are very familiar with ron hampton.ht. nkechi is a senior policy analyst for criminal justice matters at open society foundations. welcome sister nkechi. all right. so, opening remarks beginning with brother shelton. >> thank you very much. first, i don't know if everyone can hear me -- >> can't hear you! >> talk now? >> thank you so much. it is so important we have an opportunity to actually respond to what's going on in ferguson, missouri, and so many other places. it just so happens, i'm one of the few that actually grew up in st. louis, missouri. i know ferguson very well. i saw its transition from being a community that was predominantly white to one that is now 67% african-american. but i've also seen what has happened with the systems in place that is supposed to be democratic in nature. very clearly, they are not being responsive to the concerns going on there now. if you're looking to the city council, those making decisions for the people that live in ferguson, you'll see it is not representative of the 67% of

brother ron hampton. >> yes, thank you. i'd like to thank the institute of the black world also. in every movement i think there should be a strategy that community begin to organize themselves. i worked with a brother who resides in durham, north carolina. his name is daryl atkinson, and daryl is involved in a project where they're organizing, they've done their homework, done the statistical work, they've looked at what the police do and don't do in durham, and they're organizing this community of durham to back the police out of their community. in other words, to take control of the public safety issues and concerns that affect their community. we can do that. we did that -- i'm old. we did that a long time ago and we can do that again. and what that does is it gives us the control of the kind of things -- [ inaudible ]. >> our community -- [ inaudible ]. >> -- reasons why we call the police more than the white community. but darryl in doing this project backed the police out of their community, eliminating the duty kind of tings that arm the community with the power to do th