[Music]
[Applause]
hands up they said everyone knows to
just yes sir no sir
no sir I don’t know why I’m being pulled
over sir
I know I don’t look like you but can you
help me anyway how are we supposed to
feel safe when our protection is
determined by how we tiptoe around
common procedure ladies and gentlemen
that is a poem by one of our own janae
kata a poem that embodies the very real
situation going on between the
african-american community and police
today for those of you who think that
this is a situation that is just sprung
out of thin air that is not the case due
to the rise in social media and
technology that is so prevalent our
society through snapchat Instagram
Facebook taking videos on our cell
phones we have too much by the way but
to give it in their cell phones we’re
able to see these situations take place
see what goes wrong see what happens in
amend these situations haven’t said that
for those of you who think that there’s
no solution to these problems between
the african-american community and
police that is not the case there is so
much that we can do with law enforcement
with ourselves to fix these situations
let’s go through some of them now the
first way that the police can build
better relation to the african-american
community is by having better training
and better reactions in situations of
conflict this is so key because so many
of the situations we see are caused due
to problems with the confidence of these
situations by show of hands who’s heard
of the story of dontre Hamilton show her
hands ok ok so a couple people in there
dontre Hamilton was a 31 year old man
from Milwaukee Wisconsin who was shot
after sleeping on a park bench now some
background information on the story real
quick cuz that sounds kind of crazy now
on April 30 2014
dontre Hamilton was sleeping on a park
bench across from a Starbucks not me no
money to little business you know doing
this thing taking a nap I take cabs all
the time I’m a college student I know
how it feels you know but you sleep
across the bench and the Starbucks
called the police on him for whatever
reason they had now
two officers came to the senior they
patted him down did what they had to do
and that was it not another officer came
to the scene by the name of Christopher
manney Christopher manney was unlike the
first two officers many came patting him
down fist I’m Cristin immediately now
Hamilton had a history of mental illness
schizophrenia too you know to be exact
so we didn’t take this lightly now
Haymitch and tried to fight off officer
manney
just like obviously many to take his
baton try some do Hamilton which led
Hamilton so grab the baton and try and
hit Manny and let Manny to shoot dontre
Hamilton 14 times killing him now just
think about all the facts of the
situation so far we have a man here with
the history of mental illness who wasn’t
doing anything to anybody taking a nap
we had two officers come to the scene on
the police call that was irrelevant and
we had had an officer who for blatant
disregard of the law and in this man’s
life Hamilton was a son he was a brother
he was an uncle he was a cousin he was a
human being and his life ended because a
man who was entrusted to protect his
life didn’t do so in the words of Brian
Davis this man did not protect Hamilton
he protected the community from him
ladies and gentleman that should have
never happened
and I say this to law enforcement first
and foremost frisking gets us nowhere in
our society not only is it
unconstitutional it adds to the systemic
oppression that African Americans facing
that the Saints of America am I right or
wrong
I’m correct number two we need to end
these situations of conflict without the
use of a trigger
we shouldn’t have to kill anybody for
every single little thing this man had a
history of mental illness we should be
able to break down these situations and
find out
was going on and really seen what’s
happening police are some of the most
highly trained people the United States
today we have to figure out ways to
de-escalate the situation so that they
don’t happen on number two the
demilitarization of police you know when
I was researching for this talk I was
doing my research I saw some facts that
were just so intriguing and England and
Wales from the past 24 years from 1991
to 2015 the past 24 years we’ve seen 55
deaths at the hands of police officers
in the United States alone in the first
three months of 2017 we have seen 219
deaths at the hands of police officers
we need to do better we need to find
better ways to demilitarize did you
demilitarize our police because they are
not meant to act in the way of the
military now who’s who’s heard of
Michael Brown heard of the case of
Michael Brown raise your hand so almost
everybody here I’m good I’m glad do me
you’re history I like that good job guys
so follow me Michael Brown’s death we
saw a lot of protests both you know
peaceful and violent now follow me these
violent protests in Ferguson Missouri
which is where Brown died we saw police
come in to try and you know deescalate
these situations a little bit and police
came in to Ferguson Missouri with tear
gas shotguns and armored tanks a
Midwestern suburb no larger than the
size of Penn State has no business with
this type of artillery at all I’ve never
seen a taking my neighborhood up from
the suburbs probably I’ve never seen to
take in my neighborhood I hope you guys
don’t see one but we shouldn’t do that
we shouldn’t have to have that type of
artillery in here we need to
demilitarize our police and develop our
eyes sorry the military is our police
and separated from our military because
they’re not one of the same now number
three we needed police that reflect the
communities that they are policing
meaning a majority african-american
community should have african-american
police our majority Latino community
should have Latino police
and I understand you know situations
where there aren’t enough people or
ethnicities or no stuff to go around and
I get that and if that’s the case we
need police I can empathize with these
people a lot of these committees have
gone through so much Ferguson Baltimore
we need police that understand what’s
going on these communities the black
lives matter movement is not a terrorist
organization peaceful protests are
peaceful for a reason they aren’t
disturbing the peace they’re peaceful
for a reason we need to realize that in
our society now a story about this that
I just wanted to tell I just thought
about it five minutes ago when before I
came in my talk when I was in fifth
grade Barack Obama was running for the
Presidency United States and he
successfully became the president and
being a young african-american male it
was a big thing for me especially and
I’ll never forget this day so we were
watching the inauguration in class and a
kid who I went to elementary school with
told me Barack Obama or told me that his
father who was a law enforcement officer
said Barack Obama only won the election
because all the n-words voted for him
I’m in fifth grade I’m a ten year old
kid hearing that and I I don’t wish it
on anybody
we shouldn’t have law enforcement
officers saying those types of things
that their children say those types of
things in general they aren’t meant to
do that
now this kid live what five minutes away
from me he could have been police in my
own community and I’m grateful that he
doesn’t but he doesn’t stray away from
the fact that he still could have we
need police that understand these
committees and understand what’s going
on in these different communities now to
go to the black emini police the first
way that the black community can build
better relations with police is knowing
our rights is invited by the law this is
so key because if you knowingly and
willingly do something wrong you will
get arrested I
promise you I won’t bail you out I’m a
broke college through the penny I don’t
want failure vote I know I won’t do that
but I’m telling you that it will happen
now I was talking about the protest
before arson looting rioting violent
protests these are surefire ways to get
you arrested to get you in trouble to
get you in jail don’t do it stay away
from it I say this to every
african-american the building right now
never give a police officer a reason to
arrest you or get you in trouble ever
under the Fourth Amendment to the
Constitution we’re protected against
unreasonable searches and seizures and
people that look like me that had
melanin in their skin that was confirmed
in 1964 so if you know you haven’t done
anything wrong you have nothing to worry
about because if a cop searches your car
says your house they’re going to be
searching for a job after that cuz
that’s unconstitutional we have to
understand that when we are in a good
place and we do stuff right and we’re
good activists in our community there’s
nothing for us to be afraid about the
number two way the black community build
better relations for police is I realize
they’re good cops out there now I know I
started off kind of kind of hard started
any cops in the building I love you guys
but um you know it this was hard for me
to understand every little story so when
I was 16 you know 16 you’re a teenager
you know I’m saying you think you’re
cool you’re kind of file full that’s
exactly how I was I’m not gonna lie to
you so I’m from Long Island New York
I want to low college visit in the city
New York City and I hadn’t gone to the
city too much in Manhattan when I was
there but I wanted to act like I did so
I did what I had to do and one thing
that’s really bad about me is I’m always
on my phone you can ask my mom is in the
audience she’ll tell you get a free
phone girl over phone you own a room I’m
always on my phone so when I got to
where I wanted to go my phone retired
obviously and I got lost and the only
person I knew that would know where to
get me to where I need to go it was a
cop I was scared because it was 2014
2014 was the height of so many of these
situations
but you know I had to do what I had to
do so I went up to the cop tell them
what was going on in this cop showed me
so much support and love that I’ll never
forget it
I was wondering why I was so scared
because he something one wanted to go
said good luck in school good luck with
your college all of that now not
everybody might not have this kind of
situation that I did but it’s important
to realize that a lot of these cops are
out here trying to protect us I have
family friends and friends in the
military and in law enforcement that
know how they’re being portrayed in the
media they want to do better and they
want us especially the african-american
community to have better relations with
them to trust them it might be hard
because of how the media portrays them
but it’s important to know a good
majority of these police want to help us
want to protect and serve their
communities and it’s important for us to
know that now the number three way and
the last way the black community can
build better relations with police is
about being leaders in our mind in our
community be leaders in our society how
can we be united to other communities
when we aren’t even united ourselves now
one conversation that I always have is
about the black lives matter movement
and something that always comes up is
black on black car and it breaks my
heart to hear that because there’s so
much that we’re doing to amend that but
when we’re doing things you shouldn’t be
doing it breaking each other down all of
that is negated here’s example this
myself
Demetrius green Marcus McBride and
Isaiah Chapman last semester started the
met of excellence program and what that
does is builds up young black men to be
leaders in our society it raises us up
so that we know that we can run through
the world sorry girls but boys we’d run
the world boys as young black men just a
couple weeks ago myself and many student
leaders had a water job for Flint
Michigan we raised over 3,000 bottles
and I was three hundred dollars in
donations which will be going to flit in
just two days by the way we did that in
just four days four short days by the
way so there’s so much that were doing
in our community but listen if we’re not
united no community can see it as united
we need to be nutted in ourselves our
say this that
every young african-american listening
to this talk whether here or anywhere
there is no limit to your success there
is nothing that you can’t achieve my
adviser Fred Rogers once said our
deepest shovels are our greatest
teachers no matter what you’ve gone
through there is always something to get
out of that situation there’s always a
way to better yourself and I say this to
anybody who thinks that something like
this is impossible
here’s your answer thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
hands up they said everyone knows to
just yes sir no sir
no sir I don’t know why I’m being pulled
over sir
I know I don’t look like you but can you
help me anyway how are we supposed to
feel safe when our protection is
determined by how we tiptoe around
common procedure ladies and gentlemen
that is a poem by one of our own janae
kata a poem that embodies the very real
situation going on between the
african-american community and police
today for those of you who think that
this is a situation that is just sprung
out of thin air that is not the case due
to the rise in social media and
technology that is so prevalent our
society through snapchat Instagram
Facebook taking videos on our cell
phones we have too much by the way but
to give it in their cell phones we’re
able to see these situations take place
see what goes wrong see what happens in
amend these situations haven’t said that
for those of you who think that there’s
no solution to these problems between
the african-american community and
police that is not the case there is so
much that we can do with law enforcement
with ourselves to fix these situations
let’s go through some of them now the
first way that the police can build
better relation to the african-american
community is by having better training
and better reactions in situations of
conflict this is so key because so many
of the situations we see are caused due
to problems with the confidence of these
situations by show of hands who’s heard
of the story of dontre Hamilton show her
hands ok ok so a couple people in there
dontre Hamilton was a 31 year old man
from Milwaukee Wisconsin who was shot
after sleeping on a park bench now some
background information on the story real
quick cuz that sounds kind of crazy now
on April 30 2014
dontre Hamilton was sleeping on a park
bench across from a Starbucks not me no
money to little business you know doing
this thing taking a nap I take cabs all
the time I’m a college student I know
how it feels you know but you sleep
across the bench and the Starbucks
called the police on him for whatever
reason they had now
two officers came to the senior they
patted him down did what they had to do
and that was it not another officer came
to the scene by the name of Christopher
manney Christopher manney was unlike the
first two officers many came patting him
down fist I’m Cristin immediately now
Hamilton had a history of mental illness
schizophrenia too you know to be exact
so we didn’t take this lightly now
Haymitch and tried to fight off officer
manney
just like obviously many to take his
baton try some do Hamilton which led
Hamilton so grab the baton and try and
hit Manny and let Manny to shoot dontre
Hamilton 14 times killing him now just
think about all the facts of the
situation so far we have a man here with
the history of mental illness who wasn’t
doing anything to anybody taking a nap
we had two officers come to the scene on
the police call that was irrelevant and
we had had an officer who for blatant
disregard of the law and in this man’s
life Hamilton was a son he was a brother
he was an uncle he was a cousin he was a
human being and his life ended because a
man who was entrusted to protect his
life didn’t do so in the words of Brian
Davis this man did not protect Hamilton
he protected the community from him
ladies and gentleman that should have
never happened
and I say this to law enforcement first
and foremost frisking gets us nowhere in
our society not only is it
unconstitutional it adds to the systemic
oppression that African Americans facing
that the Saints of America am I right or
wrong
I’m correct number two we need to end
these situations of conflict without the
use of a trigger
we shouldn’t have to kill anybody for
every single little thing this man had a
history of mental illness we should be
able to break down these situations and
find out
was going on and really seen what’s
happening police are some of the most
highly trained people the United States
today we have to figure out ways to
de-escalate the situation so that they
don’t happen on number two the
demilitarization of police you know when
I was researching for this talk I was
doing my research I saw some facts that
were just so intriguing and England and
Wales from the past 24 years from 1991
to 2015 the past 24 years we’ve seen 55
deaths at the hands of police officers
in the United States alone in the first
three months of 2017 we have seen 219
deaths at the hands of police officers
we need to do better we need to find
better ways to demilitarize did you
demilitarize our police because they are
not meant to act in the way of the
military now who’s who’s heard of
Michael Brown heard of the case of
Michael Brown raise your hand so almost
everybody here I’m good I’m glad do me
you’re history I like that good job guys
so follow me Michael Brown’s death we
saw a lot of protests both you know
peaceful and violent now follow me these
violent protests in Ferguson Missouri
which is where Brown died we saw police
come in to try and you know deescalate
these situations a little bit and police
came in to Ferguson Missouri with tear
gas shotguns and armored tanks a
Midwestern suburb no larger than the
size of Penn State has no business with
this type of artillery at all I’ve never
seen a taking my neighborhood up from
the suburbs probably I’ve never seen to
take in my neighborhood I hope you guys
don’t see one but we shouldn’t do that
we shouldn’t have to have that type of
artillery in here we need to
demilitarize our police and develop our
eyes sorry the military is our police
and separated from our military because
they’re not one of the same now number
three we needed police that reflect the
communities that they are policing
meaning a majority african-american
community should have african-american
police our majority Latino community
should have Latino police
and I understand you know situations
where there aren’t enough people or
ethnicities or no stuff to go around and
I get that and if that’s the case we
need police I can empathize with these
people a lot of these committees have
gone through so much Ferguson Baltimore
we need police that understand what’s
going on these communities the black
lives matter movement is not a terrorist
organization peaceful protests are
peaceful for a reason they aren’t
disturbing the peace they’re peaceful
for a reason we need to realize that in
our society now a story about this that
I just wanted to tell I just thought
about it five minutes ago when before I
came in my talk when I was in fifth
grade Barack Obama was running for the
Presidency United States and he
successfully became the president and
being a young african-american male it
was a big thing for me especially and
I’ll never forget this day so we were
watching the inauguration in class and a
kid who I went to elementary school with
told me Barack Obama or told me that his
father who was a law enforcement officer
said Barack Obama only won the election
because all the n-words voted for him
I’m in fifth grade I’m a ten year old
kid hearing that and I I don’t wish it
on anybody
we shouldn’t have law enforcement
officers saying those types of things
that their children say those types of
things in general they aren’t meant to
do that
now this kid live what five minutes away
from me he could have been police in my
own community and I’m grateful that he
doesn’t but he doesn’t stray away from
the fact that he still could have we
need police that understand these
committees and understand what’s going
on in these different communities now to
go to the black emini police the first
way that the black community can build
better relations with police is knowing
our rights is invited by the law this is
so key because if you knowingly and
willingly do something wrong you will
get arrested I
promise you I won’t bail you out I’m a
broke college through the penny I don’t
want failure vote I know I won’t do that
but I’m telling you that it will happen
now I was talking about the protest
before arson looting rioting violent
protests these are surefire ways to get
you arrested to get you in trouble to
get you in jail don’t do it stay away
from it I say this to every
african-american the building right now
never give a police officer a reason to
arrest you or get you in trouble ever
under the Fourth Amendment to the
Constitution we’re protected against
unreasonable searches and seizures and
people that look like me that had
melanin in their skin that was confirmed
in 1964 so if you know you haven’t done
anything wrong you have nothing to worry
about because if a cop searches your car
says your house they’re going to be
searching for a job after that cuz
that’s unconstitutional we have to
understand that when we are in a good
place and we do stuff right and we’re
good activists in our community there’s
nothing for us to be afraid about the
number two way the black community build
better relations for police is I realize
they’re good cops out there now I know I
started off kind of kind of hard started
any cops in the building I love you guys
but um you know it this was hard for me
to understand every little story so when
I was 16 you know 16 you’re a teenager
you know I’m saying you think you’re
cool you’re kind of file full that’s
exactly how I was I’m not gonna lie to
you so I’m from Long Island New York
I want to low college visit in the city
New York City and I hadn’t gone to the
city too much in Manhattan when I was
there but I wanted to act like I did so
I did what I had to do and one thing
that’s really bad about me is I’m always
on my phone you can ask my mom is in the
audience she’ll tell you get a free
phone girl over phone you own a room I’m
always on my phone so when I got to
where I wanted to go my phone retired
obviously and I got lost and the only
person I knew that would know where to
get me to where I need to go it was a
cop I was scared because it was 2014
2014 was the height of so many of these
situations
but you know I had to do what I had to
do so I went up to the cop tell them
what was going on in this cop showed me
so much support and love that I’ll never
forget it
I was wondering why I was so scared
because he something one wanted to go
said good luck in school good luck with
your college all of that now not
everybody might not have this kind of
situation that I did but it’s important
to realize that a lot of these cops are
out here trying to protect us I have
family friends and friends in the
military and in law enforcement that
know how they’re being portrayed in the
media they want to do better and they
want us especially the african-american
community to have better relations with
them to trust them it might be hard
because of how the media portrays them
but it’s important to know a good
majority of these police want to help us
want to protect and serve their
communities and it’s important for us to
know that now the number three way and
the last way the black community can
build better relations with police is
about being leaders in our mind in our
community be leaders in our society how
can we be united to other communities
when we aren’t even united ourselves now
one conversation that I always have is
about the black lives matter movement
and something that always comes up is
black on black car and it breaks my
heart to hear that because there’s so
much that we’re doing to amend that but
when we’re doing things you shouldn’t be
doing it breaking each other down all of
that is negated here’s example this
myself
Demetrius green Marcus McBride and
Isaiah Chapman last semester started the
met of excellence program and what that
does is builds up young black men to be
leaders in our society it raises us up
so that we know that we can run through
the world sorry girls but boys we’d run
the world boys as young black men just a
couple weeks ago myself and many student
leaders had a water job for Flint
Michigan we raised over 3,000 bottles
and I was three hundred dollars in
donations which will be going to flit in
just two days by the way we did that in
just four days four short days by the
way so there’s so much that were doing
in our community but listen if we’re not
united no community can see it as united
we need to be nutted in ourselves our
say this that
every young african-american listening
to this talk whether here or anywhere
there is no limit to your success there
is nothing that you can’t achieve my
adviser Fred Rogers once said our
deepest shovels are our greatest
teachers no matter what you’ve gone
through there is always something to get
out of that situation there’s always a
way to better yourself and I say this to
anybody who thinks that something like
this is impossible
here’s your answer thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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