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W. Kamau Bell Takes A Look At Police Brutality In The Bay Area on United Shades of America
May 7, 2021
W. Kamau Bell takes a hard look at police brutality in the Bay Area specifically to get an understanding of why this area functions as it does. He called into Sway In The Morning to talk about it.
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W. Kamau Bell Takes A Look At Police Brutality In The Bay Area on United Shades of America https://youtu.be/UwzMI1sx2LI
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0:00
come on man when we first met him he was
0:02
just a stand-up comic
0:03
and the tv host now he's a three-time
0:07
prime time emmy award winner
0:10
the one and only w kamal bell things
0:12
have changed hbd
0:16
[Applause]
0:17
[Music]
0:24
now it's different now but it's amazing
0:27
uh well deserved man how you been sir
0:31
you know just trying to dodge cove fully
0:34
vaccinated trying to stay
0:36
trying to you know stay out of trouble
0:38
trying to stay out of trouble i
0:40
i saw the first episode of season six
0:47
[Laughter]
0:52
yeah i may have some problems with the
0:54
vallejo pd now but hopefully not
0:56
oh my gosh is it called policing the
0:59
police this first episode of season six
1:02
i mean that's what that's what they call
1:03
it but it's really about defunding the
1:05
police they just didn't want to put that
1:06
title on it so it's really
1:08
a a full explanation of what it means to
1:11
defund the police
1:12
why why we need to do it how it has
1:14
worked here in oakland
1:16
and uh you know why it's an idea that
1:18
you shouldn't run to your fading couch
1:19
when you hear people say
1:22
let's talk about that um i saw
1:25
let's talk about it because this first
1:27
episode yeah let's talk about it
1:28
it's so engaging you know you even break
1:31
down
1:32
let's talk about it man let's talk about
1:34
the citizens eight eight eight seven
1:35
four two three three four five even uh
1:37
if we are police officers listening
1:39
let's talk about it let's let's start
1:41
with the basic fundamentals of policing
1:44
you will learn a lot about the basic
1:46
fundamental structure
1:48
of policing because it's talked about in
1:50
this episode
1:52
w kamal bell can you talk about where
1:54
the fundamentals of policing came from
1:56
around what time
1:58
in this country well certainly so we
2:00
actually think that policing has existed
2:02
you know since this country began but
2:04
that's not true
2:04
it wasn't until after this country was
2:06
founded and after
2:08
really the origins of policing in the
2:10
south come from slave catching
2:11
that that was the reason why they needed
2:13
they needed police because they needed
2:14
to
2:15
they needed to catch the enslaved
2:16
africans and bring them back to the
2:18
to their plantations so you have to
2:20
understand that therefore
2:22
the origins of policing all around the
2:24
country come from policing
2:25
black and later brown bodies so that's
2:27
first of all and in the north
2:29
it came out of we're talking about uh
2:31
you know the 17 1800s
2:34
it came out of protecting rich white
2:36
men's property
2:37
like that because that's so therefore
2:38
again you're talking about it wasn't
2:40
about protecting the community it was
2:42
about specifically protecting rich white
2:43
men's property
2:44
so that when you put those two together
2:46
it's not policing was not built to serve
2:48
all of us it was built to serve the
2:50
people who have power
2:51
and also to criminalize black bodies
2:54
so when you talking about uh to protect
2:58
which rich white men's property and
3:00
those principles of policing this are we
3:02
speaking about the pills principle of
3:03
policing
3:05
yeah we're talking about uh the barbados
3:06
slave codes and peels
3:08
and the field principles of policing
3:09
that's that that uh which are two
3:11
different
3:11
which are two different ways in which
3:12
policing evolved and that was how the
3:15
whole idea was conceived it was never
3:17
about like
3:18
the policing and the original police
3:19
country was never about like protecting
3:22
me from you sway or you for me it was
3:24
about protecting white folks from us
3:27
come on um wow yeah and it's not you you
3:31
spoke to some very prominent people
3:33
nikki jones is in there brilliant woman
3:35
uh
3:36
does nikki teach absolutely professor at
3:38
uc berkeley
3:40
yeah she's a she's an african-american
3:42
studies professor at cal yeah she's
3:43
great yeah she comes she brings the heat
3:46
nicki jones come on nicki jones and kat
3:49
brooks who uh
3:50
ran for mayor who's been on our show as
3:52
well and you guys really talk about the
3:55
meaning behind
3:56
not not the you know not how it got
3:59
misconstrued or the
4:01
or the propaganda or underlying agenda
4:03
behind the fund the police but you
4:05
actually broke down
4:06
what it meant and then i think it was
4:08
james burch
4:09
you guys even talked about how defunding
4:12
the police
4:13
can be from a uh from a fiscal
4:15
perspective
4:16
uh beneficial to a community or or city
4:19
or a state can you speak to that
4:22
yeah first of all sway thank you for
4:23
watching the show everybody's not like
4:25
you when i do these things
4:26
i really appreciate that brother i
4:28
really appreciate it you're out here
4:29
asking for footnotes i appreciate that
4:32
so yeah so yeah so defining the police
4:35
is about the fact that for example in
4:36
oakland where you're from and where i
4:38
live right now
4:39
about 50 of the city's municipal fund
4:42
goes to the police
4:43
but when you look at the numbers only
4:45
about four to five percent of calls of
4:46
the police
4:47
are for violent crimes that means there
4:49
are a lot of 9-1-1 calls for things
4:51
that police really don't have the skills
4:53
to deal with for example
4:55
somebody's having a mental health
4:56
episode in the middle of the street you
4:58
call
4:58
you you shouldn't have to call the
5:00
police for that there should be some
5:01
other city service that you call
5:03
that is about helping a person who's
5:04
having a mental health episode in the
5:06
street
5:06
or if you're having just a regular
5:08
dispute with your neighbor about
5:10
something you shouldn't have to call the
5:11
police to come resolve a regular dispute
5:13
with your neighbor but unfortunately we
5:15
give them 50 of the money
5:17
and then give them all those jobs as
5:19
we've seen as recently as this week
5:20
they are not good at all those jobs or
5:22
for example we should
5:24
police every scene regular traffic stops
5:26
end up with black people dead
5:28
the police should not be in charge of
5:30
regular traffic stops that are about
5:32
that are about tickets to moving
5:33
violations there are other ways we could
5:34
spend that money
5:35
and also all the research shows that if
5:38
you take money
5:39
out of policing and put it into or out
5:41
of
5:42
criminal justice and put it into schools
5:44
you end up spending less money on
5:45
criminal justice in prison
5:48
facts it's all factual we got a retired
5:51
police officer on the line with us right
5:53
now t
5:53
i appreciate you calling this is t from
5:55
buffalo thank you t
5:57
grand rises
6:02
uh yes yes i'm here yes i'm here i would
6:05
like to ask him
6:06
you know it will always confuse me you
6:09
have like your european country
6:10
specifically like london
6:12
you you have officers that that are not
6:15
even
6:15
armed why is that sort of being having
6:18
guns
6:19
is such a big thing in policing in
6:21
america
6:22
uh i just feel that that is not
6:24
necessary
6:25
in the big spectrum of things i think
6:27
maybe they should have like
6:28
specialized units that handle that those
6:30
type of things
6:33
yeah i mean other countries look at us
6:34
and think we're ridiculous for having so
6:36
many guns first of all but it also comes
6:38
from the fact that
6:39
this country was founded through a
6:41
takeover of violence and genocide if
6:43
we're going to be real
6:44
you know this country this country
6:46
despite what uh
6:47
my cnn label mate said uh rick santorum
6:50
about that people came here and there
6:51
was nothing here and that native
6:52
americans have no culture
6:54
this country was founded in a violent
6:55
matter and it was a takeover
6:57
and it required violence to keep black
6:59
folks down
7:02
i think that's just a part of how this
7:03
country works and i think that and that
7:05
has been built and then as we said
7:06
earlier that's how policing was built
7:08
was built on
7:09
criminalizing black bodies so i think
7:11
obviously i agree with you
7:12
there should be less guns in this
7:13
country and certainly we should not
7:15
every time you call the cops for help
7:16
somebody with a gun shows up
7:18
hey hey how long did how long did you
7:20
serve how long were your police officers
7:22
no i'm retired i'm 20 years i did 20
7:25
years and
7:26
and i got out of it you know um you know
7:29
what one of the good apples sir you one
7:30
of the good apples
7:32
oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i'm
7:34
good man i
7:35
you know i i did my job and you know and
7:38
i got out
7:39
but but i was always you know disturbed
7:42
stuff that i'm seeing today you know a
7:44
lot of these officers
7:46
they're not trained on mental health or
7:48
people that have disabilities
7:50
exactly exactly um exactly
7:53
a lot of them aren't trained much at all
7:54
it's like for a lot of police officers
7:56
it's a six week training program
7:58
you know and in my opinion just my
8:00
opinion and i leave it at this
8:02
i think you know i only have a high
8:04
school
8:05
education and a military background
8:09
but i think police officers in this
8:11
country should be educated and trained
8:14
just like lawyers and doctors
8:17
i like this yeah i agree you know i'm
8:20
just being honest with you i think that
8:22
if you want to be a police officer you
8:24
go to school you get you a
8:25
four-year degree you get your law degree
8:28
you know you
8:29
and then you go through that damn
8:30
academy
8:33
you know and then and when i say the
8:36
training and education yeah
8:38
bringing the mental uh education you
8:41
know uh
8:42
human resources put all that in the
8:43
curriculum so by this time this officer
8:46
is
8:46
25 27 you know they ready you know they
8:50
putting people on the street
8:51
22 out the military just been to
8:54
afghanistan or wherever
8:56
or haven't haven't even worked have
8:58
don't know nothing about nothing put
9:00
them in the academies i know that's how
9:01
it was when i came in
9:03
put them in academies for what 12 weeks
9:05
and now you want me
9:07
to try you know want me to police folks
9:11
you know i mean that's that's just just
9:13
how i feel about it
9:14
no i think you're right on the money t
9:16
uh and i appreciate your
9:18
your transparency thank you this is from
9:20
a 20-year veteran t
9:21
thank you you're a citizen bro you're a
9:23
citizen
9:25
absolutely we're not even talking about
9:27
the underlying
9:28
thread of all of this you know as much
9:31
as we could
9:32
when you watch this episode uh which
9:34
premieres may
9:35
2nd sunday 10 p.m on cnn united states
9:38
of america
9:39
with our guest w kamal bell you're going
9:41
to see in this episode
9:43
uh that things were so bad it's always
9:46
been so bad that
9:47
uh lyndon johnson himself put together a
9:49
commission
9:50
right come on yeah the kerner commission
9:54
the kerner commission which was to
9:56
examine basically at that point in 1967
9:59
there had been a bunch of uprisings that
10:01
lyndon johnson called riot
10:02
in american cities in the black
10:04
community starting in like 64 i believe
10:06
and they were basically just trying to
10:07
figure out why this happened and they
10:08
realized that one of the big reasons
10:10
was the racist nature of america and the
10:13
racist nature of policing to enforce the
10:15
racist nature of america
10:16
and lyndon johnson was like great to
10:18
hear anyway
10:20
let's start the war on drugs
10:24
and he put a commission of white men
10:26
together it was all white
10:28
it was mostly white it was it was mostly
10:30
white man they put i think there's a
10:31
brother and a white woman on there
10:32
you know they like to use us like that
10:34
but uh but yeah they but
10:36
lyndon johnson just rejected the
10:37
findings and then actually it was the
10:39
nixon administration that started the
10:40
war on drugs
10:41
and what we're saying in the episode is
10:42
every time there's been an effort to
10:43
just reform the police because people
10:45
say you know i talked to a lot of white
10:47
folks why do you gotta say define my
10:49
beliefs
10:50
[Music]
10:54
is that your wife that's your wife folks
10:57
my wife that's my white voice i'm
10:58
working on my whiteboard
11:00
why do you got a great oh my gosh
11:05
okay all right
11:08
yeah so every time i won't do that again
11:10
it clearly horrified all of you but uh
11:12
every time we talk about the fun every
11:14
time we talk about reform we've tried
11:16
reform and you all know this i'm not i'm
11:17
preaching the choir we've tried to
11:19
perform
11:19
many times but what happens is it ends
11:21
up with police going you know how you
11:23
reform us
11:24
give us more money and give us more
11:26
equipment and give us more power
11:28
so that's and then politicians who never
11:30
want to say they cut a police budget go
11:32
okay here's more money there's more
11:34
power and it ends up with more dead
11:35
black and brown folks
11:38
and at the core of it we're talking that
11:40
commission came back and said racism
11:42
and white supremacy um yep yeah
11:46
that was white folks white men who said
11:48
that that it was racism and white
11:50
supremacy that was the problem
11:52
and that we were creating two separate
11:53
societies this is 68 they said we're
11:55
creating
11:56
a two separate and unequal societies a
11:58
white one and a black one
12:00
and they said that in 67 and we all know
12:02
just through covet that it's gotten
12:03
worse
12:05
uh dr massengill is on the line uh from
12:08
detroit how you doing doctor
12:10
hey doc hi good morning how's everybody
12:13
doing
12:14
doing well wow good morning
12:17
good morning um i just wanted to
12:20
elaborate on
12:21
you know what uh cabal was talking about
12:23
in regards to the police not
12:25
understanding or knowing
12:26
knowing how to deal with people with
12:28
mental health
12:29
issues um and i i feel that's very true
12:32
i recently see a little scene a little
12:34
boy as i was walking get my morning walk
12:36
off in the morning
12:38
and he started walking he was waving his
12:40
hands in the air
12:42
and i you know kind of looked and i
12:44
recognized myself
12:46
that you know him waving the hands and
12:47
not communicating you know there was you
12:49
know he was autistic
12:51
and he just started running he didn't
12:52
have any shoes on fire
12:54
he called young one he started running
12:56
towards a busy street
12:57
so when i called 9-1-1 and the police
12:59
came um they were trying to talk to them
13:02
him and i had to stay with him because i
13:04
knew he was autistic and i knew
13:06
that they didn't know how to handle that
13:08
i knew you know a lot of times you know
13:10
with them not understanding that that
13:12
waving their hands or not speaking or
13:14
walking away
13:15
you know could be just see differently
13:18
so you know i stayed there and i told
13:20
the police you know he's waving his
13:22
hands he's not speaking because he's
13:23
autistic
13:24
so thank god and in my community they
13:27
were able to at least
13:28
listen to me as a citizen because i did
13:30
make the call
13:31
but just imagine you know if he's waving
13:34
his hands and he keeps
13:35
walking he doesn't you know autistic
13:37
people they do not you know they don't
13:39
perceive
13:40
language they don't have communication
13:42
skills like normal people
13:44
so that training is very very essential
13:46
i had to just tap in and say something
13:48
about that
13:49
okay i want to thank her thank you for
13:52
putting she put her life in danger doing
13:54
that and i think we have to if we
13:56
if we're real that's what we have to do
13:57
we have to be there to be witnesses but
13:58
thank you for doing this
14:00
hey doc you're a citizen we got another
14:02
resident doctor here dr matthew wow
14:04
in the morning i'm a little confused by
14:08
it
14:09
go forward i'm a little confused by it
14:10
to be honest what's up kamal how you
14:12
doing
14:13
um because well i agree you know like
14:16
the training
14:17
needs to be done but it seems like it's
14:19
just with with white
14:20
officers it how come we don't see this
14:22
on poor
14:23
of black officers shooting and
14:26
and killing and putting knees on neck of
14:28
white
14:30
uh alleged criminals so to speak so it's
14:33
not all officers it's just
14:34
it's certain officers that's doing this
14:36
this is not all of them
14:38
so how come the black officers know the
14:40
trainer and the white officers don't
14:42
what
14:42
what's happening here well i think we're
14:46
talking about the system too that the
14:47
system creates a sense in that
14:49
even if you don't even if you're not
14:51
doing it often you're standing next to
14:53
somebody who is doing it
14:54
and the police unions and police make it
14:56
really hard for them to tell
14:58
each other there's a story of a woman
14:59
named carol horn out of buffalo new york
15:01
yeah i saw that yeah yeah and she and
15:04
the white officer was choking the black
15:06
man and she stepped in and pulled him
15:07
off what they're supposed to do
15:09
and they ended up firing her right she
15:11
had a year before she got her pension
15:13
so that's if you're a black officer and
15:15
you're not doing it but you know if you
15:16
do do something about it
15:17
that you're risking your job and your
15:19
pension then it makes you less likely to
15:20
do something
15:22
so then kamau i know that you have
15:25
daughters i don't believe you have a son
15:26
am i correct
15:27
about that i do not have i do not have a
15:30
son i tried for three times but i have
15:31
three dollars
15:36
i'm talking about it don't worry you
15:38
gotta take
15:41
[Music]
15:42
[Laughter]
15:50
that's been a sore subject for him tracy
15:52
jeez
15:55
well i bring it up because i wonder
15:58
theoretically
15:59
if you had a son and he was interested
16:01
or i guess this could go for a daughter
16:03
yeah just a child of yours
16:05
that wanted to become a police officer
16:07
would you feel proud of them or would
16:08
you feel terrified
16:11
i would inform them i think i would you
16:13
know i think you know
16:14
and i think i would be clear about what
16:16
that means and i have kids right now who
16:18
maybe want to grow up and be police
16:19
officers but they already know about
16:21
george floyd
16:22
they already know about brianna taylor
16:23
they know about derrick chauvin so
16:25
i would inform them and also let them
16:27
know just like if my daughter said she
16:29
wanted to be president
16:31
okay here we go i'm gonna do this
16:34
but it's gonna be rough and i think that
16:36
and i think that would be clear about
16:37
this is how the system works and i hope
16:40
the way that my mom raised me that if
16:41
you're gonna step into the system that
16:42
you go in there change the system
16:44
and you have to be radical about the
16:45
change so yeah i i don't know
16:47
i don't i would not i would be real i
16:49
would be real with them i'm not going to
16:50
try to discourage my daughters from
16:52
doing things they want to do that
16:54
no that makes sense i've been wondering
16:56
like how a child would feel enthusiastic
16:59
would have curiosity to even explore
17:01
that as a career
17:03
when so much of our conversation is
17:06
about
17:06
the police you know bringing harm to our
17:09
community more
17:10
than help you know what i mean and so
17:12
then that makes me worried about the
17:14
right
17:15
people joining the force and making
17:17
those changes
17:18
when it's like i don't know what kid
17:19
would want to be a police officer
17:23
well it's just for sure and that's why i
17:24
think it's important right now in this
17:25
moment when we're like
17:26
seeing that even though derek children
17:28
went to prison on all three count
17:30
for all three counts the system hasn't
17:32
changed and there have been black people
17:34
who've been killed since he went to
17:35
print since he was
17:36
uh sentenced or since since but found
17:38
guilty and the system has to change
17:41
this is you know we're here here in uh
17:43
the bay area
17:44
a latinx man named mario gonzalez was
17:46
killed when st mayor george boyd was
17:48
killed just in the last week
17:49
so until we really reimagined the whole
17:51
system which is what the episode is
17:52
saying we have to do
17:53
we're gonna get the same results w come
17:57
on bill
17:58
uh i'm gonna take one last call off from
17:59
albany shawn you wanted to comment
18:02
absolutely absolutely thank you good
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morning to all party people
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grand rides 40 people yo indeed
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indeed just real quick come on i mean
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two points right
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um you know people say you can track you
18:15
can attract more uh bees with honey
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right and so this this term of defunding
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the police
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seems to take on a lot of uh negative
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connotation
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um and i and i heard when you came in
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you was you was adamant about defunding
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the police do you think that we can try
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to
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uh use use a better term to try to get
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the masses behind what we're trying to
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uh change about the system other than
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using the term defunding the police
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because it seems to be
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a term that is uh dividing more than
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united
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and number two uh and this may be a
18:49
little bit out of your warehouse because
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you know you have the new
18:52
the new show coming up but this whole
18:55
piece about
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these are executive orders regarding the
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transgender community
19:00
executive order regarding the asian
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community
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and then still no executive orders from
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binding regarding the african-american
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community and the trials and
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tribulations that we've been going
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through
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over the current years like what are
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your thoughts on those two pieces
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those two small things all right here we
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go great question
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i mean first of all we you know black
19:25
people even those of us who voted for
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joe biden and kamala harris know that we
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can't
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stop pushing them we can't we can't
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expect it just because we voted that
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that's enough
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and that's history of black folks in
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this country we cannot trust our elected
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officials to just do the right thing so
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we have to push them so i
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i'm right there with you we got to push
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them to do more for the black community
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100
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absolutely um the other thing i would
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say that is like
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a lot of the people in the defund
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movement i think well there's two things
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about that one
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you have to remember this ever since
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black people ever since we showed up
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here in this country ever since they
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unloaded us from that boat
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we've been trying to figure out ways for
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the power structure and law enforcement
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to be nicer to us
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and we've and you know martin luther
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king jr was basically talking about
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everybody should get a hug
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and he was assassinated so i think in
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some ways the people who came
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to fund the police were saying we have
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to figure out a big way to get people's
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attention
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and as an episode it's way nicer than
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what ice cube said
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so okay i think we have to understand
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that the f that
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that maybe there will become another way
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to say this but this is what it is right
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now
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yeah okay and why sugarcoat it and then
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what about the executive orders
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that he mentioned what were your
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thoughts well no i think we have like i
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said
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we have to keep pushing the biden
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administration we can't expect it just
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because we voted them in that they're
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going to do the right thing so i think
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yeah absolutely we should
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we should we should constantly be
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demanding more because black women are
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the ones who put biden in office in the
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first place those black women who led
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those organizations in georgia
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absolutely stacey abrams salute sean
20:47
thank you for your questions i hope that
20:48
answered
20:49
you as citizen this way in the morning
20:51
yeah i want
20:52
everyone may 2nd 10 p.m on cnn is the
20:55
best
20:56
show they have united shades of america
20:58
with w come on bill
21:00
absolutely and i say that uh with
21:03
certainty
21:03
all right so you guys make sure y'all
21:05
support this man always good to hear
21:07
your voice brother i love how you rep
21:08
the town y'all got some nice shots over
21:10
there the estuary and everything i ain't
21:12
seen no shots
21:13
you know yeah you know i had to show it
21:15
off i just showed off
21:16
yeah man i i enjoyed it and um thank you
21:19
again for the work you're doing
21:20
congratulations on all the success
21:23
thank you brother thank you everybody
21:25
you're welcome
21:26
hey man yeah man follow him at w
21:30
kamal bell that's k-a-m-a-u-b-e-l-l
21:34
all right follow him ask him questions
21:36
man we got political news with mike muse
21:38
coming up next
21:52
you
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