0:00:08.293,0:00:09.028 Hello, my name 0:00:09.028,0:00:09.703 is Brianna 0:00:09.703,0:00:10.343 and I'm in my 0:00:10.343,0:00:10.846 second year here 0:00:10.846,0:00:11.530 at Seminole State, 0:00:11.530,0:00:13.124 and I'll like to introduce my dad. 0:00:13.124,0:00:15.783 Hi! My name is Manuel Sanchez. 0:00:15.783,0:00:19.371 [br]I'm Briana's dad. I'm a retired NYPD police 0:00:19.371,0:00:21.902 officer for 20 years and I'm currently 0:00:21.902,0:00:24.180 an active law enforcement officer 0:00:24.180,0:00:25.299 here in the state of Florida. 0:00:25.740,0:00:26.543 So, this video is called, 0:00:26.543,0:00:28.352 "Bridging the Racial and Ethnic Divide." 0:00:28.352,0:00:29.735 And the purpose is to have candid 0:00:29.735,0:00:32.132 conversations about issues. So, 0:00:32.132,0:00:33.589 perspectives and views on race 0:00:33.589,0:00:35.720 and ethnicity. So, I wanted to get 0:00:35.720,0:00:37.164 the perspective from a retired 0:00:37.164,0:00:38.573 and active member of law 0:00:38.573,0:00:40.337 enforcement. So, the first question I 0:00:40.337,0:00:41.712 want to ask you is do you think 0:00:41.712,0:00:43.290 there is a divide between people 0:00:43.290,0:00:44.732 from when you started in the law 0:00:44.732,0:00:46.612 enforcement agency to now in 0:00:46.612,0:00:47.730 the 21st century? 0:00:48.583,0:00:51.080 I believe there's been a significant 0:00:51.082,0:00:54.556 change in how people were when I 0:00:54.556,0:00:56.164 first got into law enforcement in the 0:00:56.164,0:00:58.673 early '90s. And now, we're practically in 0:00:58.673,0:01:01.931 the 21st century. Back in those days, 0:01:01.931,0:01:03.958 I noticed people were more united. 0:01:03.958,0:01:07.893 People cared for each other. They 0:01:07.893,0:01:09.750 respected law enforcement. Law 0:01:09.750,0:01:11.239 enforcement respected the community. 0:01:11.239,0:01:13.928 The community came out to us and they 0:01:13.928,0:01:16.046 wanted certain things done in their 0:01:16.046,0:01:19.531 community. If there's anybody robbing or 0:01:19.531,0:01:22.282 stealing or vandalizing or selling their 0:01:22.282,0:01:23.760 Cali(?) or that or something like that, 0:01:23.760,0:01:26.112 they'd reach out to us with confidence. 0:01:26.112,0:01:27.466 You know, we would sit down together 0:01:27.466,0:01:29.800 with some of the judge readers and 0:01:29.800,0:01:31.885 we'll do this once a week. We'll sit down 0:01:31.885,0:01:34.743 at either a church or community center 0:01:34.743,0:01:36.645 and they'll come up to us and they'll say, 0:01:36.645,0:01:38.243 "Hey, listen. We're having these problems 0:01:38.243,0:01:40.291 with these people and they're 0:01:40.291,0:01:41.978 destroying our neighborhood, and we want 0:01:41.978,0:01:42.780 you guys to help." 0:01:42.780,0:01:44.789 And the communication that we had with 0:01:44.789,0:01:46.845 them was fantastic. 0:01:46.845,0:01:48.818 So there's like a form of unity and trust? 0:01:48.818,0:01:50.516 There was, back then. 0:01:50.733,0:01:52.706 So, my last question to you is do you 0:01:52.706,0:01:54.964 think that this is something that can simply 0:01:54.964,0:01:56.774 be solved by having conversations like 0:01:56.774,0:01:57.880 these between peers? 0:01:58.514,0:02:02.241 Simply resolved? I don't know it'll be 0:02:02.241,0:02:07.108 simply solved but I think it's a great 0:02:07.108,0:02:10.587 starting point. It's definitely a 0:02:10.587,0:02:12.903 great starting point because I think the 0:02:12.903,0:02:15.501 gap that we have right now between 0:02:15.501,0:02:19.091 police between religious people between 0:02:19.091,0:02:21.498 politics; our gap has gone to the point 0:02:21.498,0:02:24.030 where it's not going to be fixed just 0:02:24.030,0:02:25.884 overnight just by sitting down where we're 0:02:25.884,0:02:27.924 doing today. It's definitely a great way 0:02:27.924,0:02:30.111 to start. You have to start somewhere. 0:02:30.111,0:02:32.973 You have to close that gap somewhere. 0:02:32.973,0:02:35.592 Communication's always been the key to 0:02:35.592,0:02:36.644 everything. You got to sit down and 0:02:36.644,0:02:39.048 communicate. Find out what we're doing 0:02:39.048,0:02:40.814 wrong. Find out what needs to be 0:02:40.814,0:02:44.146 corrected. Find out how we can correct 0:02:44.146,0:02:46.679 it. Is there-can we do it by sitting down? 0:02:46.679,0:02:49.073 Can we meet with our community leaders? 0:02:49.073,0:02:50.689 Meet with our politicians? 0:02:50.689,0:02:54.186 And decide, "Hey, enough is enough. Okay, 0:02:54.186,0:02:55.532 we've been vigor and we've been 0:02:55.532,0:02:57.351 fighting about every little thing that we 0:02:57.351,0:02:59.055 can think of and we're not getting 0:02:59.055,0:03:01.739 anywhere." And society's getting worse. 0:03:01.739,0:03:05.359 It's getting more ugly. It's getting more 0:03:05.359,0:03:07.814 nasty. It's getting more violent. You 0:03:07.814,0:03:09.120 know, people are getting hurt. 0:03:09.120,0:03:10.864 Innocent people're getting hurt for no 0:03:10.864,0:03:12.640 reason, you know. And that's just not 0:03:12.640,0:03:15.501 how--I remember being, y'know, my early 0:03:15.501,0:03:17.602 '90s when I first became into law 0:03:17.602,0:03:20.188 enforcement. You know, back then, there 0:03:20.188,0:03:21.938 was the crime. There was the hate, you 0:03:21.938,0:03:24.347 know. There was a lot of bickering. 0:03:24.347,0:03:26.694 But there wasn't such a big of a gap. 0:03:27.314,0:03:29.169 Not the way it is now. I mean, you 0:03:29.169,0:03:30.735 can't turn the TV on, you can't turn 0:03:30.735,0:03:33.831 on social media without seeing violence, 0:03:34.630,0:03:37.008 any type of violence for the most littlest 0:03:37.008,0:03:38.372 things. It's just the violence just 0:03:38.372,0:03:40.659 doesn't end. You know, we need to, 0:03:41.529,0:03:46.561 as human beings, we need to sit down 0:03:46.561,0:03:48.759 somewhere and I think a lot of it 0:03:48.759,0:03:50.700 starts in the community. A lot of it 0:03:50.700,0:03:52.720 starts with our politicians. A lot of it 0:03:52.720,0:03:54.122 starts with our community leaders. 0:03:54.122,0:03:55.892 You know, that's where we have to 0:03:55.892,0:03:56.336 start. 0:03:56.336,0:03:58.316 And our first step can be just building 0:03:58.316,0:04:01.049 trust again and having conversations 0:04:01.049,0:04:02.286 and then going out to our own 0:04:02.286,0:04:05.580 neighborhoods and see what happens. 0:04:05.580,0:04:09.287 That is the best way to start. Absolutely, 0:04:09.287,0:04:10.373 I agree one hundred percent (100%), 0:04:10.988,0:04:12.821 So, to conclude to our video, I still 0:04:12.821,0:04:14.429 think that people need to realize that 0:04:14.429,0:04:16.293 racism is a big issue and I think that 0:04:16.293,0:04:17.971 conversations like these are still 0:04:17.971,0:04:20.103 relevant to have with friends, family, 0:04:20.103,0:04:22.323 peers, and acquaintances. All perspectives 0:04:22.323,0:04:24.115 are important to end this racial and 0:04:24.115,0:04:25.770 ethnic divide between us. So, thank you for 0:04:25.770,0:04:27.510 watching and listening. And thank you for 0:04:27.510,0:04:27.940 coming. 0:04:27.940,0:04:28.756 It was a pleasure.