communities what is happening, what can be done, what should be done and what the attorney general's office is attempting to do in that order. it's important which is why we > [applause] >> thank you very much. thank you for coming.

>> i want to start with where you were yesterday. preface it by saying that i think all of us, including the attorney general, because we are just humans. we are professionals, but ultimately we are human. it has been disconcerting the last few weeks, everything we have been feeling. we say we have been through so much and we get to another point and it is intense. that some of the important work that needs to be done from the grassroots between police and communities. >> absolutely.

i have been focused on the issue of law enforcement and the communities we serve since my first day. i outlined it as a priority of mine. issues choose you. issues choose a time. it quickly became an issue we had to focus on quickly. we have done a lot of work into this area. a difficult couple of years for this conversation we have been having. we often have these conversations in separate groups. gee, if only say,

someone else would do this. so what i started doing in my first year in my community policing tour was going to cities that have a very challenged relationship between law enforcement and the community, a shooting, a police incident of some sort, doj had come in and sued the jurisdiction. yet three years later they found themselves in a positive place. my question was, what did they see, what did they do and how can we share that with other communities? the are some very, very strong success stories out of their but even with the success stories obviously the events of the last month have just been so challenging. i think the irony of having baton rouge come to illustrate both sides of this terrible, terrible, tragic situation that we have with civilians losing their lives, not just mr. sterling and baton rouge, but

philando castile in minnesota, but then also the ambush of the police officers. having them come so close together shows that for all recommended that are doing well there are others that are still struggling to find a way to start the conversation. >> sorry to interrupt but want to make it conversational. there were about 50 people in detroit. >> yes. >> it was a very kind of closed conversation open to the public. just tell us one thing. one thing that give you a sense all the distrust. >> we have yesterday in detroit is designed of a series of working groups.

let's is sit down and get to work. we asked by going to think about this issue in advance and come with two or three concrete solutions that you think you know. things commuters can do, things that law enforcement can do. it was so exciting and so positive that i put in the room whether you are an old one so brightly, whether you are a young activist, a college student, whether you are a law enforcement officer or prosecutorprosecute, even the elected officials all were saying let's work on and after one or two things. very specific ideas. let's talk about police data for example. let's talk about body cameras for example, in making sure they can be used by law enforcement and the community. people really focus on the issues but i would say, it's hard to find one solution to this large problem but the one thing that does come out come every city i visit, every group i talk to is the importance of having a relationship between law enforcement and the community before the incident happens. people have to know who to talk to. they have to know the character, you have to understand who your police chief is and now they're likely to respond to any situation. if you really pull back, we have a lot of specific solutions that

i think have been and will be very helpful but the most important thing is build a relationship before something happens. >> you talk about the solutions that you've been discussing around the country in these roundtables, what i hear from people in communities, whether it's in baltimore with the freddie gray incident or in north charleston with the walter scott situation, the thing you're over and over again is to that is accountable, the police the police are accountable and will be held accountable if they do transgress the limits of their power on what they abuse their power privileges off the freddie gray case, the officers now all

the charges have been dropped because the officers were able to bypass the jury, go straight to a judge was sympathetic and potentially dismissed the cases. can you talk about what are the barriers? how high is this bar for the justice department to then come in and prosecute? is faster as prosecution the local level. what i was on a technical level is we basically have one statue we can use, section 242, if you deprive some other civil rights and it has been used. i had used it and it is a challenge because of the level of intent we have to show. i think you're right about the issue of accountability that did come up yesterday in detroit as well. it comes up when a whole host of ways but accountability to me as , a concept is more than just can the justice department bring a lawsuit. it's also can your local prosecutors bring a case. fundamentally our local prosecutors themselves have to be accountable to the communities that either elected elected them or appoint them. they literally do represent a very specific community. we at doj try to support those prosecutions also but it comes backor the. the accountability has to start at the law enforcement level.

people need to see law enforcement organizations dealing with issues of any kind of police misconduct. we have all seen the most serious examples. people of lost their lives but there's a whole range of other disciplinary issues. one of the things we've seen be very effective is when committee groups focus on that issue and say that only do we need accountability, we need transparency. we want to have a system whereby we the community know what your disciplinary routine is to their local enforcement. we want to know what kind of infractions lead to what kind of discipline. we want to see the records of that and where police departments can do that, they will make great strides. so accountability as a concept starts at the very beginning of this police relationship because we have to see law enforcement officers and entities themselves saying come as often said to me, they will say to me all the time we don't accept bad police

behavior. we get rid of people who cross the line. i will say to them that's great. i have seen that because i work with law enforcement and i would say but the general public does not see that. you need to understand that people do not have that perception of you because they do not see that. so the challenge for law enforcement is how can they bring transparency into the system as well as accountability into a system? >> this is a question you've heard before, but given that this is the meeting of the national association of black journalists and latino journalists, there's a whole other dynamic that is happening in terms of latino communities that are heavily immigrant. many latinos are not recent immigrants, but this whole dynamic of undocumented immigrants actually turning away from the police at every turn. and as attorney general i just wonder when you think about the fact that right now and the united states on a daily come in

, in terms of immigrants, there is a violation of basic due kind of every day, minutes. how do you cross that as someone committed to the loss of this country knowing that our government is essentially violating due process in terms of undocumented immigrants and children on a daily basis? >> i think we're trying to deal with it in a whole host of ways whether it's in the actual experience particularly for , undocumented children who are coming to this country because they need to. obviously, they have concerns. i've always had a few if i as a parent needed to send my child alone to a foreign country, obviously the situation is dire. so let's start with that, right? and recognize that the children would not be but for a great need and a great concern on partly'silies

in trying to address that is a. people are trying to work on issues of the specific conditions people find themselves in. they are trying to work on the specific conditions that the immigration courts operate in. we are trying to enhance those courts. we've had some terrible situations where not only have actually been unaccompanied they come into the country but unaccompanied through the legal process as well. >> there is no access to a lawyer. >> this is a huge issue. even though there may not be the same constitutional aspects to learn the art a number of ways to provide counsel particularly , for the children. we have issues at the larger level. it's interesting to me people will take the time to put in finding writers but you , can't use your money to do this. we have situations that i find a little troubling but there are private organizations that have been helpful. we've always taken the view that even if we don't have that technical obligation, it is better for anyone whether you

are an immigrant or citizen, a child or an adult. if you are in court you need a , lawyer. that's just a recognition i think of a basic equal process right for everyone. people need representation and help to get through the legal system. it is challenging but i think , there are ways to do that. there are other ways were trying to work on that issue also. my former office when i was the u.s. attorney in brooklyn we were involved in a situation on long island where the latino community not only was ignored and harmed by the police but there was under reporting of crimes and so we've ended up entering into an agreement with them to address that. the language barriers we often find between many, many immigrants and law enforcement is a challenge but one you , cannot turn away from. there are ways to address this. not just ngos and groups, but also to the legal process and legal system as well. of philandot case

castile, his death, it has what you saw in ferguson and that he had been stopped by police dozens of times or minor traffic infractions. you have this pattern in place to prevent around the country essentially having police act as an economic generator arm of the city or other municipality i buy routinely stopping and many directing that towards people of color in order to increase. they were consent decrees. the justice department has been tough on some of these communities. the ferguson report was damning, but how much leverage does the doj really have to force these communities to change their practices? if you to specific of what kind of levers you views on places like cleveland, ferguson is the financial wherewithal that is delivered to these police departments from doj. is that enough to make the

change? >> we got the ability to reach specific just actions with advocates, but you are right. we are not able to cover every municipality. that's where we have to use two things. the doj's power of persuasion which is to say look at the , ferguson report, and we encourage jurisdictions to look at that. if we are working with the city we see a similar situation, our goal is to read that and so i don't want to go down that road. i do want to find myself in a situation where if there is a flashpoint incident, this will be highlighted, and hopefully to get them to change, also the power to convene. not just doj. the whole administration has been focusing on this issue. issue, it isn't just law enforcement and tickets and the like but you often see small , municipalities that have a system or structure for various offenses ranging from your property issues, license tags that really do fall disproportionately on minority individuals.

you see a system where if someone gets cut up in say a misdemeanor offense, there should be just a fine and they go home because they can't afford the fine, it doubles. what sense does that make? you can't afford to pay $50, so now we will now charge $100. and then we can't be the $100, now it is $200. once it reaches a certain monetary level, then you could be put in prison. when you imprison people than me lose their job. this has been a problem we've been trying to raise attention to throughout the administration. the white house has had some convening on this issue as well. we have more than just federal law. there is the power of the bully pulpit. the president has spoken on this issue. i have spoken on it as well. it's the power of publicizing these issues. that's why i'm glad we are here today.

with these two associations. these associations have done more i think to tell the untold story of the minority people in this country than any other organization. and that is still so important. when i travel around, as i said i'm going to cities that i found a way to work together. i was in baton rouge last week also in a city that is just in grief over all of the incidents. i think that they are focusing on trying not to be, try not to let this divide us. there are signs, billboards we , will not be divided. which is a great message but as , i was talking with the leaders in baton rouge it was clear a lot of issues they were raising have not really crossed over into the larger baton rouge community. that's why organizations like this i think are key because if we don't tell our stories, someone else will and will never be the accurate story. >> i just want to give a shout out actually to all of the journalists working in the

mainstream and who are pushing the issue. for the journalist, it is also never easy when we want to push to cover these stories, have a particular angle and we are told , that story isn't that important, but we don't need to do. so a shout out back to you and thank you madam attorney general. >> thank you for having me. ♪ >> the tragedy in baton rouge, three police officers killed in a deadly assault. three more were injured after gunmen attacked them at a busy intersection. >> good evening. a deadly struggle between police in louisiana and the man they were trying to arrest captured on video and shared around the world today is provoking questions and outrage. >> the government is moving with unusual speed in the death of alton sterling. the justice department opened a civil rights investigation a day

after he was shot by police in baton rouge louisiana. >> i got pulled over for a busted tail light in the back. and the police killed my boyfriend. >> 11 officers were hit and one civilian. five of the officers are dead. >> the night started with a protest march in the solidarity with the victims of the early shooting. police shooting. >> we don't feel much support most days. our profession is hurting. >> in baton rouge, where alton sterling arrests overnight sterling was killed by police last week, 48 arrests overnight following more than 100 arrests saturday. among them, black lives matter activist deray mckesson.

>> i remain disappointed a baton in the baton rouge police. that is part of the pattern. you would have to stick your head in the sand and say that this thing here wasn't fueled by this vile, vulgar movement. >> no justice, no peace. ♪ with guns drawn these undercover officers surround the red pickup truck they had just fired up on in this neighborhood. >> we are heartbroken for the families, like mine. >> [speaking spanish] >> they are bringing drugs.

they are bringing crime. some ie rapists, and assume are good people. >> >> the bottom line is the way the race is used in this case is permitted. the bottom line is the way the race is used in this case is permitted. it can be used in some cases. >> i understand the anger and the frustration and distrust of law enforcement, but they are not the problem. the problem is the lack of open discussions about the impact of race relations in this country. [applause] >> all right.

ok. all right. let's introduce -- we need a microphone. >> i am a bit loud. i am from brooklyn but i can't , count on the. we are now joined by police commissioner kevin bethel. please give them a round of applause. [applause] >> i think we should start with the detroit police chief. we were just speaking with attorney general lynch and she was in detroit not long ago talking about policing in a roundtable with officials in your city. the main question would be what came out of that discussion from your point of view, and what can please do to as the attorney general said, to convince the public that action is accountability that starts in the police precinct? >> the attorney general came to detroit because detroit is a model. you look at the relationship

between police and community, really detroit has written the playbook. that doesn't mean it's perfect, absolutely not. if you go back to detroit when i started in 1977, 10 years after civil unrest in detroit, the mayor had the foresight to build a police department to reflect the community. that really hasn't changed. right now detroit is about 62% african-american, women make up about 24% of the police department which exceeds the , national average. the one thing we do because when i got to detroit three years ago, the morale of the police was at the very bottom. but also the morale of the community was at the bottom. it wasn't so much because of race relations. it was because people felt they were not receiving service. so that has changed. and what's changed is that people feel they have a police department. so the conversation is very

different. having spent 28 years in los angeles were i remember times of large number of police officers go to neighborhoods, you remember the war on drugs. didn't work out very well. we go in communities with masks and instead of cheering us, they would boo us. in detroit, it was the opposite. they would see the detroit police department coming into neighborhoods and they would begin to cheer. see, the problem today, the take away is when you talk about community policing, every police department says they engage in community policing. that is not true. community policing is not talking about to the community . it is about talking with the community. how do you want your community policed? detroit said we want to rid our neighbors of gun violence, gang bangers, drugs and we need your help to do that. that's what they want. we didn't talk to them. so, very different.

cincinnati very much the same i wear i was chief for a couple of years there as well. >> i'd like to bring in the former philadelphia deputy police commissioner, kevin bethel. you that document experience around the country. you were in l.a. you in portland, maine. now detroit among other places. >> cincinnati. >> you have been in philly. i actually wrote about something i experienced in philly last week as opposed to what i experienced when i was included. in cleveland. when i was in cleveland at the rnc there were police from all across the country, all of them walking in groups of 10-15, so they were always together, overwhelmingly white, but chillly kind of looking like not, which i thought was

, interesting. in philly the protesters were met by a line of police officers in downtown philly on their bikes with her little shorts on and kind of watching the protesters. i found it very interesting. you have dedicated a lot of your career to actually going into the base to try to find out what actually works when you're trying to create this better community police relationship. what have you been able to do in philly that actually is tangible, to say this is working? i think everybody gets the big picture. we want to know some tangibles of some things are actually working. >> what we have done, i was blessed to work with commissioner ramsey who came into the department with a very strong presence to say we will give people their rights. it wasn't just about talk. it was not educating them in and women, people of the right to protest, people have a right to express themselves. what we started to do is embed that into the department.

what you saw last week was not something that disappeared, here's the conventions going to be, we are going down to do that. we started that process years ago. we made the position that we were not going to engage our protesters in that manner. we would get down and know them. >> with the term essentially be there be essentially that there was an ethos of de-escalation? >> absolutely. de-escalation has been the key. we have changed it as you may know idea program, we made the decision we no longer want to arrest kids in our schools. 1600 kids get arrested every year in the school district. it was a tragedy a 10 year old , child walks into school with scissors and gets fingerprinted and photographed. these are by majority african-american children. process thehe

. two years later, last yea school year, we only had 500 kids. a lot of the things that i find, we got away from doing some of the basic policing concepts we use to do. we used google to take a kid or somebody and so i'm not going to arrest you today and let them go. we stopped doing a lot of those things take a people in the community if you think of it is. really can get back to why to have to wait for these things do happen and let someone else make those decisions? if i have someone to work on a project done before i left, the first time, first time drug offender can like them with the person t.a.r.p. program versus arrest?

really nothing to do a lot of thought into things to take the pressure off. you saw for the convention where those were told violations along with some be arrested for disorderly conduct. they got a $25 ticket. how did you come out of the convention with no arrest? there was an understanding, decriminalize marijuana, a ticket. which go back and say we can't just keep charging these offenses, low hanging offenses. of the conversation about these fines. putting all these pressures on the community and then people don't understand the consequences that go along with that. >> we know that this has become kind of a nemesis of police departments around the country. we've heard up to fbi director comey claim there is this purpose and effect. that police officers who feel threatened by the presence of the watchful eyes of the public. as soon as they get into an encounter with an individual, come the phones and begin

reporting. police departments, people have given anecdotal accounts of sort of a hostile reaction to them keeping by police officers. nobody likes to be constantly scrutinized on the job obviously but how do we get police departments in these cities like detroit and philadelphia but also in smaller towns where they are policing predominant black and brown communities to work with in the knowledge that people feel they have to take feel they have to record every , encounter, feel now that have to live stream every encounter with every law enforcement officer? how to get please department to work within that and work with a public that is still skeptical? >> in detroit it was a group of police officers that approached the mayor and i and said we want body cameras. i want body cameras from the time i got there but they volunteered. many, not all, recognize the importance of having body-worn cameras. in today's environment that's , just the way it is today. doing wee started , embraced the video.

we had a great relations with the protesters without incident. that trust goes along way and eventually having situation where we don't have any arrests. something we just started doing it detroit in a major way, we all know, and i know i talking am mostly to the media here, they craft the narrative every day. so sound bites is the way to go. when i first got to detroit, big headlines with national. chief of police in detroit says don't buy gas in detroit. that wasn't the truth. i said just be careful if you're going to buy gas at 2:00 in the morning. that headline read no gas in detroit. so now it is very strategic way , anytime we do press conferences, we go live on facebook. because you can't co-opt the narrative. we create it and you can put out what you want. for us, we created a policy

that would allow the citizens to film us. part of that was embedding in the culture the department that you will allow the. the police officer is the most powerful position in america , in the world. the ability to take some with the is extremely powerful. so yes, it needs to be regulated. these cameras, i put a 19-year-old kid out in the field and give him all this power. the president can be sitting here today, he cannot arrest anyone. so with that comes to understanding, and the history we didn't have those things to regulate. it was witness testimony. the body cam comes into play to say for the first time i have something to check my officers. not just in those bad times. how is he treating people in the good times? is the acting and performing in a way that anyone would expect? i think the camera will be a change agent needed, but it will not be the be all. so people can get caught up in just because of cameras.

>> do you see a spread in this new innovation by some police unions to say that sure, we will have body cameras, but you will not be able to access the video. the video will be subject to the same police officers bill of rights that other aspects of the job are? there will be camera recorded video, but nobody will be able to access it. >> let me just say, i want to touch on that because i think it's important more today than ever, get the information out quickly. because there's no secret, there's a rush to judgment, especially if it is a white police officer who shoots an african-american. that right there needs that must of been a bad shooting. if i can put information out within the first 24 hours that disputes the bad shooting or if it is a bad shooting, takes responsibility for it. that goes a long way. get it out quickly. >> excellent, thank you. you are going to speak with our social media -- >> i'm going to move. let's thank chief craig baker

and former philadelphia police commissioner. thank you guys very much. i'm going to move over here. good thing i wore comfortable shoes. let's introduce our next panel. this is a really discussion. we're going to talk about social media and how it impacts this larger discussion about policing. we could not have asked for a better panel. we have wesley lowery here to my left who is a terrific reporter from the "washington post." we have former miami herald mannyer and cofounder ruiz. in the middle we have ms. luvvie ajayi who may be more well known to you as awesome luvvie ajayi

on your social media. thank you all for being here appreciate having you guys here. you heard what the attorney general had to say. hopefully you heard the chief talk about this attempt to sort of bring accountability out the federal level to these departments. there are limits to what the attorney general can do both in individual cases of individual shooters and in terms of the leverage they have over the department. they have financial leverage and not a great deal of to see how social media has just brought information to our faces, and the debate is racism worse or is it just now being videotaped? i think it is not just being videotaped. it's taken ways where the videotape you might upload it to myspace. >> nobody ever gets to having myspace. >> our criminal justice system hinges on a contract that we will buy into. we do that for the collective good, the collective safety. if people don't trust the system broadly, it is impossible to have a legitimate system there.

that is one of the important roles for the department of justice. in most of the shootings, the department of justice does not have the capacity to to bring charges one way or the other. to attorneys, community members, activists, one reason the investigations are so important is that no matter what the outcome is going don't trust your local prosecutor, your local police department to do the investigation, it is important for you to know the department of justice is there having this conversation and helping with the conversation. even know what we know is that it is unlikely any officer there will be brought up on federal charges, it is for a community that perhaps is not trusted police department to investigate its own. it is important to know there is a backstop, someone else there,

someone else watching. people have taken it into their own hands to become the watchdog and social media has become this great leveler. a lot of people think about it that way. you get a 19 year old kid out of high school with a badger gone and they have the power to do something the president of the united states can't do, deprived them of their liberty. how important has social media, and a sense of leveling out that power imbalance? >> just thinking back to ferguson and people tweeting about what is happening on the news networks see reporting something completely different. citizen journalism has democratized information and made it to where it is a level playing field.

oweek before the phone land casteel shooting, i was -- the philando castile shooting, i was lamenting on facebook. then the shooting happened on like, i live, and i was take it back. i see the value here. to see how social media has brought information to our faces and the debate is whether racism worse or is it just now being videotaped? i think it is not just being videotaped. it's taken ways where the videotape you might upload it to myspace. >> nobody ever admits to having myspace. >> the glitter wallpaper. terrible. now you can go on your phone and pick up your phone and press live and show people what's happening in your world right now. i think for police that it will be in their own best interest to also understand that we now have that power. there was a patent that apple

just got that could block concert shooting. so everyone extrapolated that to mean hey, like they could turn that switch off if your city new sitting in your car about to film in the counter. what is it going to mean? i say get an android. with us having about i think it's going to be interesting how it changes the dynamic if it changes the dynamic. >> you work at "the miami herald." the "miamiiami and herald." it brings up the point, "miami herald" is a national, but also the paper of record for south florida. it's sort of the local news outlet of record a lot of tv news in a lot of ways follows the lead of what local print journalists are doing. they feed each other. so how important in social media in correcting some of the errors they do crop up in local news coverage?

i think of the walter scott case in which the local news reports which said the national news media getting it wrong, it started with the local media talking to witnesses who didn't see it, talking to witnesses who said they saw something that made walter scott look like he was the person at fault. then i think about the man who was recently shot on his back with his hands in the air and were it not for someone on the phone the local news story within the police officers noted. this person suffered at the offices life. the shootings, we reported can i get in a completely different way without social media. how critical is it now that citizen journalist are protecting us? >> my background is their unique because i've a former police reporter at "the miami herald." my brother is a police officer. so i have a very unique perspective because, and have a terrific brother who's a terrific police officer. i would say that he loves his community. he's very compassionate. he embodies what i think many of

our men in uniform and women represent. so i think social media has really skewed things. where sometimes you really see an injustice you would not have captured before. but sometimes there is a reverse in justice you may not be aware of because social media only captures a certain context. everything else is missing. i think the problem that our police chiefs are facing, frankly, is a communication issue. they are not prepared for the world of social media. they do not understand. they are not used to communicating the way that they are going to have to communicate in this new social media age that is i think the . that is i think the fundamental issue. i will say one thing i want to say just because i'm a nuanced view. i think our inner cities are suffering from both the racial injustice.

sometimes they encounter with some police officers who were rogue and there are very few. just my experience working with many police officers will as reporter and now with my brother. but i will tell you that the other issue is i think we need a two-pronged approach. one has to be to work with the police officers and the police chiefs to help them understand, they need to diversity training. i think there should be mandated thing of every police force nationally instituted diversity , a training program. they need to have social media training to understand what the heck this is. my police officer friends, my brother, they don't understand it. they just think it is people post photos and video. thistunately we are in environment where police officers are being demonized and that could be very, very bad for society because it could lead to all sorts of unrest and sometimes unnecessary. sometimes it's justified. sometimes there is more to that story. and finally i think the police community needs to really get ahead of the message by working with our communities.

final, final point. i think our, i think we should be creative about doing something almost like an x prize. somebody something where our inner cities are not hurting as much. in the way that we have resolved to go to the moon, try to resolve to fix this our communities are police officers where police officers feel these dangers. >> one thing i've noticed is people thought, there was a video going around, a police officer who stopped, who stopping black people and instead of arresting him he gives the ice cream. and people are like, oh, my god, this is great. the way to change the narrative. this is traumatizing to think you're about to get arrested. ice cream cone?

>> i agree with you. great example of not knowing how to use social media. >> terrifying people with ice cream. >> i want to ask one quick question. i want to ask about the other side we don't talk about, the other aspect of social media. in a way facebook in particular has given us really sometimes frightening window into the inner lives of police officers when they talk to each other. and when it leaks out and you hear the conversations, and it's also given in a lot of police departments a place for police officers to sort of download some other of their less savory thoughts about the communities they serve. in a sense does part of the social media training have to be to remind police officers that nothing is secret on social media? >> i don't know it's a bad thing we see with what police officer briefing. every time you see a police officers fired for saying something racist about a shooting. as recent as a week ago, someone talking about michael brown. it starts to get at this

understanding. very often do we want to separate everything into a few bad people versus all of the good people. that begins to ignore about systemic problems and conversations about systemic problems and systemic communities. if i spent every single night talking to the one bad guy come , eventually that's going to start to seep into my perception of the world i live in. when we talk about the few bad apples, we forget the whole rest of the analogy. a few bad apples spoils all of them. it's not we've got to get rid of that one guy. it's now everyone is fooled. every person carries prejudices and biases. what social media has done has allowed us to see those. just because they are a great guy doesn't mean they carry with them biases that come because of their experiences. also we know we live in a society and culture that have specific stereotypes and biases towards people of color. police officers are not immune to that from a black officers, white officers, and hispanic officers. i think we just have to remember

that there were talk about systemic problem very often we pivot to a conversation about that single person is a racist and, therefore, or that person isn't a racist. what we know is we are talking about systemic problems. we are not talk about individual people and their individual motivation. >> we are out of time for this panel. i wish we had double the amount of time. thank you. appreciate it. you guys can find it on social media. thank you, guys. we will move to our next panel. maria hinojosa is taking over again so i will exit stage left. ,maria, i throw it back to you. >> give them a great round of applause. [applause]

>> how does education play a role? joining the conversation on race is education secretary john king. ♪ [applause] >> how are you doing? hello. there is no need to have a wall between us. i say tear down that wall. [laughter] [applause] >> how are you? >> i am doing well.

don't know if you have ever been in a room with this many journalists of color in one place. i have.'t know if it is a beautiful thing to see. we all suffered through an education to get here. >> i wish we could have students. >> they are here. >> i like that. >> this is all about the students. in this segment of the conversation, we are going to speak with you, i guess get a chance to speak with you directly but we also have a , group of seasoned journalists who are joining us from the front three rows were going to be asking questions and i'm alerting my journalists in the front three rows that i will be coming to you sooner rather than later, roland so be prepared. you ready? he's always ready, he's like what? secretary, you recently came into this position.

i know when you are managing an entire department like you are, you can't do everything. so in three very quick soundbites actually tell us what are your three priorities so we understand kind of what your target is knowing you won't be able to do everything. >> sure, sure. the three things in the department, one is equity and excellence throughout our education system, early childhood, k-12, higher education. two is lifting up the teaching profession. teachers made a huge difference in my life, that's why i became a teacher. teachers are at the core of how we ensure schools are successful in lifting up the teaching profession. and third is to focus on access, affordability and completion in , higher education and there's been a lot of conversation in 2016 so far around issues of access and affordability, that's hugely important. it's been a priority for the

president from the outset but , we've also got to focus on completion. we have too many students that start and don't finish, that's a huge part of the problem. default on their debt, took some credit, dropped out, now they can't balance their debt. they don't have the degree so they can't do good job in their so we got to do a lot more , completions. >> i'm interested in why you want to focus on equity and how you think any specific policy that you create can actually have an impact on the ground at the grassroots in terms of changing equity. paint a picture of in your dream vision, what is making equity work actually looks like.

>> my commitment to equity comes from my own personal experience growing up in new york city. i was in public schools, went to ps 276 in brooklyn. my mom passed away when i was eight, fourth grade and my dad was sick with undiagnosed alzheimer's. he passed away when i was 12 and home was a very unstable place and a scary place but school was a place that was nurturing and supportive and engaging and challenging and interesting and even after my dad passed. >> because you had a good public school that saw you as a young afro latino and understood your complexity. was it mark or was it in the institutional thing because of the public schools in new york. >> sadly, i think it was more like in terms of there were other kids that didn't have the opportunities i did.i was fortunate to have great teachers at ps2 76 and mark twain junior high school coney island and school in coney island and those teachers could have looked at me and said here's an african-american latino male in crisis, what chance does he have? instead they invested in me and because of them i'm alive today. because of them i'm able to do , this work. >> shoutout to teachers and

administrators who have eyes. so you understand their how you wanted to be seen as an equal human being to all of your peers. what does it look like now? that equity question? paint a picture. >> there's several things. one is we got to make sure all teachers are prepared to work with diverse students and prepared to see students as full whole human beings and recognize there is a need for social economic develop that is critical. we got to make sure schools have resources they need to provide a quality, well-rounded education system. i was fortunate enough to have art and music and social studies and we have to many schools where that's not happening. >> what year was that? >> this was in the 1980's. >> in the new york city public schools how beautiful. , >> we got to make sure students have an opportunity to be challenged and that we don't have schools giving up on low income students, students of color and saying because of , their circumstance they shouldn't get these opportunities. i was fortunate to have a chance to do shakespeare in elementary

school. that was transformative for me so we got to make sure schools , are providing those enrichment opportunities, academic challenges to all students on an equitable basis. we can't dictate that from the federal level but i do think how , we implement federal laws, federal funding can push and prod states toward doing the right thing and then we have the , civil rights enforcement role which is really about saying which is really about saying there are some fundamental , protections that students are entitled to and we are going to ensure those happen. i think of a midwestern city where we looked at why there were so few latino students in advanced stem programs and this is through the office of civil rights, we found out the information never went home in spanish so if parents didn't , speak spanish, they wouldn't know about the advanced stem program, consequently latino students were underrepresented so we made them change that. , that is the civil rights enforcement mechanism is a powerful lever.

>> is a dream of yours that on a federal level that you can ensure that every student in the united states of america is educated about the civil rights movement in our country? >> absolutely, and that goes not just for -- [laughter] [applause] >> -- not just students of color. >> i'm talking about all students. all americans. >> that's right. i went a couple weeks ago to the school where phil i feel work and in st. paul and was talking with parents and staff there about him and what a great presence he was in the school but also , grieving with them in the mourning with them and talking about the change that needs to happen in st. paul named minneapolis in that whole region, falcon heights where he was killed and one of , the parents stopped me afterwards, white parents and

said i realize i need to think differently about my kids educational experience because my kids thing, there were problems between black people and white people and then martin luther king came and it was all better. and that's their view. and she said what do i do? so we talked about social studies and understanding history. we also talked about literature in the power of seeing the world through a different perspective , through literature but i , appreciated that she acknowledged that her kids don't have a good sense of the history of how we got here and it was clear in talking with folks at the school that even though minnesota is thought of as very aggressive in some ways there's , really a lack of understanding across lines of race and class and with police but with experienced people in the community in general. >> i'm going to come to roland next so we can get the camera ready, but i want to ask a

question and i don't mean to put you on the spot but i think it's , on all of our minds which is , how do we our children, how do we as journalists even write about the issues when you have such divisive and yes, hateful language that is being seen from a presidential candidate and the trump effect in schools, we've heard this, right? there was one story i believe it was a school in north carolina that for their senior whatever it's called, senior trick, they built a wall. they built the wall inside the school. some of the students complained and they kept the wall up anyway . we heard of teams playing and when it is a predominantly white school and predominantly latino schools chant the wall.

while there are kids playing on the field, we've heard stories of children saying, american citizen children saying if donald trump wins am i going to be safe and will i be safe in schools? facing that reality, how does that affect the work that you are doing on a daily basis? >> as you know i'm prohibited , from talking about the 2016 election candidates but i will , say schools have fundamental responsibility to make sure every child is safe. schools have a responsibility to act when a racially hostile environment is created and so we have been clear in our guidance in the school districts and states about those responsibilities in civil rights enforcement responsibilities but , also as educators i think we , have a responsibility whether it's talking about elections are talking about the incidents between the community and police over the last few weeks we have a responsibility to help young people grapple with their world.

and sometimes that means we have to try to find ways to explain but those conversations in them all but those conversations in schools that knowledge the , pain that communities feel but also help students put in context, historical context, humanistic context, the events around them, that's an important role for educators and we got to make sure we support educators in that work. >> thank you, secretary. we are going to go to roland martin smith. how are you doing? he recently voted the convention to call for national moratorium on charter schools. one, i want to get your thoughts on that considering this administration is supportive of charter schools and do you believe that for african-americans to latino students and all those parents that is a way for them to control the destiny of their kids' education. >> i feel we should not have artificial barriers to the

growth of charters that are good that is a way for them to and so opposition has always been charters should be a part of the public school landscape and candy a driver of opportunity for kids. we certainly know you and i talked about this before that places around the country where you talk about charters that are closing the achievement gap, charters that are sending all of their students on to college when the local neighborhood sending anyrdly students off to college. at the same time there are charters that are not good and states need to act to either improve those schools are closed those schools. they have to hold to the charter agreement which is to set , academic goals in exchange for that autonomy they are given so i will the federal level is both to encourage the creation of schools that are good and also encourage carter off likes to take the responsibility when schools are struggling. >> >> roland, you were supposed to throw it out to other members of the three. >> >> i don't want to answer a question.

>> >> roland, you were supposed to throw it out to other members of the three. >> i don't want to answer a question. >> that's her job, roland. thank you, sir. >> roland. there you go. secretary i cover the second largest public-school institution in the state of texas, that an independent school system and the surrounding districts. you mentioned briefly with roland in a dialogue about charters that there are other kinds of programs as an educator the way schools are focused now on having specialized education, academies, etc.. what happened to focus on it? comprehensive schools in everybody's neighborhood, every school day where the vast majority of children reside, are they in 10 schools in their neighborhood?

mediocrity is plentiful as you pointed out in charters but what happened to the dedication of my neighborhood schools? >> if there is a school that is arts focused, i think about the arts academy that one grammys, programs, arts focused education citywide. i think those opportunities are important. the two things that i think should be our northstar is that every child deserves an excellent education. if we have schools but fall short of that, we have a responsibility to act. the second is, we should think about where there are opportunities to create diverse school environments, and that may require thinking about the neighborhood more broadly.

the president proposed $120 million for an initiative called stronger together." there would be voluntary efforts to create diverse schools. as we look across the country, we screwed -- we see schools today by race and class than they were 10 or 15 years ago. in many places, housing policies set in motion incredible racial and class segregation, and we ought to be thinking about how we challenge those housing policies. >> what you are really talking about is institutional racism right there. we have time for one more question. going to go to the person behind me. we have not done this. if you are a founder. would you please stand up. -- i believe you have

to recognize your founders. >> thank you. >> let me say again, these are the people who founded the organization that made it possible for you to sit in this hotel. that's what i'm saying. secretary, in the previous panel, we heard that in philadelphia they cut the number of school-based arrests by about two thirds. the department of education have any programs designed to reduce or eliminate school of part does biasat play in those arrests? >> we have an initiative called re-think discipline that was built within the department but will also -- was also part of the president's "my brother's

keeper" initiative. districts are committed to rethinking their school discipline policies. you are right. we have places that use arrest as a strategy. they are criminalizing misbehavior in the school. they are drivers of the school to prison pipeline. recent data collection showed that in pre-k, african-american are three times as suspended as white students. pre-k. older, therefore times as likely. are fourt -- they times as likely. part of it is implicit bias. i don't think there's any other , whenen you look at it

numbers, you see disproportionate suspension. we have 1.6 million kids who go to our schools who have a sworn law enforcement officer and no school counselor. so, what are we setting up when we have that dynamic. there is no one in the school focused on kids emotional development, but there is someone in the school who can arrest kids. we have to think about issues of resource equity. if i can just ask something of , these are the issues many of you have written about are focused on.

i don't think the general public understands well enough the degree to which there is a school to prison pipeline. they understand the obstacles to education for homeless students, high risk students, foster youth, the challenges for kids who have made a mistake and gotten involved in the juvenile justice system or adult prisons, the obstacles to ever getting a fair education, to telling those stories, but also to telling the stories about the places doing it right and making positive changes. we desperately need more of that. keep at it. want to say thank you to the secretary for coming in speaking to us. we could've gone on for a lot longer, but we have about five more panels to go. thank you so much. [applause]

[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] williams steals the pet awards with his passionate et awards with a passionate speech. issuing a direct challenge. >> it's time to look in the mirror and ask ourselves, what are we doing to create change? >> the endless gun violence in places like chicago, dallas, not to mention orlando, it has to stop.

>> this is like backstage but in front of the stage. as with me? we are going to stand. you want to stand over there and i am going to stand over here. i just won't fall on top of you. so, in recent weeks -- you just saw the celebrities that she can stand wherever she wants. >> ok, you can sit wherever you want. i can sit. this is stage management on the fly. roland is taking control. joined and we have to get started quickly because we have to be out of here quickly.

rouge activist arthur reid is on the end. temple university professor nicole gonzalez. we are going to talk about the social justice aspects of all of these discussions we are having, education, policing, let's start with you, nicole. , helped breakays the laquan mcdonald story. it was more than 14 months from the video coming into the police department in chicago and it actually resulting in some sort of action or prosecution. that the arkppose of justice seems to been so slowly in these cases? >> i usually started investigating the criminal justice system and the criminal courts specifically when i was 21. i went undercover as an academic

, but also as a person who was amazed at the level of playing racism as -- in the system. i passed as white because i am a light-skinned chicana. as long as i could walk the walk and talk the talk, they assumed anas white and disclosed abusive racist culture. n-word,guised the mocked ebonics, and refused people rights and dignity. police planting drugs on people was an overt practice that was just happening. police abuse of power is not the system in isolation. judges, who are mostly white men, are complicit in that. , as journalists, i urge

everybody to continue bearing witness, and not just in this one place. step back and get the 30,000 foot high view to see who is complicit in abuse of power and racism. arthur, coming out of baton rouge, what we have seen with the alden stirling case and on the other side, we are starting erling kind of -- alton stirli g case and on the other side, we are starting to see a clear abuse of power. a sense ofso futility that goes with that. it seems like that is where a lot of the frustration is coming from. >> definitely. when we look at the tapes, what you have to admit in most of , when we can't get

these individuals to be held for , the justicey system is being run by a bunch of criminals. we have to keep pushing those issues. justice is blind. sometimes, blind people have to be led. individuals who break the law are not being held accountable for what they are doing. into are now two years what they are calling hashtag movements. black lives matter is both a concrete movement but also a hashtag anyone can get involved in. it's a concrete movement but also a cry. made a difference? has it actually changed

anything? >> it has. the last time we were in jail together in baton rouge, i was like hey, i know you. [laughter] it's wild that we are coming up on two years together since mike was killed. protesters are using our bodies to tell the truth. mike should be alive as well as many other people. the hashtags are another way that people tell the truth. i am mindful that something has woken us up. i never criticize people for telling the truth. notyears ago, people were questioning the police. they were like, if the police says it, it's true. now they are being more critical. that was not happening two years ago. it makes me really hopeful. think if we just talk about

the problem over and over, it's harder to talk about solutions and public, and i think we have to start doing that more. >> nicole, can you talk about your experience in chicago vis-a-vis not just what you were seeing in certain communities, but how the police manage a very diverse and very segregated city . i live part-time in chicago. i am a chicago girl myself, southside. that was -- that applause could have been more robust. think about what happening in terms of community relations and you add the latino element to the conversation, what do we need to be talking about there? >> one of the interesting things that happened, i was speaking about the laquan mcdonald case and there was a terrible shooting shortly after new year's. a domestic violence call and the cops shot the people

requesting help. in some ways, communities are getting it from both ends. they are terrorized by officers and their communities. and it is out of sight, out of mind, for the rest of chicago. and when they need help, the responsiveness is not there. titled we need to -- i my book critic county because the people actually named the system crook county because they cannot distinguish between who the gang members are and who the prosecutors, police, and judges are. they don't know who is the criminal. when we lose legitimacy we have issues of violence that are wrapped in addition to all of thatocial neglect communities are facing vis-a-vis segregation. it's going to take a disruption of that police culture, moving officers around, holding them accountable, the public holding them accountable. the changes are starting, but certainly, we're not there yet. if you this movement, black

lives matter, has had a similar trajectory to the trayvon martin story. in theeveryone agreed early days that that story became a national story that this young man was a victim, that the boy was a victim, and that the person who followed him was the villain. over time, it became polarized along political lines and racial lines and there was now a disagreement about who is the villain, and the boy became interrogated. we have seen that pattern over and over, with michael brown, freddie gray. everyone initially agreed on one side, and then we just saw the republican national convention she or when officers were acquitted. of black liveson matter, has it hampered the ability to get the message through because a certain percentage of the country is no longer listening?

>> the movement is young, and there is a broad consensus about the problem. people have seen the videos. i think people understand that there is potentially a disagreement about what solutions look like, and that is what we need to continue to thought of -- to talk about and think about. some people think body camera's are a form of surveillance. some think it is a form of change. we might be able to detect a aggression if we listen to the audio pre-trauma and not just look at the video poster him up. that's an interesting way to look at the solution. -- post trauma. that's an interesting way to look at the solution. i think there are people who are afraid of the traction the movement is having, which is why they are working so hard to defend the status will. -- status quo. tolabor unions are the first defend these officers in these cases.

they came out very quickly with -- sterling.g as an activist, how do you confront the push back to the calls for change? >> with the unions, if you could use the analogy of my bigger brother overseeing what i have done, and he has the same mindset i have, so you tell him, did you see anything wrong with what your brother did, and he knows. we have to look at putting the proper people in place and making sure we keep that straight. just to close on that, i want people to know, because she traveled a long way, the mother erling is here today. she is going through a lot. tomorrow will be one month. we have to keep fighting these things. we do. we have to keep fighting.

>> absolutely. absolutely. with that, we are going to end this panel. all right, please give another round of applause, and thank you very much to alton's mom. we appreciate you arthur read as well as in a goal gonzalez -- nicole gonzalez, and i'm going to move, and you can now have my seat for your panel. the seat is yours. >> by. nice to see you. i meet her in the strangest places. last time was colorado. ok, national headlines, we all end up consuming them, but they start with our local newsrooms. we are going to move now to have a conversation with our local newsroom journalists. we are joined by the news director for univision in chicago. , ks dtv anchor in

st. louis. and a news director in dallas. i guess we will start with you, terry. we have been speaking about chicago. how long have you been a new stricter? rakes in chicago, for three years now. -- how long have you been a news director? >> i have been a news director in chicago for three years. >> it has been a pretty intense three years. let's start with laquan mcdonald . what kind of decisions were going through your head, knowing the role you would have in chicago? >> we had no idea what was on the video. a newsroom came

together and sort of imagined what would be there. as the video came out, we made a decision not to show the last point of impact and when he felt, to respect that moment of death. but we also understood that you needed to see that there were 17 shots of a person who was walking away. for us, in spanish-language, what we needed to do was -- they say a picture tells a thousand stories. or is worth a thousand words. you saw an african-american on camera, but the story was not about an african american. it was about a systematic culture of silence within the police department, abuse against hispanics as well, and again, i lump every single

police officer together, but there is a culture in chicago where transparency doesn't exist. coming from florida, it was shocking to me how difficult it is to get any type of public record. as a newsroom, what we did was say we need to speak to our audience. and we need to make these stories about the police officers who patrol our neighborhood. cases where there has been similar abuse against hispanics. i was afraid the audience would feel well, that's their story. not ours. so, we covered that. seeink it's interesting to what has happened in terms of political fallout. we saw anita alvarez voted out.

for three years and seeing him nothing was getting done and being extremely frustrated, the fact that we have seen rahm emanuel getting heat because of that, the fact that we've seen a new police african-american, and that is why we do what we do, to try to be catalysts of change. in dallas, you have had to make some intense choices recently. what has the commerce nation been like for you. suddenly -- what has the conversation that like for you? suddenly, dallas is front and center. somebody in my newsroom was like oh, it's just dallas. and i was like d remember that i was million -- and

like, do you remember that half a million immigrants came out to protest a year ago in dallas? it's a different dallas. >> in my newsroom, we look at transparency and accountability. we are having a relationship with our local police department so we can allow them to be transparent with us, and so that we can particularly be transparent in how we deliver our content. the biggest challenge for us ever the past few weeks is not just how horrific it is, but telling the stories of the people that this happened to. obviously, you have the stories impacted, buts the first conversation we had in our newsroom was why did this happen, what is the tone of our ?ommunities this happenarly did here? what is the relationship we have with our local police departments where we say how can we figure out a solution?

how can we help the police department build stronger relationships so that we can be and holdnt for them them accountable when things do go wrong? that's the most important thing. when you talk about accountability, it's not just releasing a press release, it's saying we have to get in front of whoever it is, whether it is the police chief, whether it is the mayor, whether it is the attorney general and say why did this happen, and how are you going to ensure it doesn't happen again? >> to that very point, st. louis -- there was a time in which both the ferguson police department and the st. louis police department were being very proactive in getting out whenever there was a shooting incident, holding an immediate press conference and trying to at least show that they were being transparent. i wonder whether the police

department has become more reticent or more paranoid in the way it feels -- deals with the press. a friend of mine used to be the pi oh that you probably know very well in miami and is a fantastic communicator is now the police chief and ferguson. he is good at it, but in general, do you find the police department is more reticent to deal with the media post ferguson? >> i think it varies. it's a great question. a few weeks ago, my assignment was to try to do a story about the challenge of recruiting new in the current climate we find ourselves in. and i was directed to try to the boston ferguson, speak to the st. louis county police department, st. louis -- ferguson, speak to

the st. louis county police citytment, st. louis police department. none of them wanted to comment for the story. it seems to be a bit of a strategy. not sure why that is, but i am sure he has his reasons. certainly, he has his hands full. and maybe his time is -- maybe he considers his time better spent doing his job rather than dealing with the media, although it could obviously be argued that communicating with the public through the media is going to go along way toward getting to where they want to be in ferguson. , just to wrap up. guys are making decisions in terms of local coverage, i would like you leave us with the thing that is primary on your mind as you're making decisions about the ,tories you're going to cover

what you are going to lead with, the images you're going to show. what is the primary think on your mind as you're making -- on your mind as you are making those decisions? , first let's talk about the issue of bias. how do you tell a story in a meaningful way? how do you talk about crime without context? of crime to get shots tape and a police officer standing around. it's much more challenging to get behind the headlines, provide some context, tell some personal stories, those are the daily challenges that we face trying to come up with a different way of telling that happen over and over again. three people shot, for people shot, five people shot. with of people are dealing

that. how to you figure out a way to engage the audience because we have become desensitized. this is happening on a daily basis in our cities. that goesst thing through my mind as a manager, particularly an executive producer, is what do people want to know? people tell good stories. i want to go out to the community and find the people impact the stories that people and impacted broader audience. that is what my management preaches. that is my management style. i want to engage our audience, but i want to engage with their story, not just dictate what we want to cover. >> just to echo what they are we talk about don't just do the who, what, where, and do what and why.

i think you can do that in the but it's alsot, why we set up an investigative team, to tell their stories in a bigger context. our panel foro giving us the local perspective. thank you so much. [applause] my question is, do we actually have -- to a quick we are going -- the other big topic is immigration. we are joined by some incredible reporters. both of you are award-winning journalists who have covered immigration. do you want to start us off? quick so, -- us have beenree of

covering this for a long time. first of all, the wall is already built. latino usa is going to do a full hour on the wall. you know that like 10 years ago they built the wall, already, and by the way, boeing got $28 cyber wall.uild a where did $28 billion go? so, you want to talk about the wall. why? >> i wear many hats. we spent the last three or four months traveling from los , both sidesijuana of the border. we did the first poll in more than 15 years, asking people on the border -- this is a campaign

, and border people are used to being the piñata in election years. every time donald trump says build the wall, people are ecstatic. there's only like 700 miles left that is not walled off. of the peopleity in the u.s. side said we don't need a wall. more than 80% of the mexican side -- 10 million people living what was border -- interesting was that people, in spite of politics saying that people feel insecure about coming in, we have historic lows of illegal immigration coming in from the south. people feel they need more bridges, less walls. unitednt to be much more . in fact, the majority of people

would like a system where people can go back and forth legally, more like the european model. >> how is it possible that in the united states we basically have zero migration but a ial candidate has as platforms main party that we have a crisis of immigration. the disconnect? >> it's a great question and it has led us to want to do the polls. why are we hearing this rhetoric? there is a disconnect. a very difficult issue, very complex to cover. >> even though we have zero immigration, we do still have

unauthorized immigration happening. it's a little different now. we have a coming from central america, and we have children coming unaccompanied. i have been focusing on that. it's a phenomenon. people are puzzled. little know why these children are coming. in the media, what i have tried is find out what is is causing this exodus of children. there's overwhelming violence in countries like honduras and el salvador. ins not about a pull anymore central america. it's a push. people are fleeing. they are escaping gang recruitment. it's a different kind of migration in some ways. you still have it.

you are right. wes not the numbers that used to see a few years ago at all. for a while, i was a southwest border reporter in arizona. there was a town in arizona where people felt invaded, but not by illegal immigration, but by border patrol. they felt like there -- like the area they were living in was being milked dry, and they did not like it. issue,complex immigration. especially along the border, it's a complex and misunderstood. a child ofion, as two immigrants who lives in a community in brooklyn filled with immigrants, most of them not latino, and with today's reporting that the wife of the president might have

exploited the visa system to come here perhaps not quite legally, i wonder if in your newsrooms there are people who are not latino who are covering immigration in its broader spectrum. there are people who are white and black coming in might have exploited the visa system to come here perhaps not quite legally, i undocumented. >> i am latina and i cover immigration issues for the los angeles times. we have a whole team of people who cover immigration in different ways. we have people in our d.c. who cover it from more of a policy angle. a tech reporter who covers immigration issues because that's one of the major basis for immigration right now. >> but are we segregating

latinos as the only group of people we fear are committing illegal migration when it's a much broader issue? >> it is a broader angle. in our newsroom, no, we don't have -- well, we do. frank sean, who covers immigration from asian countries. at you're right, we could do better job, definitely. .e can always do a better job >> whitey think we are still -- whyn these very basic do you think we are still stuck on these very basic narratives? still reduced to this

very simplistic notion that it's just mexican immigrants and they are all hopping the fence. we know it is much more complex. it is a huge question. but i struggle with it. i am not sure why we keep going in the circle. it's one of the things we want to talk about, the complexities, and why after two or three decades of covering this, why does this remain -- my the first job was with examiner, and then later with the wall street journal. it was immigration. here we are 30 years later talking about the same issue. one of the greatest benefactors of affirmative action have been white women. it's easy. there are 600,000 black folks

from the caribbean, bermuda, west africa who come to this illegalfrom immigration, but we don't see those faces. >> it's easy to pick up people who don't vote, basically. >> i think we are out of time for this panel. we are going to thank our panel, but we want to remind you guys that this discussion is going to be continued. there are three discussions taking place immediately after this. we have an education forum in maryland a. i think there's a discussion on b, andtion in virginia, local news in virginia a as well. in maryland a. one more announcement that before you guys go, i am going to bring up the president of the national association of hispanic journalists, and the president

of the national association of black journalists act up -- backup to make final announcements. thanks to all of our panelists. [applause] >> on saturday, c-span's issue spotlight looks the police and race relations. we will show president obama at the memorial service for the five police officers shot in dallas. mr. obama: when the bullets started to fly, the men and women of the dallas police did not flinch, and they did not react recklessly. >> and south carolina republican senator tim scott giving a own interaction with police. >> the vast majority of the time, i was pulled over for nothing more than driving a new car in the wrong neighborhood,

or some other reason just as trivial. >> our program also includes one family's story about an encounter with police in washington, d.c., followed by a panel with the police chief. .> most people feel defensive being respectful in encounters in making requests versus demands, those things change the dynamic a little bit. on race our interviews relations saturday on c-span and c-span.org. >> we will be following a donald trump campaign rally tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern. this story is from reuters and the huffington post today.

donald trump is expected to endorse paul ryan in his bid for reelection later on friday. fox news cited two unnamed sources.n they said the endorsement is expected to come during a campaign event. on tuesday, trump said he was not quite there yet. that from reuters today. we may see an endorsement tonight. endorsementn tuesday. this weekend on newsmakers, our guest is jill stein, the green party presidential candidate. newsmakers airs on sunday. let's get a preview of that interview. >> even hillary supporters, for the most part, in the majority,

don't actually support hillary. they are just afraid of donald trump and don't like donald trump. the same is true of donald trump supporters. they don't actually support him. the majority object to hillary clinton. at the same time, the majority of voters are calling for an independent candidate, a new voice that represents everyday people. so, i think before we call the election -- you know, we are a we had to have a full debate and allow voters to their urgent need for a real debate and for more voices and choices. and let me reemphasize what bernie himself said, which is that the only answer to donald trump is a true progressive agenda that addresses the misery that gives rise to right-wing extremism. not just america.

it is not just donald trump. it is a whole lot of political steerage here in america as well as in europe, response to neoliberalism, policies of austerity, policies that are great for bankers and billionaires but are terrible for working people. jilleen party candidate stein's our guest this weekend on newsmakers. watch sunday on c-span. you can also listen on c-span radio or on c-span.org. we continue to watch what members of the house and senate are up to during this break. they will back to business in september, but in the meantime, members of the senate and the house are in their districts and states. a look at a couple of tweets to catch up with what some of those members are doing today. this from texas congressman marc veasey.

this tweet from senator kelly ayotte, a new hampshire republican. glenn thompson, a member from pennsylvania, represents the fifth strict there. republican congressman daniel 700 leesburgrated educators. and here is roger wicker. that is to below mayor jason

shelton along with .epresentative trent kelly 22 kill -- senator wicker's office put out a release saying in an average of 22 veterans commit suicide every day. he is taking part is what it's ,alled the 22 push-up challenge a social media campaign to raise awareness about the problem. the nonprofit group 22 kill has a goal of reaching 22 million push-ups. we have video on this. we will take a look and see if they can get the push-ups done. 8, 9,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 16, 17,12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 20 1, 22.

all right, one more. [laughter] ok. >> they made it. that was into below, mississippi, city hall, earlier today. at the usean, a look of capital punishment and whether the practice will ever be put to an end here in the united states. from the aspen ideas festival in colorado, this is just under one hour. >> thank you all for being here. this may be the greatest decision society makes outside of going to war, whether to apply the death penalty. , andch law at georgetown

we are here to talk about the ,eath penalty, where it's going and i can't imagine a better group of panelists. president of the southern center for human rights. in my mind, the leading death penalty litigant in the country, has been for a number of years. traveling throughout the country fight.g these cases to he had a big win in the supreme court a couple of weeks ago which maybe he will tell you about. he has been teaching at yale law school since 1993. it's a real delight to be here with him. mark is really interesting work with the criminal justice system. he is making the case,

onservative case, for limits things like mandatory minimums or the over criminalization -- not as much on a defendant centered perspective as much as idea.rn on investment politico named him one of the top thinkers of 2013. he graduated from the university of texas with all sorts of honors. i'd like to start off by just what going on with the death penalty right now in terms of numbers. if we talk about the number of sentences imposed, not carried out, just imposed, in the .990's, it was like 314 if you look at last year, it was

73. people are getting sentenced to the death penalty. in terms of executions carried morethe numbers are even striking. last year, there were 20 executions carried out. that's three times less than 1999, when there were 98. you will see a similar drop from other years. a striking drop. so far, 14 executions in 2016. and it's not just a number of executions carried out, but the fact that it's only occurring in a few places. a few counties are doing the sentencing and actually carrying out those executions. executionsave had no

in the last five years at all. this year, five states have texas, out executions, florida, missouri, georgia, alabama. states like nebraska. they have outlawed the death penalty. when you think about human rights focused states, no offense to nebraska, but you don't think of it as being the vanguard of criminal justice reform. that's a lot to think about. steve, when that you start. tell me what you think is going on and how these numbers can be explained. >> the death penalty since 2000 has been an marked decline. we went from around 310, as neil said, to the 200s, 100s, 70's. the numbers have dropped like a rock every year significantly. what interesting is that today, many people who would never get whodeath penalty are people

ontoday's standard -- george july 14 will execute a fellow who was one of two drunks in a fight who hit the other guy on the head with a whiskey bottle and it turned out he died. that would never be a death case today, the prosecutor wouldn't even think to propose it, but we're going to kill this guy. of the ironies. a number of states have repealed the death penalty. illinois is one of the largest well as new york and new jersey, by judicial decision. of the executions that of taken place, 80% have been in the south. interestingost

points is that 2% of the counties in the country account for over half of the death sentences and executions. for 10 ofs account the death sentences imposed. harris county, texas, has executed 121 people, more than any other state except texas itself. texas has executed a bit lower than that. and oklahoma have executed over 100 people, but neither have executed as much as harris county. acrossndful of counties

the country, people don't get executed but they get sentenced to death. in harris county, they get executed quite quickly. it also depends on pretty much to the prosecutor is in the quality of lawyers appointed to the defendant. if you have very aggressive prosecutors who seek the death ,enalty in virtually every case and you find lawyers who are so incompetent that in three cases in harrison county, the lawyers fell asleep while they were defending a death penalty case, you put those two together, and you can sentence a lot of people to death. bad lawyer a really in the appellate process, you kenexa execute people just like that. people just like that.

>> my mom is here who lives in houston. harris county is where i went to high school. but things are changing. you are right about that. california has 743 people on death row, but their last 2006.ion was in one man waited 23 years before being executed. that is one of the lines of argument, is just waiting all this time. these individuals are almost all waiting in solitary confinement. automatically placed there because they got a death sentence. the texas prison guard association said we want to end this practice because it is .ndangering us for the one hour a day people can leave the 36 square feet -- which is smaller than our

bathrooms, by the way -- for the one hour they take them to get something to it or for their minimal recreation, that when hours dangerous to them because of the other 23 hours. forfreedom is another word nothing left to lose, according to janis joplin. once you have somebody sentenced to death, what do you have to hold over them? nothing. so this is a challenge for the guards tried to protect them and the other inmates. >> it sounds like one thing you are isolating his representation. in harris county, the representation isn't so good. elsewhere,ng better or our defense lawyers blocking executions that would otherwise happen? what is going on? >> i think one of the guest factors is exonerations.

we've had 156 people sentenced to death who were later found to be innocent. that's a sobering number when you think about it. last week in texas, robert robertson was literally on the verge of being executed for being convicted of shaking his baby to death, and they now believe he is completely innocent. it appears he will not be executed. this is about as close as you get. case -- there is a great book called the wrong carlos about a man who was most certainly wrongfully executed by the state of texas. and so that's one. the improvement in the lawyers -- georgia and virginia set up

capital defender offices so the people facing the death penalty were not just represented by anybody with a bar card and a pulse, which is pretty much standard, and still is in texas, sorry to say. as a result -- well, there had not been a death sentence imposed in georgia since march of 2014. this is remarkable for a state that used to sentence 10 to 15 people to death every year. has a five-year stretch of nobody being executed. this is remarkable. lawyers who were just doing it , to having people specialize in -- this is all they do. are actually know what they doing.

and in the legal profession, the idea that any lawyer can represent somebody in a death penalty case is like saying i go to the airport and the pilot is not there, so i just buy the 747 back and land it. it's preposterous. in texas, in many cases, you like $200 to argue a capital case. the defense lawyer has to get permission from the judge for testimony. we have signatories on both sides of the issue. conservatives concerned about the death penalty, which are a sickly conservatives against the death penalty, but even if you

like the death penalty, we're sort of in this trap. up and we have the potential for executing more innocent people. it's not practical, if anything else. >> so we have representation, exoneration, cost us. costs. as i understand it, several states and counties have a limit on how much they will pay in a capital case. is that right? in mississippi, until recently, it was $1000. >> $1000 total. most lawyers make more than that in an hour. >> and anybody who is a member of the bar -- this was for all bar one of your duties is to represent those with a criminal case. you go back home to be a real estate lawyer and you are doing ande searches and closings

the judge says, we have a case for you. it might be a burglary case or it might be a death penalty case. you would be surprised that many people told me that the very first trial they had was a death penalty case. somebody told me that just the other day. charlie tyler who represented was for his first case, he was representing tyler in a death penalty case. the federal courts threw it out. when the case came back the judge appointed the same lawyer , but he said maybe 15 years later he learned something in the meantime. but that is the kind of cavalier attitude you often have about the lawyers appointed to represent these penalty cases. neal: steve, you wrote an article about the death penalty not for the worst crime that the , -- crime, but for the worst lawyer. you know the deals of litigation better than anybody. let's assume that of these death penalty cases