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Hello, my name

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is Brianna

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and I'm in my

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second year here

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at Seminole State,

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and I'll like to introduce my dad.

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Hi! My name is Manuel Sanchez.

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I'm Briana's dad. I'm a retired NYPD police

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officer for 20 years and I'm currently

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an active law enforcement officer

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here in the state of Florida.

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So, this video is called,

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"Bridging the Racial and Ethnic Divide."

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And the purpose is to have candid

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conversations about issues. So,

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perspectives and views on race

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and ethnicity. So, I wanted to get

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the perspective from a retired

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and active member of law

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enforcement. So, the first question I

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want to ask you is do you think

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there is a divide between people

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from when you started in the law

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enforcement agency to now in

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the 21st century?

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I believe there's been a significant

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change in how people were when I

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first got into law enforcement in the

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early '90s. And now, we're practically in

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the 21st century. Back in those days,

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I noticed people were more united.

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People cared for each other. They

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respected law enforcement. Law

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enforcement respected the community.

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The community came out to us and they

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wanted certain things done in their

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community. If there's anybody robbing or

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stealing or vandalizing or selling their

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Cali(?) or that or something like that,

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they'd reach out to us with confidence.

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You know, we would sit down together

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with some of the judge readers and

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we'll do this once a week. We'll sit down

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at either a church or community center

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and they'll come up to us and they'll say,

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"Hey, listen. We're having these problems

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with these people and they're

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destroying our neighborhood, and we want

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you guys to help."

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And the communication that we had with

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them was fantastic.

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So there's like a form of unity and trust?

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There was, back then.

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So, my last question to you is do you

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think that this is something that can simply

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be solved by having conversations like

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these between peers?

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Simply resolved? I don't know it'll be

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simply solved but I think it's a great

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starting point. It's definitely a

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great starting point because I think the

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gap that we have right now between

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police between religious people between

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politics; our gap has gone to the point

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where it's not going to be fixed just

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overnight just by sitting down where we're

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doing today. It's definitely a great way

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to start. You have to start somewhere.

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You have to close that gap somewhere.

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Communication's always been the key to

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everything. You got to sit down and

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communicate. Find out what we're doing

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wrong. Find out what needs to be

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corrected. Find out how we can correct

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it. Is there-can we do it by sitting down?

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Can we meet with our community leaders?

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Meet with our politicians?

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And decide, "Hey, enough is enough. Okay,

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we've been vigor and we've been

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fighting about every little thing that we

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can think of and we're not getting

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anywhere." And society's getting worse.

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It's getting more ugly. It's getting more

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nasty. It's getting more violent. You

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know, people are getting hurt.

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Innocent people're getting hurt for no

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reason, you know. And that's just not

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how--I remember being, y'know, my early

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'90s when I first became into law

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enforcement. You know, back then, there

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was the crime. There was the hate, you

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know. There was a lot of bickering.

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But there wasn't such a big of a gap.

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Not the way it is now. I mean, you

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can't turn the TV on, you can't turn

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on social media without seeing violence,

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any type of violence for the most littlest

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things. It's just the violence just

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doesn't end. You know, we need to,

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as human beings, we need to sit down

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somewhere and I think a lot of it

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starts in the community. A lot of it

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starts with our politicians. A lot of it

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starts with our community leaders.

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You know, that's where we have to

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start.

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And our first step can be just building

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trust again and having conversations

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and then going out to our own

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neighborhoods and see what happens.

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That is the best way to start. Absolutely,

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I agree one hundred percent (100%),

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So, to conclude to our video, I still

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think that people need to realize that

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racism is a big issue and I think that

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conversations like these are still

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relevant to have with friends, family,

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peers, and acquaintances. All perspectives

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are important to end this racial and

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ethnic divide between us. So, thank you for

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watching and listening. And thank you for

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coming.

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It was a pleasure.