Strata or race. And that theyre there to soy those folks, theyre there to protect those folks. And i hope that they also tell them and provide for them care. Because i think one of the big issues that were going to see as a result of this aside and away from host having audio issues. Let me direct your attention to the Washington Post sunday opinion section. A long list of other people whether at a walmart playing in a park, a traffic stop, already arrested or a car breaks down all who were killed at the hands of Police Inside the Washington Post. Robert from greenville, north carolina. Caller as far as the Police Departments, the fraternal order of police and the Police Unions as long as theyre running the show were going to have these problems because they have too much, they just favor Law Enforcement to the degree where theres officers on the force that have had 10, 15, 20 writeups and theyre still on the force, and if you are in the real workplace that wouldnt happen. Thank you. Host thanks for the call. Joy in illinois. Caller good morning. I just have a couple of things to say. I dont understand how people can say they want to get rid of the police or defund the police. If we didnt have police can you imagine what a chaotic situation everything would become. Just like in minneapolis they just backed off, no police was there, they drove off and let them have it. They just gave the middle finger to the good lawabiding citizens that had businesses and i just think its so disgraceful that theyre holding these demonstrations and letting these riots continue. Because im all for demonstrations, dont get me wrong, im all for that. But if i was out there demonstrating and i saw what was happening i would leave so fast. I just cant understand why, because one cop did this to another man. When i saw that on video i cried and i cried and i cried. I could not believe what i was seeing just like everybody else. But we cant go and destroy all of our cities because of what one cop did. The other cops were rookies. As far as i know that one cop, that was the third shift that he worked. He just became a Police Officer. Host thank you for call. Your comments. Guest well, i appreciate the question and i think she touched on a number of things there. One, there is a lot of chanting for defunding the police. I think really what people are talking about and something that we in the Police Reform movement and certainly in my experience we have been encouraging departments to adopt a differential response which would incorporate things like if you ask Police Officers theyll tell you theyre asked to do too much. And so i think one of the thing that is we talk about is trying to integrate communitybased services and have a Community Base provider go out and respond for instance in a situation where theres a call somebody that has a Mental Health issue. That the first call shouldnt be to the police for Something Like that, in my opinion. With regard to the protests, i think she makes some interesting points and has voice whad a lot of people feel. And there there needs to be a distinction because lawful protests are perfectly fine and the polices role when it comes to lawful protest should be to protect the protesters and to protect their right to carry on their protests. But when people start commiting Property Damage, theft, Violent Crimes against other persons, thats different. The Police Response to that is different. And one of the thing that is we talked about in the Task Force Report was a layered response to mass demonstrations. And unfortunately what im seeing around the country and a lot of place that is recommendation has not been adopted. Hat we called for was having a continuum of managed tactical these when it comes to things. If the first time a protest crowd sees Police Officers theyre wearing their fullon Tactical Gear what some folks would call riot gear characterized as riot gear and theyre entering into the crowd, thats a recipe for disaster. And weve seen it over and over and over again going back 50 years. Thats not the right response. Now, when people start damaging property, when people are looting stores, the Police Response is different. Theyre going to arrest criminals. And i think the woman was absolutely correct that the caller is absolutely correct, if youre involved in a peaceful protest, if youre involved in a lawful protest and you see unlawful behavior get out of there. Host our guest sean smoot former member of president obamas task force on policing. Ploomberg looking at the cost of policing, reporting that over the past four decades the cost of policing has almost tripled from 42. 3 billion to nearly 115 billion in 2017. Roger has this tweet ood morning. Caller ok. I feel when i saw so many young people protesting that we can have a change in our country across the United StatesPolice Forces when they hire people to do this job they should test them and screen them for mental and physical health and anger management. Unions in the Police Department they have to look at complaints against some of the officers. The death of george floyd was a very bad outcome. We should pass laws for criminal justice and Police Reform. This should never happen again. And my question is, how do we get Police Reform . Host how do you answer her question . Guest so i assume that question is being directed to me i didnt hear a prompt. So how we get it is its happening. Its happening now, its been happening for five years. The pace slowed significantly about threeandahalf years ago but there are a lot of departments doing a lot of great things. O if you look at places like new jersey, theyve turned that agency around that reform process started probably ten years ago. Its a model department. Even if you look at the way that theyre dealing with the Current Situation now i would say that most folks would say theyre doing a really good job. There are a number of department that is have started to implement the task force but again i ns think the key is its a cultural change and the unions need to play a role in it as the caller mentioned. And by the way, its become popular to lay a lot of blame on the unions, but they have responsibility. But they also are responsible for improving the profession a great deal over the years. And increasing the caliber, enhancing the caliber and quality of applicants and so on. So theres some shared responsibility that definitely can take place there. But at the end of the day if a department is based on and has in its culture engrained procedural justice at its core and is working towards the Building Trust with the community and is implementing these things reform will happen but it has to happen on the ground it has to happen on a city to city, county to county, state to state basis. Host your reaction of the reporting in New York Times fierce protectors of police impede the efforts to reform saying the unions have ab outside influence in any reforms since ferguson in missouri over the last five years. Guest i havent read that article. This is actually im used to being on central time so this is quite early in the morning for me but ive heard that argument made before. Not specific to missouri but certainly its an argument thats been raised. Ive seen it raised three or four times in the last 24 hours and other mediums. As leaders, that whether your leadership comes from your position as the chief of police or commander in a department, or your leadership position comes because you were elected by the rank and file members of that department, leaders need to lead in these situations. And where there are problems we need to address them. And i think if that doesnt happen internally then it will be done ultimately. They say if youre not at the table youre on the menu. If everybodys not on board with improving the profession, improving the relationship between police and the communities that they serve, the folks who arent involved in that will likely not come out very well in the end. Host and if you follow her on twitter at maggie nyt she has tweeted out that New York Times story front page on the roll of unions and the Police Departments. Tom next. Good morning. Aller good morning. This is probably going to upset a lot of people and this is not my intention. m trying to look at have very unbiasedly. First i think the culture itself needs to look at itself in the mirror. When they promote Gang Violence , being part of a gang, drawing gang signs and going and intimidating. And the italians did it as far as the mafia goes and all that. What im getting at is with that premise, that groundwork being laid, when youre an offerser and youre running into a community that is well known for extreme gun violence and things like that, and they have to go in there with caution, when they know of a large majoritys gang members are packing firearms and are willing to use them at any given moment in time, now, they need to take a step back and breathe. We all do as a nation. This is just going to a part where its becoming absurd and ridiculous wfment no Law Enforcement then what happens in that community when somebody kills somebody . So what is it just communal policing . Do they do vigilante or somebody gets murdered do we not have justice and law . Its a very complicated and delicate situation by all means but we all need to look at ourselves. And racism exists in every culture, in every facet. It doesnt matter. Its never in my opinion its never been about race, color or religion. Its been about economics. Host thanks for the call from maryland. Any comment . Guest i think he hit on a couple thing there is that i would like to comment on. One, crime is definitely linked to economics. There are disparate impacts in our society, whether its economic, educational opportunities, i am from the chicago area originally. There have been places in the city of chicago whole neighborhoods, big neighborhoods, large geographic areas where theres not a grocery store. Hats a significant disparity. Its hard for people who dont see that in person to understand really the depth of the problem. And what that problem creates. You know who does see it . Police officers. Host our guest sean smoot joining us from alexandria, virginia. Go ahead. Guest i just was going to say i think the idea of guesting from policing is diveresting from policing is flawed. If you have something that is broken you would want to fix it. Ou would be good morning, everybody. If you look outside it is a Beautiful Day today in new york city. But for a lot of reasons yesterday was an even more Beautiful Day. Yesterday we had a powerful expression of peaceful protests all over new york city. People speaking up, calling for change, calling for a different approach to the work of this society, doing it peacefully, doing it passionately, tens of thousands of new yorkers coming out working for a better city, a better nation. I want to thank everybody who has expressed their views peacefully, who has worked for change in this long, complex week in this city, in this nation. I can tell you it is making a huge difference. It was peaceful throughout the day, on the entire day and the entire city relating to the protests again tens of thousands of new yorkers participating. Four arrests and 24 sumances in the entire day. Weve had five days in a row, thank god, where we see peaceful protests predominating an end to the Property Damage we saw earlier in the week which has no place in this city. Because we got sumances in the entire day. Weve had five days in a each d and better situation more and mod more Peaceful Protesters, a better situation overall each day fewer and fewer arrests, i made the decision to end the curfew and honestly i hope its the last time we will ever need a curfew in new york city. So the curfew has ended. It is out of effect. It will not be coming back. And tomorrow something very, very important happens in the city beginning of phase one the restart of this city, the restart of our economy, the restart of peoples livelihoods. We should all feel this is a moment that every new yorker should celebrate as our achievement together, your achievement, because you did the hard work to fight back the coronavirus so we could get to phase one. And tomorrow morning will be a very important day in the history of this city. Now, this week has been a very long week, a tough week in many ways, a houfrl, meaningful week for sure. A week where people call for change and change will happen. Well talk about that today. But i first want to talk about the week and the reality we faced. Again, a thank you to the tens thousands of Peaceful Protesters, a thank you to the tens of thousands of members of the nypd who protected that right to peaceful protest. Everyone worked hard. You can always talk about the exceptions and the problems, and we will. But overall it is important to say thank you to the men and women of the nypd who worked to protect Peoples Democratic rights and their safety. Now, i had four fundamental ideas, fundamental standards that ive been holding throughout this week and weve had to make decisions based on many, many factors. Obviously paramount was protecting the right to peaceful protest and hearing the voices of our Community Calling for change. But the four things i was focused on as the leader of this city, as the steward of this city was avoiding the loss of life across the board. Avoiding serious injury to anyone and everyone involved. Whether they be protester or Police Officer or anyone in this city. Avoiding Property Damage. Never allowing a repeat of what we saw so troublingly at the beginning of the week. And something i talked about many times making sure that the National Guard did not come into new york city which i think would have caused much greater problems and much greater potential for misunderstanding and inadvertent violence. I made clear throughout the week that the nypd was going to use a restrained approach. I know there are deep concerns about specific situations and i respect that but in this city the nypd did not use many of the approaches that were used in other cities. This city the nypd avoided the use of some of the policing tactics, the more militerized policing tactic that is weve seen around this country that i oppose and dont think have any place in new york city. It was crucial to keep out a military presence in the National Guard and im happy to say that we all worked together in this city to avoid that situation. Now, the real work begins in this city. And to say to those who have protested i hear you is simply not enough. I do hear you. I feel it deeply. I literally heard the protests, i saw them, i went all over the city watching very up close. But hearing is just the beginning. There has to be action so people have to see deeds, they have to see change. First, we have to address the issue of officer accountability. 36,000 members of the police force the vast majority of whom do the right thing every day answer a noble call and keep us safe. And a few who do the wrong thing, those few have to experience consequences and we have to see it, we have to feel it, we have to know its real. It takes in new york city too long for there to be accountability for officers who do the wrong thing. That is something we can and must change. That is a tradition that must change. You are starting to see that change. It is not enough yet. I want to be clear but youre starting to see it. Even in the first days of this protest. It might have been lost in the first days of this protest the decision by the commissioner to move on additional discipline arks discipline trial for officers involved in that very troubling ibsdenlt in the Lower East Side a couple weeks ago. That trial will proceed shortly but also the announcement by the commissioner just a day or so ailing regarding some of the incidents that happened this week. I want to makesure clear. Im going to talk abvery quickly a few. There are more under investigation. Each will follow the facts and where discipline is needed it will occur. Last friday an officer in brooklyn shoveled a woman to the ground, a protester, in a very inappropriate fashion, in a dangerous fashion. That officer has been suspended without pay, further disciplinary action will commence. Last saturday an officer pulled down the Face Covering of a protester and sprayed pepper spray at them. That officer has been suspended without pay. Further disciplinary action will commence. There was an nypd superviser, a level officer, who was supposed to be supervising the officer who pushed the woman to the ground and did not. That superviser has been reassigned and further disciplinary action will commence. Those are three examples. There are more investigations under way both within the nypd and then the independent review being done by our counsel and our commissioner for investigations. And of course the state attorney generals review as well. But most importantly each and every incident that is brought to the attention of the nypd and the civil review board will be investigated. I want to see where it is appropriate that there be disciplinary actions that it happen swiftly, i want the public to see it, know it, and have confidence in the disciplinary process of the nypd. That is one type of change we have to make but there are much bigger and deeper ref