After Town Hall on Race, Feelings of Inspiration and Reminders of Love and Peace

The police officer behind a viral video and widow of a slain preacher attended.

ByABC News
July 14, 2016, 9:00 PM

— -- In the wake of today's presidential town hall hosted by ABC News' David Muir, the discussion continued, with several audience members, including a cop who posted a video about "racist" officers, speaking with ABC News about race, the police and equality across U.S. communities.

Nakia Jones, a black officer from Ohio, gained the public's attention when she blasted what she called "racist" police officers in her July 6 Facebook Live video. The video, a response to the shooting death of Alton Sterling by white Baton Rouge police officers, went viral.

"If you are white and you are working in a black community and you are racist you need to be ashamed of yourself," Jones said in the video. "I'm here because I want to make a difference. How dare you stand next to me in the same uniform and murder somebody. How dare you? You ought to be ashamed of yourself."

An affidavit for a search warrant claimed that officers spotted the butt of a gun in Sterling's pocket and saw him reaching for it.

Jones today described the town hall as "amazing" and "powerful."

"People were listening to one another and I think the president came up with a lot of great solutions," she said. "Being on both sides of the coin -- as being a police officer and also as being an African-American mother -- it was amazing.

"It just makes me feel like 'Let's go back our fellow police departments and make sure we hold each other accountable.' ... I think that's how we'll start to mend the gap between all of us and I think that's what he was saying."

Jones, however, started to cry when she told ABC News that she'd heard members of the black community say they hated the police and didn't trust officers. She said many had told her that after hearing her Facebook Live video, they'd had a change of heart.

"To hear them say, 'You made us want to trust you guys again. You stood up. You said something.' It was just real overwhelming," she said. "That's all I wanted to do. Bridge that gap and say, 'Listen. Not all police officers are bad. Ninety-five percent of us are good officers.' ... I feel like for me to ask for change, I have to be that change so I have to lead by example and what's what I'm going to do. ... I want to be better."

PHOTO: ABC’s David Muir moderates a town hall discussion with President Barack Obama and Americans affected by recent events, in Washington, D.C., July 14, 2016.
President Obama greets guests including Eliana and Malana Pinckney and their mother, Jennifer Pinckney following a televised town hall. With the nation on edge in the immediate aftermath of horrific events in Baton Rouge, Minneapolis and Dallas, Disney Media Networks hosts a landmark town hall discussion with President Barack Obama and Americans who have been directly affected by recent events. World News Tonight Anchor David Muir moderates the conversation about race relations, justice, policing and equality in Washington, D.C, July 14, 2016.

Jennifer Pinckney, the wife of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, among nine people shot dead in June 2015 at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church when, also attended the town hall today with her daughters Eliana and Malana. Pinckney said that Americans needed to teach love and peace to their children.

"There's so much that's going on out there, a lot of mass shootings, individual shootings. ... In every case, every incident out there, there has to be, you have to put the love in it. ... And you have to have the peace. ... We don't hate. You don't see color, you know," she said. "Everyone's not gonna look like you and act like you and so forth. We've got to come together. We cannot be separated like that. ... You've got to start somewhere and we really need to work harder at it to bring about the peace. Are some people ready for it? No. Some people are not. ... You've gotta start somewhere."

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