 Welcome to my new best friend and you know I only talk to best friends and this is a special, special friend. So Wayne, my goodness, all the way across the ocean and Wayne County, Michigan. He is the sheriff of Wayne County. I fell in love, absolutely fell madly in love with him when I heard him on the NAACP call, which comes every week, with 10,000 people on. He was the speaker. And what I heard in his voice and what he said about he cares for the prisoners, pure empathy. I didn't know the sheriff had empathy. Honestly, you know, everything we hear about sheriff is not very good. But I heard in his voice and that's when I started scrambling to find him because I wanted you to hear that. I wanted you to meet this super, super person and he is Benny Napoleon, which is the sheriff of Wayne County in Michigan. I think that includes Detroit. It does. It does. Okay. Aloha, my friend. Aloha. I'm so honored to have you. No, the honest mind. Thank you so much. Yeah, you know, after we listened to that orange man in the White House with no empathy for anybody or anything, and then to hear you out of 10,000 people on the call. And it shows, you said, now you put me if I'm wrong, you said that there were 3,000 prisoners in one facility and that you had managed to get them put in other facilities so they would be safe from the virus. And you got it down to 700. And you said, and I quote, they are better out there than any of you on this call. Did I get that right? That's close to right. So here's my jail maximum capacity is 3000. We would have normally about 2200 in the jail and about another 6700 on teller. So what what we did once this outbreak began, we started looking at ways to manage it. And we called everyone that had the American Jell Association, the National Institute of Corrections, the CDC, the major county shares, the National Shares Association, the Michigan Shares Association, Michigan. We called everybody to find out what were the best practices available to protect the inmates and to protect the staff in the jail and no one had any information for us. So we were on our own to try to figure out what we were going to do about the care and custody of the people who were in the jail. So I immediately met with the or had a conversation with the chief judge of our circuit court and the prosecutor of the county. And we decided to look at the population of people who were incarcerated and we were looking to see to get get as many people out of that environment as possible. So we dwindled our inmate population down from about 17, 1800 that were in custody at the day we started this. And today we have less than 900 people, almost half the people who were in a little over half the people who were in my custody are now out of the jail. And as I told you, they have immediate health care. We have 24 hour, seven day a week health care that inside of the jail. However, it's still not an environment that's conducive to good health. They can't social distance. There's a lot of things they can't do while they're incarcerated. So we got our population down and today is less than 900 people. Well, that is fabulous. And the fact that you cared enough to do that to really work at that, I could say was was just amazing. And especially when I read about Detroit and in your Detroit newspaper, about a five year old girl dying. Yeah, actually, her mother worked for me when I was the chief of police in Detroit. Her mother was one of the officers who worked for me and I know them very well and is very sad. Her mother is a dear friend of mine. And to get that news broke my heart. Oh, yes, it broke my heart. And then to think that there were some other black people that were turned away, a hospital didn't care for them. And that was just too much that not only are they working, and I think if I get this right, that those are the people that are out there working, riding the bus, delivering the mail, picking up the rubbish, police, firemen, all of these jobs. Unlike what Mr. Trump would like to have us think that this is a ghetto. These are frontline people, people working every day for Detroit and they are denied healthcare. Yeah, I am so proud of the men and women work in my agency. I've had over 200 of the approximately 1000 uniform numbers of my agency who have tested positive for COVID. I've had two that have passed as a result of getting COVID. And, you know, obviously we're testing people every day so that number of positive tests continues to rise. Yet it's still people are coming to work every single day, even though that they're putting themselves at great risk to do so. But they still do it. And I think they're true heroes and they're very, very, very special people. They are. Of course I'm going to beat my own drum, and I have a daughter, my only daughter. She's an RN, a hospice nurse, and she is out there. Oh, she's on the line too, no question. No doubt about it. And they visit the patients. They have to go from one house to another. And, you know, these people are already at the end. Now something else shows up. This is so sad. It's so sad. And then I have my number one son drives the bus. Oh, wow. They are what do you call essential. No question. And I called the man that's the owner of the bus, of course, and insisted. I called him, even though he's a friend, I called him as a mother. I want every bus driver to have gloves, even if I have to buy it. He said, OK, Marcia, calm down. OK, we'll take care of that. Yes, I would love them to have gloves. I wanted them to have masks. And today they put up some kind of a screen between the driver and the patient. Oh, wow. That is very special and needed. But, you know, I had to change my hat from being an activist to being a mother. OK, because my son, I want everybody out. Well, you could do both. Very well, I'm sure. And I told him, I even specified the kind of gloves. And since we couldn't get shipments from China, I couldn't go into the glove business. But, you know, the gloves and golfers wear that have those nice soft lining. Oh, yeah, absolutely. So, you know, now, let me play this video for our audience so they get to see your background because I was thoroughly impressed. Eric, can we play that video because this is so special. I want everybody to see what a special person you are. I want everybody to understand accountability for those who commit crimes and to enhance the quality of life and communities within Wayne County. My guest today is Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon, who is working hard to keep that mission a reality. Sheriff, good to see you again. Thanks for being here. It's always a pleasure to be with you, Lud. It's been a while. It's been a while. I'd like to introduce my guest first to the citizens of Wayne County. So, if you could kind of talk about who Benny Napoleon is. Where did you grow up? Your education background? I'm a resident of City of Detroit. Educated in the Detroit public school system. The son of a Baptist pastor and a factory worker. I graduated from Cass Technical High School in 1973. I received my undergraduate degree in criminal justice and history from the University of Detroit Mercy. I received my Juris Doctorate from Detroit College of Law at Michigan State University. I'm a graduate of the Northwestern University School of Police, Staff and Command. The United States Secret Service Dignitary Protection School, the FBI National Academy. There's the Institute of Executive Development at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. And the Senior Executives and Local and State Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. So, I've got a pretty extensive academic background. In addition to that, I'm the very proud father of a 28-year-old who's soon to be 29, who has a master's degree from the University of Michigan in Public Administration and a proud grandpa of an 8-year-old. As I always tell him, he's the greatest soccer player and the greatest basketball player on the planet at this point. I'm proud of you because, as I said, the thought of what a sheriff is, you know, we think of why it hurts and the bunch. We don't think of somebody that is so well educated and such a broad view of the world and of people. So, that's why I wanted everybody to see that clip. Thank you. Yeah. Now, you started telling me that you're a grandfather or your father was a minister. Which one? My father was a minister. My grandfather was a sharecropper with a third grade education who came to Detroit and started working at Ford's Foundry. And I used to help him read the newspaper as a kid. And he was the one who always stressed that he was not allowed to finish school. He had to drop out of third grade and work in the cotton fields down in Tennessee. And he stressed to me and my siblings that we had an opportunity to get a good education. We need to take advantage of it. So, it's always been important to me to do that for him. Whatever you did very well, he will be very proud of you. He is in heaven really on. I am confident of that. Yes. Now, your father was a minister, you said? Yeah. He passed a church in Detroit for about 40, 43 years. Wow. Now, tell me about Detroit. I know nothing. I've never been to Detroit. I know nothing about it. Oh, wow. It was, of course, what was it, Motown? Motown, absolutely. And Ford Motor and all the General Motors. That was what I knew about it. You know, the city at one time was the fifth largest city in America. We had over 2 million people and it is what we like to say is the birthplace of the middle class because the automobile factories in the UAW and the labor unions that were here that fought for a lot of the benefits that people enjoy today came out of the struggle of the union movement here in the city of Detroit. If you're getting paid sick time, if you're getting paid vacation time, if you have a 40 hour work week, if you get overtime for working more, all of these benefits are the result of the contracts that were negotiated by labor unions here in the city of Detroit. And the city was just a phenomenal place, Motown, the birthplace. Growing up in this town, I saw superstar legends just walking and riding up and down the street, the Byron Gaze, the Aretha Franklin, the Diana Rosses, the Tim Payson's, the Four Tops. All of these folks were here in Detroit when I was growing up in the city and it was a very common place to see them in the neighborhoods and the stores and in the community doing things. Then we had the riot at 67. And after the riot, a city of two million people is now hovering around 600,000 with the same size landmass and the number of houses and residents just totally disappeared. It's a city that has gone through a lot, but we have persevered. We're starting to see things change. The population hopefully is going to increase. But the thing that's so striking about the city is it's the only major city in America that has lost over a million people in population. That hasn't happened to any other city in this country. And that's what makes Detroit so distinctive in the problems there. Just think about a city that was built to handle two million people from an infrastructure standpoint that is down to 650,700,000. You lost 1,300,000 people. That would be a major city in and of itself with just the people that we lost. It didn't happen in Philadelphia. It didn't happen in New York. It didn't happen in Chicago. It didn't happen in LA. It didn't happen in DC, Atlanta. Houston, none of those places have lost that many people. So the problems you hear about Detroit stem from the fact that we had a mass exodus of people after the riots in 67. Oh, is that when it changed? Oh, absolutely. It was almost like overnight. Once the riot occurred in 67, you started experiencing white flight. And the private neighborhoods in the city that had been occupied by predominantly white people, they just left. And at one point we were at a million people, which was okay. When I was the chief of police in Detroit from 1998 to 2000, we had over a million people in the 2000 census. So between 2000 and now we still lost another 300,000 people. But I believe that we have bottomed out and I think the population will begin to rise again. But when you can't lose that many people and that much of your tax base and have that many abandoned houses and still be able to provide the kind of services. So what we're left with is a population that at one point was 90% African-American. A significant number of the folks were poor because after we had white flight, we started seeing the flight of the black middle class, which left a lot of people in the city who were basically poor. And 60, 70% of the kids in the city live below the poverty level. So we have a lot of challenges here in the city. When you think about it from an academic standpoint, how we have survived and sustained ourselves with all of the things that we have gone through is just truly amazing. That is amazing. Now what about the elected officials? Are they, well, I read about the doctor, the woman doctor that's head of the health department. And you, of course, but what about the mayor and the city council? Well, we went to, there was one at one point in time. We have nine members on our city council in the city of Detroit. One time, eight of the nine were African-Americans, including the president of the council. Today, the president of the council is an African-American female, and we have, I think, two non-African-American of the nine. We have one Asian-American, Latino-American, I'm sorry, and one Caucasian-American and the other seven members are African-American. We have the first nine African-American mayor that we've had over almost 40 years from 73 till the election in 2005. We had an African-American mayor. I read, I read in that, I read from there in that 2005 election was obviously not successful. Well, now, I hope I get the story right. My uncle, the late Reverend Nicholas Hood, the elder. Now, the story goes that there was this urban renewal, and we all know what the FAR said. And they were going to tear down a certain part of the Black neighborhood. And the people came together and told the mayor not to do it. And he said he was going to do it anyway. And so the story goes that Uncle Nick told him, you know, you, if you tear this down, we will tear you down. And they organized, and they did, and they got rid of him as mayor. So that's, now that's the story that we've all held on to. That's interesting. That might have been before my time. She's open to you. I knew that, but that's how, and he's a pastor also. So that was how he became the beloved, I know for his funeral, people came from everywhere. For the funeral, because he had managed to take on the power structure and that people wanted that, needed that, and stuck with it. Oh, that's absolutely true. Very well respected and well loved member of the ecumenical community. And as a member of city council, Reverend Hood was a, was a giant in this community and people just loved him. And I, like you said, his funeral was very indicative of the affection that this community had for it. Yeah, and that's, you see, that's, I have never been to Detroit. So that was my whole thing was, was, was him. And when I would tell people here in Hawaii that he was my uncle, they would genuinely let, you know, if I, oh my God, I didn't know. The story, it was that thing that we all held on to as part of the family, you know, every family has stories, of course. Well, that continues through his son, currently the pastor of the church now clever. And who is he's also married to a federal judge who is obviously very influential in the community. So the family has been a part of the fiber and the power structure of this community for probably 50 years. I, at least, because we were all born in Indiana. So I do not know what happened that he moved to Detroit. I don't know. But I think when I look at the geography of that part of the world and the field mills and the industrialists all across that part of the country, along the Great Lakes there, I think people moved back and forth through those cities. Buffalo, and Detroit, Chicago, East St. Louis, and Pittsburgh, all of those cities. I think that there was this constant migration because when you talk to people, say, oh, I have somebody over here, you know. Is that true or am I making that up? No, you're absolutely right. What you saw was because I have a lot of relatives in Gary, a lot of relatives in Chicago. And when the migration came from the south to the north, most of the people went either to the Philadelphia's or the Chicago's or the Detroit's or the Indiana's. And members of the same family might have gone either way because my dad did in Chicago for a while before he moved to Detroit. They would go to work in an automobile plant. I have tons of relatives in Chicago, a few on the east coast, but predominantly in Chicago and Indiana. So you're absolutely right. And I think cousins come from Chicago who have moved to Detroit because there are opportunities here and people from here who moved to Chicago. So you do see a lot of that migration between what is unfortunately called those Rust Belt communities, mostly because of the migration from the south. And the industry, though, they could go to work right away. You didn't have to have to go to work right away. Yeah, you could definitely come to Detroit up into the automobile plant, started building different parts of the country and parts of the world. You could come to Detroit with a high school diploma and make a very, very good living. At one point in time, Detroit had the largest percentage of African American homeowners of anywhere in the country. But what were so terribly wrong? The riots and then automobile factories. Our economy was based on the automobile. And when they started building cars overseas in places like Mexico and Japan and the competition just killed the plants here. The plants started moving to different parts of the country, even if they were still in the United States. They closed them now. We used to have plants all over the city. You don't see that anymore. You only have a few. Now that Ford and a couple of others have retooled in order to create things for this virus. Do you see an uptake in employment? No, because so many other people are out of work because of the virus. A lot of people are staying at home. You see another employment rate rise up. And it's really starting to impact not just the city, but the county. We're at the county. Our budget is being impacted because so many people are out of work because of the pandemic. So it really is not, even though other sectors have ramped up and they're doing things to help with the virus. We're not seeing that trickle into the city of Detroit and Wayne County. In fact, we're starting to, we're going to develop a severe deficit as a result of this pandemic. So we're probably at phase layoffs at the county level. Yeah. Now we, you know, with tourism disappearing, yeah, we have a, and no tax money coming in. Those hotels are totally empty. You've been to Hawaii and, you know, like he keeps is totally, totally empty. That is absolutely. That would just, that would just seem so weird. I mean, I think I've been to Hawaii from County accurately. I think six times. And so I've been to a Wahoo. I've been to Maui. I've been to Kauai and I've been to the big island. And I just couldn't imagine seeing Waikiki empty. That just would not look real. It doesn't. Even, you know, just be there just looking at the streets empty and nobody walking. It's quite shocking. Even 9 11 Waikiki empty. That's for a day or two. And then that was it. But this, this is unreal. And I am getting a signal that we are overturned. Oh, can I call on you again and we can talk some more? Absolutely. You've got my contact information. I would absolutely love it. I actually was going to be visiting Hawaii for a convention that got canceled because of the pandemic because I would have been in Hawaii. But I promise you, if you promise me, if you come to Detroit to look me up, I will be in Hawaii. Trust me, I will definitely look you up. I've never been to Detroit. Well, let's stay in touch. I will. And please, our audience will love to talk more about you and what's going on in your part of the world. I'd be happy to do it. I thank you so much. Okay. Aloha. Aloha. And we'll see you next time. Yes, ma'am.