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[siren wails]
[irregular drumbeat]
♪♪ ♪♪
SINGER: [vocalizing]
♪♪ ♪♪
[indistinct conversation]
♪♪ ♪♪
ANDRE: Amir was a shining light.
He kept saying, "Dad, I'ma take care of you.
"Don't worry about anything.
I'm gonna be the one to take care of you out of everybody."
And I would say, "You know, just live for yourself.
And once you reach your goals, I'll be happy."
KAREN: Amir was well-rounded.
He was into his music.
He was into wanting to become a self-entrepreneur.
He didn't want to do a 9 to 5.
ANDRE: He was like a philosopher.
He would tell you about the Moon and the stars
and then tell you about something
that was taking place in the neighborhood.
BENJAMIN: I have to acknowledge
the brothers of George Floyd that are present with us,
Brandon and Philonise.
If you all will stand and please show them love
for standing here with Amir Locke's family.
[applause]
And I know there may be others who have
lost loved ones standing here.
We thank you all for being here
'cause you're part of a fraternity
nobody wants to be a part of.
SINGERS: ♪♪ Somebody's hurting our neighbor ♪♪
♪♪ And it's gone on ♪♪
ROD: We're here for Amir Locke.
The question that I have is, how many more?
Seven years from Jamar Clark,
we're 18 months from George Floyd,
and now we stand here, dealing with another murder
of a young Black man.
CHOIR: ♪♪ Far too long ♪♪
- We cannot heal until we really transform
what public safety looks like in this city.
PROTESTER: Say what?
CROWD: Ain't no power like the power of the people
because the power of the people don't stop.
- Say what?
CROWD: Ain't no power like the power of the people...
ROD: I live right across the street
from where he was killed.
I got up on my phone, and it was like,
"police shooting in Minneapolis."
Then, I saw my building in the picture.
And so I took the time to go outside
and saw the police outside.
After I was out there about an hour or two,
they brought his body out.
Later in the day, I saw the bodycam footage.
And the image that just stuck with me
was them being very, very quiet,
as silent as possible, putting that key in the door,
opening it,
and, like, literally snuffing this man out as he slept.
[Lil Baby's "The Bigger Picture"]
♪♪ ♪♪
LIL BABY: ♪♪ I find it crazy, the police will shoot you ♪♪
♪♪ And know that you dead, but still tell you to freeze ♪♪
♪♪ Fucked up I seen what I seen ♪♪
♪♪ I guess that mean hold him down ♪♪
♪♪ If he say he can't breathe ♪♪
♪♪ There's too many mothers just grieving ♪♪
♪♪ They're killing us for no reason ♪♪
- I can't FaceTime with my son,
but can the officer still FaceTime with his?
Can that chief of police still FaceTime with theirs?
Can Mayor Frey still FaceTime with theirs?
All I have is memories.
♪♪ ♪♪
JEFF: How is it, we've managed to make buildings
that look like this, but we can't pass laws
that stop an innocent Black man
from being executed in his sleep?
LIL BABY: ♪♪ I see blue lights I get scared and start runnin' ♪♪
♪♪ That shit be crazy, they 'posed to protect ♪♪
- Hands up.
LIL BABY: ♪♪ Throw us in handcuffs and arrest us ♪♪
♪♪ While they go home at night that shit messed up ♪♪
BENJAMIN: This is happening to Black people,
violating our constitutional rights
on a daily basis, on a continuous basis,
on a systematic basis.
You have people like Jacob Blake Junior
in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on video,
walking away from the police,
and they shoot him in the back, paralyzing him.
Black people like Amir Locke, who hasn't killed anybody,
moves a certain way, and your first notion is
to shoot first, ask questions later.
♪♪ ♪♪
This a systemic problem.
When you really think about it...
- Are you gonna open the door?
[passengers screaming]
- It seems to be two forms of policing in America:
one for white America and another for Black America.
LIL BABY: ♪♪ It's bigger than Black and white ♪♪
♪♪ There's a problem with the whole way of life ♪♪
♪♪ Can't change overnight ♪♪
JAMES: The research shows it:
Black people are policed more aggressively.
If they are stopped by the police,
they're more likely to be searched, right?
They're more likely to be verbally harassed.
OFFICER: Put your fucking hands behind your back, motherfucker.
- [screams] JAMES: That's Black policing.
I don't think that there's any question
that there's two forms of policing in this country.
OFFICER: Get on the ground! Get on the ground!
KAREN: This has been going on for years.
We're just now seeing it being filmed.
This has been happening for decades since slavery.
LIL BABY: ♪♪ It's bigger than Black and white ♪♪
♪♪ It's a problem with the whole way of life ♪♪
♪♪ It can't change overnight ♪♪
♪♪ But we gotta start somewhere ♪♪
♪♪ Might as well gon' head start here ♪♪
♪♪ We done had a hell of a year ♪♪
♪♪ I'ma make it count while I'm here ♪♪
♪♪ God is the only man I fear ♪♪
TERRY ANNE: In the South, slave patrols
were essentially the only form of policing
that existed early on.
They emerged about 1704 in the Carolinas,
and they were used very specifically
to patrol racial boundaries.
[dramatic music]
♪♪ ♪♪
- Any visible African ancestry is used as a kind of marker
that this is a person who can be policed,
and slave patrols have the especial responsibility
of doing that.
- The slave patrols were deputized
to go and recover white men's property,
which were Black people.
Under the slave laws, slaves are automatically guilty,
and any Black was automatically slave status.
♪♪ ♪♪
READER: "It was part of my business
"to arrest all slaves and free persons of color
"who were collected in crowds at night
"and lock them up.
"It was also part of my business
"to take them before the mayor.
I did this without any warrant and at my own discretion."
[distant dogs barking]
John Capehart, slave patrol.
ELIZABETH: Slave patrols were responsible
for raiding slave dwellings,
identifying contraband, like books,
breaking up slave gatherings,
and capturing Black people
who appeared not to be under the direct control
of a slave owner or an overseer.
♪♪ ♪♪
- The White owner writes out a pass.
It has the name of the enslaved person,
their destination, and the date.
READER: The paddy rollers.
They keep close watch on the poor nigger
so they have no chance to do anything or go anywhere.
They just like policemen, only worse,
because they never let the nigger go anywhere
without a pass from his masters.
- If patrol caught an enslaved person
without a pass,
they could use any amount of terror and violence,
really, to inflict their will.
READER: If you weren't in your proper place
when the paddy roller come,
they lash you till you were black and blue.
The women got 15 lashes, and the men, 30.
♪♪ ♪♪
- In the antebellum South, any white person
possess legal rights over Black people and enslaved people.
KHALIL: It was really a society
where every white person
was responsible for oppressing Black people.
But it wasn't just the South.
Northern colonies had slavery
up until the founding of the nation.
But at the time of the Constitution,
the northern colonies essentially abolished slavery.
This creates an incentive for Black people
to escape to the North.
[music playing]
- Southern enslavers who say, this man ran away to New York,
this woman ran away to Massachusetts,
they hire agents to chase those individuals down.
♪♪ ♪♪
- Runaway ads were the most common form
of newspaper ad revenue in the nation.
By 1850, the South essentially says
that for the past several decades,
the North has not upheld its responsibilities.
They begin to ask for more direct compliance
for law enforcement to return their property,
which is Black people.
♪♪ ♪♪
ELIZABETH: In 1850, the Fugitive Slave laws
come on the books,
which empower any white person to capture a Black person,
slave or free,
and return them to their slave owner.
♪♪ ♪♪
- Every single person of apparent African descent
in any of the so-called free states
is subject to being seized as a runaway.
♪♪ ♪♪
JELANI: The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
created a regime of surveillance
and universal suspicion for Black people,
even free people, even people who were born free.
SALLY: City police officers helped
in this process of retrieval.
Police officers in northern cities like Boston
were responsible, legally, to assist the bounty hunters
in trying to recapture individuals who had done
nothing other than try to claim their own freedom
by running away.
TERRY ANNE: The fact that there were bills
that would announce
that Black people need to be careful
because the police are looking for them
says to Black people that the police are their enemy.
READER: Caution. Colored people of Boston,
avoid conversing with police officers.
They are empowered to act
as kidnappers and slave catchers.
Therefore, if you value your liberty,
shun them in every possible manner.
AL SHARPTON: There was no qualitative difference
between law enforcement in the so-called free states
and in slave catchers coming from the South.
It was a hand-in-glove operation,
all at the expense of Black freedom.
The impact of 1850 was, it removed any hope
that there was somewhere we could hide.
TERRY ANNE: These laws foster a lot of distrust
between free Black communities
and police officers and white people in general.
SALLY: Slave patrols were the ones
who were out at night,
providing surveillance
over the enslaved community,
but during the daytime,
all whites were effectively part
of the system of surveillance and control
to try to protect whites
from the Blacks in their communities.
EDWARD: It's also about empowering
white people in general.
That's the power to deal out life and death.
That's the power to give people orders
that really have to be obeyed.
- Sir, I'm asking you to stop.
CHRISTIAN COOPER: Please don't come close to me.
- Sir, I'm asking you to stop recording me.
CHRISTIAN: Please don't come close to me.
- Please take your phone off.
CHRISTIAN: Please don't come close to me.
- Then I'm taking a picture and calling the cops.
CHRISTIAN: Please, please call the cops.
Please call the cops.
- I'm gonna tell them there's an African American man
threatening my life.
CHRISTIAN: Please tell them whatever you like.
- There is an African American man.
I'm in Central Park.
He's recording me
and threatening myself and my dog.
[dog whimpers]
I'm by...
I'm sorry. I can't hear you clearly.
[panicked-sounding] I'm being threatened
by a man into the Ramble.
Please send the cops immediately.
RECORDER: What's going on?
- It's illegal to have a charcoal grill
in the park here.
- No, I want the cops here right now.
- So you're sending an officer?
'Cause now she's recording me.
- Let's call 911.
I wanna make sure that there's nothing going on here.
- When a white person threatens to call the police
on a Black person during a tense situation,
that person is marshaling this long history
of racist enforcement
and the double standard
of justice in America.
RECORDER: She called police
on a eight-year-old little girl.
You can hide all you want.
The whole world gonna see you, boo.
- Yeah, and, um, illegally
selling water without a permit.
Yeah-- - On my property.
- In order to feel that comfortable
calling the police on Black folks,
one has to have a certain mindset
that the police are there to protect them.
RECORDER: Why are you calling the cops right now?
Because my dog was humping your dog?
CALLER: Verballing assaulting me right now.
RECORDER: I'm not verbally assaulting you.
Dogs humping each other, she's calling the cops.
DOLORES: Many of these situations are just,
"My police--when they show up, they're gonna make you do
"what I want you to do, or they're gonna punish you
for not doing what I said."
- There's this mindset that any white feels
that--"I can make an accusation,
"and it is going to be accepted on its face,
"and I can police it myself because I have that right.
I have that status."
- What are you, right now, sitting out here doing?
RECORDER: I'm... minding my own business.
What are you doing?
- I don't think you are minding your own business.
RECORDER: Okay. What do you think I'm doing?
- I'm not really sure, but I'll figure it out.
- I'm probably where I live.
- A lot of cases, with Karens, it's about--
"This Black person shouldn't be here.
Something's not right."
- If you guys have a lease, I'd just like to see the lease.
RECORDER: No, ma'am. PERSON: You have no business
with our personal documents. RECORDER: For real.
PHILLIP: People imagine there's a class of people
who's like that:
the "I would like to speak to your manager" white woman.
Turns out, the manager of racism is law enforcement.
- Cops are here.
PHILLIP: Because this country is so allergic
to understanding and reckoning with its own history,
I think it's harder to see, oh, that one case
is not just one case. It's part of a larger pattern.
OFFICER: What you doing here, man?
- Watering flowers.
OFFICER: You live here? - No, I don't live here.
OFFICER: Okay.
They're saying that this vehicle
is not supposed to be here and you're
not supposed to be here. - Who's saying that?
OFFICER: They called it about it.
I don't know who called.
- I'm supposed to be here.
I'm Pastor Jennings. I live across the street.
OFFICER: You're Pastor Jennings?
- Yes, I'm looking out for their house while they gone.
- The police are a manifestation of what
society asks them to do,
and society empowers them to police people
who are simply unwelcome.
- Go ahead and do what you gotta do now.
- I'm going to arrest you-- - Do what you got to do.
Go on and lock me up. - Okay.
- It's not simply a question of the prejudices of police.
It's an issue of the prejudices of the society
that the police function in.
[cars honking]
KEYON: The day after Christmas,
I was staying in a hotel
'cause I was working on a film.
My son and I were in the hotel.
We were just hanging out.
You know, we had this plan. We gonna go downstairs.
We gonna have these chicken and waffles.
KEYON JR.: A usual conversation
when we're going to get food is,
like, we talk about music and stuff like that.
We were just excited.
- We get off the elevator and...
PERSON: No, he's not leaving. Show me the proof.
Give my phone back.
- This lady just presses me,
and she was like,
"You have my phone.
Tell me that's not my phone. PERSON: Tell me--no.
KEYON: You don't have to explain nothing to her.
PERSON: You took the case off.
That's mine. Literally just--
KEYON JR.: I was super confused because the thing is,
I've never seen her in my life.
MANAGER: No. I'm the manager of the hotel.
KEYON: I don't care. This is my son.
The power of an individual to deputize somebody else,
that you can call on this person
and know that that person will take your side
is a very, very dangerous power.
You see two Black people--
- No, I'm not letting him walk away with my phone.
KEYON: She came like a zombie and attacked us.
- She just comes out of nowhere and tackles me.
- I understand how easily those situations can escalate.
- I could be killed. I could be arrested.
So I didn't want to do anything to threat anybody.
Because the thing is, being Black, like, in America,
that's already threat.
[uneasy music]
♪♪ ♪♪
AL: As we got into the post-Civil War era,
the concept that white America had built the nation on,
that we were less than human--
you can't just overnight,
with an executive order from the president,
get rid of that feeling that they're inferior
and I'm superior.
♪♪ ♪♪
- Once slavery ends, the issue of how
Black people are going to still be contained
remains important.
So in the States that had slavery,
they begin to pass laws and say things like
Black people can't be wandering down the streets.
TERRY ANNE: Walking too closely to a railroad.
Speaking too loudly
in the presence of a white woman.
Selling particular items after dark.
JELANI: If a person was found to be unemployed,
then they could be arrested and sentenced to prison.
NEKIMA: It gave Southern white sheriffs the ability
to go into Black communities
and round up and arrest Black people
and bring them into the criminal justice system.
[chains jangling]
♪♪ ♪♪
AL: The police was there to enforce
the superior position
of the white, particularly male, class.
Clearly, what law enforcement became
is the enforcers of white supremacy.
[jazz music]
♪♪ ♪♪
SINGER: ♪♪ Southern trees ♪♪
♪♪ Bear a strange fruit ♪♪
KHALIL: Terror across the South primarily consisted
of mob violence of white citizens.
[crowd yelling]
This could take the form of, middle of the night,
snatching someone from their home
or from a jail cell.
SINGER: ♪♪ Blood on the leaves ♪♪
♪♪ And blood at the root ♪♪
ERIC JONES: Many police departments
and sheriff's offices
did not protect the Black community
and, in fact, participated in lynchings.
In some cases, you see an officer there at a lynching
or perhaps even the handcuffs on the individual
from law enforcement.
♪♪ ♪♪
KHALIL: Law enforcement unlocked jail cells
when people were awaiting trial
and there were actual spectacle lynchings
where people were told a time and a day
when a Black person would be lynched,
like Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas.
10,000 people witnessed his lynching.
And white police officers are always present.
They're never not on the scene.
They're never not making a choice
as to whether to protect the person accused of a crime
or to abet the mob.
VERA HALL: ♪♪ Another man done gone ♪♪
♪♪ Another man done gone from the county farm ♪♪
FATH: The police uses this term, "persons unknown."
VERA HALL: ♪♪ He had a long chain on ♪♪
- This evil deed was done by "persons unknown".
VERA HALL: ♪♪ He had a long chain on ♪♪
KHALIL: It was no secret as to who these people were.
But to this day, we don't have any hard evidence
that anyone was ever prosecuted
for the murders that took place.
VERA HALL: ♪♪ I don't know where he's gone ♪♪
TERRY ANNE: Lynching reinforced the idea
that the police were not going to protect African Americans
but, in fact, were often going to be
their executioners instead.
VERA HALL: ♪♪ Done gone from the county farm ♪♪
♪♪ Another man done gone ♪♪
KHALIL: Black people in the South recognize
that there was no day in court
for victims of racial terror and violence.
There was no cavalry coming to save them.
And so Black people literally voted with their feet.
[Sister O.M. Terrell's "I'm Going To That City"]
SISTER TERRELL: ♪♪ I'm going to that city ♪♪
♪♪ To die no more ♪♪
♪♪ No more ♪♪
♪♪ I'm going to that city to die no more ♪♪
♪♪ No more, no more, no more, no more, no more ♪♪
♪♪ Ooh! ♪♪
♪♪ No more, no more, no more, no more ♪♪
♪♪ I'm going to that city to die no more ♪♪
TERRY ANNE: Black people leave the South
because there are more opportunities,
especially during World War I,
opening up in northern industry and factories.
SISTER TERRELL: ♪♪ Oh, no more! ♪♪
♪♪ I mean no more ♪♪
TERRY ANNE: When they arrive in the North,
many of them assume that things would be better,
and many things were better.
SISTER TERRELL: ♪♪ I been toiling now ♪♪
♪♪ Crossing the swelling tide ♪♪
♪♪ I've been buked and scorned ♪♪
♪♪ Called everything but a child of God ♪♪
♪♪ I'm going to that city to die no more ♪♪
KHALIL: They were hoping for a measure of justice,
that everything they'd heard about the promised land
would ring true, not just in economic opportunity,
not just in the right to vote, but also in a police force
that would serve and protect them
just as they had always known it
to serve and protect the interest of white people
in the South.
♪♪ ♪♪
Unfortunately, they were in for a rude awakening.
[disquieting music]
♪♪ ♪♪
ELIZABETH: When the Great Migration
begins to get going in the early 20th century,
in northern cities,
segregated Black communities were policed more heavily.
Arrest rates were higher.
♪♪ ♪♪
- Black people were accused falsely of things.
They were randomly picked up.
They were subject to random police brutality.
JELANI: The police are mainly there
to prevent Black people from spilling out of the areas
in which they've been corralled
into areas where white people are.
AL: You've got your boundaries.
In the South, we call it slave quarters.
In the North, we call it your ghetto.
And if you come out of there, any law enforcement officer
is going to see you as a suspect.
And in our times, it's the same thing.
RECORDER: How you doing, sir? OFFICER: Come here.
You got ID?
RECORDER: What seems to be the problem?
OFFICER: Do you know that guy sitting down there
on that step? RECORDER: No.
OFFICER: Then why were you talking to him?
RECORDER: I was just saying hi to him.
OFFICER: Why? You don't say hi to strangers.
RECORDER: Why not?
OFFICER 2: Not in this neighborhood.
- Anything on you? - Hold up. Hold up.
I don't consent to search.
OFFICER 1: I'm not asking you for consent.
I'm gonna fucking--
you know, cause I just told you to.
Don't fucking play though.
You'll be on the fucking same block as him.
And we'll kick your ass too.
SINGER: ♪♪ Whoop, whoop! ♪♪
♪♪ That's the sound of da police ♪♪
♪♪ Whoop, whoop! ♪♪
♪♪ That's the sound of da beast ♪♪
♪♪ Whoop, whoop! ♪♪
♪♪ That's da sound of the police ♪♪
♪♪ Whoop, whoop! ♪♪
♪♪ That's the sound of da beast ♪♪
TERRY ANNE: Stop-and-frisk patterns demonstrate
that police automatically see Black people as guilty.
[KRS-One's "Sound of Da Police"]
- Blacks make up one third of Chicago's population,
but they accounted for nearly 3/4 of those stops.
SINGER: ♪♪ Overseer, overseer ♪♪
♪♪ Overseer, overseer, officer, officer, officer ♪♪
♪♪ Yeah, officer from overseer ♪♪
♪♪ You need a little clarity, check the similarity ♪♪
TERRY ANNE: In statistic after statistic,
what we find is that more white people
are actually carrying drugs or contraband,
but Black people are pulled over
at much higher rates than their white counterparts.
REPORTER: Police stopped over 4 million people,
according to the NYPD,
nearly 90% of them Black or Latino.
DOLORES: Young Black and Latino males
were being stopped 100 times in a year,
several times in the same day,
multiple times during the same week.
SINGER: ♪♪ The overseer rode around the plantation ♪♪
♪♪ The officer is off, patrollin' all the nation ♪♪
- Come on, man. Come on, man.
Hold.
You just got your finger in my ass.
- He don't got nothing. DOLORES: Young Black men
did not feel that they were allowed
to walk down the street without, one, being
questioned by the police,
and what I find most offensive, and so did they,
being touched by the police.
- Come on, man. - Stop--
- Fingering me though, bruh.
- Stop moving.
- You fingering my ass, man.
- What you mean? - I'm outside your pants, bro.
Relax.
- Look, man, that's still my asshole, man.
What you doing, man? OFFICER: Y'all have a good day.
Thank y'all.
SINGER: ♪♪ That's the sound of the police ♪♪
♪♪ Whoop, whoop! ♪♪
♪♪ That's a sound of da beast ♪♪
- As a young police officer, I was being deployed
into these communities, primarily Black communities,
doing what's called "zero tolerance policing."
OFFICER: Dave, we only got three guys over here.
[uneasy music]
ERIC: We would often stop individuals
for jaywalking and loitering.
And it was a reason to be able to search them.
- Spread your legs. ERIC: The justification
that was given to us
was that this is going to prevent shootings
or it's going to address higher levels of crime.
[indistinct radio chatter, distant sirens wailing]
But not many arrests were taking place.
And I was often stopping the same individual
pretty routinely:
maybe not a daily, but at least a weekly basis.
[distant sirens wailing]
Definitely, the communities we were policing felt
there was a presumption of guilt.
[radio chatter]
I would hear directly from them, "This is harassment."
You begin to paint the entire community
a certain way,
and it's a bias that sneaks up on you
and you don't even realize it
before you're actually acting upon it.
[radio chatter]
[sirens wailing]
- When I came into policing over two decades ago,
we were taught to follow a hunch.
And if the hair stands up on the back of your neck,
that individual in that car is probably up to something,
and you should stop that vehicle.
DISPATCH: Roger. Your relief is en route.
LERONNE: But hunches lead to stopping people
who probably shouldn't be stopped.
♪♪ ♪♪
It leads to racial profiling.
CROWD: [chanting] N, Y, P, D, keep your hands off me.
AL: When many of us started engaging
in the stop and frisk movement,
it's because the color your skin
made you a suspect.
[shutters bang]
I'm gonna just throw everybody up against the wall.
I would not do that in the white community
because I see white kids as respectable
and full humans with rights.
You have no right that I'm bound to respect.
[dramatic music playing]
LERONNE: When I was 13, and I was driving home
with my uncle on Christmas Eve,
and late in the night, on my way
to my grandfather's house to celebrate Christmas...
♪♪ ♪♪
We were pulled over for what appeared to us
to be no reason.
We were released, and we didn't get a citation,
and we really didn't know what it is that we did wrong.
But you definitely, in that moment, are thinking,
"This is because of how we look."
KHALIL: Driving while Black has been policy
in the United States for a very long time.
Black people have been subject
to official policies of racial profiling
to use traffic violations as a reason
to investigate them for further criminal activity.
ERIC: My partner and I would go out and enforce
in a pretty small geographic area,
traffic citations, traffic stops.
Supervisors are giving us very clear instructions.
Enforce everything on everybody within certain communities.
It definitely developed an us versus them mindset,
both for the community and for the officers.
JAMES: When we try to understand
racism in American policing,
it's natural to focus on individuals,
but really, the issue is deeper than that.
It's the situations in which we put police.
We train them to fear Black communities.
ERIC: In these communities we were policing,
everybody was essentially viewed as a threat.
We're trained: look out for danger everywhere.
Anybody could shoot you.
JAMES: We don't have to do a lot of training.
We're in a country which has a history
of fearing Black people,
rooted all the way back into slavery.
DISPATCH: Hey, don't go out by yourself and get lost.
JAMES: I think the fundamental question
that Black people have is,
am I presumed a full citizen,
with all of the rights and the privileges
that that entails?
That means that I get to walk from here to there,
I get to drive from here to there,
without a presumption of criminality.
[horns honking]
My question is, and we were talking about this
with Samantha-- I asked Samantha,
well, what would she say
to somebody to change their mind?
When I was a public defender in Washington, D.C.,
I was really frustrated and outraged
by the lack of educational opportunities
for my kids who were in the juvenile system.
- There's things I done did in my life that I don't--
I regret, but I know I can't change the past.
And maybe-- you know, work on through what
I'm trying to change myself to do now, just to the future.
JAMES: So, along with a colleague, we decided
to start an alternative school
that would give the very best
to young people who had been in the juvenile system.
What was so troubling to me was,
the police were reinforcing,
through their actions, the message
that you will never be a full citizen.
No matter what they're trying to tell you
at this school about how you can overcome your past
and you can be the best, that's bullshit.
You were, are, and will be a criminal.
[dial tone ringing]
So we started calling up to the local precinct
and saying, "We wanna have a meeting.
And the officers came up to the school,
and the students told their stories.
One of the officers said, "What if the students
"wear badges,
"identifying themselves as students of the school,
"and that way, we'll know
"that they're students of this school
"and they're not the people
who are selling drugs on the corner?"
But for our students, this idea
that they should have to wear badges
documenting their non-criminality
was outrageous,
and they exploded
and the meeting all went to hell.
But fundamentally, their outrage was justified.
Two minutes. Two minutes.
- Keep backing up. Two at the front.
JAMES: Is everyone in? You? You?
PERSON: In. JAMES All right.
All of the officers were Black, by the way.
The research is clear that Black police officers treat
Black citizens
the same as other police officers
treat Black citizens.
OFFICER: Bitch, put your hands behind your back
before I break-- DETAINEE: Okay.
Stop. All right. Okay.
OFFICER: Knock your ass the fuck out.
DETAINEE: You guys are really doing a lot right now, huh?
- And that points to the fact that the issue here
is really more systemic.
And that matters more than the complexion
of the individual officer.
So the problem is that we've given the police
a mandate to fear the communities
that most need their help.
- Over time, I realized and heard
from the Black community
that they viewed us as an occupying force
and not there for their protection
and for their safety.
They felt we were making them less safe.
[sirens wailing]
[disquieting music]
♪♪ ♪♪
BENJAMIN: Any Black person in America,
when those bubblegum lights come on behind you
and you pull over, you think for a second,
"Could this be my last day on this Earth?"
Our white brothers and sisters don't ever think
that they're gonna be killed by the police,
the people are supposed to protect and serve them.
But Black people, we always have that concern
that they gonna shoot first and ask questions later.
ANDRE: We didn't have to worry about Amir.
We just knew that he was responsible
and that he did what he was supposed to.
But we prepare our children to live to see another day.
KEYON: We have to teach our child
that the world looks at you different.
And as a parent, that is such a hard thing to teach.
KEYON JR.: My parents told me
that if the police ask me questions,
just answer them.
Just do what they say
so you can just get out the situation.
- We start them off by telling them to make sure
that your vehicle is working properly,
make sure that your tail lights work,
make sure that your--
your lights in the front are on.
Make sure that you don't wear a hat,
don't have a hoodie on.
Make sure that you look straight ahead.
If you're encountered by the police,
make sure that you do everything
that they asked you to.
NEKIMA: I tell my son, "If you are pulled over,
"do your best to respond professionally
"to any questions that are asked of you
and to ask if you can call me."
JAMES: If the police officer tells you to do something
and he doesn't tell anybody else in your group,
and they're white, there'll be time to litigate
the unfairness of that.
But the time is not right now, in this moment.
Today, in this moment, your number one job
is to come home alive.
[gunshots]
[dramatic music]
[gunshots]
- One of the most fundamental American forms--
filmic forms, cinematic forms, is the Western.
[old Western music playing]
The idea of the wild frontier
and the lone warrior who goes and tames it for civilization.
ANNOUNCER: Gunsmoke.
DAVID: And we don't have a frontier anymore.
And yet we do.
ANNOUNCER: Before us, a sprawling city at night,
stretching far into the horizon.
- We have our urban reality.
ANNOUNCER: Here, in this melting pot
of mixed emotions and fears,
a war takes place every moment of the day and night,
a war between the criminal and law enforcer,
a desperate struggle to maintain peace
during the growing years.
DAVID: In the imagination of a lot of American viewers,
the police, the thin blue line,
are the people who are establishing order,
locking up the correct people,
and they're trying to, in some way,
restore and retain civilization.
[suspenseful music]
♪♪ ♪♪
ELIZABETH: When we see depictions of police
in popular culture,
they're portrayed as heroes...
People who are primarily there to protect us.
JELANI: These are the programs that make
the law enforcement person
a kind of embodiment of virtue.
That gets transposed onto what we think of
as policing in general.
♪♪ ♪♪
AL: The influence of television
puts in the psyche of America
that these guys are so above repute
that you can't question them.
[dramatic music playing]
♪♪ ♪♪
STEPHEN: Dragnet was a police procedural.
FRIDAY: My partner is Frank Smith.
The boss is Captain Powers.
My name is Friday.
- Dragnet had the full cooperation
of the Los Angeles Police Department.
At that time, it was Chief William H. Parker.
And working closely with him was Jack Webb,
the star and producer of the show.
- We checked out the names that you gave us, Mrs. Carson.
Everyone who knows your little girl.
STEPHEN: When I sold my first script to Dragnet,
I was a young sergeant.
I sold Jack Webb one show,
and I wrote 11 of his next 22 shows.
- I think it's just a matter of time, ma'am.
We've got three teams of men working on it with us.
STEPHEN: The police department reviewed the scripts
so that the show portrayed
the Los Angeles Police Department
as the chief of police wanted it portrayed.
- And we're doing everything we can.
- I know.
I know.
STEPHEN: Dragnet was designed
to show the police in their best light.
As a matter of fact, Dragnet became famous
as a recruitment tool.
["Dragnet Theme" playing]
ANNOUNCER: Young men under 31 years of age
for exciting, respected careers as officers
with the Los Angeles Police Department.
STEPHEN: As a matter of fact, Jack gave so much money
to the Academy for every show that was made,
and he based many of his decisions
on what he thought
the Chief of Police would want.
- Are one of you fellows Sergeant Friday?
- He is. - I'm Drew Heffman.
My father said you wanted to see me.
- Sit down, son. You didn't have to come in.
A phone call would have worked.
- It felt like reality
to a white family sitting at home,
watching their television.
- Good morning, Joe, Bill. - Morning, Mary.
- You're just in time for breakfast.
- No, thanks, Mary. STEPHEN: But it didn't feel
like reality to a Black family.
- I just want you to know, Sergeant Friday,
we're not gonna take this kind of treatment!
- Out of a clear blue sky,
these two cops turn red lights on us
and pulled us over.
STEPHEN: The idea of doing the show like that
comes from the complaints
in the Black community at the time.
The Chief of Police said, "We need to answer this."
- The red marks here show residential burglaries.
- We're gonna explain the police perspective.
CIVILIAN: Five red dots, right around our neighborhood.
- Imagine, five burglaries in our neighborhood.
- You've both cleared up a lot of things in my mind.
The officers were doing everything right.
STEPHEN: But you didn't get into the nitty gritty
of what the real conflicts are
between a community that feels occupied,
rather than served, by their police officers.
[dramatic music]
In terms of the Dragnet show,
you didn't get into situations
where police officers used excessive force.
You never saw the officers putting Black people
on the curb, or up against the wall,
or shaking down their cars without a warrant.
But at the same time that show was being made,
that kind of proactive policing
was going on in Los Angeles.
ELIZABETH: If you've been arrested unjustly by police
or if you've been abused by police,
your view of law enforcement is going to be
very different than what is depicted
in our popular culture on television shows.
KHALIL: Black people were experiencing a sense of living
in an occupied territory.
Police were an occupying force
as if you were a conquered people
and the conquering army set up checkpoints and military posts
in your community.
And that any show of resistance
to this experience of oppression
could result in detention, arrest, or death.
This created some of the groundswell of tension
that would eventually lead to acts of racial violence.
[crowd yelling in distance]
ANNOUNCER: It was the most widespread,
most destructive racial violence in American history.
[sirens wailing]
Negro leaders blamed it
on a variety of social elements,
but most of all, police brutality.
- Hey!
[yelling]
- Push him down on the ground!
REPORTER: It began with police and rioters
clashing on a hot Wednesday night.
But within a matter of hours, it was completely out of hand.
STEPHEN: The Watts Riot demonstrated that you have
a community that's left out...
REPORTER: More than 1,500 people were in the streets,
many hurling rocks and bottles at the police.
STEPHEN: And feels that they don't have a say
in how they freely travel in their community.
They want protection.
They just want it in a professional way.
OFFICER: Get your hands up, I said.
Drop that purse and get your hands up.
OFFICER: Get them up.
OFFICER: Get your hands up and go.
- It's getting tired of being pushed around
by you white people, that's all.
REPORTER: How pushed around? How badly?
In what way?
OFFICER: Get him up. PERSON: In all kind of ways.
Just stopping us on the street, kicking in the doors,
taking down to police station and kicking your teeth in.
- In almost every race riot in the 60s,
of which there are a number--
'65 Watts, '67 all over the country,
200 cities--
all of these riots are caused, initially,
by incidents of police brutality.
- You see uprising after uprising after uprising.
There is unchecked police violence
happening to Black people
and there is no mechanism for redress.
[dramatic music playing]
ELIZABETH: The term "Red Summer"
was coined to describe the flood of violence
that rocks more than three dozen cities
across the United States during the summer of 1919.
[disquieting music]
♪♪ ♪♪
After World War I, having sacrificed their lives
to fight for freedom and democracy abroad,
when Black veterans returned,
they expected that that freedom
and that democracy
would also extend to Black people,
and instead, these veterans
and Black Americans in general,
were met with mob violence.
FATH: Often, the police are aiding the mob,
and they are standing by, not doing anything,
while the mob attacks Black homeowners,
Black people walking down the street,
men, women, and children.
- Black people began to embrace the politics of self-defense
and began to fight back.
You now have a whole new group of Black people
who have been trained in military methods
and know how to shoot guns.
- It was the fighting back that elicited
the outrage of the white community
and the participation of police officers
often in disarming Black people
from defending themselves and, in some cases,
committed acts of direct violence
towards Black people.
- Police in these riots in Red Summer,
all over the country, deputized
the white population generally,
which means they armed them,
and they allowed them
to rampage over Black property,
Black people.
- Deputization of white men by law enforcement officials
underscores the extent to which law enforcement
aided and abetted and facilitated
the atrocities that occurred.
FATH: When this is all done,
when the houses are burned down,
when thousands of Black people have been arrested,
when some have been murdered, the police pull back
and say no one is to blame but the Black people.
♪♪ ♪♪
TERRY ANNE: Violence against African Americans
was not confined to the summer of 1919.
That was just one moment on a historical continuum
of this kind of violence that African Americans experienced
in cities across the country.
KHALIL: If we look at the total picture
and what happened in these dozens of places,
white police officers always picked a side,
and that was on the side of the white community.
- We were at the mall.
It was pretty much a normal day.
Then me and my friend were, like, kind of talking
about something, and the kid came over
and kind of started getting in our conversation.
Then, when my friend said something about it,
the other kid started going crazy.
KID: We can go outside right now.
Go right out there. Go right out there.
- You're talking to an eighth grader.
Go outside right now. Go outside right now.
- You're talking to an eighth grader.
What are you gonna do? I say,
"Get your hands out of my face."
I smack it away. KID: Come outside.
Come outside. [all exclaiming]
ONLOOKER: Oh shit!
ONLOOKER 2: Yo!
[onlookers yelling]
ONLOOKER 1: No, no, no, no, no.
- Yo, what the fuck-- - Yo.
ONLOOKER 1: Chill. Brian, get up, Brian.
Z'KYE: We were fighting, like, 30 seconds.
The cops come over.
There's a male cop and a female cop.
Male cop kind of throws me down.
He puts my hands behind my back
and starts cuffing me
while the other kid, not cuffed at all,
just sitting on the couch, watching
the whole thing happen.
ONLOOKER 1: Why are you people so busy filming this?
Z'KYE: I was pinned to the ground.
They were using extra force.
ONLOOKER 3: Oh, hell no.
ONLOOKER 4: He getting arrested?
ONLOOKER 1: Racially motivated.
Z'KYE: I was scared
because I didn't know what's going to happen next.
I didn't know if it was gonna go any further.
- Get up.
JIHAD: I think it's a clear sign of racism.
You have a kid who you presume is white
and a kid who clearly is Black.
These officers immediately walked up and assessed
that the Black kid, who was underneath
at the moment when they saw, was a threat.
- The cops weren't there in enough time
to analyze the situation of who's right, who's wrong,
how it happened.
But one boy was sat down on the couch.
The other boy was being tackled, which is my son.
Then the cop put his hands behind his back, cuffed him...
JIHAD: While this other kid was sitting down on the couch,
comfortable, able to stand up and walk away if he chose to.
♪♪ ♪♪
- What happened with the police made me, like, scared of them.
I don't trust them as much.
I think some of them abuse their power.
- The other night, I was walking our dog,
and I had a hoodie on because it was raining outside.
And Kye was very nervous
because it was a cop car that rolled past,
and he's like, "Dad, can you please take your hood off?"
Because that makes him nervous.
This is not something we dealt with prior to this event.
It hurts so much when you see your kid fall,
scrape their knee, elbow, you know,
because it's uncontrollable. It's going to happen.
But in situations like these, it shouldn't happen.
So I think the pain from that hurts in a different way
because you know that just by the color of your skin,
you're not safe.
PERSON: [sobbing]
REPORTER: A mother of a 12-year-old girl
wants some answers after this bodycam video
shows a deputy forcing the seventh grader
to the ground and putting her in handcuffs.
CHILD: Don't put handcuffs on.
[sobs] Please.
TERRY ANNE: Black children are not afforded the idea
that they are innocent by default
because they are children.
Instead, they are seen as adults and treated as such.
PERSON: [screams] Get off of me! No, No!
OFFICER: [yelling] I'm gonna tell you one time!
You're gonna get tased. Stop resisting.
Do not resist!
PERSON: [yelling]
[sobbing]
- Put your arms behind your back.
- Put your hands behind your back.
- [screaming]
- [yelling] On your face!
TERRY ANNE: Black children are perceived as adults.
And it sends a message to that child
that the police are their enemy and that they
cannot look to them for help.
[easy listening music]
♪♪ ♪♪
ANNOUNCER: This is Miss Stewart and Officer Dan.
TERRY ANNE: I remember Officer Friendly
coming to my classroom in about second grade.
ANNOUNCER: He visits the school often.
All the boys and girls like him.
D. WATKINS: You go to school,
and he comes in with doughnuts and treats.
[whistle blowing]
TERRY ANNE: I remember that he was cast
in a position to be heroic.
He was cast as somebody that we could go to for help.
WATKINS: You are taught that police officers
are there for you and they want to protect you.
♪♪ ♪♪
But you get to the fourth grade,
and it's a completely different story.
That's when you start having run-ins.
That's when you're not a little, cute kid anymore.
You become a predator in their eyes,
and they treat you as such.
- Because of my complexion, I'm often read
the race of the people that I'm with.
I'm Black, but I'm very light.
So if I was with a group of white kids
growing up in Atlanta,
I would be read white.
And I remember the first few times
I would see the police
and I was, like, checking in on--
how's everyone gonna react to this situation?
And people were goofing around, joking,
not playing it any mind.
Like, it was just irrelevant to their existence.
But if I was with a group of Black kids,
if a police car rolled by, they would slow down.
They would study, like, okay, what are they up to?
And I could feel the anxiety level
rise among my friends.
This fear of what is about to happen
and a kind of a defensiveness
that starts to take over people's bodies.
WATKINS: Police officers are not here for me.
I've never thought of police officers
and the words "safe" and "protection"
in the same sentences.
It's like a totally foreign concept to me.
[funk music]
♪♪ ♪♪
One of my earliest memories of understanding this
is being on the basketball court
at a time where I twisted my ankle,
so I wasn't actually hooping. I was just there
to judge other people and say negative things
about the way they playing.
♪♪ ♪♪
This one particular time, they made all of us
lie on the ground face first.
And then they just talked shit for, like, 20 or 30 minutes.
And if you say something back, then you would be hit.
So police officers have been terrible my whole life.
And I also have to pay their salaries,
which is even worse.
Imagine paying for cable or streaming service
and then you never get to watch it.
Your password doesn't work because your password
is "Black".
[laughs]
[crowd cheering]
PERSON: I have the pleasure to present to you,
Dr. Martin Luther King.
[crowd cheering]
[applause]
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: There are those who are asking
the devotees of civil rights,
when will you be satisfied?
We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro
is a victim of the unspeakable horrors
of police brutality.
[cheering]
SHARPTON: And Dr. King addressed police brutality.
He was one of the first that would actually articulate
that, put it into words.
MARTIN LUTHER: No, we are not satisfied,
and we will not be satisfied
until justice rolls down like water
and righteousness like a mighty stream.
[crowd cheering]
Dr. King purposely planned things like Birmingham,
where they knew that if they marched children,
their police would sic dogs on these kids.
The camera took the veil off of the brutality
that people were facing.
So cameras played a vital role because Dr. King understood
that if you can put it in people's face to see it,
dramatize it, then it changes public opinion
because it no longer now is an academic debate.
I'm looking at Birmingham.
All the way to I'm looking at you beat Rodney King.
TONY: George Holliday's wife had bought him a video camera.
He picked up the camera because he heard a commotion
and he went out onto his balcony.
The first thing George Holliday shot with his new video camera
was the Rodney King beating.
He called in to the LAPD and tried to get some response.
"Hey, do you guys want to see the video?"
Apparently not.
So he calls KTLA, the station that he watches,
and we said, "Sure. We'll take a look."
ANNOUNCER: This is KTLA Channel Five,
Tribune broadcasting in Los Angeles.
- Dramatic videotape obtained by Channel 5 News
shows what appears to be a group of LAPD officers
beating a suspect.
TONY: I said the best way for this story to be told
is to run that tape in real time.
And that's exactly what we did.
That news story is the reason the Rodney King beating tape
became the Rodney King beating tape.
REPORTER: It began as a high speed chase,
according to the California Highway Patrol,
and ended early Sunday morning with the motorist,
a Black male, being brutally beaten and kicked
by Los Angeles police officers.
AL: Here was a guy that was not even trying
to defend himself
and was being viciously beating
by policemen,
who should have been there to protect him
from that kind of beating.
They were the ones giving that kind of beating.
JELANI: You saw images
that much of Black America knew about.
We had seen situations like this
happen in our communities.
Implicit within that was, "See? We told you."
REPORTER: King suffered a fractured skull
and other injuries from the beating.
- I thought they were gonna kill me.
That's what I thought.
After they tied me up like that
and handcuffed me, I thought I was gonna die.
REPORTER: Political repercussions
from the police brutality case in Los Angeles
reached all the way to the White House today.
- Sickening to see the beating that was rendered.
And, uh, there's no way to-- there's no way in my view
to, uh--to explain that away. It was outrageous.
- Rodney King's beating was one of the first times
that how Blacks were treated by police
was in everybody's living room.
America had to look at this.
- Even if we determine
that the officers were indeed out of line,
it is an aberration.
It is not the kind of conduct
that, er, uh, we have normally from our officers.
ELIZABETH: The police officers
who stood back without stepping in
further reflects the way
that law enforcement has been complacent,
historically, in violence directed at Black people,
whether by white mobs or by fellow police officers.
DAN RATHER: The jury in the Los Angeles
police brutality trial has just reached its verdicts.
FOREMAN: We, the jury, in the above entitled action,
find the defendant, Lawrence M. Powell,
not guilty of the crime of assault by force
likely to produce great bodily injury
and with a deadly weapon.
We the jury find the defendant,
Timothy E. Wind, not guilty
of the crime of assault by force
likely to produce great bodily injury.
We the jury find the defendant,
Stacey C. Koon,
not guilty of the crime of--
[crowd clamoring] - You gotta be [bleep]!
ONLOOKER: See? That's what I told you.
- I knew it. [indistinct] [bleep]
- You've got to be kidding!
DAN: The four police officers who were videotaped
repeatedly beating an unarmed man
were found not guilty on all but one count.
- How, in God's name, could a verdict come back,
all these verdicts, of not guilty?
- The implication changed from "We don't believe you"
to "We don't care if this happens to you."
- Thank God it's over. And I think it's great.
I felt that they were gonna be found not guilty
since day one.
- So this didn't surprise you?
- No.
I knew it all along.
REPORTER: Campaign contributions
and law and order endorsements
make police unions some of California's
most powerful lobbies.
And some defend the LAPD officers
charged with beating Rodney King.
- I think that these officers were doing their job,
and they were doing the job the way
they were trained to do the job.
ELIZABETH: The acquittal of the officers reflects
that police violence is almost always seen as legitimate.
DAN: One of the defendants, Sergeant Stacey Koon,
leaves the courtroom.
[crowd jeering]
- Back him up. - Back up.
- Back him up.
DAN: Lawyers had held their clients back,
waiting for the crowd outside to disperse.
PERSON: I hope you rot in hell, you cop.
PERSON: Come back here, you fucking piece of shit.
PERSON: You racists! You racists!
CROWD: [chanting] Justice now!
Justice now!
INTERVIEWEE: The great travesty of justice.
The jury gave the okay to continue
to abuse and oppress
and suppress Black people in this country.
There is an undercurrent of racism,
and the system is rotten to the core.
CROWD: [chanting] Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
ELIZABETH: It was this moment of feeling
there would be no recourse for violence,
state-sanctioned violence against Black people.
TERRY ANNE: Not only were people responding
to the immediate act of what happened to Rodney King,
they were responding to longstanding issues
of police brutality in that community.
[crowd yelling]
AL: It's almost like, how much can we take?
And that was the spark.
REPORTER: Crowds soon began throwing rocks and bottles
and setting fires.
AL: On a daily basis, we've seen police disregard
our human dignity, our human rights.
REPORTER IN HELICOPTER: You got one, two, three,
four, five, six fires burning.
- And I think that's where that explosion came from.
[somber music]
♪♪ ♪♪
Before that happened with a camera,
people could debate, "That's impossible.
This is America. Y'all are making this up."
When you got the video, it changed the conversation.
- Get out of the car and put the damn hands--
get up now!
TERRY ANNE: Cameras have been absolutely revolutionary
in people's attempts to create police reform
and say, "This is what's been happening for decades.
Now you can see it."
ICE CUBE: ♪♪ If the crowd wasn't around he would have shot me ♪♪
♪♪ Tried to play me out like my name is Rodney ♪♪
♪♪ Fucking police getting badder ♪♪
♪♪ 'Cause if I had a camera, this shit wouldn't matter ♪♪
TERRY ANNE: Camera's significance was felt
culturally and socially.
There's an Ice Cube song, for example.
It describes the scene of police violence
and ask, "Who got the camera?"
It's alluding to the fact that cameras were
revolutionary in being able to show the realities
of police misconduct and brutality.
ICE CUBE: ♪♪ Who got the camera? ♪♪
♪♪ Called me a silly-ass thug ♪♪
♪♪ And pulled out his billy-ass club ♪♪
♪♪ Tearing up my coop, looking for the chronic ♪♪
♪♪ God damn, nobody got a Panasonic? ♪♪
- What we had yet to go through was the revolution
involving smartphones, the idea that everybody
would be carrying a camera.
DRIVER: You have no reason to pull me out of the car.
This is assault. OFFICER: Turn around.
Turn around. Sit down.
[uneasy music]
- How these cops operate in this country
has been America's dirty secret for a long time.
REPORTER: It seems hardly a week goes by
without a disturbing police encounter caught on camera.
WATKINS: Camera phones expose that secret.
FILMER: Oh, my God.
KNEELING PERSON: [screaming] FILMER: Seriously?
FILMER: He's hitting her?
REPORTER: This eight-second video
which has spread on social media
shows an NYPD officer
repeatedly punching a young girl.
- The police narrative before camera phones
was, oh, something bad happens,
police comes, solve the problem.
OFFICER: On the ground! On the ground!
OFFICER 2: Get on the ground. Cooperate.
OFFICER 1: Stop resisting! OFFICER 2: Get on the ground.
WATKINS: The police narrative after camera phones is,
something bad happens, the police comes,
says fuck you to you and your grandma,
and they just keep it moving.
OFFICER: Put your hands on the car or I'ma shoot you
in your fucking head, you understand me?
- We got a chance to fully see how they operate
inside these communities.
GEORGE FLOYD: Man, I can't breathe.
Please, man.
- George Floyd, obviously, was sort of like
the watershed moment where no longer
were we trying to convince people there was a problem.
They were like, "Okay, we get it."
PHILLIP: Now we've got television production studios
in the palm of our hands,
so yes, we're able to see a little bit more.
And we react a little bit, we squirm from it,
but we haven't yet seen major structural changes.
And I think it's because, as good as we are at reacting
to the horrors and the shock of what we do to Black people,
we're even better at forgetting it.
FOREMAN: Not guilty.
Not guilty. Not guilty. Not guilty.
REPORTER: There's outrage and demands for justice
in New York this morning following Friday's acquittal
of four white police officers
in the shooting death of Amadou Diallo,
an unarmed African immigrant.
- No justice!
- Enough is enough!
REPORTER: Hundreds of people marched through Harlem
protesting yesterday's acquittal
of three police officers
in the shooting death of an unarmed Black man,
Sean Bell, on his wedding day.
- Imagine if you had an institution
where it was almost impossible to be held accountable.
That's the police.
CROWD: Hands up! Don't shoot!
REPORTER: The grand jury finding no probable cause
to indict officer Darren Wilson in the death
of an unarmed teenager, Michael Brown.
CROWD: I can't breathe! REPORTER: It would seem to be
the justice system itself on trial in the aftermath
of yesterday's grand jury decision
in New York to not indict a policeman
in the choking death of Eric Garner during his arrest.
- The police kill 1,100 people a year, sort of consistently.
The highest number of convictions ever
is 11 people.
CROWD: Black lives matter!
REPORTER: Tonight, a family outraged
after a Minnesota jury acquitted the officer
who fatally shot Philando Castile.
- This city killed my son.
And the murderer gets away.
- I mean, of course you'd do anything,
'cause you will never get in trouble.
- Justice for Freddie Gray!
REPORTER: There will be no federal charges
against Baltimore police officers
in the death of Freddie Gray.
- What do we want? CROWD: Justice!
REPORTER: New questions in the Breonna Taylor case.
The grand jury decided not to bring murder charges
against any of the officers involved in Taylor's death.
- If Amir don't get it!
CROWD: Shut it down!
REPORTER: Tonight, Minnesota prosecutors
have announced they will not file charges
against a Minneapolis police officer
who fatally shot Amir Locke.
SPOKESMAN: It has been 63 days since Amir Locke
was murdered by the Minneapolis Police Department.
An independent investigator determined the evidence
did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt
that a crime had been committed.
I have to ask, did you watch the same video?
[key turning]
OFFICERS: Police, search warrant!
Police, search warrant! Police, search warrant!
[overlapping yelling] OFFICER: Hands, hands, hands!
OFFICER 2: Get on the ground!
OFFICER 3: Get on the fucking ground!
- In February of 2022, Amir Locke was killed
by the Minneapolis police
in what I would call a botched
no-knock warrant situation.
JON COLLINS: Amir Locke is laying on the couch,
under a blanket, with a weapon in his hand.
[gunshots] OFFICER: He's got a gun!
JON: Locke was shot by Officer Mark Hanneman
within 9 seconds.
Police said he pointed the gun at an officer,
an action the bodycam video doesn't show.
NEKIMA: Amir Locke was a licensed firearm holder.
Even in that moment where there were
several police surrounding him,
where there were lights flashing in his face,
Amir Locke woke up and took a second
and looked around and did not fire his gun.
He kept his hand in the place
that you are supposed to keep it
when you're assessing a situation.
Amir Locke acted as responsibly as he could
in light of the circumstances that he experienced
that ultimately resulted in him being murdered
by the Minneapolis Police Department.
- There is no accountability here,
and there is no justice here.
PERSON: Say his name! CROWD: Amir Locke.
- Say his name! CROWD: Amir Locke.
- Say his name!
CROWD: Amir Locke!
PERSON: Say his name! CROWD: Amir Locke!
PERSON: Say his name! CROWD: Amir Locke.
- I'm not a person who thinks
that everybody who's ever joined law enforcement is evil
and that law enforcement does no good or does
no good to Black communities. I've seen the good.
So it's not that law enforcement has never done
any good for Black people ever.
And it's not that people who sign up
intend to just hurt Black folks.
But you have to look at what the pattern of behaviors are.
- Even if you are a police officer
who goes to work, clocks in, does everything ethical,
you do everything you're supposed to do
and you go home, pick your kids up from school
and take them out for ice cream,
you are still a bad cop because you are part
of a system that just historically doesn't work,
especially for Black people.
[siren wails]
RACHEL: There are police departments that admit
that their internal affairs units
responsible for reviewing this conduct
are largely intended to ensure
that the complaints are resolved
in favor of their officers.
For example, the San Jose Police Department, as of 2015,
had never sustained a single complaint
of racial bias against any officer.
CHRISTY: A systemic lack of accountability
pretty quickly can turn into a system of brutality.
OFFICER: Shots fired!
DISPATCH: 30-21, we have shots fired.
We have one suspect down.
CHRISTY: You're repeatedly shown that this
is how you can treat people.
[police sirens]
Clearly, what the power structures
are telling you is that they're okay
with how you're acting.
- Why are you doing this to me?
- Ma'am, you're under arrest.
- Law enforcement in the United States is extremely violent.
- Don't pull it out! PASSENGER: [screaming]
[gunshots]
- That has been exacerbated in recent decades
by the growing power of police unions.
In instance after instance after instance,
police unions have been a roadblock
to any kind of police reform.
REPORTER: On the steps of the Capitol today,
members of the Fraternal Order of Police
turned out to stage a protest.
- Police unions really gained influence
during the Civil Rights movement.
SPEAKER: I think that it's time in this country
that the people face up to it
that there is a revolution taking place.
And that thin line between civilization and the jungle,
which is the police, is being shot to hell,
and something has to be done about it.
[police cheering]
WILLIAM: People who were protesting
really horrific injustices,
police brutality often,
were framed as the people
who are actually creating the chaos.
SPEAKERS: The radical revolutionaries
who want to destroy and burn up America
and unfortunately, want to use you as the scapegoat
for their objectives.
CHRISTY: Black people were asking for rights
and being given rights.
And unions were able to turn that into an actual fear.
- We are going to spend as much effort and energy
protecting our policemen
and our law enforcement officers
as they do in trying to destroy and assassinate them.
WILLIAM: Police unions have been able to frame the issue
in very black and white terms.
Either you're on the side of police,
on the side of law and order,
or you're on the side of anarchy.
It leaves very little room for a discussion
of reforming police.
- So help me God. PERSON: Mr. Mayor.
AL: When we had the first Black mayor in New York,
David Dinkins, David Dinkins wanted to institute
a civilian complaint review board where you could just
review certain police conduct.
[KRS-one's "Sound of Da Police"]
♪♪ ♪♪
REPORTER: The bitter division between Mayor Dinkins
and the police union leadership
is widening tonight.
About 10,000 officers rallied to protest
a plan for an independent civilian complaint
review board.
JEFF: The reason a city would want
a civilian review authority
is because of the long history of officers
not holding themselves accountable.
Unions and police object strongly to it
because they want to police themselves.
REPORTER: The rally was organized by the cops' union,
the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.
- Now I think the mayor will get
a gut reaction from the rank and file loud and clear.
[yelling]
REPORTER: Thousands of cops
stormed through the barricades...
- Knock 'em all down!
REPORTER: And ran on top of cars
as they charged the stairs of City Hall.
Took over the streets around City Hall
and then stormed the seat of city government.
[rioters cheering] AL: The police called
a demonstration on City Hall
that turned into a riot.
REPORTER: Police officers on duty made no attempt
to stop their fellow cops or to remove them.
SINGER: ♪♪ Your laws are minimal ♪♪
♪♪ 'Cause you won't even think ♪♪
♪♪ About lookin' at the real criminal ♪♪
REPORTER: The demonstration turned ugly.
REPORTER 2: They rushed City Hall steps,
blocked the Brooklyn Bridge,
and some screamed racial slurs.
DAVID DINKINS: If you call a person
who is of African American heritage
a nigger, what do you think that is?
AL: These are the people now that we're paying
to serve and protect, calling the mayor an N-word.
SINGER: ♪♪ The officer has the right to arrest ♪♪
♪♪ And if you fight back, they put a hole in your chest ♪♪
- There's only one thing that police officers dislike
more than the way things are, and that's change.
POLICE: Dink must go! Dink must go!
RACHEL: It's about resistance
to anyone taking away their power,
because historically, we have just
allowed police almost carte blanche
to do whatever they want.
POLICE: Dink must go! Dink must go!
NEKIMA: Police are resisting change
because they've been allowed to do so.
Police are supposed to be public servants.
They are hired to do a job.
They are not above the people who hire them.
SINGER: ♪♪ Whoop, whoop! ♪♪
♪♪ That's the sound of the police ♪♪
♪♪ Whoop, whoop! ♪♪
♪♪ That's the sound of da beast ♪♪
POLICE: Dink must go! Dink must go! Dink must go!
- Their strength comes in a number of ways.
First, in the larger cities,
their strengths come because they all vote.
REPORTER: Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio
accepted the endorsement of 55 Florida sheriffs.
REPORTER 2: Police unions are backing
Republican Darren Bailey in the race for governor.
GREGG: And they raise money for candidates.
SPEAKER: I cannot remember when we've ever endorsed
for the Office of President of the United States.
In the New York City PBA, Mr. President,
you earned the endorsement, and you've earned
this endorsement. I'm proud to give it.
CHRISTY: Unions have been able to extract benefits
from elected officials,
particularly in the form of protections
for accountability, both in terms
of ensuring that legislation is passed
to protect police officers
and in terms of the contracts they negotiate.
WILLIAM: Union contracts limit investigations
into police officers who are accused of misconduct.
Union contracts allow police officers
to remove infractions
from their discipline records.
And also, union contracts limit the ability
of a police department to discharge a police officer.
[siren wailing]
As police unions have signed contracts that insulate police
from accountability,
we actually have seen an increase
in the incidents of abuse.
- That man is dead now.
REPORTER: The LAPD is investigating
a deadly officer-involved shooting.
REPORTER 2: New details now on that deadly police shooting
in San Francisco's Bayview district.
REPORTER 3: Another deadly police shooting.
Two people killed, including a grandmother.
GREGG: When there is a wrongful act,
police unions traditionally have defended
the police officers, almost no matter what.
REPORTER: Today, the head of the police officers' union
said there was no chokehold
and Garner would still be alive
if he hadn't resisted arrest.
ERIC GARNER: I can't breathe! I can't breathe!
- The police officers and the EMS
did what they're supposed to do at that time.
If you're speaking, you can breathe.
- Police federations often use the media as a weapon.
- Mr. Garner made a choice that day to resist arrest.
- They make victims out to be criminals.
- Jamar Clark was not
a peaceful, law-abiding citizen.
NEKIMA: Jamar Clark was a young Black man
who was standing at the back of an ambulance,
checking on a friend.
He was unarmed.
He was shot in the head at point blank range
by Minneapolis Police.
ONLOOKER: They killed that boy in cold blood.
Y'all know y'all killed him.
- This event should have been a peaceful encounter.
It was the actions and choices of Mr. Clark alone
that determined its outcome.
WILLIAM: It's very common for police unions
to attack the victim or the victim's families.
The implication is that they deserve what they got.
BENJAMIN: This is the playbook,
to assassinate the character
of the person who is now lying on the ground, dead.
George Floyd is a perfect example of that.
- We saw the head of the police federation
call George Floyd a criminal
and to try to use that as a justification
for what those officers did.
GEORGE: I can't breathe, officer.
- They never once said anything about Derek Chauvin
keeping his knee on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds
and George Floyd saying "I can't breathe" 28 times.
They never ever put that as part of the narrative.
CROWD: I can't breathe! I can't breathe!
I can't breathe!
NEKIMA: But their narratives did not stand a chance
against millions of people taking to the streets
and demanding accountability.
REPORTER: Protests against police brutality
quickly spread to all 50 states and around the world.
CROWD: [chanting in French]
REPORTER: In Paris, they marched,
as they did in Rome and Tokyo,
in solidarity with what has become a worldwide movement.
BENJAMIN: We saw this historical response.
People saying we're better than this, America.
Until we get justice, none of us can breathe.
[chanting] Black lives matter!
Black lives matter!
[soft music]
♪♪ ♪♪
- We hold two things together
always at the same time.
One, the police historically have never served
the Black community the way
they have served other communities.
And at the same time, a hope that it will be different.
NEKIMA: The entire system of policing in America
needs to be overhauled.
We need to determine, what is the purpose of police?
- If we don't get no justice.
CROWD: Then you don't get no peace.
DERAY: When I talk about the police now,
one of the things that I do is, I swap out "police"
with "person with a gun."
Do you need a person with a gun
to get the cat out of a tree?
Do you need the person with the gun
to find the five-year-old that's missing?
We call a person with the gun to do a whole lot
that we probably could use other people for, right?
95% of what people call the police for
is non-violent, or, like, not a violent crime.
AL: I, in my life, has seen situations
that are no different than my great-grandfather.
Both of us got nervous when we saw the police coming.
My great-grandfather was a slave.
He had to worry about slave catchers.
I'm not a slave, but I have to worry about every time
a policeman pulls my car over.
BENJAMIN: We are making progress,
and we have to always remember
that it's better to strike a match
than to curse the darkness.
♪♪ ♪♪
When you're trying to change centuries
of racist and bigoted policing,
it's not gonna happen overnight.
♪♪ ♪♪
ANDRE: To ride around the city of Minneapolis
and to see things that remind me of my son,
it's tough not to get choked up.
This pain is unbearable at times.
KAREN: I think about Amir every day, all day.
Amir should be here.
There is no reason why my son
should be in an urn right now,
that I have to look at every day as a reminder.
I feel like because of the color of his skin,
he didn't have a chance.
No mother should have to bury their child.
♪♪ ♪♪
He's not coming back. He's gone.
♪♪ ♪♪
ANDRE: The most important thing about Amir Rahkare Locke
is that he was someone's son.
He was my son.
[irregular drumbeat]
♪♪ ♪♪
SINGER: [vocalizing]
♪♪ ♪♪