you in this room. we need your ideas. that youour ideas represent and the community you represent. and the constituents in your own district so we can understand what is needed to achieve resolution. on february 11, we will be at the national press club and at that point, we will announce to america the blueprint of the cancer innovation coalition for the project innovation remedy, working with members of the united states congress and regulatory officials today. i am pleased to have the opportunity to give you a bit of academic background for the cancer innovation coalition and what we want to achieve through project innovation. we are going to take question and answers immediately after we hear from one additional group of experts, including dr. woodcock from the fda. to connect to try

the dots of innovation to patients. >> it's an exciting time because we have the opportunity to make the most advanced clinical decisions available to every cancer patient regardless of where they live and what their socioeconomic background is. and regardless of what practical resources they may have available to them. expectation.n all things are taking place right now. , and i'mng, research going to go someplace that's going to be innovative. overall, one of the goals of cancer innovation is to improve the outcome. personalized medicine, advanced diagnostics.

cancer.s >> can we afford innovations? we can't afford not to innovate. the status quo gets more expensive year after year. think we are on the cusp of an information revolution. >> it is a few months, a year of survival. it has been amazing. we continue with the research to --e cancer a disease

>> it is on the edge of revolution. we will feature and target treatment for problems that cause cancer. therapyres the targeted and the development of as well as targeted treatment. each person's genetic makeup thetheir physical makeup, individual war on cancer for it isancer patient -- critical that we get patients engaged. and also leveraging things to help us better understand what going on in medication. we tried and failed.

>> so you've heard from a number of people today. and now it is your turn. what we would like you to do is invite you to address your questions to any of our panelists. scottnly, congressman would be pleased to have him also join in this dialogue and in this discussion. so the floor is open for questions. if you could, go to the microphone in the center of the aisle. announce your name and what organization you might represent.

if we have left you speechless, that could be a good thing. if we have left you energized, that's even a better thing. you certainly have our contact information at project innovation and national patient advocate foundation. don't hesitate to advance your questions and your ideas. it will take all of us together to develop a strategy to improve for 300on and cancer million people in this united states. thank you for your time and attention. thank you, congressman scott, for being with us. always gets it right. john and edith, thank you sincerely. we want to thank nancy glick and joel payne who have helped us with this meeting. lisa hughes, my colleague from

the national patient advocate foundation is in the back of the room and several staff members that have dropped in. leave, andk as you thank you again. thank you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] c-span, a on conversation on curbing violence in african american communities. human rights abuses in north korea, and later, dr. francis collins talks to cancer research and technology.

on the next "washington onrnal," a chief economist emerging trends from the markets. the author of the book "stonewalled." the fight for truth in obama's washington. washington journal is live with the day's headlines. every morning on c-span at 7:00 a.m. eastern. here is a look at some of the programs you will find christmas day on the c-span networks. holiday festivities start at 10:00 a.m. eastern with the lighting of the national tree followed by the white house with firstorations lady michelle obama and a lighting of the capitol christmas tree. just after 12:30 p.m., celebrity activists talk about their causes. justice alito and

former governor bush on the bill of rights and the founding fathers. at c-span2, the art of good writing with steve pinker. and the definitive side of a superhero as jill research is the secret history of wonder woman. about their reading habits. and on american history tv at 8:00 a.m. eastern, the fall of the berlin wall with c-span footage of president george bush and bob dole. speeches from john kennedy and ronald reagan. on first lady's fashion choices and how they represent the style of the times in which they live. tomformer nbc news anchor brokaw on his more than 50 years of reporting on world events. that is christmas day on the c-span networks. for a complete schedule, go to c-span.org. , panel of state legislators

police chief, and former l.a. police officer discuss ways to combat violence against african american communities. will hear from the white house domestic policy council. this event hosted by the national black caucus of state legislators was held in dallas earlier this month. now, i want to start by highlighting just a couple of things that those of us here think are important, for the record. we recognize the systemic complexity of this issue and ,dvocate for a comprehensive integrated, multifaceted approach to finding a solution. that solution has to include stakeholders, collaborating or systems change.

to deal with this issue, we have to talk about changing systems. the problem will not be solved today. not in today's discussion. our goal is for the audience to first and foremost, provoke thought. we want to give some thought to this and we want you to leave specifics of what you might do when we get back home. focuses the lens on recent officer -- cop violence against young black men. and addressing gang and domestic violence in our communities. violence has always been a concern in communities of color. but recent events have put it at the forefront of most if not all of our minds. had, over the recent

months, three indictments against law enforcement officers for shooting young men of color. just some statistics as you listen to the presentation. african-americans are about three times as likely as white drivers and two times as likely as latino drivers to be searched during a traffic stop. even though they are significantly less likely than whites to have contraband when they are stopped. and even though there is no additional database on the total number of officer involved fatalities, each year from 2005 to 2012, a black person was killed nearly twice a week by police. beinglmost 20% of those killed under the age of 21. our nextlk about

generation, statistics in and of thelf will impress upon you fierce urgency now taking action. these facts deserve a better public policy response. that is why we are here. at the same time, we face violence within our own community. we are not running away from that fact. we acknowledge that. wanted to be clear that african-american firearm related deaths are twice as high as they are for whites. black women are almost three times as likely to experience death as a result of domestic or violence.artner teen or youth violence continues to be a problem among black males between the ages of 10 and 24. the homicide rates exceed those

of hispanics and whites of the same age group. let me try this again. you know i was thinking about rudy giuliani and i lost a train of thought. [laughter] let me try this one once more. interracial --at intra-racial violence is not unique to the black community. [applause] fishing for at compliment or a clap their. that said, it also merits our full attention and sustained emphasis on sustained commitment to doing something about it. we need social action and collaboration from the public and private sector. i will stop because all of these stats are beginning to overwhelm

me. i started out saying it's not about me and it's about these men and women on the panel. let me quickly moved to that. peoplewe hear from our on the panel, i want to take a a young mantroduce that has taken the time to come from the administration to share the administration's position on this issue. and before we get to our panelists, please allow me to introduce mr. roy austan, the deputy assistance for the president of the office of urban affairs, justice, and opportunity. coveringnates policy criminal justice, civil rights, housing, and other areas. he's also a member of president obama's "my brother's keeper" task force. these welcome mr. austin.

>> good morning. like roy austan, you might think i'm from texas but i'm from the great state of pennsylvania. start with some words from the president. this is from a speech that he gave not too long ago. he said as someone who believes -- enforcement has an even incredibly difficult job that every man and woman in uniform are putting their lives at risk to protect us. that they have the right to come home from their jobs just like we do. there was real crime out there. they have to tackle day in and day out. that they are only going to be able to do their job effectively if everybody has confidence in the system.

right now, we are seeing too many instances when people just do not have confidence that folks are being treated fairly. and in some cases, those may be misrepresentations or misperceptions. in some cases, that is a reality. it is incumbent upon all of us as americans regardless of race it is incumbent upon all of us as americans, regardless of race or region, or faith, that we recognize that this is an american problem, and not just a black problem, for a brown problem, or native american problem, this is an american problem. when anybody in this country is not being treated equally, under the law, that is a problem. it is my job as president to help solve it. and those the words of our president, and he has been doing what he can do to help solve it. so let me continue with some of these statistics. some of these many of you know already.

we have 5% of the world's population, and yet 25% of the world's inmates. one third of all americans have some kind of arrest record or criminal history. it is 2.2 million people who are currently incarcerated in our jails and prisons around this country. we know for a fact that the impact of a criminal record is enormous, both on the individual, on the individuals families, and on our communities. we absolutely know that the impact on the african-american community is far greater than it is on any other community. we also know that the levels of incarceration that we see today are unsustainable. they are unsustainable financially. they are unsustainably sociably. and to be honest with you, they are on sustainable -- unsustainable morley. -- morally. we know this is bigger than just

the criminal justice system. we know this is about jobs, housing, and education. we know all those things matter, and one of the best things we can do to help to fix the criminal justice system is to make sure people have jobs. this president has created over 10 million jobs. but let's talk about the criminal justice system, and things that have already been done. things that i would hope you're doing in your districts to move forward and to help solve the problems we see in the criminal justice system. one thing is the school discipline guide that was put out by the department of education's and apartment of justice. -- department of justice. we know that youth of color are disciplined more severely than other youth in their schools. this guidance helps to educate -- health educators help to fix that problem. we know that attorney general holder has instituted what is called smart on crime. to look at only the most serious defenses, so we are not

incarcerating people for the wrong reasons. the office of juvenile justice has turned that and made it smart on juvenile justice, so we're looking at alternatives to incarceration for our youth great we know that we have the justice reinvestment initiative, which is currently in existence in 21 jurisdictions. when it was justin 17, it was evaluated and found that over 10 years, it was save us $4 billion by not locking up so many people. it is working. for the first time in 40 years, we have seen a reduction both in incarceration, and in crime. the first time in 40 years. we know that we do not have to incarcerate everybody. for there to be public safety. we know that for the first time, we've seen a deep freeze and federal incarceration. we know that many states, including the state of texas are reducing the number of people's

who were incarcerated substantially enough eating an increase in crime. we know we can get these numbers down even further. we also recognize there is more to do. and the more to do is -- the president just announced a task force of 21st century policing that is going to look at policing across this country. we know that we just looked at all of the equipment programs, $18 billion going into police department. and that is going to be reformed. we just announced $75 million we want to see go towards body cameras. the president, the attorney general, and the secretary of education just announced a correctional education guidance for kids who are incarcerated. we know we have my brother's keeper communities out there, over 200 communities that have stepped up to push forth the my brother's keeper community program. we know this is bipartisan.

we know there are numerous bills on the hill, both republicans and democrats to the value in reforming our criminal justice system. and we are listening to. the attorney general is out there listening. he has been to atlanta, cleveland, and memphis. he is on his way to chicago, philadelphia, and oakland. we going to continue to listen to you. we ask you to reach out with new ideas. we want a partner with you, we want to make the system a better system. we want to ensure that we really have a country where all of us are equal under the law. i thank you. [applause] >> thank you, reverend austin. [indiscernible] [laughter] >> for our sound people, is it ok if i sit here?

>> feedback. i hear it. >> i will get up and do what i need to do from up here. we are ready to start our conversation. we are really pleased to be able to offer you a five-minute women with the level of expertise that they have. we've talked about how we wanted to flow, and we thought a lot of you're like us, lord -- bored with having talking heads sit and read from prepared remarks. we thought a u-shaped table would help us to see each other, and have a conversation. if you have question, tweet your questions about hastag

nbcslalc38. first we have the lady of texas, the queen of the texas legislature. representative senfronia thompson is with the texas house, and is the longest serving women and african-american in texas history. she has been a champion for the underserved in the underrepresented. she has authored bills on racial profiling, to mr. violence, and the hate crimes act. next, we have dr. david klinger. he is our researcher, who is going to tell us all we need to know and give us the data to back that up. released the source of the data

to back it up. he is a professor of criminology, and criminal justice at the university of missouri st. louis, and senior research fellow at the luis foundation. he has worked as a police officer in los angeles, and redmond washington. he has written on the issues of -- on the issues of arrest, practices, and use of force and terrorism for the last 10 years. next to that is chief john dixon, iii. we were teasing him that he came in his uniform so we know he means business. we will listen to what he has to say. he is with the petersburg police in petersburg, virginia. he previously served the richmond community for over 24 years, and had a chance to experience all aspects of policing. his passions are in the area of

community engagement, use engagement, and improving the overall quality of life and neighborhoods. he is also the immediate past president of the national organization of black law enforcement executives, known as noble. then we have representative deborah barry, who is championing legislation to take lethal weapons from convicted domestic abusers, keep children safe from online predators, and educational reform. lastly, but certainly not least, we have a new be on the panel. a freshman legislator, emmanuel chris welch, who is been serving in the illinois legislature ends january 2013. -- since january 2013.

he has authored and passed legislation on reducing gang violence in communities in schools, he also served as legal counsel for various school districts and municipalities. lenin mention a couple of ground rules. each panelist will have five minutes to make their opening comment. we will go in order with each panelist. afterwards, i hope that the conversation -- i will begin a conversation with our panelists. later on, we will open it up for q&a. there are cards that were in your seats. if you don't have a card, raise your hand, and a staff member will bring a card to you. you don't have to wait until the very end to write your question or submit your question. if you are like me, you probably want to write it as soon as it comes to you, because you might

forget it. but feel free to put the question on an index card, and submit it. they will respond to those questions at the very end. we want to make sure that your phones or silence, that you keep your side conversations to yourself, and finally, if you would rather tweet your questions, we would ask that you please tweet any questions to hashtag. we are ready to start. are you ready? all right. miss t. if showtime. -- it's showtime. >> when you have been in legislation this long, you are flexible. >> i bet you can hear me now.

i want to welcome you to taxes. you have been welcomed by my colleague. -- welcome you to taxes -- texas. i want to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues, representative helen giddings and the senator for luring you to our state and being so successful in doing that. i'm serving the legislature here for some 42 years. i had a whole lot of other things that could have been doing. but i enjoyed my stay in the texas letters later. -- legislature. i'm single, i'm independent, i have a job, i work, make my own money.

[laughter] but there are persons in our society who cannot afford to hire a lobbyist, to come up to the state house and advocate for themselves. those are the little dogs. i like to look out for the little dogs. those people don't feel like they have anybody to take care of their needs, their wants, and their desires. sometimes you want to say, hell, i don't be bothered with this damn bill. why did they bother me with this? but after you listen to this person, in you listen to their needs and cries and hurt, you can't afford to let them walk out the door without giving them some help. i worked on a hate crimes bill in texas. let me give you the backdrop.

you knock down a fence and kill a chicken, a pig, a cow, or a bat, you can get a third-degree felony and go to the penitentiary. it sounds like a joke, but it is a truth. but the residents -- the legislation was resistant and being able to force people to face the fact that hate crime existed within the state. and that the life of a human being was less valuable than that chicken. and that pig, and that calvin you might have asked that we run into a fence and killed, and get a penitentiary in texas. we had a man who lived in jasper, texas. going home, minding his own business, not emitting any crimes. two white guys decided to change him behind the truck -- chain in behind a truck and pull him behind the truck until they had dismembered his entire body. he was so dismembered, his family could even successfully bury him. they went to the funeral home to take a suit, the man says there is no need. we can't even fit the body in a suit, because we have body parts. we passed that bill in taxes because we had a hate crime bill that would not pass constitutional muster. the biggest obstacle was the did not want people with sexual orientation to be a part of that protection. i know you feel like me. america ought to be good on its promises and protect all of its citizens. and then we pass the bill on racial profiling, driving while you are black. and one of the things i want to tell you, the reason we have such a problem with racial profiling is because we have institutionalized the fact that it's all right to be able to profile people according to their gender, according to their race. and we are back in dread scott, whether you want to believe it or not. when the judge in the dreads got case says a man has no right, a black man has no right which are

white man was bound to respect. this is something we still fight for today. we have a racial profiling bill, and i passed that bill. but the last session of the legislature, we passed a significant piece of legislation. by saying to the district attorneys in the state, you cannot withhold exculpatory evidence -- we had a man who spent 25 years in prison, and they have the evidence he was not guilty of killing his wife, what he had to sit in prison for 25 years, until one day this evidence was discovered. the prosecutor withheld because they wanted a conviction. they already knew he was innocent. my time is up. [applause] >> dr. klinger. >> can you hear me?

>> first of all, i want to thank everyone for coming in this morning. i think the panelists and the organization for inviting me here. i want to talk about two things that i think are really in a and two things i think they can help us deal with this critical issue of the use of deadly force by police officers in the united states. as a former police officer, i understand both sides of the equation. i have been talking with the chief about this issue. i think that one of the ways that they legislators can make an impact on what police officers are doing is pay attention to the training that is going on in your state, about a particular issue. and that is the tactics that police officers are trained in. one of the problems, in some of the recent events we've seen on tape, is police officers are doing what we call getting into close, too fast. what happens when police officers are into close, too fast to individuals, they don't have as much time, they can't think as quickly. it leads to unfortunately, some tragedies. one of the things that is

important in your state, there's going to be some type of we typically call police officer standard in training. a post-association that has power to mandate the type of training officers get in the academy, and then in-service training. if we can spool up legislation to get more training for officers about how they need to enter interactions with people, we might be able to reduce the number of police shootings. if we reduce the number of police shootings, we are on a better path. this isn't necessarily a black/white issue, it's an american issue. we need to make sure that american police officers across all 50 states are really trained. the second thing, as gilda mentioned, about the data regarding how often police officer skill citizens in the night to -- in the united states. we have three different data

sets that are spread across different agencies in the federal government that tracks dead people, i.e. people killed by the police. the senate just passed the death in custody reporting act, which is a step in the right direction in terms of getting better data. what we have to understand is most of the time when police killer's shoot, they don't somebody. the bullets either miss or the individual issued survives. by focusing on dead bodies, we are missing the big picture of the use of deadly force by the police. i working with jim behrman, the president of the police foundation in washington dc. we are putting together a pilot study, where we hope to get a by and for many of the major police arms across the country, already the los angeles police

department is working with me and working with jim to put together a serious data collection program that will permit us to track every single time a police officer discharges his or her firearm. i would ask you to use your leverage as state legislators to assist us, the police foundation of the university missouri st. louis, and other entities that want to get this up and running, to go ahead and give us your support. i think these two things, in terms of improving police tactical training and improving the data collection, so we can really know the scope of the issue -- right now, we honestly don't have a clue. we have a baseline in terms of dead bodies, but we don't know what lies above that in terms of many people who were killed by the police are not counted in official statistics. we have no clue about how many people are wounded by police gunfire. we have even less of a clue about how people are shot at and missed. i would encourage you, from a pragmatic perspective, to try to use your power to leverage these two issues. improving police training, and getting a more robust data

collection system for the use of deadly force by police officers in the united states. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. chief, you want to talk? can everybody hear me? it's a pleasure to be here among such an esteemed group. you guys are the ones that make the laws and make it happen. we enforce those laws that you make. i want to make that really clear. this is so important to be here, and to have this mesh of individuals here to be able to deal with this. so some real change can take place right here and now. let me start out by saying that the vast majority of law enforcement officers working within our communities are well-meaning, and goodhearted individuals who want to do the right thing. with that said, one incident of violence in our community is one too many. we all have to strive towards bridging the gap between communities and community's of color law-enforcement officers.

nelson mandela once said people respond in accordance, and how you relate to them. if you approach them on the basis of violence, that's how they will react. if you say we want peace, we want stability, and we can then do a lot of things that will contribute towards the progress of our society. the problems in our communities did not happen overnight. and there is no one response to why it happened. it is going to take some time, and there is no cookie-cutter solution. we have to look at an array of philosophical solutions. we have to educate our community. both on voting, and not just voting on the process of voting. i can't sit here and tell anybody how they should vote, but educate yourself on what

voting is, and how to do so. there is a push right now that a lot of people don't know, in criminalizing menthol cigarettes. by your response, i see you didn't know that. but there is a push on criminalizing menthol cigarettes, which will have an adverse effect in african-american communities. we need to be educated on those things, and be in front of it when these things happen in order to address it. we need to have transparency within our organizations. transparency a heard mentioned earlier about body chemistry body camera certainly is one way to create transparency. i keep in mind, we need to have policies that address those issues as well. those body cameras inside your

house, when you are at your worst, will become viral. i see a lot of heads shaking. a lot of people haven't thought about it that way. all of that stuff that goes on is now going to be on youtube and on the news, you will have an opportunity to see those things. people at their worst. if you have a good government job, you may want to look at that. [laughter] training for officers, as the good doctor mentioned, is important. we have to look at training. we have to look at how we train our officers. if we train them to be combative, guess what, you get combativeness. if you train them to be solution oriented, you get solution oriented processes. we have to stay focused on that. i would like to end this with something -- where do you want a star of -- solve this problem? do you want to solve it with

young black men in their backyard, or do you want to wait until the go to the graveyard? -- until they go to the graveyard? [applause] >> good morning. >> good morning. >> hello? all right, talk louder. thank you. i would like to thank nbcsl for the opportunity to be here today and be on this panel that is an issue dear to me. i get too emotional we talk about criminal justice, and the disproportionate impact on immunities of color. or just any kind of injustice, a kind of gets me stirred up. i'm going to try to be a lady appear, and really get to the point of some things. as representative cobb-hunter talked about, and me being involved in aid to mr. violence bill -- a domestic violence bill that had to do with protective orders -- if anyone had a temporary protective order or a permanent protective order, the judge, the courts could say that

you -- there was a big issue. representative miller, when i dollars my cali down there too. that -- i want to ignore knowledge my colleague down there too. that bill would say any kind of weapon could be rude -- removed from the home. it was a may, and you know how those maze work. -- may's work. that bill came out of a woman in one of the rural areas that was really threatened and killed by her husband, or whoever that was who terrorized her throughout their marriage. that bill kind of came to fruition. another thing though, if i can go back and quickly make another point on some of the committees that i have served on. this is very important. going into my seventh term, i

have served on public safety. public safety is the committee where we get a lot of issues related to policing, things like that. those kind of bills. i was fortunate enough to really have first-hand looks at a lot of the bills that came through their, that affected communities of color. and judiciary committees also is another area where some of those prosecutor -- prosecute in attorney bills come through. another bill that was very important that i was able to get involved in was the internet predator bill. i'm also a person who, of all my types of bills i introduce, i always represent -- as we heard from her presented of thompson, and probably all of you.

-- representative thompson. we all have the same kind of heart here. what i found was with the influx of internet, there has been a lot of online predators out there kind of praying on our children. -- preying on our children. people posing as kids. that bill went into effect in iowa that would keep kids safe from online predators. another important bill that is quite appropriate for today was the afterschool programming bill. i know back when introducing legislation, and that bill, after euros of -- years of working hard, republicans were

in the majority, it took many years to get that legislation. get something in the iowa code that would say -- that would allow churches or any kind of organization that schools even who had an interest in providing afterschool programs for children -- there would be funding for the state available. the reason that is important is because doing -- during the times of 3:00 to 6:00 every day, kids are usually left at home by themselves or in. that is when children are involved in at risk behaviors, finding themselves involved in sexual activities, and he of at risk behavior. -- any kind of at risk behavior. i will being a low risk state, both parents have to work to make ends meet, we found that was the first step in helping young people not get into the juvenile justice system. in iowa, i think our black youth represent maybe 45% of those in the juvenile justice system. and we know if you start out as a kid, and then it goes back to school, then it goes back to what is happening in the home. we hear those kinds of conversations too.

i look forward to hearing what representative welch has to say regards the education system. if we do not say something to really help families in crises, in terms of children not having a safe place to be, then that is what we find. they start young getting into the system. i think i heard either representative cobb-hunter or representative thompson talk about the fact that starts in school. just how kids are looked at. i don't know if you have even walked into -- if you have children or grandchildren elementary schools, watch how they are being treated. i observed it in my granddaughters classroom. there is a little black -- a little black boy. the teacher was giving him more attention, and the boy was not doing anything for than anybody else. it goes back to a lot of factors as to what is going on. it's definitely systemic, it's a

systemwide problem. it starts on every level, and we definitely need to do something to address this issue on all levels. thank you. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. i am both honored and humbled to be here this morning. i'm honored because i am the freshman appeared. and i'm definitely humbled, being the chicago and -- chicagoan in dallas, we kept her -- a week after dallas kicked our butts in football. you guys have read a lot of headlines in the news that we see, it seems like weekly. talking about the violence within our community. i wanted to give you three

nuggets that i think we should all take back to our respective chambers in our states, but i think can really help us from a policy perspective, address violence within our community. i think the first thing we all the to do, and we all need to demand as the caucuses in our respective states -- we need to demand that each one of our state provide an education to our kids. [applause] we need to stop expelling our

kids on the street. when we expel our kids on the street, we are sending them from the schools straight to prison. these zero-tolerance policies are not working. and as the gentleman from the white house dated this morning -- stated this morning, we really need to, from a legislative standpoint, start making the schools address student discipline in other ways. for the educators in the room, i'm not saying keep these bad kids in your classroom. there are some kid you have to remove them from the classroom setting because other kids within it want to learn, should be able to learn. but we should not have the first resort be to put kids on the street. in illinois, we are addressing that issue in senate bill 3004. my senator is leading that fight in the other chamber. we are going to get it right come january. we are going to pass a bill that addresses when a school can and can't expel a kid onto the street. they need to first offer alternatives, because we want to keep those kids in the school system, and not put them in our criminal system. the second thing we need to do is we need to give people who have made a mistake a second chance. people deserve a job. they need to be able to take care of their families. i'm proud of the illinois legislative black caucus just led the fight to pass a bill in illinois, house bill 5701, which bans the box.

you cannot put on implement applications the question whether you have been convicted of a criminal offense. you can't even inquire about a criminal offense until a person has interviewed and been offered a job. people shouldn't be excluded from the opportunity to get gainful employment just because they made a mistake in the past. this new law goes into effect january 1, and i guarantee you black and brown people are going to benefit directly from banning the box. the third thing we need to do, and it's a bill i went to fight on last year, is we need to end the code of silence. in chicago, these gang bangers truly believe that snitches get stitches. we need to teach them it is cool to snitch. we need to teach them that it is cool to snitch. [applause] but we also need to provide them

the necessary protections that go with that. in house bill 1139, i created "in witness protection program. -- the gang crime in witness protection program. these folks know who committed the crime, the need to make sure they know who was going to do the time. prosecutors can offer these folks who know what happened an opportunity to be put on a witness protection program just like on the federal level. this isn't rocket science, we know what is out there. a lot of states do not have witness protection programs. we are going to have to deal with that from religious leader perspective. we have to make sure it is budget for. -- from a legislative perspective. we have to make sure it is budgeted for. we need to have the protections for them. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. let's give all our panelists hand. [applause] let's direct a couple of questions to the panel. we have some that come from the audience. if you have a question, you have index cards, please feel free to

write your question and submit it to us. i want to start, dr. klinger, if i can come with you. again, we know that emotion doesn't convince anybody. we are very much in today. what we are interested in hearing from you is -- is there any evidence of a link between community violence and police shootings? is there data that just that? >> as indicated, we don't have a good idea of what is going across the country in terms of use of deadly force by the police, because we don't have the data set. a few years ago, the city of st. louis gave me the opportunity to look in all of their officer involved shooting case files. suspects were killed by police gunfire, suspect the were wounded, and situations were officer shot but nobody was struck by gunfire. what i my colleagues did was we were able to map the locations where the shootings occurred.

what we found is there is a powerful relationship tween levels of violence and neighborhoods and the numbers of police shootings. as violence increases in the city of st. louis the least, that is a thing that is driving the use of deadly force by the police. that is something we always have to keep in mind when we are looking at this important question of the use of force by police. it is largely, at least in st. louis, a reaction or response to violence in the community. >> chief, do you want to respond to that question? >> i think again, there is no cookie-cutter answer to any of this. what we have to do is focus on case-by-case, we have to use evidence-based data in order to approach this problem. we have got to know what is really happening, so we can improve it. with that, we have to keep that feeling part in there.

we deal with communities and feelings. these folks aren't sitting there with all the scientific evidence, they are sitting there reacting to how they feel about whatever took place. we have to keep that in mind as we approach these issues. >> tank you, chief. -- thank you, chief. representative welts, -- welch, we are really interested in what you are doing in chicago. because of your work, we want to know if you think there is a real solution to curbing violence in our communities, based on what you have been doing? >> i do think there is a real solution to curbing violence. the real solution starts early on. it starts with education. that's why i spent 12 years on the school board. in most of our states, we are not adequate funding education. illinois, ranked 49th out of 50 of how to fund our schools. we could do better, we should do better, we have a demand that we do better. a demand that we properly fund our schools. schools can't keep the kids in school, the ones they are expelling, they'd a lot of keep them because they need smaller class sizes.

there is a whole lot of reasons why schools are trying to find ways to get rid of kids. because they can't afford to educate them. as a body, we need to demand we adequately fund our schools. we need to encourage parents to get into the schools. parents are not the enemy, they are the friends. my first bill as a legislator last year was a bill called bring your parents to school day. house bill 129. it's exactly what it sounds. illinois schools are now required to offer once a year, an opportunity for parents to go to school with their kids, attend class, go to gym, eat the lunch. get the parent into the school, and let them see what is happening. once we start focusing on education and demanding that it is funded adequately, we are really going to address the issue of the violence in our community. >> yes ma'am.

>> we also have to provide good jobs for those parents to be able to afford to go to those schools, to see about their children. you can take a lot of pressure out of a family if they are able to adequately support themselves. then they have an opportunity to be able to look at those other things that they can address, like what their kids are doing in school. if you are able to pay your bills and have a few pennies left over, you can do a whole lot of things. we have a responsibility making sure the good jobs are provided. we call this a great nation to everyone else around the globe. >> this is a good opportunity to talk about a bill i tried to introduce, as representative cobb-hunter knows, that would allow parents were working time off work. again, with i would being a low-wage state, parents can't afford to not work.

it's not that they don't care or love their children, but when you are at work, and then it strict and you can't get away, that is a problem. and that is why the bill i introduced -- if i can say, representative welch, you must be in a democratic led legislature to get all these things done. >> thank you for clarifying. i agree with the discussion as it relates to parents needing to be there. but again, in our state and others, we can't afford to leave. there is nothing to protect them from losing their jobs. without getting some sort of repercussion for doing so. >> i truly think the great supplemental bill to the bring your peers to school day is a bill that allows parental leave. we already allow if the malay --

fmla types of leave. whether it's four hours a year that they can leave work without penalty to go visit their kids in school. a lot of states already have those on the books. the ones that don't, we really should consider rental leave act. -- parental leave act. >> the point you made about the new magic bullet, silver bullet to address this issue. in most of states, we've seen legislation dealing with body cameras being offered. how do you respond to those colleagues who take your point about the violation of the privacy issue, but respectfully suggest to you that -- yeah, that is true, but we have to make sure we have an accurate

record of what is actually transpired? do you think that the notion of privacy overrides the concern of the public's part about wanting to know exactly what happened in

that interaction with the officer? >> i think one is clearly we want more transparency within our police organizations. i don't think that's a doubt in anybody's mind. i just say "what you ask for. we need to under's -- be careful what you ask for. we need to understand having that transparency opens up that door where privacy, you have to consider if your privacy is more important than knowing what is happening there. i have been in many calls that you walk in the door and people are usually at their worst when the police are in their dealing with whatever those issues are. those are things that i know think the general public wants to go public. there has to be a part of it. we are dealing with situations where people are arguing, fighting, whatever is going on in the privacy of their home.

police officers are coming in to interact and deal with those issues. now, that's where it stops. once these cameras going to play, that's not where it stops. >> let me let you follow-up. and let me ask you about your area of expertise in training. one of the concerns that those of us who represent communities of color here a lot is the lack of cultural competency on the part of law enforcement officers. as you respond to the chief, would you also address the competency issue, and any other issue involving law enforcement training that we ought to be aware of? >> absolutely. i want a second the remarks that the chief just made. when i was a young police officer, i was intervening into ribs and process. the women were in the process of being raped. if we were to have body cameras, there is a law that says that people cannot get access to this, these us scenes of these two women literally -- we are

rescuing them from the hands of rapists, that would be on the internet. that is wrong, wrong, wrong. as state legislators, you have the opportunity to pass laws, not just make a policy statement, but pass a law that says this type of information will not be subject to requests, no matter what the case might be. i don't know the details, that that is something that needs to be done. victims of violent crimes should not have to be subject to derision that will come by having their information pop up on youtube. i am with the chief 100% on that. not just about you on your worst day, but crime victims. in terms of cultural competency, i think that one of the critical issues that people need to understand -- the chief and i have talked about this. often times, and czar framed as black and white about policing. -- things are framed as black and white about policing. it's blue, the blue uniform versus citizen sometimes. when you do figure out how to train officers understand two things. they need to identify with the citizens, no matter what that this is particular background might be. and understand the citizen has an expectation on the lines of what mr. austin was talking about, that all people be treated equally and fairly. the second point about that is obviously, there will be cultural differences. black, white, asian, hispanic, whatever the case might be. within the black committed, there is different subcultures. it is really vital that police officers understand who it is they are interacting with. they get training in the academy, and they get training in service so they understand the community they are policing. that is really vital. that isn't something that stops at the academy, it has to be ongoing in terms of in-service training and having people from different backgrounds. perhaps even coming to roll calls and making presentation. there is a lot of room for that.

>> the takeaway from the whole conversation about body cameras, for those of us out there looking to introduce legislation, is -- let's look at it from various angles. you aren't necessarily saying don't do it, you understand it's not a silver bullet that we think it is. and we need to engage others in law enforcement, the privacy community, all of those to make sure that in our effort to help, we aren't inadvertently creating something. i want to go to the chief, because you asked a question. you raised is something that leads to one of the questions that came from our audience. and that is your point about the thin blue line. chief, what has come out in all of this conversation has been some friction in the eyes of some, with police unions and communities of color.

could you just give the members of our audience some idea of how we engage police unions, as a part of helping us come up with something that will work? >> the first step in that, everybody has to understand everybody else's side. my experiences lead me to believe certain things and react in certain ways. i tell people often, when i am dealing with these issues i deal with them with a couple of different hats on. one, from a police chief's perspective, obviously. two, from a black man. three, from a black man who has a black son. all of those issues are important to me. and so i have, i guess, the pleasure of understanding each piece of what goes on. police unions understand they are put in place to look at it from a police perspective. they approach it from that perspective. not a wrong perspective, just their viewpoint. what we all have to do is sit

down at that table -- we should have 19-year-olds and 20-year-olds to discuss these. because that is who it affects. and their perspective is going to be different from ours. so we have to engage in a roundtable with everybody involved to focus on solutions. >> thank you, chief. did you have something you wanted to say? >> you know, when i think about what happened in ferguson and in new york, i think about the police side of things. there definitely needs to be more training. you know, i look at both of those incidents and say, are those officers trained on when you use certain levels of force? clearly excessive force was used in both of those instances. they have to be trained early on, on when you escalate force. i am speaking because in my role as a lawyer from municipalities i represented many police officers.

many had gotten it wrong and many had gotten it right. those had had gotten it right had been trained from the outset. as a legislator, we need to address this issue. in a lot of states, police departments are required to report data on what race you are when you are stopped. we need to make sure every time force is used, police officers are required to report it. whatever force they have, i guarantee you, if they know they are going to report it, they are going to think twice about the force they will use. >> representative, let me ask you this. you mentioned a piece of legislation you have done in illinois, dealing with protection for gang members. would you talk to us about what you see as a solution in addressing the code of silence that is in law enforcement? i don't want to put our to law enforcement experts on the hot

seat by having them address it. but if you, because of your legislation, have something specific you want to share about how you see us addressing this notion within law enforcement -- not the snitch piece, but within law enforcement, about abuses that don't go reported within their ranks. and then we will let our law enforcement experts respond. is my question clear? >> understood clearly. as someone who represents police officers, i understand it. it's just nature we want to protect our brothers and sisters. and we have to train law enforcement just like we are going to train the kids. if you know of someone doing something illegal, it is not cool to try to protect them. they have to snitch on their brothers and sisters too, if they are doing something wrong. the only way you are going to

root out the bad apples is to tell it. you teach that early. teach it in the academy. they are teaching that brotherhood. teach them if somebody is doing something illegal, it is wrong and i'm going to let someone know you are doing something wrong. >> i know we have two lawyers on the panel. but i am going to throw this one out, and anybody who wants to respond can feel free to respond to it. that is this notion of grand juries, and how all of that works. given the lack of indictment, in cases which to a lot of us appear very clear-cut, what do you say to anybody about these lapses we are seeing from prosecutors and solicitors when it comes to presenting information to grand juries for indictment? we have two lawyers appear. the first one is going to say something.

>> i have a short answer. several years, i carried a bill to have the attorney inside of the room in the grand jury, and not just the prosecutor by themselves. and i really believe that is one of the solutions to the problem. >> repeat that again. >> i believe we have the other attorney there with the prosecutor. i'm not saying the prosecutor is not being diligent and not living up to his code of conduct. i just think this is a good safety measure. i have tried to pass that bill for 10 years in texas. i know you all the look at me crazy. i did past one and allen. it took me 20 years, but i got it done. i believe this is a safety net, that that would be a good thing in there. i don't believe that lawyer would be disrupted. because the role of that person in the grand jury would be restricted, but they would have an opportunity to see actually what is happening and how the dialogue or the questioning is going on.

>> thank you so much. as representative welch gets ready to respond, in addition to what she said there are some who are now calling for a special prosecutor to be called automatically when a case happens, so you don't get into this issue of conflict of interest, and all of that. do you support that? what do you think that would do? >> i wholeheartedly support that. i think that is the solution. you cannot have folks who work closely together every day, who have developed a special bond of working together, investigating one another. the perfect example was the prosecutor in ferguson. in that incident, there should have been an outsider appointed as a special prosecutor to look into that situation. every lawyer who has gone

through law school knows you can indict a ham sandwich. and somehow this ham sandwich didn't get indicted in ferguson, and that is because of the bias of the prosecutor. and i think if you appoint a special prosecutor from the outset, you would have avoided the whole incident. >> one thing we want to remind a room full of elected officials is a possible solution as well is, change the person who's in the role of prosecutor. you know, let's not forget we are elected officials and elections matter. and who wins matters. so we want to make sure we come up with all of the solutions and we don't overlook the process that has brought all of us to this room. david, you want to say something? >> i do not know the details of what is going on in wisconsin in the last couple of years. there is basically a three-pronged bill, but one has already been passed. the michael bell act. to make a very long story short, that is one place to look, in terms of another way to think about how it is states can

structure these very critical reviews of officer involved shooting. that is one place you guys could take a look. >> i'm going to start with my sister from iowa. any of you can feel free, and i know i keep harping on this. you raised a point to our democratic colleague and democratic-controlled state about getting stuff done. and so, can you kind of talk to us about your suggestions, for those of us who live and work in totally red states, where your ability to decide the outcome of a legislative issue is going to be -- how do we talk to our colleagues who are frankly just dismissive in addressing this whole business of police violence? and what do they tend to do is

revert to the rudy giuliani school of thought and say, it is black on black crime. if you people would stop killing each other, we would all be ok. how do you talk to colleagues on the other side of the aisle who believe that view? >> first of all, i totally dismiss that black on black crime crap. and that is because -- i always say to people, crime happens where you live. white on white crime happens where you live. asian people kill asian people or commit crimes against them. the whole black on black crime thing, let's just not say that anymore. because i think that is a way to continue to keep the issue separate from the real issue of the fact that there is some serious issues going on with some police officers across this entire country. so dismiss that.

it is interesting you ask me that question, because i remember when i was my first term, introducing my first bill on racial profiling, and the chairman of that committee was a republican representative. i walked up to him in my little, young, naive way -- he actually walked up to me and said, i'm not going to run your bill. i said to him, why not? he said, "because i don't believe racial profiling exists." and so i sat him down and said to him, here are the reasons why it exists. and i think for the first time in his life somebody explained to him that racial profiling exists. of course, the bill did not go anywhere because him being a former trooper, he honestly didn't think he could get his colleagues to support it.

and so it took me years and years to really work on that person. but to answer your question, how to really work across the aisles and get the other side to at least listen, it is very important. and this is really something for freshmen legislators. just being able to understand a couple of things -- first of all, in this business, no permanent friends, only permanent interests. you have to be patient, you have to understand that. as you said, representative thompson -- it took 20 years, you say? it took five years for that afterschool legislation to codify. things take time. you have to really be able to communicate with people, be open and honest about things.

once you get to know people -- you all know this, those of you who have been around a long time. once they really understand who you are, why you believe in these things, once you have educated them on these issues, it is much easier for people to see the other side. >> i used to work in central los angeles so i'm used to being the only white boy. >> as our designated one -- >> designated white boy? >> just for this question, dave. how can tactical training overcome deeply held fear why police officers who are in some of these shootings have a black

man -- in other words, what can we do about the white police officer to get them to not be afraid of the brothers? >> i think the biggest thing is that most wide police officers, at least the ones i work with, the gentlemen and ladies i know, aren't afraid of black people and don't look at them and say holy mackeral, here comes bad, bad stuff. but there are some officers. it's two-prong, >> you on the force if you're afraid of people you'll be policing just by virtue of their skin color? that's a problem. the next question is how do you overcome it for some who might not be aware of it. i think what it boils down to is you have to have senior officers who get it, white, black, hispanic, whatever, work with these young officers to help them understand that everybody's the same. it's just the skin color is different. consequently i think that's what it boils down to. it goes back to the previous question in terms of cultural sensitivity. to understand it, there are

some differences across cultures, big deal? i must respectfully disagree with representative barry's comment about black on black crime, however. it is very true crime is an intraracial phenomenon. no doubt about that. the problem, however is that black on black crime is remarkably higher than levels of white on white crime, hispanic on hispanic crime. for example, in st. louis, missouri, where i come from, 90% of all the murder victims are black and about 90%-plus of them are killed by other blacks. so we cannot not look at that disproportionate intraracial violence among black communities. so what's going on in st. louis is not that remarkably different from other places. so i think we agree with a lot but respectfully disagree about that point. >> thank you, chief. [applause] >> go ahead, baby. >> and i do need to -- i rather respectfully disagree because

in terms of the disproportionality of it, i disagree with that. but i think again when you label -- how many of you have walked up to you and how many black people kill black people? percentagewise we do kill but the notion that we're the only ones killing, i think that's just not a good assessment of the swailings. so therefore -- [inaudible] >> that's my point when i say hat. >> all i wanted to say is i'm not arguing that white people don't kill white people, that's not true. what i'm saying is disproportionate involvement on black on black crime. let me tell you from a human perspective. when i was a young policeman 30 years ago in south central los angeles, i used to ride in the back of ambulances by young black kids who got shot by other young black kids. why was i riding in the back of

the ambulance? waiting for a dying declaration so i could go into court if this person died and say this person just before they passed told me it was billy bob or whoever it was that shot him. that is no fun. and as a white man, as a designated white boy, as she said, i want to let you know just for that question, i do want to let you know that police officers, when we are trying to save lives with, and we are trying to product people, i'm sure there are racists out there, there are some knuckleheads. but the vast majority of men and women i used to work with and patroling your streets are interested in trying to protect people and we hate having to take that ambulance ride. it really rends our souls. >> at -- chief, you want to say something? >> i want to clear up a couple things.

we have to look at what's going on. we talked about the fear that exists and i have to say, i think it's not as much fear as it is a lack of understanding, you know. we have to push out -- i'm a big believer in the police department should look like your community. it should match your community. what that does is bring in understanding, you know. if i grew up there, i've been there and had people say why folks hang outside the project? because it's hot inside, i grew up in it. because it's hot. that's really the bottom line. ain't no air conditioning in there and cinderblock walls and in the middle of the day it's burning up so you hang outside. it's not a negative, it's a condition. if you've never been there, you don't understand the condition. >> chief, thank you so much. and we're kind of getting -- i can tell we have met our goal of making this conversational

because y'all are being conversational out there now. so we are going to just the question is a comment so i don't want y'all to think i'm picking on the two of you but all of them are like the four of us so they're not real interested in the four of us, or these three. no offense to you all. >> no problem. >> all of them think they have important legislation that is the bomb. this is the question for either of you who want to answer about training in our criminal justice academies and our police academies. can you speak to us as legislators about what we need to be looking for in our academies that are responsible for training our police officers. what are your suggestions about things that we ought to be looking for and how we engage our criminal justice and police training academies. >> without question, sensitivity training. we have to understand what is

going on out there. the number one thing that's hitting the news everywhere is how officers are responding. i'm not going to get into the details on what i believe or what anybody else believes but here's the issue. it's happening. we need to figure out how to stop it. one way to stop it is train our officers in a different way. the doctor mentioned earlier how we respond. definitely. when you pull up two feet in front of somebody who is supposed to be armed, something is wrong tactically with that. good, bad or indifferent. that's probably not the way i would tell any of my officers to respond. the same thing in understanding cultures. we have to understand, i shared earlier where it was a church van pulled over by police and the church van was full of holiness people. so when they started reacting and playing and doing things, the officer was uncomfortable with their response. and he called in more units because he didn't understand folks laying hands on each other.

so these are -- you know, we need to understand, you know, he come from a background where that is unusual. so we have to train our officers where, you notice, if i walk on the scene i may tell a group of young men, y'all got to go home and they respond accordingly, well, you've got to get -- you know, whereas somebody else may come, get off the corner. you create an environment that's going to be some kind of negative reaction and that's where a the lo of our training needs to be surrounded around that sensitivity on how to deal with different communities. >> thank you, chief. dr. clinger, we have questions for you. one thing, i'm sorry, i didn't see you. go ahead, baby. >> i'm just listening. and i want to just again stress the importance of cultural understanding. but i just still don't think that is a reason to want to kill people. just because you don't

understand -- i think a lot of it is also just stereotypes and things ingrained in the fabric f our psyche of this country and there's no excuse. so we just have to deal with that part of it. you know, how darren wilson described he saw a big black -- what did he say? oh, i'm sorry, go ahead. >> there's two points i want to make. number one, i don't know a single police officer who wants to kill anybody. 've done it. i've done it and it's no fun. let me tell you that from personal experience. i've interviewed 300 police officers across the country, black, white, hispanic, male, female. they're not looking to shoot people. i promise you that. now, are there knuckleheads out there and bad cops? i'm not going to argue that point.

let me tell you the vast, vast majority of police officers do not want to pull the trigger. they don't. and part of the evidence for that is how infrequent it happens. i just want to point it out. the second thing is it you spend time talking to police officers who have done the work, i've not talked to the chief about this particular issue, i've been involved in multiple situations where without a doubt, i could have legally pulled the trigger but opted not to at risk to myself and my partners because we value human life. that's the story of most police officers. most police officers are quite restrained. and i bet you the chief can tell you stories of his officers that could have legally shot but held their fire. i think part of this conversation has to include the understanding that the employs are not looking to gun people own. >> thank you so much. we've hit upon something that evokes passion in all of us but i really want to remind the audience that a part of what we want to do here is give you

data so you don't have to do like you just did and that is react emotionally. because when you become emotional in a lot of cases about some of these things, you use your ability to persuade or even allow the person you are talking to to understand the point that you're making. we have time for one more question, and i want to say for the record that representative welch, there was a question about snitching and how, with your legislation -- and i don't want you to answer it, i'm just telling the audience because you know a group of politicians, i don't want you all when we finish up here, you didn't ask my question. i'm just saying what's left on the table, so somebody is going to come up to you and ask you about your snitching legislation and how somebody who does that ought to feel when they see a police officers. there also was a question i didn't get to, any of y'all can feel like answering which is

about psychological testing. and what role that plays and whether we ought to make it a public policy issue as far as psychological testing. but because we want you to have the ability at the end to address your questions to our panelists, we will now move to our closing conversation and representative welch, we're starting with you. this is your chance to make sure that you leave with our audience one point you wanted to make. >> thank you, representative. i want to thank everyone for coming out and hearing us and think it's very important that we remember as the leaders in our respective states that we have to demand that we adequately educate each and every one of our children. we have to demand that every person who has made a mistake in their life is given a second

chance and we have to demand that people who know who have committed crimes, whether it's gang bangers or police officers, that they tell. we have to demand that. and if we demand it, it will all happen and we will decrease violence within our respected communities. >> i guess i would leave everyone just with this, you know, i support police, as i said, i served on public safety for probably 10 years at my political career. but i do believe that if you are -- if you are not protecting and serving, you just don't need to be on the force. we are all here just trying to do what we can to raise our children, make sure they are safe, but be in fear for the

safety of your children every day of their lives, particularly male children. i refuse to live that way. in fact, i'm even afraid for my granddaughter. so i just think we have to make sure we continue to educate, we need to as legislators, you know, have the discussion in our communities policies, critical and all this, make sure the policy is addressing the issue. and you're right, representative hunter, we get emotional and we get emotional about this stuff and we react just like the folks on social media. so i just think it's important to really stay above it as much as we can and make sure we set the example to really, really make our state a better state but don't ignore the fact these things are happening and they need to be addressed.

. thank you. >> you know, i saw that emotional response to that. and i tell you, and i'm staying back so we can have some further conversation about it because i think it's so important, especially you guys, at least have your responses, what we call evidence-based, understand what really exists. because part of why we have thanks that affect us, ancillary laws that affect us is because we don't take the time to look at what happens here and now that affects later on and we have to make sure we focus on that. we have to make sure there is an understanding. and i will tell you and agree with doc here, the vast majority of police officers are not here to hurt people. i've been in this business 30 some years and yes, have i fired off? yes. will he continue? yes. no police officer wants a bad

police officer around him. the issue becomes that guy has information on me and my family that i don't want the bad guys to get ahold of. there are some pieces in there that's part of it because a drug dealer would love to get the information he has on me to have some kind of negative response. that's the vast majority. do we have bad apples? yes. should we get rid of them? yes. should they go to prison when they commit a crime? yes. but we need to have our focus where that is and not do a blanket emotional response on addressing these issues because then what is going to be the long-term alternative and what's going to happen next? who will you get especially people of color to be police officers then. >> i echo what the chief said and want to add the importance of the two things i talked about initially. we need to get officers trained

up because an awful lot of bad incidents where force is used comes not because the officer tends to do something bad but because he or she made a tactical blunder. the other thing you need to know, most of the time, an honest review of what a police officer does when he uses deadly force will show what the officer did is correct. we're talking at one tale of the distribution. we need to not let bad cops do bad things get away with it, without a doubt. the second thing i encourage you to get behind the effort to develop a national database on the use of deadly force by police officers. as the chief has mentioned multiple times, we need evidence based policies and evidence based training and the only way we can get the evidence based policies and training programs up and running is when we have the evidence. we desperately need that and there are many members of law enforcement that want that evidence and we want to move forward and hopefully can count on y'all to be a part of the

support system that will buttress this. i spent eight years in texas nd why i said "y'all." >> i hope that as an organization, that we would continue to stay together on this issue and not let it fall within a few to carry the burden. that we would work towards policies together as a unit so that all americans, including african-americans, would be able to benefit from the full respect and force and protection of the laws of this ountry regardless of race, sexual orientation, ethnicity. >> well, we want to just really on behalf of nbcsl and i'm not the typical politician using that "we" meaning but talking more than me. i really want to thank you all

for being here and i am very much interested in having y'all stay around because there are questions people have, the takeaway we'd like to leave you th from this from the nbcsl, perspective and as dr. clinger and representative thompson said, we are in the south so those of you who are from the west and northeast, you'll have to bear along with us as i put to you in southern speak what we want you to take away from this and quite frankly the bottom line is we'd rather see a sermon than hear one, meaning walk the walk, not just talk. bottom line is this is a very difficult problem. we recognize that and hope you remember, we said we're not trying to provide solutions here today, we're simply trying to get you think about what you

need to do. evidence based, evidence based, evidence based. go back to your states and talk to your police training academies, talk to your social service agencies, talk to your educators in the community. talk to everybody because we want you to connect the dots. final comment from nbcsl, get off your butts and do something when you go back home. thanks very much for being here. [applause] >> thanks, guys. another round, y'all. give the panel another round. captioning performed by national captioning institute] captions copyright national cable satellite corp.2014]

>> here's a preview of "death penalty and justice." >> i remember being shot. i learned a lot through dead man walking and being with people who were executed and who got it and who didn't and how the whole criminal justice system worked. shocked me profoundly. one of the things is, you know, when you write a book, you do research so i learned about, for example, police brutality and more complaints from the justice department. but also when slavery was abolished in the 13th amendment, it was except for those who are in prison are in indentured servants. it has not been abolished completely in this country. and i've been amazed, i'm just going to say it out. just the racism in the supreme court.

the dave lawless did a study, expensive study in georgia about how when the death sentence was given, overwhelmingly it corresponds to when the victims wipe the death penalty aside. when victims of black is barely a blip on the radar screen. i saw it in new orleans when i was living in st. thomas and if one of the people in st. thomas were killed, you are lucky if you could find five lines on page 30 and almost always it was formerly a drug deal gone bad. when a white person was killed it was on the front pages of the paper. >> in the midwest not long ago we started representing children prosecuted as adults. when i talk about the pre summings of guilt that poor people and people of color are born with. we have black and brown children born with a presumption of guilt and cage reduceness and follows them

wherever they -- dangerousness and follows them wherever they go and we're suffering in new york where we have stop and frisk and suffering in ferguson and suffering in states with these ground laws because it becomes an opportunity to victimize people covered with this presumming shop. i was in court -- presumption. i was sitting there in court getting ready for a court. i think i had this suit on. >> that suit's important. >> i was sitting there waiting for the hearing to start and the judge walked out and the prosecutor walked out behind the judge and when the judge saw me sitting at the defense table, he said hey, hey, hey you get out of here, i don't want any defendants in my courtroom without their lawyers. you go in the hallway and wait until your defense lawyer gets here. and i stood up and said i'm sorry, your honor, my name is brian stevenson, i'm the lawyer representing the client today. the judge says, you're the lawyer? i said yes, sir. and he started laughing. and the prosecutor started laughing. >> yes. >> and i made myself laugh, too, because i didn't want to disadvantage my client before

he came in. and then my client came in, a young white kid who i was representing at this hearing. [laughter] >> a great reversal. >> and we did the hearing but afterwards, i was thinking how exhausting it is to have to deal -- these are judges, the people who are supposed to be fair, the people aren't supposed to act on these assumptions and bias and it's exhausting to be constantly dealing with it. for a lot of defense attorneys, courtrooms are not friendly places, they're not convenient or comfortable places because all of that rage gets directed at you and of course for our giants, it's even more hostile and we have a criminal justice system that treats you better when you're rich and guilty than poor anden in. when you stand with poor people you feel that inequality and weighs on you bigtime. >> our conversation on the death penalty in the criminal justice system airs tomorrow night at 8:00 eastern here on -span.

despite objections from china, members of the u.n. security council today voted to debate north korea's record on human rights abuses. next on c-span. then a conversation on cancer research and technology. dr. francis collins, director of the national institutes of health. here's a look at some of the programs you'll find christmas day on the c-span networks. holiday festivities start at 1507b8g eastern on c-span with the lighting of the national christmas tree followed by the white house christmas decorations with first lady michelle obama and lighting of the capitol christmas tree and celebrity activists talk about their causes and at 8:00 a samuel alito and former governor jeb bush on the bill of rights and founding fathers. on c-span 2 at 10:00 p.m. eastern venture in the art of good where writing with steve

pinker and then see the feminist side of a superhero as we research the history of wonder woman. officer pamela paul and others talk about their reading habits. on american history tv on c-span 3 at 8:00 p.m. eastern, the fall of the berlin wall with george bush and bob dole with speeches from president john kennedy and ronald reagan. at noon, fashion experts on first ladies fashion experts and how they represented the styles of the times in which they did. then at 10:00, former nbc news anchor tom brokaw on his more than 50 years of reporting on world events. that's this christmas day on the c-span networks. for a complete schedule go to c-span.org. >> now a u.n. security council meeting on north korea's human rights record. with the u.n. ambassador to the u.n. samantha power. there's a short vote at the top of the meeting to put north

korea's human rights record on the agenda. the china representatives vote against the agenda. officials from north korea did ot attend this debate. >> 353rd meeting of the security council is called to order. >> the provisional agenda for this meeting is the situation in the democratic people's republic of korea. does any member of the council wish to speak on the subject? i'm going to give the floor now o the representative of china. >> mr. president china is against using the existence of large-scale violation of human rights as a reason to include the dprk in the conclusion of

the security council. the u.n. charter stipulates implicitly the primary responsibility of the security council is to maintain national peace and security. there is u.n. organizations who have their respective functions and divisions of labor. the secretary of council is not the forum to get involved in human rights issues and the human rights issues be politicized. currently the international peace and security are faced with numerous, daunting challenges. the security council should strictly abide by its responsibilities and concentrate on addressing issues which really concern international peace and security. the situation on the korean peninsula remains complex and sensitive. upholding the goal of the denuclearization of the peninsula, maintaining peace and security on the peninsula and insisting on dialogue and

consultations as a way to solve issues. these are in the common interest of all parties concerned and should be the all tion towards which parties should work together. the security council should work more to ease tension and refrain from doing anything that might cause the escalation of tension. the inclusion by the security council of the dprk situation in this agenda by which to get involved in the dprk human rights issue will go against the above goals and can only bring harm instead of benefits. thank you, mr. president. >> i'd like to thank the representative of china for his statement. now, does any member of the council wish to take the floor? i'm going to give the floor to representative of australia.

>> mr. president, thank you and thank you for convening this meeting. i'll make a few brief remarks. i'd like to start by reading the letters that a group of 10 council members addressed to you, mr. president, in your capacity as president of the council on five december 2014. the letter stated, and i quote, we the undersigned members of the security council, australia, chili, france, jordan, lithuania, luxembourg, republic of korea, rwanda, the united kingdom and the united states, deeply concerned about the situation in the democrat people's republican of kerreya. we're concerned by the scale and gravity of human rights violations detailed in the comprehensive report undertaken by the u.n. human rights council commission of inquiry in the democratic people's

republic of korea. document a, hrc, stroke 25, stroke 63 contained in document stroke 2014 stroke 276. these violations threaten to have a destabilizing impact on the region and maintenance of international peace and security. therefore, we right to request the situation in the democratic people's republic of korea be formerly placed on the council's agenda without prejudice to the item on nonproliferation in the dprk. we request a meeting of the security council on the situation in the democratic people's republic of korea pursuant to rule 2 of the council's provisional rules of procedure and request that a senior official from the u.n. secretary and a senior official from the u.n. office of the high commission of the human rights formerly brief at a meeting of the security council under that agenda item which

will enable council members to receive further information from the secretary on this situation and its implications for international peace and security, unquote. that letter was issued as council document s stroke 2014 stroke 872. the 10 members of the council which signed the letter, firstly seeking the establishment of a new agenda item, the situation in the democratic people's republic of korea under which the council can, as a matter of urgency, and then is necessary consider the serious and deteriorating human rights situation in that country. given the gravity and systematic nature of the human rights violations taking place in the dprk and the threat to the maintenance of international peace and security, we do not consider that this can be appropriately considered by the council on an ad hock or ininformal basis. second, this formal council

meeting under the new agenda item must take place today. rule 2 of the council's provisional rules of procedure provides that a president shall call a meeting of the security council on the request of any one member of the council and it's been over two weeks since 10 council members requested such a meeting. we consider therefore we simply proceed to adopt the agenda which hasegawa a substantive item in the -- which has as a substantive item. >> i'd like to thank the representative of australia for his statement. i'm going to draw members' attention to the letter dated ecember 5, 2014. letter f 2014/872. addressed to the president of the security council.

from the representatives of australia, chile the united states of america, france, jordan, lithuania, luxembourg, the republic of korea, the united kingdom of great britain nd northern island and rwanda. in view of the request that this matter be included in the provisional agenda. in view of the comments made by e representatives of china and australia, i propose to put the provisional agenda to a vote. accordingly, i shall put it to a vote now. for those in favor of the

adoption of the provisional agenda, please raise their hands. thank you. those against. any abstentions? >> the results of the voting are as follows. 11 votes in favor, two votes against.

and two abstentions. the provisional agenda has been adopted. listen to the request. of the representatives of australia, chile, the united states of america, france, jordan, lithuania, luxembourg, other republic of korea and northern ireland and rwanda contained in document f, 214, 872, that a meeting of the council in the agenda item, the situation, the democratic people's republic of korea be convened, i shall suspend this meeting and we shall resume after a brief recess.

to continue consideration of the agenda item. the meeting is suspended. >> 7,355 meeting of the security council is resumed. >> in accordance with rule 39 of the council's provisional rules of procedure, i invite the following briefers to participate in this meeting. the assistant secretary-general for political affairs. nd mr. ivan evonovich, the

security general of human rights. >> i'm going to give the floor alahun.aibrooks

>> the president, members of he security council. excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. the security council meets at the time when the situation in the democratic people's republic of korea is attracting increased world attention and concern. the report of the secretary-general to the general assembly on the situation of human rights and the democratic people's republic, korea was issued earlier this month. the general assembly adopted the resolution on the human rights situation and the democratic people's republic of korea on december 18, and on december 19, the federal bureau of investigation of the united states issued a report alleging that the democratic people's

republic of korea was responsible for the recent cyberattack targeting sony pictures entertainment. the secretary-general is aware of the f.b.i. report. he's also aware that the democratic people's republic of korea has denied any involvement. the united nations is not privy to the information on which the f.b.i.'s conclusions are base. however, the rise in the incidents and severity of cyberattacks is of increasing concern. mr. president, the commission of inquiry established by the human rights council gave voice to the many victims of grave human rights violations and provided a roadmap for the democratic people's running back of korea to adhere to

standards. the commission concluded that, and i quote, the gravity, scale and nature of the violations reveal a state that does not have any pattern in the contemporary world. end of quote. the commission also refrained and changed the tone of the discussion on the democratic people's republic of korea. it's not just the nuclear issue that deserves international attention and action. the discussion in the security council today allows for a more comprehensive assessle and action when addressing the security and stability concerns in the korean peninsula. in keeping with its obligations under international law, the democratic people's republic of korea has a responsibility to protect its population from the more serious international crimes.

the international community also has a collective responsibility to protect the population of the democratic republic of korea, people's running back of -- the people's republic of korea and report the grave human rights situation for the stability of the region. mr. president, for the first time in 15 years, the foreign minister of the democratic republic of korea attended the general assembly debate in september this year and met with the secretary-general confirming the commitment of his country to sustaining and continuing the dialogue. the democratic people's republic of korea also has undertaken active diplomatic activities around the world including in europe, east africa, and northeast asia and substantially ub

with the human rights system, including the periodic review. these signals of engagement offer an important opportunity for the united nations and the wider international community to redabble efforts to building trust, dialogue and cooperation on all tracks. it's also an opportunity for the democratic people's republic of korea to work with the international community to improve the human rights situation and the living conditions of the people of the country. mr. president, the democratic people's republic of korea issued official statements making clear its objection to the general assembly resolution in the human rights situation in the country and on december , the spokesperson of the foreign ministry gave a strong reaction to the meeting of the security council today. while the democratic people's republic of korea raised the possibility of conducting a fourth nuclear test in its

statements immediately. before and after the third committee vote, its recent statements have refrained from such references. the secretary-general notes the international community is firm and united in affirming the democratic republic people's of korea cannot have the status of a nuclear weapon state in accordance about the treaty of the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. there is strong international consensus on the need for the verifiable democratization of the korean peninsula. in this context the six-party talks remain a viable mechanism to achieve denuclearization and maintain peace and security in the korean peninsula. the 2005 joint statement remains a solid framework for addressing these issues to dialogue and negotiations.

while the nonproliferation political human rights, economic and security challenges are interrelated and mutually reinforcing the united nations urged member states to increase humanitarian assistance for those in need of the democratic people's republic of korea. the united nations's laid humanitarian response to the country of high quality and life saving with a measurable impact on the lives of the most vulnerable. the response, however, is hampered by funding deficit which has been exasperated by sanctions. mr. president, next year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the world war ii and the founding of the united nations as well as the division of the korean peninsula. the korean question has remained unresolved if so long

and the situation on the peninsula remains fragile and volatile. relations have remained deadlocked and family members separated far too lodge. to start incredible dialogue and meaningful engagement would be an important step to overcome a current standard on the korean peninsula and should go hand in hand with efforts to ensure accountability. the united nations will continue its engagements on both fronts and counts on the active support of the international community especially, the countries in the region. sustained international efforts would be important in supporting these efforts. all concerned parties should work to make 2015 a pivotal year to improve the human rights situation in the democratic people's republic of

korea and move forward with denuclearized and korean peninsula. i thank you. >> i'd like to thank him for his briefing and i'm going to ivan e floor to mr. ivnovic. >> the high commission is sorry he could not address the council today himself. mr. president, distinguished members of the council, earlier this year, the representative of the democratic people's republic of korea spoke very vividly to this council about how they felt, savageness and brutality of crimes against humanity committed against korean people during the second world war. ambassador ri listed massacres, abduction, forceable

recruitment, forced labor and sexual slavery which he said trampled on the dignity of korean women and of the korean nation as a whole. this is the kind of compassion that we are seeking for victims in korean peninsula today. victims of extermination, of murder, enslavement, and torture. of rape, force another abortions, and other sexual violence. tickets of persecution of political, religious, racial, and gender grounds. people who have been forcefully transferred. whose loved ones have been abducted or disappeared without trace, people who have been deliberately starved for long periods. according to the human rights council's commissions of inquiry, these crimes have been

perpetuated in the dprk in a widespread and systematic manner as deliberate policy directed by the highest levels government, in many instances, they constitute crimes against humanity. before you today is the report of that commission. rarely has such an extensive charge sheet of international crimes been brought to this council's attention. it documents a totalitarian the m that is ruled by rights of freedom of opinion and expression and information and association. the classification which calibrates perceived loyalty to the states generates extensive and damaging discrimination throughout the country.

where it entertainments -- intersects with gender based discrimination and increases the vulnerability of women and sharply limits their opportunities. the dprk government has also used denial of the rights to food to control and coerce its people. actions by officials have caused the death of hundreds of thousands of people according to the commission particularly during the famine of the 1990's and have inflicted permanent physical and psychological injuries on survivors. food ember 2013, the u.n. and agriculture organization and the world food program , und that 84% of households eight to nine families out of 10 were not consuming enough food.

according to the latest national nutrition survey, in 2012, 28% of children under 5 suffered stunting from malnutrition and almost one woman in four had been so starved that she risked giving birth to premature or underweighed children. dprk nationals who manage to flee the country may fall victim to trafficking networks and women often face forced marriage or forced prostitution. if forcibly returned, they face persecution, torture -- detention and even summary execution. the commission expressed its deepest horror at the dprk's political prison camp system whose inmates suffered

deliberate starvation, forced labor, executions, torture, rape, forced abortion, and infanticide. the commission estimated that hundreds of thousands of prisoners have perished in these camps out of the past 50 years and that they currently hold 80,000 to 120,000 people. the dprk representatives have acknowledged the existence of what they term reformatories. i firmly believe with honesty and transparency, and international assistance, we an find a way to dismantle the camp system and rehabilitate prisoners. other countries in the region have shown it's possible to release thousands of political prisoners and roll back systems of administrative depension. mr. president, the commissioner

of inquiry has highlighted the connections between the human rights rights situation and dprk and security in the region overall. the sustained military focus and nuclear authority of the government has been pursued at expense of the economic and social rights as well as the lives and well-beings of its people. comprehensive resume vitamins violations of the dprk has had significant impact on the regional peace and security from international abductions and forced disappearances to trafficking and the outlaw of desperate refugees. in we are to reduce tensions in the region, there must be movement towards real respect of the human rights in the dprk. this is deserving of the security council's fullest attention and action. excellency, since the

commission of inquiry report was pun lished in march with the prospect of action by this council. the dprk authorities have shown promising new signs of engagement with international human rights mechanisms. they engage productively in the second universal periodic review, in the human heights council and for the first time address numerous recommendations addressing humanitarian assistance, women and children's wives. the dpkr representatives held a meeting. the dprk also indicated for the first time its willingness to accept technical assistance moreover, bilateral sbotions between the dprk and japan opened investigations of leged abductions of japanese

nationals. i hope the investigation will be conducted in true faith leaving truth and regret for the families. it also will be important to bring clarity, to report the abductions from the republic of korea and elsewhere. all these developments may present an opportunity for real change. other countries in the region have shown in the recent past it is possible to dismantle deep-seeded structures and receive assistance in reform leaving to now recollect ok nice and standing in the national community. my office will naturally give all possible support to such progress, together with the international human rights neck his hims. to ere, should be invited visit dprk without conditions.

ohchr will 015, establish a field position in seoul as commanded by human rights resolution 2525 and will follow up the commission of inquiry, boosts support and serve as a hop for declaration assistance and advocacy to veans accountability and improve human rights in dprk. the excellency's real change in of korea will ic not just cry out for reform but demands justice. the first time a u.n. mandated body has qualified human rights violations in the dprk in terms of international criminal law. this is significant in establishing individual and institutional accountability.

but it also invokes the international communities responsibility to take action v to prevent unpunished such crimes. an overwhelming majority of member states in the human rights council as well as general assembly, as well as victims, survivors and civil society organizations around the world have asked that you, the security council of the united nations, take action on this report, including by referral to the international criminal court and by adopting targeted sanctions. as we have seen this year, concerted actions by the international community can have a powerful deterrent effect and may begin to change the policy of dprk. i believe that the security council can advance two crucial goals, accountability and

engagement for reform. today position discussion has placed the dprk on notice, the council should carefully monitor developments in the coming months to see whether engagement leads to real change or should take further action. distinguished members of the council, the people of dprk have endured decades of suffering and cruelty. they need your protection. and the cause of justice, peace and security in the region requires your leadership. thank you. >> i thank you for your briefing. i now give the floor to the members of the council who wish to make statements. i give the floor to the representative of australia.

>> thank you, mr. president, and thank you to assistant secretary general and assistant secretary-general for their briefings. today's meeting is an historic step forward for the international communities efforts to consider the situation in the dprk and its broader implications. it also sends a vital message to the people of north korea that the international community is aware of their suffering and stands in solidarity with them. by meeting the council recognizes the dangerous threat to international peace and security proposed by the dprk regime is not limited to its weapons programs and proliferation activities but that this threat flows from the atrocious treatment of its people and the determination to use every means possible to resist action it perceived as a challenge to its authority. the dprk is in effect a

totalitarian state which uses violence and repression against its own citizens to maintain itself and its threatening military apparatus in power. the regime's atrocities against its own people have created an inparently unstable state. the regime system of repression deprivation of those people fun those policies. some of the council has no business -- something the council has no business, but australia disagrees. history shows human rights violation of the scale we are seeing in north korea, reverberations will be on the country. they mount to a rejection of international noise -- norms, and they undermine peaceful relations between states. and again,seen time serious violations of human rights serve as a warning sign of instability and