this is gregory thomas.ief of police at the north carolina school of art, winston-salem, north carolina. what did you think of his friend should of lift every voice? [applause] i suppose you want to know who all these folks are sitting up here. let me just introduce this morning to you, starting to my far right. gerald nelson, national vice president. [applause] cj davis, national sergeant at arms. [applause] and if you would hold your applause until i get through the whole list here. reverend dr. barbara williams harris, national champlin. clarence e. cox to third national second-best president. perry carried, your current first national bank resident in a today's your national president. broderick johnson, assistant to the president cabinet secretary and chair of my brothers keeper's task force. gregory thomas, national president. dwayne crawford, executive or, noble national authors. hubert t. bell, 2016 cochair and our national treasurer. tried to pray, 2016 conference cochair federal assistance to the n

i've joined by gregory thomas, president of the local association of black law executives. harry hauk, retired nypd detective. a bit of news from barbara starr at the pentagon. the pentagon confirms apparently the shooter did serve in the u.s. army reserves, did i get that right, control room, in the u.s. army reserves? all right, tom so we do know this individual had military training. i suppose that's not surprising give given how much he was able to carry off during that time period last night. >> we looked at the shootings and the accuracy, given the distance, plus his tactics, indicated he had some type of training. that could have been in the reserves, in the military or privately at gun ranges. where former military people were conducting training for people. now we're finding out he did get it as an army reserve officer. >> this guy clearly knew how to use a gun. he had so many ammunition it was falling out of his pockets during this incident. another bit of information we got that was interesting was he was killed by the use of a robotic device carrying an explosiv

is gregory thomas.did you think of his rendition of "lift every voice"? [applause] i suppose you want to know everybody who is up here, right? let me introduce everybody, starting my far right, gerald nelson, region one, national vice president. cj davis, national sergeant at arms. and if you would hold your applause until i get through the whole list here, it will go a lot bigger, i promise. dr. barbara williams-harris, national chaplain. dwayne crawford, executive director. perry tarrant, national vice president, and in two days, the president. broderick johnson, chair of my brother's keeper's task force. gregory a. thomas, our national president. dwayne crawford, executive director, n.o.b.l.e. national effort. bell, our national treasurer. matthew verderosa, chief of police, capitol police. patrick labonte, region three national vice president. fourry c. baker, region national vice president. frederick thomas, region five national vice president. cheryl muti, region six national vice president. and t

gregory thomas has joined us. ed patient, waiting for us to get to him, national president of the national organization of black law enforcement executives. gregory, what a mean season it has been thus far for law enforcement professionals, 30 police officers killed in the line of duty. at this time, so far, in 2016. and now three more today, one fighting for his life. >> yes, that's correct. it is a solemn moment for our industry and for the nation by extension because as you mentioned, you know, we're tolling that number of officers killed in the line of duty this year, but in the last three or four weeks as you know, it has been a repeated series of events that are affecting the nation as a whole on the community side, and also on the law enforcement side. >> also been talking about the double-edged sword of social media, it is a true ray of sunlight for some folks, some people say it is a -- it has been a terrific thing for free society. and for others it has been very hard to cope with. >> sure. i mean, again,

let me take you back to the national anthem that was sung by chief of police gregory thomas, excuse me gregory harris. [laughter] [applause] >> chief of police of the north carolina school of arts north carolina, lift every voice. [applause] >> i suppose you want to know who all of these folks are. let me introduce our guests this morning to you. starting to my far right, gerald nelson, national vice president. [applause] >> cj davis, national sergeant at arms. [applause] >> if you would hoild your applause, it'll go a lot quicker. william harris, national chaplain. clarence the third. roderick johnson assistant to the cabinet. gregory a. thomas, our national president. dwayne crawford, executive director, noble national office. human-- hubert bell. matthew r. rosa, chief of police, u.s. capitol police department. maria bryant, national vice president. patrick, region 3, national vice president. gregory c. baker region 4 national vice president. frederick thomas region 5 national vice president. cheryl, region 6 national vice president. let's give the folks a round of applause. [applau

let me take you back to the national anthem that was sung by chief of police gregory thomas, excuse me gregory harris. [applause] chief of police of the north carolina school of arts, winston-salem north carolina. what did you think of his rendition of lift every voice? [applause] i suppose you want to know who all these folks are sitting up here right? let introduce this morning to you starting to my far right gerald nelson, region one national vice president. cj davis, national sergeant at arms. and if you would hold your applause till i get through the whole list here, it will go a lot quicker i promise. reverend doctor barbara williams harris, national chaplain area clearance the cox the third, national second vice president. i am henry terrance, your current first national vice president and in today's your national president. roderick johnson, assistant to the president cabinet secretary and chair of my brother's keeper task force. gregory a thomas, ournational president . duane crawford, executive director, noble national office area frederick t bell, 2016 cochair and our nation

this is gregory thomas. at the north carolina school of art, winston-salem, north carolina. what did you think of his rendition of lift every voice? [applause] i suppose you want to know who all these folks are sitting out here. let me just introduce our guest this morning. starting to my far right, gerald nelson, regional and national vice president. [applause] national surgeon in her, cj davis. if you hold your applause until i get through the whole list here. it will go a lot quicker a promise. >> national champion. clarence e. cox to third, national second vice president. kerry tarrant come your current first national vice president and two days your national president. broderick johnson, assistant to the president secretary and chair of my brothers task force on national president. dwayne crawford, noble office. hubert, 2016 cochair and our national treasure. brien mcrae, 2016 conference cochair, federal assistance to the national president. matthew arthur barroso, chief of police, u.s. capitol police d

is attack on police in two weeks.es on fox5 news at 6 # we spoke with gregory thomas.sked him how police are dealing with these apparent ambushes and how officers should respond, especially when they're answering a 911 call. a call for help is a call for help. when answered that call for duty. for example, in dallas as they were helping the demonstrators there protest piecefully and then the shots rang out and thed cops ran to the shots and took care of what was going on anding brought the pedestrians to safety.saf when a call comes in for safetyy they're going to run there and probably call for backup quicker.quic i'm sure they're not going to be outnumbered. > what we have to do as as a nation, have a deep conversatiov about relations between police,, between the african american community. when does is does that start ans weea about 4:30, are he pushing us towards the right thing towardsg that conversation. i had the opportunity to be with the president this past monday. he called myself and a few others to have a conversation about this to the white house. i think

gregory thomas is here to talk about this.hank you for being here.eing you were in town for youryour conference and you today spoke a little bit about wha tt we saw n baton rouge. our national conference is hereh to celebrate 40 years of existence. it's called nobel, the acronym.n we've been in this business forr a long time trying to be the ones in between, police and thee community to make sure conversation going on all thell time and this shooting hit us us hard. obviously we don't know all the details about the investigationt we're trying to figure out whether this was an ambush.mbus there were reports that there ae 911 1 # call and officers responded to the call.re the caller said there was a mass gunman and they were looking for that suspect.uspe we don't know who made thatho call. gunman? unma who could it have been. there's a lot of talk because ou what happened in dallas. we've seen in specific district that police officers are workini in pairs, but how do you approach a situation where you month have to vet the 911 c

political commentator ben ferguson who live in dallas, very much a part of that community, and gregory thomas, president of the national organization of black law enforcement executives. he'll convene a big group of police chiefs next week to talk about this and a lot more. let's get to him first. thank you, sir, for being with me. i want to talk first about your friendship with chief brown. that was an extraordinary interview this morning that all of us watched with jake tapper. tell us about the man who is trying to heal this community now. >> well, chief brown is a member of our organization and i've had a chance to spend some time with him in the recent two months prior to the incident in dallas. in particular, we were together at the white house for a meeting as the president and his senior leadership convened with a need to be more transparent with data when it comes to your community. that's data housed inside police departments, right? and he was one of the police chiefs that hadal voen teared to step forward and decide to do ha, to be more transparent. his words exactly as he spoke t

joining me now is gregory thomas, the president of the national organization of black law enforcement executive for law enforcement in the brooklyn d.a.'s office. thank you very much for being with us. >> sure. >> where do we go from here? dallas was an exemplary city by all accounts. with great, a great record of community engagement, and look at what happened there. and how are people supposed to respond now? >> well thankfully they're under good leadership there. both the mayor and the police chief again. david brown was a member, a friend doing the best job he can right now in tough times. as you mentioned earlier in his press conference, this is a time you just don't, but it's important to be a strong manager and strong leader. as it relates to the next steps for the country, we have to settle kbak and let the country mourn, let dallas mourn, let baton rouge mourn, let minneapolis mourn. >> what do you think about robots and bombs? there weren't hostages, but it was clearly a situation that was filled with peril and other explosives. >> i fully trust him, on paper it's unorthodox

coming to the podium, your current national president, gregory thomas.applause] >> these are the best of times and the worst of times. these are the best of times and the worst of times. these are the best of times in major cities across the country are experienced rapid growth with crime and unemployment trending downward. these are the worst of times some areas across the country are experienced in stagnation and growth while allowing crime numbers steadily increased and with relationships between the community and one for his campaign. good morning again, noble. by opening quote comes from the classic 1959 novel by charles dickens, the tale of two cities. allow me to paraphrase this quote to more, where foley says it was the best of times, the worst of times, the age of wisdom, the age of foolishness ,-com,-com ma a season of light through the season of darkness. it was the spring of hope with the winter of despair. we had everything before us. we have nothing for us. we are all going direct to heaven. we are all going direct the other way. as we are

. >> let's talk about that more right now with gregory a. thomasent of the national organization black law enforcement executives. also joining us, former new york state homeland security adviser michael balboney, now with the senior policy institute. great to see you. you heard president obama, he's talked a couple of times, but hearing that from him over the weekend, we are in the middle of a national conversation about police and if you attack police officers, you're doing a disservice to the cause. do you agree? do you think protesters have gone too far? >> again, in select cases, there's been some enraged behavior during demonstrations and that should not be a case during any time whether this instance or any instance you're demonstrating against. you have to be careful you've not crossinged a line and do not destroy property for that matter, put others in danger, whether police officers or citizens. we have to have is the right kind of peaceful ways to make sure the message is getting across and be shuure demonstrats don't cause harm -- >> we

a conversation that continueu to happen here during the nobl conference i wander to talk witt gregory thomasresident of nobl and also perry terrence the incoming president.si so first of all, your reactionen to what's been going on in the n last few weeks.st w >> it's been troubling times fos law enforcement and for ourndoro nation. you know, in the sense shootingn that happened in baton rouge r with mr. sterling the one thatge happened in minnesota andta and shootings of the cops in dallasl now with the shooting in baton events that are awakened the conscious of the nation to havee better police relation. pice re. >> perry you'll be incomingry yu president. you're facing a differentfe landscape i think than perhaps a law enforcement executives haveh faced before.d what is your message to your y group and also to the policeol that you work with in seattle?ea >> first i want to say my hearth goes out to the families that lost family members recently rec during the recent tragedies buts to answer your question specif specifically, it is aly is challenging time more sotime mes difficult as peop