(CNN) U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch tells CNN that "we're at a point now similar to 50 years ago with the civil rights movement," owing to the rising visibility of police misconduct and the discussion it is provokes. "The televising of the police dogs and the fire hoses on young people then was a motivating factor and wake-up call really for people within the U.S. and outside the U.S. to really face the issues of racial unrest in America," she told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Friday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "Similarly we're at a situation where viewing these videos, viewing these incidents of misconduct, of deaths occurring -- hard as they are to see -- is giving an opportunity to talk about this. And frankly, it's giving law enforcement the opportunity to step forward, to be accountable and talk about what is and is not effective policing."Loretta Lynch sees parallels in "televising of the police dogs and the fire hoses" of 1960sLynch's Justice Department has been aggressive in launching probes of police forcesShe says videos show what many minority communities have talked about for years
Lynch has made reform of _'s police one of her signature goals as the country's chief law enforcement official -- a position she's held less than a year.