So in Utah, we have another story
of the police overreacting and
using far too much force,
in fact someone died.
And we're going to show you,
unfortunately, the video on it
because I want you guys to see so
we can begin to fix the system.
In this case, it's actually a white
person who is shot by the police.
We're going to talk about racial
issues and class issues after you
find out what the story is about.
So let me tell you, as PBS writes,
Chad Breinholt showed up
intoxicated to
his girlfriend's workplace.
Her co-worker called the police,
okay, so far it sounds normal.
The officers don't see Breinholt
behind the wheel, but
surveillance footage showed that he
had driven a car.
Breinholt blew a blood alcohol
level of 0.162, more than three
times Utah's legal limit of 0.05.
Lane arrested him, that's of course
the officer in the story.
There's several officers but
he's the arresting one.
He searched his pockets and
found no weapons.
Breinholt was placed in a patrol
car according to the footage.
Okay, so now this is important,
he goes over to
his girlfriend's workplace.
He's definitely intoxicated,
I watched a very long video on it.
There's no question he's drunk and
then he blows three times
the legal limit.
So the officers in talking to him,
apprehending him,
and they had a pretty good evidence
that he had driven there.
They've done nothing wrong so far.
So they should arrest him, and they
bring him in, and he's in bad shape
when he gets to the police station.
And in fact, at one point, he falls
down on the ground handcuffed and
they let him lie there for
11 minutes.
So these bad things happen before
you get to the end.
But let me give you more
from the story from PBS.
Officers spent nearly two hours
with Breinholt
in the DUI processing room
at police headquarters.
Sergeant Tyler Longman wasn't part
of the initial arrest but came to
the police station because Lane and
Atkin were newer officers who
needed help filling out
an electronic warrant.
The video shows that Breinholt
asked officers to take him to the
Huntsman Mental Health Institute,
known as UNI, but
the officers refused.
So at one point he says that he's
having I think he said heart issues
but clearly some health issues that
he falls to the ground.
They call the fire department
because they have a medical team.
They check them out and they say no
he's not having a heart attack or
anything like that.
They put them back in the chair,
but he says look, and you could
tell he is very intoxicated and
he is not doing well at all.
And they tell him they're going to
take him to prison.
And by the way, if you're arrested
for a DUI when it looks like you
did it, you should eventually be
taken to prison.
But the guy's not well, and it is
abundantly clear in the video.
And so, when he asked to be taken
to some sort of medical facility,
common sense is screaming through
the video everybody watching it.
Please, please just take him
to a doctor's office or to UNI or
something along those lines.
Let him sober up,
then take him to prison,
just in case, right?
And it's also trouble let alone
the fact that he might have
a serious health condition.
And police officers seem to be
think that everybody's lying when
they say they have a medical
condition and
I'm sure some folks that they bring
in do lie about that.
But why are you taking chances when
so many people die in custody?
But now in this case,
unfortunately, he did not die from
a health condition.
He kept trying to get out of
the situation to go to UNI and so
he started saying he had a gun.
Now remember early in the story I
told you, that they had patted them
down and they were positive he
didn't have a gun.
He says, he's got one in his
shoe, etc.
And then as they're checking
his shoe, a scuffle happens and
then disaster, okay.
Now, if you're faint of heart,
I don't blame you at all and
even if you're not faint heart,
I'll give you a significant warning
on this video.
The reason we have to show
it to you is so you can see
that this happens all the time.
And then there's a twist at the end
of the story which makes it
even worse.
But so when folks tell
you the police are doing this,
believe them because they are.
Now with that warning in mind,
let's watch the video.
>> There's a gun in my shoe.
>> Okay, sit down.
>> I have a gun in my shoe.
>> Okay, sit down.
>> I'll get the gun out,
you sit down.
>> I'm going to sit down.
>> I don't want to sit down.
>> Okay, stay seated okay, good
job, thanks for sitting him in.
[MUSIC]
Stay down, okay?
Stay seated, okay?
You don't want to fight with me.
You definitely don't want to fight
with this guy,
just sit your ass and stay, okay?
>> You're not letting me go?
>> No, we're not letting you go.
We told you it will still be a few
minutes before you go any where.
>> Before what?
>> Before we go to jail.
Tell you what, give me your shoe.
>> No. >> Yeah.
>> I'm getting my shoe.
>> This is going to [INAUDIBLE].
[MUSIC] While the man watches.
>> Do it or [INAUDIBLE] my gun.
[INAUDIBLE]
>> I'm going to tell you an amazing
fact about the policeman who shot
him there, in a little bit.
But I watched that video many times
to see if he actually had the gun.
He did not, he touched the gun,
that's definitely seems to be
the case from the video.
And so was the officer concerned
that he was going to be able
to get it out of the holster?
Yeah, I can see him
being concerned.
Did he get it out of the holster?
He did not, he never got it out of
the holster.
And the last words he heard was
the officers telling him you're
about to die, my friend.
Okay, I have more on the story but
first I want to bring
everybody in here.
So Bridget, this is obviously
happening all across the country.
They don't seem to have any reform.
What's your take on this?
>> Yeah, that video was so
hard to watch and so heartbreaking.
And I think it's worth mentioning
that the reason why law enforcement
was called in the first place is
that when he showed up to his
girlfriend's place of work,
she was concerned about self harm.
He talked about having
taken a handful of pills, drinking.
And so obviously,
if somebody has been drinking and
driving, they should probably have
some sort of penalty for that.
But clearly if you're worried about
self harm, take him right to jail
and having this kind of interaction
there's no cause for it.
And so seeing this video,
seeing the way that these officers
treated him, seeing him say several
times that he wanted to go to
a mental health facility and having
those pleas be just ignored or
sort of mocked by these officers.
It's really disgusting and
I think that more training is not
the answer, I think that reform is
not the answer.
This is not a situation of a few
bad apples.
I think it's a situation of a rot
at the root, and
I don't think training or
reform is going to fix any of this.
It's a deeply systemic problem.
>> Jackson.
>> Yeah, I think one of
the important things to highlight
is that at no point was
law enforcement not
in control of the situation.
At no point
did he serve any type of real
threat to any of their lives.
He was handcuffed,
he was in the facility, there were
multiple police officers.
They were kind of provoking him
the whole time.
As you could see they weren't
really listening to his pleas to
get him to a different type of
facility.
And after he shot him, he's dead,
you know what I'm saying?
And it really just shows that law
enforcement in general in this
country really is not prepared to
do much else other than use force.
And so, unfortunately, unless bills
get passed, nothing will change.
And there's really not very much
political will within the walls of
Congress to pass any type of bills.
And what makes this even more
complicated is it's not really
something that a federal suite
could just fix, because police
departments are ran locally, and
there's thousands of them.
So, this is a historical problem.
This is a cultural problem.
And it's something that unless we
get money out of politics in some
significant way, I don't really see
how anything is going to happen,
unfortunately.
>> Yeah, and in this case it's
oftentimes the police unions
are pouring a ton of money to local
candidates and prevent change, and
that's why Jackson brings that up.
So I had a couple of things to add
on to what Jackson and
Bridget said, and
then give you a couple more facts.
So first of all, I think the number
one problem is the threshold for
killing, all right?
So I always think shoe on
the other foot.
What if I was in the situation of
the police officers?
And so if this guy who was looking
for help, but he's in bad shape and
he's not in the right state of
mind, grabs the gun of one of my
best friends, but
he hasn't pulled it out yet, right?
Would I murder that guy?
And I don't think I would,
I don't think a lot of you would.
I hope you wouldn't, right?
You'd be really, really worried and
the first thing I would
do is I would grab his hand, right?
You got three officers there,
he's not a big guy,
he's obviously very drunk.
If he grabbed for the gun,
I would go and grab his arm.
I wouldn't think, I'm going to end
this guy's life rather than take
whatever the percentage is 1%, 2%,
5%, 10%
chance that he might get the gun,
use the gun, and harm one of us.
But that is not what police
are taught, police are taught put
him down, who cares?
His life is not anywhere near as
important as not just your life but
any degree of safety for you,
right?
So, if you feel slightly unsafe
kill him.
And God, Bridget made such a great
point and it reminded me that
Richard Sherman's story.
Originally they get called in for
self harm,
we want to protect this guy.
But the cops,
when all you have is a hammer,
everything's a nail, right?
So they're not looking to help,
did it look like they were
looking to help him?
Now if you watch that whole long
video, they weren't looking to
help him at all.
In fact, they were mocking him as
he was asking for help,
but you got called in for help.
And that's why it's called Defund
the Police because some of
the money should actually go to
mental health and other kinds of
health treatment for these people.
Richard Sherman,
the famous NFL player,
his wife calls in and says please,
please don't kill him,
I'm worried about him.
He had two bottles and I don't want
him to harm himself but
please don't kill him, right?
And that's what now everybody has
to say to cops when they're calling
them, that's crazy.
So now this video didn't get
released for two years, why?
Of course,
everybody knows it's CYA,
Cover Your Ass.
They didn't want you to see the
video because the video is horrible
but they saw it two years ago.
Did they take action?
Of course not, West Valley Cities
incident review committee,
determined Longman, the shooter,
didn't violate policy and
he's back on duty after being on
administrative leave,
which is standard protocol after
a police shooting.
His actions are also defended by
Utah's Fraternal Order of Police,
as always.
Now, the last part of the story
that I promised you,
that's horrible.
Sergeant Tyler Longman has no
serious record of disciplinary
actions and over time has been
promoted to sergeant.
What he does have is a record
of firing his gun.
Public records show Longman has not
faced discipline for
three fatal shootings.
He killed three different people in
three different incidents and he
has never received any discipline.
They thought all of those,
including that video you
just watched, were exemplary,
that's what he should have done.
So one more time,
Bridget and Jackson.
If cops look at that video, we look
at a video and the audience can
judge for themselves, but I imagine
a huge percentage are horrified.
Cops look at it and go, well done.
Well, of course they're going to do
it again, you just told him
that it was well done.
>> Absolutely, and
you make such a good point that
police unions, oftentimes
they're just protecting their own.
They are not looking out for
public safety,
they are not looking out for
citizens and public good.
And I think a criminal justice
system where a police officer can
kill three people and
be promoted and be told good job.
And is still walking around there
with a gun tells you all you need
to know about how committed that
system is to public safety.
They're not committed at all.
>> And I think this is I know Jenk
you're from where you grew up out
here in Jersey.
I'm out here in Jersey and
the other day I was in if
you're familiar with Montclair,
a pretty well to do area.
You're not living in most of
Montclair if you don't got a couple
million bucks at least.
And I'm looking at these
Hummers and these armored
police vehicles riding around like,
what do you need all this for?
And then I was at a friend's house
and this movie SWAT was on and
how unbelievably politicized
that movie is.
And you just gotta think that a lot
of this behavior comes from people
who want that action,
adrenaline type lifestyle.
They look at these types of movies,
they imagine themselves as
the these heroes fighting
the bad people.
And as goofy as that seems, that's
literally what ends up getting into
these police departments.
And how do you really put the genie
back in the bottle when these
people have access to the military
grade weapons?
When they have access to tanks that
they can ride around in, in areas
where there's really no crime.
So it's just that bad boy,
let's go get the bad guys culture
really dominates police in this
country and it attracts a certain
type of person.
>> Yeah, and so lastly,
I promised you guys a race and
class discussion so
just real quick on that because we
don't have time to get into
the whole conversation about that.
But the answer is both,
it's not either, right?
So does this happen to
African Americans more often?
Yes, that's a fact, it is
a statistically proven fact, right?
But does it happen to poor people
more often as well?
Yes, that's also definitely
statistically true.
So when Jackson's talking about
the those highly militarized police
in Montclair, they're not going to
do this to wealthy folks.
It almost never happens to
wealthy folks.
It happens to people who they
view as threats to the property
of Montclair, right?
>> Yes. >> And so
is it a racial issue oftentimes?
Absolutely, but
it is also a class issue?
So will they kill poor and
middle class white people because
they have been taught?
You're supposed to be militarized
and you're supposed to never take
a 1% chance with your life, etc.
Absolutely, and so even though that
is horrible and we feel for
both black and white and everybody
else that are the victims of this.
Maybe there's a silver lining there
as what happened with a little
bit of reform in criminal justice
on the issue of drugs.
When oxy took over the country and
we started locking up more and
more white people, unjustly, as we
were doing to African Americans,
all of a sudden Republicans jumped
in and thought, maybe we should
rethink this, right?
And Democrats, of course,
are useless and always look for
permission from Republicans.
So there's some chance here that
the more videos you see like this,
that Republicans might go, hey,
maybe this isn't such a good idea
after all.
And then we might finally get
some action on this issue.
But we should have honest
politicians that
take action without any of that
being necessary,
as Jackson pointed out earlier.