On July 11th, cáo, fox News' Kelly File featured a focus group to talk about the Dallas Shootings, Protests, Black Lives Matter, Obama, Race and more. This was in direct response to increasing tensions between the police and specifically the Black US population. If bạn know anything about me, bạn probably know how important I believe it is that people keep talking in a constructive manner in order to come to real solutions. This is why I do not like hypocrisy when it comes to tolerance. I just happen to believe in beating ngọn lửa, chữa cháy with water, not with thêm ngọn lửa, chữa cháy as I believe it only fuels it and makes things worse for everyone involved, especially the group being the most oppressed. In order to be balanced, all sides must have a voice in the conversation. Megyn Kelly did have guests from all sides and while I am absolutely not going to say this focus group segment occurred as perfectly as it possibly could have, as I think Megyn Kelly was very rude and cut off very good points, I do respect how much it is a major step in the right direction. Therefore, I wanted to highlight some of the points made bởi the participants of this focus group that I think all Americans should be able to agree on, thereby leading to better solutions for all Americans (including Blacks, police and everyone else in this country).
For those who may need thêm context on the major events referred to in this segment:
link
link; link
link
link (Graphic)
link
Here is the video I am responding to: link
*I have also uploaded it in the video section with a link to this article.
1. Abolishing the police is not the answer, reforming the police is.
The fact of the matter is that we need the police, and as Darrin Porcher, a retired NYPD Lieutenant stated (at 04:57), "we need... police... If not, we're going to have the movie The Purge." He also đã đưa ý kiến "Calmer heads need to prevail" which is also very key with such a sensitive subject.
2. We need better police training and better police officers.
As Lisa Durden, a political commentator, pointed out (at 06:40), "Police officers take an oath to protect us from criminal activity and you're telling me bạn are scared (she gets rudely interrupted here so it's a bit incoherent), and bạn are supposed to be there to protect me, what does it make me?"
This is a very important point. If bạn watch the Castile video, bạn will hear that the officer who shot him should not have been allowed to carry a gun and likely not allowed to be a police officer. Even after Castile has been shot and clearly and objectively no threat bởi any standards, the police officer still sounds like he is under great threat and duress. The officer is actually less calm than the very young girl in the backseat, which is absolutely ridiculous. No police officer should be less in control of himself in that kind of situation than a child is. He should never have been được trao a gun in the first place and we need to make sure that people like him are not được trao these responsibilities which clearly overwhelm them.
Another great case that the Black Lives Matter movement makes through Eric Guster (at 22:15), is that "number one, there are hiring problems. The police officers need to be psychologically screened before hiring. Some of these people who go on and get a badge, they should not have any type of job involved in súng hoặc security. And the một giây issue are quotas. The một giây issue are quotas involving African-Americans and poor people who are stopped and harassed bởi police, because police are put on a quota system where they have to write a number of tickets and also make arrests."
Yet again Megyn Kelly interrupts a very important and eloquent point! This is absolutely true and a very legitimate cause of concern that needs to be addressed.
#1: The recurring theme is better police training. Correctly stated, some of these people should not be allowed to work with súng like the police officers involved in the 2 police on public shootings that sparked this trigger of events as well as trước đó events that have contributed.
#2: Quota systems are un-American and should be abolished! If the mission of our police force is to drive down crime then why in the world would they have a quota?! This is just ridiculous. We are paying them regardless, whether they make no arrests hoặc tons of arrests. There should not be quotas and this is a very legitimate point because it does force police officers to become thêm creative hoặc aggressive in communities where the crime is actually decreasing! Shame on Megyn Kelly for cutting off this very necessary and insightful point.
3. Police officers should always be able to do their job the right way, whether on camera hoặc not.
There are some Americans who share the belief of Pastor Mark Burns (at 07:20) who asserts that the reason why our police officers are afraid is "because they don't want to hiển thị up on the tiếp theo cell phone video and be automatically condemned before facts are even [inaudible due to rude interruptions again, but he presumably was going to say 'before the facts are even presented'.]."
Well, seeing as how the link this isn't really a fair point. The fact of the matter is, the public are 2/3rds likely to be convicted of crimes they are accused of whereas the police are only charged 1/3rd of the time. So the idea that police are afraid of "prejudice" is ridiculous to me. I personally think complaining about prejudice is ridiculous because it's bigotry and action that hurt us the most, not basic survival instincts of prejudging a situation hoặc person which can be changed through experience and/or convincing, whereas bigotry cannot be changed. I digress though, point being that consistent and ongoing police misconduct exposed bởi the police shows that link when breaking the law, which is why we need police and criminal justice reform.
Michael Oppenheimer, a Civil Rights Attorney sheds thêm light on this (at 18:48) when he directly says, "There's a lack of accountability. bạn have for years and years and years, not just shooting but planted drugs, false stops, verbal and physical abuse of people that are pulled over. bạn have false traffic stops without probable cause. This has been hidden and covered up for years and years and years. It is only when there is a shooting that we hear about this. I have hundreds of cases where this has happened and it's gone on and on and on. And then when this happens, so we need better trained police officers, psychological training so they can deal with mentally ill people. Recently a person was shot swinging a bat-[inaudible due to rude interrupting]"
Notice the recurring theme yet from all sides? Attorneys, police officers, Black citizens, non-Black citizens and others all agree: We need better police training and accountability. That is the #1 issue coming out of all of these tragic gần đây events.
This is also why I, personally, believe that all police officers should have to wear body cameras whenever on duty and be punished if it's turned off hoặc not on them. The police work for the public, they document everything already. Today we have highly advanced technology when it comes to video cameras and recording. Body cameras on the police are just the tiếp theo step after dash cams in the police cars. What is the argument that police should not have to be recorded for public record at all times when on duty?This is our safety, and often a matter of life hoặc death.
Pastor Westley West (at 34:03) puts it perfectly, "We talk about solutions, I tình yêu what he just said. It's time for the police to go in on the basis of their relationship and not the basis of their authority."
4. Police and other public employees should be native to their districts to improve conditions all around.
When police, lawyers, teachers and other public occupations hire from within their communities, there tends to be less crime and less tensions between the public and authority figures. This brings a better sense of accountability when both sides are dealing with each other on a thêm consistent basis.
This is a very legitimate concern of Black Lives Matter, as Pastor Westley West (at 09:04) and is an easy solution that all Americans should be able to agree on, regardless of how bạn feel about any connotations hoặc associations with the Black Lives Matter movement.
He also mentioned "the system is set and designed to protect the system". Please take notice that when this Pastor and Black Lives Matter supporter made this an issue about police reform and community solutions rather than just about race, Megyn Kelly interrupted to try to make this about race, a narrative heavily fueled bởi the media over police reform. I personally believe the system is designed to protect corrupt police officers which is a bit thêm prevalent than the racism as it is the punishment for racism that needs to be able to be trusted and relied upon. Racism is going to exist as well as ego trips, obsessions with power and other issues that lead to police corruption which is why it is so important to hold them accountable for their actions. The system should work to protect all Americans equally, not the police over the public, not any race over another and not any sex over another.
5. We should put thêm emphasis on police and criminal justice reform than presuming racism without evidence.
The police officer who shot Castile was Asian (likely Chinese) and not White. This was not a race issue, this was a bad police officer issue. Not taking away from race issues with the police force, we cannot always assume that racism was at the root of the problem. The man who shot the police officers in Dallas đã đưa ý kiến he wanted to kill White cops in revenge for the gần đây shootings despite one of the shootings done bởi an Asian, not White cop.
No matter what race we are, I would hope that we could all agree on the fact that the media plays up "White vs Black" the absolute most, to a point of being dangerous. Stereotypical racial conflicts should not be manipulated hoặc exploited as a media tool for ratings, which it currently is. When Bill Stanton, a former NYPD officer asks about what proof there is beyond "the fact that the victims were Black and the officers were White, where is it due process and where is there any proof as of yet that this was a racist-based shooting?" (at 09:43).
This man did not even know how right he was and Megyn Kelly nor anyone else corrected him that his facts were not even correct since the cop who killed Castile was Asian and not White. There is a "Black vs White" racial bias that the media plays up, ignoring many of the events involving Hispanics/Latinos and Asians especially, creating a dangerous atmosphere for Black and White groups in America and presenting an even thêm racist atmosphere for them to deal with.
Lisa Durden, a political commentator echoes one of the racist myths that prevail thanks to media and sensationalism. She claims that "everybody" wants to kill Blacks which is just not true and so sad to think that people would think this. Let's put this in perspective to clear up any misunderstandings, she was absolutely correct (at 16:52) when she alluded to the fact that most crime is committed intra-racially, meaning that most crime is committed within the same race. According to the FBI, link. That being said, when it comes to how much crime is committed bởi other races, the FBI says White on Black is 8% with Black on White being 14%, almost twice as much. This is not being brought up to be racist hoặc judgmental but simply to make the point that statistics do not support the false claim that 'all people' hoặc even 'all White people' hate and/or want to kill all Black people." That is a false and racist claim.
As it stands, America is becoming thêm and thêm diverse. According to the Pew Research Center, "Multiracial Americans are at the cutting edge of social and demographic change in the U.S.—link as fast as the population as a whole." So we are actually only going to get better and better with racism but there is no positive trend towards making the police better, except ironically with Dallas and the Black Police Chief who had taken such great lengths and yet was targeted anyway, thanks to bigotry.
A common misconception about racism is echoed bởi Richard Fowler, a Senior Fellow at New Leaders Council. He says (at 24:40) that ""Everybody keeps throwing around the word racism and let's be very clear on what racism is. Racism is when a predominant group who has power, uses that power to degregate hoặc discriminate against another group."
That is an example of racism; Not the definition. One does not need power to be racist, for example, they only need to believe blanketed statements about an entire race that they believe they and the people of their own race are morally superior to, etc.
Another example of racism? The belief that anyone who is not White can relate to everyone else who is not White but anyone who is White must have been born privileged with blinders on, is a textbook definition of racism. bạn are asserting that non-Whites are racially superior in their empathy for others and vice versa, that Whites are inferior than other races when it comes to empathy. If bạn really believe this then don't complain about racism if bạn want to embrace it yourself. (That's called hypocrisy.)
*For those who may be curious, here is the link to the link that "found that blacks were either less likely to be shot hoặc there was no difference between blacks and whites." (Though Blacks did experience thêm tổng thể harassment and stopping etc.) 
As far as the argument that there are thêm White people than Black people and how that affects crime statistics, this study was adjusted for suspect, officer and encounter characteristics. (Whites made up 53% of crime with about 75% of the US population; Blacks made up 44% of the crime with about 13% of the US population. link)
6. We need to invest thêm (economically as well as other ways) in our youth, especially who live in neighborhoods of high poverty and high crime rates.
Without making this a racial issue, we should be able to agree that most single mothers and broken families do occur in working class neighborhoods than suburban neighborhoods. According to the Pew Research Center, link at an alarming rate. This is alarming because "Children growing up in single-parent families typically do not have the same economic hoặc human resources available as those growing up in two-parent families. Compared with children in married-couple families, children raised in single-parent households are thêm likely to drop out of school, to have hoặc cause a teen pregnancy and to experience a divorce in adulthood." Additionally, "Single parenthood and cohabitation have Mất tích much of their stigma as their prevalence has increased. But there are still many reasons to be concerned about the well-being of children in fragile families, and, indeed, research overwhelmingly concludes that they fare worse than children born into married-couple households." Furthermore, "Seven in 10 children living with a single mother are poor hoặc low income,compared with less than a third of children living in other types of families." So studies consistently find that children in single parent situations do have thêm obstacles and therefore need thêm attention and assistance.
link Annie E. Casey Foundation, KIDS COUNT Data Center.
link US National thư viện of Medicine, National Institutes of Health
linkThe Population Reference Bureau
Although he's still a kid, link.
Let's keep the dialogue open and make sure we make our words count, choosing productive conversation rather than regressive conversation. Let's keep talking about the issues that matter and that we can really solve. That is the best way to honor the victims as well as prevent any new ones.
*Note, I mean no disrespect to anyone with my các lượt xem on this and am only trying to bring up issues in a way that I believe is constructive, positive, effective and hopefully legitimate common ground that can be used for solutions.
For those who may need thêm context on the major events referred to in this segment:
link
link; link
link
link (Graphic)
link
Here is the video I am responding to: link
*I have also uploaded it in the video section with a link to this article.
1. Abolishing the police is not the answer, reforming the police is.
The fact of the matter is that we need the police, and as Darrin Porcher, a retired NYPD Lieutenant stated (at 04:57), "we need... police... If not, we're going to have the movie The Purge." He also đã đưa ý kiến "Calmer heads need to prevail" which is also very key with such a sensitive subject.
2. We need better police training and better police officers.
As Lisa Durden, a political commentator, pointed out (at 06:40), "Police officers take an oath to protect us from criminal activity and you're telling me bạn are scared (she gets rudely interrupted here so it's a bit incoherent), and bạn are supposed to be there to protect me, what does it make me?"
This is a very important point. If bạn watch the Castile video, bạn will hear that the officer who shot him should not have been allowed to carry a gun and likely not allowed to be a police officer. Even after Castile has been shot and clearly and objectively no threat bởi any standards, the police officer still sounds like he is under great threat and duress. The officer is actually less calm than the very young girl in the backseat, which is absolutely ridiculous. No police officer should be less in control of himself in that kind of situation than a child is. He should never have been được trao a gun in the first place and we need to make sure that people like him are not được trao these responsibilities which clearly overwhelm them.
Another great case that the Black Lives Matter movement makes through Eric Guster (at 22:15), is that "number one, there are hiring problems. The police officers need to be psychologically screened before hiring. Some of these people who go on and get a badge, they should not have any type of job involved in súng hoặc security. And the một giây issue are quotas. The một giây issue are quotas involving African-Americans and poor people who are stopped and harassed bởi police, because police are put on a quota system where they have to write a number of tickets and also make arrests."
Yet again Megyn Kelly interrupts a very important and eloquent point! This is absolutely true and a very legitimate cause of concern that needs to be addressed.
#1: The recurring theme is better police training. Correctly stated, some of these people should not be allowed to work with súng like the police officers involved in the 2 police on public shootings that sparked this trigger of events as well as trước đó events that have contributed.
#2: Quota systems are un-American and should be abolished! If the mission of our police force is to drive down crime then why in the world would they have a quota?! This is just ridiculous. We are paying them regardless, whether they make no arrests hoặc tons of arrests. There should not be quotas and this is a very legitimate point because it does force police officers to become thêm creative hoặc aggressive in communities where the crime is actually decreasing! Shame on Megyn Kelly for cutting off this very necessary and insightful point.
3. Police officers should always be able to do their job the right way, whether on camera hoặc not.
There are some Americans who share the belief of Pastor Mark Burns (at 07:20) who asserts that the reason why our police officers are afraid is "because they don't want to hiển thị up on the tiếp theo cell phone video and be automatically condemned before facts are even [inaudible due to rude interruptions again, but he presumably was going to say 'before the facts are even presented'.]."
Well, seeing as how the link this isn't really a fair point. The fact of the matter is, the public are 2/3rds likely to be convicted of crimes they are accused of whereas the police are only charged 1/3rd of the time. So the idea that police are afraid of "prejudice" is ridiculous to me. I personally think complaining about prejudice is ridiculous because it's bigotry and action that hurt us the most, not basic survival instincts of prejudging a situation hoặc person which can be changed through experience and/or convincing, whereas bigotry cannot be changed. I digress though, point being that consistent and ongoing police misconduct exposed bởi the police shows that link when breaking the law, which is why we need police and criminal justice reform.
Michael Oppenheimer, a Civil Rights Attorney sheds thêm light on this (at 18:48) when he directly says, "There's a lack of accountability. bạn have for years and years and years, not just shooting but planted drugs, false stops, verbal and physical abuse of people that are pulled over. bạn have false traffic stops without probable cause. This has been hidden and covered up for years and years and years. It is only when there is a shooting that we hear about this. I have hundreds of cases where this has happened and it's gone on and on and on. And then when this happens, so we need better trained police officers, psychological training so they can deal with mentally ill people. Recently a person was shot swinging a bat-[inaudible due to rude interrupting]"
Notice the recurring theme yet from all sides? Attorneys, police officers, Black citizens, non-Black citizens and others all agree: We need better police training and accountability. That is the #1 issue coming out of all of these tragic gần đây events.
This is also why I, personally, believe that all police officers should have to wear body cameras whenever on duty and be punished if it's turned off hoặc not on them. The police work for the public, they document everything already. Today we have highly advanced technology when it comes to video cameras and recording. Body cameras on the police are just the tiếp theo step after dash cams in the police cars. What is the argument that police should not have to be recorded for public record at all times when on duty?This is our safety, and often a matter of life hoặc death.
Pastor Westley West (at 34:03) puts it perfectly, "We talk about solutions, I tình yêu what he just said. It's time for the police to go in on the basis of their relationship and not the basis of their authority."
4. Police and other public employees should be native to their districts to improve conditions all around.
When police, lawyers, teachers and other public occupations hire from within their communities, there tends to be less crime and less tensions between the public and authority figures. This brings a better sense of accountability when both sides are dealing with each other on a thêm consistent basis.
This is a very legitimate concern of Black Lives Matter, as Pastor Westley West (at 09:04) and is an easy solution that all Americans should be able to agree on, regardless of how bạn feel about any connotations hoặc associations with the Black Lives Matter movement.
He also mentioned "the system is set and designed to protect the system". Please take notice that when this Pastor and Black Lives Matter supporter made this an issue about police reform and community solutions rather than just about race, Megyn Kelly interrupted to try to make this about race, a narrative heavily fueled bởi the media over police reform. I personally believe the system is designed to protect corrupt police officers which is a bit thêm prevalent than the racism as it is the punishment for racism that needs to be able to be trusted and relied upon. Racism is going to exist as well as ego trips, obsessions with power and other issues that lead to police corruption which is why it is so important to hold them accountable for their actions. The system should work to protect all Americans equally, not the police over the public, not any race over another and not any sex over another.
5. We should put thêm emphasis on police and criminal justice reform than presuming racism without evidence.
The police officer who shot Castile was Asian (likely Chinese) and not White. This was not a race issue, this was a bad police officer issue. Not taking away from race issues with the police force, we cannot always assume that racism was at the root of the problem. The man who shot the police officers in Dallas đã đưa ý kiến he wanted to kill White cops in revenge for the gần đây shootings despite one of the shootings done bởi an Asian, not White cop.
No matter what race we are, I would hope that we could all agree on the fact that the media plays up "White vs Black" the absolute most, to a point of being dangerous. Stereotypical racial conflicts should not be manipulated hoặc exploited as a media tool for ratings, which it currently is. When Bill Stanton, a former NYPD officer asks about what proof there is beyond "the fact that the victims were Black and the officers were White, where is it due process and where is there any proof as of yet that this was a racist-based shooting?" (at 09:43).
This man did not even know how right he was and Megyn Kelly nor anyone else corrected him that his facts were not even correct since the cop who killed Castile was Asian and not White. There is a "Black vs White" racial bias that the media plays up, ignoring many of the events involving Hispanics/Latinos and Asians especially, creating a dangerous atmosphere for Black and White groups in America and presenting an even thêm racist atmosphere for them to deal with.
Lisa Durden, a political commentator echoes one of the racist myths that prevail thanks to media and sensationalism. She claims that "everybody" wants to kill Blacks which is just not true and so sad to think that people would think this. Let's put this in perspective to clear up any misunderstandings, she was absolutely correct (at 16:52) when she alluded to the fact that most crime is committed intra-racially, meaning that most crime is committed within the same race. According to the FBI, link. That being said, when it comes to how much crime is committed bởi other races, the FBI says White on Black is 8% with Black on White being 14%, almost twice as much. This is not being brought up to be racist hoặc judgmental but simply to make the point that statistics do not support the false claim that 'all people' hoặc even 'all White people' hate and/or want to kill all Black people." That is a false and racist claim.
As it stands, America is becoming thêm and thêm diverse. According to the Pew Research Center, "Multiracial Americans are at the cutting edge of social and demographic change in the U.S.—link as fast as the population as a whole." So we are actually only going to get better and better with racism but there is no positive trend towards making the police better, except ironically with Dallas and the Black Police Chief who had taken such great lengths and yet was targeted anyway, thanks to bigotry.
A common misconception about racism is echoed bởi Richard Fowler, a Senior Fellow at New Leaders Council. He says (at 24:40) that ""Everybody keeps throwing around the word racism and let's be very clear on what racism is. Racism is when a predominant group who has power, uses that power to degregate hoặc discriminate against another group."
That is an example of racism; Not the definition. One does not need power to be racist, for example, they only need to believe blanketed statements about an entire race that they believe they and the people of their own race are morally superior to, etc.
Another example of racism? The belief that anyone who is not White can relate to everyone else who is not White but anyone who is White must have been born privileged with blinders on, is a textbook definition of racism. bạn are asserting that non-Whites are racially superior in their empathy for others and vice versa, that Whites are inferior than other races when it comes to empathy. If bạn really believe this then don't complain about racism if bạn want to embrace it yourself. (That's called hypocrisy.)
*For those who may be curious, here is the link to the link that "found that blacks were either less likely to be shot hoặc there was no difference between blacks and whites." (Though Blacks did experience thêm tổng thể harassment and stopping etc.)
Author of the Harvard Study
As far as the argument that there are thêm White people than Black people and how that affects crime statistics, this study was adjusted for suspect, officer and encounter characteristics. (Whites made up 53% of crime with about 75% of the US population; Blacks made up 44% of the crime with about 13% of the US population. link)
6. We need to invest thêm (economically as well as other ways) in our youth, especially who live in neighborhoods of high poverty and high crime rates.
Without making this a racial issue, we should be able to agree that most single mothers and broken families do occur in working class neighborhoods than suburban neighborhoods. According to the Pew Research Center, link at an alarming rate. This is alarming because "Children growing up in single-parent families typically do not have the same economic hoặc human resources available as those growing up in two-parent families. Compared with children in married-couple families, children raised in single-parent households are thêm likely to drop out of school, to have hoặc cause a teen pregnancy and to experience a divorce in adulthood." Additionally, "Single parenthood and cohabitation have Mất tích much of their stigma as their prevalence has increased. But there are still many reasons to be concerned about the well-being of children in fragile families, and, indeed, research overwhelmingly concludes that they fare worse than children born into married-couple households." Furthermore, "Seven in 10 children living with a single mother are poor hoặc low income,compared with less than a third of children living in other types of families." So studies consistently find that children in single parent situations do have thêm obstacles and therefore need thêm attention and assistance.
link Annie E. Casey Foundation, KIDS COUNT Data Center.
link US National thư viện of Medicine, National Institutes of Health
linkThe Population Reference Bureau
Although he's still a kid, link.
Let's keep the dialogue open and make sure we make our words count, choosing productive conversation rather than regressive conversation. Let's keep talking about the issues that matter and that we can really solve. That is the best way to honor the victims as well as prevent any new ones.
*Note, I mean no disrespect to anyone with my các lượt xem on this and am only trying to bring up issues in a way that I believe is constructive, positive, effective and hopefully legitimate common ground that can be used for solutions.
Young Abolitionist
