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