Five police officers and one suspect are dead after a sniper attack on a peaceful protest in Dallas, LA activists react to the tragedy, law enforcement mourns.
First AME minister on Dallas attack: ‘Division and separation have never brought healing’
The killing of five officers in Dallas caps a polarizing week of bloodshed and frustration in the country.
Questions of race and the value of a single life have taken center stage after two black men were fatally shot by police, Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota.
For thoughts and reflections, Take Two spoke to J Edgar Boyd, senior minister at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles.
Highlights
Race and violence is a subject that really hits close to home for you. In June of last year, Dylan Roof shot and killed nine black parishioners at a sister church in South Carolina. Could you have ever imagined decades ago that we would still be having the same conversations?
I would hope that that would never happen. I don't believe anybody ever foresaw that. Now this brings us together to realize that we can't be drawn away. We have to be courageous enough to continue to live and confront injustice, confront the will of those who have no respect for life. We have to do that with boldness and courage and we have to also work with governmental officials.
There is no place now for the whole conversation of homophobia, there's no place for the whole conversation of race and gender exclusion that proliferates across the political lines now. It's a time for coming together, for coalescing and for healing. And we must, in the religious circle, reach out to those who are outside of the circle, inviting them into the conversation because as Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Unless and until all of us come together and begin to live as brothers, we shall all perish as fools.'
People are angry. They're angry over what has happened and everything that happened all week long. I'm wondering from your perspective, do families in communities both white and black have the right to be angry?
You can be angry, you can be filled with anger, but how you manage that anger, what you do with that anger, how you use and channel that anger in a positive direction, that's really what we need to do now. We can't accept things as being just a reality or a sign of the times. The unity that we find will reach out to each other and bring us into a point where we can begin discussions that help us to realize the anguish inside of individuals, anguish inside particular groups and sit down genuinely with halls of government so we can help to begin, not just to craft laws, but to be able to change cultures that embrace the principles that we all want to see brought into the discussion so we can make situations better.
Tonight, tomorrow and Sunday, there's going to be millions of people all around this country gathered in places of worship to get together and try to make sense of everything that has happened this week. What kind of conversations do you hope people have, regardless of denomination?
I'm hoping that everybody can step back, read the newspaper, watch the television, read the Tweets and read the messages of communication on Facebook. Whatever it takes, inform yourself as much as you possibly can and then take a very deep breath and ask yourself a personal question: what is it that I can do to make this better? And once you make those decision and realize what it is you can do, reach out and see who else you can find. Who of common concern and common appreciation, as I am, let's reach out and coalesce them together. Let's begin to build those kind of mechanisms that brings us together and not separate further and not push us further and further apart.
Press the blue play button above to hear the full interview.
(Questions and answers have been edited for clarity.)
Black Lives Matter attorney: 'The movement will not be distracted'
The sniper attack on police officers in Dallas comes amid a week of racial strife.
At a press conference Friday, Dallas Police Chief David Brown relayed statements made by one suspected shooter.
For local reaction, Take Two spoke to
, an LA-based attorney, and activist who has represented several members of Black Lives Matter in court in recent years.
(Note: Gyamfi does not speak for Black Lives Matter.)
Highlights
The identity of one suspect was revealed this morning. His name is Micah Xavier Johnson. He told officers that he was not affiliated with any groups, but he did speak about Black Lives Matter. What's your reaction this morning?
First of all, I take everything the police say with a grain of salt when I don’t have a live body to tell me what they actually said. I'm not taking it as the word of God that this is what was said to these officers, but beyond that, as someone who has worked with the Black Lives Matter and represented folks with Black Lives Matter, this is not the type of behavior that Black Lives Matter movement members engage in. My reaction is that we need to continue to stay focused, that we need to continue to be a movement that is not distracted, and that the movement will not be distracted by the actions of individuals, especially those that are not associated with the movement.
Movements like Black Lives Matter have led people to counter with "Police Lives Matter" or "Blue Lives Matter." How do people come together when so many seem to think that accepting one mantra means rejecting the other? Can you be both?
I can't answer that question for individuals, right? It depends on what perspective you're coming from. From the perspective that I come from, and I don't speak for Black Lives Matter, I see the police as part of the state and part of state sanctioned violence against our people, and so for me, I'm not concerned about blue lives, I'm concerned about black lives. In fact, I want the police to be abolished. I think we should be pushing the police out of our community. I think that we should be defunding the police. I think that we should be demilitarizing the police and finally dismantling the police. For me, there's not even a discussion about Blue Lives Matter --
Nana, I need to ask you, though, you want to defund the police — how would you suggest we keep order in society without the police?
Well, I suggest we keep order by doing what we did before we had the influx of crack cocaine and other ills that caused us to call the police in. There was a time when black people didn't call police into the community...
Press the blue play button to hear the full interview.
(Note: In this interview, Gyamfi makes several statements that we were unable to immediately substantiate in regards to officer-involved shootings and the LAPD. For a more comprehensive look at the issue, please see KPCC's investigation into police shootings in Los Angeles.)
Answers have been edited for clarity.
Law enforcement affiliates discuss how to move forward after Dallas
The country is still reeling after the events in Dallas, Texas, that left five police officers dead and seven wounded.
Micah Xavier Johnson has been identified as the man responsible for carrying out the sniper assault.
We wanted understand how the law enforcement officers are reacting to the sniper attack in Dallas - and how they are trying to carry on.
First Take Two's A Martinez spoke with Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell. In addition to today's events his department has also had to deal with two of its officers being wounded in a shooting last week.
On his reaction to the shooting in Dallas
Yeah that's very troubling. If you're surprised and you have somebody with the benefit of a long rifle capability and high ground position, it is difficult to anticipate what's going to happen.
On what types of conversations he's having with his deputies
[A conversation] of thanks to them for their calm demeanor, the way they've handled it. They're professionalism. And the fact that they go to work knowing that these kind of threats exist but yet they continue to put themselves between danger and the public that we serve.
On why he decided to have his deputies ride in pairs last night
We live in a society where now, with social media and everything, things go viral quickly. What happens in one location can be replicated in another by a copycat. Or there could be a network or a series of cells that are looking to carry out something that'd be more widespread. At the time we did not have any intelligence to indicate that was the case, but out of an abundance of caution we wanted to be able to protect our folks as well as the public.
Martinez also spoke with Greg Meyer, retired captain with the Los Angeles Police Department for further insight as to how an incident like Dallas can inform how police officer approaches his job.
To hear the full conversation, click the blue player above.
A look at gun control around the world: why it works in Japan
In this week marked by acts of gun violence, we continue our look at how other countries deal with firearms. Today, we turn our focus towards Japan.
In 2007 there were 22 gun-related deaths in that country. This was deemed a national crisis. Seven years later that number dropped... to six. By comparison in the US, more than 30, 000 people were killed by guns in 2007 alone.
With more on our series on global gun control measures, we have David Kopel. He wrote the leading work on Japanese firearms policy "The Samurai. The Mountie and the Cowboy: Should America adopt the gun controls of other Democracies?" When Josie Huang spoke with Kopel via Skype, he said there are stark differences between American and Japanese culture when it comes to guns.
Listen to the first and second installment of Take Two's look at gun policies around the world.
To hear the full interview, click the blue play button above.
Interview Highlights
Why are Japan's gun laws, the way they are?
"Japan in the 1500's was a very war-like society...and the nobility that used firearms in combat to the extent they had to... but they really hated it because they are equalizers. If you're a Samurai with a sword and armor and you're up against a regular Japanese peasant, well you win. But if the peasant has a handgun or a rifle, then the peasant is much more equal."
"...they're still a very strong internalized culture of social control. We think of the government as something that was created by the people, that' show the constitution begins, 'we the people'. Japan has much more sense of authority, including government, as just being inherent in society. So there's no individual who has rights, prior to the existence of organized government."
The title of your 1993 paper asked the question: Should America adopt the gun controls of other democracies? Now more than 20 years have passed since you wrote that paper, what's your take on things now.
"Japan's gun control system works well for Japan and Japan is a safe society where people are generally content with this aspect of how their lives are organized by the government. It's not just a gun thing. The gun thing is a manifestation of their more general submission to authority.
Switzerland is also an extremely safe society, compared to the United States and the United Kingdom and Switzerland is a place where every able bodied adult male is required to own a genuine automatic assault rifle at home. And so that's about the opposite of Japan in terms of gun policy, but both societys are very safe because they have strong families and a strong safety net...strong communities..."
What should America do?
"America is a much more individualist country than either Japan or Switzerland...so our gun policy has to take that into account has to take into account that people in the U.S., unlike in Japan, are not willing to say 'oh well I will just be helpless if somebody breaks into my house and I'll wait for the police to come, and that'll be good enough for me.' That's not an American attitude. When we say the rule of law, we mean that the government has to obey the law when the same phrase is used in Japan it means the people have to obey the government. So our laws need to take into account our very different culture and find something that's a good fit for us which has to start with respect for individual choice."
We want to hear your thoughts on gun control in the United States. What do you think should be done about firearms regulation in the US? Should we adopt some of the policies in place in Japan, Australia or the U.K.?
Leave your comments below, or on our Facebook page or
.
This post has been updated.
The scene in downtown LA as crowd of protestors grow
The latest reaction across the country to the sniper attack in Dallas last night that left five police officers dead and also people are still reeling from the deaths of two black men, both fatally shot this week by police officers in Louisiana and Minnesota.
This morning in Los Angeles, protesters gathered outside LAPD headquarters in downtown. Our reporter Annie Gilbertson was there and she joined the show to discuss the scene.
To hear the full conversation, click the blue segment above.
Hosts of #GoodMuslimBadMuslim podcast reflect on Ramadan
This week marked the close of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The focus is on introspection, but this peace was disrupted by various attacks on Islam around the world, like in Turkey, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia. This in addition to the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida.
Taz Ahmed and Zahra Noorbakhsh from the podcast #GoodMuslimBadMuslim have been reflecting on Ramadan, from the way they observed the holy month as kids to now.
"I remember Ramadan just being a holiday that I had at home and everyone else had Christmas growing up," says Ahmed.
"How I choose to practice is a lot different now so one of the things that me and Zahra are a part of is we were doing poetry day for Ramadan. For me, writing is a form of meditating."
Noorbakhsh remembers the Ramadan as a festive time too, but no longer observes the fast.
"I grew up with a lot of disorder eating habits so the idea of starving yourself and then binging at night just by itself is really triggering for me. And so I find other ways of being able to have that contemplative time," says Noorbakhsh.
But the attacks in different Muslim countries around the globe have made this particular Ramadan rough on the Muslim community, says Ahmed.
"I think in times like these that's what Ramazan is for. It's a month of endurance, it's a month of community, it's a month of connecting with community and in that sense that's what it's there for, to remind us how much we need each other," says Noorbakhsh.
Audio coming soon.
How the threat of terrorism impacts study abroad
Yesterday in Bangladesh, Islamic extremists threw bombs and exchanged gunfire with police at an Eid prayer service. Two officers, a woman and a suspected assailant were killed.
The violence comes just days after armed extremists in Bangladesh's capital city of Dhaka attacked a restaurant, killing more than 20 people.
Among them was 18-year-old Tarishi Jain, a sophomore at UC Berkeley. Jain was there doing a summer internship through Berkeley's Center for Bangladesh Studies. Her friends visiting from Emory University, Faraaz Hossain and Abinta Kabir, were killed also.
Other terror attacks— like the one in Paris late last year— have claimed the lives of students studying abroad as well. Cal State Long Beach student Nohemi Gonzalez was among the victims of the Paris attacks.
James Coyle, director of Global Education at Chapman University, joined Take Two to talk about how the threat of terrorism impacts university study abroad programs.
To listen to the full interview, click the blue player above.
Director Alex Gibney on the classification of cyber warfare
In his latest documentary, Zero Days, director Alex Gibney explores the alarming damage that the manipulation of computer code could do to our nation's - and any nation's - infrastructure.
Gibney is a prolific filmmaker who's work includes investigations of Enron and Scientology.
He stopped by the studios recently and kicked off his chat with A Martinez with where his film begins - a cyberattack on an Iranian nuclear plant using a program called Stuxnet.
To hear the entire interview, please click on the blue player above.