joining me is sonia pruitt with themontgomery county, maryland. good to see you.polis and talking to black people there and one of the conversations that came up was this idea that, you know, parents of kids, generally, but parents of black kids, often give them a set of instructions or directions to keep them safe in interactions with the police. and when those interactions occur, sometimes those kids are held responsible either for the way they dress or the attitude they displayed to authority. and there are people saying to me they wonder whether this trial of george floyd's killers will make a difference. will parents rethink the idea that maybe my kids dressing or behavior isn't to blame for how things go wrong sometimes in their interactions with police. i wanted to get your thoughts on that. >> good morning. so how your child dresses, how they wear their hair, the brown, chocolate, vanilla, blackness of their skin, they are not to blame for that. and it's unfortunate we sort of -- we inherit this psychological trauma, this emotional trauma. it comes from sl

and sonia pruitt, member of the law enforcement action partnership. ladies, welcome, thanks for joining us. melissa, i want to start with you. i want to talk about closing arguments specifically. what we can expect from both sides tomorrow. >> well, i think we've already seen a little bit of what we'll expect from both sides. last wednesday the defense made a motion for an acquittal from the judge on the ground the prosecution had not proven his case so in arguing that motion we got to see what both sides are going to say, a preview, if you will, next week when they make their closing arguments. but i expect the prosecution to hammer home the three pillars of this case. the video testimony, the eyewitness testimony and then that expert testimony, hammering for the jury that you can believe what you saw because it is backed up by what other people saw and concluded as well. the defense will try to poke holes in that, to inject some reasonable doubt that in fact it was mr. floyd's pre-existing conditions and drug use that were contributinging factors in

. >> melanie price, retired captain sonia pruitt, thank you. you're watching msnbc reports. you're watching msnbc reports. with hepatitis c... ...i felt i couldn't be at my... ...best for my family. in only 8 weeks with mavyret... ...i was cured. i faced reminders of my hep c every day. i worried about my hep c. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret... ...i was cured. mavyret is the only 8-week cure for all types of hep c. before starting mavyret your doctor will test... ...if you've had hepatitis b which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after treatment. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b, a liver or kidney transplant,... ...other liver problems, hiv-1, or other medical conditions,... ...and all medicines you take. don't take mavyret with atazanavir... ...or rifampin, or if you've had certain liver problems. if you've had or have serious liver problems other than hep c, there's a rare chance they may worsen. signs of serious liver problems may include yellowing of the skin, abdominal pain or swelling, confusion, and unexplained bleeding or bruising

joining me is the founder of the black police experience, sonia pruitt with the monte dei paschi county police department in maryland. also with me is former federal prosecutor, paul butler from georgetown school of law and author of the book "choke hold" poliing black men. let's start with what happened in chicago. there are people calling for a -- i don't know how police have to think about this, a balance between the fact that they got a phone call in the middle of the night about shots fired, people call 911. police get dispatched, there appears to be a gun or guns in the area. that video is hard to parse, but in the end it looks like a man with his hands up was shot. police are saying that happened in a fraction of a second. he showed a gun, he put his hands up and he got shot. his mother is asking why did you have to shoot to kill or in his chest? talk to me about how realistic that is that that could have unfolded differently. >> good morning to everyone. it is very realistically that that could have been handled quite differently. i want to highlight this argument that you hear

glen kirschner and a former federal prosecutor and sonia pruitt, former captain at the maryland police department and the black police enterprise. this video, once again, shocking, astounding. i can't think of the word to explain my reaction to this. captain pruitt, i want to start with you and kind of get your raw reaction to what we just watched. >> it's ridiculous. okay. so my first reaction is, if i didn't know that this actually had happened, i would have thought it was a "saturday night live" skit or something. look, first of all, a citizen has a complete right to pull over and stop where they feel most comfortable. police officers are actually trained in that, that give them the benefit of the doubt and give them some grace, maybe they don't feel comfortable. maybe it's not a well-lighted area, let them stop somewhere, where they feel safe. that's okay. secondly, when i walk up to the car and do see there is a tag in the window, as far as i'm concerned, stop's over. what else do you want? thirdly, the supreme court has ruled that it is okay to ask people to step out of a car for

. >> and this is where we start with our power legal panel today, retired captain sonia pruitt, the founderpolice experience. also joining us, rachel, professor at the university of st. thomas school of law and former u.s. attorney, as well as attorney katie phang, an msnbc legal contributor. captain pruitt, let's start with you. how direct do you think the chief will be when he takes the stand, and do you think the defense, in cross-examination, will bring up those comments that he made to the media? >> well, i certainly hope he is as direct as he was in those comments. those comments mean everything to policing. it means everything to a community that has been traumatized by this incident. they wanted to hear from the leadership, and the leadership laid it out. this goes against everything that we are. it goes against our teaching, our training, it goes against the ethics of policing. and again, i certainly hope that when the prosecution questions him that he says those same things and that he digs down into why he says those things. ethics for policing is very, very important, very serio

let's get more on this from sonia pruitt, a retired captain of the montgomery county maryland policeted, what message will it send out, do you think? i message will it send out, do you think? ~' message will it send out, do you think? ~ .,, ., message will it send out, do you think? ~ ., , ., ., think? i think those of us who have been waiting _ think? i think those of us who have been waiting for— think? i think those of us who have been waiting for so _ think? i think those of us who have been waiting for so long _ think? i think those of us who have been waiting for so long for - think? i think those of us who have been waiting for so long for what . been waiting for so long for what justice looks like, that will be a positive step in the right direction. but like one of your guest said in the clip you just played, it'sjust one guest said in the clip you just played, it's just one step. we guest said in the clip you just played, it'sjust one step. we have been waiting so long for officers to been waiting so long for officers to be held accountable for policing and abuse of power i