benjamin crump is with us still.e was the attorney for the michael brown family trayvon martin family. you wanted to make a point. >> yeah wolf i agreed with mark morial. it is becoming a state of emergency when we continue to see america sanction the killing killings of these unarmed people of color. and every time nothing happens, when it is just inexplicable the manner in which they died it makes people have greater mistrust in the community. at a certain point, that erupts and we've got to do something about it. leaders have to be responsible. i believe the mayor in baltimore is going to try to get to the bottom of this but it needs to happen sooner than later, because this community is on the verge of erupting. >> but the investigation, benjamin is only just beginning, right? they don't have all the answers. >> you know there are so many questions. why can't you give the family the preliminary report so they can have some answers as to what happened. how long do they have to have pain and suffering on top of pai

. >> attorney benjamin crump with us and a new york city council and dr. james peterson.r your time tonight. mr. crump, this officer wasn't charged until the videotape surfaced and you wrote about this in "the new york times" today with an op-ed. why does it take a piece of videotape? >> it is troubling because the narrative. the narrative is always the same. i felt in fear of my life. i felt threatened. the unarmed person reached for my gun and america continues to accept this narrative over and over again from every police department across the country, and when is america going to start to challenge these matd matters. but for this video, it would have been accepted again. it was accepted in michael brown. it was accepted in travis carter. it was accepted in every police shooting of an unarmed person of color that we can think of. >> how hard is it going to be to get a conviction? >> with video, it shouldn't be hard to get a conviction. you had eric garner on video. >> why isn't it every police officer is paying attention to the news? your thoughts on what's unfoldingu

our lecturer today is attorney benjamin l. crump. if you did not know the name, if you see his face, you will know him from tv. it is not the tv persona that you are going to hear today and it is not the tv persona that has been fighting on some of these issues throughout the country. there is a statement that he makes and i am not going to read the bio that is in the program. you can read that at your leisure. this -- there is a statement that he makes, he understands the practice of law is a privilege that carries responsibilities, and that is one of the issues i hope we all of us get into and talk about today and that is, what is that responsibility? who owns that responsibility and how should it be applied? he has a long history of fighting for individuals. he has a long history of fighting for civil rights. i will not name the individual clients that he has but you know that last year, when the world was dealing with the shooting death of trayvon martin and the trial of trayvon martin and the acquittal of george zimmerman, that

benjamin crump the attorney who represented -- gave a keynote address. that's followed by a panel edition. this is about two hours. >>> dr. harris, thank you and i think we all want to show stom appreciate for the fact you were able to envision a need of this type of forum and put your money where your mouth is as people would say. i know you're well thought of by in many of the elected officials in office who are students in political science here at howard and you've done a fine job and thank you for the endowment of this program. i received a phone daul from qualmy and he asked many if i would be the moderator. tell me what it's about where it is and what's going on. he said at the school of divinity at howard. okay, i'm in. tell me what the subject matter. as you see the caption title transitioning from the moment to the, from the moment to the movement. analyzing social issues revealed in recent killings of unarmed african-americans by law enforcement. that's a subject matter that if you put your head in the sand, you still hear and didn't want to s

crump? benjamin: thank you, attorney martin. to dean pollack and his administration, especially sylvia and gaye and shirley who made me feel so welcome when i arrived at howard university this morning, for the absolute honor of being the charles harris lecturer. i was so moved when i read about what you did, mr. harris because that's what it is about when we think about what god -- why god gave us the blessings, not to keep it to ourselves, but to pass them on so i salute you and i thank you, mr. harris. [applause] before i begin my comments to you, there's a few people i want to recognize who are very dear to me. i have the honor of being the president-elect of the national bar association. [applause] thank you. and billy, i know they say lawyers always trying to bill hours and they have a lot going on but they took time out of their busy schedules to come and be here so i want to acknowledge one of my personal heroes -- and you all know him well here in d.c., when i was running for president, she gave me advice and told all he