Angela Powell and Tony Sain Participate in Lively Civil Rights Legal Panel

ReelUrbanNews dot com recently posted video feed from a live legal panel originally held on Wednesday, July 1, 2015, scheduled from 6:30-8:00 pm at Tabernacle of Faith Baptist Church in The Los Angeles Community of Watts, which was hosted by Senior Pastor R.M. Leffall, III. The panel, moderated by Michael Reel, founder and executive producer of Reel Urban News, included the following members of the legal and law enforcement communities:

Angela M. Powell, Esq. - Manning & Kass
Tony M. Sain, Esq. - Manning & Kass

Dr. Kyle B. Jackson - Commander Los Angeles Police Department (Ret.)
Benjamin Torres - CEO Community Development Technologies Center
Phillip Tingirides - Commander Los Angeles Police Department
Alfred Pasos - Captain Los Angeles Police Department
Jorge Rodriguez - Captain Los Angeles Police Department
Lisa Bloom, Esq. - The Bloom Firm
Carl E. Douglas, Esq. - Douglas/Hicks Law
Jamon R. Hicks, Esq. - Douglas/Hicks Law

Early in the discussion, Mr. Reel asked Ms. Powell, "As (one)…  who represents law enforcement, what are some of the challenges that police officers and police departments speak with you about in this current climate of policing our urban cities?

"… What I hear most from them is that the community doesn't understand their perspective. Often what we see presented by the media in maybe a three second sound bite doesn't represent the full picture of what law enforcement officers face," she answered.

At times, emotions ran raw, and from beginning to end, plaintiff's counsel painted a sustained picture of systemic racism ingrained in and perpetuated by officers, conflating the actions of vigilante George Zimmerman (who Ms. Bloom claimed acted "in the psuedo role" of police despite the fact that Mr. Zimmerman disobeyed orders given by a 911 dispatcher), and drawing broad parallels in the so-called "climate" between incidents such as the mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston and (predominately white) officer-involved shootings (of African-American men). "We're talking about professionals who are trained to deal with a difficult situations. … Yes, we have all the respect in the world for you. You do have a very difficult job that we can't do," conceded Ms. Bloom, (addressing police), "but can we all do better?"

Captain Jorge Rodriguez, of the Los Angeles Police Department Newton area, explained, "When you talk about (officer involved shootings)as compared to some of the number of shootings that we have in our communities in general, those numbers are very small. Last year, for instance, in the Newton area, covering 9.5 square miles of the city, we had three officer-involved shootings, yet we had 16 homicides in the area. So obviously the focus on our shootings are not (those) within the law enforcement community or officer shootings of lethal force but it's the shooting that happens within the community. Just recently we had the very unfortunate death of a taco vendor at 51st Street and McKinley. The very next day, we happened to take those individuals that were involved into custody, off of a traffic stop. And evidence was found inside that vehicle relating to that murder … Our officers are trained to use (potentially lethal) use of force as a last resort."

The phrase "last resort" was echoed by Captain Alfred Pasos of the Southeast Division. "This is not something where we go to roll call and we say, 'you have a weapon, use it.' It's the last thing." "We've had two in the last 18 months … when we have gun arrests, I think we've had around 250 this year, and we only have one incident of deadly force, I can only be happy with that statistic … The accountability process that we have and the review process holds our officers to a very, very high standard … It's based on what they knew at the time … We understand the crisis … and we're all on the same page."

Captain Phillip Tingirides called the media "irresponsible" in its current emphasis on certain types of stories about police officers. He gave the following anecdotal evidence: "I was with a barricaded suspect recently" where the "husband was holding the wife hostage and we were able to negotiate where we got that person out, both of them out, without using any kind of force, and when they were both coming out, a media truck pulled up and (a reporter) asked what was going on, and we told him, and he said, 'Well if it doesn't bleed it doesn't lead.'"

"We're seeing it (police misconduct) more because of the cell phones," countered Jamon Hicks, after also invoking Trayvon Martin, the African-American teenager shot and killed not by police officers, but by vigilante George Zimmerman.

"I'm from this community," Dr. Jackson stated. "And I want to say to you … In serving the Los Angeles Police Department for 32 years, having worked all over this city of LA, 95 percent, 95 to 97 percent of police officers that serve every day are decent, hard-working, God-fearing people that really want to serve this community. We've got about five percent that are bad guys, and when I was captain and commander … we tried our best to get rid of them. But there's a process, and it doesn't happen overnight. But I want you to have confidence, and believe, that the Los Angeles Police Department isn't a racist organization. We've got some people on the department that are racist. But we have them at Wal-Mart, and IBM, and Ralph's Market, because that's reflective of our society." Dr. Jackson concluded by saying he wanted to see more people from the community reaching out to the local departments to volunteer, and he wanted the community to do a better job "hanging on to our kids," so they don't enter the criminal justice system.

Tony Sain was met with applause after stating, "I'm saddened by some of the things I've heard on this comment today. Because it's part of the salesmanship that keeps happening, and it seems to be working. In 2014, there was an 89% increase in the homicides of police officers. One year. And if you look at the Baltimore situation after the riots, the police officers felt that the community no longer supported them. They were under attack. You had a 57% drop, just since May, in arrests. A 100% increase in murders. An 80% increase in shootings. Citizen shootings, not officer-involved shootings. And I believe that that result is a product of that mentality that people are trying to sell you here tonight. That mentality is that it's you versus them. And I don't believe in that mentality. I believe that your officers work for you … If you don't believe that your voice is being heard, speak to them, because they are paid to listen to you."

To watch the entire panel discussion, click here.