Investments. Additional support has been provided by and by thE Corporation for public broadcasting, a privatE Corporation funded b t american people. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewans like you. You. Good evening, thank you for joining us. It was not quite four years ago that we y brought a newshour weekend special called america in black and blue. At the time the country was reeling from the death of an africanamerican man in minneapolis, Philando Castille, whose killing be a pol officer was caught by his girlfriend on video and a Police Dashboard camera. [ shots ] you just killed my boyfriend that was after another black man, jamar kclark, wasled by the minneapolis p. D. Local and National Protests ensued. Everybody wne philando knew that he was a good man. Hands up, dont oot hands up, dont shoot now a minneapol Police Officer has been charged with murder for killing anotherer africanan man, george floyd. Floyds life was taken just miles from where Philando Castille was. A few weeks ago, George Floyds killint like a tragic repeat of history. But america and the world seems to have said, enough. Theres a growing at least a hope that this time its different. Im ined now by a minnesotan whos been working on issues of race and policing for years. Ct in she was featured in our america in black and blue special back in 16 speaking out against the overenforcement of very minor crimes such as aggressive pan handling. It does not actually benefit Public Safety to have such petty lowlevel oenses on the books. And its a huge waste of d taxpaylars and resources. Nekima levy armstro is a lawyer, professor, ordained minister, f themer head of the minneapolis naacp, and former candidate for mayor of that city. Shes also a o veteranf many black lives matter protests. What feels different to you this time, if anything . Well, one of the things that feels different is the lev o awareness in the twin cities and around the nation and even arouhe world. Welready see departmts that are nowliminating the use of chokeholds, that are pushing forward in terms of reforms. It has never happened this but the c are not happening in a vacuum. And they are the result of the power of the people, continuing to take to the streets and advocate for tjustice. Minneapolis city council says it wants to disband the Current Police department. What would youike to see in its place . A different system. An athat should be system that includes having Mental Health responders to 911 calls instead of Law Enforcement. That should be a system that includes social services and other resources that our Community Needs and notin cong to spend so much of our budget on Law Enforcement. So i w llde to see that, but i would also like to see a collaborative process and not, you know, a handful of people speaking on behalf of all of minneapolis when they havent ne the boots on the ground work to gain us as a coreunity. Wo you stand on reform . Some people say, take the small wins henow, make changes you can make in the moment, that thats worthwhile, itead of waiting for how long it might take to defund the police or abolish police. Absolutely. Changes take tone years, assuming theres enough for Something Like defunding the police or dismantling the police to take place. In the meantime, we cant wait for those things to happen to be able to institute reforms that areeasy. For local departments to do. So for example, wha know there are killer cops on our police force, we kre there cops with a history of excessive forces. Those cops should be removed from t. Force immediate those cops have been a liability for the city, theyve been a liability for residents who live here, they have made us feel unsafe, and they have traditionally been protected by the city ofminneapolis. So we want to see new standardsf in pla Police Officers who are currently on the force. We want to see a removal of militarized weapons and a ban of the use of chemical weapons against civilians who are out there protesting. Weve been shot with tear gan rubber bullets since the protesting began in the wake of George Floydsde h, and that was an Excessive Police response when the root ong us gut there and protesting is Police Violence. And we want to see radical shifts begin to happen immediately. Nekima, whats your response soto the governor of min saying he endorses sweeping Police Reforms . I would say, its about time thathe governor is stepping up to the ate. What we have proposed is a completely independent body to investigate deaths at the hands ofaw enforcementofficers. The establishment of an office that include independent special prosecutors, that includes civilian oversight, that includes credible investigative teams who will rigorously investigate these types of issues, and wil report ck to the public on their findings. Nekima levy armstrong, thank you for joining us. Hank you for having me. Black lives matter the protest movement has been massive, taking place not only across america, but across europe and africa, south america, australia, and other parts of the pacic. We want change we want change enough is enough black lives tter i cant breathe i cant breathe hands up, dont shoot what do we nt . Justice when do we want it . Now b some measures, it has been successful. California legislatoe proposed a measure to ban the use of chokeholds by police. On friday, new York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a series of bills banning chokeholds and repealing a law that kept police rsonnel records, including disciplinary measures, secret. And minneapolis is attempting to move funds away from the Police Department and dramatically redesign the citys police force. The protesters a asking for far more. Not simply reform, but wholesale change to Police Practices and the end of systemic racism in america. Skat are the prospects of that . I that question of author and cultural critic roxane gay, who wroteer this month in the New York Times, quote, eventually doctors will find coronavirus vaccine, but black people will continue to wait despite thef futility hope for a cure for racism. We will live with the knowledge that a h is not a vaccine for white supremacy. We live with the knowledge that still no one is coming to save ha. Roxanne,s for being with us. So what do you think it is about the call for equity and equality this time that is different . A lot of people are saying its different. Yes. Actually i just wrote a piece haying to think through is happening in this moment . And i dont know. I really cant say. Because ts previ murders of black people by Police Officers werequly asbrutal. And so i dont know why this one pushed pple over theedge, but i think its the timing. We dont have the distraction o. Spor we dont have the distraction of movies. We dont have work. So we have a lot of time to sit and contemplate the world. I thinkhren the cooper veo is left out of this the video of the birder in central park that happened yes. Hours before George Floyds video, his death, his murder. Crystallized for p how it can happen. Sir, im asking you to stop. Please dont come close to me i sir, asking you to stop recording me. Please dont come close to me. Please stop taking pictures. Please call the cops. Io going t tell tm theres an africanamerican Man Threatening my life. Please tell them whatever you like. There is an africanamerican man, i am in cenal park, he is recording me, threatening myself and my dog. Youknow, i think that video was haunting because we understood how Weaponized Police have become. And how w willing whiteen are to weaponize the police when they are mildly inconvenienced. And to know that that phone call that she made was potentially lethal alsoum iates just how extensive this problem is. Like ery blackerson immediately knew what was at stake with that phone call. You held a q a,me new york q a recently, where people wer asking you all kinds of questions for about an hour and a half. Whats on peoples minds as theyre trying toth process . The main question on peoples minds is, how do make sure that this moment is more than a moment . How do we maket sure t this is ge last time that we wonder, is thisng to be what it takes . How do we sustain t energy . Unfortunately, people fatigue very easily when it comeso doing the right thing. Because were already starting to see white people who are saying that, you know, its been a tot to haveo think about fcism for three weeks. And theyre rea the conversation to move on. But the conversation is just beginning. One of the things that people have been heartened by is the outpouring of support from members of the whitecommunity. And people acknowledging their privilege or recognizing it for the firstime in some cases. But theres this issuearound performative antiracism. Congressmen should we call it out or should we just applaud people for even tryinnk i t its a step in the right direction, however, a lot of the people who are performing antiracism have not cleaned up their houses first. And so i think we should call those peopleout. When your company puts out a really highlyrafted antiracism message and you make a 100 million donation to antiracist efforts, thats well and good. But when you dont have a single black execive, you dont have many blackboard members, your black employees are miserable . Then that statement trulys a performance and youre doing it because you recognize that your brandtntegrity will be suppted by making this statement. And right now were seeing a lot of corporations fall in line. They have not said a single word about black lirt mattering this titire. And so they realize this is the moment where they have to at least acknowledge that black lives matter. Sometimes the media gets in a certain groove or narrative and will not shift o of it. What is a narrativehat you thin needs to be abandoned and what is a narrative that you think needs to be explored . The key narrative i think needs to b abandoned is this abscess with pa bsession with protests versus riots. We see a lot of work bein on the word eaceful for protestshat are happening. Where if we walk calmly a quietly, like good black people that racism will suddenly end. Looting is wrong, we all know it. But its such a fraction of whats going on, but its getting a rodirtionate amount of media coverage. I would love to see that chan. Roxane gay, thank you so much for spending time with us. Absolutely, thank you, urison. In 2016 special, we brought you a story from newark, new jersey. A city with policing problems so dire that it was and still is under a federalConsent Decree. It was repord b new jersey public televisions michael hill, who grew up in newark. No justice, no peace no justice, no peace a protest in newark against Police Brutality is nothing new. 49 years ago this week, ney jers most populated city burned i rebellion. Martial law was imposed and indelibly stained the city and those who lived through it, a i did in new yorks northward as an 8yearold boy. I remembered during that time my mother repeatedly warning us not to look out the window for fear of being shot. But i managed to sneak a peek or two from the second floor window. By looking out, i couldee military vehicles androops with big guns rolling down fourth street. Broderic king remembers the fear she had during the riots. She says little has ch sged. Well dying. But thank god people are stillr ling. Four years later, people are still struggling as michael hill reports. In 2014, a u. S. Department of justice investigation revealed a pattern of Newark Police Division Officers engaging in it deemed the internal affairs unit unable to hold them accountable. The npd has been under federal supervision since 2016. Today the npd is in t midst of some success. Rt that can boast so it was surprising to some in may of this year when ts video was posted to facebook. Your back. Eep ] behind oh stop doing that in the video a m comes facetoface with officers. A friend pulls him away. Officers follow. One pushes the man. The man shouts profanities as he and the officers come facetoface again. Nohe deescalation as new Police Training encourages. Watch this. Ol hd on, pro [ bleep ]. Straight up. Oh the Police Union President blamed the man for escalating the confrontation. And he defends the punch. Theres nothing in any use of forcecontinuum, anybodys Department Policy on use oha force says you cant punch a person in a certain place. Tiamal, eve director of the state lu, says t officer crossed the line. People have a constitutional right to curse at police. The solution there shouldnt be to use force against them. The essex county prosecutor investigati the encounter. Meanwhile, accountabily advocates such as larry hamm say theyre glad incidents like this one arent so common anymore. Wetill have some Police Brutality cases, but nowhere at the level it was before the Justice Department came in. T mayor of newark is r baraca, son of civil rights advocate amir ra. Before he was reacted raz was himself a protester, demanding tter policing. Now hes a big part of that effort. We have come a long way, fighting those things in our city. Newark ridents say they notice a change. This is d26year chiron simmons. I know police, you got to respect them right now. He says interactions with police are better. He credits city leadership. Like raz ebaraca, making a big difference. Former attorney general peter harvey leads theederal courts Team Monitoring the overhaul of the division, from use of force training to use of body cameras. This Department Today is miles ahead of whe it was when we began this Consent Decree process. Ankly, its milesahead of where it was when the Department Police s citizen complaints and civil judgment payouts have plummeted. They post comaint descriptions and disciplinary actions online. Now officers and supervisors file excessive forceomplaints against other officers, something almost unheard of in most Police Departments. We have a number o complaints that are initiated by theen depar by the departmenti department itself. Then officers are disciplined today for those types of complaints, which w not ppening at all back then. Exemplifies how the force ark changed, says the independent federal monitor peter harvey. It is very difficult, given the strength of many Police Unions, to muster that kind of political will among City Councils and a mayor. Its very difficult. But a Consent Decree, a court order, can require it. The Consent Decree mandates civilihe oversight of Newark Police division. The city came up with a civilian Complaint Review ard, but in four years it has not heard a sing caseecause the local police union is challenging it in court. As and the has gone all the way to thestates supreme cour among the unios claims in its virtual state Supreme Court hearing, newark illegally gave the boardubpoena power. Id submit the ordinance as written is quite simply unlawful and unenforceable. The state Supreme Court is expected to rule anyday. Mayor baraca hopes George Floydsilling and coasttocoast calls for change will influence the new jersey Supreme Courts decision. At this rally he urged protesters to send the court the george floyd video. Send the george floyd, saying i cant breathe, theyre going to kill me,end that video, to hopefully have ace consci the police Complaint Review board, because the police cant police umemselves. Sr of 1967, newark residents rebelled against the racism, the poverty, the unaccountable policing they ha experienced for years. It began when two white Police Officers beat up cabbie john smh and took him to the 17th avenue precinct. Witness say police in riot gear charged a peaceful reform andeaccountability hing manding residents and protesters over the edge. What followed, cries for accountable policing. Thnu is springfield atoday in the central ward. This threestory house is the only structure on this block at 16th street and springfield avenue in. Newa it and the abandoned field around it serve as symbols of just how challenging it is to attract investment to rebuild in laceace like newark, a that burned 53 years ago in the 67 rebellion. M there arey more like this. And because of those facts, for the generation that lived rithrough that , this is a stark reminder. When the rebellion exploded, my family, we literally watched floor porch. From my second larry hamm took us to another neighborhood, back to h old neighborhood, with just one building left on the block. The dryre cleaners whe his mother had worked is now a church. Hamm began organizing protests at 17, as the chairman of the Peoples Organization for progress. T organizeds years may 30th protest while other cities were burning. His march placed the mayor behind the lead banner and delivered a message to the rld. I dont think people want to see newark burn downagain, thats pretty clear to me when i talk to people. You know, thats why were so glad when had that demonstration, according to the New York Times, of 12,000 people on may 30th. It turned out, without incident, without vandalism, without violence. The narrative the next day was exactly what we wanted. Thousands gathered to demand justice for george floyd. Statiics show 25 of the callsaro new police are nonpolice related. So in answering one National Protest demand, p newarkns to shift 5 or more than 11 budget to Bolster Community ty programs such t ass one, Training Police and others in the community about traumainformed responses to violence. I see a real gap in understanding the use of trauma as a frame of analysis for getting past this us versus them with police and community. I think that by understanding trauma on bh sides, transformation is possible. The reappropriation would build on the Police Department hiring three social workers in 2016 and expand the city partnering with organizations like the Newark Community street team. It does conflict resolution and much more, such as holding Public Safety roundtables. Its essentially about holding law enrcement, elect officials, those who get funding to provide services in our community, accountable. Cere about putting the public back into publi safety. The street tm is a member of the Peace Initiative that the mayor deployed in the recent justice for george floyd march. Thearack administration insisted police keep a low profile, no battle line of officers in riot gear, no repeat of 67. Time may answer the question for newark and the nation, is this a moment or a movement . Federal Consent Decrees like the one in newark came into being following the beating of rodney king at the hands of los angeles Police Officers. It was a progressive part of the 1994 crime b bill Consent Decrees and federal investigations into policing practicesev have beenely curtailed by the trump administration. But what out local Police Departments themselves . What can they do to make a difference . A new documentary called women in blue which will run on the pbs series independent lens later this year offers a clue. Mo people of color and women on the force. People like the minneapolis p. D. Sergeant alice white. I got assigned to become a sergeant. For a department that has a total of six black female officers. Its important for the black mmunity to see women whok loo like me in this role. I honestly hope s thaeeing me helps them feel like whatevers gog to happen is legitimate. Becausthey trust me. The firstime i put this shirt on with the stripes, and it looks different. The 4th precincts an amazing place. Its gotten a bad rap, i think, becae it has the highest percentage of Violent Crime in the city. Lots of domestics. Lots of shootings. s but the still a lot of community in the 4th precinct. Thats north point, a commuty health center. Irew up riding my bike up and down thplymouth. Is plymouth avenue. When i grew up, we called it the ave. This is the lo1600 b of plym this is the block that t jamar clark shooting occurred. To me, that shooting was just as big as the rodney kingbeating. Like minneapolis was just one shooting away from a riot. 405 traffic. Hi. You can come down. Just relax. Re x, its all good. You should have waited, let that car go straight, then you make your lefthand turn. Thats what alerted me to you, okay . Do you have a valid drivers license . I dont. Was just dropping a friend off, i was like, okay, fine. Sohats why youre nervous, okay. Im not going to takeou to jail for not having a valid drivers license, thats for sure, okay . Do you have any warrants or anything . I dont have any warrants. Anything in the vehicle i should be concerned about . Okay, all right. Ill be right back with you, okay . All right. Im no going to give you a ticket for the driving after suspension. I cant allow you to drive this vehicle, though. Youre going to have to have someone pick it. Im not going to tow it either, okay . Have a better day. All righ guy, h walked up to that was obviously shaking. I know that fear. The heart starts racing. Even as a police sergeant, i still know what its like to feel nervous when the police get behind me. Us i j tell people, dont be nervous. I dont want to add to the trma. I spoke about that film excerpt and more with a formere police offho rose to become the chief of police in orlando, florida. Congress. Erves that state in representative val demmings. What in that excerpt speaks to you . I dont knowhe sergeant, i never met her, but believe me, as i watched f her,m putting on her uniform and looking at the shoes that she wears on her days off versus what she wears as a huniform, ie never met her, but i know her. And i know just the tremendous amount ofsu pr, if you will. The pressure to really be the person who e doesctlyhat she did on the street. I think women are just so good at understanding that youannot arrest your way out of every adtuation. She could have that arrest, because driving without a valid drivers license is an arrestable offense. But why wod you do that . And herbility to talk to him, r ability to just calm him down initially, i think was so important and is so shimportant. Treated him like i think she would treater own son or another member of her family. Andt starts with how y communicate with people. How do you changere culin Police Departments . It goes back to who you hire. And, you know, so i think we have to do a better job of recruiting. Because many people who look likeme, their fathers werent Police Officers. Their mothers werent Police Officers. They have no direct contact with Law Enforcement officers. Or if they do, theres not been a positive experience. So Police Departments should reflect the commu ity which they serve. Then that diversity should be flected at all rank levels. And women in the agency who are the decisionmakers. Who come from black communities. Have to look at training. We deescalation training, as you st saw the minneapolis sergeant so skillfully engage in. Then we have tlook at those who are training other officers, to have a zerotolerance policy that racism or sexism or any and i cant just be called out. From the top. Its great if the chief has a policy tha says,look, its not welcomed here. When the rk and file hears it or sees it, they have to call it out as well. I remember en we instituted human diversity training. I was a detective sergeant at the time. I told my squad that we were all going to go through it. And i remember some of the white male officers saying, well, they didnt have a problem, that they didnt have to go through the training. And i said, let me just ask you to think athis. I hear what youre saying, but lets think about yreut at lunch with some of your white colleagues. And the n wordomes u at the table. I said, until you get to p ant where you call it out yourself, i think you and the rest of us can benefit from the human diversity training. So it has to be a standard in ofe rank and file and all the way up to the tohe agency. Many of the activists say the Police Unions are ant impedim to all these things that youve talked about and a lot of the reformers have talkedout. What is the role of a police union at this point . You know, Police Unions, if we liken them to a an attorney, youre there to represent the officers. You are not there to condone or teven send appearance that you are condoning bad behavior. I know thathe Union President in minneapolis likened the black lives matteovement to terrorists. Thats just totally unacceptable. Thats a part of the problem and not the sohetion. And are many unions that do their jobs better thanot rs, but in order for us to get to the place where we need to be, and thats to assist good Police Officers and get rid of the bad ones, then weve got to have unions that understand eir role in helping us to do that. People are making a point ofi how they want country to change. How do we get policymakerto do something . What i think we realize with this particular inciden is that racism is stubborn. It has been the ghost in the room for 400 years. But alison, ive also reazed that t search for justice is also stubborn. And i can imagine those who were engaged in the womensve rights nt said, how are we ever or those engaged in the civil rights movement, how are we ever going to get ourcted officials to move . Voting rights. How are we going to get there . But somehow we did. Theres always been our history that turning point. I really believehat this is onof those moments. Weve heard, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, nol f them weve heard colleagues say, we need to change this, s importive of nning all neck restraints, or im supportive oni b noknock warrants. Some have said in ctain situations. But thats progress. What we have to do is take that spark and turn it into a raging fire thais in search for justice. Representative val demmings, thank you for being with us tonight. Thankyou. He desire for change is rising. You might say to a fever pitch. But acts of Police Violence have led us to similar moments in the past. We might evene have been on verge of real change not that long ago. Thats according to lawyer and criminal Justice Reform activist brian stevenson, bestselling author of the memoir jus mercy a story of justice and redemption. He spoke with my colleague Walter Isaacson on amanpour ann co we have seen this kind of violence for decades. And its frustrating to me because five yea ago, i was part of a task force that was convened by the white house, motivated by too many of thesei dents of Police Violence, that attemptedato c solutions. And we spent months going around the untry. We held hearings. We had Police Chiefs and activists a academics and experts and community leaderse all c together. And we have 40 pages of recommendations that i believe would make it less likely that we would see the kind of olence that we see in that video. And it was really what happened to those well, theyve been completely abandoned. You know, the new administration came in, treated from implementing any of those reforms, didnt create the financialor incentives communities to take up these recommendations. And the infrastructure in the Justice Department largely disintegrated so that we dont havet t kind of pressure, that kind of effort. The Justice Department moot the wsuits that haveeen made against cities that have engaged in problematic behavior and the aenvironment shifted in way that didnt create and sustain the pressure that was needed. Tell me about some of those i recommens, give me some of them you think we should be doing. Sure. Its all abouthe changing culture of policing. We have too many police ofcers inhis country who are trained as soldiers. We teach them how to shoot, teach them how to fight, we teach them how to restrain people. Weont teach them how to help crisis, howo interact with people who are psychotic. We dont teach them how to deescalate confrontations. They dont know how to manage wi t the skillt they should manage complex situations when people of color and others have be provoked. And because that orientation has reinforc mindset where Police Officers too often think of themselves asarriors, rather than guardians,. The barrier standing in the way are many. Put another way, there are a lot of good reasons why this time might not be different. Newshour weekends Christopher Booker hmore. Theres a video making the rounds of new York Police Union leader michael mara responding to the criticism police have been hearing in recent weeks. 375 million interactions wveh the public year. 375 million interactions. Overwhelmingly positive responses. But i read in the papers all week, we all read in the papers, that in the black community, mothers are worried about their children getting home fromol schoithout being killed by a cop. Wa world are we living in . That dsnt happen. Contrast that with a 2018 video clip thats also been making theounds of comedian chris rock. Heres the thing, heres the i know its hard being a cop. I know its hard, i know it is, okay . But some jobs cant have bad apples. Ay some jobs, everybody got to be good. Like pilots. You know . American airlines be like, you know, most of our pilots like to land. We just got a few bad apples at ike crash in the with the power of a punchline, rock lays bare just how incidents thatight seem statistilly insignificant can be good cause for making sweeping changes. One of the Police Experts i talk to a lot loves to bring up the tylenol scandal o the early 1980s. Shyla dejuan is a reporter for the New York Times and has written about the challenges of poce reform in the uted states. She notes the corporate response when seven people died of tampering affair in the early 1980s. Johnson johnson recalled hundredsf thousands of bottles of tee len follow, and they invented those annoying foil tamperproof packaging things we now he on every single bottle of medicine you ever buy. So they didnt just y, oh, there were just a few bad bottles of tylenol. They had to reinvent the entire thing and regain the trust of consumers. Why do we not see the same urgency in policing . Tostart, dejuan says america federal policing policy, its lack of National Policing standards, its lack of national trainiteria and accreditation. What the country does haveme is 18,000 Police Departments, each operating independently. Ferguson was our last moment of national reckoning. One of the biggest things after we need to know what this problem is. And the two databases that were supposed to materialize, the database for deaths in custody, would be george floyd, hasnt happened yet. And the databaseor police use to have its first data release, but its only covering 40 of the nations Police Officers. How large of an influence are Police Unions when it comes to resisting reform . Police unions haveeally emerged as i think the biggest roadblock to reform. And thats because they have their fingerprint on all the obstacles. So start with contractual not only can officers aeal cers. Their discipline, they can appeal their terminations and bt rein. They can also put in things like a coolingoff period after an incident occurs. So that officers have a period of timeoefore they have t speak to investigators. One of the things that haptns is t a chief comes in to chan things and is blocked and opposed and cant get things done, so then that chief iset caughten the union thats opposinghehanges and the people that want the change that think the chief is not going quickly enough. The country i littered with reformist policehiefs thatre unemployed. Last week the minneapolis chief of Police Arredondo announcedhe withdrawa of contract negotiations with the police union. Officer chauvin, accused of killing george floyd, seen in the video with his knee on his neck, had at least 17 complaints on his record. How isff aner like that still working on the street . This is one of the irons, right . The minneapolis Police Department was doing a lot of things right. They had done implicit bias training. They had done conciliation. They had done procedural justice, which is all about how officers treat the public when they interact with them. They had had the feds in to look at their Early Intervention sister isell which is where theyre supposed to be able to identify officers who may become a problem before ty become problem. They were doing all of these thgs that departments are supposed to be doing. And yet you still see this. And that tells you that changing policies is not enough. You to also change culture. Absent a real concrete set of federal guidelines, do you think culture change is even possible . Yes, but i think its really hard to do. And, you know, what youre seeing now is n helping. Because everyones in their corners. You know, the cops are being painted with a very broad brush. Their opponents are being w painteh a very broad brush. And its very har to have a conversation then. Theres not just lackruf on the public side. Co also dont trust the public to be able to understand wha they face on a daytoday basis. And then that circumstance, much more difficult. K becomes as protesters and activists call for a newol kind ofe force, one question is, what role will technology play . And how will new systems avoid making the same old mistakes on race . Newshour weekend has more. Joy is aomputer scientist at mit media lab. She led a studyhat showed how facial Recognition Software from ibm, microft, and face plus plus were more accurate with white w faces thanh people that had darker skin. So from the onset you might think a computer is neutral. We have to think about facial recognitionechnologies and ask, how are they developed . To teach a machine tosee, the current way of doing it is tohe train machine on a data set. Program the computer only to recognize white faces and the computer sees me, it might not know what to do with me . Right. So you have a greater risk of being misclassified, mi dentified, if youre even detect at all. She said as much to Congress Last year about how bad a misclassification can be for ople of color, citing bias in amazons facial recognition system. We tested amazon and also found that they had false they had error rates of over 30 for darkerskinned females. As we were doing the analysis, we came across data sets that had, lets say, maybe 70 men and over 80 lighterskinned individuals. So thats how a datacentric technology that you might assume is neutral because its using algorithms, because its using math,an become biased. Some people say garbage in, garbage out, bias inputs, bias eoutputs. All looking at biased outputs for the role they play in policing. In 2016, the Georgetown Center on privacy and technology fou that half of all american enforcement database. A law as this National Conversation now includes reforming Police Departments and the practices that they have, one othe things that more and more Police Departments have access to is umrge v of video surveillance. Urs and hours of footage. Wheres the bad guy . Here he is, walking by right . So it seems like facial recognitn is going to be prty important for departments Going Forward over time. So i think we really have to take a pause when we say these systems will be helpful. Helpful to who and what is the uaidence that it ay works . Across the pond in the uk where they have done tests of facial Recognition Technology, depled purportedly to keep the public safe, there is a good intention. But they found where false positive match rates of over 90 . Last week ibm, amazon, microsoft announced they would stopr put aold on offering Police Departments technology to brad smith, president of microsoft, says his company wont lift that hold until theres federal regulation on facial recognition. One of the things weve advoted and is now in the Washington State law is a re that says if youre a company and you want to sellhi technology to the government, for ample, you must make ite availaor thirdparty testing. Just think of the Consumer Reports and what it does for automobile safety. We should have similar bility for experts to test racial Recognition Technology and compare whether its biased. Smith says engineers at microsoft have worked to include more diverse data sets and reduce bias in its facial Recognition Software after seeing the work. But smith iso opposed banning facial recognition outright. We have seen this Technology Used to reunite families, to identify, say, someone who showed up inn emergency room who was suffering from Mental Health challenges whobeouldnt identified but through facial recognition. I think thatsheind of beneficial use that should be permitted. Right now we also in a climate where we have actively seen that there are drones patrolling over protests inhe united states. There are Peaceful Protesters who have been tear gassed away from public squares. So there is concern people have thatol tecies like facial recognition will be ud against them in their otherwise constitutional. Righ one of the great concerns that weve been raising since 2018 is the risk that facial recognition could be usedo chill fundamental democratic freedoms like the ability to attend a peaceful anic we said in late 2018, we will available for that purpose. Definitely a step in the right direction. I wan p tont out that ibm has said they will not sell generalpurpose facial Recognition Technology at all, which is a much further step than saying notng sel to Law Enforcement. A major question that i have for microsoft and for amazon is, who else are you selling to . Ff we have to also question what kind o facial recognition technologies are being used not just in Law Enforcement, but thughout society . Facebook has a patent that says, given all of this face data that theyve collected over time, we can actuallyvi p a service to retailers where when you walk in, we take an indication based on your face print to ge them background informion, or even come up with Something Like a trustworthiness score. Trustworthiness is going to be the issue goi forward. Whether or not americans can trust a technology or the companies or the Police Forces that use it. Wtever the Role Technology may play in the future, policing will always involve human teraction. Anpour and companys anchor christiane amaour spoke with art acevedo, chief of police in hoston, george floy hometown, why he believes its important to sympathize with protesters but also defend his llow officers. Explain a little bit about the speech you made that went so viral. Lets be real clear. I want t make real clear. The vast majority of Police Officers in this country, 100,000, 18,000 polrte dents, do a phenomenal they serve 25 30, 35, 40 years, never shoot anybody, never hurt anybody. They serve with honor and distinction and courage. But we still live in a where we make too many excuses and tolerate med crity and tolerate police abuse. There is no excusingfi police r putting his knee and a mang it on the neck of thats handcuffed, calling for mercy, calling for his mama. There is no excuse for that. And theres no excuse for three officeng sit there and not intervening, as required, not law, by policy, not just by but by our conscience, if we have on and by the god that were suppose to be following. So we stand with the floyd family we stand with our community, all colors, all races, all creeds. We are going to stand with them and march with them until they get because thats what they deserve and tts whats going to finally bring this kind of stuff not to an end, because the human condition isnt perfect and we will always have to deal beten good and bad, b it will ntgreatly reduce the poteial for this stuff happening. Im joined now by the director of the schaumburg center, poet and professor kevin young. Were sitting in the schaumburg, where its all about black history and black culture. Yeah. Been happening with these protests and these calls for rits and inequality, what do you think . Being in harlem as we have for 95 years, weve seen a t. Weve been tough unrest before and uprisings before. This one does feel different. Cle and endured the seen up disparities for black and brown people around covid19. As you know, george floyd survived having coronavitos, only e killed by a Police Officer, in front of everyone, almost nonchalantly and so i think it gives energy to this moment and galvanizes something that we havent always its been a wide coaliti of people in the street. And i think people are risking life and limb, almost literally, the danger of proximity, in order to raise their vces against a greater danger. How important do you think ie was, video was, in terms of sparking this moment . We been here before, whether emmett till and the photographs that his mother released tohow just h bloodied and horribly disfigured he was in this lynching. Ive been thinking a lot about witnessing and how witnessing isnt just seeing something, but also saying something later. And that video, wch i cant totally watch,eally testifies and provides witness in ways that a lot of words that we used to say havent quite conopnced of. What do you think is important to prerve in this moment . When i bng my kid back here in five year what a we going to be looking at when we talk about the george floydexhibit . Almost literallyt will be memories and videos and placards and things like that of this moment. We just the other day had a makeshift memorial that someone called forp and set u at our fence outside. O thinkink were going about thisix of protests, of pandemic, of survival. Kevin, you are a poet. We asked you to pick a poem you think really speaks to this ymoment. Woul read one for us . Absolutely. This is a poem fro my book brown. Martin, guilty. Trayvon a frieze for sondra bland. As you remember she died in Police Custody in suspicious circumstances. Not guilty. Because the night has no number, because the thunder doesnt mean rain, because maybe, because we must say your names and the list grows longer and more endless, i am writing this. You are no gun nor holster, no fing aimed, thumb, a hammer cocked back all the way. I refuse to bury you, to inter yourame in earth or to burn you back to bone. To what we all know, the soft song of your skull as an infant, the place god or your mother or same thing left untouched by hands. That halo grown whole till they said you werent, said that death could be your brea, could be a bodyr ss. And you grew more black and blue. I refuse to watch. Irefuse. Not guilty. Not guilty. I know you will rise and stay like the sea, the tide, all salt and shifting. Dont ever leave thank you, kevin young. And thanks the schaumburg. Thats our report for tonight. For everyone here at newshour weekend, im alison stewart. Od night. Pbs newshour weekend is made possibe by bernard and irene schwartz. Sue and Edgar Wachenheim iii. The cheryl and Philip Milstein rosalind p. Walter. Barbara hope zuckerberg. Charles rosenblum. We try to live in the moment, to of us. Ss whats right in front at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of day. Mutual of america financial group. Retirement servis and investments. Additional support has been provided by and by thE Corporation for public broadcasting, a private E Corporation f by the american people. An by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Youre watchi announcer explore new w worlds and new ideas rough programs like this, madevailable for everyone through contributions john folk music has been around as long as there have been folks toing it. Folk music is about real people and real lives and the frustration of dissent. It was a time in america when the simple act of gathering together share experienceed us and helped us sing our troubl away. How do you do, im john sebaian, and that was me, and this is my music. Night, were gonna look back at some of the most popular songs of the folk era. And well go dancing, baby, then youll see. How the magics in the music and the musics me, yeah
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