WEBVTT - Police Don't Keep Us Safe

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<v Speaker 1>Folks, I am so happy to welcome back to WOKF

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<v Speaker 1>Daily filmmaker and activist Matthew Solomon, who we spoke to

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<v Speaker 1>last year about your documentary, Matthew Reimagining Safety all around

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<v Speaker 1>kind of policing and police reform. Give our audience a

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<v Speaker 1>refresher around the importance and significance of your documentary, which

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<v Speaker 1>was just recently being shown at a film festival in

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<v Speaker 1>New Jersey. Because while we have just acknowledged the recent

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<v Speaker 1>anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, what we know

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<v Speaker 1>is that unfortunately, at least in my opinion and I'd

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<v Speaker 1>like yours, that not a lot has changed. Police killings

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<v Speaker 1>continue you to be at an all time high. So

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<v Speaker 1>please talk to us about your film and why it's

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<v Speaker 1>particularly significant still in this moment that we're in.

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<v Speaker 2>Sure. Yeah, thank you, Danielle, and thank you for having

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<v Speaker 2>me back on. I'm glad to be back so Reimagining

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<v Speaker 2>Safety I have been you know, I'm a filmmaker. I

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<v Speaker 2>also work in conflict resolution, and prior to the pandemic

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<v Speaker 2>in twenty twenty, I was traveling and doing a lot

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<v Speaker 2>of facilitation for a conflict resolution and when the pandemic

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<v Speaker 2>started and we couldn't go anywhere. I decided to go

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<v Speaker 2>back to school, and so I wanted to a master's

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<v Speaker 2>program in public administration, hoping to be able to use

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<v Speaker 2>my privilege and access as a white male to be

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<v Speaker 2>able to help support social change. And this is you know,

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<v Speaker 2>COVID the murder of George Floyd, as you mentioned after

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<v Speaker 2>you know, at that point almost a decade of Black

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<v Speaker 2>Lives Matter and that movement, after treyvon Martin was murdered.

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<v Speaker 2>It's also we just passed the tenure anniversary of Mike

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<v Speaker 2>Brown being murdered. And so you know, I grew up

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<v Speaker 2>in Los Angeles and I was in college at USC

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<v Speaker 2>when the LA riots happened. So you know, I've had

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<v Speaker 2>decades where you know, it's like, wow, we're still doing this.

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<v Speaker 2>It's not getting better, it's getting worse. And you know,

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<v Speaker 2>even last year was the deadliest year for police murdering people.

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<v Speaker 2>Over thirteen hundred people were killed by police in twenty

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<v Speaker 2>twenty three, and so you know, all of this has

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<v Speaker 2>continued to happen despite calls for like, quote reform and

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<v Speaker 2>that sort of thing. And so you know, I'm in

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<v Speaker 2>my master's program and I'm applying all of the coursework

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<v Speaker 2>around sustainability and community and transformative leadership and funding and

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<v Speaker 2>all of those things to the issues with policing and incarceration,

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<v Speaker 2>and I got really interested in, well, what are the alternatives? Right?

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<v Speaker 2>And that took me into you know, Angela Davis and

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<v Speaker 2>Mariamcaba and all of that. And so when it came

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<v Speaker 2>time to do my final thesis, one of my academic

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<v Speaker 2>advisors knew I was a filmmaker and was like, we

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<v Speaker 2>know you know how to write a paper, but we

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<v Speaker 2>know you're a filmmaker, and why don't you do something

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<v Speaker 2>creative and do a documentary? And I and I leughed

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<v Speaker 2>because I was like, that's a lot of work, right,

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<v Speaker 2>you know, yeah, I write a paper in like a day.

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<v Speaker 2>But you know, but she dared me, and you know,

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<v Speaker 2>I tend to accept dares. And so because it was academic,

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<v Speaker 2>I wanted a variety of perspectives. So it wasn't just activists, right.

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<v Speaker 2>So it's the District Attorney of La County is in

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<v Speaker 2>the film. There's usc law professors, so there's several sociologists,

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<v Speaker 2>mental health professionals, a former LAPD detective, a cop watcher,

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<v Speaker 2>you know who like film's police all the time, and

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<v Speaker 2>so the result was a very well rounded representative picture

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<v Speaker 2>of these are the harms caused by police and prisons.

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<v Speaker 2>This is why it persists. And you know, a lot

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<v Speaker 2>of it is we're socialized into thinking that they are

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<v Speaker 2>the solutions for our problems, despite the fact that we

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<v Speaker 2>have data upon data that proves otherwise that you know,

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<v Speaker 2>police don't keep us safe, prisons don't keep us safe.

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<v Speaker 2>And then here are the alternatives, you know, most of

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<v Speaker 2>which are already working. When people, when communities have resources,

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<v Speaker 2>crime naturally comes down. When we have people who show

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<v Speaker 2>up to mental health calls that aren't armed and uniformed,

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<v Speaker 2>people don't get killed, you know, when people get the

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<v Speaker 2>services they need. And so I finished the film in

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<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty two. In August September did a small screening

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<v Speaker 2>for friends and family and for members of the USC

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<v Speaker 2>Criminology Department, and across the board people were like, people

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<v Speaker 2>need to see this. This is really really good. It's

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<v Speaker 2>really thorough, it's an educational and so, you know, I

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<v Speaker 2>followed what they did with the movie Thirteenth was I

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<v Speaker 2>started reaching out to different communities across the US to

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<v Speaker 2>do community screenings where we would show the film and

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<v Speaker 2>then have a panel of local leaders and organizers and

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<v Speaker 2>so the community members when you know, because they get

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<v Speaker 2>to the point where it's like Okay, well what do

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<v Speaker 2>we do, It's like, well, here's the folks. And so

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<v Speaker 2>this last Saturday was the sixty first screening of Reimagining

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<v Speaker 2>Safety amazing and the festival was the Newark Reimagining Safety Festival,

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<v Speaker 2>which organizers there created a festival around the film. So

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<v Speaker 2>there was the film, the panel, there was art and

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<v Speaker 2>music exhibitions and art and music is a big part

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<v Speaker 2>of abolition and community and that sort of thing. And

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<v Speaker 2>then we had info tables from local organizations that are

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<v Speaker 2>out doing the work. And so yeah, we've had the

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<v Speaker 2>sixty one screenings. The film is streaming on Amazon, YouTube, Google,

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<v Speaker 2>Plan to me, and we have a bunch more coming up.

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<v Speaker 2>We'll be in Dallas on August thirtieth as part of

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<v Speaker 2>their end of Black August, all the things that they've

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<v Speaker 2>been doing for Black August, so on August thirtieth, and

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<v Speaker 2>I'll be in Detroit with General Strike US and the

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<v Speaker 2>Black Panther Party of Detroit in September. So that's what's

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<v Speaker 2>going on with that.

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<v Speaker 1>I commend you. I congratulate you on the work on

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<v Speaker 1>how you've been getting out the word and really engaging

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<v Speaker 1>with community around your film, because I do think that

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<v Speaker 1>it's extraordinarily important. And I want to tap into something

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<v Speaker 1>that you said which I feel like is consistently lost

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<v Speaker 1>when we are talking about policing, right that I live

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<v Speaker 1>in Brooklyn in New York, and I will tell you

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<v Speaker 1>that in the quote unquote highly resourced areas and neighborhoods

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<v Speaker 1>of Brooklyn. Do you know what, I never see cops? Right,

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<v Speaker 1>I never see cops. I see clean sidewalks, I see

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<v Speaker 1>community resources, I see you know, shopping and schools and

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<v Speaker 1>all of these things. I never see cops. In the

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<v Speaker 1>lower resourced areas of Brooklyn. There are cops on every corner.

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<v Speaker 1>There are those big, you know lights that are shown

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<v Speaker 1>over the subway system. And what you said is just

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<v Speaker 1>like what we know is that crime goes down and

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<v Speaker 1>safety goes up when those communities are resourced and not

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<v Speaker 1>resourced with police officers. And so why is it, Matthew,

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<v Speaker 1>that we still live in a place even given all

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<v Speaker 1>of the data that tells us that what communities that

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<v Speaker 1>are plagued with crime need are resources for that community.

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<v Speaker 1>Why is that something that is missed and we still

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<v Speaker 1>continue to see, particularly in New York City, where we

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<v Speaker 1>have a mayor who's a former cop that is giving

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<v Speaker 1>hundreds of millions of dollars to the police depart wall

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<v Speaker 1>cutting libraries. I mean, he just gave money back to

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<v Speaker 1>the library so that they can open again on Sundays.

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<v Speaker 1>But the logic with them is like, oh, no, we

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<v Speaker 1>just need more cops and that equal safety, when the

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<v Speaker 1>data tells us the opposite.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, on the one hand, you know, it's sort of fascinating.

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<v Speaker 2>On the other hand, it's incredibly frustrating and angering because

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<v Speaker 2>the answer, well, there's a couple answers to that. First

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<v Speaker 2>of all, we're bombarded with copaganda a large part, like

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<v Speaker 2>half of the fictional shows. This has talked about in

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<v Speaker 2>the documentary Doctor l. Jones from Halifax Nova, Scotch. She

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<v Speaker 2>talks about fifty percent of our fictional programming is cop based,

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<v Speaker 2>like crime shows, law shows, things like that. Thirty percent

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<v Speaker 2>of what we consume overall is cop based. So like

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<v Speaker 2>watching the show Cops or like all the variations of

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<v Speaker 2>that law, law and order. I mean, I grew up

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<v Speaker 2>watching Chips and you know in SWAT, so we're bombarded

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<v Speaker 2>with there's a bad guy around every corner, evil is

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<v Speaker 2>out there, and the only thing that can protect us

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<v Speaker 2>are the cops. And in those shows, a lot of

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<v Speaker 2>times it's the cops who don't follow the law of themselves, right,

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<v Speaker 2>so they have free reign to break the roles because

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<v Speaker 2>they have to because the evil people are so evil.

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<v Speaker 2>So there's that part that we were bombarded with even

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<v Speaker 2>and even our news media, right. And actually, I really

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<v Speaker 2>I have to say I listened to there was an

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<v Speaker 2>episode of Yours I heard a few days got I

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<v Speaker 2>don't remember, I don't know when you recorded it, but

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<v Speaker 2>you were talking about how the news media by and

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<v Speaker 2>large is complicit in pushing these false narratives and everything.

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<v Speaker 2>I was just like, yes, yes, yes, because I've seen

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<v Speaker 2>it where like Cops City in Atlanta that's being built,

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<v Speaker 2>and last year there were arrests made, there was a

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<v Speaker 2>festival happening with forest protectors, and even on you know MSNBC,

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<v Speaker 2>which is supposed to be quote the left, progress or whatever,

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<v Speaker 2>you know, Jose Bolart when he was reading the thing

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<v Speaker 2>about there being a festival, scoffed at it as if

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<v Speaker 2>it were people breaking the law that were arrested, but

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<v Speaker 2>they know they were actually having a festival. And I

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<v Speaker 2>mean I could go on and on, you know, especially

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<v Speaker 2>in the wake of the campus protests protesting genocide and

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<v Speaker 2>how that's being portrayed. So the news media, local and

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<v Speaker 2>national plays a big part in pushing the police narratives

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<v Speaker 2>and not really checking them on it. There's also, you know,

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<v Speaker 2>and this has been you know, as somebody who's really

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<v Speaker 2>believed in people and believes in the good in people,

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<v Speaker 2>and that if we can appeal to people's compassion and empathy,

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<v Speaker 2>that we can make big changes. Another unfortunate reality is

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<v Speaker 2>the communities you're talking about, as you know, are mostly

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<v Speaker 2>black and brown communities, and so they're not seeing as

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<v Speaker 2>members of the community. And if it's like, well, the

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<v Speaker 2>cops are there, but at least I feel safe over

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<v Speaker 2>here in my mansion in Beverly Hills, which by the way,

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<v Speaker 2>has it like a perimeter, you know, of cops and

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<v Speaker 2>drones and all of that. And there's a multimillion dollar

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<v Speaker 2>lawsuit with was it eleven hundred black people were pulled

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<v Speaker 2>over by the police in the last two years and

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<v Speaker 2>only two convictions, you know, so there's a multimillion dollar

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<v Speaker 2>lawsuit there happening. So it's the media, it's how we've

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<v Speaker 2>been socialized, and it's the othering and the dehumanization as well.

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<v Speaker 2>Like I think all of that, and you know, police

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<v Speaker 2>unions and the people that benefit from I mean, it's

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<v Speaker 2>like budgets, right, police budgets. Despite all the rhetoric about

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<v Speaker 2>defund the police, police budgets have continued to increase. Crime

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<v Speaker 2>goes up and down regardless of that. And there was

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<v Speaker 2>just a report in the state of California where they

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<v Speaker 2>audited police response and actually police are doing less work

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<v Speaker 2>than they ever have according to that report, but.

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<v Speaker 1>They have more money.

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<v Speaker 2>They have more money.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so I went into the wrong field.

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<v Speaker 2>Ye. Yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>One of the things that I also want to talk

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<v Speaker 1>to you about and this just you know, you want

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<v Speaker 1>to talk about propaganda, copaganda. Donald Trump's campaign this week

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<v Speaker 1>released a photo and it was an image of two

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<v Speaker 1>neighborhoods and one it said, this is what your neighborhood

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<v Speaker 1>will look like under Trump and it's this pristine, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>quintessential suburb. And this is what your neighborhood will look

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<v Speaker 1>like under Kamala and walls. And it was a picture

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<v Speaker 1>of I am certainly taken out of context, but a

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<v Speaker 1>bunch of black refugees and saying that if you welcome

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<v Speaker 1>in the third world, you become the third world. And

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<v Speaker 1>there is this, I mean, the insidious nature of racism

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<v Speaker 1>that is present there, but then this idea that to

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<v Speaker 1>have a country that welcomes in asylum seekers, that then

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<v Speaker 1>you're welcoming in crime. I want to get your thoughts

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<v Speaker 1>on the way in which MAGA and trump Ism has

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<v Speaker 1>weaponized law and order quote unquote, and what their plan

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<v Speaker 1>is in Project twenty twenty five, which I've talked about

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<v Speaker 1>at nauseum on this show, what their plan is for

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<v Speaker 1>police quote unquote reform. Right.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I had to laugh for a second because, right,

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<v Speaker 2>the law and Order party and then you know, mister,

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<v Speaker 2>you know, thirty four convictions on everything else, and yeah,

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<v Speaker 2>and like I heard, you know, there was somebody the

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<v Speaker 2>other day who was talking about, oh, the millions of

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<v Speaker 2>immigrants who were flooding into New York, right, But they're

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<v Speaker 2>flooding into New flooding in quotes into New York because

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<v Speaker 2>the the racist governors in Florida and Texas are putting

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<v Speaker 2>people on buses, you know, and shipping them and you know,

0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:07.040
<v Speaker 2>for a nation of immigrants, it's very clear which immigrants

0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:12.200
<v Speaker 2>are being singled out as quote criminal, right, which feeds

0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:16.439
<v Speaker 2>into the communities and what we're just talking about. And

0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:21.000
<v Speaker 2>again when you look at at the data, the immigrants

0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:24.600
<v Speaker 2>coming in are the least likely to be committic, like

0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:28.960
<v Speaker 2>they commit they don't commit crime. You know, they're not

0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:31.960
<v Speaker 2>the criminals that are being portrayed, right. And then you

0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:34.480
<v Speaker 2>know they use that same like they bring up Chicago

0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:37.120
<v Speaker 2>all the time. In Chicago's not even in the top ten,

0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:41.160
<v Speaker 2>you know, most criminal cities. And so yeah, it's all

0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:45.400
<v Speaker 2>the narrative. It's the other, right, the demonizing of the other,

0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:48.480
<v Speaker 2>the fear of the other. Those people are the ones

0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:52.200
<v Speaker 2>that are putting us at risk. And yeah, it's just

0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:57.240
<v Speaker 2>all that that racist narrative that this country has been

0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:00.960
<v Speaker 2>you know, subjected to for how many hundreds of years?

0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:03.120
<v Speaker 2>Right at this point, do.

0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:07.760
<v Speaker 1>You think that we will get to a place where

0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:14.600
<v Speaker 1>we have policing that actually works, Like in my mind,

0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:18.880
<v Speaker 1>and I truly don't mean to denigrate officers like as

0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:23.640
<v Speaker 1>a whole, but policing was never really set up to

0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:27.320
<v Speaker 1>stop crime. They don't stop crime. It wasn't set up

0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:31.200
<v Speaker 1>in a way that police are seen as community actors,

0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:34.280
<v Speaker 1>right like, as part of the community again with the

0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:37.640
<v Speaker 1>other ring. And so you know, when we talk about

0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:44.040
<v Speaker 1>police reform, what in your mind would reform look like?

0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:48.520
<v Speaker 1>And do you foresee this ever actually coming to pass?

0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:51.760
<v Speaker 1>Right Like after the murder of George Floyd, which we

0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:55.200
<v Speaker 1>all witnessed in the middle of the pandemic, because everyone

0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:58.520
<v Speaker 1>was at home, well those that were privileged, in order

0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:02.320
<v Speaker 1>to be home and work remote work, they put together

0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:06.960
<v Speaker 1>quote unquote bipartisan legislation, the George Floyd Policing Act, and

0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:10.840
<v Speaker 1>after eight months it fell apart. So do you foresee

0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:14.800
<v Speaker 1>a time and a space where we actually get the

0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:16.360
<v Speaker 1>kind of police reform we need?

0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:21.800
<v Speaker 2>No, And I'll tell you why. In my conflict resolution work,

0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:24.960
<v Speaker 2>I often say that you can tell what an organization

0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:29.000
<v Speaker 2>is committed to by the results they are producing. So

0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:32.520
<v Speaker 2>we've been and actually Jody Armor talks about this in

0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:34.400
<v Speaker 2>the film, and there's a section in the film where

0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:39.240
<v Speaker 2>he chronicles the reforms in quotes of the last ten

0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:43.080
<v Speaker 2>or fifteen years, right, body cameras, anti bias training, de

0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:46.760
<v Speaker 2>escalation training, all of that, and by the way, on

0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:51.240
<v Speaker 2>the average in police academies across the country. They spend

0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:55.760
<v Speaker 2>sixty hours on firearms training, sixty hours on fighting and

0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:58.840
<v Speaker 2>hand to hand submission holds and that sort of thing,

0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:04.200
<v Speaker 2>and only eight hours on de escalation, which usually is

0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:07.119
<v Speaker 2>wrapped into at the very end of the academy they

0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:13.400
<v Speaker 2>do role playing exercises. Right. So, policing, as Alex Batali

0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:16.200
<v Speaker 2>in the film says, is police are violence workers. They're

0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:20.480
<v Speaker 2>there to suppress protests, they're there to inflict violence. They're

0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:24.880
<v Speaker 2>there to uphold the interests of the state and the wealthy,

0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:28.639
<v Speaker 2>and like, people get uncomfortable hearing that, But when you

0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:31.520
<v Speaker 2>look at it, like it couldn't be more clear. With

0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:35.600
<v Speaker 2>the campus protests and encampments right back in May and June, right,

0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:38.919
<v Speaker 2>college kids, And I've been to the encampments, right, and

0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:40.280
<v Speaker 2>all the narratives.

0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:42.280
<v Speaker 1>Unarmed, unarmed on college.

0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:47.480
<v Speaker 2>Kids hanging out eating pizza with banners saying stop the genocide, right,

0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:51.520
<v Speaker 2>stop killing people. And what happens when the powers of

0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:54.359
<v Speaker 2>best say it's time to clear them out. The cops

0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:57.000
<v Speaker 2>in their riot gear with their pepper spray and their

0:17:57.400 --> 0:17:59.960
<v Speaker 2>rubber bullets that are supposed to be less than lethal,

0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:03.720
<v Speaker 2>but people get messed up with those rubber bullets, come

0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:06.960
<v Speaker 2>in and clear them out. And then you have the

0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:11.400
<v Speaker 2>pro Israel protesters who were given free reign and not stopped,

0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:15.199
<v Speaker 2>who especially like a UCLA, were inflicting violence and the

0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:16.960
<v Speaker 2>cops are nowhere to be found. And then once they

0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:19.640
<v Speaker 2>pull back, the cops come in and you know, wipe

0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:23.240
<v Speaker 2>out the protesters. So in the four years since George

0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:26.800
<v Speaker 2>Floyd was murdered, and by the way, Minneapolis had all

0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:29.800
<v Speaker 2>of the reforms leading up to George Floyd, in the

0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:33.360
<v Speaker 2>four years since then, we've had more police killings, which

0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:37.800
<v Speaker 2>have increased each year, police killing people, Budgets have increased,

0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:41.960
<v Speaker 2>and sixty nine cops cities have been built or are

0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:44.879
<v Speaker 2>in the process of being built across the country and

0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:47.879
<v Speaker 2>people are like, oh, but those are training facilities. It's like,

0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:50.440
<v Speaker 2>all right, post twenty twenty, what are they training for

0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:55.760
<v Speaker 2>to suppress protests? And you know, people standing up for

0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:59.200
<v Speaker 2>their rights and to end genocide and to have their

0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.760
<v Speaker 2>needs met, bodily autonomy like all of that. And so

0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:07.120
<v Speaker 2>policing as an institution like we talk about, and this

0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:09.120
<v Speaker 2>goes into the other ring part which I was thinking

0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:12.120
<v Speaker 2>about earlier, Like we talked about police were born out

0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:13.080
<v Speaker 2>of slave catchers.

0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:13.280
<v Speaker 1>Right.

0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:16.399
<v Speaker 2>There were the slave patrols, yep. And it's easy to

0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:19.639
<v Speaker 2>be like, oh, well, those were slaves and whatever. But

0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:25.119
<v Speaker 2>in the north police were suppressing protests, suppressing the labor

0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:29.399
<v Speaker 2>movement and union busting, union busting, suppressing labor unions. And

0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:31.640
<v Speaker 2>then in the west, out here in the West, they

0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:36.000
<v Speaker 2>were vigilantes to keep those folks in quotes off of

0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:41.000
<v Speaker 2>in quotes our land. Right. So the whole institution is

0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:43.840
<v Speaker 2>rooted in that. And then you take their training in

0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:48.880
<v Speaker 2>the academy, which is overwhelmingly focused on violence and command

0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:51.720
<v Speaker 2>and control of populations, and then they get out on

0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:54.800
<v Speaker 2>the street and the way that they prove themselves to

0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:58.560
<v Speaker 2>their fellow officers is getting in fights, making arrest, writing tickets.

0:19:58.800 --> 0:19:58.960
<v Speaker 1>Right.

0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:02.119
<v Speaker 2>There are no metri for how safe is a community?

0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:04.080
<v Speaker 2>What did you do today to keep people safe?

0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:06.680
<v Speaker 1>Right? And just to that point, what we learned during

0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:10.360
<v Speaker 1>Ferguson in particular, were the ways in which they had

0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:15.320
<v Speaker 1>set quotas in that city. In order to arrest a certainty,

0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:17.359
<v Speaker 1>you needed to arrest a certain a number of people,

0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:20.119
<v Speaker 1>You needed to ticket a certain number of people. So

0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:24.679
<v Speaker 1>the incentive is not in the suppression of crime, it

0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:27.840
<v Speaker 1>is in how many people can you catch? Yes, right,

0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:32.040
<v Speaker 1>So that mentality is reinforced by the quota systems that

0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:33.920
<v Speaker 1>are set up in these places.

0:20:34.240 --> 0:20:37.199
<v Speaker 2>And there's I don't remember if you interviewed him or not.

0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:40.880
<v Speaker 2>There's a book called An Inconvenient Cop, which is a

0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:45.000
<v Speaker 2>former black NYPD officer who talks about those quotas and

0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:47.720
<v Speaker 2>he literally joined the force because he was, like you

0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:50.639
<v Speaker 2>wanted to find out why he had the experience as

0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:53.879
<v Speaker 2>a black man, you know, in relation to NYPD. So

0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:58.200
<v Speaker 2>all of that is out there, and so policing I've

0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:00.960
<v Speaker 2>been saying it's not for the people and will never

0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:04.159
<v Speaker 2>be for the people. What we can do and what

0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:07.480
<v Speaker 2>is being done, and it just needs more awareness and

0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:09.920
<v Speaker 2>support and funding and all of that. Are the community

0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:14.240
<v Speaker 2>response teams, you know, violence prevention workers, which are being

0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:17.840
<v Speaker 2>utilized in Newark for example, right, they took five percent

0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:21.520
<v Speaker 2>of the Newark police budget put it into the Office

0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:25.320
<v Speaker 2>of Violence Prevention, and they have all of these street

0:21:25.359 --> 0:21:30.000
<v Speaker 2>teams like One Hood, Equal Justice. There's there's some other organizations,

0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:32.840
<v Speaker 2>and those are the teams that respond to mental health

0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:35.760
<v Speaker 2>calls and people needing wellness checks and things like that.

0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:38.320
<v Speaker 2>And crime is it an all time low? Like a

0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:42.520
<v Speaker 2>sixty year low in the city of Newark. And that's

0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:44.520
<v Speaker 2>just you know, with the small budget. And there are

0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:48.159
<v Speaker 2>teams like when I was doing the film, everybody was

0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:51.800
<v Speaker 2>really focused on the Cahoots program in Eugene, Oregon, and

0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:54.520
<v Speaker 2>the Star program in Denver, Colorado, and those are like

0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:59.359
<v Speaker 2>the ogs that everybody refers to. And having done these

0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:02.840
<v Speaker 2>sixty one screenings across the country and been in Sacramento,

0:22:03.040 --> 0:22:07.159
<v Speaker 2>in San Antonio and Atlanta and Newark and you know

0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:10.919
<v Speaker 2>all these other places, there are these violence prevention workers

0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:15.280
<v Speaker 2>community responders, yeah, that are working. Is just they're not funded.

0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:18.440
<v Speaker 2>A lot of them are volunteer. Some of them are

0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:21.560
<v Speaker 2>connected to the police in some way because the police

0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:25.000
<v Speaker 2>department wants to oversee. But when these groups go out,

0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:28.080
<v Speaker 2>people aren't getting killed and not getting arrested either, and

0:22:28.119 --> 0:22:31.159
<v Speaker 2>they're not calling for backup, you know, which increases the

0:22:31.240 --> 0:22:32.200
<v Speaker 2>likelihood of violence.

0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:37.800
<v Speaker 1>Matthew, we will leave it there today, but I just

0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:40.560
<v Speaker 1>want to again thank you for the work, thank you

0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:43.879
<v Speaker 1>for your film, and please just remind people where it

0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:46.760
<v Speaker 1>is streaming now so that they can take a look.

0:22:46.840 --> 0:22:50.359
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, thank you. So. Reimagining safetymovie dot Com is the

0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:55.159
<v Speaker 2>website and it's streaming on Amazon to Be, YouTube and

0:22:55.240 --> 0:22:56.560
<v Speaker 2>Google Play.

0:22:58.840 --> 0:23:01.040
<v Speaker 1>That is it for me today. Hey dear friends on

0:23:01.440 --> 0:23:05.320
<v Speaker 1>Woke af As always, Power to the people and to

0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:09.880
<v Speaker 1>all the people power, Get woke and stay woke as fuck.

0:23:12.880 --> 0:23:12.920
<v Speaker 1>H