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So Van, we've seen so many peaceful protests turn violent.
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Do you think that was just bound to happen?
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Listen, if you think about it, if you have 100 people who all
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come out at the same time, if only one of those people
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is a troublemaker, is a paid provocateur,
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is somebody who wants to do something negative,
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or just some local knucklehead, troublemaker,
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something bad can happen.
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Well, as you start adding numbers,
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you go from 100, to 1,000, to 50,000
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across the country, 100,000 people,
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you're going to have a larger number of people
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who are doing stuff like that.
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Unfortunately, we then focus on that.
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What I think is so sad is we're missing the common ground.
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You know what the common ground is?
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Nobody likes lawlessness.
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We don't like lawlessness in police departments.
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That's what the protests are about,
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it's lawlessness, police failing to obey the law in police
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departments, which then creates lawlessness
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in the streets in response.
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So there's no pro-riot caucus in the black community.
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There's no there's no pro-crime caucus.
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Nobody wants peaceful streets more than black people,
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trust me.
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I'm trying to raise two black boys here in Los Angeles.
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I'm not for riots.
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But if you want to hold young people to high standards
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out there in the streets--
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and I do every day--
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you should also hold older people,
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especially older people in uniform,
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to even higher standards.
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And if you just stay consistent, we're consistent,
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we want lawful behavior, and we don't
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care if you're wearing your blue jeans and a t-shirt
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or if you're wearing a blue uniform,
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we want lawful behavior, then there's common ground.
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The problem is, when you start saying,
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well, I'm no longer going to talk
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about the lawlessness in the police departments
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because I'm so mad at the people who are throwing bricks,
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it is unfair to the black community.
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There are 40 million African-Americans, 40 million.
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0.000000001% have thrown a brick.
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Why should the rest of us have our pain and our fear
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as parents completely erased because
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of what a tiny, tiny rounding error of people are doing?
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And frankly, many of them have white and other people
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alongside of them.
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Some of them may be provocateurs.
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So let's not let the disturbances
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disturb our equilibrium.
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There is common ground against lawlessness,
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starting with police departments.
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There's a way out of this.
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But we've got to be able to keep our eye on the prize.
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Listen, there's three things, very simple.
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What can we do?
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What can we do?
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It's very simple.
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The solution stack is so simple.
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Jail the four cops who were involved.
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Jail them.
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Charge them.
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Maybe they can get off in a jury trial.
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But at least arrest them.
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Number two, bipartisan police reform legislation
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to ban chokeholds and have excessive force, a standard
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that make some sense.
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And number three, surge some economic support
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into these communities that have been suffering all this time.
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And this whole thing will be over.
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It could be done in a week.
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Yeah, I mean, we have to take a break.
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But I mean, I don't know by the time
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this airs Thursday if they will have been arrested.
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But the fact that it's taken this long--
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and I know they're trying to find a solid case--
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they don't wait for a young black boy or man
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to be a strong case before they arrest them,
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much less kill them.
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They don't wait 10 seconds.
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No, they don't wait at all.
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So this should have happened day one.
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And then they just arrest the guy
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that was sitting on his head with his hands in his pocket.
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But they don't arrest the other three
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who are complicit-- just, anyway,
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we're going to take a break.
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Makes me mad.
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We'll be back.
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We're back with the host of CNN's is
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The Van Jones Show, Van Jones.
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Good thing you got cast in that.
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Because that's a good--
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it's Van Jones, and that's your name.
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So tWitch, what were you saying just now to Van?
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That everybody needs to hear what he just said,
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from front and back.
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Because with all of the emotion that's
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going on surrounding what's happening in the streets
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as far as rioting, and looting, and protesting, which one is
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which, which one is better, and what should stop, and why,
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what you just spoke about as far as common ground
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needs to be heard the way that you just said it.
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And also, because the way that you said it,
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it was uninterrupted.
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There was nothing to argue against,
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which is what's happening in a lot of the comment sections.
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When people try to voice our concern,
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people come back with a counter argument and things like that.
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But the way that you just put that, I mean, to me, it was it
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was perfect.
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There's no way that anyone can argue--
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well, anyone with sense, I'm sorry--
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could argue what you just said.
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And I feel like the world needs to hear that.
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Because it is.
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It is common ground that we need to hear right now.
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And, bro, I give it up to you.
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Because that was said perfectly.
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That was said perfectly.
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Thank you, brother.
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Thank you.
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Absolutely.
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Yeah, I think that was a really great show that we
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had Mayor Keisha and Van on.
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Because I think, as I said in the beginning of the show,
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I'm going to do everything I can to educate myself.
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And I want to help other people learn from watching the show,
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and how they can do the same, and be better people,
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and be better allies.
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Tell me, what is just a couple of things
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that people watching can do?
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Look, everybody should watch this documentary
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called The 13th.
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It's about the 13th amendment and the way
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that the prison system has been built up.
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There's a book called The New Jim Crow.
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I encourage everybody to read that.
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And there's a book called White Fragility, White Fragility.
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And it just talks about why it's so hard for white people
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to talk about race and racial issues.
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And when you understand what's going on in your mind
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when these things come up, it's so much easier to learn.
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So those three sources, I think, are great.
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Yeah, Ava DuVernay, and also I just ordered that book.
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Because I was watching tWitch speak about it.
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So I ordered a few books that tWitch recommended.
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We'll post those on our website, some more books
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that people can read to help.
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Van will be hosting a CNN and Sesame Street town
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hall called Coming Together Standing Up
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to Racism this Saturday at 10:00 AM eastern on CNN.
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Van, thank you so much.
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Come back anytime.
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Thanks for everything.
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Thank you.
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Appreciate being here.
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We'll get through this.
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All right, we'll be back.