Negus

HURT PEOPLE HOLLER.

It’s hard to speak up when you see injustice.
When things are going wrong,
when the department first starts to go sour,
when you start to see things that don't make sense,
and you gather the courage to speak up…

Then you're not heard, so you might shout.
If you shout and you’re not heard, you may scream.
If you scream and you are STILL not heard, then you might throw something.

Look at your own children and how they act.
When there’s something desperately wrong and no one will listen,
people go to more and more extreme forms of expression and then of action.

This is the challenge we have here:
I want peaceful streets.
I’m not part of any pro-crime or pro-riot lobby.
But I know if we want to end lawlessness in Los Angeles,
then we need to make sure there is not lawlessness in the POLICE PRECINCTS in Los Angeles.

We should hold young people to high standards.
Let’s not relax. Let’s not relent.
BUT - we need to hold GROWN FOLK to even HIGHER standards.

The problem I have with a lot of critics of what they’re seeing is this:

They’re very quick to RAISE the standards on young desperate people – some of whom are just out there acting a fool and are knuckleheads, some are out there for a good purpose – there’s a mix.

But we’re too quick to RAISE the standard for young desperate people and LOWER the standard for law enforcement. We need to insist on law and order in the ranks of our police.

This is a delicate thing. I applaud the leadership of Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. We need to call people UP to a higher standard – not just call them OUT for mistakes and misdeeds.

Listen