therealnews--2020-05-29--New Details Of Deadly No-Knock Warrant Show Just How Reckless Police Can Be

This is a rush transcript and may contain errors .
It will be updated .
Taya Graham : Hello .
My name is Taya Graham and welcome to the Police Accountability Report .
As I never get tired of saying , this show has a single purpose ; holding police accountable .
And today we ’ re going to do so by delving deeper into a controversial no knock warrant that led to the death of a young woman and to reveal some of the critical details of the case the mainstream media has ignored .
Then we ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ auditor who has had yet another fraught encounter with police , which led to some questionable charges .
But before I get started , I want you watching to know that if you have evidence of police misconduct , please email it to us privately at [ email protected ] And of course you can message me directly @ tayasbaltimore on Facebook and Twitter .
And please like , share and comment on our videos .
You know I read your comments and I appreciate them .
Now that we have that out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ started .
Now on our last show , we reported on the tragic case of Breonna Taylor .
Breonna Taylor was a 26 year old emergency medical technician , a frontline worker at two hospitals in Kentucky .
Taylor was asleep in her Louisville , Kentucky home last month when police executed , according to a lawsuit filed by her family , a no knock warrant .
It was the last in a series of warrants .
Louisville police had served related to a drug investigation in which Taylor was not a suspect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ram to break down her door .
According to Taylor ’ s family , neither she nor her boyfriend Walker heard police announced themselves .
After the plain clothes unit busted down the door , Walker fired a single shot , striking the Louisville police officer , Sergeant John Mattingly , several officers on the scene returned fire , unloading roughly 24 rounds and striking Taylor eight times killing her almost instantly .
Since then the raid and killing of Taylor has raised serious questions about the use of no knock warrants .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ B .
Wine asked a judge to drop the charges against Walker who had been charged with attempted murder .
In a video press conference , Wine said that he believed neither party had committed a crime .
That the killing of Taylor was simply a matter of miscommunication .
Let ’ s listen .
Thomas B .
Wine : But you know , sometimes when you look at it and you think what separated these two parties was a door , and it ’ s very possible that there was no criminal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because people couldn ’ t hear what the other party was saying .
Taya Graham : But along with the statement , Wine released audio recordings made by Walker and one of the officers who shot Taylor .
And it ’ s the details of both pieces of evidence which we ’ re going to focus on now .
That ’ s because there are details of the case that the mainstream media missed and could shed a critical light on the case .
To discuss the evidence I ’ m joined by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Stephen , thank you for joining us .
Stephen Janis : Thanks Taya .
Thanks for having me .
Appreciate it .
Taya Graham : Now , Stephen , you analyzed the recordings .
What did you learn ?
Stephen Janis : Well , there ’ s entirely different stories based upon this raid , which came from the recordings of interviews with Walker with the police officer was shot just after the shooting occurred .
And what I think is most distinct is the timeline , how much time the police spent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about spending 45 seconds to a minute outside the door versus Walker ’ s story , where he said they barely had time to put on something like pajamas and get out of the hallway .
They didn ’ t have time to get to the door .
Walker : First day .
She says , “ Who is it ?
” No response .
So we ’ re like , “ What the heck ?
” We both get up .
Start putting on clothes , another knock at the door .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ is it ?
” Loud at the top of her lungs .
No response .
So I ’ m like , “ What the heck ?
” So then I grabbed my gun , which is legal .
I ’ m licensed to carry , everything .
I ’ ve never fired my gun outside of a range .
I ’ m scared to death .
So she says… There ’ s another knock at the door .
She ’ s yelling at the top of her lungs .
And I am too @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it ?
” No answer , no response , no anything .
So we like , “ What the heck ?
” We both just… You see what I have on .
When we get out of the bed or whatever , walking towards door , the door comes off the hinges .
So I just let off one shot .
Like I still can ’ t see who it is or anything .
So now the door ’ s like flying open .
I only have shot .
And then all of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lot of shots .
And we both just dropped to the ground and the gun fell right over there .
And because I ’ m like scared to death , now we ’ re seeing lights and stuff .
So I was talking saying , “ Okay , it ’ s the police.
” And there ’ s lot of yelling and stuff .
So there ’ s just shooting , we ’ re both on the ground and then when all the shots stop , I ’ m panicking , she ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and [ inaudible 00:04:52 ] .
Speaker 5 : Banged on the door , no response .
Banged on it again , no response .
At that point , we started announcing ourself , “ Police .
Please come to the door .
Police , we have a search warrant.
” And we banged .
I probably bang on the door , six or seven different time periods .
Not six or seven times , but six or seven different times .
What seems like an eternity when you ’ re up at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 45 seconds and a minute .
Stephen Janis : So there ’ s this great discrepancy .
And what I think is interesting is I remember watching a trial one time as a reporter where a witness described standing outside a minute , watching a fight that went on for a minute .
And the lawyer in the case said , “ Well , why don ’ t you count out what a minute is like ?
” And he went , “ One , two , three , four.
” And it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seems to me highly unlikely if you ’ re serving a no knock warrant that you ’ re going to be standing out there for a minute .
It seems much more likely the story of Walker holds weight , where they barely had time to get in the hallway .
So those conflicts between those two stories really stands out in contrast .
Taya Graham : But Stephen , there was also something striking in the visual that Wine put up on the screen , which showed how the officer ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a little bit about that ?
Stephen Janis : Yeah , what ’ s really interesting is that he showed a whiteboard that these taskforce , I guess , had used to plan out these raids .
And it showed that there were already two other no knock warrants that had been served that evening .
And we just found out that the reason that they came to her home , Breonna Taylor ’ s home , is because she had had a previous relationship with the only suspect that ’ s been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did show that they ’ ve actually executed other no knock warrants .
So they were doing this risky behavior over and over again .
And what the prosecutor used it to do was to demonstrate that they had said they weren ’ t going to do a no knock at this house , but of course they ’ d already executed at least one , if not two more .
So it just shows how dangerous this entire investigation was .
Taya Graham : So finally , there was an interesting moment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about how no one ’ s life is worth any amount of heroin .
But it raised an important question .
Exactly what was this case ?
What was the underlying crime that warranted three raids ?
Stephen Janis : It ’ s really interesting because it took me a while to get some information on what happened .
There was one suspect arrested , which is now a district court case for trafficking in some heroin and some synthetic drugs , which I don ’ t know what that means .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it ’ s clear , because I asked , I said , “ What was the quantity ?
How much heroin were you going after ?
What was this big drug conspiracy ?
” And they didn ’ t have an answer .
The prosecutor themselves don ’ t seem to know what this was about .
So when you think about it , you have a woman dead , a man charged with murder , a police officer shot .
And the question is over what ?
This is the existential question @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what ?
” Taya Graham : So it ’ s clear , there are many questions regarding the death of Breonna that remain unanswered , but there ’ s one thing we know ; she is another innocent victim , a casualty of the war on drugs .
Perhaps it ’ s why the Louisville prosecutor made the comment comparing the value of a life to a stash of illicit narcotics .
As The New York Times reported , between 2010 and 2016 , 81 civilians were killed during what ’ s known @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knock , but raids where the police announced themselves and quickly broke down the door .
Since nearly 88 % of all police raids are related to narcotics , according to the same article , it ’ s clear the toll of the war on drugs is real and substantial .
But that troubling tally leads to a question .
If halting the spread of illicit drugs is such a pressing priority , why do police ignore the mass distribution of large quantities of opioids into communities across the country by pharmaceutical companies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ news organizations like ProPublica , billions of opioid pills flooded communities suffering from rising overdose deaths .
Executives were actually aware that the onslaught of pain pills was causing a serious addiction crisis across the country .
Granted , the sales were technically legal .
However , when the Justice Department and DEA became alarmed at the quantity and divergence of this massive influx of pills , they backed off prosecuting the drug companies , despite the aforementioned emails later revealing executives knew the flood of pills were wreaking havoc on the health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no knock warrants don ’ t apply to CEOs and profitable corporations .
But from our reporting , we do know one situation where police apparently don ’ t hesitate to use the power to arrest and detain .
I ’ m talking about our ongoing dialogue with cop watchers and auditors working across the country , who are holding police accountable through citizen journalism and self produced YouTube videos .
Earlier this year , we spoke to an auditor in Oregon named Kenneth Dunham .
He recounted how he was arrested for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Pendleton , Oregon .
Since then his case was tossed .
But last week we learned that he has been charged again .
Here to talk about it is Kenneth Dunham .
Kenneth , thank you so much for joining us today .
Kenneth Dunham : So thank you for having me .
I ’ m glad to be here .
Taya Graham : So tell us , what were you filming when you were told you were under arrest for jaywalking and interfering with a police officer ?
Tell us what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Kenneth Dunham : I had been driving around earlier that night , just filming incidents involving the police .
And my wife was driving me around and they pulled us over because they were upset with us following them from scene to scene .
And because of that , I went to go make a complaint .
I know it was [ inaudible 00:10:17 ] .
So I went straight to the police department and asked to see the supervisor and they instead gave me attitude , started yelling at me from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ down and say nothing .
Started yelling at me and telling me that I was subject to arrest .
And that didn ’ t sit well .
So I told him that I wanted to just speak to somebody .
Speaker 7 : Okay .
First , do you have ID with you ?
Speaker 7 : Okay .
You need to provide ID .
Kenneth Dunham : No .
Oregon statute says I don ’ t have to provide ID unless I ’ m being arrested .
Are you arresting me ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a crosswalk within 100 feet of here ?
Speaker 7 : Yeah , there ’ s one right down there .
Kenneth Dunham : Yeah .
That one that I use down there , yeah .
Speaker 7 : No , I watched you walk right across here .
Kenneth Dunham : Yeah , I can walk right across here .
Okay .
Arrest me then for jaywalking .
So they had a supervisor come out whole across the street and he sat there .
And while he was sitting there , one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hit me , one of the cops with his car .
And I got that on video too .
And that upset me .
And I went to the officer that was sitting across the street that had seen it all , the supervisor , and I asked him if I could ask him a question .
And he said yeah .
And I went across the street and I asked him , “ Are you guys just going to let this guy try to hit me with his car and get away @ @ @ @ @ @ @ course started explaining that from his vantage point , he didn ’ t see it that way .
And that he believes that I was never in any danger and that should be good enough .
And so I just laughed and I walked away and I walked back across the street .
So I ’ m not sure if they arrested me for across the street to talk to him or walking across the street after I was done talking to him .
But that ’ s what they arrested me for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ soon as they told you you were detained , you gave your identification as per Oregon law .
Why do you think the officers decided to go ahead and press charges ?
Kenneth Dunham : Well , what they did to me , they put me in the back of the car and they told me that I was being arrested for interfering with the police investigation and for jaywalking , is what he kept saying .
And I don ’ t think there is a jaywalking law .
I haven ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ charging me with was failure to use a crosswalk and pedestrian on the highway .
Taya Graham : How many officers and police cars arrived on the scene ?
And how long were you detained ?
Kenneth Dunham : So initially there was only a couple of officers there .
And then out of nowhere , they opened the gates and they started to… And you can see in the video that they surrounded me .
And I try to approach , especially when I ’ m doing video like that , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and think of it like watching wildlife .
And that was what it was .
It was a straight intimidation factor .
They were circling up on me and trying to get me to freak out and act some kind of way .
Taya Graham : They cut your clothing off , damaging your clothes and the harness rig you used for your GoPro camera .
What other tactics did they use that you felt were intimidation ?
Wasn ’ t there a very unusual threat you received from the cop ?
Kenneth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happened that were very unusual to me .
The first thing was when they were cutting my harness off… I don ’ t know if everybody ’ s familiar with the way a GoPro harness works , but it snaps on like this , and then there ’ s bungee straps behind you .
So the cop went behind me to cut it .
And when he did , he had his knife in his hand and I said something about it .
And he made sure to point the knife straight , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ straight .
He made sure that I knew that he could stick me .
And I was handcuffed and he was basically said that… He whispered in my ear , “ Not working out the way you thought it did , did it ?
” Or something like that .
There was something odd they ’ d said there .
And then the second time… And that kind of set me off a little bit PTSD wise , just because of my issues with the cops in the past .
And then the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the weirdest insult or it ’ s the weirdest , most peculiar threat I ’ ve ever had .
He kept rubbing my belly .
I ’ m a big guy .
And he kept rubbing my belly like a Buddha like this .
I told him , “ Don ’ t touch me , man.
” Because I was in handcuffs in the back of a cop car .
And then he started patting my stomach .
And he says , “ Every time I see you , every time I see @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make sure that I run up your heart rate .
I ’ m going to make sure that I exert as much energy from you as I can , so that your arteries clog and so that you end up dying of heart failure .
Every time I see you , I ’ m going to do this exact same thing.
” And they call me a fat boy and he shut the door and left .
Taya Graham : Do you think the police were taking the COVID-19 social distancing regulation seriously @ @ @ @ @ @ @ arrest to potentially expose someone to the virus .
Kenneth Dunham : I know you ’ d asked me how many cops there were earlier , because of the excitement I want to be a conservative estimate , there ’ s probably a dozen of them .
But realistically there was probably 18 , 20 of them .
And I ’ m going to say a third of them were masked up .
I wasn ’ t masked up at the time .
And I probably should have been , but I wasn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But neither were most of the cops there .
And you can see in my video , most of them are face to face .
Taya Graham : Both the cases we covered today illustrate a stark contrast .
It ’ s a distinction between what policing purports to be and what it actually does .
It ’ s a divide that actually applies to an underlying principle of journalism ; show , don ’ t tell .
So in both cases , the contrast is clear because we can see it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decision to ask a judge to drop the charges against Walker came only after the family of Breonna Taylor filed a lawsuit and only after intense media scrutiny of the circumstances surrounding her death did prosecutors act .
In fact , in his statement , Wine said police officers omitted details that may have prevented Walker ’ s indictment when they testified in front of the grand jury .
The point is , that while policing in general is categorized as public safety , the political economy that drives it gets less attention @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between policing and profit that needs a full and detailed reckoning .
Think about it .
As we could see in the whiteboard shared during Wine ’ s press conference , police were willing to execute multiple no knock warrants throughout the city to confiscate an unknown quantity of drugs .
All the money , over time , court time and resources targeting a drug enterprise that , to this day , remains unknown in both breadth and scope , or at least prosecutors wouldn ’ t tell us .
But what we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ flooded the country .
Billions .
In fact , the data released by the DEA can be viewed online .
You can actually search to see how many pills were shipped in your community by searching this Washington Post website we ’ re showing you on the screen .
But despite the fact the DEA was the agency that tracked this data , the nation ’ s drug warriors apparently were otherwise occupied .
Instead they , and other local drug units , were breaking down the doors of the poor and disenfranchised @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and yes , the home of Breonna Taylor .
But of course , part of the process of reporting is taking the general and boiling it down to the particular .
That is , examining the broader issues within the purview of a single life .
Last week , it was a story of Lawrence Christian , the man who was tossed out of his home after a drug unit stormed into his home and arrested him for a crime he didn ’ t commit .
The false charges left him homeless and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But this week we ’ re going to look at an act , not of commission , but omission .
That is a failure to act .
It ’ s a story of a woman named Tyra McClary , the tale of a mother who died a horrible death , but whose case was ignored as her family suffered .
Tyra was found buried under a pile of mulch , partially disrobed , with a bag tied around our ankles .
Police said publicly she died of an overdose .
But when Stephen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we discovered something odd .
Despite what police said , the medical examiner found her thyroid and adrenal glands had ruptured .
A sign that she might have been strangled .
Evidence police ignored despite the pleas of her daughter .
Let ’ s listen .
Speaker 8 : It clearly looks like a homicide .
It smells like homicide .
Why wouldn ’ t it be investigated as such ?
Taya Graham : And so to this day , her case remains unsolved .
Her death , if it indeed was at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a statistic in a file folder , buried and forgotten .
And yet her family is still in pain and her possible killer still at large .
What better example could we show that illustrates the challenges facing policing , not just in our city , but across the country ?
An institution that does not have the wherewithal to pursue the most heinous crime we can imagine , but the persistence to storm into people ’ s houses unannounced .
It ’ s a conscious of priorities that needs to be questioned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t forget victims like Breonna Taylor , a medical technician who aspired to be a nurse .
Or Tyra McClary , a loving mother and sister .
But also so that the root causes of these troubling contradictions are brought into light , into full view so that all of us can have a say in what type of policing we want both now and in the future .
I want to thank my guest , Kenneth Dunham for joining me today .
Kenneth , thank you so much for your time .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ you guys are awesome .
Every time I put up a video and something like this happens , you guys have always been there for me .
And that ’ s great because everybody that watches you ’ re there for them too .
Taya Graham : And I want to thank my colleague , Stephen Janis for his investigative reporting , writing and editing on this piece .
Thank you , Stephen .
Stephen Janis : Thanks for having me , Taya .
I appreciate it .
Taya Graham : And of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the show [ Nollie D 00:20:01 ] for her support .
Thank you , Nollie D. And I want you watching to know that if you have evidence of police misconduct or brutality , please share it with us and we might be able to investigate .
Please reach out to us .
You can email us tips privately at [ email protected ] and share your evidence of police misconduct .
You can also message us at Police Accountability Report on Facebook or Instagram or @ eyesonpolice on Twitter .
And of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tayasbaltimore on Twitter or Facebook .
And please like , and comment .
You know I read your comments , appreciate them and answer your questions whenever I can .
My name is Taya Graham .
Thank you for joining me for this Police Accountability Report .
Please be safe out there .

PAR uncovers new information on the dangers of serving no-knock warrants and analyzes the raid that killed 26-year-old EMT Breonna Taylor. Cop watcher Kenneth Dunham alleges continued intimidation from local Oregon police.
Story Transcript
This is a rush transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Taya Graham: Hello. My name is Taya Graham and welcome to the Police Accountability Report. As I never get tired of saying, this show has a single purpose; holding police accountable. And today we’re going to do so by delving deeper into a controversial no knock warrant that led to the death of a young woman and to reveal some of the critical details of the case the mainstream media has ignored. Then we’re going to check in with a police auditor who has had yet another fraught encounter with police, which led to some questionable charges.
But before I get started, I want you watching to know that if you have evidence of police misconduct, please email it to us privately at par@therealnews.com. And of course you can message me directly @tayasbaltimore on Facebook and Twitter. And please like, share and comment on our videos. You know I read your comments and I appreciate them. Now that we have that out of the way let’s get started.
Now on our last show, we reported on the tragic case of Breonna Taylor. Breonna Taylor was a 26 year old emergency medical technician, a frontline worker at two hospitals in Kentucky. Taylor was asleep in her Louisville, Kentucky home last month when police executed, according to a lawsuit filed by her family, a no knock warrant. It was the last in a series of warrants. Louisville police had served related to a drug investigation in which Taylor was not a suspect. Nevertheless, they used a battering ram to break down her door.
According to Taylor’s family, neither she nor her boyfriend Walker heard police announced themselves. After the plain clothes unit busted down the door, Walker fired a single shot, striking the Louisville police officer, Sergeant John Mattingly, several officers on the scene returned fire, unloading roughly 24 rounds and striking Taylor eight times killing her almost instantly. Since then the raid and killing of Taylor has raised serious questions about the use of no knock warrants. And this week Louisville prosecutor, Thomas B. Wine asked a judge to drop the charges against Walker who had been charged with attempted murder. In a video press conference, Wine said that he believed neither party had committed a crime. That the killing of Taylor was simply a matter of miscommunication. Let’s listen.
Thomas B. Wine: But you know, sometimes when you look at it and you think what separated these two parties was a door, and it’s very possible that there was no criminal activity on either side of that door because people couldn’t hear what the other party was saying.
Taya Graham: But along with the statement, Wine released audio recordings made by Walker and one of the officers who shot Taylor. And it’s the details of both pieces of evidence which we’re going to focus on now. That’s because there are details of the case that the mainstream media missed and could shed a critical light on the case. To discuss the evidence I’m joined by my reporting partner, Stephen Janis. Stephen, thank you for joining us.
Stephen Janis: Thanks Taya. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
Taya Graham: Now, Stephen, you analyzed the recordings. What did you learn?
Stephen Janis: Well, there’s entirely different stories based upon this raid, which came from the recordings of interviews with Walker with the police officer was shot just after the shooting occurred. And what I think is most distinct is the timeline, how much time the police spent outside their door. The police talk about spending 45 seconds to a minute outside the door versus Walker’s story, where he said they barely had time to put on something like pajamas and get out of the hallway. They didn’t have time to get to the door.
Walker: First day. She says, “Who is it?” No response. So we’re like, “What the heck?” We both get up. Start putting on clothes, another knock at the door. She’s like, “Who is it?” Loud at the top of her lungs. No response. So I’m like, “What the heck?” So then I grabbed my gun, which is legal. I’m licensed to carry, everything. I’ve never fired my gun outside of a range. I’m scared to death. So she says… There’s another knock at the door. She’s yelling at the top of her lungs. And I am too at this point. “Who is it?” No answer, no response, no anything. So we like, “What the heck?” We both just… You see what I have on. When we get out of the bed or whatever, walking towards door, the door comes off the hinges.
So I just let off one shot. Like I still can’t see who it is or anything. So now the door’s like flying open. I only have shot. And then all of a sudden there’s a whole lot of shots. And we both just dropped to the ground and the gun fell right over there. And because I’m like scared to death, now we’re seeing lights and stuff. So I was talking saying, “Okay, it’s the police.” And there’s lot of yelling and stuff. So there’s just shooting, we’re both on the ground and then when all the shots stop, I’m panicking, she’s right there on the ground bleeding and [inaudible 00:04:52].
Speaker 5: Banged on the door, no response. Banged on it again, no response. At that point, we started announcing ourself, “Police. Please come to the door. Police, we have a search warrant.” And we banged. I probably bang on the door, six or seven different time periods. Not six or seven times, but six or seven different times. What seems like an eternity when you’re up at a doorway. It probably lasted between 45 seconds and a minute.
Stephen Janis: So there’s this great discrepancy. And what I think is interesting is I remember watching a trial one time as a reporter where a witness described standing outside a minute, watching a fight that went on for a minute. And the lawyer in the case said, “Well, why don’t you count out what a minute is like?” And he went, “One, two, three, four.” And it’s the same thing. It seems to me highly unlikely if you’re serving a no knock warrant that you’re going to be standing out there for a minute. It seems much more likely the story of Walker holds weight, where they barely had time to get in the hallway. So those conflicts between those two stories really stands out in contrast.
Taya Graham: But Stephen, there was also something striking in the visual that Wine put up on the screen, which showed how the officer’s planned the raid. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Stephen Janis: Yeah, what’s really interesting is that he showed a whiteboard that these taskforce, I guess, had used to plan out these raids. And it showed that there were already two other no knock warrants that had been served that evening. And we just found out that the reason that they came to her home, Breonna Taylor’s home, is because she had had a previous relationship with the only suspect that’s been arrested in this case. But it did show that they’ve actually executed other no knock warrants. So they were doing this risky behavior over and over again. And what the prosecutor used it to do was to demonstrate that they had said they weren’t going to do a no knock at this house, but of course they’d already executed at least one, if not two more. So it just shows how dangerous this entire investigation was.
Taya Graham: So finally, there was an interesting moment in the press conference when Wine talked about how no one’s life is worth any amount of heroin. But it raised an important question. Exactly what was this case? What was the underlying crime that warranted three raids?
Stephen Janis: It’s really interesting because it took me a while to get some information on what happened. There was one suspect arrested, which is now a district court case for trafficking in some heroin and some synthetic drugs, which I don’t know what that means. I guess it could be benzodiazepine. But it’s clear, because I asked, I said, “What was the quantity? How much heroin were you going after? What was this big drug conspiracy?” And they didn’t have an answer. The prosecutor themselves don’t seem to know what this was about. So when you think about it, you have a woman dead, a man charged with murder, a police officer shot. And the question is over what? This is the existential question about in American policing, “Over what?”
Taya Graham: So it’s clear, there are many questions regarding the death of Breonna that remain unanswered, but there’s one thing we know; she is another innocent victim, a casualty of the war on drugs. Perhaps it’s why the Louisville prosecutor made the comment comparing the value of a life to a stash of illicit narcotics. As The New York Times reported, between 2010 and 2016, 81 civilians were killed during what’s known as dynamic raids. Not just no knock, but raids where the police announced themselves and quickly broke down the door. Since nearly 88% of all police raids are related to narcotics, according to the same article, it’s clear the toll of the war on drugs is real and substantial.
But that troubling tally leads to a question. If halting the spread of illicit drugs is such a pressing priority, why do police ignore the mass distribution of large quantities of opioids into communities across the country by pharmaceutical companies? As has been well-documented by investigated news organizations like ProPublica, billions of opioid pills flooded communities suffering from rising overdose deaths. Executives were actually aware that the onslaught of pain pills was causing a serious addiction crisis across the country. Granted, the sales were technically legal. However, when the Justice Department and DEA became alarmed at the quantity and divergence of this massive influx of pills, they backed off prosecuting the drug companies, despite the aforementioned emails later revealing executives knew the flood of pills were wreaking havoc on the health and wellbeing of our citizens.
Apparently no knock warrants don’t apply to CEOs and profitable corporations. But from our reporting, we do know one situation where police apparently don’t hesitate to use the power to arrest and detain. I’m talking about our ongoing dialogue with cop watchers and auditors working across the country, who are holding police accountable through citizen journalism and self produced YouTube videos. Earlier this year, we spoke to an auditor in Oregon named Kenneth Dunham. He recounted how he was arrested for filming the exterior of a police station in Pendleton, Oregon. Since then his case was tossed. But last week we learned that he has been charged again. Here to talk about it is Kenneth Dunham. Kenneth, thank you so much for joining us today.
Kenneth Dunham: So thank you for having me. I’m glad to be here.
Taya Graham: So tell us, what were you filming when you were told you were under arrest for jaywalking and interfering with a police officer? Tell us what we’re seeing in the video.
Kenneth Dunham: I had been driving around earlier that night, just filming incidents involving the police. And my wife was driving me around and they pulled us over because they were upset with us following them from scene to scene. And because of that, I went to go make a complaint. I know it was [inaudible 00:10:17]. So I went straight to the police department and asked to see the supervisor and they instead gave me attitude, started yelling at me from the building. Wouldn’t come down and say nothing. Started yelling at me and telling me that I was subject to arrest. And that didn’t sit well. So I told him that I wanted to just speak to somebody.
Speaker 7: Okay. First, do you have ID with you?
Kenneth Dunham: No, I don’t.
Speaker 7: Okay. You need to provide ID.
Kenneth Dunham: No. Oregon statute says I don’t have to provide ID unless I’m being arrested. Are you arresting me?
Speaker 7: You’re being detained for jaywalking.
Kenneth Dunham: Okay. Is there a crosswalk within 100 feet of here?
Speaker 7: Yeah, there’s one right down there.
Kenneth Dunham: Yeah. That one that I use down there, yeah.
Speaker 7: No, I watched you walk right across here.
Kenneth Dunham: Yeah, I can walk right across here. Okay. Arrest me then for jaywalking.
So they had a supervisor come out whole across the street and he sat there. And while he was sitting there, one of the cars veered and tried to hit me, one of the cops with his car. And I got that on video too. And that upset me. And I went to the officer that was sitting across the street that had seen it all, the supervisor, and I asked him if I could ask him a question. And he said yeah. And I went across the street and I asked him, “Are you guys just going to let this guy try to hit me with his car and get away with that?” And he of course started explaining that from his vantage point, he didn’t see it that way. And that he believes that I was never in any danger and that should be good enough. And so I just laughed and I walked away and I walked back across the street. So I’m not sure if they arrested me for across the street to talk to him or walking across the street after I was done talking to him. But that’s what they arrested me for.
Taya Graham: Now. As soon as they told you you were detained, you gave your identification as per Oregon law. Why do you think the officers decided to go ahead and press charges?
Kenneth Dunham: Well, what they did to me, they put me in the back of the car and they told me that I was being arrested for interfering with the police investigation and for jaywalking, is what he kept saying. And I don’t think there is a jaywalking law. I haven’t found. What they actually ended up charging me with was failure to use a crosswalk and pedestrian on the highway.
Taya Graham: How many officers and police cars arrived on the scene? And how long were you detained?
Kenneth Dunham: So initially there was only a couple of officers there. And then out of nowhere, they opened the gates and they started to… And you can see in the video that they surrounded me. And I try to approach, especially when I’m doing video like that, I kind of take myself out of it and think of it like watching wildlife. And that was what it was. It was a straight intimidation factor. They were circling up on me and trying to get me to freak out and act some kind of way.
Taya Graham: They cut your clothing off, damaging your clothes and the harness rig you used for your GoPro camera. What other tactics did they use that you felt were intimidation? Wasn’t there a very unusual threat you received from the cop?
Kenneth Dunham: There was two things that happened that were very unusual to me. The first thing was when they were cutting my harness off… I don’t know if everybody’s familiar with the way a GoPro harness works, but it snaps on like this, and then there’s bungee straps behind you. So the cop went behind me to cut it. And when he did, he had his knife in his hand and I said something about it. And he made sure to point the knife straight, not in a cutting motion, but straight. He made sure that I knew that he could stick me. And I was handcuffed and he was basically said that… He whispered in my ear, “Not working out the way you thought it did, did it?” Or something like that. There was something odd they’d said there.
And then the second time… And that kind of set me off a little bit PTSD wise, just because of my issues with the cops in the past. And then the second thing was, it’s the weirdest insult or it’s the weirdest, most peculiar threat I’ve ever had. He kept rubbing my belly. I’m a big guy. And he kept rubbing my belly like a Buddha like this. I told him, “Don’t touch me, man.” Because I was in handcuffs in the back of a cop car. And then he started patting my stomach. And he says, “Every time I see you, every time I see you, I’m going to make sure that I run up your heart rate. I’m going to make sure that I exert as much energy from you as I can, so that your arteries clog and so that you end up dying of heart failure. Every time I see you, I’m going to do this exact same thing.” And they call me a fat boy and he shut the door and left.
Taya Graham: Do you think the police were taking the COVID-19 social distancing regulation seriously? This seems like a very minor arrest to potentially expose someone to the virus.
Kenneth Dunham: I know you’d asked me how many cops there were earlier, because of the excitement I want to be a conservative estimate, there’s probably a dozen of them. But realistically there was probably 18, 20 of them. And I’m going to say a third of them were masked up. I wasn’t masked up at the time. And I probably should have been, but I wasn’t masked up at the time. But neither were most of the cops there. And you can see in my video, most of them are face to face.
Taya Graham: Both the cases we covered today illustrate a stark contrast. It’s a distinction between what policing purports to be and what it actually does. It’s a divide that actually applies to an underlying principle of journalism; show, don’t tell. So in both cases, the contrast is clear because we can see it. Let’s remember that the decision to ask a judge to drop the charges against Walker came only after the family of Breonna Taylor filed a lawsuit and only after intense media scrutiny of the circumstances surrounding her death did prosecutors act.
In fact, in his statement, Wine said police officers omitted details that may have prevented Walker’s indictment when they testified in front of the grand jury. The point is, that while policing in general is categorized as public safety, the political economy that drives it gets less attention. And it’s that relationship between policing and profit that needs a full and detailed reckoning. Think about it. As we could see in the whiteboard shared during Wine’s press conference, police were willing to execute multiple no knock warrants throughout the city to confiscate an unknown quantity of drugs. All the money, over time, court time and resources targeting a drug enterprise that, to this day, remains unknown in both breadth and scope, or at least prosecutors wouldn’t tell us.
But what we do know is how many opioid pills flooded the country. Billions. In fact, the data released by the DEA can be viewed online. You can actually search to see how many pills were shipped in your community by searching this Washington Post website we’re showing you on the screen. But despite the fact the DEA was the agency that tracked this data, the nation’s drug warriors apparently were otherwise occupied. Instead they, and other local drug units, were breaking down the doors of the poor and disenfranchised. Comparatively small time drug dealers, and yes, the home of Breonna Taylor.
But of course, part of the process of reporting is taking the general and boiling it down to the particular. That is, examining the broader issues within the purview of a single life. Last week, it was a story of Lawrence Christian, the man who was tossed out of his home after a drug unit stormed into his home and arrested him for a crime he didn’t commit. The false charges left him homeless and since then he’s disappeared.
But this week we’re going to look at an act, not of commission, but omission. That is a failure to act. It’s a story of a woman named Tyra McClary, the tale of a mother who died a horrible death, but whose case was ignored as her family suffered. Tyra was found buried under a pile of mulch, partially disrobed, with a bag tied around our ankles. Police said publicly she died of an overdose. But when Stephen and I reviewed her autopsy report, we discovered something odd. Despite what police said, the medical examiner found her thyroid and adrenal glands had ruptured. A sign that she might have been strangled. Evidence police ignored despite the pleas of her daughter. Let’s listen.
Speaker 8: It clearly looks like a homicide. It smells like homicide. Why wouldn’t it be investigated as such?
Taya Graham: And so to this day, her case remains unsolved. Her death, if it indeed was at the hands of another, was just a statistic in a file folder, buried and forgotten. And yet her family is still in pain and her possible killer still at large. What better example could we show that illustrates the challenges facing policing, not just in our city, but across the country? An institution that does not have the wherewithal to pursue the most heinous crime we can imagine, but the persistence to storm into people’s houses unannounced. It’s a conscious of priorities that needs to be questioned. Not only so we don’t forget victims like Breonna Taylor, a medical technician who aspired to be a nurse. Or Tyra McClary, a loving mother and sister. But also so that the root causes of these troubling contradictions are brought into light, into full view so that all of us can have a say in what type of policing we want both now and in the future.
I want to thank my guest, Kenneth Dunham for joining me today. Kenneth, thank you so much for your time.
Kenneth Dunham: Thank you. And you guys are awesome. Every time I put up a video and something like this happens, you guys have always been there for me. And that’s great because everybody that watches you’re there for them too.
Taya Graham: And I want to thank my colleague, Stephen Janis for his investigative reporting, writing and editing on this piece. Thank you, Stephen.
Stephen Janis: Thanks for having me, Taya. I appreciate it.
Taya Graham: And of course I have to thank friend of the show [Nollie D 00:20:01] for her support. Thank you, Nollie D. And I want you watching to know that if you have evidence of police misconduct or brutality, please share it with us and we might be able to investigate. Please reach out to us. You can email us tips privately at par@therealnews.com and share your evidence of police misconduct. You can also message us at Police Accountability Report on Facebook or Instagram or @eyesonpolice on Twitter. And of course you can message me directly at @tayasbaltimore on Twitter or Facebook. And please like, and comment. You know I read your comments, appreciate them and answer your questions whenever I can. My name is Taya Graham. Thank you for joining me for this Police Accountability Report. Please be safe out there.
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therealnews--2020-05-30--Corrections Officers And Formerly Incarcerated People Protest Unsafe COVID-19 Conditions

Corrections officers joined prison abolitionists in a caravan rally protesting the lack of promised testing , PPE , and release @ @ @ @ @ prisons .

Corrections officers joined prison abolitionists in a caravan rally protesting the lack of promised testing, PPE, and release of prisoners at four Maryland prisons.
Story Transcript
This is a rush transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Speaker 1: There is a disruption in our system. On behalf of incarcerated men and women. We need the governor to listen. It is his responsibility to straighten it out! It’s his responsibility to make sure that people who work in these places are safe. It’s has responsibility to make sure that the people who are housed here, the residents, are safe. We’re going to keep on disrupting the system, until he do something.
Speaker 2: Welcome to The Real News. I’m Eddie Conway, coming to you from Baltimore with this episode of Rattling The Bars. An unlikely union of formerly imprisoned, people joined with Assmi, who represents the correctional officers union for a caravan rally, circling four prisons in the Jessop area, including the only women’s prison in the state of Maryland. The organizers protest unsafe conditions inside the prisons, including no testing for COVID-19, not yet, no protective equipment like gloves and masks, few medical personnel, and few inmates released from the governor’s order of 2000 to be released in Maryland amidst COVID-19 outbreak.
Speaker 1: I want to start off by extending a special thanks to all of the formerly incarcerated men and women that are here. Please give yourselves a hand. All the formerly incarcerated people that are here. I will be remiss if I didn’t say thank you, Denise Gilmore and Joe Cox because when I extended the offer to say, “Hey, let’s do something that they’ve never done in the history of Maryland.” Now, formally incarcerated people and correctional officers stand side by side.
Speaker 3: It’s a great stance because they know the conditions on the outside. We, as employees are given from the employee aspect, but the people who are former incarcerated, they know the conditions of living in these 24/7. So they can help tie our message together. Pretty much.
Speaker 1: That’s not something you get every day. So that sends a strong message go any, and everybody that number one, whether you were incarcerated or not, we are all human beings. And we stand here today to say, “Guess what? All of those people been in there for 30 years, they human. All of those people who have been in there fighting and struggling, trying to maintain their dignity and humanity. They are human.”
Speaker 2: Prisoner’s right advocate and founder of “Out For Justice”. Nicole Henson and managing director of Maryland Justice Project, Edda Marios, along with family members of incarcerated loved ones, protested it outside the front gates of the Maryland Correctional Institute for Women. Calling for the immediate release of Maryland’s longest serving incarcerated women, Arana Pri, as well as other women behind bars.
Speaker 4: Free her!
Speaker 6: Free her!
Speaker 7: Free Aubrey!
Speaker 9: Free Arana!
Speaker 8: Free them all!
Speaker 10: Free them all!
Speaker 11: Everybody deserves to live!
Speaker 12: Our women should not be sitting behind those bars, thrown in an infirmary that has no medical equipment to protect them.
Speaker 10: [inaudible 00:03:48] Free all of them!
Speaker 12: Our women deserve access to ammune-boosting food. Our women deserve better.
Speaker 13: She got sick. She got cold within here and they rushed out and brought her right back. We already know how she doing.
Speaker 12: It is no way that the department of corrections is adequately reporting the women has been tested because they’re not tested in there.
Speaker 2: Under pressure from activists and advocates. Maryland’s governor signed an executive order for the release of 2000 prisoners, April 19th. These 2000 prisoners were to be released from jails, prisons and detention centers. But prison abolitionists say the number of people who were actually released is around 70 to 80 prisoners. While people who have made parole remain in prison and detainees who are being held for misdemeanors, remains in detention centers without bail. Representatives from Assmi, who represents the correctional officers was told a month ago in a meeting with secretary of public safety, Robert Green, that every employee would get tested for COVID-19. Governor Larry Hogan announced on May 20th, that there would be universal testing in Maryland prisons. But Assmi reps along with prison advocates say that Hogan has not sent out in plan or implementation. As of May the 11th, there were reports of 200 cases among uniform officers, 57 among inmates at Jessup. There’s no way to tell the exact numbers without testing.
Speaker 14: Governor Hogan did reach out and give us some tests. But he only gave us a DJS and corrections. I have brothers and sisters over at MDH that need testing. They have a lot of patients over there who are positive. A lot of our staff is going in and out of there and risking their lives. So we need testing. We need continuous testing or all state 24/7 employees. It’s just ridiculous that we can’t get it.
Places have hotspots. We have facilities in places like PG County with severe hotspots, severe cases out there, 10-12,000 cases. We need testing for these people in these facilities. NVA doesn’t need to be opening next week. It doesn’t need to be going back to work. It’s very dangerous for these patients that work in these places. So we just need governor Hogan to rethink the reopening process and if he’s going to reopen, he needs to protect the employees a lot better than he has.
Speaker 1: Supposedly the Maryland department of health is supposed to be rolling out this protocol for our testing for all, but we haven’t seen it.
Speaker 2: Advocates of calling for people to be released on their own reconnaissance in lieu of cash bail, deliver citations rather than arrest people for minor offenses released those charged with misdemeanors release the most vulnerable prisoners along with providing personal protection equipment for people inside among other demands.
Speaker 1: It don’t make sense that somebody would have to sit there and die because of his lack of doing anything. He hasn’t done anything. Period. That gesture to release people where they are four months within a release date. That’s nothing. He can do more and I suspect that unfortunately, if he don’t do more, we’re going to see more deaths in our correctional facilities. It’s just a matter of time. The center for disease control, the CDC have already warned that this coming fall, it’s going to be even worse than what it is now. So we need to get in front of that. We don’t need to wait until September and October. When we start to see the bodies pile up.
Speaker 2: As a second outbreak booms, it will become more difficult to protect prisoners and the employees we’ll bring COVID-19 home to their communities.
Speaker 4: Women I have to be transported out the facility and order to be tested, you got to be damn near dead to get out of these walls to get proper medical equipment. Governor Hogan, your order is not working. Let our people go. Second chances. Free our women.
Speaker 2: The Real News will continue to bring you update on the conditions inside the Maryland prison system. For The Real News, I’m Eddie Conway.
Studio: Cameron Granadino
Production: Ericka Blount
Post-Production: Cameron Granadino
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therealnews--2020-05-30--Protesters Demand Justice For George Floyd

This is a rush transcript and may contain errors .
It will be updated .
Speaker 1 : Right .
Just like everybody else .
I ’ m not standing down .
I ’ m black and I ’ m proud and I ’ m strong .
Speaker 1 : No peace .
No peace .
No peace .
Jaisal Noor : Welcome to the Real News .
I ’ m Jaisal Noor .
Protests escalated in Minneapolis for a second night as demonstrators across the country demanded justice for George Floyd , a black man killed by Minneapolis police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ killing was captured in a chilling video .
Floyd gasping for breath as a white officer knelt on his neck , he groaned for help and repeatedly said , “ Please , I can breathe.
” , before going motionless .
Protesters also took to the streets to demand justice in Los Angeles , California .
All four officers involved in the killing had been fired , but Floyd ’ s family has demanded prosecutors arrest and charge them .
Protestors also point to a justice system that allows police to kill and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Well now joining us to discuss this is scholar activist , Lawrence Brown .
He ’ s with the University of Wisconsin , Public Health Institute , his forthcoming book , The Black Butterfly : The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America .
Thanks so much for joining us .
Lawrence Brown : Thank you for having me .
Jaisal Noor : So your response to the police killing of George Floyd police were called on him because he was falsely accused of trying to use a $ 20 counterfeit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ among the millions left unemployed during this pandemic , that ’ s killed 100,000 people .
Lawrence Brown : Really disturbing that five years after the Baltimore uprising and we should mention the Minneapolis occupation of the police station after the killing of Jamar Clark in 2015 as well , America ’ s come full circle once again .
This feels a lot like 1968 in the moment that we ’ re in right now after the assassination of Dr. King , what scholar Peter Levy calls the Great Uprising .
Between 1964 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ uprisings in America , in black communities that we ’ re trying to respond to a whole legacy of American racism .
Then police brutality that kind of caps it off , that sparks the embers leading to many of the uprisings .
And last night we saw responses and protest and rioting in Minneapolis and protests in Los Angeles , shutting down a freeway in Memphis , also confronting police there .
And this is all happening in the middle of a global pandemic , dealing with COVID-19 .
Black communities can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virus while attempting to also fight the police .
And I think that ’ s the situation where we ’ re in , where we have seen Ahmaud Arbery , Brianna Taylor , Christian Cooper and his confrontation with Amy Cooper and in Central Park , in New York .
All across the nation while trying to halt a global pandemic , black communities are under attack from police and vigilantes that do not respect black people and their lives .
Speaker 2 : A potential democratic vice presidential nominee , Amy Klobuchar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ released a statement , demanding Floyd ’ s killers be brought to justice , as chief prosecutor of Minneapolis , she failed to prosecute officers accused of wrongdoing .
While she increased prosecutions overall , she didn ’ t go after cops , such as the ones I ’ m involved in Floyd ’ s killing that were previously accused of wrongdoing .
Lawrence Brown : Yeah , I mean , it ultimately speaks to , I think the hypocrisy in America .
I think a lot of Democrats often will try to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re for justice , but ultimately often pass policies and enact practices that are just as harmful as the ones that Republicans enact and practice as well .
And so I think that situation , it calls into to sharp relief the way in which many of the instances where we ’ ve seen police brutality , the prosecutors , the police , the mayors , they ’ re often Democrats .
The governor during Mike Brown ’ s killing and the response to that was a Democrat .
The mayors in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Democrat .
And so I think sometimes there ’ s a belief that there ’ s just one party where the hypocrisy of American democracy is exposed , but it ’ s really both parties because white supremacy in America is just so baked into the political structure .
Jaisal Noor : So during this pandemic , we ’ ve seen growing calls to defund the police and defund social services , jobs , healthcare that people don ’ t have , people are dying for those reasons on a mass scale @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by this tweet by Josie Duffy Rice , president of The Appeal .
She said , “ Many people in America already exist in a world where police and prisons do not exist .
Go to any middle to upper class suburb in America , cops aren ’ t wandering the streets .
People aren ’ t being arrested , neighbors aren ’ t being sent to prison .
And generally everyone is fine.
” And I would add to that go to any white neighborhood in cities too , like right here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same dynamic here , although some of those neighborhoods have private police forces , it ’ s worth mentioning .
Your response to that .
Lawrence Brown : Well , the reality is America is an apartheid state and urban areas are often areas where apartheid is endemic .
Baltimore city created urban apartheid in 1910 when Baltimore Mayor John Barry Mahool passed the first residential racial zoning law in America in December of 1910 .
So Baltimore , I think , is a perfect example of where you have white communities that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ experience hyper policing , that have tremendous benefits and capital influx .
Well , you have a black butterfly , where black neighborhoods don ’ t matter , where black neighborhoods are hyper policed in a hyper segregated city .
And so Baltimore apartheid is a part and parcel of American apartheid .
And I think that is the root of why we are seeing everything from COVID-19 to hyper policing , disproportionately impact and devastate black communities and until America confronts this apartheid construct , then we ’ re going to continue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have devastating impacts in black neighborhoods impacting black people .
Jaisal Noor : And it ’ s actually wild to see this because in Baltimore you can cross a street and you can enter different realities .
It is really shocking to see that .
And that ’ s something that I want to talk to you more about , and I ’ m going to be reporting on more because I recently got a dog , I ’ ve been walking through different neighborhoods in the city and it is a sight @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to ask you about , you mentioned the uprising in Baltimore after the police killing of Freddie Gray in 2015 .
Baltimore ’ s primary election is coming up on June 2nd .
What kind of policies are needed to address the systemic apartheid you talked about ?
There was lots of promises in 2015 that Baltimore is going to do better .
That big institutions were going to do better , but fundamentally , many people say that five years later , not enough has changed in the city .
Lawrence Brown @ @ @ @ @ @ @ absolutely right .
One of the biggest issues in Baltimore is the fact that it also has an apartheid budget .
And what that means is that you have a city that spends more on policing than it does on health , housing , arts , parks , workforce development , and civil rights combined .
And there ’ s no way that a city is going to actually practice and fulfill the promise of racial equity when you have an apartheid budget in place .
And so we ’ ve seen that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Sheila Dixon , to Catherine Pugh , to Jack Young and I think that ’ s the reality .
And now you have a global pandemic on top of all of this .
Now you need a well-funded health department with community health workers , with folks that are able to help stop the rising tide of COVID-19 in Baltimore , which is accelerating as a pandemic within the city .
You can ’ t do that when your whole budget or a large chunk of it is invested in the Baltimore @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re seeing in cities like Baltimore and cities like Minneapolis and Milwaukee , these hyper segregated cities in the case of Milwaukee and Baltimore , Minneapolis is only a category two hyper segregated city , but yet and still segregation can be so devastating that statistically sometimes it doesn ’ t capture the perniciousness of the way in which communities are under resourced and hyper policed .
So I think that ’ s the issue Baltimore is , should look at , can Baltimore dismantle its own apartheid to create a city where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2 : And Dr. Brown , when you ’ re talking about is really fundamental change and in Baltimore specifically , and in many cities , there ’ s growing calls for the public to have meaningful input , to have control of these budgets , because we ’ ve had politicians promise to change priorities , but it hasn ’ t happened .
Do you think that those kinds of proposals need to become reality ?
We ’ re talking about participatory budgeting , where the public gets to actually vote how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Absolutely .
In my book , The Black Butterfly , I actually talk about two ways in which participatory budgeting can be enacted and allow people to have a voice in the budget .
And the first way is through a $ 3 billion racial equity , social impact bond , which would kickstart the rejuvenation of black Baltimore of the black butterfly , in particular , and ensuring racial equity .
And half of that would go towards getting toxic lead out of the community .
And other parts of that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ banking apartheid , of food apartheid in Baltimore city .
And the other piece is also Baltimore neighborhood reparations , where the city would take ten percent of its budget allocate it to the top 20 red line communities .
And then in both instances , there should be democratically elected neighborhood councils to help communities decide how they want to spend that money .
And that ’ s participatory budgeting .
And that will empower people .
That is what will give people a voice and make democracy , as well as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ city .
That ’ s what ’ s needed to dismantle Baltimore apartheid and help the black butterfly heal .
Lawrence Brown , always a pleasure .
[ Inaudible 00:12:32 ] the University of Wisconsin Public Health Institute .
His forthcoming book , that we all eagerly await , The Black Butterfly : The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America .
When can we expect that to come out ?
Lawrence Brown : It should come out February 2nd , 2021 .
And hopefully I ’ ll be able to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with folks about what our research and what I ’ ve found in the book .
Jaisal Noor : All right , Dr. Brown , thank you so much for joining us .
Jaisal Noor : Thank you for joining us at the Real News Network .

Justice for George Floyd means prosecuting the officers responsible for his death and ending American apartheid, argues Dr. Lawrence Brown.
Story Transcript
This is a rush transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Speaker 1: Right. Just like everybody else. I’m not standing down. I’m black and I’m proud and I’m strong.
Speaker 2: Stand down.
Speaker 1: No peace. No peace. No peace.
Jaisal Noor: Welcome to the Real News. I’m Jaisal Noor. Protests escalated in Minneapolis for a second night as demonstrators across the country demanded justice for George Floyd, a black man killed by Minneapolis police on May 25th. Floyd’s killing was captured in a chilling video. Floyd gasping for breath as a white officer knelt on his neck, he groaned for help and repeatedly said, “Please, I can breathe.”, before going motionless. Protesters also took to the streets to demand justice in Los Angeles, California. All four officers involved in the killing had been fired, but Floyd’s family has demanded prosecutors arrest and charge them. Protestors also point to a justice system that allows police to kill and abuse African-American men and women with impunity. Well now joining us to discuss this is scholar activist, Lawrence Brown. He’s with the University of Wisconsin, Public Health Institute, his forthcoming book, The Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Lawrence Brown: Thank you for having me.
Jaisal Noor: So your response to the police killing of George Floyd police were called on him because he was falsely accused of trying to use a $20 counterfeit check. Worth mentioning, Floyd was among the millions left unemployed during this pandemic, that’s killed 100,000 people.
Lawrence Brown: Really disturbing that five years after the Baltimore uprising and we should mention the Minneapolis occupation of the police station after the killing of Jamar Clark in 2015 as well, America’s come full circle once again. This feels a lot like 1968 in the moment that we’re in right now after the assassination of Dr. King, what scholar Peter Levy calls the Great Uprising. Between 1964 and 1971, there were over 750 uprisings in America, in black communities that we’re trying to respond to a whole legacy of American racism. Then police brutality that kind of caps it off, that sparks the embers leading to many of the uprisings.
And last night we saw responses and protest and rioting in Minneapolis and protests in Los Angeles, shutting down a freeway in Memphis, also confronting police there. And this is all happening in the middle of a global pandemic, dealing with COVID-19. Black communities can’t even try to fight that virus while attempting to also fight the police. And I think that’s the situation where we’re in, where we have seen Ahmaud Arbery, Brianna Taylor, Christian Cooper and his confrontation with Amy Cooper and in Central Park, in New York. All across the nation while trying to halt a global pandemic, black communities are under attack from police and vigilantes that do not respect black people and their lives.
Speaker 2: A potential democratic vice presidential nominee, Amy Klobuchar has come under fire because while she released a statement, demanding Floyd’s killers be brought to justice, as chief prosecutor of Minneapolis, she failed to prosecute officers accused of wrongdoing. While she increased prosecutions overall, she didn’t go after cops, such as the ones I’m involved in Floyd’s killing that were previously accused of wrongdoing.
Lawrence Brown: Yeah, I mean, it ultimately speaks to, I think the hypocrisy in America. I think a lot of Democrats often will try to posture and position themselves as if they’re for justice, but ultimately often pass policies and enact practices that are just as harmful as the ones that Republicans enact and practice as well. And so I think that situation, it calls into to sharp relief the way in which many of the instances where we’ve seen police brutality, the prosecutors, the police, the mayors, they’re often Democrats. The governor during Mike Brown’s killing and the response to that was a Democrat. The mayors in Baltimore, Democrat. Mayors in Minneapolis, Democrat. And so I think sometimes there’s a belief that there’s just one party where the hypocrisy of American democracy is exposed, but it’s really both parties because white supremacy in America is just so baked into the political structure.
Jaisal Noor: So during this pandemic, we’ve seen growing calls to defund the police and defund social services, jobs, healthcare that people don’t have, people are dying for those reasons on a mass scale in this country. I was struck by this tweet by Josie Duffy Rice, president of The Appeal. She said, “Many people in America already exist in a world where police and prisons do not exist. Go to any middle to upper class suburb in America, cops aren’t wandering the streets. People aren’t being arrested, neighbors aren’t being sent to prison. And generally everyone is fine.” And I would add to that go to any white neighborhood in cities too, like right here in Baltimore, it’s the same dynamic here, although some of those neighborhoods have private police forces, it’s worth mentioning. Your response to that.
Lawrence Brown: Well, the reality is America is an apartheid state and urban areas are often areas where apartheid is endemic. Baltimore city created urban apartheid in 1910 when Baltimore Mayor John Barry Mahool passed the first residential racial zoning law in America in December of 1910. So Baltimore, I think, is a perfect example of where you have white communities that are privileged, that don’t experience hyper policing, that have tremendous benefits and capital influx. Well, you have a black butterfly, where black neighborhoods don’t matter, where black neighborhoods are hyper policed in a hyper segregated city. And so Baltimore apartheid is a part and parcel of American apartheid. And I think that is the root of why we are seeing everything from COVID-19 to hyper policing, disproportionately impact and devastate black communities and until America confronts this apartheid construct, then we’re going to continue to see global pandemics, police brutality have devastating impacts in black neighborhoods impacting black people.
Jaisal Noor: And it’s actually wild to see this because in Baltimore you can cross a street and you can enter different realities. It is really shocking to see that. And that’s something that I want to talk to you more about, and I’m going to be reporting on more because I recently got a dog, I’ve been walking through different neighborhoods in the city and it is a sight to really behold. And I wanted to ask you about, you mentioned the uprising in Baltimore after the police killing of Freddie Gray in 2015. Baltimore’s primary election is coming up on June 2nd. What kind of policies are needed to address the systemic apartheid you talked about? There was lots of promises in 2015 that Baltimore is going to do better. That big institutions were going to do better, but fundamentally, many people say that five years later, not enough has changed in the city.
Lawrence Brown: I mean, you’re absolutely right. One of the biggest issues in Baltimore is the fact that it also has an apartheid budget. And what that means is that you have a city that spends more on policing than it does on health, housing, arts, parks, workforce development, and civil rights combined. And there’s no way that a city is going to actually practice and fulfill the promise of racial equity when you have an apartheid budget in place. And so we’ve seen that from Martin O’Malley as mayor to Sheila Dixon, to Catherine Pugh, to Jack Young and I think that’s the reality. And now you have a global pandemic on top of all of this. Now you need a well-funded health department with community health workers, with folks that are able to help stop the rising tide of COVID-19 in Baltimore, which is accelerating as a pandemic within the city.
You can’t do that when your whole budget or a large chunk of it is invested in the Baltimore Police Department. So what we’re seeing in cities like Baltimore and cities like Minneapolis and Milwaukee, these hyper segregated cities in the case of Milwaukee and Baltimore, Minneapolis is only a category two hyper segregated city, but yet and still segregation can be so devastating that statistically sometimes it doesn’t capture the perniciousness of the way in which communities are under resourced and hyper policed. So I think that’s the issue Baltimore is, should look at, can Baltimore dismantle its own apartheid to create a city where racial equity is a reality.
Speaker 2: And Dr. Brown, when you’re talking about is really fundamental change and in Baltimore specifically, and in many cities, there’s growing calls for the public to have meaningful input, to have control of these budgets, because we’ve had politicians promise to change priorities, but it hasn’t happened. Do you think that those kinds of proposals need to become reality? We’re talking about participatory budgeting, where the public gets to actually vote how this money is allocated.
Jaisal Noor: Absolutely. In my book, The Black Butterfly, I actually talk about two ways in which participatory budgeting can be enacted and allow people to have a voice in the budget. And the first way is through a $3 billion racial equity, social impact bond, which would kickstart the rejuvenation of black Baltimore of the black butterfly, in particular, and ensuring racial equity. And half of that would go towards getting toxic lead out of the community. And other parts of that would go towards addressing transit apartheid, banking apartheid, of food apartheid in Baltimore city. And the other piece is also Baltimore neighborhood reparations, where the city would take ten percent of its budget allocate it to the top 20 red line communities. And then in both instances, there should be democratically elected neighborhood councils to help communities decide how they want to spend that money. And that’s participatory budgeting. And that will empower people. That is what will give people a voice and make democracy, as well as racial equity, a reality in Baltimore city. That’s what’s needed to dismantle Baltimore apartheid and help the black butterfly heal.
Lawrence Brown, always a pleasure. [Inaudible 00:12:32] the University of Wisconsin Public Health Institute. His forthcoming book, that we all eagerly await, The Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America. When can we expect that to come out?
Lawrence Brown: It should come out February 2nd, 2021. And hopefully I’ll be able to be there so that I can help talk with folks about what our research and what I’ve found in the book.
Jaisal Noor: All right, Dr. Brown, thank you so much for joining us.
Lawrence Brown: Thank you.
Jaisal Noor: Thank you for joining us at the Real News Network.
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