Ahead of election day 2020. At 9 00 a. M. , dr. Howard editorinchief of the journal of the American Medical Association discusses the u. S. Response to covid19. Good morning and welcome to washington journal. Camera shootings of africanamericans at the hands of police has caused unrest in the United States for the past few years and has turned into a Major Campaign issue in this years president ial race. Whether it is black lives matter, defund the police or other slogans and movements, how Law Enforcement relates to the communities they protect is on everyones minds these days. Morning,ion to this what is your view of Law Enforcement in your community . We are going to open up regional lines. That means if you are in the eastern or central time zone, you have a telephone number. You are in the mountain and , you have a zones number. And if you are Law Enforcement watching this morning, we want to know what you are seeing and hearing. We have a special line for you. Keep in mind, you can always text us. And we are always reading on social media on twitter and facebook. Again, our conversation this morning is going to be about how you think Law Enforcement is doing in your community. What is your view of Law Enforcement . This comes as we are going through another state of unrest in the United States. Even most recently, there was another release of a video out wherehester, new york, seven Police Officers from rochester were suspended on thursday. I will read you a couple of paragraphs. The man was having a psychotic episode, handcuffed by police and officers when he ran through the street, naked in the middle of the night and told at least one passerby that he had the coronavirus. He began spitting and the officers responded by pulling up a mesh hood over his head. When he tried to rise, the officers forced him facedown on the ground, one of them pushing his head to the ground. He was held down by the police for two minutes and had to be resuscitated. He died a week later at the hospital. Once again, we are having all of these videos and the reaction around the country. Like i said earlier, it is becoming an issue in the president ial campaign. Did an interview with a pittsburgh tv station earlier this week pushing back on those who have been saying that he wants to defund the police. Former Vice President biden had to say. Im not only want to defund the police, i want to add 300 million to their local budgets to deal with policing communities. Every cop has a right to expect to be able to go home at night and be able to be safe. Host once again, we want to know what you think, but lets see what President Trump has set about this issue as well. Here is President Trump from earlier this week talking about the issue of policing and his opponent. [video clip] the rioters that want biden to win want him to win because their agenda is the craziest thing i have ever seen. They both want to cut funding for police, they want to end the cash bail, higher farleft prosecutors and judges who let the criminals run wild. The radical left District Attorney in portland, mike schmidt, has released hundreds of rioters that have announced that anyone arrested for interfering with Police Officers, disorderly conduct, criminal trespassing, rioting and other offenses will not be prosecuted under any circumstances. Its worse. You have somebody in philadelphia who is worse. Worse. It is a manifesto with bernie sanders. Host lets go to the phone lines and see what you think. What is the view of Law Enforcement in your community . Lets start with jamaica, new york. Are you in Law Enforcement . Caller good morning. I am. It is very difficult to go out when you haveb the president throwing the fuel at it. It is very difficult. It is a very difficult task to put on a badge, go into a community and say i am here to help. We are and we are going to help, but we cannot have someone throw flames that it. It sounds nice, but we go into these communities and try to do the best we can, but we need help from our prosecutors. We need help from our politicians, our political activists. It is a community thing. It is very difficult. That is all i have to say. Host let me ask you this question. Have you seen a change in perception for police over the last few years . Caller that is a very good word. Perception, yes, but it has to be reality. Chief manw york, the is trying his best to do community policing. He is going out there with bookbags for schools, for kids. These are things you need to see in the community. You need to see police out there giving out goodies for the kids and community, going out to the elderly. These are things you need to see, not to hear rioting and throwing bottles. That is not what we need to see on television. We need to see the police engaging. That is important. Host since you are in Law Enforcement, tell us your suggestions. How do we fix this perception, change things to where the communitys trust of police and the police trust of the communities . Caller that is very difficult because you cant have two sides saying different things. You cant have someone throwing flames on someone trying to ease the pain. It cant work. Everyone has to be together. It is not an easy answer or an easy fix. Jeff froms go to indianapolis. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. As far as my relationship with Law Enforcement, i support Law Enforcement 100 . We ask them to do a very dangerous job. They have to go into some of the worst communities in our cities and provide safety to the residence. We are going to have Police Officers that go over the line and do stuff wrong. That happens in any organization. Officers get up every day and put on their uniform and badge and go out there and try to do the best job they possibly can do for the citizens who pay their salary. And, because of the rhetoric going on because of some of this activism out here, we have now created a view of distressed among Law Enforcement officers. Officersaw enforcement because in the end, the real threat to most people and most communities is not Law Enforcement, it is the criminals. Thate need to understand and quit looking up Police Officers as the enemy. Every time i see a cop on the street, i walk up and shake their hand for the job they do. Host lets go to joe calling from georgia. Good morning. Caller thank you very much. Im thrillednd steve is going to be the moderator for the second debate. We have a great Law Enforcement department here in georgia. I think Law Enforcement is going to be the big issue, and i think President Trump is going to wind with the biggest landslide in history. I think Law Enforcement plus the economy is going to give President Trump a huge landslide win. I am so fired up about President Trump, i have a tough time sleeping at night. Enforcement, in my city, we have a great sheriff and Police Department. Host let me ask you this question. Those policed out officers we see doing these things on film . I agree with you, and i think everybody will agree with you that the majority of Police Officers are great people. In fact, they live in our communities and our neighbors. How do we weed out those that keep doing these things on these videos . To first of all screen them when you interview them and hire them. Check their background. See if they have had any problems. Ask people in the community, what do you think about the different Police Officers . If someone is getting a lot of complaints, then probably, they ought to investigate that and he or she is not doing a good job, you need to fire them. That is what you do and that is what they are doing here in my. Ity in my opinion, i think we have the finest Police Officers serifs in the u. S. Host lets go to chris calling from washington, d. C. Caller good morning. Dont think that we need to but i reallylice, believe the resources need to be reallocated and their funds dont need to be increased. I hate what the president is doing. This whole law and order rhetoric he is spewing and he goes about breaking law and order every time we turn around, you have got guys on his administration that have committed crimes and admitted to committed crimes and have been found guilty. Yet, instead of letting the system go through the process, he finds it necessary to intervene or have his ag intervene. Let me say this also. Every Police Officer across the country should have a body camera. I can give you an instance that just happened. In d. C. , we just had a man killed by the police in northeast d. C. This happened september 3. People were upset about it. There was an officer who killed a black man. However, the bodycam exonerated clearly the officer. I hate anyone to get shot and killed in any way whatsoever, but the bodycam showed that the guy, regardless of whether he was trying to cockle again or whatever, he moved the gun. You go to jacob blake in wisconsin, there is nothing that shows anything except for the cell phone footage. They havent released the report because they know that something is wrong with what they did. But if they had a body camera and wanted to Say Something different, the body camera, if they were truly innocent, would exonerate them. Host you are here in washington, d. C. , so am i, lets talk about the metropolitan Police Department. They have a really tough job here because they have to deal with protests and marches on a regular basis in addition to having to deal with all of the tourists that come through in addition to dealing with the people that live here. How do we make sure our relationship with the Police Department, and this is important because most if not all Police Officers out on the street are armed and have weapons that can kill you. How do we make sure our relationship with the police is a Good Relationship . Caller i think that is up to the police. This is what i am talking about when i say i dont want to defund them, but they should reallocate the resources. They need additional training and they need to be more in the Community Without making themselves feel like a threatening presence. They dont have a good mpd doesnt, tehhe have a Good Relationship with the community. There are definitely good cops out there, but like most black saw cops the other day. I spoke to them and they spoke back. It was a pleasant exchange, but you dont get that generally because there is this thing that some Police Officers carry where it is like, i am the authority, im not here to protect and serve you. Im here to protect and serve this business or these certain people. They need to change the way they approach the citizens. Host lets go to anthony calling from arizona. Good morning. Caller good morning. I want to share what i have shared with my locals here and with my county sheriffs department. Theres a book written by a Police Officer called tactical reload. There is an additional book called life is in the transitions. The essence of tactical reload, is that just like every individual should strive to be better today than they were yesterday, meaning that every day an officer builds up a certain amount of deposits in community policing. They learn a little bit more. At the same time, when fellow officers do not recognize that some of their peers and some of their Senior Officers can be a cancer on the professionalism of life andand then in transitions, we all have to understand that every day, we lose something in ourselves that tomorrow could be better. We have to find out how to bridge that gap. Money tofood, drinks, all my First Responders here in my city and county, but the most important thing is, i let them know how i feel. Pat callinggo to from austin, texas. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I just wanted to share that i for the police and community to have better relationships and better outcomes, there has got to be a change in the thought process. Some of these thoughts, good and bad, have been ingrained in people until we see it coming out. Blacks dont trust police and some police dont trust blacks. In any relationship, you have to build trust. I do believe it is on the Police Department to get more involved in the community, likely caller before that was sharing. Give more in the community. Hold forums. We are starting to do some of that even in the Faithbased Community in austin with our Police Departments. Have coffee with people. Lets have more town hall be angs where there can communication going on antitrust buildup. I dont believe in defunding the police. Deal withve that they a lot of things they probably dont need to deal with. Respect, Like Mental Health issues, they are not doctors. They are policeman. They are not nurses, they are policemen. Believe the thought process has got to change in order for us to see better interactions on our streets. Relationship the how is the relationship between the often police and Austin Community . I always have a great time when i am there. What is the relationship like in austin . Caller it is not good at it has not been good and a long time. We have some pretty good police chiefs. Now, they aree calling to have him fired. I dont believe that is the answer. I just think we have to change how people think. Sometimes, that has to come from god, to be honest with you. How people think, what is in their heart will dictate how they react and behave in situations. Trump stopped in latrobe, pennsylvania last night and talked to a campaign crowd about the rioting that has been going on in the United States, and some of the destruction that has happens. Here is a little bit. Washington journal as farleft writers viciously attract attack democrat cities and recently marched through the cities chanting death to america, this is what we have. By the way, we could end it immediately. You saw what we did in wisconsin. [applause] it took a while for the governor. To have to ask us in. It is like otherwise, we have to do something much bigger. The National Guard is fantastic. I went to see them two days ago. Biden went there today, there is nobody there. He was a little late. I was going to say, listen, we ended that problem. But we could ended in portland. Wiseguys in portland, anarchists, agitators, looters. We could end it in portland in half an hour. We did it in seattle. We told them we are coming in. You either end it or we are coming in. They ended it in seattle. They took over 20 of the city, and the mayor said, it is going to be a summer of love. These people are crazy. We ended them very quickly. Now, what we are doing is Holding Back Funds for cities that dont know what they are doing where they allow crime to run rampant. Host lets go see what some of our social media followers are saying about their view of Law Enforcement in their communities. Here is a text that came in that says, why are so many of the socalled good cops so violent on the abuse of fellow officers . Tear down the blue wall. Here is another text that says, the cops here seem like decent and fairminded people. That is how it should be across the country. The majority of cops are good people, but there are some that should never even be in the police force. Recruiting needs to be seriously changed and higher only those really who want to protect and serve, not stop unnecessarily and harass or worse, shoot and kill just because they can. Also, trump pours gas onto the flames by stirring up eight and division with his rhetoric. Here is another text that says, local policing is not a federal responsibility and shouldnt be a subject of political dialogue at the national level. Congress should find other things to do with taxpayer receipts. Contestants for the white house job should but out altogether. Another text that says, i am a trained ford we almost a decade to learn how to save lives. Policing should train for at least half that amount of time before they should be at least to take a life for they should be allowed to take a life. Safeer text says, i feel around Police Officers knowing they risk their own security to protect us. I wish they werent so strict about minor traffic infractions. Once again, we want to know your view of Law Enforcement in your community. Once again, we are opening up a special line for Law Enforcement. I want to know what you are seeing and what you are hearing and what you think the perception of Law Enforcement is in your community. Lets go back to our phone lines and talk to mark from silver spring, maryland. Caller good morning. I really want to talk a