I am free in a cage just this weekend across the United States there were protests against Police Brutality. It was was. Was was was was was was was was we not a trigger for and was definitely one of the most the moral to the most inhuman things i seen it on this planet graham that we are on our man on our black man a minority men of color if i am to be attacked by the Police Friend of the string going to police for 9 minutes i am not is not a credit card or a little eyes and neck that is definitely not something i remembered. Josh new york protester was talking about the killing of george flint an africanamerican in Police Custody now could this moment be a moment and a turning point for us and Race Relations that hes talking about today if you will and you jump into the chatter i need to be part of this conversation on the screen. I want to guess they will introduce themselves keesha tell our audience here you are. Im Keisha Blaine im currently an associate professor of history at the university of pittsburgh i studied 20th century u. S. History africanamerican history African Diaspora history and womens and understands right shes going to bring tunis glory call context to this conversation welcome keesha hello felicia tell our audience here you are hi everyone my name is felipe coming out and i am a Minneapolis City Council member and i represent the 4th ward which is a north minneapolis good to have you call it felipe and damon comes back to the strange welcome back. Thanks for having me back when youre here author of what doesnt kill you makes for founder of very smart brother the Senior Editor at the root. Yes let me just share this tweet with the straight away from africans the night they knew we were going to have this conversation desist dam reaction really cried when i saw the video of this policeman with his needle on georges neck to. I pray that this will be the last time we ever hear a senseless Police Killing of unarmed african in the us i have my doubts later in capsaicin a 2 sides of the claim so africans unite is already beginning to think that this may be a moment in u. S. Race relations damon. I think that that. That is a very optimistic way of view with things. You know we have seen what happened with george floyd with trayvon and with my sandra blair with castillo i mean that list goes on at the weakest ive been here i could be here for the next half hour that maybe day and n. F. L. Each time ok this is it this is the time when things are going to change is the time thats going to be like the Critical Mass of attention and activism and outrage and well see. If i were a betting man i wouldnt place any bets place any money on this being the thing that changes everything. Then when you mention some very famous africanamerican dies in through 2 circumstances and we put together some of those images if people can remember this is this is not an unusual circumstance it should be but it is not sleep when when i shared that tweet about is the last time i will ever see this i cried you slightly wrote your ice articulate that i wrote. Yes i would just say that its navigating in this world as im black and transgender i want navigate the world folks see me as a black man i dont believe that its. There will be any sort of role radical change around police and the relations of with the black community i do not believe at this point really that evidence shows that reforms in the Police Department actually change Police Culture and also really here in the United States we really dont have a paradigm of what does it look like to actually not live in a racist capitalist society we dont have that paradigm right now and so not having that makes it very challenging for me to believe that we have the ability to move to something that looks like. I agree i certainly want to be optimistic i think we should keep fighting we should keep demanding changes but i do agree with damon and philip that its unlikely that this will be the the last time we have these kinds of conversations we keep coming back to the same place over and over again and i think what history has certainly taught us is that ultimately american policing was based very much on on a racist system and i you know i write about the fact that we cant understand contemporary development unless we look back to even the period of slavery with say for trolls and we look at jim crow policies will look at black holes in the list goes on and on but i mention that because if you understand the history then you understand that what were seeing today is simply a legacy of slavery and im not optimistic that this will be the last time or having this conversation. Phillipe you are based in south minneapolis youre a counselor there what is it like to be there right now. Yes so just for clarification i actually represent north minneapolis which is actually the historically black community in minneapolis which we have a very sore it history with police ive been in city council for now 2 and a half years my 1st 2 years in office we experienced 3 officer shooting deaths one was suicide by cop what were seeing. On the south side is really a lot of pain and rage that is generational thats coming up and that is spilling out in ways that folks may not support who do not understand that rage over here in north minneapolis what were seeing really is actually quite a different story right now weve had 2 nights of Community Patrols that ive been organizing with community because weve actually had white supremacist and k. K. K. Members running around terrorizing our community several homemade bombs have been discovered the building in my ward was burned last night 4 storefronts 2 were black 0 and so right now our community is trying to protect ourselves and so its hard for us even have a larger conversation about what kind of changes we want to see the systemic lee when were just trying to even survive so there are 2 very different experiences happening right now on the 2 different are the down. To this tweet of sums up what you just said a beautifully philippe says talk to the protesters he will net you know that 8 discuss happy 2 things were most the participants will agent provocateurs showed up to incite violence and confusion and this is not the 1st time that the accusation has been out there that the people in the crowd are not necessarily the people who live in those neighborhoods. Yeah this is thats been a drumbeat from from people on the ground in different cities i actually heard some moms and mayors come out yesterday and this morning just to clarify that. There were a lot of outside agitators coming in and i think that is true thats been true in people who have been there on the ground will can will attest to that but i dont i think the danger in and that is allowing that to replace the legitimate outrage and so when people are viewing this in their thinking ok to people who are the most upset are these outside agitators and i also had a taters or causing a ruckus then causing mayhem or whatever but there are also people who are from these communities people who are just mad who are outraged sure angry who maybe are doing the kid like the n r kids sort of things that these editors are doing but it but theyre bringing that fear into bringing that anger there too so i dont know if there are peaceful protests happening everywhere but behind that peace is a rage is a sadness is a greek in is. This a willingness to get out there and do something about it. What i found shisha as i was following and covering and reporting on these protests is that the punches were about Police Brutality and as the protesters were on the street some of them were facing Police Brutality i want to bring into this Conversation Police markham who works for witness which is an organization that fights for human rights using video by way of documentation she this weekend was at the protests in new york telling people how to protest news in their videos and some strategy and look at this. Here at a protest or do you want to be mad always islands which are a highly encourage you to do over there is a cuban are you can do to make sure that youre safe and back on a map of the 1st things to know your rights are you have a person and a constitutional right to helm Law Enforcement in public spaces as you just cant interfere and whether or not youre interfering am a description of a Police Officer sometimes to have you been arguing against the way or to be used by god part like the way Police Officers tell you to back up because you couldnt even tell me or anybody to shout at you in particular are bopping away. Keesha that tells you that some of these protesters are already allowed to dip into here on you tube and put some of these thoughts to you never a bad day says it is the perfect time to rise up and have our own Political Branch weve built this country and enough is enough i am going suggest it never pay is a person of color he. Is this a time of revolution are you feeling that its a revolution. I dont think at the time of revolution and i think his most certainly history has shown us that quote unquote obeying to sara lee lead to the result that we imagine it would lead to so on the one hand i understand people who would resist anyones effort to stand up to the police anyones effort to ignore the commands of the police but how many times have we seen people comply and still lose their lives how many times have we seen people. You know sort of walk the line play the respectability politics and still end up dead so that tells me certainly historically that we can always imagine that when we do one thing the result will be what we think it will be i think now is the time for people to resist i wont tell people necessarily what they should do or how they should resist but i think certainly they should resist. This from money to racism magazine thank you for filling us on you tube right now the violence follows all this attention sports michael vick 19 which under school found inequalities that marked africanamerican nights sleep. Absolutely the what weve seen here in minneapolis d is that the largest demographic that has been hit by covert in terms of health is the black community what we see is there the businesses that are disproportionately impacted are black businesses by businesses are not able to access the Government Resources that are available that is just playing out very clearly in the data there is so much fear that is a layer on top of layer for generations and i really want to go back to something that just folk do which is really policing has its roots in White Supremacy and when we look at what. Does policing look like without that it is incredibly challenging to even imagine that because how do you change the culture of an institution that has been around for as long as its been and it has its roots in such the explicit White Supremacy one of the things that i think that we really need to be talking about now is more than ever something ive been a champion for for years now is we need to be start getting serious and building the political will to build alternative systems of Public Safety outside of policing which we have very clear evidence that shows us what that looks like thats a Public Health approach to Public Safety treating violence as though it is a disease that spreads it could be prevented that could be treated and there are systems that we have examples even here in minneapolis that work however we dont have the same kind of political will to fully fund those strategies in the same way that year after year we are we are pretty much that have to keep increasing the Police Budget because thats where the majority of the political will is so im hoping that we see a turn in the tide here so that we can have the same kind of investments in alternative systems of Public Safety you know when i hear that it reminds me something that we cope watch felt was a very important that we included in this conversation we could watch the camera look at them here they are an organization that police the police they videotape the police they checking on the police or if the time they train each other how do we do the safety who is watching who is keeping us safe yes suggestion from where we are this moment right now police are the descendants a strike breakers and slay for toes to toes and we need to create a situations of justice that dont involve threats of violence and cages be safe out and watch them and i know this is not an idea that is new to you the idea from. His manifesto even is we need to be thinking beyond the police is this the time. I mean. Yeah i mean the time to do that is ceaseless and as weve seen you know people on the street and people who you know watching footage is that the police are no brighter right now the police are ones who are agitating the police are the ones that are exacerbating the police are the ones who are entering neighborhoods you know as agents of the state and causing the whole its. You know their job is to is to alleviate but theyre actually injecting danger to actually injecting or into all these neighborhoods into all of these protests and to all of these rallies. And again the evidence evidence is right there where you are i mean there in every city in every city where you have protests you see you know the footage in atlanta where the cobs grabbing the young couple out a car. Theres a foot its a Salt Lake City where the police are just. Some elderly man but it came down to these are standing on a sidewalk in theres more emphasis like that you know getting her i knocked out. By a rubber bullet you know in there and again there are more and more and more incidents like that of police of the police being in acting like a gang because thats what they are and they have their own flag. I mean anything to me that i get was around has their own flag lets you know that be they are at separate entity from the rest of. You seeing that speech is that this this is washington d. C. This possibly cant sign this bill is saying here. Watching you were selected doing to only make the militarization of police in the country for me. Well ill say on the state level that in minnesota that they are actually deeply entrenched and trenching the militarization of police we are preempted at the local level by the state level from being able to enact really any sort of changes in 2012 the state legislature and civilian review authorities to have any sort of Power Community power over Police Behavior and accountability leading the sole discretion of police and discipline to the police chief and herself themselves. So that concentration of power is a huge problem we cant require personal Liability Insurance for Police Officers so that we have dont have to keep shelling out millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars on the behalf of some City Employees who are causing tremendous harm in our community we cant do those things because the state Legislature Want to allow it and we see really nothing at the at the federal level in fact they are pumping money into cities to hire more Police Believe im just im just wondering when i was your time rolling your eyes and smiling ruefully do this just in this conversation you live in me after this youve got a very descriptive demoed to face. What do you feeling right now. I you have if this is a time of who because people are paying attention oreilly feeding on its groundhog day and here we go again and again and again. Like groundhog day thats thats really where im at is a feels like groundhog day. And i you know i am a descendant of slaves my great grandfather was born into slavery like that generational trauma is very real for me i feel in my bones i navigate the world feeling that hostility i have had negative interactions with the police myself. And you know but i feel like this is so much bigger than just policing like minneapolis i would say ive lived in quite a few different cities in my lifetime and that minneapolis including the bay area is the most progressive city ive ever lived in and also it has the worst Racial Disparities between black folks and white folks in the entire country across every indicator of life and thats right here in north minneapolis and so you know im in the system so thats why youre kind of seeing me like you know like feeling merely a slightly disgruntled to be honest because you know im in the system im trying to dismantle the system from within it and and it is a hell of a challenge to try to d d. Dismantle a system of White Supremacy that was built on White Supremacy itself not only in policing but in government itself overall but ive seen. Yet. Oh its going to just just for you back on what. I dont feel that much different now than ive been with trayvon or with sandra. With my. What i what i feel differently about right now is front of are still. And it also you know the idea of the reality that. This you know distance reportedly affects us that the scale of its impact on this country is due to White Supremacy. And were out there in the streets right now protesting marching doing all that stuff when gathering and public in large numbers is a single worst thing you can do and so its like either choice in choose death either way and that is the thing thats on my mind right now because of the Police Brutality the racism. I still adequate it to like walking past a dog in your neighborhood where you kno