People's Tribunal on Police Brutality video part 20

People's Tribunal on Police Brutality video part 20

Alicia Kirkman, mother of Angelo Miller (continued). Comments from Genevieve Mitchell, Leah Lewis and Shemariah Arki.

Puncture the Silence

2015-04-11

CLE.001.024

.mp4

English

Cleveland, Ohio, USA

8 minutes, 27 seconds

Puncture the Silence-Stop Mass Incarceration

Alicia Kirkman-- "...a disguise, 'cause I have to go to the workforce; I have to deal with the public; I have kids and grandkids; I have to put on a disguise, because when your child is taken away from you, your life will never, ever be the same. (Audience: "That's right.") Some things you can't listen to no more; some things you can't watch no more; some things you can't cook no more; some things you can't eat no more. That's how sickening it is. It's a pain that we deal with. We can't explain. You know, you have to be that parent that lose that child. That's it." (Applause)

Genevieve Mitchell-- “Madam, madam, let me just thank you for your testimony as well. When you're talking about you don't understand and why, you know, that happened there's a historic rubric for that. And it's like the slaves that used to see the whipping or the lynching in the barnyard and they did that for power and control to contain their behaviors and to make them submissive so that they would not get out of line. And as we see with the exacerbation of these extrajudicial killings by police officers, it's very much the same. One of the things that they're not dealing with, is, they're not dealing with the psychological trauma that is endured by black people and white people, people that are marginalized and feel a sense of powerlessness because of that, who are constantly bombarded with images of people like themselves who are being shot down, who are being beaten down, who are being hand- cuffed, who are being suppressed and jailed. And the psychological imagery that we're watching in videos over and over again on the internet, as well as what we're seeing on television and hearing about on radio, that is...Nobody's even dealing with the psychological impact of how that's affecting the black community and the brown community or white community. No one is dealing with that, and it is having a profound effect/impact...ah, the gentleman, the young man said that even his 4-year old son sits up there, and when he sees a police officer now, which, typically, when I was young and growing up these kind of things weren't quite as prevalent for that period. You know, children would say hi to the police officers, whatever, but now for a 4-year old child to say, oh, there goes a police...that is horrible. It is a horrible commentary on where we have come and where the situation is. So, I'm proud of the people; I'm proud of you for standing up and making your testimony and your stories known. It is important; it's vitally important and this has to continue.”

Leah Lewis—“Related to Genevieve's initial point and the flip side of it, we have to accept that some of these police officers, who are committing these wanton murders are sociopaths. (Audience: “Yes they are.”) And we have to have a zero-tolerance policy for sociopaths on the police force. (Audience: “That's right.") You know that, until, I know Bill said, ‘We don't care about the politicians.’ but I'm tryin' to get you all to understand you're elected officials have a role to play in this process, right? As a people, whether we are African- American, whether we are Latino, Hispanic, poor, whatever, we need to apply pressure on every front. On every front, including the political front. There are 2 police departments that I want you all to begin to research--the Seattle Police Department and the Portland, OR, Police Department. They are taking some radical steps towards improving the cultural competency of their police force. In one of those municipalities, they are now demanding that 50% of the police force look like the community they are policing. Now, I know just because someone is African-American doesn't mean they are on our side. I believe it was Zora Neal Hurston who said, "All my skin-folk ain't my kin-folk." Ok, we're clear on that. But when you have a particular understanding and appreciation for the community that you serve, you have an opportunity to develop and enhance your empathy. Your empathy, having empathy means you are not a sociopath. So we need police officers that are empathetic. We also, I want to deal with the issue of economics here. The question was posed earlier, since 9/11 the police force in this nation has become a militarized police force. If you drive by my little community, you're going to see a tank. And we are a community of less than 1,000 people. (Audience: “Oh, wow.”) Why do we need a tank? It was given to us by the federal government, as they began to get rid of the surplus of military equipment, right? So, we need to get back to a day and age in which our police force becomes a force of peace officers. This militarized issue is really doing us in. So, I dealt with the issue of race, I'm dealing with the issues of economics. Now, in the City of Cleveland...Angelo's mom, wherever she is, she lifted up the fact that when Cleveland knows that they are wrong, they settle. Right? That's a problem, ya'll. These police officers still need to be held accountable. And giving somebody $50,000 is unacceptable. And until our elected officials, and our appointed officials, understand like, for example, the county prosecutor? Ya'll know we elect him. Ya'll do know that, right? (Audience/panelist: “The black church.”) Right. We put him in office. That's a problem, OK? Because who is that prosecutor? The prosecutor represents law enforcement. The prosecutor does not represent the people. He should. But he represents law enforcement. So, we have got to begin to deal with this issue on every front, including the political front. A revolution, a comprehensive revolution is what is called for.”

Shemariah Arki--“Just briefly, to just bring a little bit of theory and another lens into this conversation again. What Genevieve was talkin' about is a phenomenon that has been studied. And a scholar by the name of Dr. Joy Degruy has written a book on it, and it is called Post- Traumatic Slave Syndrome. (Genevieve: “That's right.”) And this syndrome is passed down from mother to child in the mitochondrial DNA. So, we need some scientists on our team too. (Audience: "That's right.") We need them here. Because this has been proven, the stress that comes when a mother is carrying a child is passed on to that child. And this is one of the, one of the reasons, right? There are lots of reasons, but this is one of the reasons why our men can go from zero to sixty like that (A snap of her fingers). 'You stepped on my shoe, I'm going to shoot you.' Because is trauma after trauma, after trauma, after trauma. So we need to understand that while race is a social construct and we're talkin' about these social identifiers, that the government has created to put us in boxes, it now has a biological effect on us. And so, we have to address that as well.” (Applause)