So many other innocent black men and women violently taken from their families and loved ones. This is a pain all too familiar for too many black americans. And this is a moment of reckoning for our mom nation blk americans have borne the front of the systemic racism as has native American Communities and hispanic to mexico and across the nation. So many of our officers protect and serve with honor and integrity. But we cannot continue to sweep Police Brutality and racial inequality under the rug to ignore the painful legacies until the next tragedy. There are thousands of americans of every political strife across the nation who have come out in peaceful protestan a demanding change. Now, we know there are a small field exploiting our nations pain, and using violence to disrupt. We unequivocally condemn all acts of violence and call for nonviolence and urgent action. By calling for the us military to quell protest has on as the president has done that crosses the line between civilian and military rule that is antithetical to american traditions instead of calling for american soldiers to repress fellow citizens to exercise First Amendment rights i am calling for actions of this body. Today senators booker and harris introduce the justice and policing act the bill im proud to cosponsor. This landmark bill holds policeman misconduct accountable in courts of law. To shine a light on the Police Practices required requiring transparency to and racial profiling and mandates racial bias training advanced chokehold to require body cams making lynching a federal crime. This is a moment of reckoning for our nationlove. I call upon the Senate Majority to join with us to pass the longoverdue legislation as soon as possible. One week ago i did a Television Interview on Race Relations in america. And asked them to talk about toll son 1921 when the worst race massacred American History occurred 1921. May 31st overnight into june 1. As describing the event of a group of white writers marched into greenwood which was black wall street killing up to 300 people there and set greenwood on fire destroying homes and businesses and as im talking and people dont know this i am just talking to a camera lens i can see whats on tv at the time but there were pictures of a town in the United States w aur ti currentn fire while im describing a race massacred 99 years ago that weekend. With, long way with the issue of race in america. We clearly have a long way to go. There for centuries of racial inequality stacked on top. While we break through those stepbystep, we have things we can do. Then on the phone for days with friends and people i know. Talk about Race Relationships and where we go as a nation. Sumter of their hands to say i dont know what to do. Many have an idea but Everyone Wants the situation to get better. But the dialogue about protestersre and rioters i share openly with them i dont judge protesters and rioters the same. Some people do and throw them into one big group. I do not people are outstanding in the streets just wanting to be heard, just want things to change. For america to fulfill her promise of equal justice under the law in every area and every community. Peaceful, sometimes loud and brash but they are frustrated and want to be heard. Another group breaks through smashing windows, stealing shoes in electronics from stores spray painting and destroying public property just from their own anger. I dont treat them the same and i encourage people not to treat all Police Officers the same are there some rioters mixed in . Yes are there some Police Officers that need to be confronted for their racial views . Yes. Is that all of them . By far no. Every person should be judged every person and if we loved any group together to say they are like that we have divided us even more. Twenty years ago my state made it illegal for police to stop someone simply because of their raceou most Police Departments dont allow a chokehold they were never even trained to do that and told not to do that so what happens in other areas has not happened in my state the same way. But i still have friends of mine that are africanamerican that still catch me to tell me the number of times they have been pulled over for driving while black. In places and neighborhoods i have never been pulled over that they have. Multiple times. We still have a long way to go. s legislative body can talk about it and share empathy and listen but we are also called to act so i bring a few ideas to engage with greater transparency. How do we oppose getting information out . Simple things like gathering a federal database of the use of lethal force by law d whatever Police Department uses lethal force that data should be collected into a federal database to have a National Tracking what was the situation how is that investigation handled basic details City Councils and city leaders and managers should not be afraid to look at the data and ask hard questions we should not be afraid to look at the data and ask hard t questions. Most every community has oversight boards that are citizen boards. Good. Are they empowered to engage . The oversight . Can they look over the shoulders to evaluate do they know the report on the same Law Enforcement officer over and over are they empowered . Body cameras . But are they on which has been the second challenge getting body cameras is just transparency and the availability ability of Law Enforcement so they can see whats happening on enforcement are in a very difficult situation every day leaving their house each morning their family gives them a hug and hope they come out we have great compassion for those folks body cameras help everybody to provide clarity of what is going on but they are not effective if they are not on it we had several situations lately where it seems conveniently body cameras were not on. Thats a problem and an area we should address. Mental Health Training over and over again not just recently but this body in the house and the senate signed tadditional legislation increasing dramatically the states and local areas should engage in this as well even in my own state Law Enforcement to transfer an individual across the state to a mental healthor facility for Substance Abuse. My state does need to determine a more compassionate way to transport someone with Mental Illness or Substance Abuse rather than the backseat of a police car we should have a more compassionate way to do that and every time that occurs Law Enforcement is taken off the street for an entire day because they are transporting someone when someone else could have done in a more compassionate and a less obvious way than in the back of a police car. We have to find a better way to do that every time they transition across the state they lose the time they couldve used for training to be neighbors earn trust and heal relationships. Every city across america has boards andrd commissions those are just shuffle from the same boarding commission they get off one board and moved to another that does not match the diversity of the community. A group of leaders but it doesnt match the devotion that the leadership certainly does not rotate enough to allow the leaders of the boards and the commissions the city uses to have diversity. We put out Community Development block grants every year. Just add inmunip to improve the situation and also improve access to individuals and to lead in that community. If you dont reflect the diversity to design that Leadership Structure is not a hard way to get the voice heard at city hall big city Police Departments. Why dont we allow that grant money that we dedicate to Law Enforcement to be given to recruiters so they can try to pay the salary of those that are stepping in and the earliest days of the Police Academy starting at the force that way the diversity matches the diversity itself to have a difficult time recruiting i really do believe there are things that we can do to make a practical difference. But i firmly believe that racism is not a legislative issue at the family issue in one of the biggest things we can challenges individuals with the bully pu i of another e officers get an understanding of african American History from a Law Enforcement perspective and to be able to see whats happened in Law Enforcement and relationships between Law Enforcement and African Americans over the centuries. He joined into that tour and his statement to me was, i wish every Police Department could get that kind how do we break it afraid and raised interesting question this past weekend and to find out for metro police they go to the museum of africanAmerican History to get an understanding from the Law Enforcement perspective and to see what has happened in those relationships between Law Enforcement and africanamericans over the centuries. Every Police Department to get that training and context we do that from the Holocaust Museum it does tours and is designing a curriculum to train trainers and work on antisemitism across the country why dont we do that with the museum of africanAmerican History and Law Enforcement . Take the program they already have and then get that out across the entire country and multiply that out. Why cant police week every year when that occurs set a large contingency of Law Enforcement go to the africanAmerican History and get the training there then take that back home . It could if the body is willing to step up to do pragmatic things to continue the work the nation is doing we are four centuries into this conversation that we are trying their places of the world they are not working on Race Relations at allt