Antennas are you a loaded two the wave of racial violence of the 1980s and the rise in the 90s i last job was called the north rises again where i tell a story of devil patrick being elected and re elected in massachusetts and that tells a story of northerners as barack obama support where if you look at the voting stats how they voted for and against barack obama and mike northerners voted against barack obama i think you can find some hope for the north for there you can find hope for the nation. Host on that hopeful note, to be continued. That was after words, booktv Signature Program in which authors of the latest nonfiction books are interviewed by journalists, Public Policy makers and others familiar with their material. After words airs every week another booktv at 10 p. M. On saturday, 12 and 9 p. M. On sunday and 12 a. M. On monday. And you can also watch after words online. Go to booktv. Org and click on after words in the book tv series and topics listed on the upper right side of the page. Deifies africanamericans on how to deal with the police and the criminal Justice System in the united states. This is about one hour and 15 minutes. Good afternoon, everyone. I am a state representative but here tonight i am here to talk about one of the most timely and best books ive ever had the privilege to read from a friend of mine as well as first of all nick i would like to ask you before i start asking questions because i really would like to do that, and what i would really like everyone to understand is that these are not just authors. We are talking to someone about someone has authored 12 books who has shared. [applause] 1992. 1992 to 2014 come hes continued to write very relevant issues. And to my left is the attorney who has always been very interested in what this thing called justice for everyone means. Shes an attorney and shes also been an associate judge in court, but more importantly, she has advocated for younger people come older people come and they call it just plain families. Im going to ask the first question on this book what do you mean im going to ask you first. Thank you all for being here this evening. This is something so exciting. In the form of the book coming out and doing so while received time. Now this is really the process up when young people are engaging with Police Officers. It happens every single day. And the idea was to give guidance. I practiced law in excess of 18 years and there were common patterns that i saw in my practice. And particularly the young folks to help them understand that there is the constitution. That is what the book is aimed at doing is giving some sort of a guide. The interesting part of the book for me is not just the navigation but maybe how the families navigate and survive. What is the best lesson in the book for the survival of families that navigate in the Justice System. What became clear to me working with this woman is to make sure that at every step of the process, you are not giving away rights, that youre not implicating yourself that youre not doing things that may be actually kind of Second Nature to you when you get caught up in the system but in depth being very detrimental. And so, people dont really think that much about the family portion of it that when a young male from a young female can anyone gets caught up in the system, basically everybody and their families swept into this drama and a lot of times the family members are not always on the same page in terms of what they should or shouldnt be doing to help or they could be doing to hurt the now defended. So i think its important for family members. So basically its important for everybody that is in some kind of a contact with young people to know a lot of these things because that gives many examples but theres one in particular that i remember where the police knock on some young person store. They think that it is a robbery or something, so his sister opens the door and they see the sister and ask do you know this person in the picture. Its a picture of her brother wearing a coat. And i think that they have gotten some footage or something maybe from a camera. Shes like yeah thats my brother. He he warned that a coat today. And that is the first thing that she blurted out. And of course, its not necessarily wise if youre doing this kind of stuff if you do not have an attorney present, but an attorney is usually not going to get involved to further down the process. These are kind of things that you need to know early on before you have some counsel at your side. So yes, everybody that might be involved in this Young Persons life needs these lessons because anybody could kind of be guilty of holding the system drag him into something that perhaps he wasnt even guilty of. If you educate a family, they would educate the children. In particular, we talk about them and you mentioned in the buck, what do you do when a young person is by themselves, its 11 30 at night and they are stopped in at a Traffic Violation or at least what is it that you would tell people driving at night . Particularly troublesome is driving while black. We have all heard those instances. I was actually going to meet with the young man who lived approximately 40 miles out. I was meeting with him late because his religious lived around the corner. He said i need you to help my nephew. He got charged with a drug case. Okay. Not a problem. So then the more you talk to him, i cant meet with you into a 30. I will come by your house. Its fine. I know its family. Its not a problem. It became later and later. So finally, he called me. Im on my way. Im on ie 20. Okay. Wonderful. I will be sitting here waiting on you for not that i have anything else to do with my life. [laughter] so then they called in to see the police behind me. And hes on ie 20 in an area that gets it one of traffic stops. Okay. Well im going to stay on the phone with you. But we talk with you. So the police walk up to the car he was on the window, and it is immediately where are you going . Im going to meet with my attorney. We need permission to search your car. My Attorney Says you cant have permission to search the car. Dont hang up the phone. Why are you telling them to ping up the phone, dont take up the phone. Give up the phone. So, ultimately i jump in the car i was very fearful for the case. And the pretext for this stuff is that he had a cracked windshield. And we are fortunate that the judge is here and he knows that is the beginning process being able to get close to the vehicle and try to identify some notion of criminal activity. I dont know if it was because he said he was on the phone with his attorney who they ultimately told him to hang up on or, which is why i really got in the car and went out. At this point it is 10 30 at night. I was very much afraid. But he ended up with the ticket and he didnt give them permission to stop and search the vehicle. He stopped his equal. He was compliant with the officers. When they asked for his license and registration, he gave it to us. Its important thats important for this. It is following the law. What you dont have to do is allow them to search your vehicle. What you dont have to do is explain your activities beyond a simple yes or no answer. You dont have have to get additional commentary. And so many young people make the mistake of implementing and incriminating themselves in a crime because they think that they can talk themselves out of something when youre not very conversant with the Constitutional Rights and dont understand this, they dont have an obligation to incriminate themselves or die situation of the picture. The best response would have been because she is not under an obligation to answer the officers question and the manner in which they were inquiring. So, the best answer in the situation would have been why do you want to know. Or you really need to come back when my parents are home and that sort of thing. But we are compliant people. We dont want the Police Involved in our lives. Succumbing we want to interact and get him gone as quickly as possible. And if we dont respond to their stimulus, then the interaction is going to be longer and that makes us uncomfortable naturally. All of us as we are driving down the highway and have been stopped a couple of times. I dont want to interact with them, but neither am i going to come down the overreaching and it happens every single day. I have learned recently more and more people are being stopped on this idea of the tinted windows. That is the probable cause of 2013 and 2014. We have to stop to check for 32 . What do you tell parents about young people with the tinted windows even if they are bright manufacturers. Are you educating parents in regards to as you mentioned all of the triggers that are occurring at why people stop. But what do you think that the tinted window and the probable cause . I dont address the tinted window so much as i address the overarching context of engagement and that is we all grew up with the admonition dont call me from the jailhouse. I knew i grew up with that admonition. My parents were very clear. If youre into chile dont want to hear from you. So youve got to get out of it as quickly and as efficiently and as well as you can on your own. So i deal with that more overarching issue it more overarching issue of the necessity to be involved. Just because someone is charged with a crime doesnt mean that they committed a crime. Actually people are charged with trying every single day that they didnt commit, and we have to because that cognizant of the fact they stopped being orchid is because they were charged with a crime just because you have to go out where the Fulton County jail is and go see them and call somebody to get it mailed out and the inconvenience of our children. They dont stop being our kids. Just because stuff happens because it happens every single day to some good kids. That leads to the next question that im going to ask because you have laid out so well that we teach our children to respect authority. That is the syndrome i called dont call me. My parents did the same thing. If youre in jail, dont give me that called. But we teach our children to follow authority and then at the same time we see as it relates to justice, no searches, say nothing, the manitoba to just say no. How do you teach the family i was drinking about 30 minutes ago, when they say have you been drinking. How do you deal with the authority that the parents have taught versus the reality of how not to have to make that call . Thats why a book like this become so valuable because so much of the interaction that we tend to have with Law Enforcement is going to be a she said effort to try to enter as quickly as possible. So our initial thought is they made a mistake. They pull me over or somehow they came upon me on the street or there is some reason that they are not understanding why all in the wrong person for them to be dealing with the situation, so all i need to do is to tell them the right thing for the specific thing and thats when this whole process starts because one of the kind of overarching issues that we deal with in the book is the context of a lot of this and the context is the criminal Industrial Complex so theres all these systems that have been created, basically livelihoods, companies that are traded on the stock market, corporations making hundreds of millions of dollars and they are all dependent on the police wanting handcuffs as many as possible on as many people as possible every day of the week. Once theyve left the handcuffs on you, there is very little chance hes going to take them off. Hes basically done his job and, you are then basically placed on the Conveyor Belt moving along the system. So what youre doing when you start throwing all this stuff at them and start you try to wiggle your so free of them, you are giving more ammunition in things he can use when you move into the next step. So a lot of what we think we should be doing in this situation is counterintuitive to what our human nature is going to kind of have us do and thats why its important to kind of know these facts early on. And its important for parents to Start Talking about the stuff with young people before they are at the age where the cops are going to stop seeing them as perks and so when your kid is in middle school unfortunately middle school is a time of innocence. Im going to have a middle schooler right here, my nephew is in middle school and so i know theres a lot of these thoughts. When they get to high school and they start driving, thats when suddenly this innocent little child is going to be seen as to some intimidating figure in a lot of minds and so we need to Start Talking about these things but the Constitutional Rights. Once those handcuffs are on. Lets just say that we are in a store and three friends. The next time you get a call, mom, dad, i was just in the store, joe and larry, i wasnt doing everything it might just as guilty and i was trying to tell them i didnt do anything. I was sitting in the car navigation. You go to the movies coming were in High School High school or some College Girls you get to go hang out with if youre going to get in the car with some folks that maybe you dont know. If one actor in that car when you pull into the gas station says i will be right back, i will be back in a minute. And then hes coming out of the store at full speed. What are you going to do, youre going to drive. And that very person could have committed an armed robbery. And when that car stops, or when the kid with the gun is idd and they go get him and he says he was with that night, everybody is going to jail. I have had so many cases exactly like that. So, what do you do, how do you navigate that . Often times thats when the parents are most disgusted. I didnt like that kid to start with. I knew that there was something wrong with them. What do you do . You get your kid a lawyer. You talk to them before they go hang out at the mall with their friends. If and when it happens because for most americans, latinos in the northeast is a huge emphasis for the arabamericans and most people of color at some point its going to happen. They are going to get pulled over. They are going to get stopped in the store. Everybody is going to get pushed up against the wall and everybody is going to get searched. And there are some kids who are going to be able to get out of it because they are the good kids. But the ones who the ones who took the merchandise or the one that held the gun, thats the one that is really going to be in trouble. But everybody else is looking at the possibility on the record. And this is just their kids who do stupid stuff. The same kind of stupid stuff that we all did when we were kids. I didnt do any armed robberies. [laughter] let me clarify that. [laughter] you know, weve all got friends who did stupid stuff. And so, you know, we got to have the conversations that eric holder talks about and that he had with his kids, but his son about what to do. Thats what this is. Thats what this book is. How about drugs in the car lacks somebody always has a little weed and it gets pushed down in somewhere where its equal, it is called equal access. And legal speak where there are about two and a in the backend to a different. If everybody is getting charged, everybodys going down so you cant talk your way out of it. There is a chapter in the book that says just shut up please. Thats my favorite chapter. [laughter] it is a plain view of equal access. It is in the same car that friends come out and say i have a cell phone. I need you to do something with my card. You dont know they just went and got three cell phones. So just shut up already. But what happens when you said the good kid and you sort it out. What happens when they have their cell phones on them and didnt know that they were stolen. Can you speak about that . The book in together isnt a total. It isnt a magic bullet that is going to get you out of anything. What it is is an instructional manuals to speak that helps a young person be aware that yes theyve got these cell phones on their person and here is the next step in the process. It is a process. It is a criminal process and it talks about how to minimize the negative impact of the process of your life on your life and how you can help yourself. If they search you, dont help them. I have had cases where someone was stopped and he was riding a bicycle and it was in awe of the scenario where he was riding a bicycle, no reflective gear. Its about to stop. But when they stopped him, they said well, do you have anything on you and so he proceeded to say hi have a 35millimeter in my backpack. It is licensed in the state of louisiana. And ive got a little weed. [laughter] just shut up already. But because he defeated the attorneys ability to get stopped, the evidence that was obtained as a result, he volunteered this information. Everybody will say you didnt read his book. [laughter] so he has a felony record. He was committing a felony. The amount that he had was a felony amount. And then he was in the possession of a firearm. So he has a gun charge on his record. Hes like 26. No prior, none of that. And he has a long history also of Mental Health challenges. And we talk we talked about in the book also and we talk about the fact that black and brown folks dont like to get their kids tested. While, why not . My child has learning disabilities. Developmental challenges. And i got her tested before the school told me to get her tested associate she could get the services that she needs because when our kids dont. And i know that im gone. But when our kids dont get the services that they need, they are just frustrated kids. And they are in this box when everybody else is just learning and progressing and growing and we are concerned that the stigma. The kids who didnt get tested for the kids that im talking about in the book because they started getting in trouble very early on in their educational process. Not all of them, but quite a few. And they just bundled along and got into more trouble and more trouble and more progressive activity and progressive activity of the day were sitting in a jail cell with a felony looking at me. We have to do better by everyone in that respect and not just the children, but anyone who has a disease that we criminalize. I appreciate what he said in the book. I want to talk a little bit about his haircut chapter. That to me is a difficult one for us parents to navigate through. So im going to ask you how do you navigate through that . The one of the things that is difficult