulled over on a street and the please get off, you off, you will see they do two things. the two officers, one will approach you from the driver side with his hand on the gun, the second will have a gun drawn. now, if you have somebody who was doing that and they see a kid that frightens them, unfortunately our young black men tend to frighten these people. so i think we've got to find another way to go back and training so the officer is not

feared, to pull the trigger or to think that these kids are bad guys. >> all right. spent-itis want to say i'm glad you raised that section, section 14141. it was part of a crime control act which was a misnomer of 1994. and the reason why that section came about was because people like congresswoman maxine waters, congressman john conyers said you've got to do something about police abuse in the los angeles police department because that, the rodney jaynes incident tipped off an investigation of police practices, and they discovered that the federal government did not have enough authority. so in 1994, that provision that billy is talking about would not have become law had not members of congress said, we've got to give the federal authority -- federal government more

authority. it has given this attorney general the ability to investigate those departments but and i think we owe a lot of credit to maxine waters for that particular provision. but also, black students are being pushed out of school. so before they even get into the criminal justice system, they are being affected by suspensions and expulsions at a much higher rate. and i'll just give you these statistics. and these are presented released statistics from the department of education. although blacks to pick up on 80% of those enrolled in the schools sample, they account for 35% of those suspended, 46 of those suspended, more than once, and 39% of all expulsions, according to the civil rights data collection, 2009-2010 statistics, from 72000 schools in seven plus coal districts, one in five black boys and more

than one in 10 black girls received and out of school suspension. overall, black students were three and a half more times likely to be suspended or expelled and their white peers. and what happens is the school systems are now calling the police departments on issues that the use to resolve with the parents. and so we are introducing our students and her children to the criminal justice system earlier. so this calls for greater parent involvement. and again, greater demands on government to treat our children fairly. because it is now beginning before law enforcement encounters with the police, it's not begin in our school systems. and this is a problem that we must continue to face. >> all right, thank you. we've got about another 10 minutes. and i also just want to say, again, i know some of our panelists have been here all morning, and again that they're being very generous with their

time. some of them may have to step out as we go one. but we will again try to get to as many of you as we can. >> yes. imb community dashed and ambassador of goodwill to africa. in the spirit of queen, why aren't we outraged for the killing of our children and our youth? and what best practice do we have for the middle passage of the transatlantic ocean of enslaved people? [applause] >> all right. while? >> professor cunningham? >> i think we are outraged. i think we have been outraged. i think the question is

concretely, what are we going to do? and one thing that i would like to say is, i think wonderful really truly wonderful suggestion, actions have been suggested. and i think that we really need to set up concrete strategies for making sure that we show up where people have suggested that we show up. what i would like to point out though is that we have done this before. decades ago, we did this before. we have concrete plans, we took action, we marched, which outlaws, fashion we got lost. we did it before. so when i talk about that there is a cycle like a domestic violence relationship, all i'm saying is we need to do what we need to do right now to go to the hospital, to fix this

particular episode. but unless we shift the paradigm, despite everything that we do right now, and showing up every place that we will find ourselves here again. [applause] >> all right. thank you. and again, i think what lord has been saying, what others have said, with some of the panelists have said and one of the reasons why we are keeping a record of some of the suggestions so that we do come out of this with a plan of action, with the consensus on some of the things that we again need to move forward on, and another of those that were suggested that somewhat also goes to the outrage and the criminalization of a section of our citizenship is focusing again on the whole

probably funny the second chance act. we have to move past the outrage into action. and certainly queen mother, your suggestion as to what concretely should be done is welcome as well. thank you. >> my name is joe griffin. i'm here on a day off from washington, d.c. and i to very concise question. one for mr. martin, the attorney and one for professor cunningham. my question for mr. martin was, you discuss your time as a prosecutor, and i understand the concerns with drug use just for personal consumption versus distribution. but you mentioned that in many instances you're able to find a way to simply of evidence discard if it was small enough to only be used for personal consumption. how can prosecutors who are employed avoid getting into legal trouble for acting in such a way, number one?

and then for professor cunningham i definitely appreciate your suggestion that we not engage in violence when it comes to confronting tragedies like we've seen happened the past few weeks. but does that mean that we also need to condemn outside organizations such as a new black panther party for putting a bounty on mr. simmons head? is that something we need to speak out against, or just remain silent on? thank you very much spent i will try very quickly. what i was responding to is prosecutors have great discretion. so the prosecutor has, if a police officer and lock you up for whatever, the prosecutor has the final word when they were going to prove this charge or not approve this charge. there is a cost and benefit factor that is putting the. if you have somebody who comes in $50 worth of drugs, the cost of the prosecution might be 10 to $20,000. by the time you have a number of police officers who make the

arrest, bucket, put that person through lock up in detention, who put them before an arrangement judge can put it on the counter, costs keep as good. sapolsky was will make a cost decision to say it is not worth the cost to prosecute these minor offenses. that's what i was describing. to exercise discretion. just to dismiss those low-level crimes and put them somewhere either into a drug court or some other non-criminal court to deal with what might be a health problem. >> what i was talking about is what we need to do to be constructive. i wasn't speaking to any other organization in particular, but i think part of the goal that has been illustrated by the national action network and other organizations, and the attorney general holder spoke

about, is the approach of civility and a belief in what is possible. and i think the paradigm shift must entail looking at positive values within all human beings, within human beings. like if we're going to shift to another level. it's going to require what do we value, integrity, civility, honesty, tolerance, forgiveness, humility. that it's possible across religions and backgrounds. >> does that mean you do a post about it has been in place of george zimmerman by the black panther party? do you oppose or support at? >> as an individual, i can answer that question. i oppose violence -- [applause] random violence that is unlawful, yes. that should not be hard for me to say.

[inaudible] >> all right, okay. [inaudible] >> before you go to the next question again, i think it's important also, you know, and i appreciate your answer. because all of us can answer individually, but after the question in general, you know, i think one of the great, one of the great criticisms of america today is that we are in this whole thing, whether you're dealing with the congress all the way down, of always condemning and disavowing. there is no need -- the family of trayvon martin has set the tone for what will happen there. and for -- [applause] you just follow the lead.

and that's why you build movements. so you don't have to get into condemning other people's opinion. that is their opinion, and some respect they may have a right to express that. no one has to condemn that, at you follow a path, and in the particular case of the martin, the martin family, the family is there. the parents have been providing outstanding leadership, respectful leadership, and inclusive leadership. and that's what people will follow i'm sure the. [applause] >> my name is pastor louis. i'm a pastor of a number of churches and do it. with the same problems as a but else, as i raised 12 children. i be made for budget. i started the civil rights movement in 1961. that was my first march. i dealt with you, and i'll ask issues question, violent children in school. and also in terms of a

psychologist for violence children. in the state of delaware i live in a place -- called the door where drugs went bad. .. i'm going to ask this question is that there's no relationship between african-americans and the state. does anybody know that?

>> just repeat that last part again. i'm sorry. >> i testified before the criminal justice council of lawyer where because this is zero -- the question is can anybody bring this together? jester those who are dealing with the city of the states to the roundtable to compare notes and advance ourselves. i can talk about what is causing us to be a suspect. there was a fourth in that. what i saw i saw the same thing. i reversed that. you've got to deal with the cities and states and let's get to it. god bless. who can do that? >> all right. i will respond to that. i'm going to take this back to president obama's inauguration where he said we are the leaders that we are looking for so i would urge the you would be the person to start that initiative with the support of everyone on the panel, and i would add that that is why, hopefully that's

why you are here today and the national action network is here so we can help you facility that and that can certainly be one of the consensus items that we move forward on. >> with the chief of police i was talking about how to do this. >> and make sure i get a copy of it. let me do this because it's 11:40, so i want to a, again, i want to be very conscious of our panel. they've been very generous. i want to give them the opportunity if any of them need to leave if they want to make any statement in xing but just to give them a chance and then i will have a few moments with those that remain to take some more questions. >> i have to run. i apologize. i want to say one last thing to lead the audience with something actionable and doable. i took a lot of the collateral consequences of the criminal

convictions. i've been back-and-forth to d.c. recently meeting with members of the equal employment opportunity commission because they are deciding whether to update their directive about job-seekers and criminal records and the employees cannot have blended policies of the mining employment on a criminal record because it violates title vii and now is the time to weigh in with the eeoc to make sure they come out with strong guidance that gives employers a very clear messages about the fact that you cannot deny employment based solely on the criminal record. i suggest you pick up the phone and call some of these commissioners. there is at least one commissioner that is on the fence and i will say that person's name but i think you should get on the phone and call every single commissioner and weigh in on this issue. thank you. >> d.c. is enacted legislation that deals with that. d.c. has laws on the books that prohibit discrimination from ex of vendors, as you may want to

look at that. >> i want to say we have to keep the action, the national action network alive, and we really need you to turn out for this hearing next week. on april 17th at 10:00 a.m. to 26 dirksen senate office building. it's the first hearing on racial profiling in the united states senate and over a decade and if you are concerned about that issue, you have to show up and fill the hearing rooms of the united states senate is not in a bubble when it comes to issues like trayvon martin, when it comes to racial profiling of the border, when it comes to dyscrasia may delete the dissemination of their parts. we have to show love and i urge you if you cannot show up please, ask your local affiliate's to write to the united states congress to come to your senator to ask them to

co-sponsor the end racial profiling act because it was after the rodney king incident that we got the section for the department of justice has power for them to investigate police agencies that's been very powerful and changing racial profiling by police agencies but we have to take the next step and past the end of racial profiling act. so i just would urge you to raise an action here that on the table. we've given you the tools. please commercial up next week. we need you to be there. thank you so much. >> all right. let's give a hand to those on the panel. those that have to leave, we appreciate you and thank you again and we will continue to take questions. i will take them until they tell me i can't take anymore. my name is rafah yell howard and i hear from indianapolis indiana

my comment and question is relative to the war on drugs. i was a young man and started so i've seen it and thank god i was not involved in it from either side of the life of serve as has been stated here that the war is on the person who is buying and using drugs, and the guy on the corner that selling it, that hasn't and will never, ever stop drug trafficking. the way to end it is to find out the billionaires' are who financed it, and then it trickles down. we have people with different levels responsible for different things just like in a corporation. and being a black man, i don't have the knowledge or other resources to set fees that works up. my question is why has there never been an effort by law enforcement at any level to start of the top, as greg

williams now in trouble the defense coordinated nfl said it cut off the head of the body will die. we need to stop drugs from being all over our streets and i think you. >> all right. thank you. >> t want to touch on that? >> i'm not sure. i think we all have that argument if you go out here and you want to buy a couple of rocks of crack cocaine, you might find some 12, 14, 15-year-old kid out there with a bag of rocks they are indispensable to the drug industry. we all know if we arrest those kids and lock them that it's not going to control drug sales. i'm not a scientist, but it's not rocket science to know if you cut off the head of whoever is funding and distributing the drugs into the country, the drugs will stop, not a rests on

the streets, but that's that drug policy to this because of criminal behavior according to all sociological studies is the single-parent household, and you will address the overwhelming. why haven't you address to the overwhelming amount of single-parent households as in the black community, which only started after the 1950's agenda and isn't a direct correlation between the incarceration rate? secondly, as far as the social mobility is in the african-american community, you all are very successful are you an exception or what have you done differently? >> i just think we cannot demonize single parents. i was a single mother for 12 years -- [applause] and i think -- i think maybe it is an ideal to have a two-parent household, but i'm not so concerned about whether the parent -- household is one parent or two parents. i am concerned about whether the

household is stable, with the people have access to meaningful employment and have access to quality child-care. the president was the product of a single mother, and i don't think we should go down that road about demonizing single parents. i think we are all doing the best we can. >> that is the root cause of criminal behavior. >> welcome a listen, there is 90% of african-americans are not involved in criminal activity. okay? so the idea that we have a disproportionate number of single-family households in the minority community, the idea that that is the root cause of criminal behavior, i don't accept that premise and i would like to see the data to support it. >> we are going to go to the next question, and again, let me

just say i think several people also address the issue that one of our ongoing consensus has to be to continue to try to get the equine application of the law and the equal ability to have equal opportunity because a lot of it boils down to that. if you have the opportunity it is shown that we will take advantage of it, and of course that will change the circumstances for many. >> thank you for taking my question. thank you for addressing these very important issues. we've touched on what i consider to be the root cause of the problem, which is going back to as many mentioned earlier on the enslavement of the people in the country driven by financial gains, slavery enriched the country and it wasn't stopped until the north interrupted the

south the same with the civil war all dental drugs, the war on drugs had provided at mr. glenn martin stated employment for judges, court cases also i'm willing to understand why there's a lot more of a direct approach to the problem specifically boycotts. dr. king established that inextricably and tied to economic justice yet there's not an immediate direct approach to boycott institutions with vacationing pure and we shouldn't have to wait to find out if trayvon martin gets justice in this case. he's already been murdered. they took 24 days to arrest this man yet we should be boycotting, not waiting for someone else to be killed but astana numbers and what we are not taking in more economic approach to this

problem which is economically based. >> all right. thank you. >> i would like anybody to answer the question. i've been dealing with action networks ever since 2002 and the question is that for 12 years they've taken the elder works for ten days the police and procedures going on 12 years it would be 12 years. i can understand reverend sharpton laid down the basic plan last april in new york and new york cannot come to virginia. with a connection and an understanding that the people get the real knowledge, why take this case to be resolved just because it is political, people looking out for their own benefits. durell from your own experience what you've done, but don't tell me that having the people here that represented this organization within the commonwealth to not bring

closure. 12 years is too long. $80,000 for ten days out of work and i've been out of work for 12 years. my daughter is an a and b student and went to f's because she looks back at me and says what has it done for you? now that is sad. and ever since 2000, - coming in here addressing my issue, addressing my concerns. and we say education is key. what about speech? bottomline to it, the only way that this case becomes a head is it's got to be blown up politically. mr. hardee can tell you that. i can't do it alone. and i just ask the question, where can my support come from to bring closure to the justice for the rights for me and my family. >> all right. thank you. and again, you know, i think in fairness there's a lot to your

start to the two-story, and obviously the panelists don't have the background to that. but certainly, as you have been invited this week, you should pursue that and to get advantage of some of the people that are here and of course i have invited you to continue to work with me on the issue to the extent that we can be of assistance. >> my question is related to job seekers of criminal record. and how can young black men whether it is the second chance program or any other program, black men who have been allegedly convicted of a felony and it's supposed to be expunged, how does that work? >> it varies from state to state. i don't know if you can touch on it in the district. >> its never expunged. there is no such thing as a sponge and. they have motions to seal. they may see all the records that the records can be reopened

at inappropriate time by an appropriate agency so when you talk about exspongment there's a notion to seal to look at it. it varies from state to state. >> so if they could apply for a job it won't show up? >> what state are you talking about? >> north carolina, greensboro. >> it's a specific type of legislation, and you've got to look at every stage, you can get expunge it or the notion to seal for north carolina and will tell you the procedures that are in their. it will seal the record and that's a big help. >> maybe one of the action items again is to put together a task force to seek better enforcement of the law with regard to disclosure criminal records, and we do see the sort of violations

of the because police officials always have access to that and a link information, particularly sometimes with regard to juvenile arrests which are supposed to be sealed and a release that information illegally basically, so we can certainly look to see how to ensure penalties that even in law enforcement who violate the law. >> that is a very good question and i don't want you to rush back to your seat because if you are driving down the street now in a police officer pulls you over and says they found drugs on you and then get to court and say those were not drugs, if you were arrested, you might think when you aquifer and the courthouse that it's all over but somebody's going to go down and help you steal that record. i think it's a good idea to have a task force on that issue and i would be glad to work with you on that to try to -- [applause]

>> we need to end, so you're going to have to be the last. >> i can't be the last because this is behind me. where is she? look who's here. she's got to be given an opportunity >> we can share it. just kidding. 20 seconds. okay. john conyers, preparation. why do we keep avoiding that issue? his number is 202, 225-5126 and i don't see anybody writing it down. john conyers offered the reparations bill. these issues that are brought up here we don't have the time to deal with all of them, but with that we need to do a million

angry black women marched to chicago to the oprah winfrey studio because rosie o'donnell needs to be in there and now wants to but maria shriver and there where we have these issues that are still not resolved, so i want to work with you all to make that happen. and as an angry black woman march. >> i will do one other. i will ask you to work with mother blakely that has worked long and hard in the reparations movement, and the two of you can come and bring some suggestions. some get you know professor ogletree is deeply involved in the reparations. >> that's right, and has been doing the case out of tulsa. this is last but by no means least three islamic time for the move organization. [applause] we had a great civil rights

victory in the release of death row, and the victory isn't over because they think we are going to compromise by having them removed from death row to life in prison. he is innocent, and we will not stand by coming and we need everybody is held because they've broken every wall. they throw out evidence of innocence in the last appeal. we must, like the sister said, emily and angry women have been angry for a long time. >> one quick thing. in the supreme court, because he's not the only one, she brings attention to this coming and what i am saying is when the supreme court justice throughout the man's last appeal, he is doing life in prison and shows evidence of citizens the world

knows, what is it that we can do today to do something about this april 24th we are occupying the justice system. >> we want to make sure we get some of that information, and for those of you that may not know, she is truly one of the heroes many of you can go back and look at your history books with regard to the movement in philadelphia. was one of the only urban bombings that i am aware of, and they have obviously been very diligent in the efforts around jamal, and you know we continue to stand with you and reverend sharpton and work on innocence is never given up. sustained indignation is what we mean again. i want to thank all of the panel so. as i indicated, we have a

session beginning we want you to take an opportunity to take care of major if you need to and come back again. thank you. >> [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> as the discussion comes to a close, you can see more of this program. you can see it in its entirety as a matter of fact if you go to our website, c-span.org.

the consumer financial protection bureau released the new rules under consideration for home loan mortgage services

yesterday and include warnings before interest rate adjustments and making a good-faith effort to work with homeowners who've fallen behind on their payments. bureau director richard kortright called on the lenders to put the service back in the mortgage servicing and more lenders at the us efp behalfs sharp teeth to certain compliance. this is about 45 minutes. >> welcome to the -- this is a dignity rich area and i should have figured this out earlier. if i wanted to give the press and distinguished leaders in the area to invite richard cordray more often comes we will be doing that every week. if we are deeply honored to have you here. are there any operation clients with us today? fantastic. you aren't sure?

are you a mortgage client, credit crisis client? and credit point. what about yourself? credit. okay. yourself? mortgages. you are here every tuesday, aren't you? every tuesday and wednesday. and what is your focus? >> on japan or to -- entrepreneur should be the cup pitted estimate does anybody here have a mortgage modification? >> negative experience with mortgage modification? you did. are we still working on your experience or? >> [inaudible] >> you can't be having a negative experience of you are in the d.c. banking commission. >> there are a number of negative experiences.

[inaudible] >> no good deed should go unpunished. here is what we are not here to do today. we are not here to demonize, we are not here blaming doesn't get us anywhere. people become experts in what they are against. the can tell you precisely what they don't like. this is a good country built on what we are for and the center that you are in today is one in ten in the country, we are in 270 cities in america, most of that is the dignity for children and 4,000 schools and the trade fund a million dollars a year. they don't have any bridges to i love this story. they have no branches and somehow the funded a million dollars a year for 13 years now for a total actually they've been doing more than that, $14 million in cash. not to ponds or network checks,

not postdated checks to reach real cash to fund the center and the one in new york city to get before we do anything also want to stop to say thank you. we appreciate it. [applause] i didn't know she was went to the but this is a good example of doing well and doing good and doing well by doing good. so the point i was going to make is the center is where we comfort check cashing stores and bank customers and the homeowners, small business dreamers and small-business owners and minimum wage workers and returning people who can't find jobs and the job creators by making them entrepreneurs and self employment. probably the salt debate the most important thing we do is the 700 credit score communities. what would happen -- to was a young lady walking across the street with a green running weight in her hand and she had on these beautiful yellow running shoes and this beautiful black running out.

in other words, she was going to exercise and this was her neighborhood, her community and her home. and she's had this experience we've had, which we had not won disturbance or problem here in the country in 20 years. there is no bullet outside camano plexiglas camano secure become there's no cameras. if you treat people with respect, guess what they treat you with respect. what ever goes around comes around. the only problem in the crisis we have had is the global economic crisis deutsch treat people like transactions and not like relationships and if you treat like relationships we wouldn't have a crisis. the loan given to our grandmothers you wouldn't have a crisis. and so, financial dignity centers read the country, the 700 credit score communities transformational. think about this week raised credit scores on hundred 20 points in 18 months in these centers. its 550 credit score, the

walkout is a 650 credit score. by the way for the director of the beginning of this. walking with a 550 score 700 but that is absolutely fundamental a transformational. assuming this is a 500 credit scored and and you're 550 credit score community what does that mean? no matter how much picketing you do or legislation new dvorkin planning to do to the d.c. government, no matter how many letters you write to the director cordray come it doesn't matter. this will be a prime target for the palin enders, title lending, i don't know if you know there are they're renting rim's stores, these are the 20 rims spinners, they are renting rims. that is low and all of these lenders and such, you've got liquor stores because being a broad economic and being a poor and the disabling for enough mind its crushing your spirit and you must vow never to be poor here.