Van Jones Urges to Restore Trust Between Police, Black Community: ‘Without Trust, Nothing Works’

CNN commentator Van Jones joined Cuomo Prime Time to discuss how to restore trust between the Black community and police. “There just is no trust, and without trust, nothing works. And so how do you get from no trust to more trust?”

He began by telling host Chris Cuomo, “First of all, you have to acknowledge you have a problem,” then criticized Fox News, without naming them, for their coverage of this topic, “You have a bunch of people on another network that won’t even acknowledge we have a problem.”

Jones called for “trust-building measures” that would increase transparency. He pointed to the initial false report from the Minneapolis Police Department that was filed after George Floyd was killed that called the event a “medical incident,” without mentioning that a police office had knelt on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes. Jones added that now because the MPD chief had fired the officers involved and testified against Derek Chauvin, the jury found Chauvin guilty on all counts, and the MPD is under investigation by the federal government, trust could be rebuilt. 

He agreed with Cuomo that body cameras increase transparency and accountability for police.

Jones also took issue with his critics who claim he focuses solely on police violence and doesn’t focus on street violence. “That is a lie,” he said emphatically. “They should quit saying that.” He pointed to his advocacy on the subject and stressed that the two issues are connected.

“The problem is when you have a community crushed between unlawful street violence and police violence, when you don’t have the trust, who do you call? When the street violence happens, you can’t call the police because they might come and make it worse. And when the police violence happens, you can’t call anybody.”

You can watch above, via CNN.