I would like to share with you all that
last week my firstborn child my daughter
Amina was born and it was it was a very
thank you
profound there is a spiritual experience
for me that words cannot easily describe
what I felt in that moment my best
attempt would be to describe it as being
washed over by an ocean of love and
compassion sure many parents and
grandparents had similar feelings and I
think we all can agree that is pretty
easy to show love and compassion to a
baby it is very challenging however to
apply compassion in the face of hate
as a former parole officer
I remember a verbal confrontation I had
between me and a member of the Aryan
Brotherhood and I can tell you firsthand
that it would be a monumental task to
push aside ones fears and hostilities
and offer a big ol hug to a white
supremists proudly wearing a swastika
well I found it difficult if not
impossible in that moment to apply
compassion to that person it later
dawned on me that perhaps if somebody
did offer compassion that person’s some
point earlier in their life they might
have not ended up joining the Aryan
Brotherhood in the first place Jesus
said that if someone strikes you to turn
the other cheek Buddha said that hatred
can never appease hatred only through
non hatred can hatred be appease many
other great spiritual teachers and
philosophers had made similar statements
and while these assertions challenges to
apply compassion in the face of hatred
and violence there are those who
consider the simple naive pleasantries
perhaps better suited for other
realities we have had access to the
teachings of geez
Buddha and many other great teachers of
love and compassion for over two
millennia and yet the human condition is
still plagued by violence given the
state of the world today is it magical
thinking to suggest that compassion
could be an antidote to violence as a
researcher investigating the
intersection of forensic psychology
neuroscience criminology I delved into
this topic I’d like to share what I
found with you particularly I like
discuss it
concerning the tensions between poor
people and police because as you can see
there are many black and white
stereotypes of both police and poor
people my hope is by applying compassion
on all sides we can better understand
the complexities of structural
inequality and the impacts of violence
in all sides and perhaps you realize
that the world isn’t so black and white
now I would like to discuss these
complexities particularly in terms of
the relationships between structural
inequality of violence and the brain in
communities plagued by structural
inequality societies create conditions
that lead to unfair disenchant
disadvantages for example due to
historical presidents against a
prejudice against african-americans such
as the Jim Crow laws Southern Strategy
and unfair drug sentencing has led to
decrease in employment and educational
opportunities and many black communities
scarcity due destruction equality leads
to violence as members of these
communities are forced to compete for
resources or get resources through
illicit means as the rates of violence
increase so does the rates of exposure
to violence which again creates more
violence this is known as the cycle of
violence and research has shown that the
cycle of violence leads to a
neurological impact on those exposed to
the cycle of violence specifically
research has found that both exposure to
violence and the potential to commit
violent acts is associated with changes
in three
interrelated brain networks the
executive control Network the salience
network and the default mode Network of
the brain changes these brain networks
can lead to feelings of hostility and
violence interesting enough compassion
based interventions lead to positive
changes in these same brain networks
when people commit acts of violence they
often do so in response to perceived
threats and people tend to perceive more
threats from those that consider be part
of out groups out groups are based off a
variety of classifiers including but not
limited to race religion ethnicity gang
affiliation
political affiliation even clothing
style for example the US prison system
where violence is highly prevalent is a
breeding ground to all matters of out
group based violence especially violence
based on gang membership race and
ethnicity while these biases can be
conscious they can also be unconscious
or implicit now getting back to the
context of police and poor communities
both community members in impoverished
communities and law enforcement
officials exposure to violence leads
them to increased risk to developing
implicit biases both police and
residents are more likely become victims
or witnessed violent crimes and as a
result are more likely to show symptoms
of exposure to violence such as anxiety
PTSD or the increased likelihood of
engaging in violent behavior also
important to bring up is that these
impoverished communities
disproportionally consists of certain
minority groups including Hispanics and
African Americans and members of these
groups are more likely to be victims of
a violent crime as well as being
arrested and convicted of a violent
crime research also shows that people
tend to have implicit bias versus poor
people versus black people and increases
so implicit association between blacks
faces and weapons and as I’m sure many
of you all know statistics show that
both African American and Hispanic men
are more likely to be shot unarmed by
police than their non-hispanic white May
counterparts in these communities though
regardless of racial makeup there is
crease rates of firearm violence police
shootings and reports of police
brutality I remember a very terrifying
incident that happened to me when I was
a parole officer when I stopped at a gas
station not far from MLK Boulevard and I
was confronted by someone pointing a gun
in my direction
in that moment my salience network was
so overpowered that if someone would
have given me an implicit bias task
based off the identity of that person
pointed the gun I doubt I would have
done well luckily though I was given the
opportunity to return to that community
later on as a caseworker where works
right across the street from the same
gas station and I helped former parolees
a mine as well as other people with
felonies find jobs and it was a very
powerful and healing experience for me
which gets the second point of my talk
compassion since we know that these
three brain networks are involved in
violence perhaps an intervention that
target see scene brain that same brain
networks will reduce violence one
powerful tool that we have in our
disposal to do this is compassion
research is beginning to show now that
both Jesus and Buddha yes what probably
onto something compassion comes from the
root words the Latin root words calm
which means together and pot day which
means to suffer and in terms of bridging
differences and as I point out earlier
both police and poor people suffer in
very similar ways research has also
shown that compassion involves a genuine
concern for others it’s a motivation to
help the recognition that all human
beings suffer that compassion is
different from pity compassion can be
versus self or other and that compassion
is antagonistic to shame also important
compassion is tied to the same brain
networks for example research has shown
that compassion based interventions
improve connections and function in both
the default mode Network and the
executive control network of the brain
research is also
that compassion based interventions
improve connections between the salience
Network and the other to offer networks
of the brain which is important because
violence has been shown to disrupt
connections and function these brain
networks in addition to the neurological
connection research has shown that
compassion actually reduces violence in
real life one prominent is is the
compassion workshop developed by dr.
Steven Stasi who designed this program
to improve both self compassion
compassion for other and among both
victims and abusers of domestic violence
and the compassion workshop has was
found to reduce violence committed by
the perpetrator another group of
compassion based interventions are
mindfulness based interventions which
target increases in compassion by
improving a trait called mindfulness
which involves being aware of our
thoughts feelings and actions in the
moment research with inmates has shown
that mindless based interventions reduce
predictors of criminality such as
impulsivity substance abuse and
hostility as well as improving
psychological and emotional well-being
as a researcher I had the opportunity to
witness a bunch of inmates participating
in a mindfulness based meditation and
one of the inmates says something that
really stuck with me he said that he
wish he had access to this earlier in
his life because if he did he felt he
never would have gotten involved in
drugs or crime in the first place in
addition to inmates research has shown
that mindful space interventions reduce
stress and anger among police and
implicit bias and aggression among the
general population so as you can see
compassion based interventions show
great promise at healing individuals
exposed to violence while this is
noteworthy we used to society need to go
beyond just focusing on on the
individual and take a new look at
justice and violent crime and develop a
more compassionate criminal justice
system one good example this is the
restorative justice practices which
involve
the violent offender to secret
conciliation through society often by
mediation between the perpetrators of
the violent act and the victims and/or
victim’s family research has shown that
restorative justice practices are
beneficial to both the perpetrator and
the victim and also important to point
out is that compassion based arts are
restorative justice practices actually
reduce criminal reoffending in terms of
compassion based policing one good model
for this is called community policing
which involves establishing trust and
relationships with between the police
and the community as a means to stop
violence one powerful tenant of this is
the Guardian mindset which the mindset
where police use rely on the escalating
violence and cultural awareness to stop
violence as opposed to relying on force
to stop violence as their primary means
finally we as a society need it we take
a more compassionate view both police
and poor people rather than the black
and white one that seems to perpetrate
public discourse today it is neither wow
these neither helpful to take sides or
assigned blame it is extremely important
that we recognize that structural
inequality is linked to violence it is
also important to realize that it’s both
futile and disingenuous for us to assume
that police do it all this and deal with
structural inequality on their own
rather we need to come up with a more
compassion compassionate multifaceted
based group of interventions that
include advocating for policies that
reduce structural inequality the use of
compassion based interventions the use
of restorative justice the use of
community policing and finally we need
to realize that both poor people and
police our fellow humans worthy of
compassion well I am no Jesus nor Buddha
I can tell you by my academic
professional and personal experience
that compassion on a psychological level
a physiological level a social and
societal and
spiritual level our or is the most
powerful tool in our Arsenal to stopping
violence well most of us have not
majority of us would find it difficult
or impossible to offer a hug to a Nazi I
do urge all of you my friends and these
charged trying times to join me and
apply compassion in the face of violence
and hate thank you
[Applause]
last week my firstborn child my daughter
Amina was born and it was it was a very
thank you
profound there is a spiritual experience
for me that words cannot easily describe
what I felt in that moment my best
attempt would be to describe it as being
washed over by an ocean of love and
compassion sure many parents and
grandparents had similar feelings and I
think we all can agree that is pretty
easy to show love and compassion to a
baby it is very challenging however to
apply compassion in the face of hate
as a former parole officer
I remember a verbal confrontation I had
between me and a member of the Aryan
Brotherhood and I can tell you firsthand
that it would be a monumental task to
push aside ones fears and hostilities
and offer a big ol hug to a white
supremists proudly wearing a swastika
well I found it difficult if not
impossible in that moment to apply
compassion to that person it later
dawned on me that perhaps if somebody
did offer compassion that person’s some
point earlier in their life they might
have not ended up joining the Aryan
Brotherhood in the first place Jesus
said that if someone strikes you to turn
the other cheek Buddha said that hatred
can never appease hatred only through
non hatred can hatred be appease many
other great spiritual teachers and
philosophers had made similar statements
and while these assertions challenges to
apply compassion in the face of hatred
and violence there are those who
consider the simple naive pleasantries
perhaps better suited for other
realities we have had access to the
teachings of geez
Buddha and many other great teachers of
love and compassion for over two
millennia and yet the human condition is
still plagued by violence given the
state of the world today is it magical
thinking to suggest that compassion
could be an antidote to violence as a
researcher investigating the
intersection of forensic psychology
neuroscience criminology I delved into
this topic I’d like to share what I
found with you particularly I like
discuss it
concerning the tensions between poor
people and police because as you can see
there are many black and white
stereotypes of both police and poor
people my hope is by applying compassion
on all sides we can better understand
the complexities of structural
inequality and the impacts of violence
in all sides and perhaps you realize
that the world isn’t so black and white
now I would like to discuss these
complexities particularly in terms of
the relationships between structural
inequality of violence and the brain in
communities plagued by structural
inequality societies create conditions
that lead to unfair disenchant
disadvantages for example due to
historical presidents against a
prejudice against african-americans such
as the Jim Crow laws Southern Strategy
and unfair drug sentencing has led to
decrease in employment and educational
opportunities and many black communities
scarcity due destruction equality leads
to violence as members of these
communities are forced to compete for
resources or get resources through
illicit means as the rates of violence
increase so does the rates of exposure
to violence which again creates more
violence this is known as the cycle of
violence and research has shown that the
cycle of violence leads to a
neurological impact on those exposed to
the cycle of violence specifically
research has found that both exposure to
violence and the potential to commit
violent acts is associated with changes
in three
interrelated brain networks the
executive control Network the salience
network and the default mode Network of
the brain changes these brain networks
can lead to feelings of hostility and
violence interesting enough compassion
based interventions lead to positive
changes in these same brain networks
when people commit acts of violence they
often do so in response to perceived
threats and people tend to perceive more
threats from those that consider be part
of out groups out groups are based off a
variety of classifiers including but not
limited to race religion ethnicity gang
affiliation
political affiliation even clothing
style for example the US prison system
where violence is highly prevalent is a
breeding ground to all matters of out
group based violence especially violence
based on gang membership race and
ethnicity while these biases can be
conscious they can also be unconscious
or implicit now getting back to the
context of police and poor communities
both community members in impoverished
communities and law enforcement
officials exposure to violence leads
them to increased risk to developing
implicit biases both police and
residents are more likely become victims
or witnessed violent crimes and as a
result are more likely to show symptoms
of exposure to violence such as anxiety
PTSD or the increased likelihood of
engaging in violent behavior also
important to bring up is that these
impoverished communities
disproportionally consists of certain
minority groups including Hispanics and
African Americans and members of these
groups are more likely to be victims of
a violent crime as well as being
arrested and convicted of a violent
crime research also shows that people
tend to have implicit bias versus poor
people versus black people and increases
so implicit association between blacks
faces and weapons and as I’m sure many
of you all know statistics show that
both African American and Hispanic men
are more likely to be shot unarmed by
police than their non-hispanic white May
counterparts in these communities though
regardless of racial makeup there is
crease rates of firearm violence police
shootings and reports of police
brutality I remember a very terrifying
incident that happened to me when I was
a parole officer when I stopped at a gas
station not far from MLK Boulevard and I
was confronted by someone pointing a gun
in my direction
in that moment my salience network was
so overpowered that if someone would
have given me an implicit bias task
based off the identity of that person
pointed the gun I doubt I would have
done well luckily though I was given the
opportunity to return to that community
later on as a caseworker where works
right across the street from the same
gas station and I helped former parolees
a mine as well as other people with
felonies find jobs and it was a very
powerful and healing experience for me
which gets the second point of my talk
compassion since we know that these
three brain networks are involved in
violence perhaps an intervention that
target see scene brain that same brain
networks will reduce violence one
powerful tool that we have in our
disposal to do this is compassion
research is beginning to show now that
both Jesus and Buddha yes what probably
onto something compassion comes from the
root words the Latin root words calm
which means together and pot day which
means to suffer and in terms of bridging
differences and as I point out earlier
both police and poor people suffer in
very similar ways research has also
shown that compassion involves a genuine
concern for others it’s a motivation to
help the recognition that all human
beings suffer that compassion is
different from pity compassion can be
versus self or other and that compassion
is antagonistic to shame also important
compassion is tied to the same brain
networks for example research has shown
that compassion based interventions
improve connections and function in both
the default mode Network and the
executive control network of the brain
research is also
that compassion based interventions
improve connections between the salience
Network and the other to offer networks
of the brain which is important because
violence has been shown to disrupt
connections and function these brain
networks in addition to the neurological
connection research has shown that
compassion actually reduces violence in
real life one prominent is is the
compassion workshop developed by dr.
Steven Stasi who designed this program
to improve both self compassion
compassion for other and among both
victims and abusers of domestic violence
and the compassion workshop has was
found to reduce violence committed by
the perpetrator another group of
compassion based interventions are
mindfulness based interventions which
target increases in compassion by
improving a trait called mindfulness
which involves being aware of our
thoughts feelings and actions in the
moment research with inmates has shown
that mindless based interventions reduce
predictors of criminality such as
impulsivity substance abuse and
hostility as well as improving
psychological and emotional well-being
as a researcher I had the opportunity to
witness a bunch of inmates participating
in a mindfulness based meditation and
one of the inmates says something that
really stuck with me he said that he
wish he had access to this earlier in
his life because if he did he felt he
never would have gotten involved in
drugs or crime in the first place in
addition to inmates research has shown
that mindful space interventions reduce
stress and anger among police and
implicit bias and aggression among the
general population so as you can see
compassion based interventions show
great promise at healing individuals
exposed to violence while this is
noteworthy we used to society need to go
beyond just focusing on on the
individual and take a new look at
justice and violent crime and develop a
more compassionate criminal justice
system one good example this is the
restorative justice practices which
involve
the violent offender to secret
conciliation through society often by
mediation between the perpetrators of
the violent act and the victims and/or
victim’s family research has shown that
restorative justice practices are
beneficial to both the perpetrator and
the victim and also important to point
out is that compassion based arts are
restorative justice practices actually
reduce criminal reoffending in terms of
compassion based policing one good model
for this is called community policing
which involves establishing trust and
relationships with between the police
and the community as a means to stop
violence one powerful tenant of this is
the Guardian mindset which the mindset
where police use rely on the escalating
violence and cultural awareness to stop
violence as opposed to relying on force
to stop violence as their primary means
finally we as a society need it we take
a more compassionate view both police
and poor people rather than the black
and white one that seems to perpetrate
public discourse today it is neither wow
these neither helpful to take sides or
assigned blame it is extremely important
that we recognize that structural
inequality is linked to violence it is
also important to realize that it’s both
futile and disingenuous for us to assume
that police do it all this and deal with
structural inequality on their own
rather we need to come up with a more
compassion compassionate multifaceted
based group of interventions that
include advocating for policies that
reduce structural inequality the use of
compassion based interventions the use
of restorative justice the use of
community policing and finally we need
to realize that both poor people and
police our fellow humans worthy of
compassion well I am no Jesus nor Buddha
I can tell you by my academic
professional and personal experience
that compassion on a psychological level
a physiological level a social and
societal and
spiritual level our or is the most
powerful tool in our Arsenal to stopping
violence well most of us have not
majority of us would find it difficult
or impossible to offer a hug to a Nazi I
do urge all of you my friends and these
charged trying times to join me and
apply compassion in the face of violence
and hate thank you
[Applause]
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