BET to Air Police Reform Special Hosted by Soledad O’Brien, Featuring Nancy Pelosi, Ayanna Pressley, and More

Emmy Award-winning journalist Soledad O’Brien will host a BET news special next week about the national call to defund and reform police institutions triggered by the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

Titled American Injustice: The Fight for Police Reform, the BET News special will address this pivotal moment in the fight for police reform and discuss how supporters can move from protests to progress. The program will cover a range of topics, including the status of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, the Defund the Police movement, the power of police unions, police chokeholds, no-knock warrants, and the fight over qualified immunity, states a press release.

Soledad O’Brien (courtesy of BET)

During the program, O’Brien will interview several political leaders, law enforcement officials, and activists, including U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Karen Bass, Rep. Cedric Richmond, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors. They will discuss the proposed police reform legislation stalled on Capitol Hill and what needs to be done to transform the way communities of color are policed.

According to the news release, over 1,000 people are killed by police every year in the U.S., while Black people are three times more likely to be killed than White people. “George Floyd’s tragic death at the hands of Minnesota police seemed to mark a tipping point, as millions of protestors in the United States and around the world, took to the streets to call for urgent and bold reforms to address the legacy of racially biased policing and misuse of force,” it reads.

The program, which is part of BET’s “Content For Change” initiative announced last month, will air Wednesday, July 22, at 11:00 PM ET/PT on BET and BET HER.