democracynow--2020-05-28--"No Justification": Minneapolis Demands Murder Charges for Police Officer Who Killed George Floyd

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : We begin today ’ s show in Minneapolis , where parts of the city erupted into flames Wednesday night as residents again took to the streets to protest the death of George Floyd , a Black man killed by white police officer Derek Chauvin Monday .
A viral video shows Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd ’ s neck for a number of minutes as Floyd repeatedly says , “ I can not breathe.
” Three other officers stood by as George Floyd @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as Tou Thao , Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng .
All four officers were fired Tuesday .
On Wednesday night , the city requested help from the National Guard as a number of buildings were set ablaze .
The protest followed a day-long demonstration outside the city ’ s 3rd Precinct police headquarters , where police fired tear gas and projectiles at the protesters .
Demonstrators also rallied outside the home of former officer Derek Chauvin .
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called on prosecutors to file criminal charges against Derek Chauvin Wednesday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reports Derek Chauvin has been involved in multiple police shootings in his 19 years on the Minneapolis police force and was the subject of a dozen police conduct complaints .
In 2008 , he shot and injured a man while making a domestic assault call .
In 2006 , he was one of six officers who killed a man after responding to a stabbing .
NBC News reports it ’ s unclear from the police report which officers fired their weapons .
The other police officer identified in the video of George Floyd @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He was sued for use of excessive force in 2017 .
According to the lawsuit by Lamar Ferguson , [ Ferguson ] was walking home with a woman who was eight months pregnant , when Thao and another officer stopped them and searched them without cause .
The officers handcuffed Ferguson , and Thao threw him to the ground and punched him repeatedly , according to the lawsuit .
The case settled for $ 25,000 .
This is Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison , the former congressman , speaking on Wednesday .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ opened investigations into the killing of George Floyd .
AMY GOODMAN : Minnesota ’ s African American Attorney General Keith Ellison also was the first Muslim elected to Congress .
We go now to Minneapolis , where we ’ re joined by Nekima Levy Armstrong civil rights attorney , activist , founder of the Racial Justice Network , former president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP .
Welcome back to Democracy Now !
Your city is in flames .
Can you talk about what ’ s happened this week and what you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Yes .
So , we know that George Floyd was unjustly killed by Minneapolis police officers .
The video has gone viral .
People are outraged .
This is yet another reminder that the Minneapolis Police Department has a culture of violence , specifically when it comes to their interactions with the African American community .
And so , as a result of what happened to George Floyd , we took to the streets in a two-and-a-half-mile march , from the site of where he was killed to the 3rd Precinct police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in solidarity , standing up for justice for George Floyd .
And in the last couple of days , there have been skirmishes between law enforcement officials and protesters .
I just actually left the site a little while ago , and some of the buildings were burning that were in close proximity to the 3rd Precinct police station .
And although some people are surprised by this , I ’ m not surprised , because we ’ ve been warning city officials for many years that Minneapolis was going to become the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up the Minneapolis Police Department and address the other racial inequities that we experience as African Americans .
AMY GOODMAN : So , can you respond to the family calling for the police officers to be brought up on murder charges , not just Chauvin , who was the one who kneeled on the neck of George Floyd as he pleaded for his life , saying “ I can not breathe ” ; the mayor calling for criminal charges ; the attorney general , what he is calling for in Minnesota ; and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ looking at the case ?
NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG : Well , the reality is that it wasn ’ t just Chauvin who was responsible for the death of George Floyd .
There were actually three officers that were pressing upon his body , that were holding him down so that he could not move .
And there was a fourth officer who was standing guard , preventing community members from intervening in the situation .
I mean , the community members did the best that they could to ask the officers to please @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to get up .
And their cries and George Floyd ’ s cries fell on deaf ears .
Just the flagrant attitudes of the officers and the nonchalant way that they responded to a man just simply asking to be able to breathe is absolutely unconscionable .
And I agree with the family , I agree with the community , that those officers should be immediately charged for the murder of George Floyd .
They should have already been arrested by now .
It just is — it ’ s a no-brainer .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that level of conduct would already be in jail .
Just because they ’ re officers does not mean that they should get away with this type of behavior .
Firing them is a first step , but it is not enough on the road towards justice for people to feel satisfied by that outcome .
AMY GOODMAN : Let ’ s go to the Minneapolis Police Chief Arradondo speaking Wednesday .
AMY GOODMAN : Arradondo was speaking with a mask on .
We did not see the police officers who were involved @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a mask .
But what are you demanding of Police Chief Arradondo ?
NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG : Well , we are demanding that the body camera footage be released .
As I mentioned earlier , of course , we want the officers charged immediately , although that decision is not in the hands of Chief Arradondo .
We had requested that those officers be fired , and he agreed that they needed to be fired .
And that was an unprecedented move to have officers who are white officers be fired for killing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happened .
Normally , officers are allowed to remain on the force after they have killed someone .
So , in addition to the charges and the body camera footage , we want to see systemic changes within the Minneapolis Police Department .
We want to see a cultural shift .
We are also asking for the appointment of a special prosecutor .
We simply do not trust the Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to make a fair and objective decision , because typically he sides with law enforcement officers .
He has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shooting a civilian , for killing a civilian , except in the case of Justine Damond , who was a white , affluent woman who was shot and killed by a Black Muslim Somali man .
And we saw , after a period of time , where Mike Freeman actually did bring charges , and ultimately Mohamed Noor was convicted , and he is spending time in prison .
Most of the officers who kill people in Minneapolis and in the state of Minnesota are white men , but not one has been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ person in the state of Minnesota .
And we believe that that needs to change .
It needs to change now .
And they need to be held accountable for George Floyd ’ s murder .
AMY GOODMAN : I wanted to turn to the eyewitness — one of the eyewitnesses .
We see people from the cellphone footage who are filming .
He was right there .
He went on CNN ’ s Chris Cuomo ’ s show last night and described what he saw .
DONALD WILLIAMS : Bro , they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I ’ m going to be 100 , bro .
They didn ’ t speak .
They didn ’ t say nothing .
The view was in his eyes , bro .
The man had his knee on his chest , bro .
He knew what he was doing .
He shimmies on my man ’ s neck , bro .
He knew what he was doing .
It ’ s just like having a jiu-jitsu choke .
If I ’ m here , and I ’ m shimmying , I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I ’ m shimmying .
Boom !
My choke ’ s on there .
I told him it was a blood choke .
He knew it was a blood choke .
He looked at me when I said it .
He put his head down .
He did not make any more gestures , did not say any other thing .
And the two other cowards that was on the other side of the car , I didn ’ t know nothing about .
I didn ’ t know about it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ media and things like that .
So , there was the intent to smother my man and kill my man .
And I seen it .
I seen it in his eyes , I seen it in his demeanor , and I seen it in their movement .
And Officer Thao didn ’ t — he didn ’ t partake in it , but he had control of what was going on on the other side of that car , for me not to see what was going on .
Because if he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how I am .
And I ’ m very — I ’ m a controlled athlete .
I ’ m a controlled person .
You know , I have different levels to who I am .
And I showed my control , and it ’ s out there in front of the world .
I got letters , notes , for months , from people that know me from growing up in the city , that said I was the most controlled they ever seen in my life , as I ’ m @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me , that feels like me , that ’ s got the same complexion as me , lose his life to another man that had no senseless .
He had no feeling .
He had no remorse .
He had [ bleep ] in him .
He had no feeling .
I don ’ t even think he had a heart at that moment .
And he ’ s going to feel that for the rest of his life , just like I ’ m going to hear my man say this : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I want my mama.
” And I ’ m coming to find out that this man who died two years on the day that his mom died .
I ’ m a mama ’ s boy , bro .
Like , that [ bleep ] hurts me deep down inside , bro .
And , like , something needs to be done , or something needs to be done .
AMY GOODMAN : That was eyewitness Donald Williams describing the killing of George Floyd .
Nekima Levy Armstrong , as you hear this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ charges be brought against all four officers , right now parts of Minneapolis , southern Minneapolis , are in flames .
Your final thoughts on what needs to happen at this point ?
NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG : What needs to happen is that charges need to be brought immediately against the four officers who killed George Floyd .
There is simply no justification for what they did or why they did it .
And people have to wake up and understand that , as Black people , we do not feel safe in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not feel safe in the state of Minnesota , we do not feel safe around this country , when it comes to our interactions with law enforcement .
And like he said , that needs to change , and it needs to change now .
AMY GOODMAN : And the other video footage , that we have seen and that we haven ’ t seen , one from Dragon Wok across the street , in the store footage , the police officers claim that he was resisting arrest , but we see him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see the police officers holding him .
They handcuff him .
They walk him across the street .
And that ’ s when they take him down .
Can you explain this ?
NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG : There is no explanation .
And I think that people need to shift their focus from whether he was a resisting arrest or not .
That has nothing to do with the fact that they compressed that man ’ s body , put the full weight of a human body on his neck and snuffed the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to — AMY GOODMAN : For something like eight minutes .
NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG : Absolutely .
Who can justify that ?
That was a modern-day lynching .
No other words for that .
That was a modern-day lynching .
So people have to realize what they witnessed , be honest about it , and push for accountability , and not allow them to use technicalities as a way to justify what happened to George Floyd .
It doesn ’ t matter about his past .
It doesn ’ t matter whether he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It doesn ’ t matter what happened in the store .
What matters is that those officers had a chance to ensure that George Floyd could live and not die , that he could breathe and not suffocate or have whatever kind of response to his body that happened .
He should be alive today to tell his story .
They took that away from him .
And they should be held accountable .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Floyd ’ s brother Philonise speaking on CNN Tuesday .
AMY GOODMAN : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ speaking on CNN on Tuesday .
Benjamin Crump , now the family attorney , has already filed a lawsuit against Minneapolis .
We will continue to follow this story .
We want to thank Nekima Levy Armstrong , civil rights attorney , activist , founder of the Racial Justice Network , former president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP , for being with us .
When we come back , we look at the life and legacy of Larry Kramer , the legendary writer , trailblazing activist in the fight against AIDS @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with us .
AMY GOODMAN : “ The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed ” by composer Joel Thompson , performed by the Sphinx , led by conductor Eugene Rogers .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show in Minneapolis, where parts of the city erupted into flames Wednesday night as residents again took to the streets to protest the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed by white police officer Derek Chauvin Monday. A viral video shows Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for a number of minutes as Floyd repeatedly says, “I cannot breathe.” Three other officers stood by as George Floyd suffocated. They’ve been identified as Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng. All four officers were fired Tuesday.
On Wednesday night, the city requested help from the National Guard as a number of buildings were set ablaze. The protest followed a day-long demonstration outside the city’s 3rd Precinct police headquarters, where police fired tear gas and projectiles at the protesters. Demonstrators also rallied outside the home of former officer Derek Chauvin. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called on prosecutors to file criminal charges against Derek Chauvin Wednesday.
MAYOR JACOB FREY: I’ve wrestled with, more than anything else over the last 36 hours, one fundamental question: Why is the man who killed George Floyd not in jail? If you had done it or I had done it, we would be behind bars right now. And I cannot come up with a good answer to that question. And so I’m calling on Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to act on the evidence before him. I’m calling on him to charge the arresting officer in this case. We cannot turn a blind eye. It is on us, as leaders, to see this for what it is and call it what it is. George Floyd deserves justice. His family deserves justice. The Black community deserves justice. And our city deserves justice.
AMY GOODMAN: The Star Tribune reports Derek Chauvin has been involved in multiple police shootings in his 19 years on the Minneapolis police force and was the subject of a dozen police conduct complaints. In 2008, he shot and injured a man while making a domestic assault call. In 2006, he was one of six officers who killed a man after responding to a stabbing. NBC News reports it’s unclear from the police report which officers fired their weapons.
The other police officer identified in the video of George Floyd’s murder is Tou Thao. He was sued for use of excessive force in 2017. According to the lawsuit by Lamar Ferguson, [Ferguson] was walking home with a woman who was eight months pregnant, when Thao and another officer stopped them and searched them without cause. The officers handcuffed Ferguson, and Thao threw him to the ground and punched him repeatedly, according to the lawsuit. The case settled for $25,000.
This is Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the former congressman, speaking on Wednesday. He announced both state and federal officials have opened investigations into the killing of George Floyd.
ATTORNEY GENERAL KEITH ELLISON: This investigation must proceed with a degree of objectivity. We’re not going to prejudge the facts, though the video is so clear before our eyes. Why? Because at the end of this process, we want nobody to be able to question the process. …
So what we’re dealing with is not an isolated case. We’re dealing with a systemic problem. And the investigation and the prosecution, if that happens, and the ultimate consequences, they are being handled. I am confident that they’re being handled competently. But that doesn’t end it. The discharge of the officers doesn’t end it. The criminal process that has begun doesn’t end it. The civil rights process doesn’t end it. We’ve got to have permanent, deep systemic change.
AMY GOODMAN: Minnesota’s African American Attorney General Keith Ellison also was the first Muslim elected to Congress.
We go now to Minneapolis, where we’re joined by Nekima Levy Armstrong civil rights attorney, activist, founder of the Racial Justice Network, former president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP.
Welcome back to Democracy Now! Your city is in flames. Can you talk about what’s happened this week and what you’re demanding?
NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG: Yes. So, we know that George Floyd was unjustly killed by Minneapolis police officers. The video has gone viral. People are outraged. This is yet another reminder that the Minneapolis Police Department has a culture of violence, specifically when it comes to their interactions with the African American community. And so, as a result of what happened to George Floyd, we took to the streets in a two-and-a-half-mile march, from the site of where he was killed to the 3rd Precinct police station, where thousands of people stood in solidarity, standing up for justice for George Floyd.
And in the last couple of days, there have been skirmishes between law enforcement officials and protesters. I just actually left the site a little while ago, and some of the buildings were burning that were in close proximity to the 3rd Precinct police station. And although some people are surprised by this, I’m not surprised, because we’ve been warning city officials for many years that Minneapolis was going to become the next Ferguson if they did not clean up the Minneapolis Police Department and address the other racial inequities that we experience as African Americans.
AMY GOODMAN: So, can you respond to the family calling for the police officers to be brought up on murder charges, not just Chauvin, who was the one who kneeled on the neck of George Floyd as he pleaded for his life, saying “I cannot breathe”; the mayor calling for criminal charges; the attorney general, what he is calling for in Minnesota; and also President Trump saying he’s looking at the case?
NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG: Well, the reality is that it wasn’t just Chauvin who was responsible for the death of George Floyd. There were actually three officers that were pressing upon his body, that were holding him down so that he could not move. And there was a fourth officer who was standing guard, preventing community members from intervening in the situation. I mean, the community members did the best that they could to ask the officers to please allow Mr. George Floyd to be able to get up. And their cries and George Floyd’s cries fell on deaf ears. Just the flagrant attitudes of the officers and the nonchalant way that they responded to a man just simply asking to be able to breathe is absolutely unconscionable.
And I agree with the family, I agree with the community, that those officers should be immediately charged for the murder of George Floyd. They should have already been arrested by now. It just is — it’s a no-brainer. Any of us who had engaged in that level of conduct would already be in jail. Just because they’re officers does not mean that they should get away with this type of behavior. Firing them is a first step, but it is not enough on the road towards justice for people to feel satisfied by that outcome.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go to the Minneapolis Police Chief Arradondo speaking Wednesday.
POLICE CHIEF MEDARIA ARRADONDO: I certainly have said publicly, as well, that what I observed, those actions from those former four officers, in no way reflect the values and the vision and the culture that I want to change here with the Minneapolis Police Department. And so many of our men and women work each and every day to try to build those relationships of trust.
AMY GOODMAN: Arradondo was speaking with a mask on. We did not see the police officers who were involved with the killing of George Floyd with a mask. But what are you demanding of Police Chief Arradondo?
NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG: Well, we are demanding that the body camera footage be released. As I mentioned earlier, of course, we want the officers charged immediately, although that decision is not in the hands of Chief Arradondo. We had requested that those officers be fired, and he agreed that they needed to be fired. And that was an unprecedented move to have officers who are white officers be fired for killing a Black person. That has not happened. Normally, officers are allowed to remain on the force after they have killed someone. So, in addition to the charges and the body camera footage, we want to see systemic changes within the Minneapolis Police Department. We want to see a cultural shift.
We are also asking for the appointment of a special prosecutor. We simply do not trust the Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman to make a fair and objective decision, because typically he sides with law enforcement officers. He has not held a single officer accountable for shooting a civilian, for killing a civilian, except in the case of Justine Damond, who was a white, affluent woman who was shot and killed by a Black Muslim Somali man. And we saw, after a period of time, where Mike Freeman actually did bring charges, and ultimately Mohamed Noor was convicted, and he is spending time in prison. Most of the officers who kill people in Minneapolis and in the state of Minnesota are white men, but not one has been charged and convicted for killing a Black person in the state of Minnesota. And we believe that that needs to change. It needs to change now. And they need to be held accountable for George Floyd’s murder.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to the eyewitness — one of the eyewitnesses. We see people from the cellphone footage who are filming. He was right there. He went on CNN’s Chris Cuomo’s show last night and described what he saw.
CHRIS CUOMO: The part that makes the least sense, did any of the cops — did you hear them talking to each other about why they couldn’t just move him and get him out of the situation?
DONALD WILLIAMS: Bro, they wanted to kill that man, bro. I’m going to be 100, bro. They didn’t speak. They didn’t say nothing. The view was in his eyes, bro. The man had his knee on his chest, bro. He knew what he was doing. He shimmies on my man’s neck, bro. He knew what he was doing. It’s just like having a jiu-jitsu choke. If I’m here, and I’m shimmying, I’m shimmying, I’m shimmying, I’m shimmying. Boom! My choke’s on there. I told him it was a blood choke. He knew it was a blood choke. He looked at me when I said it. He put his head down. He did not make any more gestures, did not say any other thing. And the two other cowards that was on the other side of the car, I didn’t know nothing about. I didn’t know about it ’til I got videos in my social media and things like that. So, there was the intent to smother my man and kill my man. And I seen it. I seen it in his eyes, I seen it in his demeanor, and I seen it in their movement.
And Officer Thao didn’t — he didn’t partake in it, but he had control of what was going on on the other side of that car, for me not to see what was going on. Because if he would have known me personally, know how I am. And I’m very — I’m a controlled athlete. I’m a controlled person. You know, I have different levels to who I am. And I showed my control, and it’s out there in front of the world. I got letters, notes, for months, from people that know me from growing up in the city, that said I was the most controlled they ever seen in my life, as I’m seeing another man, that looked like me, that feels like me, that’s got the same complexion as me, lose his life to another man that had no senseless. He had no feeling. He had no remorse. He had [bleep] in him. He had no feeling. I don’t even think he had a heart at that moment. And he’s going to feel that for the rest of his life, just like I’m going to hear my man say this: “I can’t breathe. I want my mama.” And I’m coming to find out that this man who died two years on the day that his mom died. I’m a mama’s boy, bro. Like, that [bleep] hurts me deep down inside, bro. And, like, something needs to be done, or something needs to be done.
AMY GOODMAN: That was eyewitness Donald Williams describing the killing of George Floyd. Nekima Levy Armstrong, as you hear this, and the family is demanding murder charges be brought against all four officers, right now parts of Minneapolis, southern Minneapolis, are in flames. Your final thoughts on what needs to happen at this point?
NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG: What needs to happen is that charges need to be brought immediately against the four officers who killed George Floyd. There is simply no justification for what they did or why they did it. And people have to wake up and understand that, as Black people, we do not feel safe in the city of Minneapolis, we do not feel safe in the state of Minnesota, we do not feel safe around this country, when it comes to our interactions with law enforcement. And like he said, that needs to change, and it needs to change now.
AMY GOODMAN: And the other video footage, that we have seen and that we haven’t seen, one from Dragon Wok across the street, in the store footage, the police officers claim that he was resisting arrest, but we see him coming out of the car. We see the police officers holding him. They handcuff him. They walk him across the street. And that’s when they take him down. Can you explain this?
NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG: There is no explanation. And I think that people need to shift their focus from whether he was a resisting arrest or not. That has nothing to do with the fact that they compressed that man’s body, put the full weight of a human body on his neck and snuffed the life out of him. We have to —
AMY GOODMAN: For something like eight minutes.
NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG: Absolutely. Who can justify that? That was a modern-day lynching. No other words for that. That was a modern-day lynching. So people have to realize what they witnessed, be honest about it, and push for accountability, and not allow them to use technicalities as a way to justify what happened to George Floyd. It doesn’t matter about his past. It doesn’t matter whether he was resisting or he didn’t. It doesn’t matter what happened in the store. What matters is that those officers had a chance to ensure that George Floyd could live and not die, that he could breathe and not suffocate or have whatever kind of response to his body that happened. He should be alive today to tell his story. They took that away from him. And they should be held accountable.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Floyd’s brother Philonise speaking on CNN Tuesday.
PHILONISE FLOYD: I loved my brother. Everybody loved my brother. Knowing my brother is to love my brother. They could have tased him. They could have maced him. Instead, they put their knee in his neck and just sat on him, and then carried on. He screamed, “Mama! Mama! I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” And they didn’t care. So, I don’t — I just don’t understand what more we’ve got to go through in life, man. They didn’t have to do that to him.
AMY GOODMAN: George Floyd’s brother Philonise, speaking on CNN on Tuesday. Benjamin Crump, now the family attorney, has already filed a lawsuit against Minneapolis. We will continue to follow this story. We want to thank Nekima Levy Armstrong, civil rights attorney, activist, founder of the Racial Justice Network, former president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP, for being with us.
When we come back, we look at the life and legacy of Larry Kramer, the legendary writer, trailblazing activist in the fight against AIDS. He died on Thursday. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: “The Seven Last Words of the Unarmed” by composer Joel Thompson, performed by the Sphinx, led by conductor Eugene Rogers.


democracynow--2020-05-28--Headlines for May 28, 2020

Headlines for May 28, 2020

In Minnesota , parts of Minneapolis erupted in flames Wednesday night as residents took to the streets for a second night to protest the death of George Floyd , a Black man killed by police on Monday .
A video circulated widely on social media earlier this week shows George Floyd gasping for air and telling the officers “ I can not breathe , ” while a white officer named Derek Chauvin pinned him to the pavement with a knee to his neck .
Three other officers stood nearby .
All four officers have since been fired .
The officers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he tried using a counterfeit bill to buy groceries .
On Wednesday , protesters held a day-long demonstration outside the city ’ s 3rd Precinct police headquarters .
Police fired tear gas , flash-bang grenades and projectiles in an attempt to disperse the crowd .
Demonstrators also rallied outside the home of former officer Derek Chauvin .
On Wednesday night , the city requested help from the National Guard as a number of buildings were set ablaze .
Meanwhile , Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has called on prosecutors to file criminal charges against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Chauvin was involved in multiple police shootings in his 19 years on the Minneapolis police force and was the subject of a dozen police conduct complaints .
Protests over the killing of George Floyd have also erupted in other cities , including Los Angeles , where demonstrators temporarily blocked traffic on Highway 101 .

In Minnesota, parts of Minneapolis erupted in flames Wednesday night as residents took to the streets for a second night to protest the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed by police on Monday. A video circulated widely on social media earlier this week shows George Floyd gasping for air and telling the officers “I cannot breathe,” while a white officer named Derek Chauvin pinned him to the pavement with a knee to his neck. Three other officers stood nearby. All four officers have since been fired. The officers confronted Floyd after receiving a complaint that he tried using a counterfeit bill to buy groceries.
On Wednesday, protesters held a day-long demonstration outside the city’s 3rd Precinct police headquarters. Police fired tear gas, flash-bang grenades and projectiles in an attempt to disperse the crowd. Demonstrators also rallied outside the home of former officer Derek Chauvin.
On Wednesday night, the city requested help from the National Guard as a number of buildings were set ablaze. Meanwhile, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has called on prosecutors to file criminal charges against Chauvin.
Mayor Jacob Frey: “Why is the man who killed George Floyd not in jail? … George Floyd deserves justice. His family deserves justice. The Black community deserves justice. And our city deserves justice.”
The Star Tribune reports Derek Chauvin was involved in multiple police shootings in his 19 years on the Minneapolis police force and was the subject of a dozen police conduct complaints. Protests over the killing of George Floyd have also erupted in other cities, including Los Angeles, where demonstrators temporarily blocked traffic on Highway 101.


democracynow--2020-05-29--Twitter Warns Trump Tweet Glorifies Violence as He Signs Executive Order to Weaken Social Media

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now !
I ’ m Amy Goodman .
On Thursday , President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to clarify the scope of a law known as Section 230 , which protects internet companies from liability for illegal content posted by users , and lets them remove legal but objectionable posts .
Critics say the order could be used to punish social media companies for how they monitor content .
This comes as Trump used Twitter to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ George Floyd in Minneapolis , calling them ” THUGS ” and inciting violence by saying , “ when the looting starts , the shooting starts.
” Twitter responded by labeling Trump ’ s tweet with the warning , “ This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence .
However , Twitter has determined that it may be in the public ’ s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible , ” unquote .
This comes after Twitter on Tuesday took the unprecedented step of adding a fact-check label to two tweets of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ saying he erroneously attacked mail-in voting .
For more , we go to Los Angeles , where we ’ re joined by Ramesh Srinivasan , a professor in the Department of Information Studies and design director at the University of California , Los Angeles , UCLA , where he also directs the Digital Cultures Lab .
So , can you talk about what Twitter has done and what this executive order means , Ramesh ?
RAMESH SRINIVASAN : Yeah , absolutely .
And such an honor to join you , Amy .
So @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bedfellows .
Trump has long extolled Twitter and other social media platforms as his way of so-called reaching the people .
He has over 80 million Twitter followers .
So , in this particular case , what we see is Trump being personally affronted by Twitter actually enacting something that it warned us it would do , which is actually labeling some of Trump ’ s tweets .
That ’ s not a violation of his freedom of speech .
That ’ s actually labeling some of his tweets because they are indeed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his use of social media and its attention-hoarding algorithms , to basically disinform and misinform people , as we know , and you ’ ve reported for such a long time , Amy .
Conspiracy theories and the politicization , for example , of the coronavirus are all occurring online algorithmically in ways that support Trump ’ s agenda .
AMY GOODMAN : The American Civil Liberties Union tweeted , “ The president has no authority to rewrite a congressional statute with an executive order imposing a flawed interpretation of Section 230 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ sorts of content without fear of being held liable .
It enables speech , not censorship , ” said the ACLU .
And Jameel Jaffer , director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University , tweeted , “ Whatever else this Executive Order may be , it is not a good faith effort to protect free speech online.
” Ramesh Srinivasan ?
RAMESH SRINIVASAN : Absolutely , that is true .
However , what Trump has done is actually raise a question that I think we all need to get around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how it is that our online media companies , which are the gateways to all things journalistic , have been able to get away with simply publishing all of this content , because they are indeed publishers , and they ’ re monetizing all sorts of journalism without any oversight or regulatory activity .
And that ’ s why it ’ s extremely important to intervene on every level possible for the public interest , particularly at a time of pandemic , to ensure that actually public interest in an internet that was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where all the benefits and value and profits and so on have been privatized .
So I think it ’ s very important that we actually revisit Section 230 in the image of people ’ s interest and public power .
Otherwise , we see these conspiracy theories that are politicizing a situation where 100,000 people have died , and not really allowing us to come together in the way we really , really need to as Americans and people across the world .
AMY GOODMAN : So , The New York Times @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump ’ s Proposed Order on Social Media Could Harm One Person in Particular : Trump.
” How has Trump himself benefited from the Section 230 policy ?
Also , if you can talk about the lawsuit that tech companies could bring , and what this all means , especially as we lead into this election in November , if in fact it takes place ?
RAMESH SRINIVASAN : Yeah , these are huge issues that are occurring here .
Again and again and again , we see Big Tech , basically , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ corporate initiatives in America , basically , make great amounts of money off of the backs of American public taxpayers and privatize all the profits .
And as they engage in their own private and unaccountable abuses , the costs are resocialized onto all of us .
It ’ s why I ’ ve called for a Digital Bill of Rights .
So , as we approach toward 2020 , it ’ s extremely important we recognize that Trump ’ s entire digital strategy game — you can see it with Brad Parscale @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to fundamentally focus on online , specifically on Facebook , hundreds of millions of dollars potentially going to be put into the digital ecosystem .
And what is that going to do ?
Well , it ’ s going to behaviorally microtarget people .
We ’ re going to be subject to algorithms that are optimized for our attention , which we know conspiracy-oriented content and sensational-oriented content really glue us and lock us into .
So , what we really , really need to do is intervene here , in every manner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these tech companies suing ?
RAMESH SRINIVASAN : Yeah .
So , the tech companies themselves are very likely to engage in some sorts of counteractivity to actually stop Trump with this particular decision .
It ’ s very unlikely to stand up , this decision , in relation to Section 230 .
It ’ s very unlikely that Trump ’ s act , executive order , will stand up in the courts .
So , in that sense , it ’ s a distraction , but it points us to the real @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public interests involving technology .
RAMESH SRINIVASAN : Twitter could , potentially , but I don ’ t think they ’ re going to engage in that task .
I think what they ’ re actually going to do is continue to label his tweets in this particular way .
But we ’ re going to see continued backlashes accordingly , as well .
AMY GOODMAN : Ramesh Srinivasan , we have to have you back on , but I want to thank you for being with us , professor in the Department @ @ @ @ @ @ @ UCLA , the University of California at Los Angeles .
That does it for our broadcast .
Democracy Now !
is working with as few people on site as possible .
The majority of our amazing team is working from home .
If you want to sign up for our daily quarantine report , you can go to democracynow.org .
Democracy Now !
is produced with Renée Feltz , Mike Burke , Deena Guzder , Libby Rainey , Nermeen Shaikh , Carla Wills , Tami Woronoff , Charina Nadura , Sam Alcoff , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Karran , Hany Massoud , Adriano Contreras , María Taracena .
Our general manager is Julie Crosby .
Special thanks to Becca Staley , Miriam Barnard , Denis Moynihan , Paul Powell .
I ’ m Amy Goodman .
Thanks so much for joining us .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman. On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to clarify the scope of a law known as Section 230, which protects internet companies from liability for illegal content posted by users, and lets them remove legal but objectionable posts. Critics say the order could be used to punish social media companies for how they monitor content.
This comes as Trump used Twitter to attack civilians protesting the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, calling them ”THUGS” and inciting violence by saying, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Twitter responded by labeling Trump’s tweet with the warning, “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible,” unquote.
This comes after Twitter on Tuesday took the unprecedented step of adding a fact-check label to two tweets of the president of the United States, saying he erroneously attacked mail-in voting.
For more, we go to Los Angeles, where we’re joined by Ramesh Srinivasan, a professor in the Department of Information Studies and design director at the University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA, where he also directs the Digital Cultures Lab.
So, can you talk about what Twitter has done and what this executive order means, Ramesh?
RAMESH SRINIVASAN: Yeah, absolutely. And such an honor to join you, Amy.
So, Trump and Twitter are very strange bedfellows. Trump has long extolled Twitter and other social media platforms as his way of so-called reaching the people. He has over 80 million Twitter followers.
So, in this particular case, what we see is Trump being personally affronted by Twitter actually enacting something that it warned us it would do, which is actually labeling some of Trump’s tweets. That’s not a violation of his freedom of speech. That’s actually labeling some of his tweets because they are indeed misleading.
Trump has prospered, through his use of social media and its attention-hoarding algorithms, to basically disinform and misinform people, as we know, and you’ve reported for such a long time, Amy. Conspiracy theories and the politicization, for example, of the coronavirus are all occurring online algorithmically in ways that support Trump’s agenda.
AMY GOODMAN: The American Civil Liberties Union tweeted, “The president has no authority to rewrite a congressional statute with an executive order imposing a flawed interpretation of Section 230. Section 230 incentivizes platforms to host all sorts of content without fear of being held liable. It enables speech, not censorship,” said the ACLU. And Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, tweeted, “Whatever else this Executive Order may be, it is not a good faith effort to protect free speech online.” Ramesh Srinivasan?
RAMESH SRINIVASAN: Absolutely, that is true. However, what Trump has done is actually raise a question that I think we all need to get around, which is really the question of how it is that our online media companies, which are the gateways to all things journalistic, have been able to get away with simply publishing all of this content, because they are indeed publishers, and they’re monetizing all sorts of journalism without any oversight or regulatory activity. And that’s why it’s extremely important to intervene on every level possible for the public interest, particularly at a time of pandemic, to ensure that actually public interest in an internet that was originally funded by public taxpayer money, where all the benefits and value and profits and so on have been privatized. So I think it’s very important that we actually revisit Section 230 in the image of people’s interest and public power. Otherwise, we see these conspiracy theories that are politicizing a situation where 100,000 people have died, and not really allowing us to come together in the way we really, really need to as Americans and people across the world.
AMY GOODMAN: So, The New York Times ran an article with the headline “Trump’s Proposed Order on Social Media Could Harm One Person in Particular: Trump.” How has Trump himself benefited from the Section 230 policy? Also, if you can talk about the lawsuit that tech companies could bring, and what this all means, especially as we lead into this election in November, if in fact it takes place?
RAMESH SRINIVASAN: Yeah, these are huge issues that are occurring here. Again and again and again, we see Big Tech, basically, like Big Pharma and other sorts of corporate initiatives in America, basically, make great amounts of money off of the backs of American public taxpayers and privatize all the profits. And as they engage in their own private and unaccountable abuses, the costs are resocialized onto all of us. It’s why I’ve called for a Digital Bill of Rights.
So, as we approach toward 2020, it’s extremely important we recognize that Trump’s entire digital strategy game — you can see it with Brad Parscale as his campaign manager — is going to fundamentally focus on online, specifically on Facebook, hundreds of millions of dollars potentially going to be put into the digital ecosystem. And what is that going to do? Well, it’s going to behaviorally microtarget people. We’re going to be subject to algorithms that are optimized for our attention, which we know conspiracy-oriented content and sensational-oriented content really glue us and lock us into. So, what we really, really need to do is intervene here, in every manner possible.
AMY GOODMAN: What about these tech companies suing?
RAMESH SRINIVASAN: Yeah. So, the tech companies themselves are very likely to engage in some sorts of counteractivity to actually stop Trump with this particular decision. It’s very unlikely to stand up, this decision, in relation to Section 230. It’s very unlikely that Trump’s act, executive order, will stand up in the courts. So, in that sense, it’s a distraction, but it points us to the real issue, which is private power dominating public interests involving technology.
AMY GOODMAN: Could Twitter delete Trump’s account?
RAMESH SRINIVASAN: Twitter could, potentially, but I don’t think they’re going to engage in that task. I think what they’re actually going to do is continue to label his tweets in this particular way. But we’re going to see continued backlashes accordingly, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: Ramesh Srinivasan, we have to have you back on, but I want to thank you for being with us, professor in the Department of Information Studies, design director at UCLA, the University of California at Los Angeles.
That does it for our broadcast. Democracy Now! is working with as few people on site as possible. The majority of our amazing team is working from home. If you want to sign up for our daily quarantine report, you can go to democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced with Renée Feltz, Mike Burke, Deena Guzder, Libby Rainey, Nermeen Shaikh, Carla Wills, Tami Woronoff, Charina Nadura, Sam Alcoff, Tey-Marie Astudillo, John Hamilton, Robby Karran, Hany Massoud, Adriano Contreras, María Taracena. Our general manager is Julie Crosby. Special thanks to Becca Staley, Miriam Barnard, Denis Moynihan, Paul Powell. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.


democracynow--2020-05-29--As Pandemic Epicenter Shifts to Latin America, Gov'ts Use COVID-19 as Pretext for Police Repression

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 the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic shifts to Latin America , so too does the use of COVID-19 as a pretext for police repression .
A new report by Amnesty International details the increasing use of arbitrary , punitive , violent attacks in Latin America and the Caribbean as governments enforce coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions .
In El Salvador , hundreds of people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at curbing the spread of the coronavirus , have protested to demand to be freed and be given the results of their COVID-19 tests .
This is a group of people who say they ’ ve been held in one of San Salvador ’ s quarantine detention centers for over 45 days .
This footage was published last week by a Central American human rights organization .
AMY GOODMAN : Well , for more , we ’ re going to San Salvador , the capital of El Salvador , where we ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Latin American , Latino and Caribbean studies at Dartmouth College .
He traveled to El Salvador in late February to continue research for his book , now on lockdown in the capital , San Salvador , with his parents .
His recent article for ReVista : Harvard Review of Latin America is headlined “ El Salvador ’ s Two Pandemics : Maximum Insecurity.
” Also with us , in Mexico City , is Louise Tillotson , researcher for Amnesty International Americas , co-author of their new report titled “ Authorities must protect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ repressive measures.
” Jorge Cuéllar , let ’ s begin with you .
Describe what ’ s happening in El Salvador .
JORGE CUÉLLAR : Well , thank you for inviting me to the program , Amy .
What we ’ re seeing here in San Salvador , and El Salvador , more broadly , is the use of the pandemic in order to keep people in their homes , enforce a militarized lockdown and to ensure this kind of — the nonspreading of the coronavirus .
What ’ s very strange about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the president has offered very little clarity and transparent information as to what ’ s happening in the quarantines , as the clip that you shared just mentioned .
There ’ s things going on there .
People are receiving poor treatment , with unhygienic conditions , with broken restrooms , for example , and in overcrowded conditions , that are creating very tense situations within the quarantines , that have even led to hunger strikes and protests by individuals .
AMY GOODMAN : I want to turn to another clip of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve been illegally detained at one of San Salvador ’ s so-called containment centers for over 45 days .
This footage was published also by the Central American human rights organization , one of the men in the group speaking of the conditions inside .
AMY GOODMAN : So , Jorge Cuéllar , if you can talk , overall , about the government and its use of COVID-19 , how it ’ s using it as a pretext for political repression ?
JORGE CUÉLLAR : So , the story of the quarantine really @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nayib Bukele stormed the national — the Legislative Assembly in order to push for an anti-crime bill called the Territorial Control Plan .
And this was one of the first instances when the government started to antagonize other institutions of government and create a sort of situation where unilateral decision-making became sort of the norm .
And when the coronavirus sort of takes hold in Central America , Bukele uses this moment in order to sort of double down on those things that he had been pushing for prior .
So , within @ @ @ @ @ @ @ different sanitary measures that he ’ s taken in order to safeguard the lives of Salvadoran people have come with the increasing number of military and police forces on the ground , that have created a series of checkpoints all over the country , as well as kind of creating a certain climate of intimidation for people who are seeking to do their daily errands , to go to the pharmacy , to do their grocery runs , with this kind of idea , given the history of the country and the tense @ @ @ @ @ @ @ population , that they run the risk of going to , of being sent to one of these quarantines , that , as those clips also mention , are in complete disrepair .
And then there ’ s a likelier chance that one will be infected by the coronavirus within these containment centers than just staying and remaining home .
JORGE CUÉLLAR : So , it ’ s this kind of — yeah , go ahead .
AMY GOODMAN : Let me bring Louise Tillotson into the conversation , one of the researchers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Authorities must protect people from COVID-19 instead of resorting to repressive measures.
” As you look at what ’ s happening in Latin America , talk about what you ’ re seeing , not only in El Salvador , but around the region .
LOUISE TILLOTSON : Yeah , thank you .
At Amnesty International , we started documenting incidents of repression in the context of COVID-19 , with our digital verification team and country researchers , just a few days after the lockdowns were put in place across the region .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ we documented some 60 instances of repression in a number of countries .
We saw four worrying trends .
In some countries , we ’ ve seen detention being used massively as a form to enforce lockdowns .
So , in places like the Dominican Republic , to date , we ’ ve seen some 60,000 people detained .
The videos show us that people are simply rounded up and put in the back of police trucks without physical distancing measures .
We are not clear what happens to them when they ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to a lawyer nor the other safeguards one would need to see usually when people are being detained .
We also saw many videos of humiliating and degrading treatment by the police .
One of the things that started to emerge in the videos we saw from across the region was the police punishing people with these humiliating tactics of sort of getting them to do jumping jacks and force group exercise , and sometimes using Tasers on them .
We also saw indications of excess use of force by the police for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ food and other basic needs .
So , places like Venezuela , we saw Indigenous communities protesting in need of food , and repression being used against them .
And as we ’ re also hearing and in the videos that you showed , in many countries , in El Salvador , in Venezuela , but also in other Central American countries and in Paraguay , we ’ re seeing this phenomenon of mandatory quarantines in inhumane conditions , as you describe , where people don ’ t have basic sanitation and people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all the videos that we looked at indicate to us that people that are living in poverty , homeless people , migrants and refugees are much more likely to be impacted by these punitive measures .
And so we ’ re seeing that COVID-19 , like other pandemics before it , magnifies structural discrimination .
And sadly , it ’ s often the most marginalized that are the first targets of these punitive responses .
AMY GOODMAN : And , Louise Tillotson , where you are , in Mexico City , in Mexico @ @ @ @ @ @ @ AMLO , the president , of Andrés Manuel López Obrador ?
LOUISE TILLOTSON : Here in Mexico , we ’ ve seen a softer lockdown than in other parts of the region , in the sense that we haven ’ t seen mass deployment of police and military to enforce it .
We have seen some incidents of repression that are concerning , but our main focus has been on the issue of violence against women .
Of course , there ’ s another epidemic in Latin America , and that holds true @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s violence against women .
So , just in March , before lockdowns or stay-at-home orders were put in place , tens of thousands of women here in Mexico took to the streets demanding that the authorities do more around femicides , do more around domestic violence .
And then , what we ’ ve seen since the stay-at-home orders have been in place is the number of calls to hotlines for domestic violence spiked significantly .
We haven ’ t seen leadership from the president on this issue .
We ’ ve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ times to make sure that they provide enough resources to protect survivors from gender-based violence .
AMY GOODMAN : I wanted to go back to Professor Cuéllar .
The Salvadoran president , Bukele , last month authorized police and military to use lethal force against alleged gang members , following a spate of homicides allegedly linked to gang activity .
Authorities said more than 50 people were murdered in a single weekend , after imprisoned suspected gang members allegedly ordered the killings from behind bars .
Shocking images , many of which were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ account , show prisoners crammed together , with only some wearing face masks , as prisons enforce — and we ’ re going to show a photograph ; it ’ s unbelievable — around-the-clock lockdown on suspected gang members , which includes putting metal sheets over prison bars and housing prisoners from rival gangs in the same overcrowded cells .
You have these images of like a thousand men with each of them in the legs of the one before .
And we ’ re going to show that image again .
If @ @ @ @ @ @ @ video ?
JORGE CUÉLLAR : Yeah , that image and those videos of that day are instructive as to what ’ s happening in the country , where there is a kind of security initiative that ’ s taking place during the coronavirus pandemic .
And what we see in these images is that there ’ s clearly no way that social distancing can happen within the decrepit and dungeon-like prison system in El Salvador .
And these men , like you notice , have very little protection on .
But these images @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they functioned in society , is that they demonstrated to the country that , indeed , the security initiatives that Bukele has set into motion have been effective in curtailing the violence against gangs , though what we see with this kind of homicide spike that happened in late April was that the territorial control that the government thinks that they ’ ve achieved is actually quite , quite fragile and perhaps not true .
This ongoing kind of tension between gangs and the state is something that has also been historically present @ @ @ @ @ @ @ used images of gang member humiliation to push this idea that punitive measures are the only option to correct the most undesirable elements of Salvadoran society .
But what we see here is this kind of overwhelming dehumanization of these people , who are now under this idea that putting them together in the same cells and shutting them off from even seeing sunlight , as the center — Osiris Luna , the director of the penal system , mentioned , is really not going to solve the problem in the long term @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the epicenter of the global pandemic shifts from the United States to Latin America , what are you calling for ?
What is Amnesty International calling for , on the authorities , around the issue of police repression , using COVID-19 as a pretext ?
LOUISE TILLOTSON : Yeah .
We ’ re concerned by this sort of creeping repression that we ’ re seeing .
Of course , in international human rights law , countries can take measures to protect public health .
But sadly , in a region where we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in 2019 , including during states of emergency , used as a way to repress dissent , we ’ re worried .
Governments have extraordinary powers in the current context .
Of course , COVID-19 presents us with huge challenges .
But measures that governments take , including mandatory quarantines and enforcements of lockdowns , need to be necessary and proportionate , because beyond the fact that these measures can be repressive and violate a number of human rights , they also stand to undermine prevention efforts .
So , when people are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve seen in the Dominican Republic , or put in these obligatory , mandatory quarantines , like we ’ ve seen in El Salvador and Venezuela and Paraguay , where they can ’ t physically distance , that ’ s counterproductive to all our efforts .
So we ’ ve launched a campaign called Repression Is Not Protection , and we ’ ll be monitoring states to ensure that they don ’ t overreach or abuse their powers and continue repressing in the name of COVID .
AMY GOODMAN : Louise Tillotson , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with us , Amnesty International Americas .
We ’ ll link to your report , “ Authorities must protect people from COVID-19 instead of resorting to repressive measures.
” And , Professor Jorge Cuéllar , thanks so much for joining us from El Salvador .
We ’ ll link to your article , “ El Salvador ’ s Two Pandemics : Maximum Insecurity.
” This is Democracy Now !
When we come back , President Trump has just issued an executive order , after Twitter deletes one of his tweets and now has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ promoting violence — they didn ’ t delete it , but they said that his tweet was promoting misinformation .
Stay with us .

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 the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic shifts to Latin America, so too does the use of COVID-19 as a pretext for police repression. A new report by Amnesty International details the increasing use of arbitrary, punitive, violent attacks in Latin America and the Caribbean as governments enforce coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions.
In El Salvador, hundreds of people detained in government facilities, allegedly aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus, have protested to demand to be freed and be given the results of their COVID-19 tests. This is a group of people who say they’ve been held in one of San Salvador’s quarantine detention centers for over 45 days. This footage was published last week by a Central American human rights organization.
SALVADORAN DETAINEE: [translated] We are people who are detained illegally for 45 days. We are asking authorities to free us. We have been tested for the coronavirus four times and tested negative all four times. But the authorities still say there is a COVID-19-positive person among us, which is completely false. We demand answers of how it is possible there is a positive case among us, after being detained illegally for 45 days.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, for more, we’re going to San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, where we’re joined by Jorge Cuéllar, assistant professor of Latin American, Latino and Caribbean studies at Dartmouth College. He traveled to El Salvador in late February to continue research for his book, now on lockdown in the capital, San Salvador, with his parents. His recent article for ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America is headlined “El Salvador’s Two Pandemics: Maximum Insecurity.” Also with us, in Mexico City, is Louise Tillotson, researcher for Amnesty International Americas, co-author of their new report titled “Authorities must protect people from COVID-19 instead of resorting to repressive measures.”
Jorge Cuéllar, let’s begin with you. Describe what’s happening in El Salvador.
JORGE CUÉLLAR: Well, thank you for inviting me to the program, Amy.
What we’re seeing here in San Salvador, and El Salvador, more broadly, is the use of the pandemic in order to keep people in their homes, enforce a militarized lockdown and to ensure this kind of — the nonspreading of the coronavirus. What’s very strange about what’s going on is that the president has offered very little clarity and transparent information as to what’s happening in the quarantines, as the clip that you shared just mentioned. There’s things going on there. People are receiving poor treatment, with unhygienic conditions, with broken restrooms, for example, and in overcrowded conditions, that are creating very tense situations within the quarantines, that have even led to hunger strikes and protests by individuals.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to another clip of a group of men who say they’ve been illegally detained at one of San Salvador’s so-called containment centers for over 45 days. This footage was published also by the Central American human rights organization, one of the men in the group speaking of the conditions inside.
SALVADORAN DETAINEE: [translated] We don’t have supplies, which we have been asking for for days, supplies like water, alcohol, gel, soap for the bathroom and for personal hygiene. We want to reinforce that the food provided by the government arrives here already rotten, causing stomach problems among those of us who are detained here.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Jorge Cuéllar, if you can talk, overall, about the government and its use of COVID-19, how it’s using it as a pretext for political repression?
JORGE CUÉLLAR: So, the story of the quarantine really begins back in February, where President Nayib Bukele stormed the national — the Legislative Assembly in order to push for an anti-crime bill called the Territorial Control Plan. And this was one of the first instances when the government started to antagonize other institutions of government and create a sort of situation where unilateral decision-making became sort of the norm. And when the coronavirus sort of takes hold in Central America, Bukele uses this moment in order to sort of double down on those things that he had been pushing for prior.
So, within the situation of the pandemic, these different sanitary measures that he’s taken in order to safeguard the lives of Salvadoran people have come with the increasing number of military and police forces on the ground, that have created a series of checkpoints all over the country, as well as kind of creating a certain climate of intimidation for people who are seeking to do their daily errands, to go to the pharmacy, to do their grocery runs, with this kind of idea, given the history of the country and the tense situation among security forces and the general population, that they run the risk of going to, of being sent to one of these quarantines, that, as those clips also mention, are in complete disrepair. And then there’s a likelier chance that one will be infected by the coronavirus within these containment centers than just staying and remaining home.
AMY GOODMAN: Louise —
JORGE CUÉLLAR: So, it’s this kind of — yeah, go ahead.
AMY GOODMAN: Let me bring Louise Tillotson into the conversation, one of the researchers on this new Amnesty International report called “Authorities must protect people from COVID-19 instead of resorting to repressive measures.” As you look at what’s happening in Latin America, talk about what you’re seeing, not only in El Salvador, but around the region.
LOUISE TILLOTSON: Yeah, thank you. At Amnesty International, we started documenting incidents of repression in the context of COVID-19, with our digital verification team and country researchers, just a few days after the lockdowns were put in place across the region. So, in a seven-week period, we documented some 60 instances of repression in a number of countries.
We saw four worrying trends. In some countries, we’ve seen detention being used massively as a form to enforce lockdowns. So, in places like the Dominican Republic, to date, we’ve seen some 60,000 people detained. The videos show us that people are simply rounded up and put in the back of police trucks without physical distancing measures. We are not clear what happens to them when they’re detained, whether they have access to a lawyer nor the other safeguards one would need to see usually when people are being detained.
We also saw many videos of humiliating and degrading treatment by the police. One of the things that started to emerge in the videos we saw from across the region was the police punishing people with these humiliating tactics of sort of getting them to do jumping jacks and force group exercise, and sometimes using Tasers on them.
We also saw indications of excess use of force by the police for people that were protesting for access to food and other basic needs. So, places like Venezuela, we saw Indigenous communities protesting in need of food, and repression being used against them.
And as we’re also hearing and in the videos that you showed, in many countries, in El Salvador, in Venezuela, but also in other Central American countries and in Paraguay, we’re seeing this phenomenon of mandatory quarantines in inhumane conditions, as you describe, where people don’t have basic sanitation and people are not being tested.
So, all the videos that we looked at indicate to us that people that are living in poverty, homeless people, migrants and refugees are much more likely to be impacted by these punitive measures. And so we’re seeing that COVID-19, like other pandemics before it, magnifies structural discrimination. And sadly, it’s often the most marginalized that are the first targets of these punitive responses.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Louise Tillotson, where you are, in Mexico City, in Mexico, what has been the response of AMLO, the president, of Andrés Manuel López Obrador?
LOUISE TILLOTSON: Here in Mexico, we’ve seen a softer lockdown than in other parts of the region, in the sense that we haven’t seen mass deployment of police and military to enforce it. We have seen some incidents of repression that are concerning, but our main focus has been on the issue of violence against women. Of course, there’s another epidemic in Latin America, and that holds true here in Mexico, and that’s violence against women.
So, just in March, before lockdowns or stay-at-home orders were put in place, tens of thousands of women here in Mexico took to the streets demanding that the authorities do more around femicides, do more around domestic violence. And then, what we’ve seen since the stay-at-home orders have been in place is the number of calls to hotlines for domestic violence spiked significantly. We haven’t seen leadership from the president on this issue. We’ve called on the authorities in these difficult times to make sure that they provide enough resources to protect survivors from gender-based violence.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go back to Professor Cuéllar. The Salvadoran president, Bukele, last month authorized police and military to use lethal force against alleged gang members, following a spate of homicides allegedly linked to gang activity. Authorities said more than 50 people were murdered in a single weekend, after imprisoned suspected gang members allegedly ordered the killings from behind bars. Shocking images, many of which were shared on Bukele’s own Twitter account, show prisoners crammed together, with only some wearing face masks, as prisons enforce — and we’re going to show a photograph; it’s unbelievable — around-the-clock lockdown on suspected gang members, which includes putting metal sheets over prison bars and housing prisoners from rival gangs in the same overcrowded cells. You have these images of like a thousand men with each of them in the legs of the one before. And we’re going to show that image again. If you could respond to this, the video?
JORGE CUÉLLAR: Yeah, that image and those videos of that day are instructive as to what’s happening in the country, where there is a kind of security initiative that’s taking place during the coronavirus pandemic. And what we see in these images is that there’s clearly no way that social distancing can happen within the decrepit and dungeon-like prison system in El Salvador. And these men, like you notice, have very little protection on.
But these images, what they did, with how they functioned in society, is that they demonstrated to the country that, indeed, the security initiatives that Bukele has set into motion have been effective in curtailing the violence against gangs, though what we see with this kind of homicide spike that happened in late April was that the territorial control that the government thinks that they’ve achieved is actually quite, quite fragile and perhaps not true.
This ongoing kind of tension between gangs and the state is something that has also been historically present in different administrations, that have often used images of gang member humiliation to push this idea that punitive measures are the only option to correct the most undesirable elements of Salvadoran society. But what we see here is this kind of overwhelming dehumanization of these people, who are now under this idea that putting them together in the same cells and shutting them off from even seeing sunlight, as the center — Osiris Luna, the director of the penal system, mentioned, is really not going to solve the problem in the long term.
AMY GOODMAN: Louise Tillotson, as the epicenter of the global pandemic shifts from the United States to Latin America, what are you calling for? What is Amnesty International calling for, on the authorities, around the issue of police repression, using COVID-19 as a pretext?
LOUISE TILLOTSON: Yeah. We’re concerned by this sort of creeping repression that we’re seeing. Of course, in international human rights law, countries can take measures to protect public health. But sadly, in a region where we saw excessive force by the police consistently in 2019, including during states of emergency, used as a way to repress dissent, we’re worried. Governments have extraordinary powers in the current context.
Of course, COVID-19 presents us with huge challenges. But measures that governments take, including mandatory quarantines and enforcements of lockdowns, need to be necessary and proportionate, because beyond the fact that these measures can be repressive and violate a number of human rights, they also stand to undermine prevention efforts. So, when people are detained en masse, like we’ve seen in the Dominican Republic, or put in these obligatory, mandatory quarantines, like we’ve seen in El Salvador and Venezuela and Paraguay, where they can’t physically distance, that’s counterproductive to all our efforts.
So we’ve launched a campaign called Repression Is Not Protection, and we’ll be monitoring states to ensure that they don’t overreach or abuse their powers and continue repressing in the name of COVID.
AMY GOODMAN: Louise Tillotson, we want to thank you for being with us, Amnesty International Americas. We’ll link to your report, “Authorities must protect people from COVID-19 instead of resorting to repressive measures.” And, Professor Jorge Cuéllar, thanks so much for joining us from El Salvador. We’ll link to your article, “El Salvador’s Two Pandemics: Maximum Insecurity.”
This is Democracy Now! When we come back, President Trump has just issued an executive order, after Twitter deletes one of his tweets and now has flagged another, saying it’s promoting violence — they didn’t delete it, but they said that his tweet was promoting misinformation. Stay with us.