democracynow--2020-04-20--Essential or Expendable? Gig Workers at Instacart & Grocery Stores Demand Safety Gear & Hazard Pay

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 .
We ’ re broadcasting from epicenter of the pandemic , New York City .
As President Trump and state governors clash over plans to roll back lockdowns and other protective measures , new figures show more than 22 million Americans have filed unemployment claims since mid-March .
Many are still waiting to receive the financial lifeline the government promised in the $ 2 trillion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be even longer for self-employed and gig economy workers who are not normally eligible for unemployment benefits but are covered in the relief package .
This comes as grocery stores are one of the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic , with store workers and gig economy shoppers often working without protection , as demand for groceries soars and millions of Americans stay home .
Last week , I spoke with a personal shopper , who formerly worked for the delivery app Instacart , about the risks grocery store and delivery workers face .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to demand the company implement appropriate safety measures and give them hazard pay .
Matthew Telles is a member of the Gig Workers Collective , which organized the strike .
I asked him to start by explaining the history of Instacart .
MATTHEW TELLES : From the app on our smartphones .
Most people will be sitting in a parking lot of a grocery store that they prefer to shop at .
So , they ’ ll try and shop at that store , after getting the list of available batches , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it .
And then no one else can claim it .
And then you start shopping that order in the grocery store , as you would for yourself .
You wait in a checkout line , as you would for yourself .
There ’ s no like special privileges for Instacart contractors .
And then you deliver with your own vehicle to the customer ’ s doorstep , hopefully , and you swipe “ delivered , ” and you move on to your next one .
More batches become available , and you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Instacart announced they ’ re hiring 300,000 people , 27,000 of them to your epicenter in New York and another 50,000 to California , which is on like a complete lockdown .
These new shoppers are the ones who are recently out of work .
And everyone deserves a living wage .
And it breaks my heart to see these new shoppers out in the stores , because I ’ m still out in the stores with my personal business that I was able to create over the last couple of years with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ issue right now is all these new Instacart shoppers that are unprotected in the stores with their entire families a lot of times .
They ’ re really harassing the grocery store workers a lot of times .
We have a lot of reports of that , and I ’ ve seen that with my own eyes .
We ’ re seeing issues where , you know , there ’ s issues at delivery .
There ’ s issues with safety .
So , we ’ re just trying to get a bunch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shoppers .
We ’ re not here to police them .
But like , if no one ’ s going to train them , someone has to .
And , you know , we ’ ll do what we can in the stores or answer some questions in Facebook groups , but patience is wearing kind of thin .
And , you know , it ’ s definitely very emotional , when you ’ re in a grocery store trying to stay safe , and now you ’ re trying to traverse , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at Costco and trying to avoid the elderly folks in the store , who are trying to protect themselves , while also trying to avoid the other group of people who are like in denial .
So , the job ’ s become very , very stressful .
It ’ s not for everyone .
And I don ’ t think eight out of the 10 people who have just been laid off should be looking at Instacart for employment .
It ’ s just not worth it .
MATTHEW TELLES : So @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years of just being a ragtag group of people in Facebook and Twitter — me , Vanessa , Sarah .
And then people have come and gone over the years .
You know , they either just left the gig industry altogether or moved on to other things or just couldn ’ t handle it or , you know , are still with us .
We have dozens of people now all over the country linked up .
I don ’ t even know what most of the people look like .
So @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of us are people that are still kind of trying to rebuild from the last recession .
I graduated right when it hit .
So , you know , I haven ’ t had a good past decade , and I ’ m now finally in a position where I ’ m having a great decade .
And it ’ s awesome .
But , you know , we ’ re now kind of trying to streamline the process so we can get the message out even farther , as — because everyone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gig industry eventually , if we don ’ t do something .
You know , everyone just got laid off — what ?
Like eight in 10 workers or something , about to .
And we ’ re probably going to be in a depression .
So , everyone ’ s going to be in the gig economy .
You know , it ’ s not just going to be the systemically impoverished minorities , immigrants .
They start with them , us — Mexican myself .
And now we ’ re seeing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ middle class being laid off again , just like last time .
They ’ re going to start flooding these apps and aren ’ t going to have enough information to do them safely or adequately .
So we ’ re just trying to get the word out , because we know that we ’ re not going to be able to prevent people from looking for income right now .
And if they have to risk that , they need to be protected with information and what to look out for , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , DoorDash , Grubhub , Caviar , Shipt — DoorDash is one of the worst ones — and Instacart , the king of just horrendous business decisions — will take advantage of them .
And that does it for the show .
Democracy Now !
is working with as few people on site as possible .
The majority of our remarkable team is working from home .
Democracy Now !
is produced with Renée Feltz , Mike Burke , Deena Guzder , Libby Rainey , Nermeen Shaikh .
Special thanks to Julie Crosby @ @ @ @ @ @ @

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. We’re broadcasting from epicenter of the pandemic, New York City.
As President Trump and state governors clash over plans to roll back lockdowns and other protective measures, new figures show more than 22 million Americans have filed unemployment claims since mid-March. Many are still waiting to receive the financial lifeline the government promised in the $2 trillion relief package last month. Delays may be even longer for self-employed and gig economy workers who are not normally eligible for unemployment benefits but are covered in the relief package.
This comes as grocery stores are one of the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic, with store workers and gig economy shoppers often working without protection, as demand for groceries soars and millions of Americans stay home.
Last week, I spoke with a personal shopper, who formerly worked for the delivery app Instacart, about the risks grocery store and delivery workers face. Instacart workers went on strike in March to demand the company implement appropriate safety measures and give them hazard pay. Matthew Telles is a member of the Gig Workers Collective, which organized the strike. I asked him to start by explaining the history of Instacart.
MATTHEW TELLES: Yeah. Instacart is one of these startups from, you know, about seven or eight years ago, a little after Uber was created, came out of that group of the first batch, and really small to start off. I started in late 2015, and it was amazing. I had a previous career that I had to leave behind because of a workplace injury, and was going to use Instacart as like a kind of just a stopgap until I found my next venture, and fell in love with it. It paid great, gave me access to all the amazing buildings downtown, like the top of the Sears Tower, all the tunnels. Like, someone who loves history, like it was amazing.
And pretty — a couple months after I started, around 2016, early 2016, Instacart wanted to start competing with Amazon, who had just kind of purchased Whole Foods, and implemented what’s known in the industry as something called scale hacking or growth hacking, where they grow at all costs just to beat their nearest competitor to market. And the way that they do that is they start cutting the pay for all of their frontline employees, like myself, the shopper who’s out in the stores.
The first huge move that they tried to do, back when there was only about 70,000 total shoppers in the country, not even in Canada yet, Instacart made an announcement that they were going to remove tipping from the platform, which at that point, for me personally in Chicago, made up about 18% average for what I earned every day. So we kind of banded together. We used our large Facebook groups to kind of just find the loudest voices and band together and fight back. And, you know, we got them to reinstate tipping, after threatening to walk off. And ever since then, we feel like they’ve been retaliating as they’ve grown more.
Last count, they had 200,000 shoppers, but they have just brought on almost like 100,000 more in the last two weeks, as people —
AMY GOODMAN: Now, can I interrupt you? When you say “shoppers,” they bring on shoppers —
MATTHEW TELLES: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: — explain how how system works. Someone goes online and puts in an order for food, and then what happens at your end?
MATTHEW TELLES: So, on my end, that will be grouped in a offering in my area. It’s called “on demand.” It’s a way for Instacart to get out from under, like, employment protections, with AB 5 in California. So there’s just a bunch of orders displayed for you, and you have to grab them before someone else does. So, right now, since there’s so much desperation out there, a lot of people trying to make ends meet, they go very quickly, and you just got to be fast. And you don’t know the address you’re delivering to, what’s in the order. You just blindly grab it and hope that it pays [inaudible] labor.
AMY GOODMAN: Where do you grab it from?
MATTHEW TELLES: From the app on our smartphones. Most people will be sitting in a parking lot of a grocery store that they prefer to shop at. So, they’ll try and shop at that store, after getting the list of available batches, and they’ll select it and claim it. And then no one else can claim it. And then you start shopping that order in the grocery store, as you would for yourself. You wait in a checkout line, as you would for yourself. There’s no like special privileges for Instacart contractors. And then you deliver with your own vehicle to the customer’s doorstep, hopefully, and you swipe “delivered,” and you move on to your next one. More batches become available, and you get to choose from that list.
AMY GOODMAN: And what kind of protective gear are people given?
MATTHEW TELLES: Well, as of just a couple days ago, none. Just this morning, as I was checking the various Facebook groups across the country, I have seen that some of the hand sanitizers that Instacart ordered are starting to arrive. We have some reports that a lot of them are damaged, though, so they’re leaking and not making it to the people who ordered them. You can’t order them right now on their website.
And we haven’t seen any of the safety kits they created actually arrive yet. I actually have a preorder out for one, just to see if it ever arrives. At this point, after four-plus years of fighting Instacart, I don’t believe anything they say until I can see it, touch it and actually like experience it. So, I don’t even know if those exist. Instacart PR is telling a lot of the media that, you know, they’re doing all these great things. And they’re just empty words to a lot of people like me.
AMY GOODMAN: So —
MATTHEW TELLES: You know, we — sorry, go ahead.
AMY GOODMAN: You talked about tipping and how it was removed, now it’s put back. Can you talk about what’s happening now, how people use tipping to make sure that, you know, they can somehow get an order not a month from now? And what actually happens to those tips?
MATTHEW TELLES: Yeah. So, there’s obviously a huge history with tipping in Instacart. But this is actually a problem that was uncovered or picked up by CNN recently about tip baiting. This has been an ongoing issue with Instacart for years, where, you know, certain Facebook groups of like couponers and other people, they pass like life hacks that have actual real-world ramifications for humans.
And, you know, there’s something going on right now where people will put their tip high on an order, which we see the tip ahead of time. So we will, you know, “Oh, they’re going to pay me a $100 tip to get them, you know, 20 items at a grocery store. That’s worth my time. I’ll take it.” But you go to the store, you shop the order, you get maybe half of it, you deliver it, and then, you know, a half-hour after delivery, you’ll see that the tip was removed.
So, one of two things is going on. It’s either tip baiting or another Instacart bug in their systems that basically handle all the financial side of how we’re paid. We’ve had them admit to a tip-stealing bug on at least two or three occasions, and probably several more that they’ll never admit to. So, it’s really hard to tell with no transparency within the company. It’s all through blackbox algorithms. And really, you know, we just got to kind of feel what’s going on by
crowdsourcing information via Facebook and Twitter.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about a statement made by the Instacart founder and CEO, Apoorva Mehta, who announced the company would bring on 300,000 additional shoppers to meet increased demand amidst the pandemic. Mehta said workers are being provided with health and safety supplies, issued a statement that said, quote, “We are also offering additional support for shoppers who may be affected by COVID-19. All in-store shoppers nationwide now have access to sick pay, an accrued benefit that can be used as paid time off if you’re absent from work due to illness or injury. Additionally, any full-service or in-store shopper can receive up to 14 days of extended pay if you’re diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed in individual mandatory isolation or quarantine.” Again, the statement of the CEO of Instacart. Your response, Matthew Telles?
MATTHEW TELLES: I’m like shaking with rage right now. I’ve said it before. If I was the governor of any state, I would put a hiring freeze on all of these apps immediately, until they prove those words you just read to me, because that’s not the real-world application.
Instacart announced they’re hiring 300,000 people, 27,000 of them to your epicenter in New York and another 50,000 to California, which is on like a complete lockdown. These new shoppers are the ones who are recently out of work. And everyone deserves a living wage. And it breaks my heart to see these new shoppers out in the stores, because I’m still out in the stores with my personal business that I was able to create over the last couple of years with a different company. And my biggest issue right now is all these new Instacart shoppers that are unprotected in the stores with their entire families a lot of times. They’re really harassing the grocery store workers a lot of times. We have a lot of reports of that, and I’ve seen that with my own eyes. We’re seeing issues where, you know, there’s issues at delivery. There’s issues with safety.
We have reports of Instacart asking a simple one-question hiring process of “Have you been convicted of a felony in the last seven years?” If you answer no, you are immediately activated and could go shop orders using like Google Pay. So, last week and two weeks ago, people were just getting activated and on-boarded immediately. They sent a email to their customer base saying, basically, “Hey, we know you got laid off. You want to work for Instacart as a shopper?” And everyone signed up. And they bragged about that. I have the email. It’s gross. And so, they just activated these new shoppers without background checks.
There’s even reports of, down in Miami, they’re hiring underage people, 16, 17 years old. And they were having issues at checkout because they didn’t even have their payment cards yet or any identification, and Google Pay was failing. So they were paying for Instacart orders with their own money. And that’s always been a problem to get Instacart to reimburse you for that.
So, we’re just trying to get a bunch of information out there to these new shoppers. We’re not here to police them. But like, if no one’s going to train them, someone has to. And, you know, we’ll do what we can in the stores or answer some questions in Facebook groups, but patience is wearing kind of thin. And, you know, it’s definitely very emotional, when you’re in a grocery store trying to stay safe, and now you’re trying to traverse, you know, hordes of Instacart shoppers at Costco and trying to avoid the elderly folks in the store, who are trying to protect themselves, while also trying to avoid the other group of people who are like in denial. So, the job’s become very, very stressful. It’s not for everyone. And I don’t think eight out of the 10 people who have just been laid off should be looking at Instacart for employment. It’s just not worth it.
AMY GOODMAN: And what do you say to customers of Instacart? Some people have just discovered it for the first time during this pandemic. What kind of leverage do you think customers have to ensure that the gig workers, the people who work, the shoppers, are justly dealt with?
MATTHEW TELLES: Customers actually do have a lot of leverage. Instacart will always tell the media and customers that people like myself and the groups that I work with and organize are a vocal minority. And that’s just definitely not the case. A lot of people are speaking up. We’re getting way less pushback from joining our actions as of late, because this is a very serious issue. And people are starting to realize that groceries, your food, your health, your safety, are also very important, because all it takes is one infected delivery person to take down your entire family and anyone that you might be kind of linked up with.
But Instacart customers, especially new ones, look at the deep history of what we’ve been involved in over the last four-and-a-half years. It’s all available in a quick Google search. Just look up Instacart and hit “news,” and you’ll be able to read all about the different things that Instacart’s kind of done over the years, all of the kind of lies they’ve been caught in, all of this stuff. Basically, their PR statements, there’s just the same thing every six months. So you can go back and read them all, and they’re all just the same statement. And they’re all hollow. No action has ever been taken from them. So, just do your research.
And then, once you’ve learned about Instacart — don’t take my word for it, like listen to journalists and experts — look for alternatives. You know, there are still some grocery stores out there that aren’t tied to Instacart, that have their own in-house delivery still. It’s a good-paying job. There’s also other apps out there that are much more ethical.
Me, personally, I was able to link up and work closely with the founders of an app called Dumpling, out of Seattle, that lets me set my own rates. And that could be as low as free. I get to choose who I give free delivery to, whether it be elderly people or immunocompromised, which then the company, Dumpling, is going to subsidize, which I haven’t asked for yet, because I’m one of the lucky few that has more work than I can really, you know, handle right now, because people are not using Instacart or Amazon. Amazon just put a freeze on new customers, because they can’t handle it.
So, right now we’re seeing like this business model kind of blow up under the stress of demand. And us veteran shoppers always knew that was going to happen, and we’ve been blowing the whistle and calling foul on a lot of these different hacks that these companies utilize, and loopholes. And because of that, I haven’t had to market with Dumpling or anything. People are just coming to me. It’s free marketing. And I have — my days are packed. From 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., I’m driving all over. It’s awesome.
AMY GOODMAN: Matthew, if you could end by just talking about the Gig Workers Collective? Not just Instacart, but talk about —
MATTHEW TELLES: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: — what, overall, people are facing. And who is the population of gig workers that are doing this kind of shopping at this absolutely critical time, where, as one of your statements puts out of the Gig Workers Collective, “Instacart has turned this pandemic into a PR campaign, portraying itself the hero of families that are sheltered-in-place, isolated, or quarantined”? But who are the gig workers, in general, the other companies and the population of gig workers?
MATTHEW TELLES: So, Gig Workers Collective came about after years of just being a ragtag group of people in Facebook and Twitter — me, Vanessa, Sarah. And then people have come and gone over the years. You know, they either just left the gig industry altogether or moved on to other things or just couldn’t handle it or, you know, are still with us. We have dozens of people now all over the country linked up. I don’t even know what most of the people look like. So we’re just shoppers. Most of us are people that are still kind of trying to rebuild from the last recession. I graduated right when it hit. So, you know, I haven’t had a good past decade, and I’m now finally in a position where I’m having a great decade. And it’s awesome.
But, you know, we’re now kind of trying to streamline the process so we can get the message out even farther, as — because everyone’s going to be in the gig industry eventually, if we don’t do something. You know, everyone just got laid off — what? Like eight in 10 workers or something, about to. And we’re probably going to be in a depression. So, everyone’s going to be in the gig economy. You know, it’s not just going to be the systemically impoverished minorities, immigrants. They start with them, us — Mexican myself. And now we’re seeing, you know, more of the middle class being laid off again, just like last time. They’re going to start flooding these apps and aren’t going to have enough information to do them safely or adequately. So we’re just trying to get the word out, because we know that we’re not going to be able to prevent people from looking for income right now. And if they have to risk that, they need to be protected with information and what to look out for, because these companies — Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Grubhub, Caviar, Shipt — DoorDash is one of the worst ones — and Instacart, the king of just horrendous business decisions — will take advantage of them.
You know, they call us essential workers. From watching you guys all today, it seems more like we’re expendable. I guarantee you there’s some memos behind closed doors that say, you know, “When they die, we’ll just replace them.” And it’s heartbreaking. But from that, we see so much good coming out of it with helping each other. [inaudible]
AMY GOODMAN: Expendable or essential, Matthew?
MATTHEW TELLES: I think, at first, when the adrenaline was still there, we were essential. We were prideful. And now, as we get more into it, that’s wearing off, and it’s seeming more like expendable.
AMY GOODMAN: Matthew Telles, member of the Gig Workers Collective.
And that does it for the show. Democracy Now! is working with as few people on site as possible. The majority of our remarkable team is working from home. Democracy Now! is produced with Renée Feltz, Mike Burke, Deena Guzder, Libby Rainey, Nermeen Shaikh. Special thanks to Julie Crosby. I’m Amy Goodman.


democracynow--2020-04-20--Handcuffed: Black Miami Doctor Who Works with Homeless Says He Was Racially Profiled by Police

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 .
We ’ re broadcasting from the epicenter of the pandemic , New York City .
And we ’ re continuing our conversation with Dr. Armen Henderson , an African-American doctor in Miami , Florida , who we first spoke with last week , shortly after he was handcuffed outside his home while preparing for a volunteer shift to help protect homeless people from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dr. Henderson ’ s house shows him wearing a mask and loading a van with supplies , when a Miami police patrol car pulls up outside his home .
Moments later , the police officer has the doctor in handcuffs .
Dr. Henderson says the officer detained him after accusing him of littering , and demanding his identification , which Henderson did not have on him .
The officer was not wearing a mask or gloves , and Dr. Henderson told us , quote , “ I could feel his saliva on my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to his wife inside their home to bring out identification , before he was released by the officer , who has not been publicly identified .
Dr. Henderson told Democracy Now !
the officer has a history of use of force and civilian complaints .
The Miami police chief has since ordered an internal investigation into the incident .
Since we spoke with Dr. Henderson last Wednesday , Miami ’ s Police Chief Jorge Colina has tested positive for COVID-19 and is in self-isolation .
Dr. Henderson has taken a test himself and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The encounter has sparked widespread outrage and comes as African-American men report fears of increased racial profiling when they ’ re following the CDC ’ s suggestion that people wear masks in public .
What if you wear a mask while black ?
Dr. Armen Henderson is an internal medicine physician , an assistant professor of medicine at University of Miami , organizer with Dream Defenders .
In Part 2 of our conversation , that we continue right now , I asked him to describe his encounter with the police as the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ house .
And so , usually we activate during hurricane season , but during the pandemic , we actually decided to activate , as well .
And during this time , we actually decided to focus on unhoused people , because we know that when you ’ re asking people to shelter in place , houseless people have — they can ’ t put tents outside , because police are harassing them .
So , not only are police harassing me outside of my house , but they ’ re also harassing homeless @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them put up tents .
And , you know , we ’ re not allowed to feed homeless people on the street , etc .
So we ’ ve been going out as an act of civil disobedience to feed the homeless , to provide them with socks and toiletries and sanitizer and masks , because during a public health crisis like this , the homeless population should be the population that you pay the most attention to .
And the county organizations that are supposed to protect and provide for these organizations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of anything at all .
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON : So , in the beginning , we were using the nasal swab , which is the PCR tests .
And individuals want to be tested , you know ?
A lot of people who live on the streets , in unsheltered facilities in Miami-Dade County , they have symptoms , you know ?
And , of course , it could be attributed to other things , because they are in a very harsh — they do live in a harsh environment .
But on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a pandemic is going on , and they want to be attended to just like everyone else .
And so , you know , we ’ ve just been trying to figure out the best way to go about testing them .
But they ’ ve been very amenable to the testing , you know ?
They basically , you know , want — they want to be tested , and they ’ re open to it .
And people have walked up to me and said , “ You know what ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ GOODMAN : Dr. Armen Henderson , African-American doctor in Miami , Florida , who was handcuffed outside his home while preparing for a volunteer shift to help protect homeless people from the spread of COVID-19 .
He is still waiting for an apology from the Miami Police Department .
Dr. Henderson is an internal medicine physician , assistant professor of medicine at the University of Miami , an organizer with Dream Defenders .
To see Part 1 of our conversation , go to democracynow.org .
When we come back , we talk with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about how Instacart workers went on strike to demand appropriate safety measures and hazard pay .
Stay with us .
AMY GOODMAN : “ Cosmonauts ” by Fiona Apple , from her new album , just released , Fetch the Bolt Cutters .
She did it in support of the COVID work of Seeding Sovereignty .

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. We’re broadcasting from the epicenter of the pandemic, New York City.
And we’re continuing our conversation with Dr. Armen Henderson, an African-American doctor in Miami, Florida, who we first spoke with last week, shortly after he was handcuffed outside his home while preparing for a volunteer shift to help protect homeless people from the spread of COVID-19. Surveillance video from Dr. Henderson’s house shows him wearing a mask and loading a van with supplies, when a Miami police patrol car pulls up outside his home. Moments later, the police officer has the doctor in handcuffs.
Dr. Henderson says the officer detained him after accusing him of littering, and demanding his identification, which Henderson did not have on him. The officer was not wearing a mask or gloves, and Dr. Henderson told us, quote, “I could feel his saliva on my lips.” Dr. Henderson had to yell to his wife inside their home to bring out identification, before he was released by the officer, who has not been publicly identified.
Dr. Henderson told Democracy Now! the officer has a history of use of force and civilian complaints. The Miami police chief has since ordered an internal investigation into the incident.
Since we spoke with Dr. Henderson last Wednesday, Miami’s Police Chief Jorge Colina has tested positive for COVID-19 and is in self-isolation. Dr. Henderson has taken a test himself and is waiting for results — and accountability.
The encounter has sparked widespread outrage and comes as African-American men report fears of increased racial profiling when they’re following the CDC’s suggestion that people wear masks in public. What if you wear a mask while black?
Dr. Armen Henderson is an internal medicine physician, an assistant professor of medicine at University of Miami, organizer with Dream Defenders. In Part 2 of our conversation, that we continue right now, I asked him to describe his encounter with the police as the officer arrested him in front of his house.
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON: Yes, yeah. He said I should call him sir or sergeant when I’m talking to him. And when my wife came out and actually said, “Why do you have my husband in handcuffs?” the officer basically said, “Well, because he has an attitude with me.” And I was just like, “Oh, OK.” In my head, I said that. And, you know, my wife basically was able to say, “OK. Well, I can get my ID.” She got it. And he basically let me go.
AMY GOODMAN: Have you heard of other African Americans being harassed by police officers, with the African Americans wearing masks? Do you think the mask was part of his reason why he attacked you, part of the reason why he detained you and handcuffed you?
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON: Potentially. I don’t know. You know, I don’t really know what his motives are, as I stated earlier. And it’s apparent on the video, is that he rode down the street very, very slow and then turned back back around to turn down my street to approach me. So, it could have been the mask. It could have been the fact that I was black. It could have been both. And so, I know for a fact that it likely was not due to the fact that I was — that he said I was, you know, littering.
AMY GOODMAN: Tell us again. Tell us again. We’re looking at the video as you’re speaking.
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: And he slowly comes up. He gets out of his car.
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: And what did he say to you?
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON: He basically — well, first of all, in the car, you know, he basically was trying to figure out or asking me where — what I was doing there, why was I here. And I live in a predominantly Cuban neighborhood. My family is probably — well, it is the only black family that lives on the block. So, you know, I think that that — you know, so, I mean, I don’t know, you know? He just — he was saying a lot, and his body language was just very aggressive. And when he got out of the car, I was more focused on trying to deescalate the situation, trying to walk away and gather myself so that, you know, I wouldn’t respond in a different way than I actually did.
AMY GOODMAN: When he took you and handcuffed you, he’s not wearing gloves, he’s not wearing a mask. You had a mask on. Did you say anything to him about him speaking in your face and keeping some distance?
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON: No, I didn’t. I mean, at that point, you know, he already escalated it to a point — I mean, I was already in handcuffs, you know? So, what more can I say at that point? I was just focusing on keeping my mouth shut and hoping that my wife would come out, like as soon as possible.
AMY GOODMAN: So, what do you understand has happened to him at this point. It’s now a few days later, like five days later. What is the Miami police chief doing? Have you been formally apologized to? And what are you demanding?
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON: So, the Miami Police Department has not called me to apologize. I do think that he should be held accountable for his actions. He violated a bunch of protocols, not only as a sergeant, but also as a police officer. I think that they’re supposed to be wearing, you know, bracelets that say that they’ve been tested. He was supposed to have a mask on. You know, he probably should not have stopped me in the first place. So, I just want him held accountable for his actions. And I want an apology, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Armen Henderson, now let’s talk about what you were doing at that van, what you were loading in and out of the van. I want to talk about your work with unhoused people.
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: You’re a physician. You’re an assistant professor of medicine at University of Miami. Talk about the homeless population in Miami.
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON: Right. So, the homeless population in Miami is — it’s a large population. And basically, because we live in Miami and we are at the helm of climate change, we have a crisis situation every year during hurricane season, which is June through November. And so, you know, what we’ve seen in the past is that not only just with homeless people, but also with vulnerable populations, those who are working-class, low-income, live in poverty, and particularly in the black neighborhoods throughout Miami-Dade County, we’ve seen that there’s a disparate response when it comes to crisis situations, like during hurricane season.
And so, during Hurricane Irma, we found that, you know, FEMA and the government were saying one thing on TV, but, in reality, people on the ground weren’t being fed, they weren’t getting water. Their electricity was taking weeks to come back on, and people who depended on these things to actually live — oxygen and, you know, dialysis — were not getting the things that they needed. And so, it really took a coalition of organizations to step in and actually be — and actually, you know, to take the place of or to step in where the government was not.
And so, usually we activate during hurricane season, but during the pandemic, we actually decided to activate, as well. And during this time, we actually decided to focus on unhoused people, because we know that when you’re asking people to shelter in place, houseless people have — they can’t put tents outside, because police are harassing them. So, not only are police harassing me outside of my house, but they’re also harassing homeless people. They don’t let them put up tents. And, you know, we’re not allowed to feed homeless people on the street, etc. So we’ve been going out as an act of civil disobedience to feed the homeless, to provide them with socks and toiletries and sanitizer and masks, because during a public health crisis like this, the homeless population should be the population that you pay the most attention to. And the county organizations that are supposed to protect and provide for these organizations just are not doing enough and much of anything at all.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about people who don’t have houses, their access to water. The first thing we know, the best prevention is washing your hands repeatedly.
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON: Right, yeah. So, you know, you would think that in America everybody has access to clean water. But what we’re going to show, basically, when we go down there on Friday — and I’m going to have other media there, at a press conference — we’re going to talk to individuals who live on the street about the types of things that they’re facing during this pandemic, particularly having to use the restroom outside, not being able to wash their hands. Now, the county and the city has provided a wash station for 200 individuals, but when you go to that wash station, the water smells like sewage. You know, the porta-potties — the two porta-potty they provided for 300 individuals living in downtown Miami had poop all the way up to the toilet seat, you know? And it’s just like, what conditions are you subjecting people to live in, in America, who are citizens and who are humans, honestly?
And so, we really have been trying to figure out the best way to put pressure on the city and the county and elected officials, that get paid to actually take care of this population, and also to test them, to show that the virus is present in this population, as well. And this is also the population that’s going to cycle throughout the jails, you know, because the police are still harassing people. They’re still locking people up and putting them in jails. And so, these are also people who are going to cycle in and out of shelters. I don’t know if you saw, in San Francisco, the entire shelter had to evacuate because some of the people who were sheltered there basically had coronavirus. They had an outbreak like that.
And so, you know, it’s going to be really interesting to see how this whole thing unfolds, knowing the city and the county’s relationship with jails, knowing the police’s tenuous relationship with houseless people, and the fact that they are allowed — it’s like a federal mandate that they are allowed to break down people’s tents and to arrest them on the street, based on a federal ruling that basically was overturned in 2018.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Henderson, can you talk about the response of people who don’t have houses when you go up to them to say you’d like to test them? And what are the kinds of tests that you’re using?
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON: So, in the beginning, we were using the nasal swab, which is the PCR tests. And individuals want to be tested, you know? A lot of people who live on the streets, in unsheltered facilities in Miami-Dade County, they have symptoms, you know? And, of course, it could be attributed to other things, because they are in a very harsh — they do live in a harsh environment. But on the same token, they know that a pandemic is going on, and they want to be attended to just like everyone else. And so, you know, we’ve just been trying to figure out the best way to go about testing them. But they’ve been very amenable to the testing, you know? They basically, you know, want — they want to be tested, and they’re open to it. And people have walked up to me and said, “You know what? I want to be tested.”
The problem is that the tests take too long to come back. And that’s why, starting this week, we’re actually going ahead with another test that’s going to be rapid. It’s going to give them the results in 15 minutes. And we’re rolling out that test actually starting today.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Dr. Henderson, how did you get involved with Dream Defenders and doing this kind of work?
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON: Yeah. So, you know, ironically, Dream Defenders was started in 2012 after the death of Trayvon Martin. And individuals throughout Miami-Dade County and also, you know, Tallahassee, most of them at FAMU, basically took over the courthouse and stayed there for 30 days, until charges were brought against the person who killed Trayvon Martin. And so, I was seeing this unfold while I was in medical school, feeling like, look, like I chose the wrong profession, like, and I wanted to be involved. I just didn’t know how. And so, when I found out that I matched in Miami, Florida, in which Dream Defenders is based, I got involved with them as soon as I basically touched down off the airplane.
And since then, you know, I’ve been involved in a bunch of campaigns. Most recently, we sued the county over the the jail facilities and the amount of people that are housed at this one particular jail in Miami-Dade County. But I’ve been involved in a number of campaigns throughout my time with Dream Defenders, and it’s been very enlightening and also refreshing to know that there are young people out there that actually care about humans, in general, about poverty, about fighting capitalism, etc. And so, recently, you know, we’ve been involved with homeless people, but we’re in the process of trying to start a trauma recovery center, particularly around violence that happens in Liberty City and Miami-Dade County, in general. And so, yeah, we’ve been involved in a bunch of campaigns, and it’s been great working with the young people at Dream Defenders, for sure.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about Fisher Island, that’s not far from where you are in Miami —
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON: Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely.
AMY GOODMAN: — the richest ZIP code, that has bought coronavirus antibody tests —
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: — for the entire island population, for all its millionaire residents, average income, I think, two-and-a-half million, making the antibody — the antibody exams are available to all the 800 families, even though less than 1% of Florida has been tested. Now, these are antibody tests. I think the average age is over 60 there. A number of well-known corporate executives, everyone from Oprah to the head of Hasbro, has had places there. What are some of the figures? It takes — you have to pay a club membership of a quarter of a million dollars, average income two-and-a-half million. You can get there by helicopter or by boat. Explain this island. Now, you’re an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Miami, and the island said that they are working with the University of Miami in getting these antibody tests out to everyone, even though it’s extremely difficult to get the test anywhere else.
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON: Yeah. Well, I first want to talk about the fact that Overtown — you know, basically, the disparity in Overtown and Fisher Island is so great that literally the life expectancy of people who live in Overtown is 15 years less, or more, in comparison to people that live on Fisher Island. And so, I’m going to serve people that actually live in Overtown, which is a predominantly African-American neighborhood.
And it just speaks to the fact that in Overtown, it’s the most vulnerable population, and yet these people who live on Fisher Island, which is literally like two miles away, can get access to these tests, knowing that the people that live in Overtown, their lives may depend on whether or not they’re able to identify if they have the virus, and their access to care. And so, it just speaks to the hypocrisy of the system in general, that if you can pay enough money to get access to things, and be it anything, then you get it, and if you don’t, then you just don’t get it.
And so, yeah, I mean, University of Miami is probably working with them. They’re also — I guess, the same people that they obtain those tests from are the same individuals that I’m trying to obtain the test from, as well, to test homeless individuals. So, I guess —
AMY GOODMAN: Now, we’re talking the antibody test, not the test to see whether you’re COVID-19-positive now, right?
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON: Yeah. Well, if we’re speaking about the same rapid test that you get within 15 minutes, then that —
AMY GOODMAN: I don’t think it’s that. I think it’s the actual antigen test, to see if you have had it, the one that is much more difficult to get.
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON: Oh, OK. Yeah, I mean, that’s probably a way more expensive test. The test that we even have access to are the swabs, which take four to 10 days to get the results back. And as of today, basically, we’re rolling out another test where, you know, it’s within 15 minutes. It’s a blood test. But yeah, even with that one, it’s not —
AMY GOODMAN: Right, it’s a blood test.
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON: Yeah, that says, you know, throughout your entire — you know, throughout the entire time that you’re alive, have you developed antibodies to this specific virus. So, yeah, I mean, that’s interesting, and it speaks to the disparities that exist within every system, but particularly within medicine. And it’s part of the reason why, you know, people who live in Overtown, because of their income, because of their socioeconomic status, that they basically don’t get access to similar things.
But it also speaks to the history, as well. You know, it’s not just because African Americans have diabetes or they just don’t make enough. It’s literally, you know, government, local city and state governments that have come together to basically pass laws that make places inhabitable, in general. So, particularly in Overtown, you know, it was a burgeoning black community, like the Harlem of the South, and most millionaires lived there in Florida. And so the government decided to build 95, I-95, directly through the neighborhood, and no one — to get to Miami Beach, and no one who was driving from upstate Florida to Miami Beach could even visit those businesses, and so they all lost revenue. They closed down. People moved out. And the result that you have is, you know, people who have drug addiction, people who have serious mental illnesses, and those that live in poverty. And so, yeah, it’s important to talk about the history of it, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Dr. Henderson, I wanted to get your medical response to President Trump and his approach to this pandemic. He’s now officially a resident of Florida, right? Mar-a-Lago. And also his ally, Governor Ron DeSantis, who refused to impose, at the beginning, any shelter at home, as spring break was unfolding and we were looking at the pictures of the thousands of people crowded on the beaches. Now he has said that World Wide Wrestling is an essential act and has opened up World Wide Wrestling to continue in Florida, has been a fierce defender of President Trump. Can you talk about both responses and what it means for the people of Overtown and for you as a doctor?
DR. ARMEN HENDERSON: Right. I mean, so, the people that we see actually succumbing to the virus and having the worst morbidity and mortality are those that are poor, that are homeless, that are working-class, those that live on the — that run the transit systems, those that are in supermarkets, etc.
So, when you say — when President Trump or Ron DeSantis — they’re basically the same person — when they say these things, that they’re going to open up the city and continue as business as usual, then what you’re saying is that you really don’t care about the poor people, the working-class individuals. You don’t care about their health.
And so, you know, honestly, I was one, early on — you know, in the community emergency emergency center — community emergency operations center that we run, the coalition of organizations, we have an epidemiologist who works with us, and also a public health expert, who follows the numbers, particularly for Florida and Miami-Dade County. And so, early on, we were seeing that not only were the number of cases low, but also the number of deaths were low, as well. And, you know, people have speculated about a number of reasons of why that is. But the reality is, is that it actually benefits our governor, because he’s saying, “Oh, look at our low numbers. Like yeah, we have a bunch of cases, but our deaths are low.” And so they use that to justify opening up economies earlier, knowing that individuals are dying at a higher rate than what’s been seen. And so, yeah, it’s just a complete disregard for poor and working-class people, particularly those who are African Americans in places like Overtown, Liberty City, but also all across Florida.
So, yeah, I mean, it’s politics as usual for our governor. And he’s going to parrot whatever Donald Trump says. And I can go on record saying that, because even before DeSantis was even chosen as our governor, you know, I was one to say that it’s obvious that he’s not going to care about poor people. I mean, this is a guy who had a commercial with his kids building a wall, as advertisement for his governorship. You know, “Build that wall!” And, of course, people thought it was funny, but it’s like, “Wow! Like this is the time that we’re living in.” And he’s fulfilled every promise around making sure that people knew that he was Trump Jr.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Armen Henderson, African-American doctor in Miami, Florida, who was handcuffed outside his home while preparing for a volunteer shift to help protect homeless people from the spread of COVID-19. He is still waiting for an apology from the Miami Police Department. Dr. Henderson is an internal medicine physician, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Miami, an organizer with Dream Defenders. To see Part 1 of our conversation, go to democracynow.org.
When we come back, we talk with a member of the Gig Workers Collective about how Instacart workers went on strike to demand appropriate safety measures and hazard pay. Stay with us.


democracynow--2020-04-20--Headlines for April 20, 2020

Headlines for April 20, 2020

President Trump and state governors continued to clash over the weekend over plans to roll back lockdowns and other protective measures as some states have already begun easing restrictions .
Texas is reopening state parks today and later this week will allow retailers to open for delivery .
In Florida , people descended on newly reopened beaches in several counties Friday , with images showing beachgoers flouting social distancing guidelines .
But many governors say they can ’ t reopen their states without sufficient testing .
Trump said Sunday he would invoke the Defense Production Act to order the production @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officials continued to claim there is sufficient testing capability around the country .
Trump is placing the responsibility for testing on governors .
President Donald Trump : “ You must remember that the governors wanted to have total control over the opening of their states .
But now they want to have us , the federal government , do the testing .
And again , testing is local .
You can ’ t have it both ways .
Testing is a local thing , and it ’ s very important .
It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a local thing.
” Gov .
Larry Hogan : “ To try to push this off to say that the governors have plenty of testing and they should just get to work on testing , somehow we aren ’ t doing our job , is just absolutely false .
Every governor in America has been pushing and fighting and clawing to get more tests.
” Meanwhile , new reports reveal the extent of the Trump administration ’ s inaction in the earlier stages of the coronavirus outbreak .
A report published in The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ informed NATO and Israeli authorities of the risk of the outbreak as early as November .
The White House reportedly did not deem the intelligence report “ of interest .
”

President Trump and state governors continued to clash over the weekend over plans to roll back lockdowns and other protective measures as some states have already begun easing restrictions. Texas is reopening state parks today and later this week will allow retailers to open for delivery. In Florida, people descended on newly reopened beaches in several counties Friday, with images showing beachgoers flouting social distancing guidelines. But many governors say they can’t reopen their states without sufficient testing. Trump said Sunday he would invoke the Defense Production Act to order the production of more testing swabs, but administration officials continued to claim there is sufficient testing capability around the country. Trump is placing the responsibility for testing on governors.
President Donald Trump: “You must remember that the governors wanted to have total control over the opening of their states. But now they want to have us, the federal government, do the testing. And again, testing is local. You can’t have it both ways. Testing is a local thing, and it’s very important. It’s great, but it’s a local thing.”
Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan pushed back on Trump’s statements on CNN Sunday.
Gov. Larry Hogan: “To try to push this off to say that the governors have plenty of testing and they should just get to work on testing, somehow we aren’t doing our job, is just absolutely false. Every governor in America has been pushing and fighting and clawing to get more tests.”
Meanwhile, new reports reveal the extent of the Trump administration’s inaction in the earlier stages of the coronavirus outbreak. A report published in The Times of Israel revealed that U.S. intelligence informed NATO and Israeli authorities of the risk of the outbreak as early as November. The White House reportedly did not deem the intelligence report “of interest.”


democracynow--2020-04-21--Death Trap Jail: Pepper-Sprayed, Otay Mesa Detainees Demand Release as COVID-19 Spreads Inside

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now !
I ’ m Amy Goodman , with Juan González .
This is The Quarantine Report .
We end today ’ s show looking at the mounting number of COVID-19 cases inside immigration jails across the country .
One of the largest outbreaks is at the Otay Mesa Detention Center near San Diego , California , run by private prison company CoreCivic , which last week confirmed at least 27 cases of COVID among prisoners .
Over the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ strike to express growing fears about their safety .
Last Friday , Otay Mesa prisoners were told to sign contracts , written only in English , in exchange for receiving face masks .
Some refused to sign , prompting guards to pepper-spray them .
The waivers were reportedly later retracted .
This is a woman in Otay Mesa describing the attack in her holding unit during a call with the immigration rights group Pueblos Sin Fronteras .
AMY GOODMAN : Activists say hundreds of people imprisoned in California immigration jails are currently hunger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re joined in San Diego by Ruth Mendez , community activist , volunteer with Otay Mesa Detention Resistance .
Ruth , can you describe what ’ s happening inside ?
These women were told they had to sign , in order to get a face mask , a contract that said they would not hold CoreCivic , which runs this for-profit prison , responsible ?
RUTH MENDEZ : Yes .
Yes , Amy .
That is what happened .
They were given forms and told , yeah , they had to sign this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ English .
I mean , there are people inside this detention center that don ’ t know Spanish or English at all .
But yeah , this one was only given in English , and people were just told , “ Sign it , quickly .
If not , you don ’ t get a mask , ” is what was basically said .
It ’ s inhumane .
Some people , from personal accounts that I ’ ve heard , were even charged money for this mask , a form they had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it ’ s just — it ’ s horrible , what ’ s happening .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : And , Ruth , to reaffirm , most of the people in ICE detention , they ’ re basically in — they ’ re not accused of any crimes .
This is civil detention pending adjudication of their status .
Isn ’ t there — what ’ s been the federal government ’ s attitude toward releasing these detainees ?
RUTH MENDEZ : Currently , right now there are plenty of people who are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
They have their sponsors .
They have everything that is needed .
Some are even — you know , they are looking for parole , to be released on parole , on bond , or on any kind of opportunity to be able to reunite with their families .
But right now ICE has been not answering questions for people .
There has been a block of just — like , for legal , for people to contact their lawyers , all kinds of blockages right now that make it impossible so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ finishing or processing their asylum cases — right ?
— in most of these times .
And so , that is — they ’ re just being held in a death trap , is what they ’ re being held .
And it ’ s inhumane .
We have countless accounts — sorry , so many accounts of people who , every single day , call into our organization telling us they just want to see their families , if it ’ s the last time they will be able to see them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , because at the rate that the COVID is going right now inside the detention center — just to give you a brief picture of what it looks like , just three days ago , the cases were already at 41 of confirmed cases inside .
Just yesterday , I received a call with an update that it ’ s now 49 cases inside .
That was given to a detainee inside by the medic of ICE .
And so , yeah , it ’ s insane .
And that has not made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been three days .
So , it ’ s insane , what ’ s happening .
AMY GOODMAN : I wanted to turn to a Genesis Hernández , a transgender woman being held at Otay Mesa , speaking to you , Ruth , last week about the abuse she ’ s endured at this jail .
In this audio clip , she ’ s describing being retaliated against by Otay Mesa guards for making a phone call .
She was recently put in solitary confinement .
AMY GOODMAN : Ruth Mendez , is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I mean , you even have the former ICE director , John Sandweg , making very clear that ICE , in particular , has the sole authority to release all of these prisoners .
He is demanding they do , as do many grassroots groups .
And yet they haven ’ t done this yet .
But start with Genesis .
RUTH MENDEZ : Yeah .
So , Genesis , she ’ s still in solitary confinement right now .
She can not — does not have access to commissary .
She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ limited access to the phone .
She is not able to even go to the library .
She actually — we talked not too long ago .
And it ’ s just these little things that make her — make it so much harder to be inside solitary right now .
And it ’ s insane .
She right now is a very strong woman that I admire so much .
And it ’ s unfair , what has been happening to her .
Currently , right now she was only — because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stood up for her , demanded answers from ICE and from just people around the staff of CoreCivic , she was , yeah , taken in handcuffs to solitary and given 15 days .
However , that actually was doubled recently , so now it ’ s going to be 30 days .
And she was not given a reason why that is happening .
But she has told us on multiple times , just speaking to us personally , that she does not think she will last 30 days inside solitary confinement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : And could you talk about , in general , in Otay Mesa , are most of the detainees being held in dormitory-style huge rooms , or are they all in a few people to a cell ?
RUTH MENDEZ : Yeah , so , the units , as to what I understand , it ’ s difficult to get a — since the only way we can communicate and the only way that ICE and CoreCivic are letting there to be communication right now is through phone calls , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s pods , like units .
So , there can be from a hundred people in one unit to 70 people .
You know , the numbers vary between — among units .
But yeah , there are — it ’ s social distancing and being able to follow CDC guidelines , it ’ s near — it ’ s impossible to do so inside of these places .
And there have been cases where people who have gone to medical units and come back positive have been sent to the same units @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And yes , we know , with this , with the pandemic , with COVID , it only takes a little bit for it to spread to everyone .
So , that is in the conditions that they ’ re in currently .
AMY GOODMAN : Ruth , we want to thank you for being with us .
Also , this latest news : A federal judge in California has ordered ICE to urgently review the cases of prisoners most likely to suffer from the severe illness , these outbreaks of COVID , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ responding to the outbreak .
Currently , about 31,000 people are in detention , in ICE detention .
Ruth Mendez , volunteer with Otay Mesa Detention Resistance in San Diego , thanks so much for being with us .
That does it for our show .
Democracy Now !
is working with as few people on site as possible to protect against community spread .
The majority of our remarkable team is working from home .
I want to give a special thanks to our general manager , Julie Crosby .
Democracy Now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 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 and María Taracena .
Special thanks to Becca Staley , Denis Moynihan , Miriam Barnard , Paul Powell , Mike DiFilippo , Miguel Nogueira , Hugh Gran .
I ’ m Amy Goodman , with Juan González .
This is The Quarantine Report .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. This is The Quarantine Report. We end today’s show looking at the mounting number of COVID-19 cases inside immigration jails across the country. One of the largest outbreaks is at the Otay Mesa Detention Center near San Diego, California, run by private prison company CoreCivic, which last week confirmed at least 27 cases of COVID among prisoners. Over the weekend, dozens there began a hunger strike to express growing fears about their safety.
Last Friday, Otay Mesa prisoners were told to sign contracts, written only in English, in exchange for receiving face masks. Some refused to sign, prompting guards to pepper-spray them. The waivers were reportedly later retracted. This is a woman in Otay Mesa describing the attack in her holding unit during a call with the immigration rights group Pueblos Sin Fronteras.
ASYLUM SEEKER: [translated] They are throwing pepper spray in all the cells. We are on hunger strike because they are coming to throw food at us like dogs. We have rights. We are not criminals. There’s a woman who suffers from convulsions. They don’t want to give her her medicine. All of our rights are being violated. It is not fair. Please help us. Get us out. All the cells have been pepper-sprayed. There are many people who do not understand what is happening, because they don’t Spanish, they don’t speak English. Help us! They are removing people from each cell in handcuffs. Please, help us!
AMY GOODMAN: Activists say hundreds of people imprisoned in California immigration jails are currently hunger striking.
For more, we’re joined in San Diego by Ruth Mendez, community activist, volunteer with Otay Mesa Detention Resistance.
Ruth, can you describe what’s happening inside? These women were told they had to sign, in order to get a face mask, a contract that said they would not hold CoreCivic, which runs this for-profit prison, responsible?
RUTH MENDEZ: Yes. Yes, Amy. That is what happened. They were given forms and told, yeah, they had to sign this form, which was only given in English. I mean, there are people inside this detention center that don’t know Spanish or English at all. But yeah, this one was only given in English, and people were just told, “Sign it, quickly. If not, you don’t get a mask,” is what was basically said. It’s inhumane. Some people, from personal accounts that I’ve heard, were even charged money for this mask, a form they had to sign, too. And yeah, it’s just — it’s horrible, what’s happening.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Ruth, to reaffirm, most of the people in ICE detention, they’re basically in — they’re not accused of any crimes. This is civil detention pending adjudication of their status. Isn’t there — what’s been the federal government’s attitude toward releasing these detainees?
RUTH MENDEZ: Currently, right now there are plenty of people who are ready to go reunite with their families. They have their sponsors. They have everything that is needed. Some are even — you know, they are looking for parole, to be released on parole, on bond, or on any kind of opportunity to be able to reunite with their families. But right now ICE has been not answering questions for people. There has been a block of just — like, for legal, for people to contact their lawyers, all kinds of blockages right now that make it impossible so that people can have their rights of finishing or processing their asylum cases — right? — in most of these times.
And so, that is — they’re just being held in a death trap, is what they’re being held. And it’s inhumane. We have countless accounts — sorry, so many accounts of people who, every single day, call into our organization telling us they just want to see their families, if it’s the last time they will be able to see them, at least just one more time, because at the rate that the COVID is going right now inside the detention center — just to give you a brief picture of what it looks like, just three days ago, the cases were already at 41 of confirmed cases inside. Just yesterday, I received a call with an update that it’s now 49 cases inside. That was given to a detainee inside by the medic of ICE. And so, yeah, it’s insane. And that has not made it out, and it’s been three days. So, it’s insane, what’s happening.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to a Genesis Hernández, a transgender woman being held at Otay Mesa, speaking to you, Ruth, last week about the abuse she’s endured at this jail. In this audio clip, she’s describing being retaliated against by Otay Mesa guards for making a phone call. She was recently put in solitary confinement.
GENESIS HERNÁNDEZ: [translated] And I thank you for being our voice out there, because in here, who’s going to listen to us? The guards don’t even wash their hands. They don’t care about our lives. I put on a face mask today, but then I took it off, because the guards are not covering their faces. They didn’t even have gloves on when they had me in handcuffs.
AMY GOODMAN: Ruth Mendez, is Genesis still in solitary confinement? And, I mean, you even have the former ICE director, John Sandweg, making very clear that ICE, in particular, has the sole authority to release all of these prisoners. He is demanding they do, as do many grassroots groups. And yet they haven’t done this yet. But start with Genesis.
RUTH MENDEZ: Yeah. So, Genesis, she’s still in solitary confinement right now. She cannot — does not have access to commissary. She does not have access — she has limited access to the phone. She is not able to even go to the library. She actually — we talked not too long ago. And it’s just these little things that make her — make it so much harder to be inside solitary right now. And it’s insane. She right now is a very strong woman that I admire so much. And it’s unfair, what has been happening to her.
Currently, right now she was only — because of that incident, that she like stood up for her, demanded answers from ICE and from just people around the staff of CoreCivic, she was, yeah, taken in handcuffs to solitary and given 15 days. However, that actually was doubled recently, so now it’s going to be 30 days. And she was not given a reason why that is happening. But she has told us on multiple times, just speaking to us personally, that she does not think she will last 30 days inside solitary confinement because of how terrible the conditions are.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And could you talk about, in general, in Otay Mesa, are most of the detainees being held in dormitory-style huge rooms, or are they all in a few people to a cell?
RUTH MENDEZ: Yeah, so, the units, as to what I understand, it’s difficult to get a — since the only way we can communicate and the only way that ICE and CoreCivic are letting there to be communication right now is through phone calls, but what I imagine is it’s pods, like units. So, there can be from a hundred people in one unit to 70 people. You know, the numbers vary between — among units. But yeah, there are — it’s social distancing and being able to follow CDC guidelines, it’s near — it’s impossible to do so inside of these places. And there have been cases where people who have gone to medical units and come back positive have been sent to the same units again to be with other people. And yes, we know, with this, with the pandemic, with COVID, it only takes a little bit for it to spread to everyone. So, that is in the conditions that they’re in currently.
AMY GOODMAN: Ruth, we want to thank you for being with us.
Also, this latest news: A federal judge in California has ordered ICE to urgently review the cases of prisoners most likely to suffer from the severe illness, these outbreaks of COVID, and he condemned the systemwide inaction in responding to the outbreak. Currently, about 31,000 people are in detention, in ICE detention.
Ruth Mendez, volunteer with Otay Mesa Detention Resistance in San Diego, thanks so much for being with us.
That does it for our show. Democracy Now! is working with as few people on site as possible to protect against community spread. The majority of our remarkable team is working from home. I want to give a special thanks to our general manager, Julie Crosby. Democracy Now! 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 and María Taracena. Special thanks to Becca Staley, Denis Moynihan, Miriam Barnard, Paul Powell, Mike DiFilippo, Miguel Nogueira, Hugh Gran. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. This is The Quarantine Report.


democracynow--2020-04-21--Coronavirus Relief Bills Bail Out Corporations as Small Businesses & Workers Suffer

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 , with Juan González .
Democrats are closing in on a deal with the White House for a $ 450 billion relief package to address the ongoing economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic , even as progressives say that it bails out businesses without protecting working people .
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin says that bill allocates an additional $ 350 billion of relief for small @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in last month ’ s emergency act were quickly depleted .
In a concession to Democrats , the new relief package also includes $ 75 billion for hospitals , $ 25 billion for testing .
At Monday ’ s Coronavirus Task Force meeting , Trump suggested demands for testing and ventilators are part of a political conspiracy against him .
AMY GOODMAN : As Trump attacks testing , members of the Progressive Caucus are attacking the new stimulus bill for failing to include measures like rent cancellation , hazard pay , funding for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ healthcare expansions .
This is Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaking at a virtual news conference Monday .
AMY GOODMAN : For more , we ’ re joined by the executive editor of The American Prospect , David Dayen .
He writes a must-read daily update on the pandemic called “ Unsanitized.
” David , welcome to Democracy Now !
Tell us what ’ s happening here in this latest bailout package .
Who ’ s getting bailed out , and who isn ’ t ?
DAVID DAYEN : So , this is the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interim package , in between the last really big one , the CARES Act , and then what they ’ re calling CARES Act 2 .
So I guess you call it CARES Act 1.5 .
And mostly this replenishes the small business fund to give out these forgivable loans .
There ’ s also $ 75 billion for hospitals and $ 25 billion to surge testing .
However , as you mentioned , it does not add all of these important priorities , like vote by mail , like hazard pay , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that progressives have been calling for for some time .
And so , you know , there ’ s a question of : Why do you keep giving Republicans the thing that they want , whether it ’ s a giant corporate bailout or this continued money into the small business fund , when the Democratic priorities are left on the table ?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : Well , David Dayen , I wanted to ask you — you wrote recently about the naming of Donna Shalala to head the bailout oversight panel .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ she ’ s clearly conflicted in terms of her own private investments and even though she has virtually no experience in this kind of oversight .
Could you talk about the meaning of this , coming from the Democrats , to name someone like Donna Shalala in charge of seeing how this money is being spent ?
DAVID DAYEN : Sure .
So , Shalala is a Pelosi loyalist .
She ’ s on the Rules Committee .
And that ’ s a tell , that she ’ s someone who backs Pelosi @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you know , Shalala was the health and human services secretary under President Clinton , but this particular bailout oversight panel is really about looking at Federal Reserve lending programs .
You know , if you were on the Financial Services Committee , if you were on the Oversight Committee , that might be an important position where you would have a lot of experience .
Shalala really doesn ’ t have this sort of history with financial services that you would expect .
Now , I did notice in her last disclosure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of individual stock holdings in businesses like Boeing and Alaska Airlines and lots of oil companies , lots of banks , that might be in line for a bailout .
Now , Shalala told the Miami Herald yesterday that she has sold those stocks , said she sold some of them up to over a year ago .
However , there was never any disclosure of that , which , if true , would violate the STOCK Act , which forces disclosure of any transactions by members of Congress within 45 days .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ get to the bottom of that .
But I think what it signals is that Pelosi wants someone that is personally loyal to her on this panel , and expertise at actually conducting the oversight that ’ s needed to make sure that this money is being spent properly is a secondary consideration .
AMY GOODMAN : David Dayen , Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other members of the Progressive Caucus say they ’ re not going to support this stimulus package .
And if you can , overall , talk about who has benefited @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ruth ’ s Chris Steak House getting $ 20 million , and other companies in the small business part of things , and also the banks ?
And we only have a minute or two .
DAVID DAYEN : Sure .
I mean , there were about 80 publicly traded companies that received these small business forgivable loans in the small business program , that includes Ruth ’ s Chris and a number of others .
You know , in general , smaller businesses were able to get some support , but you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ able to get billions of dollars in processing fees under that loan program without having to do a whole heck of a lot .
And in general , there ’ s been kind of a disproportionate response that is reflected in the CARES Act .
You know , for individuals , for small businesses , it ’ s very hard to get relief .
Individuals risk having their individual checks taken and garnished by banks .
The unemployment program , it ’ s hard to get unemployment insurance .
But if you ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Reserve has $ 4.5 trillion in reserves ready for you .
So , where you stand in America and where you stand in this bill depends really on your power and influence .
AMY GOODMAN : We want to thank you for being with us , David Dayen .
We ’ ll be visiting you again in the coming days .
executive editor of The American Prospect , where he writes a daily update on the pandemic called “ Unsanitized.
” When we come back , why are women in detention , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ midst of this COVID pandemic , let alone any other time ?
Stay with us .
AMY GOODMAN : “ Let My People Go , ” sung by members of groups who are demanding New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio release people from jail and immigration detention amidst this pandemic .

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, with Juan González. Democrats are closing in on a deal with the White House for a $450 billion relief package to address the ongoing economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, even as progressives say that it bails out businesses without protecting working people. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin says that bill allocates an additional $350 billion of relief for small business, after funds for small business in last month’s emergency act were quickly depleted. In a concession to Democrats, the new relief package also includes $75 billion for hospitals, $25 billion for testing. At Monday’s Coronavirus Task Force meeting, Trump suggested demands for testing and ventilators are part of a political conspiracy against him.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Remember, it was all ventilators. And the reason it was all ventilators, they said, “There’s no way he’ll ever be able to catch this one.” And not only did we catch it, we are now the king of ventilators all over the world. We can send them anywhere. We have thousands being made a week, and they’re very high quality. And that wasn’t playing well, so then they said, “Testing, testing. Oh, we’ll get him on testing.” Well, testing is much easier than ventilators.
AMY GOODMAN: As Trump attacks testing, members of the Progressive Caucus are attacking the new stimulus bill for failing to include measures like rent cancellation, hazard pay, funding for the Postal Service and vote-by-mail, and healthcare expansions. This is Democratic Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaking at a virtual news conference Monday.
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: Incrementalism is not helpful in this moment. It’s not helpful. For people to say, “Oh, well, we got something, so we might as well support it. You know, we got a nickel, we got a dime, in a trillion-dollar bill, so a nickel is more than nothing, so we should support it,” is unacceptable.
AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined by the executive editor of The American Prospect, David Dayen. He writes a must-read daily update on the pandemic called “Unsanitized.”
David, welcome to Democracy Now! Tell us what’s happening here in this latest bailout package. Who’s getting bailed out, and who isn’t?
DAVID DAYEN: So, this is the — they’re calling it the interim package, in between the last really big one, the CARES Act, and then what they’re calling CARES Act 2. So I guess you call it CARES Act 1.5. And mostly this replenishes the small business fund to give out these forgivable loans. There’s also $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion to surge testing. However, as you mentioned, it does not add all of these important priorities, like vote by mail, like hazard pay, like helping the post office survive, that progressives have been calling for for some time. And so, you know, there’s a question of: Why do you keep giving Republicans the thing that they want, whether it’s a giant corporate bailout or this continued money into the small business fund, when the Democratic priorities are left on the table?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, David Dayen, I wanted to ask you — you wrote recently about the naming of Donna Shalala to head the bailout oversight panel. Nancy Pelosi named her, even though she’s clearly conflicted in terms of her own private investments and even though she has virtually no experience in this kind of oversight. Could you talk about the meaning of this, coming from the Democrats, to name someone like Donna Shalala in charge of seeing how this money is being spent?
DAVID DAYEN: Sure. So, Shalala is a Pelosi loyalist. She’s on the Rules Committee. And that’s a tell, that she’s someone who backs Pelosi 100%. As you mentioned, you know, Shalala was the health and human services secretary under President Clinton, but this particular bailout oversight panel is really about looking at Federal Reserve lending programs. You know, if you were on the Financial Services Committee, if you were on the Oversight Committee, that might be an important position where you would have a lot of experience. Shalala really doesn’t have this sort of history with financial services that you would expect.
Now, I did notice in her last disclosure form that she listed a great number of individual stock holdings in businesses like Boeing and Alaska Airlines and lots of oil companies, lots of banks, that might be in line for a bailout. Now, Shalala told the Miami Herald yesterday that she has sold those stocks, said she sold some of them up to over a year ago. However, there was never any disclosure of that, which, if true, would violate the STOCK Act, which forces disclosure of any transactions by members of Congress within 45 days. So, I’m trying to get to the bottom of that.
But I think what it signals is that Pelosi wants someone that is personally loyal to her on this panel, and expertise at actually conducting the oversight that’s needed to make sure that this money is being spent properly is a secondary consideration.
AMY GOODMAN: David Dayen, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other members of the Progressive Caucus say they’re not going to support this stimulus package. And if you can, overall, talk about who has benefited so far, when we hear about Ruth’s Chris Steak House getting $20 million, and other companies in the small business part of things, and also the banks? And we only have a minute or two.
DAVID DAYEN: Sure. I mean, there were about 80 publicly traded companies that received these small business forgivable loans in the small business program, that includes Ruth’s Chris and a number of others. You know, in general, smaller businesses were able to get some support, but you’re talking about banks who were able to get billions of dollars in processing fees under that loan program without having to do a whole heck of a lot.
And in general, there’s been kind of a disproportionate response that is reflected in the CARES Act. You know, for individuals, for small businesses, it’s very hard to get relief. Individuals risk having their individual checks taken and garnished by banks. The unemployment program, it’s hard to get unemployment insurance. But if you’re a big corporation, the Federal Reserve has $4.5 trillion in reserves ready for you. So, where you stand in America and where you stand in this bill depends really on your power and influence.
AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you for being with us, David Dayen. We’ll be visiting you again in the coming days. executive editor of The American Prospect, where he writes a daily update on the pandemic called “Unsanitized.”
When we come back, why are women in detention, in immigration detention, being pepper-sprayed in the midst of this COVID pandemic, let alone any other time? Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: “Let My People Go,” sung by members of groups who are demanding New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio release people from jail and immigration detention amidst this pandemic.