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these were their last words
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[Music]
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their names Define a movement
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their deaths are rallying cry for
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justice
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the killing of George Floyd has
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protesters demanding change LED by black
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lives matter once again
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it's time for us to stand up in George's
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name and say get your knee off our necks
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[Music]
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the black lives matter group has been
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fighting to be heard since 2013 and the
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phrase itself is now being seen on
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streets and screens all over the world
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but how did the movement get hit how did
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it begin their message comes from an
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urgent need to tackle police brutality
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and the statistics are stuck police
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killed more than a thousand people in
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America in 2019. black people are
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currently three times more likely to be
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killed by police and 99 of killings by a
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police officer between 2013 to 2019 have
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not resulted in criminal charges but the
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black lives matter bubble didn't
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actually start with police brutality it
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began after the death of Trayvon Martin
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at the hands of an armed vigilante it is
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a story that no one can stop talking
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about the shooting of Trayvon Martin on
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a February evening in 2012 in Sanford
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Florida neighborhood watch volunteer
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George Zimmerman called the police to
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report suspicious person this guy looks
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like he sucks no good or he's on drugs
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or something it's raining he's just
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walking around looking about okay and
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this guy he went back to Hispanic
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he looks black he's told not to approach
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the person in question are you following
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him
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yeah okay we don't need you to do that
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Zimmerman ignored the instructions and
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started following 17 year old Trayvon
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Martin
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moments later neighbors reported hearing
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gunfire
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you just have gunshots yes how many
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verse one Zimmerman accepted he shot
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Martin claiming self-defense he wasn't
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immediately charged in fact it took 44
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days for him to be arrested only after
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National media attention a petition
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signed by more than a million people and
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a public response from the then
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president you know if I had a son he'd
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look like Trayvon we're going to get to
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the bottom of exactly what happened a
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year later Zimmerman was found not
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guilty of all charges by a jury of Six
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Women five of them white the acquittal
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caused outraged and sparked the birth of
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a new kind of civil rights movement long
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before there was a black lives matter
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movement there was a movement for black
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lives it comes as a great shock to
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discover that the country which is your
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birthplace and to which you owe your
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life and your identity
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has not in its whole system of reality
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evolved any place for you
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BLM from its beginning was the
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continuation of a tradition uh and a
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remix of a much longer black Freedom
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struggle but it has its roots uh and the
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labor of black women after Zimmerman's
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acquittal activist Alicia Garza posted
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on Facebook black people I love you I
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love us our lives matter black lives
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matter Garza's friend Patrice Collier
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shared the final three words as a
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hashtag on the 7th of March 2013 black
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lives matter was first seen on Twitter
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writer and immigrant rights activist
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Opel tumetti offered to build social
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media platforms for it where activists
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could connect with one another with this
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hashtag new conversations were being
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created online and ultimately in our
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everyday lives black lives matter is our
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call to action
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it is a tool to re-imagine a world where
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black people are free to exist
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free to live it is a tool for our allies
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to show up differently for us the
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movement gained popularity in the summer
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of 2014 with Eric Garner's last words
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now of rallying cry I can't breathe
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caught on video
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the incident went viral in July 2014 on
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a street in New York Staten Island 43
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year old Ghana was arrested on suspicion
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of illegally selling cigarettes
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he died in a confrontation with officer
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Daniel pantaleo after being placed in a
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choke hold he was the father of six
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pantalea was fired five years later but
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a state grand jury still refused to
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press criminal charges black lives do
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not matter to the system when you time
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and time again you're seeing us being
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murdered and time and time again you're
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seeing the police go free just two
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months after Eric Garner's death another
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fatal shooting there is growing outrage
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tonight after an unarmed
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African-American teenager was shot and
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killed by police in the St Louis suburb
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of Ferguson Missouri 18 year old Michael
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Brown allegedly stole a pack of
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cigarillos from a corner store police
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officer Darren Wilson shot Brown after
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suspecting him of being involved in the
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robbery police shot this man for no
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reason Brown was due to Stark College
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two days after he was killed for weeks
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hundreds of people who'd never taken
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part in organized protests before took
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to the streets
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more tear gas more rubber bullets anger
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boiled over Ferguson's Governor called
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in the National Guard black lives matter
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was used on Twitter over 50 000 times a
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day despite the anger surrounding the
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case Darren Wilson wasn't prosecuted he
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resigned from the fourth and said he
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acted in self-defense
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and Michael Brown Jew
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will be a defining moment
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on how this country
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deals with policing
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after Ferguson the black lives matter
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movement took roots and gained momentum
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as black people continue to die at the
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hands of white police it was a cycle of
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killings protests and no criminal
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charges no federal charges no state
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criminal charges this was all happening
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with America's first black president and
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attorney general at the helm I chose to
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run for president
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at this moment in history because I
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believe deeply that we cannot solve the
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challenges of our time unless we solve
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them together racial discrimination has
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been around since the founding of this
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country to ask that the first black
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president fixed that is asking too much
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this is lawyer Roy Austin he works in
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the white house as Deputy assistant to
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President Obama in the office of urban
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Affairs Justice and opportunity we took
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a ton of steps and under very difficult
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circumstances because there was this
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narrative that we were anti-police for
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taking these steps some of the steps
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taken under Obama included issuing
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consent decrees these allow the court to
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overhaul police departments accused of
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civil rights abuses putting limits on
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the ability of local police forces to
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have military-grade weapons and more
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pattern and practice investigations into
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police departments so where are they
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using excessive force repeatedly where
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are they aging and discriminatory
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policing repeatedly activists at the
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time thought the administration should
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have been doing more to dismantle
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systems in place that were protecting
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the police qualified immunity is a legal
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doctrine that essentially Shields police
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um from from persecution uh or legal uh
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retribution police officers are
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protected by Union contracts which make
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it very difficult for them to be fired
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police officers have a all too cozy
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relationship with District Attorneys all
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these ingredients taken together create
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a culture where police officers are
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Licensed to Kill and almost always get
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away with it
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so even though black lives matter
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representatives were invited to the
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Obama White House they were also some of
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its harshest critics so their idea was
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yes show up yes be at the table but if
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you don't get the kind of policy
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responses that you demand then flip that
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team and then the table flipped totally
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in 2016. well you see them marching and
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you see them on occasion at least I've
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seen it where they're essentially
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calling death to the police
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and that's not acceptable in the Years
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running up to the 2016 election black
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lives matter faced a backlash some
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started using the slogans all lives
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matter White lives matter and blue lives
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matter in response when you say black
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lives matter that's inherently racist
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well I think there are other lives
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matter White lives matter Asian lives
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matter Hispanic lives matter that's
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anti-American and it's racist America's
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Police and law enforcement Personnel are
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what separates civilization from Total
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Chaos I am
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the Law and Order candidate
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Donald Trump's then election marks a new
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era for America and the world the summer
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after the inauguration racial tensions
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inflamed again
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last night's Torchlight protest march by
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the alt-right in Charlottesville
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Virginia has Eerie Echoes of the past
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violence unfolded as white nationalists
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clashed with counter protesters a car
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accelerated into the crowd killing a
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woman and leaving five others critically
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injured president Trump failed to
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immediately call out the white
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supremacists we condemn in the strongest
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possible terms
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this egregious display of hatred bigotry
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and violence on many sides on many sides
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the following year violent hate crime in
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the states hit a 16-year high killings
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of black people at the hands of white
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police continued it just barely made the
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news Donald Trump essentially sucked all
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the life and oxygen out of the media
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black lives matter was no longer you
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know the lead story many Americans were
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also enjoying the relative calm of a
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booming economy African Americans had a
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record low unemployment rate of 5.4
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percent in August 2019. that shows his
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support for the black community when the
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President says I understand I hear you
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the president has people around him that
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look like me who get what's happening at
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the beginning of 2020 U.S election year
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Echoes of 2012 and 2013 hit the
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headlines again public outcry at the
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actions of Vigilantes and a video gone
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viral we turn now to the case of Ahmad
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Aubry the unarmed African-American man
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who was shot and killed while out for a
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jog in his Georgia neighborhood I
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thought that a mod story
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would Open the Eyes of the other leaders
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that I thought maybe it was losing them
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on it would help by the 21st of May the
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men involved in the kidding had been
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arrested and faced murder charges but in
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less than a month after aubry's death
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Rona Taylor was fatally shot by police
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in her own apartment in Louisville
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Kentucky
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no one was immediately arrested in June
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the FBI reopened an investigation Fiona
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Taylor was an emergency room technician
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yet her killing slipped largely under
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the radar as covid-19 swept the U.S
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disproportionately affecting communities
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of color I and many black Americans are
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at higher risk for covid Coronavirus is
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killing more African Americans African
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Americans bear the brunt of the economic
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downturn brought on by the coronavirus
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in Minneapolis Minnesota 46 year old
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George Floyd was victim to these
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conditions he lost his restaurant job
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and tested positive for covid-19
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suspecting Floyd of using a forged 20
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Bill police officer Derek Chauvin held
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his knee on his neck for several minutes
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the world watched and started speaking
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out
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[Applause]
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certainly with 40 million people
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unemployed 100 uh thousand Americans
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dead
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um a white nationalist in office and
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then a televised public lynching those
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are certainly the perfect conditions for
00:12:54
the emergence of rebellion all four
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police officers involved in Floyd's
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killing were arrested on murder charges
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brought about by that video but also in
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part by the strength of black lives
00:13:05
matter protests Across America and the
00:13:07
world people of all backgrounds genders
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and races have come together to demand
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change
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honored him on a charge and make the
00:13:19
necessary changes that make law
00:13:22
enforcement the solution in the run-up
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to Floyd's death President Trump's
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critics have pointed to his dismantling
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of the steps Obama took to tackle racist
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policing those things we mentioned
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earlier consent decrees limiting
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military-grade weapons expanding
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investigations into police units accused
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of abuses have all been overturned under
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President Trump some campaigners are
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arguing for those measures to be
00:13:46
reinstated and enforcing policies like
00:13:48
Banning chokeholds and better
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de-escalation training but the black
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lives matter movement is calling for a
00:13:54
more radical solution the group is
00:13:56
demanding the money spent on policing
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should instead be spent on Health Care
00:14:01
education and Community programs the
00:14:03
institution of the police is
00:14:05
fundamentally corrupt and many of us
00:14:07
believe
00:14:08
um is unpreparable right they simply
00:14:10
must end in its current formation and
00:14:13
that's a deep cultural conversation that
00:14:15
takes a long time for us to figure out
00:14:17
he angry at 46. I'm angry at 31. you
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angry at 16. three generations of
00:14:24
African-American men stood together here
00:14:27
looking to Solutions y'all coming with a
00:14:30
better way
00:14:33
a call to defund the police has been at
00:14:35
the center of the black lives matter
00:14:37
campaign since 2016 but now it has media
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attention countries around the world are
00:14:43
now working out what black lives matter
00:14:45
means to them and campaigners hope that
00:14:47
the year 2020 will be the last time
00:14:50
they'll need to have protests like this
00:14:52
again
