>> building a better bay area. moving forward. finding solutions. this is abc7 news. >> thanks so much for joining us for "getting answers." i am julian glover in for kristin z this afternoon. we will be talking about tyre nichols, the boodle and horrific meeting that took his life, the accountability and police -- of police that failed them and how we move forward from here. and it's not lost on me that today february 1 is also the first day of black history month, a time for celebrations and remembrances of the contributions of black americans both ordinary and revered. unfortunately our struggles against institutional racism and state sanctioned violence are as much of a part of the fabric of the black american experience as are our successes. we have a fantastic panel of

experts and community leaders for you this afternoon. first we start here. >> this family has endured the unsolicited, unwarranted, unreasonable, unjustifiable, and massive burden of grieving their loved one, and at the same time, fighting for justice. >> he was a beautiful person. for this to happen to tyre is just unimaginable. >> those words, from his mother, so painful. tyre nichols was laid to rest today, three weeks after the traffic stop that led to his death. he loved photography and skateboarding. he was a father. he should've lived to be and instead, his life stolen from him at just 29. we know so far five other officers have been fired and charged with second-degree murder in connection with tyre's death.

two more officers have been suspended and two sheriffs deputies relieved of duty, and three firefighters were also fired for not treating tyre after he was beaten by police, unable to hold his own head up. the district attorney say additional charges could be forthcoming following the release of the police bodycam video and surveillance video of the incident. that's where we start with our panel right now. we are joined by dr. nikki jones, uc berkeley of sociology professor. dr. lorenzo former deputy sheriff from massachusetts. we also have the executive director of the anti-police hero project and just as teams and martin reynolds, co-executive director of the institute that n representation in media and critical analysis of how the news is covered. thank you all for joining me this afternoon. i will jump right into the first question here. we have seen what could be

called relatively swift action taken by both the police chief in memphis and the da, and the firing of some but not all the officers involved in filing word -- filing murder charges against five of the officers pyramid is that the appropriate response to the awful instance of police brutality that we have seen? lorenzo, i would be able -- love to be able to start with you as a former law enforcement officer. lorenzo? ok, it sounds like our guests have lost audio, we are going to work on getting that to them in just a moment. we will take a short break. we will be right back.

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>> thank you for your patience as we work with our technical difficulties. i am joined now by dr. nikki jones, uc berkeley sociology professor and chair of the african-american studies department, dr. lorenzo b., and a former sheriff deputy from suffolk county. also cat brooks, the executive director of the anti-police hero project and justice teams. and martin reynolds, co-executive director of the oakland-based mader institute focuses on representation and media. -- in media. thank you for being here. we have seen what we could call a relatively swift action taken by both the police chief in memphis and the da by firing some but not all of those officers involved and filing murder charges against five of

the officers involved in the beating death of tyre nichols. is that the correct response to this awful response of police brutality? lorenzo, we would love to start with you as a former law enforcement officer. >> i think it is absolutely the right response. what the community is looking for is swift and definitive action. it does not take a deliberation from injury to realize what the officers did was actually wrong. so the fact that chief davis took definitive action quickly was the right thing to do. and in memphis, in tennessee, you can do that. had she been chief in a northern department or a department with a stronger union, it would've been a much harder thing to do. but i appreciated the fact that she moved so quickly. >> cat, i'd love to hear from you, you were very much out in the streets of oakland and all over the bay area protesting the response and obviously the brutal attack on tyre nichols. your thoughts? >> yes, it was the appropriate

response. and i will mention part of why it was so quick was because the officers were black. because policing is a white supremacist institution even inside amongst its ranks, that is what should happen every single time. that someone is enforcement. all caps are blue. >> nikki, your thoughts? >> i agree it's obviously the right response. and what i'm reminded of as well during moments like this, on a day where terry nichols' funeral is being held is what the families want is for the children to be alive. the appropriate response is for this to never happen to begin with. and that we are here again is frustrating and shocking. it's enraging. it's also an opportunity for us to see what some folks may have missed in the uprisings of 2020, and there are lessons to be learned that i hope can move us forward. >> you are so right, nikki.

>> i, this from a journalistic perspective and the coverage perspective. one of the big things i had many journalists are concerned about is really the relationship between crime coverage, and the relationship between police department and many journalism organizations. in the way different people are cast in media, there is a huge problem. if you look at how many -- in how many cases, many news organizations have of crime, when these stories are told, how folks are cast and how perceptions are perpetuated, journalists really need to look closely at what the impact is of our approach to crime coverage

and the relationship to police departments. >> that's a great point. lorenzo, you and i have talked about this before, even the use of the phrase that's become so familiar, "unarmed black man it is almost a phrase to give -- use to give of victimhood. there's been a lot of discussion about the five officers that were fired so far. they were all black. many people have said, how could they do this? how could these five black men not say that humanity in this man that looks like them? your work argues that this is exactly what institutional racism and specifically anti-blackness looks like. your thoughts? >> like brooks just said, policing is a what's a premises institution with those deep racial roots. we must teach officers to see across the lines and see an us and a them, that is powerful if

you are white, black, when you become an officer, you are trained to see, so people will see this as some sort of outlier to policing, but training police officers to see, regardless of skin color, people in a way that allows for this brutal treatment as part and parcel of policing, it is part and parcel of the extraordinary acts of policing that we see and the ordinary everyday violence, and how do i know? because police officers have told me that in the work that i've done and when i've shared this with police officers, they say, yeah, that is how we see the world. we are looking for something extraordinary, an outlier. the very ordinary acts solutions engine -- institutionalization of violence in the police department.

>> let's pull up this screen now, starting in san francisco, we see the population of police officers, 46% white, although the population is 37% white, black officers, slightly outpacing the percentage of black folks who now live in san francisco due to the push out obviously in san francisco. hispanic officers, sworn officers, about 4%, 3% higher than the city demographics but obviously sfpd has a long way to go in hiring more asian officers. many police officers have been trying to step up recruiting cops from the community that they serve. these officers in young, black, from the community, why isn't getting officers from the community that look like the people that they are supposed to be protecting and serving enough? >> because it's not about individual people. it's about the entire institution, right?

race-based capitalism and that -- and its us, and now it is maintaining the status quo. what happened to tyre nichols is not extra ordinary. law enforcement has killed more people since the george floyd rebellions than in the decade before it. they murdered 1055 people last year. there are only 306 to five days a year, that is three people a day or one every eight hours. you just don't hear their names. we hear more of their names and even we don't hear all of the names. and the primary way that our folks get entangled in the criminal legal system they can ever get out of our these pretext for racial profiling stops, which are also one of the primary ways that ignite deadly and daily acts of violence against our people, what happened to tyre nichols at exactly what american policing looks like in this country every day of every week of every month of every year. >> looking at the traffic stops

in oakland alone, looking at third quarter data from 2022 from the oakland police department, our data team found that black folks are 6.5 more times likely to be stopped by police than white folks in oakland. your research looks at whether there is a decrease n violent interactions with police and the black people on the officers are black, what did you find there? >> i want to underscore a point made by cap brooks -- cat brooks, about the violence and the extraordinary and the ordinary. i want you to understand this, policing has never been under more scrutiny, yet the officers did this. these officers were trained in recent years, yet they did this. they saw the george floyd video. end yet they did this -- and yet they did this. if officers thought that they were doing something wrong,

black or otherwise, they would not do it and they definitely would not do it if they were on camera and thought they would be caught. i just want to bring our attention back to the fact of the brutality of the stop and the encounter, but to emphasize that this was treated in a very ordinary way by the officers on the ground, right, and the video that i have watched of the encounter -- in the video that i have watched of the encounter. some say, well, you don't like the police, you're not being nice to the police. but i think is i've shared before, violence is central to policing without the violence, it is not policing. instead of thinking about quick fixes, like a more diverse police department solving the problem of violence, no, it will not, because it's at the root of policing and until we come from that violence, we are not going to get very far. julian: i do want to talk about the video you mentioned that was so unsettling, what were the

last moments of tyre nichols' life, before he was sent to the icu where he died days after the beating, abc 7 news has decided not to show the video now given how graphic and triggering it can be for some. but i do want to break down some things that we have learned from the video that we would not have known without its release. we learned from a washington post report that police shouted 71 conflicting commands at tyre nichols in 13 minutes. 22 minutes past after police radioed that he was in custody and -- than five officers initially fired were involved in this incident. i want to talk about the timing of the release of the video. the memphis police department told the public that the video was graphic, brutal, the police chief even said that it was worse than the horrific rodney king beating, in her opinion. but we were all warned days in advance at this would be coming. there's lots of coverage,

it talks about potential riots in the streets, police department's the country bracing for that. martin, your perspective as someone who analyzes this, was that the right call, to give so much advance notice this video was being released? or just released a video as soon as possible? -- release the video as soon as possible? >> the question. there is something to be said about the socialization of letting folks know that this is coming out, and how graphic it is. i also have some worry over the fact that there were some protests, but we certainly did not see what we saw following the george floyd murder. i wonder what the collective impact of what we have seen about this brutality time aftertime and over again has had on the collective consciousness of folks, particularly people of color, but all of us. from a storytelling perspective, journalistic perspective, we really need to rethink our approach to the coverage of

crime. janicki's point about -- to nicky's point about violence is synonymous with policing, i don't think that often enough, that is properly conceptualized in the overarching coverage of crime. there is still too much view that the police are an institution that is given far more credibility than individuals on the street in terms of sourcing, and often this is done because they are "official sources." however we need to rethink about what official sources are and what they represent. we need to think about how the perspective of community -- also we know that police department's do not tell the truth. and my concern, the complicity that news organizations often hold is not pushing back on these institutions. and the reticence to call this out for what it is, a white supremacist institution, and you can argue journalism in

many instances is as well and that conversation is beginning to happen now but it needs to happen more and there needs to be a rethinking of the entire approach to crime coverage. which is happening, but not fast enough. julian: should only agree. we are quickly running out of time. we know that this unfortunately will not be the last time, where a black person is killed at the hands of police, i'm curious as to what you all are hopeful for moving forward as this fight for social justice continues to happen in the streets, and politically. cat, i would love to start with you. >> i hope we continue to find ways to health crisis and responding to substance abuse issues and we are running a bill at the state legislature this year to get cops out of traffic stops. >> nikki? >> when people asked me this question, i always say that any

hope and faith i have lies in the work of the people. people like cat brooks, to break open these historically white institutions and create safety in ways that are public and private. developing new ways of being in relationship with one another >> quickly if we can martin then lorenzo. >> i would say, the national approach to rethinking crime coverage is done and there is more relationship to organizations like cat's and others' that holding police department's accountable and telling the stories of people in a way that is completely different. >> closing words, lorenzo. >> ultimately what we need is accountability. we've lacked accountability and policing for hundreds of years. the more we have that --

remember, this problem did not just start with george floyd. it's going to take a while to get through the process. the more accountability we have, the more bad cops that are prosecuted and the better the outcomes on the other end. julian: thank you so much for this fantastic conversation and for joining us. really appreciate it. >> thank you. julian: we are live with the new alameda county district attorney. i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. the three what? the three ps? what are the three ps? the three ps of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. i'm 54 and was a smoker, but quit. what's my price?

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to record your important information and give helpful direction to your loved ones with your final wishes. and it's yours free just for calling. so call now for free information. julian: come back. the newly elected district attorney for alameda county will review eight officer involved and in-custody deaths that were previously closed by her predecessors. she also announced the establishment of the new public accountability unit. joining us live now to discuss is pamela price. thank you so much for being here. >> of course. thank you for having me. julian: absolutely. we know you ran as a reform candidate who would hold

officers who operate outside of the law accountable, you appear to be making good on that promise every opening these cases, would influence -- what influenced this decision? >> we have had the benefit of looking at a number of cases across the bay. and some of those cases were closed almost immediately before we arrived. and so, my team and i felt very strongly that it was important for us to take a look, as the newly elected team, accountable to the people of alameda county. as you know, this county has been desperate for police accountability, and it's been sorely lacking for many years. and obviously the events of the day tell us how important it is, that we hold officers of the law to a higher standard, when it comes to public safety. two of the cases were very significant in my decision to run. we were looking at those as well. julian: what do you say to

critics, like the attorney was made a career of representing police, he calls you reopening these cases overreach, what would your response be? >> well, i understand michael raines has made a business of representing police officers and agencies, and he has a view about ballistic and ability that i think is fundamentally out of step with -- he has a view about police account ability that i think is fundamentally out of step with the citizens of alameda county. we were delighted to bring on a team of folks that have experience looking up police cases and we have continued to have an officer-involved shooting team, but we want to make sure that we are putting new emphasis not just on cases where it involves the use of a gun, but also the in-custody deaths that have unfortunately happened in santa rita county

jail, as w enforcement officer of alameda county. and so, when we look at what we needed to do in terms of accountability, it's not just police accountability but public accountability. we know tha number of things that have gone nowhere. we know we have had issues with cases pending, like against the former city manager of fremont. it is important we begin to address accountability across the board. julian: final question here, are you expecting a resistance by the sheriff's office or police department within your jurisdiction when it comes to turning over evidence in these cases you are now reopening? >> i certainly have no expectation that anyone would stand in the way of justice. i anticipate having an excellent relationship with sheriff

sanchez, and i am building bridges with the chiefs across the county. i was in conference with them. i certainly notified them. i expect them to work with us, as we make sure we are providing answers and justice not just for the families, but for the community of alameda county. julian: it will be something we are watching closely. pamela price, thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. we will take a short break.

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career, family, finances and mental health. well, it can. national university. supporting the whole you. julian: thank you so much for joining us for "getting answers." february 1, the first day of black history month. we will be here every weekday at 3:00 p.m. on air and on livestream, answering your questions from around the bay area. "world news tonight" with david muir is next. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute,

which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] tonight, 45 million americans under alerts. the ice storm and now the dangerous cold. multiple states. the death toll mounting. and then the brutal cold moving into the northeast. wind chills up to 50 below zero. also tonight, the search of president biden's home and rehoboth beach. and the funeral of tyre nichols. first tonight, that deadly ice storm. the grip on several states continues. hundreds of thousands now without power. roads again turned into sheets of glass. 45 million americans on alert for ice, snow, and brutal cold. from texas all the way up to the northeast. mireya villarreal in dallas. rob marciano on the cold coming to the northeast. the fbi search of president biden's delaware beach house. 3 1/2 hours, it took. the president's attorneys cooperating. and what they said after it