democracynow--2020-12-08--Black Mom Swarmed & Beaten by Philly Riot Police with Toddler in Car Demands Officers Be Fired

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : We begin with a horrific story .
A warning to our listeners and viewers : The next segment contains graphic images and descriptions of police violence , as we go to Philadelphia , where a Black mother who was attacked with her family in October by a horde of police officers is speaking out about the harrowing experience .
Rickia Young was driving an SUV with her 2-year-old son and teenage nephew on October 27 as the city was engulfed in protest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jr. , a Black man having a mental health crisis , earlier that day .
But Rickia Young didn ’ t yet know about that killing .
She was just trying to get her nephew and son home when she took a turn down a one-way street , unknowingly driving straight into a throng of police in riot gear .
As Young tried to turn the car around and leave the dangerous scene , the officers descended on her SUV , broke all its windows , and assaulted and arrested her .
This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , describing the attack to The Philadelphia Inquirer in a recently published video interview .
AMY GOODMAN : Rickia Young was then separated from her 2-year-old child and held for hours .
She described pleading with a police officer from the back of a police wagon .
AMY GOODMAN : After police assaulted Rickia Young , separated her from her child , a photo was taken of a female officer holding her toddler .
The National Fraternal Order of Police — the nation ’ s largest police union — posted the photo on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , “ This child was lost during the violent riots in Philadelphia , wandering around barefoot in an area that was experiencing complete lawlessness .
… WE ARE the only thing standing between Order and Anarchy , ” unquote .
The false post racked up thousands of shares before it was deleted amidst an outcry .
More than a month after the police attack , Rickia Young is still fighting for justice and demanding the officers involved be fired .
She ’ s also trying to help her 2-year-old recover from the physical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ This is Rickia speaking to The Philadelphia Inquirer .
AMY GOODMAN : Rickia ’ s little 2-year-old is hard of hearing and wears hearing aids .
When the police impounded her SUV , they did not have access to the hearing aids for weeks .
Well , for more on this disturbing police assault and what ’ s happened since that night on October 27th , we go to Philadelphia , where we ’ re joined by Kevin Mincey , Rickia Young ’ s attorney .
Kevin , welcome to Democracy Now !
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It is such a horrific story .
If you can tell us what the police explanation for this is , what they ’ re doing , and how Rickia is dealing with her child , who is so traumatized at this point ?
KEVIN MINCEY : Yes , Amy .
Good morning , and thank you for having me .
The police have not offered an explanation as to why they acted the way they did that night .
They ’ ve responded instead with a police investigation into Rickia .
They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ losing her vehicle , not knowing where it was for several days , according to what they told us .
And when they finally recovered it three or four days later , none of her belongings were inside .
The hearing aids were gone .
Her purse , her wallet were gone .
And the car had even more damage than when she last saw it after they had smashed out all the windows .
So , the police response has , quite frankly , been unsatisfactory , disappointing and really insulting to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know , because Ms. Young committed no crimes and had done nothing wrong that night .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : Well , Kevin Mincey , what do you understand from the police version is the reason why they stopped her in the first place ?
Clearly , she was just driving through , happened to be driving through the neighborhood .
KEVIN MINCEY : There has been no — there has been no explanation .
The only thing that they ’ ve even tried to do is kind of workshop a story where they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to assault a police officer .
That was done after they had taken her into custody .
When Rickia was in the hospital and being held at police headquarters , on her wristband it referenced assault on police .
But you can see from the videos that were taken that night that Rickia ’ s car never moved that night .
When she came down Chestnut Street and started to turn and turn around , she stopped right there .
She didn ’ t back up , because there were people behind her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
She didn ’ t do anything to try and assault an officer .
And that ’ s ultimately , I think , why they ultimately chose not to charge her criminally , because they had no evidence to support such a charge .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : And could you talk about how her family eventually found and were able to locate her child ?
KEVIN MINCEY : Sure .
Well , fortunately for Rickia , there were two young women who were in the paddy wagon with her that night , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cellphone on her , incredibly .
And so , Rickia was able to get the young lady to call her sister , and Rickia was able to tell her sister and her mother then what happened out there on 52nd Street that night .
And then her mother and her sister went out to 52nd Street to question the police .
At first , the police acted as though they didn ’ t know what they were talking about .
And eventually they directed Rickia ’ s mother and sister to 15th Street @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from where all this happened — and 15th and JFK , to be exact , which is near where the Department of Human Services is here in Philadelphia .
And when they went down to 15th and JFK , Rickia ’ s mother found her son sitting in the backseat of a police car still in his car seat .
And when she touched his hair , glass fell out of his hair .
There was still glass from the car in the car seat .
When I met them , maybe the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ car seat , and the glass was still there , large pieces of glass still in the car seat .
The police were just allowing him to sit in that glass .
So , that ’ s a pretty harrowing experience for him , really traumatic for Rickia to go through .
And even for Rickia ’ s mother and sister to kind of witness the aftermath of that was a — it ’ s been a traumatic experience for the entire family .
AMY GOODMAN : And then , explain what happened @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Police get this picture of a policewoman holding her child , acting like they were saving this 2-year-old ?
KEVIN MINCEY : It ’ s unclear where they got it from .
My understanding is that that picture was initially snapped by a photographer who was on the scene that night for a news organization .
The National FOP then put it on their Facebook page .
And what ’ s really troubling is trying to understand where they got the story from , because they either got it from someone in Philadelphia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this baby wandering on the street , or they made it up completely to support some type of narrative that they were trying to promote , where they just created a story about finding this baby wandering around in a , quote , “ lawless ” area of Philadelphia .
Either way , they painted Rickia and her family in a false light , exposed her to negative comments on social media and abuse .
And it ’ s something that we ’ re going to hold them accountable for .
AMY GOODMAN @ @ @ @ @ @ @ talk about the baby ’ s hearing aids ?
He ’ s hard of hearing .
Her car was impounded .
She wasn ’ t able to access his hearing aids for weeks ?
KEVIN MINCEY : So , what happened was , the hearing aids were in the backseat when all of this happened .
He didn ’ t have them in because he was asleep .
When the police took Rickia from her car and her son and her nephew , the car was still sitting in the middle of Chestnut @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Somehow , the police lost the vehicle .
They haven ’ t been able to explain to me why , for days , they didn ’ t know where the car was .
I was calling every day trying to find out where the car was .
“ Do you have her hearing aids ?
Do you have her purse and her wallet ?
” It wasn ’ t ’ til three or four days later that I was contacted by someone from Southwest Detectives to inform me that they had recovered the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how if , when Rickia left that area , the car was surrounded by police officers , how they could somehow then lose it in the midst of all those officers that you can see in the video .
So they basically either left her vehicle on the street unattended and allowed it to be stolen and then joyrode around the city until someone decided they didn ’ t want to drive around in it anymore , or they kept it for a number of days , were dishonest about where the vehicle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the items that were inside of it .
We don ’ t know the answers yet .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : Also , could you put what happened to your client in the context of what was actually going on that night ?
It was a protest that had broken out in response to the police killing of Walter Wallace Jr. , who was shot while having a mental health crisis .
Could you put that in context ?
And also , your assessment of the response so far of Mayor Kenney and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Well , obviously , there was a lot of tension in the streets that night .
This is seven or eight hours after the police have killed Mr. Wallace in that area of the city .
And this is also after , maybe six months prior to that , they had tear-gassed the West Philadelphia neighborhoods and had tear-gassed and shot rubber bullets at protesters on Interstate 676 in Center City .
So , the world was watching the police response that night in Philadelphia , in particular , just due to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And this is how they responded .
Seven , eight hours later , they ’ re smashing the windows out of a single mom ’ s vehicle and dragging her away from her child and separating them .
And then , as far as the response from the mayor or the police commissioner , as far as I know , there has not been any .
We have not heard anything from the mayor , from the police commissioner .
We ’ ve had some informal conversations with some lawyers from the city @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of wrongdoing .
Instead , like I said , the police initiated a criminal investigation into Rickia and her conduct that night .
So , they ’ re still trying to justify — for some reason , still trying to justify this , these unlawful acts , and have yet to acknowledge that they were wrong .
AMY GOODMAN : And , Kevin Mincey , can you talk more about how Rickia , her 2-year-old boy , her 16-year-old nephew , who she had simply gone to pick up that night , how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that they ’ ve experienced ?
KEVIN MINCEY : You know , it ’ s an extremely difficult thing to deal with .
You go from being someone who was living their life almost in an anonymous fashion to now you ’ re streaming on everybody ’ s cellphone and computer and becoming the subject of internet debate and social media commentary .
Now let ’ s then set aside that part and then talk about the actual physical injuries that all of them suffered .
Rickia ’ s son had a large @ @ @ @ @ @ @ look at some of the pictures that were posted online by the National FOP .
She had internal injuries .
Her nephew had broken bones in his hand .
So , it ’ s a slow recovery from the physical injuries and an even slower recovery from the emotional trauma that they ’ re going to be dealing with probably for the rest of their lives .
AMY GOODMAN : And your demands of the police ?
KEVIN MINCEY : The officers need to be held accountable .
I think there are up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ placed on desk duty .
I saw way more than five officers either involved in the destruction of Rickia ’ s property or ignoring the conduct of the other officers and not stopping those officers from doing that .
So , more officers need to be held accountable .
I will join in Rickia ’ s request that the officers involved be fired .
They certainly do not deserve to have the trust placed in them to protect and serve our communities .
AMY GOODMAN : And finally , Juan , you have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Talk about what this reminds you of .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : Well , Amy , this is eerily reminiscent of a story that I uncovered actually almost 30 years ago .
It ’ s amazing how the more things change , the more they stay the same .
This was back in 1991 in the aftermath of the Crown Heights riot in Brooklyn , New York .
That was the riot supposedly touched off by a motorist , the killing of a young child , Gavin Cato , by a motorcade of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Crown Heights neighborhood .
A few weeks after that riot , I got a call from a lawyer who said that his client had been arrested that night , the night of the Crown Heights riot , and he was an innocent motorist just driving through the neighborhood who happened onto President Street as he was trying to get home .
And the police immediately converged on his vehicle , destroyed his — broke the windows of his car , dragged him out and beat him .
And I said , “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t heard anything about that.
” And he said , “ No , the Daily News , your newspaper , has a photo of my client , Pierre Regis , being arrested as a so-called rioter.
” And he says , “ I ’ m trying to identify the other police officers who actually were involved in beating him .
So , you must have had a photographer on the scene.
” And so , I said , “ Well , look , you know , I can ’ t give you anything @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the paper , but I ’ ll check to see if there are any other photos in our photo library.
” And sure enough , because this is before smartphone videos , and this was still when film , when actual film , was being developed by photographers , before digital photos — and I found the reel of photos that involved this incident .
But somehow , mysteriously , the key photos of the police beating this young Haitian American , Pierre Regis , were missing .
Someone had gone into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out the most incriminating photos .
There were still , though , some photos left .
And so , all I could tell the lawyer was , “ Yes , I think there are some photos.
” He eventually subpoenaed them and got the police civilian review board to subpoena them .
And the upshot was that there was a trial in which I think Pierre Regis ended up being awarded over $ 3 million as a result of the injuries he sustained .
But it was the same story .
He was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an innocent motorist passing through a neighborhood in the middle of a racial disturbance .
And once again , the police turned the victim into supposed criminal .
So , it ’ s eerily reminiscent of what ’ s happened here to Rickia Young , but it happens so many times .
And luckily , this time there appears that there will be some action taken , hopefully , by authorities .
AMY GOODMAN : Well , I want to thank Kevin Mincey for joining us , the attorney for Rickia Young , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a horde of Philadelphia police officers , now calling for them to be fired .
And , of course , we will continue to cover this .
Next up , we ’ re going to look at how the ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft scored a major victory against worker rights with the passage of Prop 22 in California , how they ’ re now pushing similar measures across the country .
This is Democracy Now !
Thank you , Kevin Mincey .
We ’ ll be back in a minute .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We begin with a horrific story. A warning to our listeners and viewers: The next segment contains graphic images and descriptions of police violence, as we go to Philadelphia, where a Black mother who was attacked with her family in October by a horde of police officers is speaking out about the harrowing experience.
Rickia Young was driving an SUV with her 2-year-old son and teenage nephew on October 27 as the city was engulfed in protest over the police killing of Walter Wallace Jr., a Black man having a mental health crisis, earlier that day. But Rickia Young didn’t yet know about that killing. She was just trying to get her nephew and son home when she took a turn down a one-way street, unknowingly driving straight into a throng of police in riot gear. As Young tried to turn the car around and leave the dangerous scene, the officers descended on her SUV, broke all its windows, and assaulted and arrested her.
This is Rickia Young in her own words, describing the attack to The Philadelphia Inquirer in a recently published video interview.
RICKIA YOUNG: Once I got close enough to see the cops, I stopped. Like, I stopped right there. I was trying to turn around. But it was like people came inside the street and was up there throwing stuff at the cops.
Next you know, the cops started charging, started running. My nephew was saying, “Lock the doors! Lock the doors!” because they was banging on the car, saying mean things: “Turn this F-ing car around!” and “Get out the F-ing car!” And they had yanked my door open. But by that time, they had busted the back window. They pulled me out the car, and they busted the other window.
I was up there yelling at them, like, “My son is in the car! My son is in the car!” And once they busted that window, they had woke him up. And they was up there, like, doing whatever they was doing to me, hitting me, throwing me, macing me. My son, the look on his face, he was petrified. Petrified.
AMY GOODMAN: Rickia Young was then separated from her 2-year-old child and held for hours. She described pleading with a police officer from the back of a police wagon.
RICKIA YOUNG: I was asking, like, “What’s going on?” like, you know, “Where’s my son? Where’s my son?” like screaming, like trying to find my son. The officer had the nerve to tell me, “He’s in a better place: DHS.” You can say anything you want about me, but calling me — like, saying something like that to me is an insult. They, as a whole, the Philadelphia Police Department, treated me as if I was an animal on the street. An animal don’t even deserve that.
AMY GOODMAN: After police assaulted Rickia Young, separated her from her child, a photo was taken of a female officer holding her toddler. The National Fraternal Order of Police — the nation’s largest police union — posted the photo on social media, falsely claiming, quote, “This child was lost during the violent riots in Philadelphia, wandering around barefoot in an area that was experiencing complete lawlessness. … WE ARE the only thing standing between Order and Anarchy,” unquote. The false post racked up thousands of shares before it was deleted amidst an outcry.
More than a month after the police attack, Rickia Young is still fighting for justice and demanding the officers involved be fired. She’s also trying to help her 2-year-old recover from the physical and emotional trauma of the assault. This is Rickia speaking to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
RICKIA YOUNG: He is petrified. And he’s only 2 years old. My mom and my nephew asked him what happened. He was saying, '[bleep] car. [bleep] door. Open door,' and up there banging his hand, like as if — like, you know, the cops was banging on the car. He just kept repeating it like he’s still trying to tell the story. Like, he acts out. He bite his nails. He pull his hair now. He never did those things before. He’s traumatized. He is going through something. He knows words, but, you know, he can’t express to me how he’s feeling.
AMY GOODMAN: Rickia’s little 2-year-old is hard of hearing and wears hearing aids. When the police impounded her SUV, they did not have access to the hearing aids for weeks.
Well, for more on this disturbing police assault and what’s happened since that night on October 27th, we go to Philadelphia, where we’re joined by Kevin Mincey, Rickia Young’s attorney.
Kevin, welcome to Democracy Now! Thank you so much for joining us. It is such a horrific story. If you can tell us what the police explanation for this is, what they’re doing, and how Rickia is dealing with her child, who is so traumatized at this point?
KEVIN MINCEY: Yes, Amy. Good morning, and thank you for having me.
The police have not offered an explanation as to why they acted the way they did that night. They’ve responded instead with a police investigation into Rickia. They held her vehicle — first, after losing her vehicle, not knowing where it was for several days, according to what they told us. And when they finally recovered it three or four days later, none of her belongings were inside. The hearing aids were gone. Her purse, her wallet were gone. And the car had even more damage than when she last saw it after they had smashed out all the windows.
So, the police response has, quite frankly, been unsatisfactory, disappointing and really insulting to Ms. Young and her son, you know, because Ms. Young committed no crimes and had done nothing wrong that night.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Kevin Mincey, what do you understand from the police version is the reason why they stopped her in the first place? Clearly, she was just driving through, happened to be driving through the neighborhood.
KEVIN MINCEY: There has been no — there has been no explanation. The only thing that they’ve even tried to do is kind of workshop a story where they were going to accuse her of trying to assault a police officer. That was done after they had taken her into custody. When Rickia was in the hospital and being held at police headquarters, on her wristband it referenced assault on police.
But you can see from the videos that were taken that night that Rickia’s car never moved that night. When she came down Chestnut Street and started to turn and turn around, she stopped right there. She didn’t back up, because there were people behind her. There were people running towards her. She didn’t do anything to try and assault an officer. And that’s ultimately, I think, why they ultimately chose not to charge her criminally, because they had no evidence to support such a charge.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And could you talk about how her family eventually found and were able to locate her child?
KEVIN MINCEY: Sure. Well, fortunately for Rickia, there were two young women who were in the paddy wagon with her that night, and one of the women still had her cellphone on her, incredibly. And so, Rickia was able to get the young lady to call her sister, and Rickia was able to tell her sister and her mother then what happened out there on 52nd Street that night. And then her mother and her sister went out to 52nd Street to question the police.
At first, the police acted as though they didn’t know what they were talking about. And eventually they directed Rickia’s mother and sister to 15th Street, which is about four miles away from where all this happened — and 15th and JFK, to be exact, which is near where the Department of Human Services is here in Philadelphia.
And when they went down to 15th and JFK, Rickia’s mother found her son sitting in the backseat of a police car still in his car seat. And when she touched his hair, glass fell out of his hair. There was still glass from the car in the car seat. When I met them, maybe the next day, I looked at the car seat, and the glass was still there, large pieces of glass still in the car seat. The police were just allowing him to sit in that glass.
So, that’s a pretty harrowing experience for him, really traumatic for Rickia to go through. And even for Rickia’s mother and sister to kind of witness the aftermath of that was a — it’s been a traumatic experience for the entire family.
AMY GOODMAN: And then, explain what happened. How did the Fraternal Order of Police get this picture of a policewoman holding her child, acting like they were saving this 2-year-old?
KEVIN MINCEY: It’s unclear where they got it from. My understanding is that that picture was initially snapped by a photographer who was on the scene that night for a news organization. The National FOP then put it on their Facebook page.
And what’s really troubling is trying to understand where they got the story from, because they either got it from someone in Philadelphia who lied and said that they found this baby wandering on the street, or they made it up completely to support some type of narrative that they were trying to promote, where they just created a story about finding this baby wandering around in a, quote, “lawless” area of Philadelphia. Either way, they painted Rickia and her family in a false light, exposed her to negative comments on social media and abuse. And it’s something that we’re going to hold them accountable for.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Kevin, can you talk about the baby’s hearing aids? He’s hard of hearing. Her car was impounded. She wasn’t able to access his hearing aids for weeks?
KEVIN MINCEY: So, what happened was, the hearing aids were in the backseat when all of this happened. He didn’t have them in because he was asleep. When the police took Rickia from her car and her son and her nephew, the car was still sitting in the middle of Chestnut Street in between 52nd and 53rd. Somehow, the police lost the vehicle. They haven’t been able to explain to me why, for days, they didn’t know where the car was. I was calling every day trying to find out where the car was. “Do you have her hearing aids? Do you have her purse and her wallet?” It wasn’t ’til three or four days later that I was contacted by someone from Southwest Detectives to inform me that they had recovered the vehicle.
I can’t understand how if, when Rickia left that area, the car was surrounded by police officers, how they could somehow then lose it in the midst of all those officers that you can see in the video. So they basically either left her vehicle on the street unattended and allowed it to be stolen and then joyrode around the city until someone decided they didn’t want to drive around in it anymore, or they kept it for a number of days, were dishonest about where the vehicle was, and still have not returned the items that were inside of it. We don’t know the answers yet.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Also, could you put what happened to your client in the context of what was actually going on that night? It was a protest that had broken out in response to the police killing of Walter Wallace Jr., who was shot while having a mental health crisis. Could you put that in context? And also, your assessment of the response so far of Mayor Kenney and the police commissioner of Philadelphia?
KEVIN MINCEY: Well, obviously, there was a lot of tension in the streets that night. This is seven or eight hours after the police have killed Mr. Wallace in that area of the city. And this is also after, maybe six months prior to that, they had tear-gassed the West Philadelphia neighborhoods and had tear-gassed and shot rubber bullets at protesters on Interstate 676 in Center City. So, the world was watching the police response that night in Philadelphia, in particular, just due to their past behavior in similar circumstances. And this is how they responded. Seven, eight hours later, they’re smashing the windows out of a single mom’s vehicle and dragging her away from her child and separating them.
And then, as far as the response from the mayor or the police commissioner, as far as I know, there has not been any. We have not heard anything from the mayor, from the police commissioner. We’ve had some informal conversations with some lawyers from the city, but no apologies, no acknowledgment of wrongdoing. Instead, like I said, the police initiated a criminal investigation into Rickia and her conduct that night. So, they’re still trying to justify — for some reason, still trying to justify this, these unlawful acts, and have yet to acknowledge that they were wrong.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Kevin Mincey, can you talk more about how Rickia, her 2-year-old boy, her 16-year-old nephew, who she had simply gone to pick up that night, how they’re coping with the trauma that they’ve experienced?
KEVIN MINCEY: You know, it’s an extremely difficult thing to deal with. You go from being someone who was living their life almost in an anonymous fashion to now you’re streaming on everybody’s cellphone and computer and becoming the subject of internet debate and social media commentary.
Now let’s then set aside that part and then talk about the actual physical injuries that all of them suffered. Rickia’s son had a large welt on his head, when you look at some of the pictures that were posted online by the National FOP. She had internal injuries. Her nephew had broken bones in his hand. So, it’s a slow recovery from the physical injuries and an even slower recovery from the emotional trauma that they’re going to be dealing with probably for the rest of their lives.
AMY GOODMAN: And your demands of the police?
KEVIN MINCEY: The officers need to be held accountable. I think there are up to five officers now who have been placed on desk duty. I saw way more than five officers either involved in the destruction of Rickia’s property or ignoring the conduct of the other officers and not stopping those officers from doing that. So, more officers need to be held accountable. I will join in Rickia’s request that the officers involved be fired. They certainly do not deserve to have the trust placed in them to protect and serve our communities.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, Juan, you have covered issues of police brutality for years. Talk about what this reminds you of.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Amy, this is eerily reminiscent of a story that I uncovered actually almost 30 years ago. It’s amazing how the more things change, the more they stay the same. This was back in 1991 in the aftermath of the Crown Heights riot in Brooklyn, New York. That was the riot supposedly touched off by a motorist, the killing of a young child, Gavin Cato, by a motorcade of a Hasidic rabbi that was passing through the Crown Heights neighborhood.
A few weeks after that riot, I got a call from a lawyer who said that his client had been arrested that night, the night of the Crown Heights riot, and he was an innocent motorist just driving through the neighborhood who happened onto President Street as he was trying to get home. And the police immediately converged on his vehicle, destroyed his — broke the windows of his car, dragged him out and beat him. And I said, “Are you sure? I haven’t heard anything about that.” And he said, “No, the Daily News, your newspaper, has a photo of my client, Pierre Regis, being arrested as a so-called rioter.” And he says, “I’m trying to identify the other police officers who actually were involved in beating him. So, you must have had a photographer on the scene.” And so, I said, “Well, look, you know, I can’t give you anything other than what’s already published in the paper, but I’ll check to see if there are any other photos in our photo library.”
And sure enough, because this is before smartphone videos, and this was still when film, when actual film, was being developed by photographers, before digital photos — and I found the reel of photos that involved this incident. But somehow, mysteriously, the key photos of the police beating this young Haitian American, Pierre Regis, were missing. Someone had gone into the Daily News photo library and pulled out the most incriminating photos. There were still, though, some photos left. And so, all I could tell the lawyer was, “Yes, I think there are some photos.” He eventually subpoenaed them and got the police civilian review board to subpoena them. And the upshot was that there was a trial in which I think Pierre Regis ended up being awarded over $3 million as a result of the injuries he sustained.
But it was the same story. He was labeled a rioter. He was just an innocent motorist passing through a neighborhood in the middle of a racial disturbance. And once again, the police turned the victim into supposed criminal. So, it’s eerily reminiscent of what’s happened here to Rickia Young, but it happens so many times. And luckily, this time there appears that there will be some action taken, hopefully, by authorities.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank Kevin Mincey for joining us, the attorney for Rickia Young, the Black mother attacked in October by a horde of Philadelphia police officers, now calling for them to be fired. And, of course, we will continue to cover this.
Next up, we’re going to look at how the ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft scored a major victory against worker rights with the passage of Prop 22 in California, how they’re now pushing similar measures across the country. This is Democracy Now! Thank you, Kevin Mincey. We’ll be back in a minute.


democracynow--2020-12-08--Headlines for December  8, 2020

Headlines for December  8, 2020

The United States confirmed more than 200,000 new coronavirus infections on Monday and more than 1,500 new deaths , capping @ @ @ @ @ U.S. outbreak since April .
Nearly 16,000 people have died of COVID-19 across the U.S. @ @ @ @ @ and public health officials warn the worst could be yet to come .
This is @ @ @ @ @ Anthony Fauci .
Dr. Anthony Fauci : “ What we have now is a challenge @ @ @ @ @ bleak months of December and January where we have a baseline of infections that literally @ @ @ @ @ with regards to number of infections , number of hospitalizations and numbers of deaths .
@ @ @ @ @ .
We can do something about it , but that something right now is public @ @ @ @ @ are at a record high , with more than 102,000 COVID-19 patients filling beds .
@ @ @ @ @ from coast to coast are rapidly filling to capacity , and New Mexico ’ s @ @ @ @ @ have to ration care .

The United States confirmed more than 200,000 new coronavirus infections on Monday and more than 1,500 new deaths, capping the deadliest week of the U.S. outbreak since April. Nearly 16,000 people have died of COVID-19 across the U.S. in the last week, and public health officials warn the worst could be yet to come. This is top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Dr. Anthony Fauci: “What we have now is a challenge ahead of us of the bleak months of December and January where we have a baseline of infections that literally is breaking records every day with regards to number of infections, number of hospitalizations and numbers of deaths. The numbers are really stunning. We can do something about it, but that something right now is public health measures.”
U.S. hospitalizations are at a record high, with more than 102,000 COVID-19 patients filling beds. Intensive care units in hospitals from coast to coast are rapidly filling to capacity, and New Mexico’s governor warns doctors may soon have to ration care.


democracynow--2020-12-09--Trump Set to Execute Brandon Bernard Even as Jurors & Ex-Prosecutor Call for Clemency

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now !
The Quarantine Report .
I ’ m Amy Goodman , with Juan González .
As COVID-19 rips across the United States , federal officials now admit eight members of a 40-person team who traveled from around the country to carry out the federal execution of Orlando Hall last month have contracted the virus , as well as his spiritual adviser .
Hall was one of eight people President Trump has sent to their death so far this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the federal death penalty .
And in the final weeks of his administration , he plans to execute five more people , including tomorrow — International Human Rights Day .
These are the first executions during a president ’ s lame-duck period in over 130 years , since Grover Cleveland executed three people of color .
On Thursday , the federal government plans to kill a 40-year-old Black man named Brandon Bernard , who was 18 years old when he was allegedly an accomplice to a murder of a young white couple @ @ @ @ @ @ @ either person and says he was a getaway driver during a robbery gone wrong .
But during his trial , his attorneys did not make opening statements .
And in the penalty stage , they called no witnesses .
Out of the 12 jurors , all but one was white .
Now five of the nine surviving jurors have changed their minds and say that Brandon should not be executed .
This is former juror Gary McClung speaking to CBS News reporter David Begnaud .
AMY GOODMAN : In addition to jurors , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ secure his death sentence is calling for Bernard ’ s execution to be halted .
She ’ s Angela Moore .
She wrote in The Indianapolis Star , “ Executing Brandon would be a terrible stain on the nation ’ s honor.
” This is Angela Moore speaking to CBS News .
AMY GOODMAN : Even a former federal prison warden has said that Brandon Bernard should be — his sentence should be commuted because of his good conduct during his 20 years on death row .
But on Tuesday , a federal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s execution .
As his options narrow , his aunt , Rahsha Williams , visited him at the federal prison in Terre Haute , Indiana , where he ’ s scheduled to be executed on Thursday .
AMY GOODMAN : For more , we go to Terre Haute , Indiana , where every federal prisoner on death row , when they are executed , is executed .
It ’ s there that Brandon Bernard is scheduled to become the ninth person put to death this year by the Trump administration .
We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She ’ s the criminal justice reporter for The Intercept .
Her latest piece is headlined “ Trump Prepares to Kill Brandon Bernard Even as Jurors Say His Life Should Be Spared.
” Welcome back to Democracy Now !
, Liliana .
You have just taken a long journey , driven to Terre Haute .
Tell us what we should understand about Brandon Bernard ’ s case .
LILIANA SEGURA : Thank you so much for having me , Amy .
And yeah , you ’ re right .
I did — I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve done this trip now multiple times .
I ’ ve been here since July , since these executions started .
And before I get to Brandon ’ s case specifically , I just wanted to say , you know , listening to your coverage of this vaccine and this moment as the world sort of is fighting to try to develop and distribute a vaccine that will save us from this pandemic , it really is a sort of sick irony that I ’ m here to cover a push to execute @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the executions themselves , but using lethal injection , which is a perversion of medicine .
It ’ s using drugs developed to heal in order to kill .
And so , I just wanted to say that , because your previous segments really have just brought that to the forefront , just how perverse this is .
You laid out a lot of the problems in Brandon Bernard ’ s case .
It ’ s very rare that you have five of the surviving jurors — there are nine surviving jurors , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that they would like to see clemency in this case .
It ’ s important to — you know , every juror has sort of different reasons individually , and some of them have come out in support of clemency because of new evidence that they hadn ’ t been aware of before , that would have changed their decision at the time of the trial .
But I sat down with Gary McClung , actually , last month , and he revealed to me that he always , from the moment that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voted in favor of a death sentence for both Christopher Vialva and Brandon Bernard , that he felt really uneasy with it .
He didn ’ t understand why the two men had been tried together .
It was clear to him that Brandon Bernard was not culpable .
And they were both extremely young .
Brandon Bernard was 18 years old .
So , I think that jurors , you know , they ’ re human beings .
And oftentimes when they vote for death , even at that time , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re not entirely sure about how right or just these sentences are .
So , Gary McClung also talked about some of the things that they didn ’ t know .
It ’ s really important to hear , Brandon Bernard ’ s death sentence hinges on evidence that has been called into significant question .
And there ’ s two very important pieces to that .
As you laid out , this was — five teenagers targeted a couple named Todd and Stacie Bagley , who were visiting Killeen , Texas , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , by all accounts extremely good people , randomly targeted by teenagers , by all accounts led by Christopher Vialva , who has since been executed .
They were carjacked , taken to a — they were taken to a remote location , forced into their trunk .
The teenagers drove around trying to get money from an ATM , and ultimately Christopher Vialva shot the couple in the head .
When Todd and Stacie Bagley were abducted , Brandon Bernard was not there .
He was inside a convenience store playing video @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had been involved in the crime and it was his car , one of the guns belonged to him , his role really was incredibly limited up until that point .
And then , what ended up the reason he got a death sentence , ultimately , is that he went to the scene and , according to the prosecutors , was the one who set this car on fire .
So , they burned — they were essentially burning the evidence .
The way that this was communicated to the jury , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Brandon Bernard was responsible for burning Stacie Bagley alive , because there was evidence that there had been — there was soot found in her airways .
And so they really emphasized — federal prosecutors really emphasized this point , that she had been alive — except for she had been shot in the head , she was no longer conscious , her death was a foregone conclusion .
And jurors were very confused on that point .
And there are jurors who have since said , “ If I had understood that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that she couldn ’ t suffer , I would have voted differently.
” The other piece of evidence is what Angela Moore was alluding to , I believe , which is that , you know , they brought on at trial a Bureau of Prison employee who talked about how gang members essentially pose an immense danger .
They can ’ t be securely confined in prison .
And his testimony made it sound like Brandon Bernard was going to pose a future danger .
In 2018 , Brandon ’ s legal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ federal prosecutors had access to documents that showed , pretty definitively , that Brandon Bernard was sort of the lowest in the sort of ranking of gang members , that he was at the very bottom , that this wasn ’ t — that Brandon Bernard was not one of the gang leaders , one of the sort of most culpable members of this crew .
That evidence was not disclosed to Brandon ’ s legal team .
And to this day , the courts have not allowed for a hearing for any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ GONZÁLEZ : And , Liliana , we only have about two minutes left , but I wanted to ask you about this whole issue of Brandon Bernard ’ s age .
Angela Moore makes the point in her op-ed piece that she did not really understand at the time , as a prosecutor , the reality that teenagers , teenage boys , don ’ t really develop their full mental capacities until they ’ re 20 or so , but yet he was tried as an adult .
Could you talk about this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an adult was while he was tried ?
AMY GOODMAN : And we only have a minute to go .
LILIANA SEGURA : Sure .
So , in 2005 , the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision called Roper v. Simmons .
And that decision basically said that teenagers , people under 18 , should not be — can not be sentenced to death , because the teenage brain has not yet developed enough to a level where they are as culpable as adults , in even the most horrific crimes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ continued , the neurological research , has shown that that development doesn ’ t stop at 18 .
It goes well into one ’ s twenties .
And so , this is sort of an artificial line that ’ s been drawn .
But the truth is that both Christopher Vialva and Brandon Bernard were incredibly young at the time and are very unlikely to have been sentenced to death if this crime were to take place today .
So , I hope that that answers your question .
You know , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The guys I ’ m in touch with on federal death row describe him in really positive terms , and also described Christopher Vialva that way .
You know , in their opinion , neither of them , and especially Brandon Bernard should not die for this crime that he committed , this mistake that he made when he was 18 .
AMY GOODMAN : Well , Liliana Segura , we want to thank you for being with us .
We ’ re going to link to your piece at The Intercept , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , “ Trump Prepares to Kill Brandon Bernard Even as Jurors Say His Life Should Be Spared.
” One of four African American men and a woman who are slated to die in the lame-duck period of President Trump , the first time federal executions performed at this time in 130 years .
That does it for our show .
A belated happy 92nd birthday to Noam Chomsky .
I ’ m Amy Goodman , with Juan González .
Be safe .
Wear a mask .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
As COVID-19 rips across the United States, federal officials now admit eight members of a 40-person team who traveled from around the country to carry out the federal execution of Orlando Hall last month have contracted the virus, as well as his spiritual adviser. Hall was one of eight people President Trump has sent to their death so far this year, after breaking a 17-year hiatus on the federal death penalty. And in the final weeks of his administration, he plans to execute five more people, including tomorrow — International Human Rights Day. These are the first executions during a president’s lame-duck period in over 130 years, since Grover Cleveland executed three people of color.
On Thursday, the federal government plans to kill a 40-year-old Black man named Brandon Bernard, who was 18 years old when he was allegedly an accomplice to a murder of a young white couple in Texas. Bernard did not kill either person and says he was a getaway driver during a robbery gone wrong. But during his trial, his attorneys did not make opening statements. And in the penalty stage, they called no witnesses.
Out of the 12 jurors, all but one was white. Now five of the nine surviving jurors have changed their minds and say that Brandon should not be executed. This is former juror Gary McClung speaking to CBS News reporter David Begnaud.
DAVID BEGNAUD: Why didn’t you vote against death penalty then?
GARY McCLUNG: I’ve just — I’ve always struggled, I guess, especially at that time in my life, with standing on my convictions. And I regret that now. The death penalty is far too harsh for his level of involvement in this crime.
AMY GOODMAN: In addition to jurors, the former assistant U.S. attorney who helped secure his death sentence is calling for Bernard’s execution to be halted. She’s Angela Moore. She wrote in The Indianapolis Star, “Executing Brandon would be a terrible stain on the nation’s honor.” This is Angela Moore speaking to CBS News.
ANGELA MOORE: For legal reasons, aside from my own personal beliefs, is the evidence and what we have found out since. Mr. Bernard did not shoot and kill the victims in this case. He was not the person who planned this robbery gone wrong.
DAVID BEGNAUD: Why didn’t you speak up then?
ANGELA MOORE: First of all, it wouldn’t have mattered. The federal government, when you’re a prosecutor, at least in our district, you are not allowed to concede error.
AMY GOODMAN: Even a former federal prison warden has said that Brandon Bernard should be — his sentence should be commuted because of his good conduct during his 20 years on death row. But on Tuesday, a federal judge denied the request to halt Bernard’s execution. As his options narrow, his aunt, Rahsha Williams, visited him at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he’s scheduled to be executed on Thursday.
RAHSHA WILLIAMS: My heart is broken over the thought of my nephew being executed. … I went there ready to encourage him and be uplifting to him. And it was just the opposite: He uplifted us. And he’s at peace, and he has accepted what has happened, but he is hopeful.
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we go to Terre Haute, Indiana, where every federal prisoner on death row, when they are executed, is executed. It’s there that Brandon Bernard is scheduled to become the ninth person put to death this year by the Trump administration.
We’re joined by Liliana Segura. She’s the criminal justice reporter for The Intercept. Her latest piece is headlined “Trump Prepares to Kill Brandon Bernard Even as Jurors Say His Life Should Be Spared.”
Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Liliana. You have just taken a long journey, driven to Terre Haute. Tell us what we should understand about Brandon Bernard’s case.
LILIANA SEGURA: Thank you so much for having me, Amy. And yeah, you’re right. I did — I arrived here yesterday. And I’ve done this trip now multiple times. I’ve been here since July, since these executions started.
And before I get to Brandon’s case specifically, I just wanted to say, you know, listening to your coverage of this vaccine and this moment as the world sort of is fighting to try to develop and distribute a vaccine that will save us from this pandemic, it really is a sort of sick irony that I’m here to cover a push to execute so many people, and not only the executions themselves, but using lethal injection, which is a perversion of medicine. It’s using drugs developed to heal in order to kill. And so, I just wanted to say that, because your previous segments really have just brought that to the forefront, just how perverse this is.
You laid out a lot of the problems in Brandon Bernard’s case. It’s very rare that you have five of the surviving jurors — there are nine surviving jurors, five of them speaking up, saying that they would like to see clemency in this case. It’s important to — you know, every juror has sort of different reasons individually, and some of them have come out in support of clemency because of new evidence that they hadn’t been aware of before, that would have changed their decision at the time of the trial.
But I sat down with Gary McClung, actually, last month, and he revealed to me that he always, from the moment that trial happened and from the moment he voted in favor of a death sentence for both Christopher Vialva and Brandon Bernard, that he felt really uneasy with it. He didn’t understand why the two men had been tried together. It was clear to him that Brandon Bernard was not culpable. And they were both extremely young. Brandon Bernard was 18 years old. So, I think that jurors, you know, they’re human beings. And oftentimes when they vote for death, even at that time, it’s not entirely — they’re not entirely sure about how right or just these sentences are.
So, Gary McClung also talked about some of the things that they didn’t know. It’s really important to hear, Brandon Bernard’s death sentence hinges on evidence that has been called into significant question. And there’s two very important pieces to that. As you laid out, this was — five teenagers targeted a couple named Todd and Stacie Bagley, who were visiting Killeen, Texas, from Iowa. They were youth ministers, by all accounts extremely good people, randomly targeted by teenagers, by all accounts led by Christopher Vialva, who has since been executed. They were carjacked, taken to a — they were taken to a remote location, forced into their trunk. The teenagers drove around trying to get money from an ATM, and ultimately Christopher Vialva shot the couple in the head.
When Todd and Stacie Bagley were abducted, Brandon Bernard was not there. He was inside a convenience store playing video games, actually. And although he had been involved in the crime and it was his car, one of the guns belonged to him, his role really was incredibly limited up until that point. And then, what ended up the reason he got a death sentence, ultimately, is that he went to the scene and, according to the prosecutors, was the one who set this car on fire. So, they burned — they were essentially burning the evidence. The way that this was communicated to the jury, jurors essentially were led to believe that Brandon Bernard was responsible for burning Stacie Bagley alive, because there was evidence that there had been — there was soot found in her airways. And so they really emphasized — federal prosecutors really emphasized this point, that she had been alive — except for she had been shot in the head, she was no longer conscious, her death was a foregone conclusion. And jurors were very confused on that point. And there are jurors who have since said, “If I had understood that she wasn’t going to survive, that she couldn’t suffer, I would have voted differently.”
The other piece of evidence is what Angela Moore was alluding to, I believe, which is that, you know, they brought on at trial a Bureau of Prison employee who talked about how gang members essentially pose an immense danger. They can’t be securely confined in prison. And his testimony made it sound like Brandon Bernard was going to pose a future danger. In 2018, Brandon’s legal team discovered that, in fact, federal prosecutors had access to documents that showed, pretty definitively, that Brandon Bernard was sort of the lowest in the sort of ranking of gang members, that he was at the very bottom, that this wasn’t — that Brandon Bernard was not one of the gang leaders, one of the sort of most culpable members of this crew. That evidence was not disclosed to Brandon’s legal team. And to this day, the courts have not allowed for a hearing for any litigation of this particular issue.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Liliana, we only have about two minutes left, but I wanted to ask you about this whole issue of Brandon Bernard’s age. Angela Moore makes the point in her op-ed piece that she did not really understand at the time, as a prosecutor, the reality that teenagers, teenage boys, don’t really develop their full mental capacities until they’re 20 or so, but yet he was tried as an adult. Could you talk about this whole issue of what his capacity as an adult was while he was tried?
AMY GOODMAN: And we only have a minute to go.
LILIANA SEGURA: Sure. So, in 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision called Roper v. Simmons. And that decision basically said that teenagers, people under 18, should not be — cannot be sentenced to death, because the teenage brain has not yet developed enough to a level where they are as culpable as adults, in even the most horrific crimes. And that science, that has continued, the neurological research, has shown that that development doesn’t stop at 18. It goes well into one’s twenties. And so, this is sort of an artificial line that’s been drawn. But the truth is that both Christopher Vialva and Brandon Bernard were incredibly young at the time and are very unlikely to have been sentenced to death if this crime were to take place today.
So, I hope that that answers your question. You know, he has grown up on death row. The guys I’m in touch with on federal death row describe him in really positive terms, and also described Christopher Vialva that way. You know, in their opinion, neither of them, and especially Brandon Bernard should not die for this crime that he committed, this mistake that he made when he was 18.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Liliana Segura, we want to thank you for being with us. We’re going to link to your piece at The Intercept, criminal justice reporter there, the piece, “Trump Prepares to Kill Brandon Bernard Even as Jurors Say His Life Should Be Spared.” One of four African American men and a woman who are slated to die in the lame-duck period of President Trump, the first time federal executions performed at this time in 130 years.
That does it for our show. A belated happy 92nd birthday to Noam Chomsky. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Be safe. Wear a mask.