Them in a minute. I wanted to start just by saying that we are gathering at a time where we all as country, as these leaders in particular, are leading us as we go through moments of deep pain and anguish for so Many Americans. That has come to the floor in the last few weeks. A product of t is years and decades and even really centuries of unequal and unfair treatments. E murders of george floyd, breyonea taylor, ahmed arbery and Many Americans to shed light on systemic racism that is pervasive in our country. Black people are not safe here not when they go out for a job, not when they go out to church, not even when they stay in their own home and they are too often killed at the hands of police. Right now, our country is dealing with two diseases. One of them dozens of vaccines are on trial, medical professionals are working around the clock. And it is a global effort to become a common enemy. And still so many people are suffering and dying. For the other its a disease thats riddled our country. And the fix is not clear. And weve had decades in which we have really ignored the light of black citizens. So our mayors are here joining us today and theyre on the front lines of tackling both of these diseases, both of these challenges. And they are truly leading at a time where at the National Level we have a president who is incapable of that. And so were really fortunate to have these leaders who are able to develop real solutions. And im really thrilled that all four of them have been working at the forefront of federal relations developing policing cover the entire communities not just some. And so with that, i really want to get started. Ill do a brief introduction of each of our of our each of our mayors. Well have a conversation about the recent events as well as the coronavirus because as i said they are leading in those areas. Irst, we have newark mayor ras baraka, he served as a member of the citys Municipal Council and was principal of new York Central High School from 2007 to 2013. Next, we have the Atlanta Mayor keisha bottom. He became mayor in 2018 having previously served as a council member. And kate gallego took office in march of 2019. Prior to serving as mayor, she served on the phoenix city council. D a our fourth panelist is dr. Marimichael tas. Hes the youngest the citys youngest mayor and its first africanamerican mayor. Prior to serving as mayor, he served as Stockton City Council member. One programming note. We will take questions at the end of this. Ill have a time for q a with the mayors. And then we will take questions from you. In the meantime, please feel free to send any question you have, even use the question box on the right side of your screen. Ive captioning is available at americanprogress. Org livecaption ing. So im just going to get started into the event. And really grateful for our mayors participating. For each of the panelists what id really like to start with is to ask you how you have experienced the last several weeks particularly the last two weeks. As you were dealing with the continuing Health Crisis and the police rotests around brutality and systemic racism, how have you as mayors really seeing your role . How have you tried to lead . And whats been your experience . And ill start with you mayor ance bottom. Mayor lance bottom, can you hear me . I can now. Im going in and out. But i think i can hear you now. I only heard part of the question. But i think it was about the last two weeks yes, essentially how have you dealt with the last two weeks towards the protest and addressing Police Brutality and systemic racism as youre dealing with the virus . So the last two weeks have been like nothing ive ever experienced in my lifetime. Only what ive seen in history books. And i think that is the we are in this incredible moment and movement in our nation. And ive ive assumed it was very similar to that of the Civil Rights Movement, but this is happening and being amplified in the way that the Civil Rights Movement was not because the social media and our ability to access information. And because we are we have this ability to instantly see, it gives us really an equal responsibility and so many ways to equally react and respond to what people are calling upon us to do in our communities. And so when president obama sent out the call to mayors across this nation to convene entities and task force to take a look at policing in our communities, we did it immediately. We had our first meeting yesterday with an Advisory Council thats going to look at our use of force policies in our city, and what i anticipate is out of that work will probably be even more commissions and task force to look at all of our policies just across the city, just in terms of how were interacting with our communities, not just as it relates to policing. But even how were allocating our our dollars in our communities. Because what we know is that we either pay on the front end or we either pay on the back end. If we are overpolicing our communities then were going to have a heightened response from our community. Incumbent in the way that biden obama left for our policing, that we create legitimate and honest relationships with our communities so that we can work as partners. I think its incumbent upon us to continue that work despite the leadership that we now have in place from the white house. Mayor baraka . Yes, i would like to echo first, thank you for having me. I want to say hello to the mayors lance bottoms. How are you . I just want to echo some of those sentiments. But its been a difficult, difficult few months. Not weeks. Its been a difficult few months here in these cities. Basically on our own trying to keep our people safe and alive without any real direction or support in the way that we need it. And so you have to be creative as possible to make sure folks are actually doing what they can to protect their families particularly since covid has affected our lives a lot more than its affected other peoples lives. We have a heightened response responsibility to provide sympathy, empathy and care, motional intelligence for this community. And then life before covid. Unearthed. Is somebodys trying to get our oy tension. Then ll, inequity and bam, george floyd is murdered almost on national tv symbolic to what happened in the Civil Rights Movement. This is the first time a Police Officer killed a black man. I think the heinous they chure created and the fkt that people became so fed up, it became a tipping point. Now, its up to us to do something about it. Were trying to maintain, increase opportunities and space for justice and equality and democracy at the same time treing to keep people safe and equal and healthy. I was just concerned as im always concerned that sometimes that we in this moment, people sweep in and doing the same thing that mayor bottoms talked about first of all, we have to do it change of use policy anyway. So were doing all those things. Were moving money more money i should say towards bias prevention, social work, pharma care all those things to help us reduce the virus. The reduction of the virus helps us to justify reduction of police, right . So we have to reduce the violence, reduce the number of cops that we need. And so we do that. Im worried that people begin to think that racism or White Supremacy begins or ends with the police dave . And its deeper than that. It would be like slaves get rid of the overseers. At the end of the day, youre still in the same condition youre in. You just have people enforcing that. So you have to will be more thoughtful about our approach to deal with this in a holistic way. Were holding on in the city. Were pushing forward, were praying and were moving. Excellent. Mayor gallegos . Thank you. It has been quite a twoweek scene here in phoenix, arizona. Weve been having robust conversations about the relationship between our police. Partment and our community this week, the city of phoenix have attacked the budget in may. And this way we passed a different budget on a bipartisan basis. The big new expenditure for office of accountibility and expenditure for our Police Department. I dont know that that would have been possible a month ago to say this is something were going to take seriously, and it is our largest new expenditure. Our Police Department has been looking at use of force alongside our community and has already made just this week some significant changes and and we have a commitment with our community that that will continue. Its certainly an issue that has been at the forefront my entire time as mayor, a fairly new mayor elected in 2019. Its been an eventful time, but. Othing like the last two weeks what gives me hope is that weve been having these conversations in phoenix for a while. But it became a much broader conversation. Now i have folks, the leaders reaching out to me and saying hat can we do to fight racism . Thoseer conversations that we didnt have as often as we needed to before. Our if you looked at protests, it is people all of backgrounds. And that gives me the confidence to say that this community will partner with our elected officials as we make real change. These conversations happen as we recover well, were not recovering from covid19. We have hit so many of the records you dont want to be hitting for covid19 from my perspective. We opened too much, too early. And so our hospitals are really struggling. The state just activated the emergency plan for hospitals this week. We are setting all sorts of records you do not want to have. One thing that i do really want to clarify is that our research is that Arizona State university as been looking at the trends. And they do not believe its a result of the protests. There are certainly some cases spreading. But if you look at where covid is increasing in our commune thank you, community. It really correlates with the stayathome order and the challenges were having with our longterm care facilities and anywhere people are living close together. But i come to you as a mayor that comes with a Healthcare System that is stressed. And im very worried about the virus and its impact on our community. Thank you, mayor gallegos. Mayor tim, how have the last two weeks been for you . And then i want to get into the particular areas of leadership youve shown on policing criminal justice and systemic racism issues. First, let me just say, i love you to all the mayors on here. Its been a difficult, difficult year for sure. Particularly the last two weeks and months. Ive seen the points raised by everyone else on the panel. The most interesting for the past two weeks and the last months has been ubiquitous and eated as normal which is our inequality toward people of color and comorbidities and are likely to die from the pandemic. And then you couple that up with murder. Ge floyd im a father of a 7 monthold son, of a mayor of a city who is charge with working with the police dave and with the community. And as a 29yearold black man whose entire adulthood has been marked by travon martin, senior year in college, troy davis. Sandra bland in 2014 while City Council Member protesting michael brown. Its a bit of fatigue as well. Here we go again. I know, given 400year of our history, seems like a moment of time. But the other mayors, im inspired to see it global lies. You have 15,000 people marching in amsterdam. You have the Democratic Caucus coming out with a set of policing reforms in stocktons case weve been lucky in that weve take then issue seriously over the past several years, which is why which is so we have relationships with folks who are protesting. We have relationships with folks who have been working to improve our Police Department. Last year we led the state in decline of shootings. To answer your question, the last two weeks has been very, very difficult in searching for the right words and action. I convey sort of the seriousness of this moment and capitalize the opportunity to do the things that weve been meaning more help in doing in pushing some of our colleagues and other systems along. I would like to follow up on that last point because youve had a big reduction in critical statistics in stockton. Could you share with us what your what the change in policies have been and then what results youve seen. And i think, you know, theres been theres obviously multiple models. We have two kind of models of police systems. One is one is to work more with the community. And ones that have been work on top of the community to police a Community Versus serve the community. And i think one of the things that gets lost is that the the Actual Service model. It has been more effective across the board. And stockton is a great example. I would love it if you could just share. All of you have reforms that youve been implementing. But i would love for you to talk about the experience of stockton and the statistics that hes the statistical changes and what thats meant in peoples lives. Absolutely. Im blessed to have a progressive forward thinking police chief who is a white man who has been a Police Officer for the past 29 years. But before there were hashtags. My first moment on the city council was in 2013, his first year as police chief he said lets figure out a way to transform what it means to be a Police Officer in this community. So a lot of things cant wait for the changes that you support banning chokeholds. We did that in 2014. We put body cameras in 2015. Were part of the National Program with an open door policy who has ever had a use of force incident whether justified or unjustified with stockton p. D. He meets with the family and listens. Hes dub reconciliation tours the hes apologized for things that have happened in the past in the 1930s, they bombed a filipino community. And he apologized for that. He went to black churches and aid that policing were used to stop civil rights and to watch lynching. I apologize for that. I think those things have have moved a long way to build i mean, theres always going to be distrust but theres more trust and at least he gets it and he gets that theres work to do. On the policy side since 2014 all of our officers have been ongoing in implicit bias. And in fact, although our officers not perfect go and train other Police Departments what does it mean procedurally just. People of color have issues with the enforcement of the law unequally. And to be a Police Officer, you have to see it procedurally just that youre treating everyone the same. Its been a work in progress. We have Community Members that have been victims of Police Brutality. Were hoping inform policy is a tough conversation. And the last think i would say is since 2016 myself and the police chief have been both in unitsome unison cops cant be everything. They want them to be therapist an clinicians. Law enforcement should be law enforcement. Lets figure out how to create more jobs because any time you expect one person, one sbi thats not trained to do all those things, youre always going to be frustrated. Upset. Always going to be were trying to figure that out so that our cops arent the only First Responders for every social ill in our city. And what numbers have you seen decline . Yeah, let me answer your question. Decline in shootings and homicides. Its been sustained. And its lower this year which is incredible because stockton has been double the state homicide. So weve become a Safer Community while also being a more to your point policing as a Public Service really focusing threats to life. And mayor lance bottoms, i just want to ask you, atlanta is a big city that has also had more reforms and had more had better relations than other big cities. What are the what are the ways youre thinking is changing Going Forward. I would love for you to talk about the changes youve made, but also any changes youre thinking Going Forward, and you know, theres been a big debate about moving some activitys that are that are done, you know, by Police Related to Mental Health and Substance Abuse and the overpolice problems versus trying to address those problems from a nonpolice Public Health perspective or other perspectives. I would love for you to talk about your experiences and how you see policing Going Forward. First of all, i want to thank you for convening this panel because listening to the other mayors who theres still so much we can learn and pick up from each other. And so, you know, im making sure that im taking notice so i can do some followups as well. So this is this is as much about educating me as it is for the public. So i appreciate that. But in atlanta we began in earnest to look at criminal Justice Reform several years ago. And its taken different forms. So part of what were doing in our city, we allow inmate who are transitions out of the state prison system to work, go out during the day, work as a part of our workforce and our watershed department, our public works department, transition into fulltime jobs so that when they are done with their sentences that they can transition into fulltime jobs with benefits. And it has been so heartwarming to have conversations with many of the men who are in this program and to hear them relay how meaningful it is for their families. Because part of my my background was my father was incarcerated at some point. I know how devastating that can be on families. But the other thing were doing, we eliminated cash bail bonds in the