joining me now is john gaskin.come back to the show. >> thank you for having me again. >> before we chat let me read this statement issued by your organization supporting rachel's advocacy record. it reads, "rachel dolezal is enduring a legal issue with her family. and we respect her privacy in this matter. one's racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for naacp." >> many of the naacp members happen to be white. if you look across the country, many leaders also happen to be various colors and come from various background. and so the naacp allows anyone to be in leadership and join the organization regardless of their sexual orientation or color that is truly passionate about civil rights and wants to advance our agenda. you know if you read up on this individual a professor of africana studies, this is possibly someone who may very well identify most with african-americans. i don't know a whole lot about her personal life or who her personal colleagues are. but what i have gathered is

eventually gaskin was chief and funded it. the new one is called crisis intervention team. the training back in place and a lot of work done to have the training and have a lot more solid skill development among the officers. the training is run by volunteers however. it's not paid trainers. it's a 40-hour class. it is a work in progress really. i don't think it's reached all the way it needs to go. we have the founder of the program in memphis came out and did an analysis of the program and felt we needed to increase the number of hours spent in practicing verbal deescalation for the officers. it's a 40-hour training, he recommends at least ten. we are not anywhere near that. the training covers a variety of mental health issues from a variety of different perspectives used, elderly, trauma, homeless, a whole bunch of different, va, this kind of stuff. it's much more around getting this broad understanding of mental health for police and trying to develop empathy and it's not all the way there with regards to skill. the numbers on training are looking pretty good. the orig

prosecutors tell us joseph gaskins worked with a baltimore area dealer to sell heroin in fairfax county. it happened between january and august of last year. in one case, they say a 20-year-old herndon man died after buying drugs from gas kiss kiss. heroin deaths have doubled in recent years. >>> instead of graduating with honors this week, a prince william county teenager will be punished for his ties to terrorism. ali shukri amin used his social media skills to provide advice and encouragement to the islamic state and its supporters. you saw this breaking news earlier today in nbc washington app. so what made such a good kid take such a bad turn in northern virginia bureau chief, julie carey is live at his school in manassas. are you getting answers? >> reporter: there are two teenagers involved in this case, secret until today. they both met here at osborn park high school. now the fbi says one of them is in syria where he has gone to join islamic state fighters much the other one pleaded guilty in court today, admitting he made the connections and raised the money to help his friend

. >> john gaskin if she had been honest and i know that's a large chunk of this, but let's put that tothe side and she's obviously told a lot of lies and as you see in the introduce continues to is there a constructive conversation to have about the racial identity and to have about the idea of being transracial. >> i want to make it clear just because rachel happens to be caucasian doesn't mean she can't be an effective leader in the civil rights community. you look at someone like walter white in the naacp who was not african-american but was a very influential civil rights leader especially in the naacp. her track record in terms of civil rights advocacy is quite commendable, but you are looking at an issue of someone who was not honest and you're looking at an issue of someone who was essentially unethical, but brianna, this does open up the question of racial identity but it also does open the question when you identify with a particular race you have to identify that and take on the good and the bad and the pros and the cons. as sunny mentioned, you cannot be a part of the race a

cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor sunny hostin community activist john gaskin.ing. you've heard of stories where african-americans have chosen to pass as white in the past. certainly it made a lot more sense decades ago when they would be allowed more rights because of it. but have you ever heard a situation like this where a white woman is passing as a black woman? >> i've never heard of it actually. and i was trying to do some research today when this story first broke, briana. and i didn't find anything like this. i mean as you mentioned, historically african-americans in the '20s '30s '40s certainly there was this phenomenon called passing where you would try to pass as white so that you could improve your socioeconomic status improve your life. but this in and of itself is so odd. because while she wants to be an african-american woman, a member of the tribe so to speak, membership doesn't necessarily have a lot of privileges in today's society. so i think that's why everyone is questioning her. and it's not so much a question as to whether or not she shoul