democracynow--2020-07-21--Trump to Send Federal Troops to Protests in Chicago & Seattle Amid Violent Crackdown by Local Police

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 .
Mayors in six cities are now calling for the immediate removal of President Trump ’ s rapid deployment units .
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler made the demand in letters addressed to leading members of Congress , Attorney General William Barr and Homeland Security ’ s acting Secretary Chad Wolf .
He was joined by Washington , D.C. , Mayor Muriel Bowser , Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ City Mayor Quinton Lucas and Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan .
President Trump is expected to send federal agents to Chicago as early as this week to confront protesters .
This is Trump speaking Monday .
AMY GOODMAN : And this is Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot responding to Trump in an interview on Joy Reid ’ s new show on MSNBC .
AMY GOODMAN : “ It ’ s just not going to happen , ” she says .
For more , we ’ re joined by two guests in cities where federal troops @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve already been deployed in Portland .
In Chicago , Jitu Brown is with us , national director of the Journey for Justice Alliance and a racial equity fellow with the Atlantic Institute ; and in Seattle , Washingon , Jesse Hagopian , high school teacher of ethnic studies , co-editor of Teaching for Black Lives and editor of Rethinking Schools magazine , serving on the national steering committee of Black Lives Matter at School .
We are going to talk about Trump ’ s push for schools to reopen at all costs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jitu Brown , you are a longtime civil rights , human rights leader in Chicago .
As you hear Lori Lightfoot says we ’ re not allowing tyranny to come to this city , your response to what President Trump is saying he will do ?
JITU BROWN : Well , first of all , thank you for having me on , Amy .
And saying I ’ m a longtime organizer is just saying I ’ m old .
So , that ’ s OK .
I can deal with that .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lightfoot ’ s statements are the right statements , but it ’ s too late , you know , when you look at Chicago during the COVID — when the COVID outbreak first exploded , and we saw in cities where the Black death toll was way above that of our white counterparts .
For example , in Chicago , we ’ re only 30 % of the population , but we were 70 % of the deaths .
We saw checkpoints in places like Newark , New Jersey , where people had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ neighborhoods .
We saw , as rebellion — after the murder of George Floyd and rebellions began to ensue around the country , I know in my neighborhood it was martial law .
And , you know , my humble opinion is that it still is .
So , we ’ re looking at — regardless of the disaster or the moment , we are looking at the infringement on our rights that is just escalating , and they ’ re going further and further .
So , you know , Donald Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ something that we should definitely be worried about , but we should not act as if our rights have not been infringed upon already , that , I mean , if you really want to talk about it , you can go back to the crime bill .
And I remember when , as a young organizer , I saw Chicago police remove two busloads full of young people from the Ida B .
Wells housing projects and take them to jail .
And that opened the door for the mass incarceration of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
And so , I think it ’ s really important that we keep this in context .
The last thing I ’ ll say is , along with the federal agents , the risk of federal agents in unmarked vehicles coming into our city , and what that means for people that are protesting , what that means for organizations , I think it ’ s also important to note that police have taken the gloves off .
Just this past week in Chicago , a young organizer who I worked with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I met her , she was fighting to stop the closure of all the high schools in her neighborhood .
She was protesting at an event where they were trying to protest a Christopher Columbus statue , and a Chicago police officer , as she was vigorously protesting , ran up on this 18-year-old girl and smashed her in the mouth with his baton and knocked her teeth out .
We just had a press conference supporting Miracle yesterday .
So , the brutality is not new .
The infringement on our rights @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is Donald Trump or the agent of change or the agent of this type of infringement on our rights are Democrats , our rights are already being infringed upon .
AMY GOODMAN : Jesse Hagopian , before we go to the issue of forced school openings , I ’ m wondering if you can address — I mean , the activism in Seattle has been massive , from the CHAZ and the CHOP , the autonomous zones that were set up in the Capitol Hill neighborhood , to what President Trump is threatening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , has joined other mayors , five other mayors , in writing a letter demanding federal agents not come to Seattle .
JESSE HAGOPIAN : Yes .
Thanks for having me on the show again , Amy .
I really appreciate it .
And it truly is chilling to think that Trump is getting ready to send federal troops , unmarked , to come to my city and snatch people and disappear them from our streets .
And I think that as a history teacher , I know that this type of behavior @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of dictatorial and fascist regimes throughout history .
And it ’ s also , though , been the mark for far too many of our own people here in the United States .
I think we ’ re getting to see now on national television what undocumented immigrants have had to go through for years , and , frankly , Black and Brown families who have had their loved ones snatched and put behind bars in this mass incarceration regime for far too long .
But I will say that our Mayor Jenny @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just that , because for all her rhetoric about how she doesn ’ t need federal interference , in fact , she has gone along with a lot of the policies that Trump would like .
Here in Seattle , a mass of protesters helped to drive the police out of the East Precinct after they indiscriminately tear-gassed and brutalized protesters in the wake of George Floyd ’ s horrific murder .
And Trump called the protesters terrorists and said he was going to send in troops here to deal with the situation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And while she said , “ We don ’ t need your federal interference , ” she in fact did clear out the protesters with same brutal tactics .
And so that ’ s why I ’ m supporting Decriminalize Seattle and King County Equity Now ’ s demands that we defund the police by 50 % , that we use that money for health and safety , and that we free all the protesters .

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. Mayors in six cities are now calling for the immediate removal of President Trump’s rapid deployment units. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler made the demand in letters addressed to leading members of Congress, Attorney General William Barr and Homeland Security’s acting Secretary Chad Wolf. He was joined by Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan. President Trump is expected to send federal agents to Chicago as early as this week to confront protesters. This is Trump speaking Monday.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We’re not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia, Detroit and Baltimore and all of these — Oakland is a mess. We’re not going to let this happen in our country. All run by liberal Democrats.
AMY GOODMAN: And this is Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot responding to Trump in an interview on Joy Reid’s new show on MSNBC.
MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT: We still have a Constitution. We still have laws on the book. And I’m going to use those to deploy against them. We’re not going to have tyranny in the city of Chicago. It’s just not going to happen.
AMY GOODMAN: “It’s just not going to happen,” she says.
For more, we’re joined by two guests in cities where federal troops could be sent, after they’ve already been deployed in Portland. In Chicago, Jitu Brown is with us, national director of the Journey for Justice Alliance and a racial equity fellow with the Atlantic Institute; and in Seattle, Washingon, Jesse Hagopian, high school teacher of ethnic studies, co-editor of Teaching for Black Lives and editor of Rethinking Schools magazine, serving on the national steering committee of Black Lives Matter at School.
We are going to talk about Trump’s push for schools to reopen at all costs in a minute. But first, Jitu Brown, you are a longtime civil rights, human rights leader in Chicago. As you hear Lori Lightfoot says we’re not allowing tyranny to come to this city, your response to what President Trump is saying he will do?
JITU BROWN: Well, first of all, thank you for having me on, Amy. And saying I’m a longtime organizer is just saying I’m old. So, that’s OK. I can deal with that.
But I would just say that Mayor Lightfoot’s statements are the right statements, but it’s too late, you know, when you look at Chicago during the COVID — when the COVID outbreak first exploded, and we saw in cities where the Black death toll was way above that of our white counterparts. For example, in Chicago, we’re only 30% of the population, but we were 70% of the deaths. We saw checkpoints in places like Newark, New Jersey, where people had to show identification to get into different neighborhoods. We saw, as rebellion — after the murder of George Floyd and rebellions began to ensue around the country, I know in my neighborhood it was martial law. And, you know, my humble opinion is that it still is.
So, we’re looking at — regardless of the disaster or the moment, we are looking at the infringement on our rights that is just escalating, and they’re going further and further. So, you know, Donald Trump having federal agents come into Chicago is something that we should definitely be worried about, but we should not act as if our rights have not been infringed upon already, that, I mean, if you really want to talk about it, you can go back to the crime bill. And I remember when, as a young organizer, I saw Chicago police remove two busloads full of young people from the Ida B. Wells housing projects and take them to jail. And that opened the door for the mass incarceration of young Black and Brown men and women. And so, I think it’s really important that we keep this in context.
The last thing I’ll say is, along with the federal agents, the risk of federal agents in unmarked vehicles coming into our city, and what that means for people that are protesting, what that means for organizations, I think it’s also important to note that police have taken the gloves off. Just this past week in Chicago, a young organizer who I worked with, Miracle Boyd, who — when I met her, she was fighting to stop the closure of all the high schools in her neighborhood. She was protesting at an event where they were trying to protest a Christopher Columbus statue, and a Chicago police officer, as she was vigorously protesting, ran up on this 18-year-old girl and smashed her in the mouth with his baton and knocked her teeth out. We just had a press conference supporting Miracle yesterday. So, the brutality is not new. The infringement on our rights is not new. Whether the agent is Donald Trump or the agent of change or the agent of this type of infringement on our rights are Democrats, our rights are already being infringed upon.
AMY GOODMAN: Jesse Hagopian, before we go to the issue of forced school openings, I’m wondering if you can address — I mean, the activism in Seattle has been massive, from the CHAZ and the CHOP, the autonomous zones that were set up in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, to what President Trump is threatening now. The Seattle mayor, Durkan, has joined other mayors, five other mayors, in writing a letter demanding federal agents not come to Seattle.
JESSE HAGOPIAN: Yes. Thanks for having me on the show again, Amy. I really appreciate it.
And it truly is chilling to think that Trump is getting ready to send federal troops, unmarked, to come to my city and snatch people and disappear them from our streets. And I think that as a history teacher, I know that this type of behavior of disappearing protesters is really the mark of dictatorial and fascist regimes throughout history. And it’s also, though, been the mark for far too many of our own people here in the United States. I think we’re getting to see now on national television what undocumented immigrants have had to go through for years, and, frankly, Black and Brown families who have had their loved ones snatched and put behind bars in this mass incarceration regime for far too long.
But I will say that our Mayor Jenny Durkan’s posturing against Trump is just that, because for all her rhetoric about how she doesn’t need federal interference, in fact, she has gone along with a lot of the policies that Trump would like. Here in Seattle, a mass of protesters helped to drive the police out of the East Precinct after they indiscriminately tear-gassed and brutalized protesters in the wake of George Floyd’s horrific murder. And Trump called the protesters terrorists and said he was going to send in troops here to deal with the situation if Jenny Durkan wouldn’t. And while she said, “We don’t need your federal interference,” she in fact did clear out the protesters with same brutal tactics. And so that’s why I’m supporting Decriminalize Seattle and King County Equity Now’s demands that we defund the police by 50%, that we use that money for health and safety, and that we free all the protesters.


democracynow--2020-07-21--"Camouflaged Goon Squads": Outrage, Legal Challenges in Portland as Federal Agents Snatch Protesters

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now !
, democracynow.org , The Quarantine Report .
I ’ m Amy Goodman , as we turn to the legal battle to protect the protesters and remove federal agents from Portland ’ s streets .
On Friday , Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security , U.S .
Marshals Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection , calling the behavior of federal agents unlawful .
The U.S. attorney for the District @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into unidentified federal officers who have been snatching protesters off the streets into unmarked vans and detaining them .
Oregon Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden are also demanding a probe and for federal forces to be removed from the streets .
And , of course , the protesters are demanding that these federal troops be removed from the streets .
For more , we go to Portland , where we ’ re joined by Juan Chavez , the project director and attorney at the Oregon Justice Resource Center .
He recently partnered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stop Portland police from using tear gas and munitions on protesters .
Welcome to Democracy Now !
, Juan .
You ’ ve been in the streets .
AMY GOODMAN : You ’ ve been watching what ’ s happening .
For people to understand what ’ s taking place , what do the federal agents look like ?
Where are they from ?
Can you identify whether they ’ re Bureau of Prisons , Customs and Border Protection ?
JUAN CHAVEZ : We only know as much as we ’ ve been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
As far as we know , our understanding is that they are U.S. marshals , as well as agents from Border Patrol .
So , they come from an agreement with the Department of Justice — I think Bill Barr mentioned this during the D.C. protests , as well — that he ’ s bringing in basically all federal officers into protest situations to enforce what would be state law in the normal circumstances here in Portland , but they ’ re extending the breadth of types of federal enforcement they can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Can you explain what they ’ re doing in the streets ?
I mean , describe what some of these — these are called what ?
Snatch teams ?
— what some of them are doing , how they go up to someone and take them , one person saying they were running away because they didn ’ t know : Are these kidnappers ?
JUAN CHAVEZ : Right .
I mean , you have these camouflaged goon squads coming out of unmarked vans , that reporting has shown were rented from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the middle of the night next to people who are in and around downtown , who then get corralled into these vehicles , not told where or who ’ s picking them up .
And at least one person talked about having their hat pulled over their head and driven around and , by best of our accounts , were taken to the federal courthouse here in Portland and interrogated there , before being let go .
AMY GOODMAN : So , they don ’ t have to identify themselves ?
There @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
JUAN CHAVEZ : No .
So , various state laws would apply to state actors regarding them having to identify themselves or tell the person who they ’ re detaining who they are .
There are some Oregon state laws that discuss federal officers , if they are enforcing Oregon law , have to identify themselves and identify the purpose that they ’ re detaining someone .
But so far as we ’ ve seen so far , nobody — none of these camouflaged troopers have identified themselves to anybody who they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s a lot of open questions .
AMY GOODMAN : So , can you talk about the bill that Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is introducing this week , that would demand that , among other things , that these officers identify themselves ?
She ’ s introducing it with Eleanor Holmes Norton , requiring the officers display their identifying information while on duty .
The legislation also calls for further oversight of the Justice Department , requiring its inspector general to perform routine audits to guarantee compliance with the legislation .
JUAN CHAVEZ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know the details of the congresswomen ’ s legislation , but I can say that from local experience , these kind of identification rules last until they don ’ t .
In fact , not too — about a month ago , the chief of the Portland police allowed her officers to not display their name badges when they ’ re out patrolling protests .
Instead , they have these masking tapes across their chest with their internal ID number written in very faint ink .
And then , when people are seeking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ requests , they ’ re being told , “ No , you can ’ t use those ID numbers .
You need to have an actual name.
” I mean , setting aside the fact that it ’ s difficult to read these numbers , and they ’ re often pretty long strings — sometimes I forget my PIN number .
I mean , I don ’ t think I ’ d be able to quickly recall an eight-string-digit number while running away from tear gas and cops .
So , if this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ things like that , then that sounds like a positive development .
JUAN CHAVEZ : Certainly .
So , I mean , these tactics aren ’ t new in terms of American imperialism .
This has been our foreign policy for some time .
If foreign soldiers of our own were detaining people in Pakistan or Somalia or in South America , these would be the similar tactics they would have used .
So that ’ s , hence , the reference to Guantánamo Bay .
And then , of course , stop-and-frisk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to thwart the constitutional standard by which officers can engage with people .
And so , the combination of those two things , I don ’ t think we ’ ve seen in the United States , or at least I don ’ t know what the analog would be .
The closest , I suppose , would be actually what our immigrant communities have gone through for — you know , even before Trump , in dealing with ICE .
The ICE officers are known for showing up having faulty warrants and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ immigrants to come into their detention .
We ’ ve seen that in Oregon , in fact .
AMY GOODMAN : Interestingly , when you talk about internationally what happens , so often it ’ s U.S.-trained .
I mean , you look at Central America , for example , Latin American soldiers , in the past , who have been moving into people ’ s home and arresting them .
The shock for Americans in the United States is to see it on U.S. soil , in some cases .
I mean @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feeling of occupation .
And now what ’ s interesting is the establishment , the governors , the senators , the mayors , the state attorneys general are saying this can ’ t happen on U.S. soil , when it ’ s hitting the mainstream population .
JUAN CHAVEZ : Absolutely .
And , you know , I ’ d say that a lot of these local officials , state , federal , local , have been complicit with some form of occupation for a long time .
Policing is just another form @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So , these tactics have been built up for a very long time .
And so long as we continue to fuel policing , fuel prisons as a solution for public safety , we ’ re going to continue to see this downward slope of our rights being infringed .
AMY GOODMAN : Well , we ’ re going to continue to follow all that ’ s happening in Portland , because it ’ s going also to expand , according to President Trump ’ s promises , to other cities .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two of those cities .
We ’ re going to go to Chicago and Seattle .
Juan Chavez is the project director and attorney at the Oregon Justice Resource Center , partnered with other attorneys to introduce litigation to stop local police from using tear gas and munitions on protesters .
When we come back , we ’ ll speak with two education activists about Trump ’ s push to reopen the schools during the pandemic .
They are in cities where federal troops may go next : Chicago and Seattle .
Stay @ @ @

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman, as we turn to the legal battle to protect the protesters and remove federal agents from Portland’s streets. On Friday, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, calling the behavior of federal agents unlawful. The U.S. attorney for the District of Oregon also called for an investigation into unidentified federal officers who have been snatching protesters off the streets into unmarked vans and detaining them. Oregon Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden are also demanding a probe and for federal forces to be removed from the streets. And, of course, the protesters are demanding that these federal troops be removed from the streets.
For more, we go to Portland, where we’re joined by Juan Chavez, the project director and attorney at the Oregon Justice Resource Center. He recently partnered with other attorneys to introduce litigation to stop Portland police from using tear gas and munitions on protesters.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Juan. You’ve been in the streets.
JUAN CHAVEZ: Good morning.
AMY GOODMAN: You’ve been watching what’s happening. For people to understand what’s taking place, what do the federal agents look like? Where are they from? Can you identify whether they’re Bureau of Prisons, Customs and Border Protection?
JUAN CHAVEZ: We only know as much as we’ve been told by the Department of Homeland Security. As far as we know, our understanding is that they are U.S. marshals, as well as agents from Border Patrol. So, they come from an agreement with the Department of Justice — I think Bill Barr mentioned this during the D.C. protests, as well — that he’s bringing in basically all federal officers into protest situations to enforce what would be state law in the normal circumstances here in Portland, but they’re extending the breadth of types of federal enforcement they can do in downtown Portland.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain what they’re doing in the streets? I mean, describe what some of these — these are called what? Snatch teams? — what some of them are doing, how they go up to someone and take them, one person saying they were running away because they didn’t know: Are these kidnappers?
JUAN CHAVEZ: Right. I mean, you have these camouflaged goon squads coming out of unmarked vans, that reporting has shown were rented from Enterprise Rent-A-Cars. And they just appear in the middle of the night next to people who are in and around downtown, who then get corralled into these vehicles, not told where or who’s picking them up. And at least one person talked about having their hat pulled over their head and driven around and, by best of our accounts, were taken to the federal courthouse here in Portland and interrogated there, before being let go.
AMY GOODMAN: So, they don’t have to identify themselves? There is no marking on their camouflage uniforms?
JUAN CHAVEZ: No. So, various state laws would apply to state actors regarding them having to identify themselves or tell the person who they’re detaining who they are. There are some Oregon state laws that discuss federal officers, if they are enforcing Oregon law, have to identify themselves and identify the purpose that they’re detaining someone. But so far as we’ve seen so far, nobody — none of these camouflaged troopers have identified themselves to anybody who they’re detaining. So, there’s a lot of open questions.
AMY GOODMAN: So, can you talk about the bill that Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is introducing this week, that would demand that, among other things, that these officers identify themselves? She’s introducing it with Eleanor Holmes Norton, requiring the officers display their identifying information while on duty. The legislation also calls for further oversight of the Justice Department, requiring its inspector general to perform routine audits to guarantee compliance with the legislation.
JUAN CHAVEZ: Well, I don’t know the details of the congresswomen’s legislation, but I can say that from local experience, these kind of identification rules last until they don’t. In fact, not too — about a month ago, the chief of the Portland police allowed her officers to not display their name badges when they’re out patrolling protests. Instead, they have these masking tapes across their chest with their internal ID number written in very faint ink. And then, when people are seeking to identify these officers through public records requests, they’re being told, “No, you can’t use those ID numbers. You need to have an actual name.” I mean, setting aside the fact that it’s difficult to read these numbers, and they’re often pretty long strings — sometimes I forget my PIN number. I mean, I don’t think I’d be able to quickly recall an eight-string-digit number while running away from tear gas and cops. So, if this bill is robust enough to protect against things like that, then that sounds like a positive development.
AMY GOODMAN: Juan Chavez, you told Oregon Public Broadcasting, “It’s like stop-and-frisk meets Guantánamo Bay.” Explain.
JUAN CHAVEZ: Certainly. So, I mean, these tactics aren’t new in terms of American imperialism. This has been our foreign policy for some time. If foreign soldiers of our own were detaining people in Pakistan or Somalia or in South America, these would be the similar tactics they would have used. So that’s, hence, the reference to Guantánamo Bay. And then, of course, stop-and-frisk was a vast, racist policy used to thwart the constitutional standard by which officers can engage with people.
And so, the combination of those two things, I don’t think we’ve seen in the United States, or at least I don’t know what the analog would be. The closest, I suppose, would be actually what our immigrant communities have gone through for — you know, even before Trump, in dealing with ICE. The ICE officers are known for showing up having faulty warrants and trying to convince people they think are immigrants to come into their detention. We’ve seen that in Oregon, in fact.
AMY GOODMAN: Interestingly, when you talk about internationally what happens, so often it’s U.S.-trained. I mean, you look at Central America, for example, Latin American soldiers, in the past, who have been moving into people’s home and arresting them. The shock for Americans in the United States is to see it on U.S. soil, in some cases. I mean, many communities actually do experience this feeling of occupation. And now what’s interesting is the establishment, the governors, the senators, the mayors, the state attorneys general are saying this can’t happen on U.S. soil, when it’s hitting the mainstream population.
JUAN CHAVEZ: Absolutely. And, you know, I’d say that a lot of these local officials, state, federal, local, have been complicit with some form of occupation for a long time. Policing is just another form of counterinsurgency for so many communities. So, these tactics have been built up for a very long time. And so long as we continue to fuel policing, fuel prisons as a solution for public safety, we’re going to continue to see this downward slope of our rights being infringed.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we’re going to continue to follow all that’s happening in Portland, because it’s going also to expand, according to President Trump’s promises, to other cities. And we’re going to go to two of those cities. We’re going to go to Chicago and Seattle. Juan Chavez is the project director and attorney at the Oregon Justice Resource Center, partnered with other attorneys to introduce litigation to stop local police from using tear gas and munitions on protesters.
When we come back, we’ll speak with two education activists about Trump’s push to reopen the schools during the pandemic. They are in cities where federal troops may go next: Chicago and Seattle. Stay with us.


democracynow--2020-07-21--Portland Protests Grow Despite Violent Crackdown from Militarized Federal Agents & Local Police

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : We begin today ’ s show in Portland , Oregon , where militarized federal officers continued their nightly attacks on antiracist protesters Monday , shooting gas and projectiles at demonstrators outside Portland ’ s courthouse , in a scene that ’ s become all too familiar in recent weeks : camouflaged U.S. agents deployed by the Department of Homeland Security waging a campaign of violence against largely peaceful demonstrations in Oregon .
The harrowing scene in Portland has drawn increased outrage in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Merkley and Ron Wyden demanding federal forces be removed from the streets , and an investigation into reports that unidentified federal officers have snatched protesters off the streets into unmarked vans and detained them .
On Saturday , Navy veteran Christopher David , who went to the site of the protests to question the officers about their use of violence , was hospitalized with his right hand broken in two places after the officers beat and pepper-sprayed him .
On Monday , Trump praised the use of unmarked cars and unidentified officers against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ law enforcement agents to more U.S. cities .
AMY GOODMAN : But protesters in Portland say they won ’ t be deterred .
This weekend , a group of mothers joined , formed what they called a “ wall of moms ” outside the federal courthouse to shield protesters .
This is one of the mothers .
AMY GOODMAN : For more , we go to Portland , Oregon , where we ’ re joined by Lilith Sinclair , an Afro-Indigenous organizer , along with an ASL interpreter .
We welcome you both @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you can start off by describing these last 50 days , why you ’ re out in the streets protesting , and what has been the response by not only the state but these federal officers that have not been — unclear who they are ?
LILITH SINCLAIR : Thank you so much , Amy , I want to say first , for having us here and for helping us to provide accessibility to this interview , which is something that we ’ ve been really focusing on in Portland for the last @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and staring two years ago .
It ’ s hard to encompass the depth of what we ’ ve experienced in the streets here in Portland .
This movement originally started with a single Black mom coming out to the streets and leading the call for an occupation here in Portland on the federal court steps to demand change .
And what that has swelled into is a movement , thousands and thousands strong , that has really proven to unite so many of our people here .
What we ’ ve seen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our protesters .
But something that is important for us to understand is that here in Portland we ’ ve been facing severe police brutality , even from our local police force , for years , years , years and decades .
The movement that we have right now , what is happening in response to , as you mentioned , an international , really , uprising against police brutality , racism and , I would say , even more than that , against oppressive structures , because this isn ’ t just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so , what we ’ ve been experiencing is a solid escalation .
It started out with , as per usual , our local Portland Police Bureau engaging in a lot of not only intimidation tactics , but violent brutality against our protesters .
We ’ ve had officers that have been deploying flashbangs after flashbangs after flashbangs , while simultaneously deploying CS gas and other munitions , tear gas and all of these different types of pepper spray bullets and new things that we actually haven ’ t even seen , once @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But this has been a long-term engagement with a militarized police force .
And it ’ s important for us to recognize that the federal occupation has escalated it , especially because of the rhetoric that we ’ re seeing from those who hold office .
But what we ’ re noticing is that the violence , as per usual , is continuing to rise .
We ’ re seeing these disappearances .
I think it ’ s important to note that these unmarked cars that are going around in the street are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of men in uniforms , no badges , no IDs .
They refuse to even answer the question of “ Are you or are you not law enforcement ?
” And it ’ s left the people of Portland not only worried about their safety , but , even more so , justified in the fight that we ’ re engaged in — a recognition that especially during an international global health pandemic , as you talked about these numbers rising and the continued push of normalcy in the midst of all of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but also Democrats , too , who are continuing to hold this pressure to reopen , like here in Oregon , where we created the new reopening and then saw people now , weeks later , experiencing higher rates in cases , being once again laid off from their jobs , being once again failed by the unemployment system .
And what ’ s happening in Portland is what ’ s happening all across the country .
The people have a moment to understand and truly see the failures of this capitalist , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nothing but time on their hands .
And so , what we understand is that the movement continuing to go forward is only swelling .
It ’ s why we see moms coming out to line up a wall .
That was followed up last night with the dad bloc , a lot of amazing , amazing folks that came downtown last night after watching people get brutalized on a nightly basis .
We are spending our nights in terror .
We can ’ t sleep on one side of the city or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ due to the tear gas across the entire city .
It ’ s affecting our houseless communities .
It ’ s affecting our neighborhoods .
And it ’ s gone unaddressed by both our state officials and also our local officials here in Portland , with nothing but well-meaning words , which is only further causing a very rightful sense of frustration , anger and a need for justice from the people here .
It ’ s why we see these things continuing to grow .
AMY GOODMAN : So , Lilith Sinclair @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re referring to , the elected officials ?
You have everyone from the state attorney general to the two senators , the governor .
This is Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler criticizing Trump for deploying federal troops on the streets of Portland .
AMY GOODMAN : That ’ s Portland mayor and police chief [ sic ] Ted Wheeler .
That might surprise some people that he occupies both positions .
But , Lilith , can you talk more about what the elected officials are saying , your agreement with them in this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in others ?
The significance of them leading this charge , which now mayors are picking up all over the country , saying to Trump , “ Do not send federal officers here ” ?
LILITH SINCLAIR : Yeah .
So , I do want to make a slight correction , just because I heard you say “ chief.
” And Mayor Ted Wheeler is our police commissioner and also our mayor .
So , I ’ d like to break down a couple of things , actually .
Thank you so much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one of the most important things to understand is that our mayor here in Portland , Ted Wheeler , has one of the best PR teams — and simultaneously the worst PR teams — because as much as we can play the words that were just shared here on the broadcast today , it ’ s important to understand that , for instance , something that made national headlines this month was when federal officers fired at a protester holding a speaker over his head , clearly unarmed .
That man is — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bit hard to handle because it made international news for our federal military officers to shoot an unarmed protester in the head and cause severe damage and hospitalization in that way .
However , it ’ s important to note that a year ago , during protesting against white supremacy , which is really , really , really , really , really present here in Portland , as a city within a state that was founded on a history of white supremacy and genocide — and what we know to be true is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we were protesting white supremacy , our local Portland Police Bureau officers were firing flashbang grenades at point-blank range .
They actually hit a protester , wearing a very thick helmet , directly in the back of the head with a grenade .
It concaved both their helmet and also resulted in very severe skull fractures .
If they weren ’ t wearing a helmet , there ’ s almost no doubt that they wouldn ’ t be alive with us today .
And something that is important for us to understand is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ charge to anything except for his reelection campaign .
What we know is that we ’ ve been fighting for steps forward in regards to change around policing for years , in regards to the union police contract that we ’ ve been discussing here in Portland , that our mayor has been dragging his feet on for weeks — or for , I should say , years , in tandem with so many of our city officials , who I and others have had the opportunity to meet with .
And , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that ’ s the most poignant about it all is something that Ted Wheeler told a group of us as we literally cried , cried and yelled and expressed our frustrations in the Rose Room of City Hall , about the tear gas , which is an abortifacient , which affects all of our community members , which is destroying the lives of our houseless members and our neighbors and residents in the middle of a global health pandemic .
And Ted Wheeler ’ s response was to announce that they were considering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ asked him when or how long that would take , he told us that there were no decisions on this yet , despite the fact that the day before , the Seattle mayor had actually already declared that she was going to be halting tear gas use by her police force .
And Ted , as the police commissioner , with the ability to do so , told us that he would not do so .
And he told us that he hasn ’ t gotten tear-gassed because he doesn ’ t want @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is that there is a disconnect .
We can ’ t look a politician in the face who says that he hasn ’ t gotten tear-gassed because he doesn ’ t want to , as though the millions of people across the world getting tear-gassed fighting for our rights and our safety and security don ’ t want to get tear-gassed , either .
And that is — that sort of inaction has been really evident all the way up the chain in regards to what Kate Brown has done about , for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state where we held for the longest time the , quote-unquote , “ right ” to process prisoners with nonunanimous juries .
That ’ s recently been overturned by the Supreme Court , and yet we still have prisoners that are sitting across Oregon jails and prisons that have been convicted with nonunanimous juries , wasting away , at risk of death of COVID .
And so , it ’ s an intersectional issue that we know is not centered on the police only , but when we talk about the Black Lives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that we understand we ’ re talking about an intersectional movement that ’ s focusing on not just stopping the police from killing us , but stopping the entire system from killing us , whether that means a lack of access for the disability community , who also is Black ; for members of the trans and queer community , who are also Black and are experiencing these things ; houseless people , who are also Black ; women , who are significantly underbelieved and at risk of death by our health system @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
And the root of all of these issues , that we know to be true , is that all of this is based on the same colonialism , genocide , capitalism and white supremacy that is the foundation that this country was built on .
And here in Portland , we ’ re really making sure that we ’ re prioritizing education .
We ’ re prioritizing history .
We ’ re prioritizing teaching our people how to take care of one another .
And I think that that ’ s why @ @ @ @ @ @ @ consider what it is that our elected officials are or are not doing , because no matter what steps they take forward within — in regards to reform inside a system that is already broken and crumbling , we know that these , no matter what , are not steps that will save us .
And instead , we need abolitionist steps forward , fighting for the abolition of the police department , the militarized police , looking for the demilitarization and defunding of the entire U.S. military budget , understanding that we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and abolition of ableist , white supremacist , homophobic , transphobic and all these other oppressive systems that are all combined together , including anti-Semitism and all of these other things .
AMY GOODMAN : Lilith Sinclair , I want to thank you so much for being with us , Afro-Indigenous local organizer in Portland , Oregon .
When we come back , we ’ ll look at the legal battle to protect protesters and remove the federal agents from Portland streets .
Stay with us .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in Portland, Oregon, where militarized federal officers continued their nightly attacks on antiracist protesters Monday, shooting gas and projectiles at demonstrators outside Portland’s courthouse, in a scene that’s become all too familiar in recent weeks: camouflaged U.S. agents deployed by the Department of Homeland Security waging a campaign of violence against largely peaceful demonstrations in Oregon.
The harrowing scene in Portland has drawn increased outrage in recent days, with Oregon Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden demanding federal forces be removed from the streets, and an investigation into reports that unidentified federal officers have snatched protesters off the streets into unmarked vans and detained them.
On Saturday, Navy veteran Christopher David, who went to the site of the protests to question the officers about their use of violence, was hospitalized with his right hand broken in two places after the officers beat and pepper-sprayed him.
On Monday, Trump praised the use of unmarked cars and unidentified officers against the antiracist protesters and vowed to deploy law enforcement agents to more U.S. cities.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We’re going to have more federal law enforcement. That, I can tell you. In Portland, they’ve done a fantastic job. They’ve been there three days, and they really have done a fantastic job in a very short period of time. No problem. They grab 'em, a lot of people in jail. They're leaders. These are anarchists. These are not protesters. People say “protesters.” These people are anarchists. These are people that hate our country. And we’re not going to let it go forward.
AMY GOODMAN: Acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli echoed Trump’s comments on CNN Monday.
KEN CUCCINELLI: We backed up the Federal Protective Service, which is responsible for protecting the courthouse there and other federal buildings, with other DHS law enforcement components. And that — and we’ve been there ever since, wearing, by the way, the very same uniforms every day, and the crowd has seen them every day. … If we get the same kind of intelligence in other places about threats to other federal facilities or officers, we would respond the same way.
AMY GOODMAN: But protesters in Portland say they won’t be deterred. This weekend, a group of mothers joined, formed what they called a “wall of moms” outside the federal courthouse to shield protesters. This is one of the mothers.
PROTESTING MOTHER: Their actions are terrifying. I mean, we, as a democracy, we need to stand up. I am 60 years old. I probably shouldn’t be here in public. But this is beyond acceptable.
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we go to Portland, Oregon, where we’re joined by Lilith Sinclair, an Afro-Indigenous organizer, along with an ASL interpreter.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Lilith, if you can start off by describing these last 50 days, why you’re out in the streets protesting, and what has been the response by not only the state but these federal officers that have not been — unclear who they are?
LILITH SINCLAIR: Thank you so much, Amy, I want to say first, for having us here and for helping us to provide accessibility to this interview, which is something that we’ve been really focusing on in Portland for the last 50 days, starting on day one and staring two years ago.
It’s hard to encompass the depth of what we’ve experienced in the streets here in Portland. This movement originally started with a single Black mom coming out to the streets and leading the call for an occupation here in Portland on the federal court steps to demand change. And what that has swelled into is a movement, thousands and thousands strong, that has really proven to unite so many of our people here.
What we’ve seen is a continuous escalation in violence against our protesters. But something that is important for us to understand is that here in Portland we’ve been facing severe police brutality, even from our local police force, for years, years, years and decades. The movement that we have right now, what is happening in response to, as you mentioned, an international, really, uprising against police brutality, racism and, I would say, even more than that, against oppressive structures, because this isn’t just a movement about police brutality.
And so, what we’ve been experiencing is a solid escalation. It started out with, as per usual, our local Portland Police Bureau engaging in a lot of not only intimidation tactics, but violent brutality against our protesters. We’ve had officers that have been deploying flashbangs after flashbangs after flashbangs, while simultaneously deploying CS gas and other munitions, tear gas and all of these different types of pepper spray bullets and new things that we actually haven’t even seen, once the federal government has come in. But this has been a long-term engagement with a militarized police force. And it’s important for us to recognize that the federal occupation has escalated it, especially because of the rhetoric that we’re seeing from those who hold office. But what we’re noticing is that the violence, as per usual, is continuing to rise.
We’re seeing these disappearances. I think it’s important to note that these unmarked cars that are going around in the street are unmarked rental vehicles. They are full of men in uniforms, no badges, no IDs. They refuse to even answer the question of “Are you or are you not law enforcement?” And it’s left the people of Portland not only worried about their safety, but, even more so, justified in the fight that we’re engaged in — a recognition that especially during an international global health pandemic, as you talked about these numbers rising and the continued push of normalcy in the midst of all of this, especially from not just Republicans but also Democrats, too, who are continuing to hold this pressure to reopen, like here in Oregon, where we created the new reopening and then saw people now, weeks later, experiencing higher rates in cases, being once again laid off from their jobs, being once again failed by the unemployment system.
And what’s happening in Portland is what’s happening all across the country. The people have a moment to understand and truly see the failures of this capitalist, white supremacist system, because they have nothing but time on their hands. And so, what we understand is that the movement continuing to go forward is only swelling. It’s why we see moms coming out to line up a wall. That was followed up last night with the dad bloc, a lot of amazing, amazing folks that came downtown last night after watching people get brutalized on a nightly basis.
We are spending our nights in terror. We can’t sleep on one side of the city or the other due to the flashbangs, due to the tear gas across the entire city. It’s affecting our houseless communities. It’s affecting our neighborhoods. And it’s gone unaddressed by both our state officials and also our local officials here in Portland, with nothing but well-meaning words, which is only further causing a very rightful sense of frustration, anger and a need for justice from the people here. It’s why we see these things continuing to grow.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Lilith Sinclair, can you talk about what you’re referring to, the elected officials? You have everyone from the state attorney general to the two senators, the governor. This is Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler criticizing Trump for deploying federal troops on the streets of Portland.
MAYOR TED WHEELER: President Trump has used our city as a staging ground to further his political agenda, igniting his base to cause further divisiveness, and, in doing so, endangering Portlanders. President Trump has gone so far, is vowing that federal law enforcement will, quote, “dominate,” unquote, protesters and mobilize federal agencies to operate in cities. This is an explicit abuse of power and places federal officers and Oregonians in danger.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Portland mayor and police chief [sic] Ted Wheeler. That might surprise some people that he occupies both positions. But, Lilith, can you talk more about what the elected officials are saying, your agreement with them in this particular case, but disagreements with them in others? The significance of them leading this charge, which now mayors are picking up all over the country, saying to Trump, “Do not send federal officers here”?
LILITH SINCLAIR: Yeah. So, I do want to make a slight correction, just because I heard you say “chief.” And Mayor Ted Wheeler is our police commissioner and also our mayor.
So, I’d like to break down a couple of things, actually. Thank you so much for that fantastic question. I think one of the most important things to understand is that our mayor here in Portland, Ted Wheeler, has one of the best PR teams — and simultaneously the worst PR teams — because as much as we can play the words that were just shared here on the broadcast today, it’s important to understand that, for instance, something that made national headlines this month was when federal officers fired at a protester holding a speaker over his head, clearly unarmed. That man is — sorry, it’s a little bit hard to handle because it made international news for our federal military officers to shoot an unarmed protester in the head and cause severe damage and hospitalization in that way. However, it’s important to note that a year ago, during protesting against white supremacy, which is really, really, really, really, really present here in Portland, as a city within a state that was founded on a history of white supremacy and genocide — and what we know to be true is that even a year ago, when we were protesting white supremacy, our local Portland Police Bureau officers were firing flashbang grenades at point-blank range. They actually hit a protester, wearing a very thick helmet, directly in the back of the head with a grenade. It concaved both their helmet and also resulted in very severe skull fractures. If they weren’t wearing a helmet, there’s almost no doubt that they wouldn’t be alive with us today.
And something that is important for us to understand is that Ted Wheeler is not leading the charge to anything except for his reelection campaign. What we know is that we’ve been fighting for steps forward in regards to change around policing for years, in regards to the union police contract that we’ve been discussing here in Portland, that our mayor has been dragging his feet on for weeks — or for, I should say, years, in tandem with so many of our city officials, who I and others have had the opportunity to meet with.
And, you know, I think that something that’s the most poignant about it all is something that Ted Wheeler told a group of us as we literally cried, cried and yelled and expressed our frustrations in the Rose Room of City Hall, about the tear gas, which is an abortifacient, which affects all of our community members, which is destroying the lives of our houseless members and our neighbors and residents in the middle of a global health pandemic. And Ted Wheeler’s response was to announce that they were considering doing an investigation. And when we asked him when or how long that would take, he told us that there were no decisions on this yet, despite the fact that the day before, the Seattle mayor had actually already declared that she was going to be halting tear gas use by her police force. And Ted, as the police commissioner, with the ability to do so, told us that he would not do so. And he told us that he hasn’t gotten tear-gassed because he doesn’t want to. And so, the recognition is that there is a disconnect. We can’t look a politician in the face who says that he hasn’t gotten tear-gassed because he doesn’t want to, as though the millions of people across the world getting tear-gassed fighting for our rights and our safety and security don’t want to get tear-gassed, either.
And that is — that sort of inaction has been really evident all the way up the chain in regards to what Kate Brown has done about, for instance, perhaps pardoning prisoners in a state where we held for the longest time the, quote-unquote, “right” to process prisoners with nonunanimous juries. That’s recently been overturned by the Supreme Court, and yet we still have prisoners that are sitting across Oregon jails and prisons that have been convicted with nonunanimous juries, wasting away, at risk of death of COVID.
And so, it’s an intersectional issue that we know is not centered on the police only, but when we talk about the Black Lives Matter movement, it’s important that we understand we’re talking about an intersectional movement that’s focusing on not just stopping the police from killing us, but stopping the entire system from killing us, whether that means a lack of access for the disability community, who also is Black; for members of the trans and queer community, who are also Black and are experiencing these things; houseless people, who are also Black; women, who are significantly underbelieved and at risk of death by our health system. The issues are myriad and multiplied. And the root of all of these issues, that we know to be true, is that all of this is based on the same colonialism, genocide, capitalism and white supremacy that is the foundation that this country was built on.
And here in Portland, we’re really making sure that we’re prioritizing education. We’re prioritizing history. We’re prioritizing teaching our people how to take care of one another. And I think that that’s why it’s been so frustrating to consider what it is that our elected officials are or are not doing, because no matter what steps they take forward within — in regards to reform inside a system that is already broken and crumbling, we know that these, no matter what, are not steps that will save us. And instead, we need abolitionist steps forward, fighting for the abolition of the police department, the militarized police, looking for the demilitarization and defunding of the entire U.S. military budget, understanding that we also mean abolition of the prison system and abolition of ableist, white supremacist, homophobic, transphobic and all these other oppressive systems that are all combined together, including anti-Semitism and all of these other things.
AMY GOODMAN: Lilith Sinclair, I want to thank you so much for being with us, Afro-Indigenous local organizer in Portland, Oregon.
When we come back, we’ll look at the legal battle to protect protesters and remove the federal agents from Portland streets. Stay with us.


democracynow--2020-07-21--Headlines for July 21, 2020

Headlines for July 21, 2020

Florida has reported more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases for the sixth day in a row .
On Monday , Florida ’ s largest teachers ’ union sued Republican Governor Ron DeSantis to block his order requiring all schools to reopen next month despite the growing pandemic , which has killed nearly 5,200 Floridians .
Meanwhile , Missouri Republican Governor Mike Parson is insisting students go to school despite the risk of the virus .
In an interview , Parson said , “ They ’ re going to get over it , ” and “ We can ’ t just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tracks.
” This all comes as Republican lawmakers in Washington are pushing to include a provision in a new coronavirus relief package tying school funding to the reopening of classrooms .
Many public health officials fear the reopening of schools could lead to a new surge in COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations .
In Mississippi , Republican Governor Tate Reeves has ordered residents to wear masks in 10 additional counties as the number of new COVID-19 cases hit a new high on Monday .
Overall in the United States , the virus has killed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — both by far the highest numbers in the world .
In fact , the United States has more than a quarter of the deaths and infections in the entire world , yet only a little more than 4 % of the population .
As cases continue to spike , President Trump has announced he plans to lead a televised coronavirus briefing today for the first time since April .
He also tweeted an image of himself wearing a mask for the first time , saying it is patriotic to wear one .

Florida has reported more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases for the sixth day in a row. On Monday, Florida’s largest teachers’ union sued Republican Governor Ron DeSantis to block his order requiring all schools to reopen next month despite the growing pandemic, which has killed nearly 5,200 Floridians.
Meanwhile, Missouri Republican Governor Mike Parson is insisting students go to school despite the risk of the virus. In an interview, Parson said, “They’re going to get over it,” and “We can’t just let this thing stop us in our tracks.”
This all comes as Republican lawmakers in Washington are pushing to include a provision in a new coronavirus relief package tying school funding to the reopening of classrooms. Many public health officials fear the reopening of schools could lead to a new surge in COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations.
In Mississippi, Republican Governor Tate Reeves has ordered residents to wear masks in 10 additional counties as the number of new COVID-19 cases hit a new high on Monday.
Overall in the United States, the virus has killed nearly 141,000 people and infected 3.8 million — both by far the highest numbers in the world. In fact, the United States has more than a quarter of the deaths and infections in the entire world, yet only a little more than 4% of the population. As cases continue to spike, President Trump has announced he plans to lead a televised coronavirus briefing today for the first time since April. He also tweeted an image of himself wearing a mask for the first time, saying it is patriotic to wear one.


democracynow--2020-07-22--As COVID Spikes in California, Latinx Workers Who "Keep the State Going" See Up to 5x the Deaths

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 states like California see a surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations — in fact , California has just surpassed New York in number of cases , though it has a quarter of the deaths of New York — the Latinx community has been especially hard hit .
A new report shows Latinx Californians between the ages of 50 and 64 have died @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of white people of the same age .
The report from UCLA , the University of California , Los Angeles , links the trend to the fact that Latinx workers make up the bulk of agricultural workers , who are high-risk essential workers .
In a Frontline PBS documentary called COVID ’ s Hidden Toll that aired Tuesday night , farmworker Sinthia Hernandez describes how she has both cancer and diabetes , which put her at a higher risk for complications if she were to contract COVID-19 , and that the contractor she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ own mask .
AMY GOODMAN : Likewise , a report from the Centers for Disease Control found 87 % of workers infected on the job at meat processing plants are people of color .
Because of the surge of cases in Los Angeles , it may soon face a second stay-at-home order .
This comes as a Los Angeles Apparel factory that employs mostly Latinx workers to produce face masks has been shut down after health inspectors found , quote , “ flagrant violations ” of infection control orders .
More than 300 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for COVID ; four died .
The company is run by Dov Charney , former CEO of American Apparel , who was ousted amidst allegations of misusing funds and allowing sexual harassment .
Workers said the company failed to clearly inform them when people got sick , or enforce social distancing .
For more , we ’ re joined by Dr. David Hayes-Bautista , distinguished professor of medicine and director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA .
It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Dr. Hayes-Bautista .
DR. DAVID HAYES-BAUTISTA : It ’ s great to be here .
Great to be here .
AMY GOODMAN : Can you start off by talking about L.A. Apparel , 300 workers found positive , four died , at least , at this point ?
What do you know about that ?
And then move on to farmworkers .
DR. DAVID HAYES-BAUTISTA : Well , actually , both of them are related , because these are structural situations .
What we ’ ve noticed is that as soon as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time , early in March , people were told to work from home , take their children out of school — the children would do their lessons at home — and to leave the house only to buy groceries or the bare necessities .
Well , what we discovered , about a month and a half in , is that the essential workers are not only just the nurses and physicians , who , by the way , are trained to go into dangerous situations .
They have personal protective equipment .
They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The question was just getting enough to them .
But other workers were also as essential in order for the higher-income families to shelter in place , starting with the farmworkers , who , of course , can not plant strawberries from home .
They have to go out on the job .
They ’ re working in large crews .
They ’ re transported on buses .
Some of them sleep in barracks .
And as we look at the chain of food — the truck drivers , the packing house workers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ store shelf stockers , the grocery store checkout clerks — for Pete ’ s sake , a checkout clerk would have possibly a couple of hundred people pass within an arm ’ s length of the checkout stand , and for two months they were not even offered personal protective equipment .
Now we ’ re seeing this in a more industrial , such as in the apparel companies , where , again , for a long time we ’ ve had costureras working at the bottom , if you will , of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , rarely offered health insurance , rarely offered any education about what ’ s going on .
And now we ’ re seeing the effects of all of this .
So , what we see at a large scale is that Latino and people of color basically do the scut work that keep the state going , its economy going , but get very little of the resources , very little pay , very little health insurance , very little access to care .
And this particular pandemic is now exposing these inequities @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hayes-Bautista , in terms of the — given that the Latino population of the United States is significantly younger than either the white population or the African American population , and that this disease especially hits hard in terms of fatality at the elderly , you would expect much lower death rates among Latinos , just because so much of the population is young .
Yet you ’ re seeing — you ’ re finding , at least especially in the 50-to-65 age range , this enormous disparity in terms of deaths among @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you sense is actually as a result of the working conditions that they ’ re being subjected to , or how much of it is part of the underlying health conditions , whether it ’ s diabetes or hypertension or other health conditions that many Latinos face ?
DR. DAVID HAYES-BAUTISTA : Older populations always have higher death rates for almost anything compared to younger populations .
But what ’ s important here , yes , younger Latinos have a lower death rate than older Latinos ; however , when we look at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Latinos have about four to five times the death rate of whites .
So , clearly , something is not working even within that younger population .
And again , this has a lot to do with both working and living conditions .
We ’ ve outlined some of them .
Let me just go into more detail .
Latinos , even after Obamacare , consistently are twice as likely not to have health insurance .
Latinos , for a number of reasons , are faced with a huge doctor shortage , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that speak Spanish .
And by the way , medical services have been provided in Spanish in California for 251 years .
So this is not like this is suddenly a new problem we ’ ve discovered .
This has been a problem ever since 1848 .
So , if you remember the early days of the pandemic , Hollywood was able to get access to tests almost immediately .
The Lakers got their tests immediately .
Those who had access to what ’ s called boutique medicine got their tests immediately .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ cost up to $ 2,000 , depending on where you ’ re getting them .
If you don ’ t have health insurance and you hear that a test can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars , you don ’ t have access to medical services , or particularly one that you can communicate with , this creates a problem .
And early in the pandemic , the California Department of Health sent out an advisory note — in Spanish , God bless them — and it said , if you have the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or you have a dry cough , habla con tu médico , pronto , talk to your doctor now .
But what if you don ’ t have a doctor , you don ’ t know how to pay a doctor ?
So , many people were not able to .
Thus they continued to work without the personal protective equipment .
They were exposed to the coronavirus at much higher rates than people that were able to shelter at home .
And , not surprisingly , we started to see the case @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weeks into the coronavirus pandemic .
And now it ’ s progressing to full-blown cases of COVID disease , and , of course , now the mortality .
So , that ’ s the working part .
But then there ’ s the domestic part .
Housing is expensive in California .
There ’ s no question about it .
And Latinos occupy those positions , occupations and industries that pay very , very little , don ’ t provide them health insurance usually .
So , in order to live , Latinos @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
And this has been a classic pattern .
So you ’ ll also have more multigenerational households .
So , it could be that , yes , the kids are no longer in school , they ’ re at the house , you have the abuelos , you have the grandparents .
But you also tend to have , because of low wages and high costs of housing , more multiple-wage-earner households .
That is , the adults , more of them , are going out to work , because they just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hard to live here , which means even though the rest of the household may be sheltering , they are going out and being exposed to coronavirus and bringing it back into the household .
So now we ’ re seeing the result of all of these issues compounded .
The Latino physician shortage is so great in California that the rate at which all the California medical schools graduate Latino physicians , it will take 500 years to make up the shortage for the year 2015 .
So , I can imagine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She ’ s feeling , “ I ’ ve got a high temperature .
I ’ ve got a dry cough .
I need to go see the doctor.
” “ Oh , come in , Señora Gómez .
Oh , you have the symptoms ?
Take a seat , and the doctor will see you in 500 years.
” That ’ s why we have a problem .
AMY GOODMAN : I want to go to the issue of the meatpackers .
For example , the JBS beef plant in Greeley , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ workplace COVID-19 outbreak in Colorado , where at least 286 workers tested positive for COVID-19 , and six died .
The United Food and Commercial Workers put up two billboards in Greeley to remember those who died .
This week , JBS agreed to a $ 1.85-an-hour wage increase , after many of the workers walked off the job earlier this month .
UFCW Local 7 responded by calling on JBS to improve safety measures , end what it called its “ work while sick culture.
” That ’ s one company in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prevent meatpacking plants from being closed .
And you have , throughout states , thousands and thousands and thousands of meatpackers being infected with COVID-19 , many dying .
Can you talk about this , Dr. Hayes-Bautista ?
DR. DAVID HAYES-BAUTISTA : Well , yes , not only meatpacker , any production where you have to have a lot of workers standing in close contact , either with one another or with clients — we can say the same thing with grocery store checkout clerks — without providing them the education , without @ @ @ @ @ @ @ providing them with health insurance or sufficient wages so that they could buy health insurance , this is all a recipe for a quick spread of the coronavirus .
And we ’ re seeing it play out .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : And , Doctor , I wanted to ask you — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , every other word out of his mouth the last few weeks has been that a new congressional bill to address the pandemic must include ending of — removal of liability for employers , in terms of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reality that OSHA , the federal agency in charge of workplace safety , is virtually nonexistent these days in terms of what it does , do you think that it ’ s advisable for the Democrats to agree to remove liability from employers if they ’ re not properly protecting their workers ?
DR. DAVID HAYES-BAUTISTA : Well , not only is it not advisable , but , if you remember , the first CARES Act , the COVID relief act , specifically excluded any household in which at least one member was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re not talking about undocumented ; we ’ re talking about noncitizens .
So , you have a green card holder who ’ s maybe been here 20 , 30 years , has not yet taken that last step to naturalize , the whole household was penalized .
They got none of the benefits that everyone was worried that are expiring for everybody else .
Latino businesses got very little of the business support .
So here we have a population that gets very little from the sources of support , and yet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ closed off , if in fact their employers are held not liable .
And I ’ m wondering how many of these employers , by the way , even bother to offer health insurance , and usually such employers do not .
So , it ’ s putting this entire population at risk .
Nonetheless , and let me hasten to point out , the 60 million Latinos in the United States , two years ago , created the world ’ s eighth-largest economy — $ 2.3 trillion .
And that ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ barriers , all the name-calling .
Just think if we actually invested the way we invested in the rest of the country .
AMY GOODMAN : So , Dr. David Hayes-Bautista , your state , California , has exceeded our state , surpassed New York , in number of COVID infections .
Of course , we don ’ t really know the number of COVID infections anywhere in this country .
It ’ s considered a far underestimate .
CDC thinks it ’ s something like 24 times higher .
But can you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also what ’ s happening on the border with people who are living on the border ?
You talked — mentioned undocumented , but what about actually undocumented people in this country having access to healthcare , and the fact that the Trump administration has not made use of $ 7 billion to $ 8 billion that were allocated by Congress for testing , for masks , and you have this incredible , severe shortage of all of these things right now , and how that particularly affects the Latinx community ?
DR. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in point .
If you remember the first days of the lockdown across the country , in early March , mid-March , early April , and people ran to the grocery stores , and there was a run on certain products , such as , remember , paper towels and toilet paper , and people were fighting in the aisles over bales of paper towels and toilet paper — in California , 100 % of the farm labor workforce is Latino .
It ’ s 100 % immigrant , and probably 60 to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s interesting is that , early on , these farmworkers were considered essential employees .
In fact , they were given letters that would allow them to actually travel to work without being stopped .
And yet , they could also be deported at any moment .
So , between the deportations , between COVID and everything else , if these farmworkers are not allowed at least the opportunity to live , who is going to grow the food ?
And we thought we were fighting over paper towels and toilet paper @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the last sack of potatoes in the store .
That could happen if this labor force were not here .
Yet we criminalize it .
We put obstacles for access to care .
And then we wonder if we ’ re going to have a food shortage .
AMY GOODMAN : Language barriers , Dr. David Hayes-Bautista , when it comes to getting information about COVID-19 ?
DR. DAVID HAYES-BAUTISTA : Medical services have been providing — in fact , we had the first smallpox vaccination campaign in 1803 in California in Spanish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the time .
Medical services have been provided in California in Spanish for 251 years .
We came into the United States as a bilingual state .
Spanish was one of the official languages .
And yet Latinos are least likely to find a physician who speaks Spanish .
The shortage is tremendous .
But it ’ s not because this is a new issue .
This is California .
What we have done for 160 years is chosen to turn our back on this population , not allow it access to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ either for education or healthcare , then wonder why there ’ s an issue .
AMY GOODMAN : Dr. David Hayes-Bautista , I want to thank you so much for being with us , distinguished professor of medicine and director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the UCLA medical school .
I ’ m Amy Goodman , with Juan González .
Stay safe .

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 states like California see a surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations — in fact, California has just surpassed New York in number of cases, though it has a quarter of the deaths of New York — the Latinx community has been especially hard hit.
A new report shows Latinx Californians between the ages of 50 and 64 have died at more than five times the rate of white people of the same age. The report from UCLA, the University of California, Los Angeles, links the trend to the fact that Latinx workers make up the bulk of agricultural workers, who are high-risk essential workers.
In a Frontline PBS documentary called COVID’s Hidden Toll that aired Tuesday night, farmworker Sinthia Hernandez describes how she has both cancer and diabetes, which put her at a higher risk for complications if she were to contract COVID-19, and that the contractor she works for requires her to bring her own mask.
SINTHIA HERNANDEZ: [translated] All us farmworkers are making a big sacrifice out of necessity for hunger, to be able to feed our families and to have a place to live. … Those of us who are working have so much debt and bills to pay that the money sometimes isn’t even enough to buy one mask, because each mask costs $3 or $4 at the store. And it’s disposable.
AMY GOODMAN: Likewise, a report from the Centers for Disease Control found 87% of workers infected on the job at meat processing plants are people of color.
Because of the surge of cases in Los Angeles, it may soon face a second stay-at-home order. This comes as a Los Angeles Apparel factory that employs mostly Latinx workers to produce face masks has been shut down after health inspectors found, quote, “flagrant violations” of infection control orders. More than 300 workers at that one factory tested positive for COVID; four died. The company is run by Dov Charney, former CEO of American Apparel, who was ousted amidst allegations of misusing funds and allowing sexual harassment. Workers said the company failed to clearly inform them when people got sick, or enforce social distancing.
For more, we’re joined by Dr. David Hayes-Bautista, distinguished professor of medicine and director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
It’s great to have you with this, Dr. Hayes-Bautista.
DR. DAVID HAYES-BAUTISTA: It’s great to be here. Great to be here.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you start off by talking about L.A. Apparel, 300 workers found positive, four died, at least, at this point? What do you know about that? And then move on to farmworkers.
DR. DAVID HAYES-BAUTISTA: Well, actually, both of them are related, because these are structural situations. What we’ve noticed is that as soon as the state was locked down the first time, early in March, people were told to work from home, take their children out of school — the children would do their lessons at home — and to leave the house only to buy groceries or the bare necessities. Well, what we discovered, about a month and a half in, is that the essential workers are not only just the nurses and physicians, who, by the way, are trained to go into dangerous situations. They have personal protective equipment. They’re trained to use it. The question was just getting enough to them. But other workers were also as essential in order for the higher-income families to shelter in place, starting with the farmworkers, who, of course, cannot plant strawberries from home. They have to go out on the job. They’re working in large crews. They’re transported on buses. Some of them sleep in barracks.
And as we look at the chain of food — the truck drivers, the packing house workers, the slaughterhouse workers, the grocery store shelf stockers, the grocery store checkout clerks — for Pete’s sake, a checkout clerk would have possibly a couple of hundred people pass within an arm’s length of the checkout stand, and for two months they were not even offered personal protective equipment. Now we’re seeing this in a more industrial, such as in the apparel companies, where, again, for a long time we’ve had costureras working at the bottom, if you will, of the economic chain, paid very little, rarely offered health insurance, rarely offered any education about what’s going on. And now we’re seeing the effects of all of this. So, what we see at a large scale is that Latino and people of color basically do the scut work that keep the state going, its economy going, but get very little of the resources, very little pay, very little health insurance, very little access to care. And this particular pandemic is now exposing these inequities.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Dr. Hayes-Bautista, in terms of the — given that the Latino population of the United States is significantly younger than either the white population or the African American population, and that this disease especially hits hard in terms of fatality at the elderly, you would expect much lower death rates among Latinos, just because so much of the population is young. Yet you’re seeing — you’re finding, at least especially in the 50-to-65 age range, this enormous disparity in terms of deaths among Latinos. How much of that do you sense is actually as a result of the working conditions that they’re being subjected to, or how much of it is part of the underlying health conditions, whether it’s diabetes or hypertension or other health conditions that many Latinos face?
DR. DAVID HAYES-BAUTISTA: Older populations always have higher death rates for almost anything compared to younger populations. But what’s important here, yes, younger Latinos have a lower death rate than older Latinos; however, when we look at younger Latinos and younger non-Hispanic whites, the Latinos have about four to five times the death rate of whites. So, clearly, something is not working even within that younger population. And again, this has a lot to do with both working and living conditions. We’ve outlined some of them. Let me just go into more detail.
Latinos, even after Obamacare, consistently are twice as likely not to have health insurance. Latinos, for a number of reasons, are faced with a huge doctor shortage, much less being able to find doctors that speak Spanish. And by the way, medical services have been provided in Spanish in California for 251 years. So this is not like this is suddenly a new problem we’ve discovered. This has been a problem ever since 1848.
So, if you remember the early days of the pandemic, Hollywood was able to get access to tests almost immediately. The Lakers got their tests immediately. Those who had access to what’s called boutique medicine got their tests immediately. Well, some of these tests can cost up to $2,000, depending on where you’re getting them. If you don’t have health insurance and you hear that a test can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, you don’t have access to medical services, or particularly one that you can communicate with, this creates a problem.
And early in the pandemic, the California Department of Health sent out an advisory note — in Spanish, God bless them — and it said, if you have the symptoms, you have a high temperature or you have a dry cough, habla con tu médico, pronto, talk to your doctor now. But what if you don’t have a doctor, you don’t know how to pay a doctor? So, many people were not able to. Thus they continued to work without the personal protective equipment. They were exposed to the coronavirus at much higher rates than people that were able to shelter at home. And, not surprisingly, we started to see the case rates mount, particularly after about six weeks into the coronavirus pandemic. And now it’s progressing to full-blown cases of COVID disease, and, of course, now the mortality. So, that’s the working part.
But then there’s the domestic part. Housing is expensive in California. There’s no question about it. And Latinos occupy those positions, occupations and industries that pay very, very little, don’t provide them health insurance usually. So, in order to live, Latinos tend to have more people per household. And this has been a classic pattern. So you’ll also have more multigenerational households. So, it could be that, yes, the kids are no longer in school, they’re at the house, you have the abuelos, you have the grandparents. But you also tend to have, because of low wages and high costs of housing, more multiple-wage-earner households. That is, the adults, more of them, are going out to work, because they just need to, because it’s hard to live here, which means even though the rest of the household may be sheltering, they are going out and being exposed to coronavirus and bringing it back into the household. So now we’re seeing the result of all of these issues compounded.
The Latino physician shortage is so great in California that the rate at which all the California medical schools graduate Latino physicians, it will take 500 years to make up the shortage for the year 2015. So, I can imagine, here’s Señora Gómez. She’s feeling, “I’ve got a high temperature. I’ve got a dry cough. I need to go see the doctor.” “Oh, come in, Señora Gómez. Oh, you have the symptoms? Take a seat, and the doctor will see you in 500 years.” That’s why we have a problem.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to the issue of the meatpackers. For example, the JBS beef plant in Greeley, Colorado, the site of the deadliest workplace COVID-19 outbreak in Colorado, where at least 286 workers tested positive for COVID-19, and six died. The United Food and Commercial Workers put up two billboards in Greeley to remember those who died. This week, JBS agreed to a $1.85-an-hour wage increase, after many of the workers walked off the job earlier this month. UFCW Local 7 responded by calling on JBS to improve safety measures, end what it called its “work while sick culture.” That’s one company in one state. President Trump tried to prevent meatpacking plants from being closed. And you have, throughout states, thousands and thousands and thousands of meatpackers being infected with COVID-19, many dying. Can you talk about this, Dr. Hayes-Bautista?
DR. DAVID HAYES-BAUTISTA: Well, yes, not only meatpacker, any production where you have to have a lot of workers standing in close contact, either with one another or with clients — we can say the same thing with grocery store checkout clerks — without providing them the education, without providing the personal protective equipment, without providing them with health insurance or sufficient wages so that they could buy health insurance, this is all a recipe for a quick spread of the coronavirus. And we’re seeing it play out.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Doctor, I wanted to ask you — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, every other word out of his mouth the last few weeks has been that a new congressional bill to address the pandemic must include ending of — removal of liability for employers, in terms of their workers getting sick. Given the reality that OSHA, the federal agency in charge of workplace safety, is virtually nonexistent these days in terms of what it does, do you think that it’s advisable for the Democrats to agree to remove liability from employers if they’re not properly protecting their workers?
DR. DAVID HAYES-BAUTISTA: Well, not only is it not advisable, but, if you remember, the first CARES Act, the COVID relief act, specifically excluded any household in which at least one member was a noncitizen. Now, we’re not talking about undocumented; we’re talking about noncitizens. So, you have a green card holder who’s maybe been here 20, 30 years, has not yet taken that last step to naturalize, the whole household was penalized. They got none of the benefits that everyone was worried that are expiring for everybody else. Latino businesses got very little of the business support.
So here we have a population that gets very little from the sources of support, and yet now even the legal route is being closed off, if in fact their employers are held not liable. And I’m wondering how many of these employers, by the way, even bother to offer health insurance, and usually such employers do not. So, it’s putting this entire population at risk. Nonetheless, and let me hasten to point out, the 60 million Latinos in the United States, two years ago, created the world’s eighth-largest economy — $2.3 trillion. And that’s with all these obstacles, all these barriers, all the name-calling. Just think if we actually invested the way we invested in the rest of the country.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Dr. David Hayes-Bautista, your state, California, has exceeded our state, surpassed New York, in number of COVID infections. Of course, we don’t really know the number of COVID infections anywhere in this country. It’s considered a far underestimate. CDC thinks it’s something like 24 times higher. But can you explain what’s going on, also what’s happening on the border with people who are living on the border? You talked — mentioned undocumented, but what about actually undocumented people in this country having access to healthcare, and the fact that the Trump administration has not made use of $7 billion to $8 billion that were allocated by Congress for testing, for masks, and you have this incredible, severe shortage of all of these things right now, and how that particularly affects the Latinx community?
DR. DAVID HAYES-BAUTISTA: This is a case in point. If you remember the first days of the lockdown across the country, in early March, mid-March, early April, and people ran to the grocery stores, and there was a run on certain products, such as, remember, paper towels and toilet paper, and people were fighting in the aisles over bales of paper towels and toilet paper — in California, 100% of the farm labor workforce is Latino. It’s 100% immigrant, and probably 60 to 80% undocumented. Now, what’s interesting is that, early on, these farmworkers were considered essential employees. In fact, they were given letters that would allow them to actually travel to work without being stopped. And yet, they could also be deported at any moment.
So, between the deportations, between COVID and everything else, if these farmworkers are not allowed at least the opportunity to live, who is going to grow the food? And we thought we were fighting over paper towels and toilet paper? Suppose we’re fighting over the last sack of potatoes in the store. That could happen if this labor force were not here. Yet we criminalize it. We put obstacles for access to care. And then we wonder if we’re going to have a food shortage.
AMY GOODMAN: Language barriers, Dr. David Hayes-Bautista, when it comes to getting information about COVID-19?
DR. DAVID HAYES-BAUTISTA: Medical services have been providing — in fact, we had the first smallpox vaccination campaign in 1803 in California in Spanish. We were part of Spain at the time. Medical services have been provided in California in Spanish for 251 years. We came into the United States as a bilingual state. Spanish was one of the official languages. And yet Latinos are least likely to find a physician who speaks Spanish. The shortage is tremendous.
But it’s not because this is a new issue. This is California. What we have done for 160 years is chosen to turn our back on this population, not allow it access to the investments we were making in other populations either for education or healthcare, then wonder why there’s an issue.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. David Hayes-Bautista, I want to thank you so much for being with us, distinguished professor of medicine and director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the UCLA medical school. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Stay safe.