we are here today because there's been a string of police killings of african american men all across the country there was mike brown in ferguson missouri eric garner in staten island new york they were his john crawford tamir rice in ohio here in seattle we had a young african american woman named cocoa goes on to cocoa who was punched by a police officer it was caught on s t d video and everyone should watch that video share that video to see the police brutality is not only happening across the country right here in our own town despite all these police killings and plenty of evidence suggesting that there is enough evidence to take these police officers to trial and and dieties officers just to have a trial just to have a discussion about whether something went wrong none of these police officers recently have been indicted these people have been let off the hook showing once again that african americans experience a different set of laws in this country than the rest of us but that's nothing unusual this happens all the time in fact there's a report that shows that and af american man is killed in this country every twenty eight hours either by a policeman or a police officer or a vigilante like george zimmerman who killed trayvon martin a couple years ago what is unusual the reason why this is getting so much attention of those a nationwide discussion about race and police brutality is that the young people of ferguson and the young people of after american young people all across the country has stood up and said enough is enough and that is why people so i'm not going to stay too long because we have a lot of speakers here tonight and i'm really thankful for the people who stepped up to speak with us tonight and i also want to spend extend a special thank you to africa town who has generously allowed us to use assaulted by a man which is a double negative because not only was her life put at risk by a man who is able to carry a gun and a badge but it was done by a man who was supposed to be on this planet to protect us c p we got involved because as we were battling with the injustice of the system nationwide and of course we're talking about ferguson staten island and all of the towns throughout our country it hit home here because even after the department of justice investigation finding that s p d doesn't know how to police black communities and latino communities even after one of their very own police officers under the washington state patrol performed an investigation look tire low and that every single police policy and came back and said that the officer was at fault that this case she was assault doing nothing wrong on her part even after we won that investigation which is rare for seattle because we all know how often we lose the end of a late c p we turn to dance that  and we're told i'm right here you have an opportunity to correct what's wrong right here with the world watching seattle you have the opportunity to step up take a stand and make certain that to hold officers accountable for any time they act outside of the law to do nothing than you stand idle again because he looked at us he looked at this young girl and he said i can't do nothing now you and i know the rapper customs of that because right now as we speak there's bruce harrell and other city council members who are turning around and saying id cams are going to be that solution that scams when they operate going to be the key to holding offices accountable but you know and i know in this fight that intel we have a prosecutor all is well into stand up and do his job to actually prosecute the serves no das cannot bear to go no investigation is going to be able to do the work that he's supposed to do that's making certain that no officer that steps flooded our streets that steps foot in our neighborhood me comes face to space with any of our brothers our daughters our aunts my mothers to make certain that they know that they are not above the law dan sad a bird i want you to personally understand this so let me be very clear they end up with a c p will look after you and make certain that every single day you go to work that you hate your job and tell you step up and you do the right thing and you learn how to prosecute the know about it and i think that one of the main reasons why this is a point like many other people have said tonight is because this is a system and the system is pumping our kids into this huge general and the fact that they are expanding a right now is just showing it like true colors that the of the demographics it's busy and we're talking about you know we know that it's not mostly white you that are going into the general and the reason i mean part of the reason for that is because of the diversion program it's taking county looks to brag about  a lot of times they're part of the movement more than it helps so when white people are going to be involved in this movement or so you need to especially looking at the demographics in this city there's a specific role that needs to be played or there's a specific understanding that he has to be reached before we get there i mean there is a guy going to jail they're the ones being shot they're the ones being killed and murdered are great and i think that is a part for us to like how panels like these that have the youth speak i think it's really important for everyone to listen to what you have to say schools and they're also to a teacher speak about somebody that doesn't directly connect to what they would have known of their lives you know which is a lot of this connections between education and policy that these students understand that like what the teacher is saying to you might not necessarily something when they come to building the mass movement it's important to know but probably is not the only issue and it's not it's not i mean looking at it as an issue it is the movement you know it is the movement organizing to undo racism through these anti racist principles led by groups of color and people of color and in a kind of more relationships with people of color focusing on internalized superiority in ways that we need to organize  centuries and generations that change has been made we're talking about basements we're talking about we were able to walk in this room not just with the space heaters but with the people in it this is what the moment is about this is about not just making it in this space but taking what we have from this row to the outside into the future this is the day that your children will be talking about this is the day there will be photographed in textbooks for generations to come and show a lot god willing we're making history right here right now and part of the reason why i'm so absolutely one hundred percent thrilled to have you all in our face today because we get to introduce ourselves and i just get a quick stand up of people who have been in africa care center beforehand that all right love it this is your home and if i could just  whatever it is that the flavor of the day we are solely focused laser focused on what education means in this prison the pipeline system so i was talking to a dear friend of my dr deborah s it's all the same she said you don't have to be on the same page but you've got to be in same book look my my she said this to me so i'm thinking like how are we going to talk about police brutality how are we going to talk about in the same sentence which cation means but what are we really talking about we're talking about valuing human life we're talking about black why matter in all aspects of that that life cycle so we're talking about decriminalizing our culture we're talking about when we say the word again we don't automatically think criminal we think a self organized social structure with the eck what the economic system that leads to self as look at the end sustainability we're talking about our language being  accepted and embraced as a part of this american fabric we're talking about economic viability we're talking about being represented in the school books like i hope that you all take into deep consideration you're going to the people the seattle or the you you've been doing is to show racism these are all amazing tools that we can use to sharpen this part but why we're here tonight is the part so we need both and right here at johnson education one of the talking about it we do it as we're getting here right now parents are coming to pick up their children who have been sending their native african language so that they can communicate with their parents there where holding classes on how to encourage young people to be entrepreneurs what what kind of app or what kind of code can you create to create your own destiny we're talking about sewing classes that teach math we're talking about history classes and we're fully represented we're talking about children who smile and being on the first day they say oh i hate math and on the second and they say i'm a mathematician i just came from a girl she said she looked up and she s girl telling me that she is glad to be here because she doesn't feel judged any imagine what that environment that to her ability to learn they're like sponges and their educators in this room who have been in classes the parents who have sent their children to our classes in this very room who can speak in fact the same story different details same story we think children blossom and bloom but i'm not think that just one page of the in a place that they love and admire they we now belong to them and they belong to so it's not just a matter of putting a little police can muster because i absolutely agree with the secret that's not going to do the job to them something i see in the city of seattle police department budget and they get paid ok they get paid overtime they get paid extra time they get paid in all kinds of ways they benefit directly from us protests against police brutality so if you think that is the end goal it's good it's a piece of the puzzle but it's not the whole thing let's talk about the solutions let's talk about unpaid leave while there are other investigations how many people in this room have heard police so mention of a police officer saying that it's a paid vacation when they when they should a black man in street how much money did that man get for shooting a michael brown industry the man is a millionaire so i'm say that i don't care but like me or not i don't care if they respect me or not all i need to know is that once i have my rightful place in the society it doesn't matter what they think of me you see i'm saying my success does not depend on the pro bowl of white folks that's just it and it's as we began to get over it as soon as waist up and said good bye i think violence against my community it's going to continue so let's talk about some solutions and let's be innovative tonight let's think outside that box tonight and remember those empire exists and i'm sure of that but in terms of what we're here for today how we how we rid ourselves of this particular problem of police brutality which have to stop today we've got to start discussing and treated that way and it's a system support this and and i think in terms of finding the solution to this particular problem we need to talk about how we as black people can gang power and control and driving power for us we need to have full representation when i say power we we need to be able to hire fire we need to be able to discipline we need to understand where the money's going  east and so long as empire exists i think it's pretty simple that we do have to have police when there's a gap between those i have and those that have not stepped in this out of control and raisins that control and we don't have any psychotherapy psychiatric therapy for the stuff i think some control over the situation and someone is controlled the situation and it should be that community should be a people living in the community and so and i think that's a very democratic democratic idea and i think we're talking about a struggle like this we need to focus our demands on something like this and go after it and go after with everything we got dion's said in instead shut down it's free waste parking lots games whatever it takes to get there we have to get there you say we couldn't vote but we voted didn't we so this has to be a commitment i think in my heart and convicted about based brutal savage system ok anybody who's interested in that needs to be on board we need a coalition of committed people to go after just one hundred