Transcript


00:07
hello everyone
00:08
welcome i am marius franklin
00:12
your board member and facilitator of the
00:14
call today
00:15
thank you for joining us for this workshop
00:18
community coalition building i want to
00:22
mention a few housekeeping items before
00:23
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01:00
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01:04
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01:20
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01:25
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01:48
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01:54
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01:56
thank you
02:13
hello everybody my name is ken mitchell
02:16
i'm from atlanta georgia
02:19
at the center for independent living
02:21
disability link
02:23
along me along with me is kendall and
02:25
i'll let her introduce herself
02:33
hi everyone good afternoon my name is
02:36
kendall greenell and i'm representing us
02:39
protecting us
02:40
today and i'm so happy to
02:44
be on with everyone this afternoon
02:48
and i'm looking forward to getting
02:49
started
02:50
[Music]
02:56
i'm sorry this is ken i'm getting a
02:59
little feedback off of the uh
03:16
okay
03:19
[Music]
03:20
all right thank you um as i said my name
03:23
is kim mitch i'm from atlanta georgia
03:25
along with kendall hell and we're going
03:28
to talk a little bit about a program
03:30
that
03:31
was started here at disability linkedin
03:35
and um
03:41
just so we
04:01
this is britney kendall it looks like
04:04
uh ted lost his connection would you
04:07
mind
04:08
um picking up and until he comes back
04:10
that'd be very helpful
04:12
thank you
04:43
hi everybody we're experiencing
04:45
technical difficulties at the moment
04:48
um we'll try to get ken and kendall back
04:53
and then we will think ken's back on so
04:57
i'll go back on now am i back on
05:03
can you hear me yeah yeah okay i'm sorry
05:06
i don't know what happened there
05:08
but i went away for a second we'll start
05:11
again
05:12
uh so
05:21
again uh wait i don't know if that would
05:23
have been turning off the
05:24
chat for me because when that comes i
05:27
can't
05:28
i'm hearing the chat instead of the mic
05:51
a non-profit uh organization
05:55
uh it started from one of our
05:59
center for independent living programs
06:01
called
06:02
us a question called nothing about us
06:04
without us
06:06
in that particular program we it's once
06:09
a month
06:10
the first thursday of every month
06:12
everyone's interested it is online
06:14
and in that we bring up different
06:18
issues or information uh that's
06:21
concerning our neighborhood
06:22
or our community and that we have people
06:25
from all
06:26
different counties that we represent
06:29
which is 12 counties around metro
06:30
atlanta
06:32
and the program goes something like this
06:35
we get an issue or a program
06:39
giving some information about it we try
06:41
to educate
06:42
a little bit about it by either bringing
06:44
in uh guest speakers
06:46
or people that it affects
06:49
and then the last part about it is we've
06:52
tried to do some kind of action
06:55
about four almost five years ago
06:58
in our community we were talking a lot
07:00
about
07:02
people with disabilities and first
07:05
responders
07:06
how they were being treated how we were
07:09
being treated rather
07:10
and how there's a lot of police
07:13
shootings and
07:15
abuses around metro atlanta and then of
07:17
course around the country
07:18
not that that was anything new it was
07:20
just something that was being brought to
07:22
the forefront
07:25
again that was about four years ago from
07:27
that
07:28
under the action part many of the
07:30
consumers
07:31
decided that you know what are we going
07:33
to do
07:35
and from that decided that we should
07:38
have a meeting with
07:39
a number of our area partners to
07:43
let them know um
07:46
how we felt and what our concerns were
07:50
so uh that would that happened um
07:53
we had a meeting uh with a bunch of
07:57
partners and from
07:58
there they decided that we need to reach
08:01
out to
08:02
not only our community but the community
08:05
that surround us i.e
08:08
um black lives matters
08:13
the national association of colored
08:15
people
08:19
the wellness center 9-1-1
08:22
operators some of the other peer-led
08:26
organizations around us
08:28
such as members of the national
08:30
federation of the blind
08:32
uh american wheelchair users um
08:36
anyway we send out invitations i don't
08:39
know how many actually sent
08:40
out but about 25 uh
08:43
different people organizations showed up
08:46
for that particular meeting
08:48
and in there we had a
08:51
lively discussion a lot of um
08:56
discussion about what should be done
09:00
and what shouldn't be done in that
09:02
conversation
09:03
the shooting of anthony hill
09:06
was brought up anthony hill if you don't
09:08
know was a
09:10
navy veteran who was shot by a police
09:14
officer
09:14
here in georgia actually about
09:18
10 miles from our center
09:22
um he was uh he was naked
09:26
um he was in his own community
09:29
and uh
09:32
uh less than two minutes after an
09:34
officer showed up
09:36
he was shot and killed
09:41
from there we decided that this is one
09:44
of the many
09:47
areas that we were going to look into
09:50
anthony hill was probably one of the
09:51
more famous ones but there were a number
09:53
of others
09:53
in the area i think at that time
09:58
uh we knew someone knew of a family
10:01
friend of his
10:02
i think this is where kendall came in
10:05
and if she wants to
10:07
go a little bit about that you can
10:08
kendall
10:12
if he's still there
10:16
i'm here and my power is back on i'm so
10:18
sorry it surged
10:20
i got kicked off um
10:24
i'm friends with um the late anthony
10:28
hill
10:28
his girlfriend at the time when it
10:31
happened
10:32
and she had asked me if i wanted to go
10:35
to a meeting with her
10:36
she wasn't really sure what it was about
10:39
but
10:40
we were feeling very of course unsettled
10:42
and upset
10:44
and we wanted to do something to help
10:46
gain some support
10:48
for his case so i went with her to
10:51
disability link and i met ken there
10:54
and from there we we didn't know what
10:58
to do or how we could help but we wanted
11:01
to do something and we just kept
11:03
meeting every first saturday of the
11:05
month
11:06
um we would get together
11:10
we would discuss cases we would pull
11:12
information we
11:14
also learned a bit how police
11:18
are trained for situations involving
11:22
people
11:22
with disability or mental health crisis
11:26
and we weren't liking what we were
11:28
seeing and we knew
11:30
we had to keep going to make a change we
11:32
weren't sure
11:33
what to do or where to go but we kept
11:36
going
11:37
and with that drive we formed our
11:40
coalition our group us protecting us
11:44
um and the
11:47
trial for anthony hill was actually a
11:49
year ago exactly a year ago today
11:52
and his trial took place four and a half
11:55
years
11:57
after his murder so that was
12:00
also something that was very upsetting
12:02
to the community
12:04
because we kept having this
12:08
carrot of justice dangled in front of
12:10
our faces and we would think finally the
12:12
day in court would come
12:14
the judge would recuse themselves and
12:16
the process would have to start
12:17
all over again so
12:21
what us protecting us what we did
12:24
is we set up press conferences in front
12:28
of the courthouse
12:30
we worked with other local organizations
12:34
the alliance for black lives it's bigger
12:37
than you
12:38
we all collaborated and worked together
12:41
to
12:42
get attention we also worked anthony was
12:44
a veteran so we also reached out to
12:46
different veteran groups and
12:50
the community really came and supported
12:53
the family and what was going
12:57
on and i wholeheartedly believe without
13:00
that support
13:01
we would still be waiting for a child
13:04
today
13:06
[Music]
13:17
so so uh thank you uh
13:20
kendall so um kendall was just one of
13:23
the many people that we had actually
13:24
reached out to
13:33
sorry about that i couldn't tell that
13:35
the video was off
13:37
so the um as i was saying that
13:41
uh that was kind of the start of our our
13:44
um
13:46
our group well it wasn't really kind of
13:49
uh
13:51
where we were going to go how we were
13:52
going to participate i know that
13:55
originally we talked about having um
14:00
some kind of a class
14:03
or some kind of instruction for the
14:06
first responders and the police and as
14:09
kendall may have said
14:10
the officer that shot mr hill
14:15
had taken the course and
14:18
we were kind of amazed by that
14:21
so now we decided that we were going to
14:24
find out what was actually in the course
14:25
what was what were they teaching
14:27
the police officers so that the person
14:29
who graduated
14:30
would come to a man who was
14:33
unclothed uh showed
14:37
no uh aggressiveness and
14:40
and shoot him and kill him
14:44
we looked into how the
14:48
program was developed and how the
14:50
classes were
14:53
taught and we as kendall may have said
14:57
we were kind of shocked the course was
15:01
40 hours long two weeks
15:04
i mean a week rather and they developed
15:09
about i'm going to say how they did it
15:12
was they
15:12
they uh gave about 10 minutes to each
15:16
um as they called labeled disability
15:19
to tell what it was um
15:23
and we decided that that was not
15:26
sufficient enough
15:29
we went to different
15:32
police organizations to try to figure
15:34
out how could we
15:37
support the police and
15:40
training their officers differently
15:43
and we found that
15:47
even though we got a lot of good
15:50
talks that the authorities
15:54
were not really in the mood to
15:57
change their training of course this is
16:00
probably now where
16:02
we've probably been doing this for maybe
16:04
about a year and a half
16:06
uh maybe almost two then we decided that
16:09
we needed to change our direction
16:12
and i don't know quite who came up with
16:14
it but i'm going to give the credit to
16:15
kindle
16:16
uh that maybe we should instead of
16:19
worried about
16:21
de-escalating ourselves i mean not the
16:25
police
16:26
maybe we should work on us
16:29
which hence the name
16:32
us protecting us
16:38
one of the things we we continued going
16:40
on was
16:41
there's a lot of discussion of how this
16:43
training should be done
16:45
uh if that's the way to go should we
16:48
involve police
16:49
what liabilities we might have uh there
16:52
was
16:53
um discussion on um
16:56
we talked about individual disabilities
17:01
uh what we should look for for instance
17:04
um if you don't know the story of
17:06
antiquito
17:08
he had postmaster
17:11
uh he hadn't been able to take
17:14
the medication that he was used to
17:18
and um he had uh come outside
17:21
naked he hadn't harmed anybody matter of
17:24
fact he was out for a while
17:27
and the story goes that was the first
17:29
time he was out the neighbors got him
17:31
and brought him uh back to his apartment
17:35
again against us protecting us
17:38
the second time he came out
17:41
someone had called the police i would
17:44
say believing that that would be helpful
17:48
and um of course after
17:52
uh less than two minutes he was killed
17:57
so uh when we went through the the uh
18:01
the discussions of what we're going to
18:03
do how we're going to do it
18:04
uh we went through a lot of uh
18:08
phases and blends and discussions
18:12
of what would be an avenue or approach
18:15
or the mini avenues of approach
18:17
meanwhile
18:19
a group was consistently on the
18:22
case of anthony hill and the
18:26
court case um so there was a group kind
18:30
of
18:30
going along with that a group
18:34
reaching out to different authorities
18:38
a group working with the actual training
18:43
again this did not happen overnight
18:46
again
18:47
this did not happen without a little
18:49
bruising of
18:50
of discussions or philosophies
18:54
but we were lucky because
18:57
uh a group of people stuck with it and
19:00
now uh
19:01
it's been um four years
19:05
a little over four years that the group
19:07
is going in and still going continually
19:09
strong
19:10
um kendall
19:13
reminding me that just about a year ago
19:17
now was the actual um
19:20
trial for anthony hill we can talk about
19:23
that too
19:24
later on
19:27
continuing on so what's happened as
19:30
kendall said is that
19:31
we've come up with a program a webinar
19:34
for um for our community
19:38
and um if you know anything about
19:42
uh atlanta uh we're actually on the
19:45
outskirts of the women
19:49
and that we are
19:53
next to clarkson which is stated as the
19:56
most diverse
19:58
city in america so we're kind of lucky
20:01
in that part that we
20:02
were able to have that diversity
20:07
but uh what's happened now is that we
20:09
have a program where
20:11
we are giving out um webinars
20:15
and there's a couple things that we
20:17
might ask you uh
20:19
at the end for a discussion part
20:22
kendall something else would like to say
20:24
that i missed
20:31
no you got it you covered everything um
20:34
i think the most important part was that
20:38
we never gave up
20:42
we never said no nothing's changing
20:44
nothing's happening
20:45
forget it we just kept pushing through
20:49
and pushing through and i think that
20:51
drive with
20:52
all of us made us stronger and made our
20:55
group stronger
20:56
and allowed us to collaborate on
21:00
our crisis intervention workshop
21:03
which took a really long it took a
21:05
really long time to write it took about
21:07
a year
21:08
um to get it to the point where we felt
21:11
comfortable
21:12
sharing and presenting it and um
21:17
we really hope that it's useful
21:20
to people because we can't control the
21:22
actions of the police
21:24
but we can control our actions and with
21:28
the proper training and confidence we
21:31
can
21:31
hopefully help someone else not end up
21:35
like anthony and so many others
21:46
and i'll give it back to ken or
21:50
whoever is next
22:07
this is ken i didn't catch that we have
22:10
a question or statement so far
22:12
no questions
22:17
there's no questions
22:21
okay um so i'm going to continue on
22:24
until
22:25
there's a question or statement or
22:26
something that needs to be read
22:30
so in our efforts
22:33
of uh coming up with this particular
22:36
program
22:38
one thing i'd like to mention that the
22:41
group
22:41
of um us protecting us
22:44
i don't know if it's a hundred percent
22:47
uh people with disabilities
22:49
but it's it's pretty close now
22:52
again that's us protecting us uh but it
22:55
would be uh
22:56
families and friends of people with
22:57
disabilities and like kendall
22:59
had said it uh
23:02
it didn't happen overnight it was
23:05
something that
23:06
uh like i said right now there's gone
23:08
almost
23:09
four years so it's uh
23:12
it's something that's uh it's
23:15
it is a process the thing i i i
23:19
i do like it and it's important just
23:22
simple independent living it's that it's
23:25
a program
23:26
that started out at the center for
23:29
independent living
23:31
it brought out to the community it uh
23:38
as britney says she came didn't quite
23:40
know what she was
23:42
getting herself into and i'm sure she
23:44
didn't realize it was gonna be four
23:45
years plus later
23:47
that she would still be working with the
23:48
program but
23:50
it grabbed people like
23:53
kendall to support our community where
23:57
may perhaps in another
24:00
vein we might not have opened up to her
24:04
so it was a program that um
24:08
is actually being guided by not me
24:11
and not the center but by um
24:14
people in our community
24:27
we're not taking it over it is run by
24:30
the community is community-led
24:34
just supporting it as a center for
24:36
independent living there's something
24:37
that you guys
24:38
can do as well if that's something
24:40
you're interested in
24:42
and if you are um
24:45
you can get hold of us either from april
24:48
or at
24:48
disability link or at us protecting us
24:54
and i'm afraid i keep cutting uh kendall
24:56
off apparently
24:58
and i know she wants to talk about
25:00
different things but
25:02
any questions so far about the program
25:06
how it's uh run um
25:09
the multi-billion dollars of financing
25:12
that we get
25:16
okay
25:20
we actually have a few questions
25:23
and what i'll do is i'll go to now and
25:26
then we can save the rest for later
25:29
if you like that sure okay
25:32
so the first one
25:35
comes from an anonymous attendee it says
25:39
if we defund the police how can we
25:42
distribute the wealth to
25:44
resources for people with disabilities
25:48
okay this is ken kendall go ahead
25:57
okay i think the first way um
26:00
we can do that is always the first most
26:03
obvious answer
26:04
we need to vote we need especially
26:08
because this
26:09
these things start on a lower level
26:11
within our communities
26:13
so it's very important to vote for
26:16
candidates
26:16
that support things that are important
26:19
to
26:20
our community and our issues i think
26:23
that that's the first
26:24
part um the second
26:27
part would be
26:30
once you have those people in office or
26:33
find out who's
26:34
who's in charge of the budget who
26:37
who makes those decisions and who can
26:40
who has the power to give funds to
26:44
different
26:44
organizations or departments and i know
26:47
that's something we probably want to
26:48
work on
26:48
in the future we're
26:52
very much focused on our workshop right
26:53
now but i know that's something
26:56
that we desperately need here in atlanta
26:58
um
27:00
because the call made to help anthony
27:03
hill the intention was for
27:07
a crisis unit not just for the police
27:11
and unfortunately that day
27:14
there was no one available and it was
27:16
just the police officer
27:17
who showed up
27:24
so i think if there was more funding
27:27
available
27:29
it could have been avoided because what
27:31
happened it happened at 2 30 in the
27:33
afternoon it's not like it happened at
27:35
3am or the middle of the night
27:37
this happened in the middle of the day
27:40
so it's
27:40
kind of sad that
27:45
the intent was for you know to help
27:47
mitigate a crisis and it
27:49
ended up a tragedy
27:52
so i think it's really learning who on
27:56
your
27:56
town city state level who
27:59
are the people in charge that will
28:02
listen
28:03
and they might not listen to you at
28:05
first they might not take a meeting just
28:06
keep
28:07
bugging them we worked very it took a
28:10
long time for us to meet with different
28:12
police departments
28:14
but we never gave up or and when an
28:17
invitation was declined
28:19
we we just kept bothering them um
28:23
so i think it's just really important to
28:25
know who's who in your city
28:26
or community and start start from there
28:29
just start
28:30
introducing yourself your organization
28:33
show
28:33
up to town halls to meetings
28:36
because they're not gonna they're not
28:38
going to fund
28:40
programs if they if no one's interested
28:42
or if they think no one's interested
28:46
because the money the money is there
28:55
thank you
29:08
um the next question comes from
29:12
kim connor it says did you get support
29:16
from other organizations disability or
29:19
otherwise
29:20
for your coalition are there any
29:22
relationships that developed within the
29:25
police community
29:26
wondering if any unexpected
29:29
relationships came up
29:30
that you were not counting money
29:34
and the only one i didn't this is ken
29:36
the only thing i did
29:37
was there any relationship develop
29:39
between what community was it
29:41
that you weren't counting on developing
29:44
yeah what was the one before that with
29:46
the police community was it
29:49
yes okay uh
29:52
thank you for that question uh
29:55
so yes we we uh we started out with a a
29:59
collaboration with a number of different
30:01
groups in the beginning i was i was
30:02
listening a couple of them
30:04
but uh some of the groups came on some
30:07
came off
30:08
some were at it um we did
30:11
uh actually have a uh
30:15
a person from a county that uh
30:19
anthony hill was shot from the not
30:23
from the 911 director
30:27
not neces which is a police person by
30:29
the way
30:30
that came and was somewhat sympathetic
30:34
to our cause and uh and interested in
30:36
the training
30:37
and and them doing their own training
30:40
uh i so i think that was the most uh
30:44
group that leaned forward the most uh
30:47
other groups police groups
30:49
were um the phrase that was told to me
30:52
was
30:54
yes we're understand that you want
30:57
uh people with disabilities to go home
31:00
but uh
31:01
where i'm thinking this is a police
31:04
chief
31:04
i'm just i want my officers to come home
31:07
safe that's
31:08
his priority and and that kind of struck
31:11
me because
31:12
i always thought the police model was to
31:15
protect
31:16
and serve but you know
31:19
it's it's interesting uh so
31:22
um so we did talk to different
31:25
police organizations now uh
31:28
a year later after the trial there are
31:32
police organizations at least suggesting
31:35
that
31:37
there's some kind of redistrict
31:39
redistribution between
31:42
the community and wellness programs
31:45
and the police force i don't know if
31:47
that's because
31:48
of that phrase defunding the police
31:51
where
31:52
all the fundings are not going into um
31:56
weapons et cetera but some is going to
31:59
wellness progress in health
32:01
i don't know but there is a at least
32:05
some thought about
32:08
um about
32:11
kind of redirecting some of the funding
32:16
in the county that anthony hill was
32:19
killed there is
32:23
and i'm just going to call it a wellness
32:25
unit
32:26
and we were kind of surprised to see
32:27
that unfortunately
32:31
out of a a county of about
32:34
i'm gonna guess uh 600 700 000
32:39
the unit only operates from nine to five
32:44
unfortunately it only operates monday
32:46
through fridays
32:48
unfortunately it's only one car
32:53
so serving that many people
32:57
the funding for that or the
33:00
distribution of a wellness is
33:03
maybe not equal
33:11
um i would like to add a good
33:13
relationship um
33:15
formulated because i did go to the trial
33:19
i am friends with the family
33:21
and it was a very long trial it was
33:22
about three weeks long
33:25
we ended up getting a lot of one-on-one
33:28
time
33:28
with the district attorney's office and
33:30
the district attorney
33:32
of dekalb county herself is sheri boston
33:34
she's amazing
33:36
she's empathetic she she just listened
33:40
to bridget
33:41
and myself to anthony's mother she was
33:44
open to our ideas the whole prosecution
33:46
team they were
33:47
i was surprised they were they're
33:50
amazing people and we're still
33:54
able to i can still we can still call
33:57
them ask some questions
33:59
and that's one huge relationship i
34:02
never ever imagined we would be able to
34:06
have and it's been very it's been very
34:09
beneficial
34:11
to our cause because it happened in
34:12
dekalb county which is in atlanta
34:15
so knowing that we have their support
34:19
we can call i can call ask questions
34:24
that really that really surprised me and
34:27
i'm glad that we do have their support
34:29
and i know they're so busy and they
34:31
can't always just
34:32
you know come to things or meet with us
34:34
but
34:35
when they said if you ever need anything
34:37
in the future
34:38
they they meant it because they want to
34:41
see this
34:42
problem eliminated as well they don't
34:44
want to prosecute these
34:46
cases anymore either
34:53
any other questions
34:59
hi this is brittany i'm going to step in
35:01
and help because of the technical
35:03
issue but another question we have
35:07
is how do racial justice and disability
35:10
justice interconnect
35:16
says you want to go first can we let me
35:18
go
35:20
okay i'll go uh
35:23
this can again so uh racial justice and
35:26
disability justice
35:28
are uh
35:31
in my mind are the same uh it's it's
35:33
really human justice
35:36
right it's it's the justice for all
35:38
humanity
35:39
um in the seminars that i did
35:43
earlier i i i had this
35:46
correlation when i was a kid
35:50
in in middle georgia and i was at a um
35:57
city hall when i was voting in 1960
36:01
and i saw a sign outside the door that
36:04
said
36:04
colored entrance and there's an arrow
36:07
pointing to the right
36:09
and then here in dekalb county
36:13
when i went to vote i just happened to
36:15
see a sign
36:16
at the beginning of the door that didn't
36:18
say colored interest
36:20
but it did say handicap interest and an
36:23
arrow pointed to the right
36:25
and i envisioned i said you know
36:29
our struggles are the same it's a human
36:32
struggle
36:33
it's for equality
36:47
this is brittany again kendall would you
36:49
like to add or are we ready for the next
36:52
question
37:00
kendall you're unmuted
37:04
oh i was saying i completely 100 percent
37:07
agree
37:07
with everything ken said and i would
37:09
probably almost say pretty much the same
37:11
thing myself i think it's the same
37:14
it's a humanity issue it's not two
37:17
separate issues it's
37:19
it's one it's one issue
37:25
this is brittany thank you so much our
37:28
next
37:28
question should more people with
37:30
disabilities be working in the criminal
37:33
justice system as lawyers judges
37:36
etc
37:39
this is chemical that's a layup right
37:41
thank you for the question
37:43
of course not only to be working in
37:45
those
37:46
uh areas but in all areas and that
37:50
people with disabilities just as
37:54
people of all races
37:58
ethnicity cultures religions
38:02
should be at least as a minimum
38:06
spread equally so thank you for the
38:08
layup i appreciate it this is brittany
38:18
our next question how are you involved
38:21
in the program
38:26
hello you want to talk about vacant
38:30
health
38:36
so uh i don't know if mike is is down or
38:40
not
38:41
but this is uh ken again so we actually
38:44
are
38:46
been working in not my area so much but
38:49
uh there is a youth contingency
38:53
in metro atlanta um a group of
38:56
youths that are in historic section of
38:58
atlanta called beacon health
39:01
mostly high school students that are
39:04
engaged in a number of
39:09
human rights legislation and equity
39:12
and uh they have been uh interested in
39:15
our particular
39:16
program we've had uh a number of people
39:19
um going to their organizations
39:22
a couple to come to ours to speak and to
39:26
listen we are also
39:29
an engagement in the process of having
39:33
hopefully some of the students be able
39:36
to
39:38
work with our webinars so that they can
39:41
better relate hopefully with uh students
39:44
of their own age because
39:47
as i said many times at uh
39:50
my age i'm not i don't look 16 anymore
39:54
but i in my mind because i can't see you
39:56
i still feel 60.
39:57
but uh hopefully that will have more
40:08
uh
40:11
uh i'm not kidding mike is okay
40:17
really this is brittany
40:20
i think kendall's um her video came on i
40:23
think she was gonna
40:24
speak but we'll give her a second to see
40:26
if she would like to ask
40:32
okay my name we did so yeah ken spoke
40:35
about
40:36
um beacon hill they supported us
40:39
a lot during the trial too they came
40:41
they did a die in
40:43
they all laid on the ground in front of
40:46
the courthouse
40:47
and had a silent die in with signs
40:50
of for anthony hill and other members of
40:53
our community that were
40:55
taken away in the same way
40:58
and i know one thing we
41:01
want to do with our workshop it's very
41:04
fluid
41:05
so we can tailor
41:08
our workshop to our audience and that's
41:10
something else that i really love about
41:13
what we're doing is we're very we're
41:16
very flexible
41:17
and because we're peer-led we
41:21
were able to ebb and flow and tailor
41:25
what our message to the audience that
41:28
we're presenting it to
41:31
but i would love to actually work with
41:33
more
41:34
youth groups and get them involved
41:37
because
41:38
these younger kids they are passionate
41:40
and loud and
41:44
we are going to need those voices their
41:46
voices in the future
41:53
this is brittany thank you we have
41:56
another
41:57
anonymous question if you defund the
42:00
police
42:01
who will you call if someone breaks into
42:03
your home
42:04
and holds you hostage or robs you
42:08
or takes your child
42:12
this is ken so i think
42:15
and and i actually thank you for the
42:17
question again
42:19
so when you're saying the
42:22
misunderstanding about
42:23
defunding the police means that some
42:25
people think that there is no police
42:28
that's it when you defund the police
42:30
they're gone it's it's it's
42:32
it's over and that's not true
42:38
if we use our funding
42:41
responsibly
42:45
it means that the community is
42:48
supporting the community
42:50
it means that people
42:53
a officer like
42:56
officer olson would not have to come to
42:59
a community or would not come to
43:01
community
43:02
to to uh do quote unquote what we know
43:06
as police work
43:07
now it means that
43:11
there may be a wellness unit i think i
43:13
heard someone
43:14
talking about in the chat box about why
43:17
didn't we just call a wellness unit to
43:18
come out
43:19
and support that person with a
43:23
disability would be fantastic
43:26
but as i said earlier for a county of
43:30
over six hundred thousand plus
43:32
there was one unit the one unit only
43:35
worked
43:36
monday through friday one unit only
43:39
works from nine to
43:40
five and it can't be
43:43
all over a county uh
43:47
for that short time and the sad part is
43:50
that
43:50
this building serves 12 counties that's
43:53
the only county that had one
43:57
so it's not we say defunding the police
44:00
it doesn't mean that we're disbanding it
44:03
it's gone it's
44:04
finished it may be in another form
44:08
it may be his motto
44:12
maybe live up to his creed
44:17
but it doesn't mean that we're just that
44:20
all the
44:20
funding from the police force is gone
44:22
and there's no one
44:25
to do what we quote unquote call
44:27
policing
44:34
and um to answer that question if i was
44:37
in a situation
44:39
presented in the question i would call
44:41
the police um
44:43
i i agree with ken defunding the police
44:47
doesn't
44:47
mean we're just taking all the whole
44:50
disbanding departments and
44:52
everyone's just going to run around you
44:54
know wild with
44:56
no no law and order no control
44:59
um we we want to see a better
45:01
distribution
45:03
of funds towards programs that can
45:06
actually help the community like i
45:09
mentioned before
45:11
that one crisis unit was not available
45:14
the day that anthony needed help and it
45:17
was in his
45:18
county during business hours in the
45:20
middle of the afternoon
45:23
and it wasn't available
45:27
so but what we want to do is just see a
45:31
re-allocation of funds
45:34
so those programs can have enough people
45:37
on them and
45:38
they don't all have to necessarily be
45:41
volunteer based because
45:43
we live in a capitalist society people
45:45
need to work and feed their families and
45:49
everything can't be on a voluntary basis
45:52
things
45:53
programs resources cost money
45:56
and i personally think if you have
45:59
enough money to
46:00
buy tear gas and rubber bullets and
46:03
armored trucks there's money
46:06
in that budget that can be allocated
46:10
for better use
46:19
this is brittany thank you both for that
46:22
our next question is from jamie
46:26
are there any resources or presentations
46:29
for
46:29
police interactions on how to interact
46:32
with disabled people
46:46
this is ken i didn't quite hear that
46:50
this is brittany the question was are
46:53
there any
46:57
are there any resources or presentations
47:00
for police interactions
47:02
on how to interact with disabled people
47:09
hello
47:15
we actually in our workshop we have a
47:18
that's
47:18
a whole section of our workshop um some
47:21
tips
47:22
and ways to not um
47:25
to kind of keep tensions
47:28
a little less high if police do show up
47:32
i personally don't know of any other
47:35
programs or resources um
47:40
i'm trying to think but we did include
47:43
we did include that in our workshop
47:45
um just some
47:49
general best practices and things
47:52
people can ask and if it's okay i'll
47:55
give an example
47:56
um one
47:59
suggestion we have is if you're the one
48:02
that's calling 911 to ask for the police
48:04
if
48:05
something that can help if someone's
48:07
having a mental health crisis
48:09
the noise and lights of sirens can
48:13
make them feel
48:17
like something bad's going to happen or
48:19
it can
48:20
make them feel possibly a little more
48:22
defensive
48:24
so perhaps being very clear with 9-1-1
48:27
yes we do need the help
48:29
can the police please come maybe without
48:31
the bright lights and
48:33
the no in without sirens because
48:36
it will exasperate the situation um i
48:39
know that's one
48:40
one of our biggest asks or and something
48:43
you can
48:44
do if you're in the situation and you do
48:46
need to call
48:47
9-1-1 for help
48:52
this is ken i'm going to go back to a
48:55
question
48:56
that was asked earlier
48:59
about the resources
49:04
so when during the trial
49:09
i um i just wanted to look up
49:12
how many people were killed
49:15
that were encountered with a disability
49:18
in
49:19
in our area in our surrounding area and
49:23
lucky for me the atlanta general
49:25
constitution had done a
49:27
an article on on the very thing
49:30
uh not too long before that i was
49:33
surprised
49:35
to find out how many people had actually
49:36
been killed not just
49:38
hurt but actually shot by the police
49:42
and then uh a quick job on their
49:46
backgrounds how many people
49:48
of those were actually uh
49:51
designated with a disability of some
49:53
sort not only just mental disability
49:56
but i think one of the in the beginning
49:58
of our conversation
50:00
with us protecting us i was
50:03
suggesting that me a person half us to
50:05
be blind
50:06
if i didn't have my cane uh people would
50:10
not
50:10
know as a
50:13
disability disability and if i was told
50:17
to
50:17
go over there sit over by that tree
50:20
or any of that stuff
50:24
i wouldn't know what it was well where
50:25
it was what was going on or any of that
50:27
good stuff
50:28
and that could be uh
50:32
perceived as something different
50:35
than just i didn't know or
50:38
uh you know i know most people said that
50:41
even now just even with a cane go go
50:44
over there
50:44
innocently but go over there without
50:47
knowing that you know
50:48
it goes right left there's a something
50:52
six feet away or whatever
50:54
so we one of the things we have to
50:56
understand is that
50:58
uh it's it's uh not just a
51:01
mental disability but it could be
51:03
someone who's deaf
51:05
and um and people are shot on them no
51:08
don't come here don't come
51:09
whatever uh so
51:13
the police officers not only need to be
51:15
trained
51:16
uh or first responders not only need to
51:19
be trained
51:20
but they need to be trained by the
51:23
community that they serve
51:25
and one of the things that we did also
51:26
find out is that uh
51:28
people with disabilities are not part of
51:30
the
51:32
the the training and not part of the
51:34
investment
51:35
are not part of the solution
51:38
and us as independent living in cells
51:42
and silks
51:43
that's what we live for and in
51:46
our communities even though we may have
51:50
a wellness center or we may have a
51:51
community council or health council
51:54
or whatever it is that we have
51:57
how many of those people that are part
52:00
of that
52:01
group not just the mayor or the
52:05
city council person or whatever they are
52:07
but are actually
52:08
a part of our community and part of the
52:10
people that are being affected
52:13
by the uh by that panel or task force or
52:16
whatever
52:23
hey ken this is aries again can y'all
52:26
hear me okay
52:28
yeah okay so
52:31
um i want to go to a a comment then a
52:34
question
52:35
first i'm going to go with the comment
52:38
from susan bentley because it's tied
52:39
into what you were saying
52:41
and then we go to the question from uh
52:43
beth dewald so first is susan bentley
52:46
it says okay just also let me know when
52:49
we get close to the end because
52:51
we have a couple asks okay we got about
52:54
eight minutes so okay
52:57
susan bentley says i'm surprised that
53:00
mental health first aid and crisis
53:02
intervention trainings are not a part of
53:04
the discussion
53:05
both are excellent trainings for police
53:08
slash first responder
53:10
officers are trained to prevent or
53:12
minimize escalation
53:14
on the phone a cit officer can be
53:17
requested
53:18
if the caller suspects a mental health
53:20
issue
53:22
okay and then and then i'll just go
53:24
ahead to the question from beth the wall
53:26
because it
53:26
it all ties in so the beth says
53:29
i live and work in a rural community
53:32
county population
53:33
about 240 000 we are dependent on
53:37
collaborating with each
53:39
in various agencies from law enforcement
53:41
to mental health crisis unit
53:44
you mentioned training for law
53:45
enforcement do you
53:47
have any suggested materials to
53:50
accomplish this
53:53
uh for the two statements and the
53:57
question
53:58
so the statement is that you're right
54:02
uh we anybody can request even here in
54:05
the capcom
54:06
we can request a
54:10
a personal wellness uh person
54:14
and and you can request it anyway but if
54:16
the if there's no one to respond to that
54:20
uh it's it's it's not helpful
54:23
second of all it's not everybody knows
54:25
about
54:27
that some places might have a wellness
54:30
vehicle or whatever
54:32
third thing is that we must understand
54:36
that the person who responded to anthony
54:39
hill had taken the 40-hour
54:42
course and passed and within two minutes
54:46
anthony hill was dead
54:55
that has an impact that has a
54:57
consequence
54:59
that says that even though there's a
55:02
a course a group a standard
55:07
of a program
55:11
that today throughout the united states
55:15
there's something else needed that's one
55:18
thing
55:19
second thing the course
55:26
i said that message you're right but um
55:30
so the the the um
55:33
the um second part about is their
55:35
training for police
55:36
there is training for police and and one
55:39
of the things that
55:40
i would propose and i think most
55:42
students were independent would propose
55:43
is that
55:44
that training or that uh effectiveness
55:48
has to also come from the community that
55:50
it serves it has to
55:51
have people with disabilities have to be
55:53
part of
55:55
the solution and what i always say is
55:57
that the people most effective
56:00
affected rather be happily part of the
56:02
investment and they have to be part of
56:03
the solution
56:07
thank you kim we got about four minutes
56:10
kendall did you have something to add
56:13
i was gonna add i was gonna add on to
56:16
what ken was saying
56:17
i think that the police training
56:20
should include peers people from the
56:22
community
56:23
i mean think about it when you're at
56:25
work and you have to do
56:27
a training you have to do every year and
56:29
it's a power point
56:32
it's not interesting you zone out you
56:33
don't pay attention
56:35
that's just human nature sometimes i
56:37
think if
56:38
the information was coming from
56:41
actual real people victims of people who
56:45
are lost because of it i think
56:47
maybe they would pay a little more
56:49
attention
56:52
because at least i know the training
56:53
when we found out their training
56:55
it's all power points and slideshows
56:58
there's no
56:59
interaction so i think
57:02
to have and what kovid now it's
57:06
difficult but maybe in the future to
57:08
have
57:09
members of the community lead that
57:12
section of the training program
57:25
thank you kendall ken you said you this
57:28
is
57:28
aries again you said you had an ask we
57:30
have about three minutes left
57:33
and before i let you go remember yes
57:36
remember you guys to fill out the survey
57:38
at the end of this so that
57:40
in the evaluation so they can get uh
57:43
their scores and
57:44
it just helps us all out thank you go
57:47
ahead ken
57:57
[Applause]
57:58
so i know uh some people have had some
58:01
questions about the police training
58:04
some people ask some questions about
58:06
wellness patrols
58:08
some people have asked questions about
58:10
implicit bias
58:12
in your areas where your souls are my
58:14
ass is simply this
58:16
uh find out about what the resources are
58:19
in your community
58:20
find out as the training is being done
58:23
by
58:24
by or with people that are being
58:27
affected
58:28
find out uh in the training what are
58:31
they actually being trained for
58:34
and then if you don't like it change it
59:02
oh
59:10
uh did we want to go to one more one
59:12
more question we got one minute left
59:14
okay i we can't i was uh kimmel has
59:16
something he wants to say
59:18
okay kendall you have
59:21
to ask a question i'll let her answer it
59:25
okay this one comes from another an
59:28
anonymous
59:28
attendee it says do you think there's a
59:31
different slogan that can be used
59:33
instead of defund the police
59:35
when folks say this i find it's met with
59:38
a lot of defensiveness and resistance
59:40
when you read about it you learn that
59:42
it's more about allocating funds to
59:45
different sources
59:46
so that police aren't the only call if
59:48
someone is having
59:49
if someone has a mental health crisis
59:52
asleep in their car
59:54
currently using etc would you
59:57
would you choose to rename the slogan
60:02
sure we could call it redistribute funds
60:05
um
60:07
i think i agree the term defund
60:10
somehow turned into disband abolish and
60:13
delete
60:15
and that's not what we're saying when we
60:19
say
60:19
defund the police and i don't know
60:23
i mean i don't know if that phrase needs
60:25
to be rebranded
60:26
but it got the message got twisted and
60:29
changed to like i said delete and that's
60:33
not what that's what we're saying we're
60:37
saying to reallocate and redistribute
60:40
funds
60:42
and i i don't know how how to change
60:45
that
60:46
um because everything is so politicized
60:49
right now
60:50
because we're in a tense election season
60:52
but
60:54
when people talk to me about it and
60:57
they're
60:58
and they have that mindset i always tell
61:01
them no that's not what we mean we mean
61:04
reallocate move move funds around
61:08
not we don't mean take everything away
61:14
thank you we are a minute past one
61:17
o'clock
61:18
so did you have anyone anything to add
61:22
ken or kendall
61:23
because we got to get out of here
61:27
no but this is ken at your comments
61:31
and uh if you have another question that
61:33
we didn't answer
61:34
we will definitely try to get with you
61:36
and also
61:38
give you some information about us
61:39
affecting us
61:43
all right thank you guys so much for the
61:46
presentation
61:47
kendall did you have something you
61:48
wanted to add i'm sorry i cut you up
61:53
oh i wanted to ask if um
61:57
if the everyone that's participating if
62:00
they had
62:01
have our contact information
62:04
we're on facebook you can just search us
62:06
protecting us
62:07
um you can send a message um i know we
62:10
don't mind answering questions if
62:12
something comes up later
62:14
or if you're really shy i'm really shy
62:16
if you're really shy
62:17
and you just want to ask us privately
62:19
through our facebook page our instagram
62:22
which is also
62:22
us protecting us you're more than
62:24
welcome to do that
62:26
or also you can send us an email us
62:29
protecting us atl gmail.com
62:34
and we will answer any questions that
62:37
you have or if you want to have a
62:38
conversation
62:40
i'm 100 open to that and
62:44
i hope to see you guys in the future
62:52
all right thank you everybody for
62:55
coming out with this presentation if you
62:58
got another session to go to
63:00
um go ahead and head out thank you ken
63:02
and kendo again i appreciate you sharing
63:04
your stories and
63:06
your time
63:09
all right everybody bye bye