democracynow--2020-06-30--NAACP's Derrick Johnson on Mississippi's State Flag, Trump's White Power Tweet & Boycotting Facebook

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 .
In a historic vote Sunday , the Mississippi state Legislature passed a bill to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag , making it the last state in the country to do so .
The move came amidst a nationwide uprising against racism that inspired protesters nationwide to topple statues of white supremacists and colonizers and a mounting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the highest percentage of African Americans in the country .
The National Collegiate Athletic Association , the NCAA , said it would not hold championship events in the state because of the flag , and Mississippi State star running back Kylin Hill said he would no longer represent Mississippi unless the racist symbol was removed .
An NBC affiliate in Jackson , Mississippi , captured the moment the state flag was removed from the Capitol , where it has flown for 126 years .
AMY GOODMAN : A week before state officials @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the African American mayor of Laurel , Mississippi , Johnny Magee , ordered its removal by executive order .
He became emotional as the measure was signed .
AMY GOODMAN : Well , for more , we go to Jackson , Mississippi , to speak with Derrick Johnson , president and CEO of the NAACP .
He ’ s the former Mississippi president of the NAACP .
Welcome to Democracy Now !
, Derrick Johnson .
It ’ s great to have you with us .
Let ’ s begin right there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that flag as a native of Mississippi .
Can you talk about the moment the Legislature voted ?
And that , of course , moment didn ’ t start there .
It went way back to decades ago , when you were trying to take it down .
DERRICK JOHNSON : You know , I am a part of a continuum .
There have been efforts in the state of Mississippi for decades to have the flag removed .
I inherited that fight .
I inherited the advocacy along the lines of ensuring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ respected , but , more importantly , to denounce a Confederacy that took up arms against this nation .
It is a conflict to say that you are patriotic , that you support the United States , and yet you want to display Confederate memorabilia .
It ’ s a conflict to say that all men and women are created equal under our Constitution , and yet you want to utilize this rag of terror to display a heritage that ’ s based on hate .
And so , from 1993 , taking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mantle with Senator Henry Kirksey and Aaron Henry , the former NAACP president — they filed the lawsuit — I was a plaintiff on that lawsuit while I was in undergrad .
When the Supreme Court ruled in our favor that the flag was never adopted , the Legislature went back and then put it on a ballot referendum .
I managed a campaign in 2001 .
And so , here we are , 27 years later , and we ’ ve finally taken down that piece of rag that we call the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mississippi .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : And could you talk about the significance of this , not just for Mississippi , but for the entire country ?
Mississippi , of course , always being sort of the heartland of the Confederacy and the state with the most notorious legacy in terms of Jim Crow and racist and violent attacks against African Americans , what it means for the entire country ?
DERRICK JOHNSON : So , first of all , that symbol was never the official flag of the Confederacy .
It was the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Northern Virginia Army .
It was resurrected as a symbol of segregation and racial oppression , in defiance of civil rights legislation and the federal government picking up steam to [ inaudible ] to comply with the creed that all men are created equal .
It was the symbol displayed , along with the burning of the cross , in the ’ 30s , ’ 40s , ’ 50s and ’ 60s , as a reign of terror to prevent African Americans in this state from fully participating as citizens .
So , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and we ’ ve had to fight both against the symbol of racial oppression , the revisionist history of racial oppression , and now the next step is to fight against the structural racism that ’ s embedded in the public policy , not only in the state of Mississippi but across the country .
AMY GOODMAN : Derrick Johnson , I want to ask you about the sports teams and the power of them .
I mean , you have coaches , that didn ’ t fight for this for years , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ legislatures , demanding that the flag come down , because , of course , the action of the NCAA , the SEC , and the incredible bravery of Kylin Hill , who said he would no longer play under the Mississippi Confederate flag .
DERRICK JOHNSON : Well , it ’ s not new for the NCAA to take steps .
We filed , in the early — I mean , the late ’ 90s , early 2000s .
They stood both with us and the state of South Carolina concerning the Confederate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to hold NCAA-sanctioned tournaments in the state of Mississippi or South Carolina , until the flag was addressed .
There has been a history of individuals using their platform , particularly African Americans using their platforms , who are athletes , to speak out around social justice issues .
So , I encourage and support others to continue to use those platforms .
But in the state of Mississippi , sports is big business .
Sports is opportunity for universities to recruit .
And in college football , in particular , it generated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state .
So , once it was stated that the NCAA and the SEC finally was going to take even stronger stands , it really resonated with individuals who were concerned about the revenue that it would cause harm to .
AMY GOODMAN : I wanted to turn to the issue of white power , that unbelievable tweet that Trump retweeted , the video of a man in The Villages retirement community in Florida shouting “ white power ” at antiracist protesters .
AMY GOODMAN : He was in a golf cart .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the caption , “ Thank you to the great people of The Villages.
” After enormous outcry , he was forced to delete that tweet , and his people claimed he didn ’ t see the video .
But he did not condemn it , even when it was pointed out to him .
Derrick Johnson , the significance of this ?
DERRICK JOHNSON : It is a part of the narrative of this administration .
It has not only catered to white supremacist groups and individuals who would scream that type of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the White House , a known white supremacist .
The atmosphere that we are seeing today , leading up to the George Floyd unfortunate murder in the middle of the street , has really been accelerated because of this White House ’ willingness to allow racial hatred to germinate from the White House .
We have not seen this level of disregard for human life , this level of just blatant racism , from a sitting president perhaps since Woodrow Wilson .
This is something that we should all be aghast by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this president to apologize .
This is the person who created a false equivalency in Charlottesville .
This is the person who ’ s completely tone deaf to children along the border .
This is a president that revels in this notion of supremacy because it gives him comfort level for his ego-driven personality .
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : I wanted to ask you — in terms of this spread of hate and racism , the NAACP and other civil rights groups called on advertisers to boycott Facebook during the month of July as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for Profit .
There ’ s been a phenomenal response .
About 160 companies , including Unilever and Coca-Cola , Honda and others , have heeded that call , and now we ’ re seeing Mark Zuckerberg suddenly , as the stock price plummeted for Facebook , suddenly announcing that he ’ s going to make some changes in his policy .
Could you talk about this whole issue of the Facebook and the social media platforms , that are actually fueling division and hate throughout the country ?
DERRICK JOHNSON : Well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taken down , like the Mississippi flag and statues of Confederate soldiers who created treasonous act under this notion of white supremacy , we must also advocate against platforms that would allow the hosting of recruitment of white supremacists in the ad purchases of those groups , particularly when you look over the last month , when you had that incident called “ boogaloo , ” where individuals , white supremacists , met up on Facebook , and they murdered a federal officer .
For the NAACP , we absolutely agree in freedom @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scream “ fire ” in a theater .
And when you have a platform as large as Facebook , essentially a public utility , and they refuse to protect the citizens and protect our democracy , there is no government regulations .
You can not have a consumer boycott of such a megacompany .
The only next step was to ask those corporations , who have now stood up in the midst of the current environment , to take another step .
Let ’ s right-size how this platform is used to protect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ AMY GOODMAN : Let me go to Mark Zuckerberg on Friday as the stocks for Facebook were tanking .
AMY GOODMAN : So , that ’ s Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg , who previously refused to take action against posts by President Trump , including one threatening violence against protesters .
Can you respond to what he ’ s saying about starting to label posts that are newsworthy but violate the company ’ s policies ?
DERRICK JOHNSON : It ’ s a small step , but much more could be done .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ they ’ re not pushing racial hate content on people ’ s Facebook pages .
There needs to be what ’ s called a separation of church and state , that their content is not housed in their policy shop , because their policy shop is catering to this administration .
There ’ s so much more that more can be done .
You know , in 2016 , a foreign nation paid , with foreign currency , ads promoting Black Lives Matter , and Black Lives Matter had no concept that this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , was doing it .
They did nothing to prevent it .
There is so much more that this platform can do to safeguard the public interest , while at the exact same time allowing for free speech .
This platform is able to get away with stuff that this network and broadcast media can not do .
And we ’ re simply saying , “ Put the safeguards in place .
You have the technology .
You know what to do .
Just do it .
Protect the citizens of this country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Yeah , in that vein , I wanted to ask you — I ’ m an old-fashioned journalist .
The companies that I ’ ve worked for , whether it was the Daily News or Democracy Now !
, if we published something that was libelous or defamed people , we would be held legally responsible .
These platforms insist that they are platforms and not publishers .
Do you think that there has to be changes to the law to hold them responsible for their dissemination of what is essentially hate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Well , absolutely .
They ’ re trying to be both a platform to allow for content , and they also want to be — cover news .
You can ’ t be both .
And there needs to be guardrails .
You can not scream “ fire ” in a theater , therefore you should not allow for your platform to be used as a gathering point for white supremacist groups to meet up and then go cause harm to individuals , to murder federal law enforcement agents .
It is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thing to comprehend .
You can not allow your platforms to be manipulated for a foreign government to misinform the American public around elections and election processes .
Just think about what happened with Jack Dorsey and Twitter when they took the bold step to begin to identify misinformation related to the elections and they flagged it .
It was Facebook who criticized them for that .
And now he ’ s doing an about-face .
We have to have real clear rules of engagement for this platform to protect American citizens , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jewish community .
Anti-Semitism and racism is rampant on the platform .
And what ’ s happening there is you get the murder at Mother Emanuel Church in South Carolina , you get the shootings in the synagogue in Pittsburgh .
We must do more to protect the citizens of this country .
And this platform is posing a true danger to far too many individuals across the country .
AMY GOODMAN : Derrick Johnson , very quickly , the Georgia hate crimes law that was just passed , Governor Kemp signed it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ going into effect immediately .
Talk about — I mean , it means there ’ s just a handful of states in the country left that don ’ t have a hate crimes law — a major victory for the NAACP and people throughout Georgia .
Can you talk about it ?
DERRICK JOHNSON : I think it ’ s a tremendous victory .
There ’ s more to be done .
We have a young , dynamic state leader there .
Twenty-six-year-old James Woodall is doing a great job .
We also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ district attorneys we have to address .
Ahmaud Arbery is a good example .
It was clear on the video that he was murdered , but that district attorney refused to bring charges forward .
So , as we celebrate the legislative victory , we have an election in November to elect accountable district attorneys to hold law enforcement agencies accountable when they cause harm illegally against the communities they are sworn to protect and serve .
AMY GOODMAN : But you criticized HB 838 .
Can you explain what was also passed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me more , because as so many — it ’ s 50 states with HB 38 .
So , are you talking about Georgia , or are you talking about the House bill in D.C. ?
Are you — AMY GOODMAN : No , in Georgia , that provides police protection .
Many said it was more dangerous than HB 426 , the hate crimes bill , was good .
“ To see the Legislature prioritize HB 838 instead of repealing citizen ’ s arrest is heartbreaking and does not do justice to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s mother .
DERRICK JOHNSON : Yeah .
I mean , this notion of citizen ’ s arrest , we have to be careful , because you have so many people who ’ ve decided they ’ re going to take the law in their own hand unjustifiably .
When you have an individual who ’ s simply walking down the streets eating Skittles , Trayvon Martin , or an individual who ’ s jogging in their neighborhood , Ahmaud Arbery , or an individual who ’ s birdwatching in Central Park @ @ @ @ @ @ @ commit a racial hate crime , the whole notion of denying someone ’ s existence to enjoy peacefully their surroundings in their community and allow citizens to step up and try to enforce a law that hasn ’ t even been broken , we have to be careful with that .
And I ’ m always worried about this concept of citizen ’ s arrest , when you have unjustifiable scenarios , as we ’ ve seen over several years — not just in Ahmaud Arbery , but over several years .
You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you continue to put people ’ s lives in danger .
AMY GOODMAN : Well , I want to thank you so much for being with us , Derrick Johnson , president of the NAACP , speaking to us from Jackson , Mississippi — Mississippi that ’ s just voted to take down and remove the state flag , the last in the country to include the Confederate emblem .
This is Democracy Now !
When we come back , we go to an encampment outside New York City Hall , where people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ police department ’ s $ 6 billion budget .
Stay with us .
AMY GOODMAN : “ The Bigger Picture ” by Lil Baby , who released the song in response to Black Lives Matter protests across the country and the world .

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. In a historic vote Sunday, the Mississippi state Legislature passed a bill to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag, making it the last state in the country to do so. The move came amidst a nationwide uprising against racism that inspired protesters nationwide to topple statues of white supremacists and colonizers and a mounting pressure campaign in Mississippi, the state with the highest percentage of African Americans in the country. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, the NCAA, said it would not hold championship events in the state because of the flag, and Mississippi State star running back Kylin Hill said he would no longer represent Mississippi unless the racist symbol was removed.
An NBC affiliate in Jackson, Mississippi, captured the moment the state flag was removed from the Capitol, where it has flown for 126 years.
ANCHOR 1: The flag is coming down.
ANCHOR 2: And you can hear protesters in the background. There have been protesters at the state Capitol all day —
ANCHOR 1: All day long.
ANCHOR 2: — who support this state flag. And right now, ladies and gentlemen, again, you’re witnessing history in the state of Mississippi.
AMY GOODMAN: A week before state officials in Mississippi voted to remove the flag, the African American mayor of Laurel, Mississippi, Johnny Magee, ordered its removal by executive order. He became emotional as the measure was signed.
MAYOR JOHNNY MAGEE: It should not be flown at any of the public facilities. I don’t apologize for being emotional. I have lived through some things with this flag. And as they told Dr. King to wait, time for waiting is over.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, for more, we go to Jackson, Mississippi, to speak with Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP. He’s the former Mississippi president of the NAACP.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Derrick Johnson. It’s great to have you with us. Let’s begin right there. You have a long history with that flag as a native of Mississippi. Can you talk about the moment the Legislature voted? And that, of course, moment didn’t start there. It went way back to decades ago, when you were trying to take it down.
DERRICK JOHNSON: You know, I am a part of a continuum. There have been efforts in the state of Mississippi for decades to have the flag removed. I inherited that fight. I inherited the advocacy along the lines of ensuring that African Americans in this state was respected, but, more importantly, to denounce a Confederacy that took up arms against this nation. It is a conflict to say that you are patriotic, that you support the United States, and yet you want to display Confederate memorabilia. It’s a conflict to say that all men and women are created equal under our Constitution, and yet you want to utilize this rag of terror to display a heritage that’s based on hate.
And so, from 1993, taking up the mantle or working through the mantle with Senator Henry Kirksey and Aaron Henry, the former NAACP president — they filed the lawsuit — I was a plaintiff on that lawsuit while I was in undergrad. When the Supreme Court ruled in our favor that the flag was never adopted, the Legislature went back and then put it on a ballot referendum. I managed a campaign in 2001. And so, here we are, 27 years later, and we’ve finally taken down that piece of rag that we call the former state flag for the state of Mississippi.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And could you talk about the significance of this, not just for Mississippi, but for the entire country? Mississippi, of course, always being sort of the heartland of the Confederacy and the state with the most notorious legacy in terms of Jim Crow and racist and violent attacks against African Americans, what it means for the entire country?
DERRICK JOHNSON: So, first of all, that symbol was never the official flag of the Confederacy. It was the symbol used by General Lee’s Northern Virginia Army. It was resurrected as a symbol of segregation and racial oppression, in defiance of civil rights legislation and the federal government picking up steam to [inaudible] to comply with the creed that all men are created equal. It was the symbol displayed, along with the burning of the cross, in the ’30s, ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, as a reign of terror to prevent African Americans in this state from fully participating as citizens.
So, this has been a long journey, and we’ve had to fight both against the symbol of racial oppression, the revisionist history of racial oppression, and now the next step is to fight against the structural racism that’s embedded in the public policy, not only in the state of Mississippi but across the country.
AMY GOODMAN: Derrick Johnson, I want to ask you about the sports teams and the power of them. I mean, you have coaches, that didn’t fight for this for years, who are walking the halls of the legislatures, demanding that the flag come down, because, of course, the action of the NCAA, the SEC, and the incredible bravery of Kylin Hill, who said he would no longer play under the Mississippi Confederate flag.
DERRICK JOHNSON: Well, it’s not new for the NCAA to take steps. We filed, in the early — I mean, the late ’90s, early 2000s. They stood both with us and the state of South Carolina concerning the Confederate flags in both states. They refused to hold NCAA-sanctioned tournaments in the state of Mississippi or South Carolina, until the flag was addressed. There has been a history of individuals using their platform, particularly African Americans using their platforms, who are athletes, to speak out around social justice issues. So, I encourage and support others to continue to use those platforms.
But in the state of Mississippi, sports is big business. Sports is opportunity for universities to recruit. And in college football, in particular, it generated a tremendous amount of revenue for the state. So, once it was stated that the NCAA and the SEC finally was going to take even stronger stands, it really resonated with individuals who were concerned about the revenue that it would cause harm to.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to the issue of white power, that unbelievable tweet that Trump retweeted, the video of a man in The Villages retirement community in Florida shouting “white power” at antiracist protesters.
TRUMP SUPPORTER: White power! White power!
PROTESTER: There you go: “white power.”
AMY GOODMAN: He was in a golf cart. Trump shared the video Sunday morning with the caption, “Thank you to the great people of The Villages.” After enormous outcry, he was forced to delete that tweet, and his people claimed he didn’t see the video. But he did not condemn it, even when it was pointed out to him. Derrick Johnson, the significance of this?
DERRICK JOHNSON: It is a part of the narrative of this administration. It has not only catered to white supremacist groups and individuals who would scream that type of noise; we still have Steve Miller in the White House, a known white supremacist. The atmosphere that we are seeing today, leading up to the George Floyd unfortunate murder in the middle of the street, has really been accelerated because of this White House’ willingness to allow racial hatred to germinate from the White House. We have not seen this level of disregard for human life, this level of just blatant racism, from a sitting president perhaps since Woodrow Wilson. This is something that we should all be aghast by.
But we don’t expect this president to apologize. This is the person who created a false equivalency in Charlottesville. This is the person who’s completely tone deaf to children along the border. This is a president that revels in this notion of supremacy because it gives him comfort level for his ego-driven personality.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to ask you — in terms of this spread of hate and racism, the NAACP and other civil rights groups called on advertisers to boycott Facebook during the month of July as part of a campaign called Stop Hate for Profit. There’s been a phenomenal response. About 160 companies, including Unilever and Coca-Cola, Honda and others, have heeded that call, and now we’re seeing Mark Zuckerberg suddenly, as the stock price plummeted for Facebook, suddenly announcing that he’s going to make some changes in his policy. Could you talk about this whole issue of the Facebook and the social media platforms, that are actually fueling division and hate throughout the country?
DERRICK JOHNSON: Well, as we see symbols of racism taken down, like the Mississippi flag and statues of Confederate soldiers who created treasonous act under this notion of white supremacy, we must also advocate against platforms that would allow the hosting of recruitment of white supremacists in the ad purchases of those groups, particularly when you look over the last month, when you had that incident called “boogaloo,” where individuals, white supremacists, met up on Facebook, and they murdered a federal officer.
For the NAACP, we absolutely agree in freedom of speech, but you cannot scream “fire” in a theater. And when you have a platform as large as Facebook, essentially a public utility, and they refuse to protect the citizens and protect our democracy, there is no government regulations. You cannot have a consumer boycott of such a megacompany. The only next step was to ask those corporations, who have now stood up in the midst of the current environment, to take another step. Let’s right-size how this platform is used to protect individuals and to protect our democracy.
AMY GOODMAN: Let me go to Mark Zuckerberg on Friday as the stocks for Facebook were tanking.
MARK ZUCKERBERG: A handful of times a year, we make a decision to leave up content that would otherwise violate our policies, because we consider that the public interest value outweighs the risk of that content. And, you know, often here, seeing speech from politicians is in the public interest. And in the same way that news outlets will often report what a politician says, we think it’s important that people should generally be able to see it for themselves on our platforms, too. So we will start soon labeling some of the content that we leave up because it is deemed newsworthy. So, now people are going to be able to know when that designation has been made.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who previously refused to take action against posts by President Trump, including one threatening violence against protesters. Can you respond to what he’s saying about starting to label posts that are newsworthy but violate the company’s policies?
DERRICK JOHNSON: It’s a small step, but much more could be done. Their algorithms needs to be changed so they’re not pushing racial hate content on people’s Facebook pages. There needs to be what’s called a separation of church and state, that their content is not housed in their policy shop, because their policy shop is catering to this administration. There’s so much more that more can be done. You know, in 2016, a foreign nation paid, with foreign currency, ads promoting Black Lives Matter, and Black Lives Matter had no concept that this foreign nation, paying with foreign currency, was doing it. They did nothing to prevent it.
There is so much more that this platform can do to safeguard the public interest, while at the exact same time allowing for free speech. This platform is able to get away with stuff that this network and broadcast media cannot do. And we’re simply saying, “Put the safeguards in place. You have the technology. You know what to do. Just do it. Protect the citizens of this country. Protect our democracy.”
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, in that vein, I wanted to ask you — I’m an old-fashioned journalist. The companies that I’ve worked for, whether it was the Daily News or Democracy Now!, if we published something that was libelous or defamed people, we would be held legally responsible. These platforms insist that they are platforms and not publishers. Do you think that there has to be changes to the law to hold them responsible for their dissemination of what is essentially hate, lies and libel?
DERRICK JOHNSON: Well, absolutely. They’re trying to be both a platform to allow for content, and they also want to be — cover news. You can’t be both. And there needs to be guardrails. You cannot scream “fire” in a theater, therefore you should not allow for your platform to be used as a gathering point for white supremacist groups to meet up and then go cause harm to individuals, to murder federal law enforcement agents. It is unconscionable that this is such a hard thing to comprehend.
You cannot allow your platforms to be manipulated for a foreign government to misinform the American public around elections and election processes. Just think about what happened with Jack Dorsey and Twitter when they took the bold step to begin to identify misinformation related to the elections and they flagged it. It was Facebook who criticized them for that. And now he’s doing an about-face.
We have to have real clear rules of engagement for this platform to protect American citizens, particularly African Americans and individuals in the Jewish community. Anti-Semitism and racism is rampant on the platform. And what’s happening there is you get the murder at Mother Emanuel Church in South Carolina, you get the shootings in the synagogue in Pittsburgh. We must do more to protect the citizens of this country. And this platform is posing a true danger to far too many individuals across the country.
AMY GOODMAN: Derrick Johnson, very quickly, the Georgia hate crimes law that was just passed, Governor Kemp signed it into law Friday. It’s going into effect immediately. Talk about — I mean, it means there’s just a handful of states in the country left that don’t have a hate crimes law — a major victory for the NAACP and people throughout Georgia. Can you talk about it?
DERRICK JOHNSON: I think it’s a tremendous victory. There’s more to be done. We have a young, dynamic state leader there. Twenty-six-year-old James Woodall is doing a great job. We also have the issue of the independence of district attorneys we have to address. Ahmaud Arbery is a good example. It was clear on the video that he was murdered, but that district attorney refused to bring charges forward. So, as we celebrate the legislative victory, we have an election in November to elect accountable district attorneys to hold law enforcement agencies accountable when they cause harm illegally against the communities they are sworn to protect and serve.
AMY GOODMAN: But you criticized HB 838. Can you explain what was also passed?
DERRICK JOHNSON: So, give me more, because as so many — it’s 50 states with HB 38. So, are you talking about Georgia, or are you talking about the House bill in D.C.? Are you —
AMY GOODMAN: No, in Georgia, that provides police protection. Many said it was more dangerous than HB 426, the hate crimes bill, was good. “To see the Legislature prioritize HB 838 instead of repealing citizen’s arrest is heartbreaking and does not do justice to my son,” said Ahmed Arbery’s mother.
DERRICK JOHNSON: Yeah. I mean, this notion of citizen’s arrest, we have to be careful, because you have so many people who’ve decided they’re going to take the law in their own hand unjustifiably. When you have an individual who’s simply walking down the streets eating Skittles, Trayvon Martin, or an individual who’s jogging in their neighborhood, Ahmaud Arbery, or an individual who’s birdwatching in Central Park and have an Amy Cooper decide to commit a racial hate crime, the whole notion of denying someone’s existence to enjoy peacefully their surroundings in their community and allow citizens to step up and try to enforce a law that hasn’t even been broken, we have to be careful with that. And I’m always worried about this concept of citizen’s arrest, when you have unjustifiable scenarios, as we’ve seen over several years — not just in Ahmaud Arbery, but over several years. You know, you maintain a culture where you continue to put people’s lives in danger.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you so much for being with us, Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, speaking to us from Jackson, Mississippi — Mississippi that’s just voted to take down and remove the state flag, the last in the country to include the Confederate emblem.
This is Democracy Now! When we come back, we go to an encampment outside New York City Hall, where people are demanding a billion-dollar cut from the police department’s $6 billion budget. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: “The Bigger Picture” by Lil Baby, who released the song in response to Black Lives Matter protests across the country and the world.


democracynow--2020-06-30--"Moment of Elation": In 1st Big Abortion Case of Trump Era, SCOTUS Strikes Down Strict Louisiana Law

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to start with the first big abortion case of the Trump era. The reproductive rights movement saw a major victory Monday, when the Supreme Court struck down a restrictive abortion law in Louisiana that would have left the state with just one abortion clinic. The 2014 law required doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinic. These privileges are often impossible for abortion providers to obtain, due to anti-choice sentiment or because they don’t admit enough patients to meet hospital minimums.
Chief Justice John Roberts sided with liberal justices in the 5-to-4 decision. He indicated this was solely to respect court precedent. In 2016, the Supreme Court struck down a near identical law in Texas. In that case, Roberts dissented.
This is Planned Parenthood president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson responding to the ruling.
ALEXIS McGILL JOHNSON: You know, I think it’s just a sigh of relief. You know, I had the pleasure of being in the courtroom to hear the argument being heard. And I, you know, really want to just first give credit to the Center for Reproductive Rights and their work with June Medical and how brilliantly and beautifully argued it was. It means that women in Louisiana have access to abortion. …
You know, I do think the court was taking a stand, and I think particularly, you know, being in the room and listening to the questions by Justices Sotomayor and Ginsburg and Kagan, how they were actually able to make plain the burden that would be carried by people seeking abortion.
AMY GOODMAN: Alexis McGill Johnson is the new permanent head of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Well, for more, we’re going to Louisiana, where we’re joined by Lakeesha Harris, director of reproductive health and justice at Women with a Vision. She joins us from New Orleans.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Lakeesha. First, can you describe your reaction when you heard the news that Chief Justice John Roberts had joined with the liberal justices in a ultimately pro-choice ruling?
LAKEESHA HARRIS: For me, for all of us, it was just a big, collective, deep sigh. Thank you, Amy and Juan, for having me. It was a moment of elation. Many of us have been working years, so this was justice in the making. And we cried together, and we celebrated.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, I wanted to ask you, in terms of this — this ruling is very similar to a 2016 ruling by the court in the case of Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt in Texas. Could you talk about this whole issue of undue burden that was involved in both the Texas case as well as this one?
LAKEESHA HARRIS: Yes, so, undue burden means that you can’t — that lawmakers in the state cannot present anything that poses an undue or unjust burden to people seeking abortion care. That was, you know, held up in Texas, and the Supreme Court justices held that same precedence here in Louisiana. And what that means for people on the ground who disproportionately don’t have the resources — they’re Black and Brown people, the most marginalized in Louisiana — it means that they don’t have any blockage in the road. Well, they don’t have this blockage, this law, admitting privileges, to get to abortion services.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And under the law that was struck down, you’ve estimated that as much as 70% of the people who are seeking abortions in Louisiana would have had to travel more than 150 miles to get an abortion?
LAKEESHA HARRIS: And that is correct. And when you think about that, you’re talking about poor people who don’t have the resources usually. And in a pandemic, we’re thinking about the people who are most affected by COVID-19, that is already disproportionately killing Black and Brown people in our state.
AMY GOODMAN: Lakeesha Harris, can you talk about what these admitting privileges do? I mean, it sounds like a technical point, but can you talk about how this plays out? First, I wanted to go to Louisiana Solicitor General Liz Murrill, who had defended Louisiana’s anti-choice law. She was speaking to the Catholic station Eternal Word Television Network.
LIZ MURRILL: Think about like a seatbelt law. We wouldn’t let Ford Motor Company challenge a seatbelt law or an airbag law in the name of the people who are protected by that airbag. So, it’s just a conflict, I think, in the regulatory structure. These are health and safety regulations, and they have an interest in being deregulated or having less oversight.
AMY GOODMAN: So, she’s talking about this as just a matter of deregulation and having more oversight. Explain specifically what it means for a doctor to get privileges in a local hospital and why this shuts down clinics.
LAKEESHA HARRIS: So, it’s not just a matter of deregulation. This is part of the numerous TRAP laws that they entangle our providers in. And so, with that, it’s like, you know, doctors have to be connected to a hospital within 30 miles of the clinics. And that has been such a daunting task for our providers. We only have three in the state. And they have tried to be connected to hospitals and have been denied, or the process has been prolonged. And that leaves us with little to no resources within our communities. These physicians and clinics are systematically under attack.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what has it meant to women in the state, in general, in terms of this lack of access to reproductive care? Can you talk about Louisiana’s high maternal mortality rates compared to the rest of the country?
LAKEESHA HARRIS: Yes. So, we have a high maternal mortality rate. I believe it’s the second most mortality rate, with it being Black women dying in childbirth four times more than white women in our state. And what that does is force people into pregnancy, when we don’t have abortion access and somebody wants to have an abortion. It leaves a Black woman staring down the injustice system that is our maternal health system down here. It leaves them staring in the face of death.
AMY GOODMAN: Lakeesha Harris, you only have three abortion clinics in Louisiana anyway. This would have closed it to one. Can you talk about what this means in a time of COVID, and how COVID has had a disproportionate impact on Black and Brown women, and what that means for their reproductive health?
LAKEESHA HARRIS: Yes. So, we only have three clinics here. It would dwindle — this bill would have dwindled us down to one. That would mean that Black and Brown women, as I have stated, would have to travel, you know, beyond this state. And we know that when — during a pandemic and COVID, in the crisis of COVID, that leaves us trying to figure out how we’re going to stay, where we’re going to stay. It leaves us scrambling for funds and money.
And especially when we have a state that is a hot spot, when you travel abroad or beyond the state, you have a 14-day wait that you might have to endure. That’s a time limit on abortion access. Many of them are coming in need, and they need that care almost immediately because they’re under time constraints in different states. So, it has a financial impact. It’s a stressor on people who are pregnant. And it’s an unjust and undue burden that they have to endure.
AMY GOODMAN: We just have 10 seconds, Lakeesha, but can you talk about the state constitutional amendment that will be voted on by people in November, Election Day?
LAKEESHA HARRIS: Yes. This was a proposed amendment to state that Louisiana does not support abortion access and that we don’t fund abortion access. And this is coming up on the ballot on November the 3rd, in our presidential elections. And like a lot of presidents said, it has not just a Louisiana impact, but a national impact. So, get out and vote, people, please.
AMY GOODMAN: Lakeesha Harris, we want to thank you for being with us. We’ll continue to follow that, as well as the Supreme Court is expected any day now to hand down its ruling on contraceptives, and we’ll report on that, and you can go to our website to see the latest. Lakeesha Harris, director of reproductive health and Justice at Women with a Vision, based in New Orleans, Louisiana.
When we come back, we head to Jackson, Mississippi, to speak with the head of the NAACP. Mississippi has just struck down its Confederate flag, the last in the nation. We’ll get the latest on that, President Trump’s “white power” retweet and more. Stay with us.


democracynow--2020-06-29--Louisiana Activists Face 15 Years for "Terrorizing" Oil Lobbyist with Box of Plastic Pollution

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, as we head to Louisiana, where two environmental activists face up to 15 years in prison for leaving a box of plastic pollution, found on the Texas coast, at the home of an oil and gas lobbyist in December. Anne Rolfes and Kate McIntosh, members of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, turned themselves in to the Baton Rouge Police Department Thursday, facing, quote, “terrorizing” felony charges for the action, which was part of a campaign to raise awareness about plastic pollution. They both made $5,000 bail later in the day and were released.
The complaint against the activists claims they meant to cause fear when they left a box filled with plastic pellets, known as nurdles, outside the home of lobbyist Greg Bowser along with a note that read, in part, quote, “These are just some of the billions of nurdles that Formosa Plastics dumped into the coastal waters of the state of Texas,” unquote. The action was part of a campaign to halt plans by Formosa Plastics to build a new plant in St. James Parish in an area known as Cancer Alley. Pam Spees, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights, who is representing Rolfes and McIntosh, says the charges are meritless and meant to intimidate protesters.
For more on this case and the criminalization of activism in Cancer Alley, we go to New Orleans, where we’re joined by two guests. Anne Rolfes is with us, director of the group Louisiana Bucket Brigade, one of the activists facing the felony charges, and Gregory Manning, pastor of Broadmoor Community Church, part of the Coalition Against Death Alley and the Greater New Orleans Interfaith Climate Coalition. Reverend Manning was charged with inciting a riot as he led a peaceful protest along Cancer Alley in October of 2019.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Anne, you just turned yourself in. Explain what you’re being charged with right now, and what it is that you left. What were these plastic pellets?
ANNE ROLFES: Well, the community of St. James, Louisiana, which is a historic Black community, is under threat of destruction by Formosa Plastics. And last December, as our Department of Environmental Quality was considering the permit, at the very same moment, in Texas, a judge found Formosa Plastics guilty of violating the Clean Water Act, and the company settled the largest Clean Water Act fine in U.S. history — $50 million.
So, what we did is we brought the evidence from that case to Louisiana. It certainly seemed relevant. We really couldn’t believe that our state would even contemplate having this facility come into our state, given what had just happened in Texas. And so we thought it was really timely and really urgent to provide this evidence, not only to our state, but also to some of the lobbyists who are gearing up to destroy, again, the Black community of St. James Parish with what would be the largest plastics plant in North America.
AMY GOODMAN: So, what are these plastic pellets, and where did you leave them?
ANNE ROLFES: They’re just little, tiny plastic pieces that they melt into all sorts of useless things like throwaway cutlery and plastic bags that none of us need. And so, we visited the homes of some of the oil and gas and chemical lobbyists and brought them the evidence from Texas. Again, the state was considering, at that very moment, letting this same serial polluter into our state, and we felt that the lobbyists ought to reckon with the fact that they are destroying Black communities, a historic Black community, here in Louisiana. And all for what? For plastics that nobody needs.
AMY GOODMAN: These are felony charges of terrorizing. What do you face?
ANNE ROLFES: Fifteen years in prison. I was put in shackles. My colleague, Gregory Manning, who is on the show today, was pinned to the ground late last year when he protested against the oil and gas and chemical industry. And Sharon Lavigne, who is the president of RISE St. James, the group that’s leading the charge to stop Formosa Plastics, she has been visited repeatedly by sheriff’s deputies. So it’s a long chain of intimidation because of our very successful campaign to stop Formosa. It’s clear that this is nothing more than retaliation.
AMY GOODMAN: Pastor Gregory Manning, you’ve been arrested as you lead protests. They say you’re inciting a riot. Can you talk about St. James Parish and why you’re so deeply concerned, why it’s been called Cancer Alley?
PASTOR GREGORY MANNING: Thank you, Amy. You know, we not only call it Cancer Alley, as it’s been called historically, but we have given it a new name, and that’s Death Alley, because not only is it — has the most — highest rates of cancer than anywhere in the nation, it has the highest rates of all sorts of other diseases, such as autoimmune disease and asthma and respiratory issues.
And these are people who I want to say are the African descendants of slaves. And so, we’re standing with them to say that these folks are being poisoned. They’re literally saying that “We cannot breathe.” They’re crying out for people to notice that these petrochemical industries have moved into this land — over a hundred of these — and that have consistently terrorized them and poisoned them on a daily basis. I’m talking men, women and children. And so, I believe that as clergy, as a pastor, that I cannot sit idly by and watch these people be poisoned and killed ruthlessly by these petrochemical industries and oil and gas industries.
AMY GOODMAN: Pastor Manning, can you talk about Formosa Plastics in the context of environmental racism and the vast racial disparities that your parishioners and people all over the country in Black and Brown communities are facing when it comes to COVID, and how this all comes together now?
PASTOR GREGORY MANNING: I believe that people must understand that this area of St. John and St. James Parish are also experiencing the highest rates of death by coronavirus than anywhere else in the nation. When we look at that, it’s just astonishing that while we see that these chemical industries are continuing to have production, that they’re considered by our legislators to be essential operation.
And Anne and I ask ourselves: Why are these businesses not considered nonessential? Why is it essential to produce plastics and wetsuits and all of these in these predominantly African American communities, where we have the African descendants of slaves? Why are their lives considered unnecessary? When we talk about the Black Lives Matter movement, we have to look, and we have to ask ourselves: Do these Black lives matter? Do these Black lives that are located in St. James Parish — do they matter?
And I have to say, as a clergy, as a pastor, that they not only matter to me, they matter to God. And what we want is for people to take notice that these folks are literally being poisoned each and every day, and they are being told that, “No, your lives don’t matter,” for the sake of profit, for the sake of gain, for the sake of these petrochemical industries. And we hear them crying out.
AMY GOODMAN: There is a cemetery of formerly enslaved people on the proposed building site, Pastor?
PASTOR GREGORY MANNING: Yes, absolutely. This Formosa plastic company has known — they’ve literally been informed — that there is an ancestral burial ground of our enslaved ancestors that they have discovered, and they literally and absolutely don’t care. They are willing to desecrate this cemetery, move the resting place of these enslaved ancestors of ours, to build this Formosa Plastics company that will further ravage the land. And on the day that the warrant was issued for Kate and Anne, we just got done with a wonderful, magnificent celebration of Juneteenth remembering these enslaved ancestors.
AMY GOODMAN: Pastor Gregory Manning, we’ll certainly continue to cover this, of Coalition Against Death Alley and Greater New Orleans Interfaith Climate Coalition, and Anne Rolfes, Louisiana Bucket Brigade.
That does it for our show. Happy Birthday to Jon Randolph! Please stay safe and wear a mask. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.


democracynow--2020-06-29--Headlines for June 29, 2020

Headlines for June 29, 2020

Coronavirus cases have now topped 10 million worldwide , with over a half-million deaths .
Cases continue to surge across much of the United States , where confirmed cases have now topped 2.6 million , with over 126,000 reported deaths — that ’ s one-quarter of the world ’ s cases and deaths , though the U.S. has just over 4 % of the global population .
Spikes are being reported in 36 states .
Only two states — Connecticut and Rhode Island — saw a decline in new cases compared to last week .
On Friday , the U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a single day since the start of the pandemic .
At least a dozen states have “ paused ” their reopening .
In California , Governor Gavin Newsom ordered bars in seven counties , including Los Angeles , to close .
The governors of Florida and Texas have ordered bars to close , among other restrictions , in an attempt to curb the surge in cases .
They are refusing to impose statewide stay-at-home orders and mandate the wearing of face masks .
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar warned the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Secretary Alex Azar : “ The window is closing .
We have to act .
And people , as individuals , have to act responsibly .
We need to social distance .
We need to wear our face coverings if we ’ re in settings where we can ’ t social distance , particularly in these hot zones.
” Meanwhile , Vice President Mike Pence on Friday touted the nation ’ s “ truly remarkable progress , ” even as the U.S. reported a record 40,000 new cases in the previous 24 hours @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Florida and Arizona due to the surge in cases .
He did not , however , cancel an appearance at a Dallas church Sunday , where he wore a mask as he sat in the front row as a choir of over 100 people performed unmasked .
Over 2,000 people attended the event ; many also did not wear a mask .
This comes as reports emerged Friday that the Trump campaign ordered the removal of thousands of social distancing stickers on seats at his Tulsa rally last weekend .
A reporter who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tested positive for COVID-19 .

Coronavirus cases have now topped 10 million worldwide, with over a half-million deaths. Cases continue to surge across much of the United States, where confirmed cases have now topped 2.6 million, with over 126,000 reported deaths — that’s one-quarter of the world’s cases and deaths, though the U.S. has just over 4% of the global population. Spikes are being reported in 36 states. Only two states — Connecticut and Rhode Island — saw a decline in new cases compared to last week. On Friday, the U.S. reported the highest number of new cases in a single day since the start of the pandemic.
At least a dozen states have “paused” their reopening. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom ordered bars in seven counties, including Los Angeles, to close. The governors of Florida and Texas have ordered bars to close, among other restrictions, in an attempt to curb the surge in cases. They are refusing to impose statewide stay-at-home orders and mandate the wearing of face masks. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar warned the U.S. needs to act immediately.
HHS Secretary Alex Azar: “The window is closing. We have to act. And people, as individuals, have to act responsibly. We need to social distance. We need to wear our face coverings if we’re in settings where we can’t social distance, particularly in these hot zones.”
Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence on Friday touted the nation’s “truly remarkable progress,” even as the U.S. reported a record 40,000 new cases in the previous 24 hours. Pence recently canceled campaign events in Florida and Arizona due to the surge in cases. He did not, however, cancel an appearance at a Dallas church Sunday, where he wore a mask as he sat in the front row as a choir of over 100 people performed unmasked. Over 2,000 people attended the event; many also did not wear a mask. This comes as reports emerged Friday that the Trump campaign ordered the removal of thousands of social distancing stickers on seats at his Tulsa rally last weekend. A reporter who covered the Tulsa rally recently said he tested positive for COVID-19.


democracynow--2020-07-01--Ed Yong on the "Disgraceful" U.S. Pandemic Response & How Medicare for All Could Have Saved Lives

As the United States experiences the world ’ s worst outbreak of COVID-19 , we speak with Ed Yong , @ @ @ @ @ , who warned of the country ’ s unpreparedness for a viral outbreak in 2018 @ @ @ @ @ it ’ s truly shocking and disgraceful ” how badly the pandemic has been handled @ @ @ @ @ and blames a lack of federal leadership for most of the damage .
“ A @ @ @ @ @ we have should not be in this state , ” he argues , and adds @ @ @ @ @ have saved lives .

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. The United States is experiencing the world’s worst outbreak of COVID-19. Tuesday marked the highest number of cases reported in the country in a single day since the pandemic began, with 47,000 new infections reported. Eight states — Alaska, Arizona, California, Georgia, Idaho, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas — also reported record daily highs as the virus spreads rapidly across the South and West. The number of U.S. cases have reportedly risen by 80% in the past two weeks.
In testimony to a Senate committee Tuesday, top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci warned the U.S. could spiral out of control, unless urgent steps are taken.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: When you have an outbreak in one part of the country, even though in other parts of the country they’re doing well, they are vulnerable. I made that point very clearly last week at a press conference. We can’t just focus on those areas that are having the surge. It puts the entire country at risk. We are now having 40-plus thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day, if this does not turn around.
AMY GOODMAN: A number of states are reversing reopening measures as they face astronomical rises in cases. California Governor Gavin Newsom said he’ll soon announce new rollbacks of recent reopenings, after a record increase in new cases and hospitalizations.
On Monday, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey reversed the state’s reopening and ordered the closure of bars, nightclubs, gyms, movie theaters and water parks. Governor Ducey had previously banned local officials from implementing their own COVID restrictions more stringent than the state.
And in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott ordered bars to close again last week. Houston hospitals have begun transferring COVID patients to medical centers in other parts of Texas as Houston becomes a new hot spot. Former San Antonio mayor and presidential candidate Julián Castro tweeted, quote, “Texas now has more daily coronavirus cases than Italy when it was a global epicenter of the pandemic,” he said.
And it’s not just the U.S. The virus is spreading faster around the world, too, as the global death toll passed half a million earlier this week. World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned “the worst is yet to come.”
TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS: We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is, this is not even close to being over. Although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, for more, we go to Washington, D.C., where we’re joined by Ed Yong, a science writer at The Atlantic who’s been covering the pandemic extensively. His latest pieces are ”COVID-19 Can Last for Several Months” and ”America’s Patchwork Pandemic Is Fraying Even Further.” Two years ago, he warned the country’s unpreparedness in an essay, “Is America Ready for a Global Pandemic?”
Ed, welcome to Democracy Now! Let’s begin with these just astounding numbers, months into this pandemic. The U.S. has, oh, little more than 4% of the world’s population but more than a quarter of the world’s deaths and reported coronavirus cases. How is this possible? What is the U.S. doing wrong?
ED YONG: It’s truly shocking and disgraceful. A country with the resources that we have should not be in this state. And I think, above all else, the single factor that’s leading to this is the lack of federal coordination and leadership. The fact that there is no steadying, unifying hand coming from the White House means that the country is forced to fight this pandemic as a bunch of disconnected states. And the response has therefore been weaker than the sum of its parts.
That’s why we are in this situation, where entirely predictable patterns are emerging. You know, we knew that if states reopened too early, in the South, in the West, all around the country, without putting in the measures necessary to contain and suppress the virus — testing, contact tracing and so on — that we would see new surges in cases. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing now. The tragedy that is currently unfolding in the South and in the West is doubly tragic because it was entirely predictable and that experts had warned about it.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: But I wanted to ask you: What about the reality that whether it’s a liberal state, like California, or some of the more conservative states, like Texas and Florida, where the leaders were skeptical and tried to reopen very quickly — California was the first to close, to have people stay at home, and yet it is seeing a huge surge now. To what degree is this a result of the direct policies of these states, or is it just the fatigue of a lot of Americans who just are not accustomed to just staying at home and maintaining social distance for such a long period of time?
ED YONG: So, you can’t separate any of these things. The reason why we went into a period of social distancing in the first place was because the U.S. wasted time in the early part of the year, when it had warnings and didn’t get ready to capture the virus as it arrived within our borders. So, the thing spreads, cases start rising, and everyone goes into panic mode and, very justifiably, locks down to reduce transmission. But that comes with an implicit deal, a bargain on the part of the people, that we will shoulder this financial and emotional and mental hit in order that the government can use the time to shore up our hospitals, to improve the public health infrastructure, to just get ready.
And to do that effectively, you can’t just say to the states, as the Trump White House has done, “Do your own thing.” You need a federal government, who have deep pockets and extensive power, to say, “We are operating on this consistent framework, so that you may do — you, the states, may do something different according to the needs of your population, but we’re going to act as one.” And that was not done.
And that means that, unfortunately, towards the end of spring, regardless of whether you’re a Democratic or Republican state, whether you’re red or blue, leaders were in this weird position where they — a lot of them had to reopen, because people were getting bored, because people were stretching the limits of their mental and financial patience.
So, because we didn’t use that time well, the time that all of us bought with this sacrifice, we are now in the situation where the virus was never brought to heel and is now raging out of control again. We talk a lot about second wave. We never even escaped the first one.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Ed Yong, I’d like to also ask you about possible other waves. One of my concerns has been that, increasingly, not just in the United States, but across the world, as the world has become more urbanized, as more and more people are crowded into megacities, and as neoliberal policies have resulted in less and less investment in public health infrastructure, are we facing the potential for more pandemics in the future? We’re hearing now, for instance, reports that a new strain of H1N1 is beginning to spread in the countryside of China, of swine flu. And does your concern extend beyond the coronavirus to potential other pandemics on the horizon?
ED YONG: Yeah, absolutely. You know, in many ways, this is, by far, not the worst pandemic we could be seeing. This virus is deadly and spreads well, but it doesn’t spread as well as measles. It’s not as deadly as other coronaviruses, like SARS or MERS. This could be worse. And we are already flunking this quite basic test in a really spectacular fashion.
Now, yes, as you say, urbanization, crowded cities are an issue. But other countries that have successfully contained the virus, like Hong Kong and South Korea, other states and nations, also have big, crowded cities. You know, the fact that we are in a globalized, urbanized world shouldn’t be an excuse for America to look past its failings during this crisis.
On top of those things that a lot of other countries share, we add this — a strange healthcare system that ties health to unemployment. We add a long legacy of racial discrimination, which means that now Black and Brown and Indigenous people are suffering disproportionately. They’re getting infected and dying from coronavirus far more than other people. We add a specific disinvestment in public health, that is not universal, that is very much an American phenomenon, that we have become complacent. We have reduced the money that goes in to the people who stop us from getting sick in the first place, in favor of treating people who are already sick. And the combined burden of all of these choices, left to fester and rot for decades, is coming to fruition now. Now we’re seeing the impact of all these things, that people have talked about and could have been prevented and are making the pandemic so much worse.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you think, if we had Medicare for All, a national healthcare system, that it would have dealt with the system much better, and working against this patchwork approach in this country, Ed?
ED YONG: Yes. I think it’s very clear that that is the case. You know, it’s not going to be a panacea. It’s not going to be the single thing that fixes everything. The problem with the pandemic is that the U.S. has floundered on multiple different fronts. Healthcare access is certainly one of them. There was a thing called the Global Health Security Index, which ranks different nations according to their preparedness. The U.S. ranked number one, which now, in hindsight, seems a bit dubious. But even then, in terms of healthcare access, it ranked 175th out of 195 countries — one of the worst in the world.
So, do I think that universal healthcare would have made a difference? Absolutely. As would other social policies — paid sick leave, hazard pay — things that would allow people the agency and power to take their health into their own hands, stop themselves from getting infected in a way that we know that poor and disadvantaged people currently are.
AMY GOODMAN: On Tuesday, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden blasted Trump’s, quote, “historic mismanagement” of the coronavirus pandemic. He was speaking in Wilmington, Delaware. He compared his response with Trump’s.
JOE BIDEN: In April, I released a plan to secure the supply chain for personal protective equipment, surge nationwide testing with a — through a pandemic testing board, and launch a nationwide health corps to focus on contact tracing. Trump’s suggestions? Americans should inject disinfectants into their bodies.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s Joe Biden yesterday. Ed, in South Dakota, the president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe has ordered President Trump to cancel a planned visit to Mount Rushmore July 3rd for his Independence Day celebration. Meanwhile, the South Dakota Republican governor, a close ally of Trump, Kristi Noem, said Tuesday the thousands of people attending Trump’s Mount Rushmore event will not be required to wear a mask or to remain six feet apart. This is what she said.
GOV. KRISTI NOEM: We’ll be giving out free face masks, if they choose to wear one, but we won’t be social distancing.
AMY GOODMAN: So, can you talk about this? People say, “If we’re not going to stand six feet apart, we should be looking at six feet under.” Others are saying, “Here is President Trump, who cares more about dead Confederates than he does living Americans,” last seen golfing this weekend at his Bedminster [sic] private club. Can you talk about Trump, in particular, what Joe Biden is proposing? You have called the catastrophe at the White House — you have referred to it in all sorts of ways. What Trump has done?
ED YONG: I’m running out of ways to describe it, honestly. I think that to have a rally at this time, you know, to essentially assuage your own narcissism at the cost of the lives of Americans, and specifically your own supporters, just seems utterly baffling, certainly electorally counterproductive, but just a massive moral failure.
Like, a president should be providing clear, consistent, evidence-based messaging. He should be wearing a mask in public. He should be setting an example for the rest of the nation. Pandemics are already going to be divisive climes, where people are scrabbling for information. They’re looking at each other with suspicion. And we need leadership to unify a population that’s threatened to be fragmented.
But Trump is doing what Trump has always done. In moments of genuine crisis and panic, he is stoking a culture war, he is setting people against each other, and he is thinking about himself and his career above all else. And we’re seeing the effects of that play out across the country. The people who turn up to his rally are putting themselves at danger. And for what? This whole pandemic has shown us that having someone at the top who is ill-suited to the job and unable to carry out the duties of that office is a huge problem in a crisis like this.
If Joe Biden were to be elected, one thing I would note is that all the problems that I’ve described in this segment so far — long-standing issues of healthcare inequality, racism — if you have a candidate who is running on the platform of going back to the good old days, the good old days were what led to this. We need progressive, radical reform to get the U.S. into a situation where it can more effectively fight the pandemics of the future that we know absolutely will happen. Can we possibly do that with Trump in the White House? I don’t think we can. But it is a challenge for any person occupying that office to deal with in the future.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Ed Yong, could you help us understand more about what you’ve learned about how the disease spreads? We know that there are some people who get COVID-19 and don’t infect other people. There are those who are superspreaders. And there’s also now more, increasing reports that some people suffer from this flu for months and months, and there’s a potential for brain damage in some people. Could you talk about what you’ve learned?
ED YONG: Yes. So, one of the things that makes this virus so challenging is that it can spread from one person to another before the former shows any symptoms. And this presymptomatic spread allows it to move stealthily without being easily detected. Now, it shouldn’t be a dealbreaker; testing and tracing and public health measures should be able to contain it.
One thing that I think is an understated problem, underreported problem, is this issue of people getting, quote-unquote, “mild cases,” who don’t need to go to the hospital, don’t need ventilators, but are nonetheless suffering from severe symptoms for months, people who have been bedridden, incapacitated, dealing with rolling, debilitating waves of symptoms for two, three, four, five months now.
These so-called long-haulers, who I’ve written about, are being dismissed by a lot of medical professionals. They’re being dismissed by their friends and families, because we have this idea of COVID as being a mild — mostly mild disease that goes away after two weeks. That is very much a caricature. It happens in some cases, some fortunate cases, but it is not the universal picture of the disease by any means. And we need to start understanding what is happening to folks who are staying at home, whose lives have been completely uprooted, who aren’t going to hospital, and who are suffering from COVID-19 for a long period of time. We might see waves of medium- and long-term disability as a result of this.
So, it’s not just looking at death or confirmed cases. We definitely need to understand the people who are dropping through the cracks in the system and the narratives that we’re telling about this disease.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, a vaccine, if it were to be developed, how everyone gets it, Ed?
ED YONG: Look, we all want a vaccine. That is the endgame. But if you look at how the pandemic is playing out and our response to it, you know, I can pretty safely predict that a lot of people will be confused, misinformed, will refuse to get a vaccine. I can tell you that the vaccine will be distributed inequitably, so that the people who most need it right now — people in nursing homes, people in the Black, Brown, Indigenous communities — will be the last to get it.
We need to fix a lot of these underlying issues that have affected America’s culture and healthcare system for a long period of time, so that by the time we get appropriate medical countermeasures, they can be distributed fairly, equitably and efficiently, and that they will actually work.
AMY GOODMAN: We have to leave it there. Ed Yong, thanks so much for being with us, science writer at The Atlantic. We’ll link to all of your articles.
A little correction: Trump didn’t go to Bedminster in New Jersey. He went to Trump National in Potomac Falls, Virginia, as the pandemic rages.
And that ends today’s show. A huge thanks to all of our team working at home and, as well, working here in the studio to make sure Democracy Now! continues. And remember: Show that you care by wearing a mask. Protect all. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Stay safe.


democracynow--2020-06-30--NJ Latinx Parents & Students Fight Robert Wood Johnson Plan to Demolish Public School

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now !
I ’ m Amy Goodman , joined by my co-host Juan González in New Brunswick , New Jersey , where he has an update on the community ’ s fight to save the largely immigrant Lincoln Annex public school from demolition to make way for the Robert Wood Johnson hospital ’ s $ 750 million cancer center .
Juan ?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ : Yes , Amy .
Well , there is a big rally planned for tomorrow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in front of the Lincoln Annex School in downtown New Brunswick , right across the street from Robert Wood Johnson hospital .
The city is trying to move forward to sell and demolish this school this summer , and they would force 760 children , most of them Latino , to be bused for at least three years to a converted warehouse on the outskirts of the city just for this expansion .
The protesters are going to march to City Hall , where there ’ s a scheduled City Council meeting .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ fighting now for months , in the streets and in the courts , to stop this .
And there ’ s actually a pivotal court case , María [ Juárez ] , et al.
, v. the New Brunswick Board of Education , that will have its first hearing next week , July 7th .
And the parents have managed to be able to get four pro bono law firms , including the national civil rights group LatinoJustice , a major Chicago law firm , Locke Lord , and others to work pro @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to keep the pressure on in the streets and to call on allies from across New Jersey and who support public education , who are against gentrification and the abuse of immigrants , to all join — to join the rally .
Larry Hamm from the People ’ s Organization for Progress of Newark and others will be speaking at the rally .
And I ’ ll be there myself , because , as you know , I ’ ve been involved for quite a while now with this effort by allies to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
AMY GOODMAN : And , of course , we ’ ll continue to cover this .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, joined by my co-host Juan González in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he has an update on the community’s fight to save the largely immigrant Lincoln Annex public school from demolition to make way for the Robert Wood Johnson hospital’s $750 million cancer center. Juan?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yes, Amy. Well, there is a big rally planned for tomorrow, July 1st, at 4 p.m. in front of the Lincoln Annex School in downtown New Brunswick, right across the street from Robert Wood Johnson hospital.
The city is trying to move forward to sell and demolish this school this summer, and they would force 760 children, most of them Latino, to be bused for at least three years to a converted warehouse on the outskirts of the city just for this expansion.
The protesters are going to march to City Hall, where there’s a scheduled City Council meeting. The parents and the community have been fighting now for months, in the streets and in the courts, to stop this. And there’s actually a pivotal court case, María [Juárez], et al., v. the New Brunswick Board of Education, that will have its first hearing next week, July 7th. And the parents have managed to be able to get four pro bono law firms, including the national civil rights group LatinoJustice, a major Chicago law firm, Locke Lord, and others to work pro bono for them.
But they want to keep the pressure on in the streets and to call on allies from across New Jersey and who support public education, who are against gentrification and the abuse of immigrants, to all join — to join the rally. Larry Hamm from the People’s Organization for Progress of Newark and others will be speaking at the rally. And I’ll be there myself, because, as you know, I’ve been involved for quite a while now with this effort by allies to support the parents of Lincoln Annex School.
AMY GOODMAN: And, of course, we’ll continue to cover this.


democracynow--2020-06-30--Headlines for June 30, 2020

Headlines for June 30, 2020

The World Health Organization is warning “ the worst is yet to come ” as countries across the globe are @ @ @ @ @ some putting the brakes on reopening .
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus : “ We all want @ @ @ @ @ We all want to get on with our lives .
But the hard reality is @ @ @ @ @ close to being over .
Although many countries have made some progress , globally the @ @ @ @ @ ” Scientists in China are reporting a strain of flu virus found in pigs has @ @ @ @ @ .
In a new study , the scientists warn the virus has the potential to @ @ @ @ @ but other scientists have downplayed the risk posed by the virus , which has been @ @ @ @ @

The World Health Organization is warning “the worst is yet to come” as countries across the globe are experiencing new spikes, with some putting the brakes on reopening.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: “We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is, this is not even close to being over. Although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up.”
Scientists in China are reporting a strain of flu virus found in pigs has become more infectious to humans. In a new study, the scientists warn the virus has the potential to become a pandemic virus, but other scientists have downplayed the risk posed by the virus, which has been circulating for five years.


democracynow--2020-06-29--"Atrocious": Police Killed Elijah McClain in 2019. Why Did It Take Colorado So Long to Launch Probe?

This is a rush transcript .
Copy may not be in its final form .
AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now !
I ’ m Amy Goodman , as we go now to Colorado , where police pepper-sprayed protesters after thousands shut down a highway in Aurora Saturday to demand justice for Elijah McClain .
He ’ s the 23-year-old African American man killed by police last August .
Elijah ’ s story is facing renewed scrutiny and outrage amidst the nationwide uprising against police brutality .
Last week , Colorado Governor Jared Polis ordered the Colorado attorney general @ @ @ @ @ @ @ night of August 24th , 2019 , Elijah was walking home from a store where he bought iced tea , when someone called 911 on him to report a , quote , “ suspicious person , ” though they said he was unarmed .
McClain was wearing a ski mask , something his family says he often did because he had anemia and got cold easily .
Police body camera footage — a warning : This footage we ’ re showing contains disturbing scenes — shows three Aurora police officers answering the call @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He was unarmed , had committed no crime , was simply walking home .
After one officer grabbed him by the arms , Elijah said , quote , “ I ’ m an introvert .
Please respect the boundaries that I am speaking .
Leave me alone.
” Despite this , the officers then used a chokehold , that ’ s since been banned , to bring McClain to the ground .
In body camera footage of the encounter , McClain can be heard saying the same words George Floyd and Eric Garner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I can ’ t breathe.
” Again , a warning to our audience : The following video contains disturbing footage of police violence .
AMY GOODMAN : Medical responders soon arrived on the scene and injected Elijah McClain with ketamine , a kind of anesthetic , for someone the size of 300 pounds .
He is 140 pounds .
He suffered a cardiac arrest on the way to hospital , died several days later .
Footage from the night of Elijah McClain ’ s killing is incomplete because the officers ’ body cameras @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The police say the cameras fell off during the arrest , but in one clip from that night , a police officer is seen telling another officer on the scene to move his body camera .
Listen carefully , as the audio is muffled .
AMY GOODMAN : “ Move your camera , dude , ” one police officer said to another .
In another clip of Elijah ’ s arrest , one of the officers hands his body camera to another officer on the scene , saying he shut it off .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ claimed Elijah McClain reached for the officer ’ s gun during the arrest .
But in this clip from the body camera , police officer Jason Rosenblatt tells another officer on the scene he did not feel Elijah grab his gun .
AMY GOODMAN : The three officers involved in the killing — Nathan Woodyard , Jason Rosenblatt and Randy Roedema — were never criminally charged .
They were temporarily placed on administrative leave but have all been reinstated .
Six months after his killing , an Aurora Police Department excessive force review @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , quote , “ within policy and consistent with training.
” Elijah McClain was a massage therapist , a gentle soul who loved to play the violin .
He would often go to animal shelters to play music for the dogs and the cats there .
Well , for more on Elijah McClain ’ s killing , we go to Denver , Colorado , where we ’ re joined by his family ’ s attorney , Mari Newman .
Her op-ed in The Denver Post is headlined , “ Colorado ’ s police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of law enforcement behavior.
” Welcome to Democracy Now !
It ’ s good to have you with us , Mari .
If you can take us through , once again , what you understand and how it is possible that it ’ s only almost a year later that the attorney general is now reinvestigating this case and the officers are at work ?
What happened to him that night ?
MARI NEWMAN : Thanks , Amy .
You ’ ve given a great summary of what happened .
You know , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s taken almost a year for this case to gain the kind of attention that it should have gained immediately .
Back in November of last year , we were standing on the steps of the municipal building in Aurora , Colorado , demanding an independent investigation .
And at that time , all we heard was crickets .
The new mayor was elected of Aurora , Mayor Mike Coffman .
Even before he came into office , he said his first order of business was going to be to address this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ never reached out to the family .
We heard nothing about that until very recently , after an online petition , once it reached somewhere over a million signatures .
I understand that it ’ s something over 3 million now .
We heard , through the media , that Aurora had hired a so-called independent investigator to look into the case .
It turned out the independent investigator wasn ’ t independent at all , was in fact a former police officer turned lawyer whose practice is dedicated to defending officers accused @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s who Aurora brought in for their independent investigation — obviously , yet another effort to deny all accountability .
So , finally , now that there has been this massive outcry , millions and millions of signatures , international media attention , the governor of Colorado has actually stepped in and called for a truly independent investigation from our state attorney general .
So , hopefully that will lead to some more robust outcome .
AMY GOODMAN : So , Elijah was walking home from the grocery store with an iced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
And then , explain exactly what they did to him .
MARI NEWMAN : You know , at the outset , there was no legal justification for them to stop Elijah .
He wasn ’ t suspected of committing any crime .
And I know you played part of the 911 clip .
The caller says , “ No , I don ’ t believe he ’ s committed any crime .
There ’ s no weapon involved .
I ’ m not in danger .
Nobody else is in danger.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ believe he had committed any crime , and thus no reason to even stop him .
And yet these three officers not just stopped him , but grabbed him , threw him up against a wall , tackled him onto the ground , inflicted multiple kinds of force upon him , two carotid chokeholds .
His entire body is covered with abrasions .
And as you saw , he ’ s vomiting from the pain .
And as he ’ s crying out , saying that he ’ s — he ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ saying that he doesn ’ t fight , that he ’ s a vegetarian , that he doesn ’ t kill flies , he doesn ’ t judge people — and , of course , the tragic last words that we ’ ve heard from so many men who are killed by law enforcement : “ I can ’ t breathe.
” AMY GOODMAN : They were mocking him as he threw up ?
MARI NEWMAN : It ’ s astounding .
you hear one officer saying , “ Oh , don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and then another one who threatens , “ I ’ m going to bring in a dog to bite you if you don ’ t quit messing around.
” I mean , if that is the quality of law enforcement in Aurora , then people should be petrified .
AMY GOODMAN : And then paramedics came in and injected him with a massive dose of ketamine ?
Explain what it is , why they would inject him .
MARI NEWMAN : You know , there ’ s no reason for them to have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ handcuffed on the ground .
His hands were cuffed behind his back .
He was down on the ground .
He was being pressed down by officers , each of whom very significantly outweighed him .
He was being pressed down into his own vomit .
He was struggling to breathe , but he was not fighting .
So , there was no reason to inject him with anything at all , much less a dosage of ketamine that would have been appropriate , if for anybody , for somebody well over twice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , what are you calling for now ?
I mean , the vigils that have been held for him , the violin vigils of thousands because he played the violin .
What does the attorney general — what are you calling for ?
These three police are out on the street working ?
MARI NEWMAN : The three police , just very recently , within the last couple of weeks after this case gained international attention , have now been placed on desk duty , not to protect the public , but protect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one more illustration of Aurora ’ s motivations here .
The city has not been concerned one bit about the safety of the public .
In fact , the only officer who received even the tiniest hand slap was the one who threatened to sic a dog on a dying man who was being pressed down into his own vomit .
The rest were back out on the street until just a couple of weeks ago .
AMY GOODMAN : What does his mom want to see ?
What does Elijah ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the hope — Elijah ’ s family hopes to see all of the officers who were involved criminally prosecuted , certainly the three who were directly involved , but also the seven officers , including a sergeant , who stood idly by and failed to intervene as their son was being killed , a sergeant who even says he was becoming increasingly concerned about Elijah ’ s physical well-being but did nothing about it .
And then , of course , the two medics who gave him this massive dose of ketamine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
AMY GOODMAN : Mari Newman , I want to thank you for being with us , attorney for Elijah McClain ’ s family in Aurora , Colorado .
We ’ re breaking for 30 seconds .
Then we go to Louisiana , where two environmental activists are charged with , quote , “ terrorizing , ” and we ’ ll find out why .
Stay with us .
AMY GOODMAN : “ Killing Me Softly , ” performed by violinists Ashanti Floyd and Lee England Jr. during the Justice for Elijah McClain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vigil because Elijah played the violin .

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, as we go now to Colorado, where police pepper-sprayed protesters after thousands shut down a highway in Aurora Saturday to demand justice for Elijah McClain. He’s the 23-year-old African American man killed by police last August. Elijah’s story is facing renewed scrutiny and outrage amidst the nationwide uprising against police brutality. Last week, Colorado Governor Jared Polis ordered the Colorado attorney general to investigate the death.
On the night of August 24th, 2019, Elijah was walking home from a store where he bought iced tea, when someone called 911 on him to report a, quote, “suspicious person,” though they said he was unarmed. McClain was wearing a ski mask, something his family says he often did because he had anemia and got cold easily.
Police body camera footage — a warning: This footage we’re showing contains disturbing scenes — shows three Aurora police officers answering the call, attempting to handcuff Elijah McClain. He was unarmed, had committed no crime, was simply walking home. After one officer grabbed him by the arms, Elijah said, quote, “I’m an introvert. Please respect the boundaries that I am speaking. Leave me alone.” Despite this, the officers then used a chokehold, that’s since been banned, to bring McClain to the ground. In body camera footage of the encounter, McClain can be heard saying the same words George Floyd and Eric Garner uttered in their final moments: “I can’t breathe.” Again, a warning to our audience: The following video contains disturbing footage of police violence.
ELIJAH McCLAIN: I can’t breathe! Please stop!
POLICE OFFICER: Stop fighting us on the ground.
ELIJAH McCLAIN: My name’s Elijah McClain! Ask me what I was doing? I was just going home! I’m an introvert, and I’m different. I just don’t like going home. I’m just different. I’m just different! That’s all! That’s all I was doing! I’m so sorry! I have no gun. I don’t do that stuff. I don’t do any fighting. Why were you taking me? I don’t [inaudible] guns. I don’t even kill flies. I don’t eat meat. I am not — I’m a vegetarian. I don’t judge people for anything.
AMY GOODMAN: Medical responders soon arrived on the scene and injected Elijah McClain with ketamine, a kind of anesthetic, for someone the size of 300 pounds. He is 140 pounds. He suffered a cardiac arrest on the way to hospital, died several days later. Footage from the night of Elijah McClain’s killing is incomplete because the officers’ body cameras did not capture the entire encounter. The police say the cameras fell off during the arrest, but in one clip from that night, a police officer is seen telling another officer on the scene to move his body camera. Listen carefully, as the audio is muffled.
ELIJAH McCLAIN: I can’t breathe correctly, because — [groans].
POLICE OFFICER: Move your camera, dude.
AMY GOODMAN: “Move your camera, dude,” one police officer said to another. In another clip of Elijah’s arrest, one of the officers hands his body camera to another officer on the scene, saying he shut it off.
POLICE OFFICER 1: Here you go.
POLICE OFFICER 2: Whose is this?
POLICE OFFICER 1: Mine. It was recording. I just shut it off, because it was split in half, so…
AMY GOODMAN: One of the officers claimed Elijah McClain reached for the officer’s gun during the arrest. But in this clip from the body camera, police officer Jason Rosenblatt tells another officer on the scene he did not feel Elijah grab his gun.
JASON ROSENBLATT: Roede tells me he tried to grab my gun. So, pull him down.
POLICE OFFICER: While he’s…
JASON ROSENBLATT: Yeah, so he pulls his arm free. It comes out. And I don’t remember feeling it, because I was focused on him. But he’s like, “He tried to grab your gun.” So I’m like, “OK.” So, he comes down and…
AMY GOODMAN: The three officers involved in the killing — Nathan Woodyard, Jason Rosenblatt and Randy Roedema — were never criminally charged. They were temporarily placed on administrative leave but have all been reinstated. Six months after his killing, an Aurora Police Department excessive force review board found the officers’ actions were, quote, “within policy and consistent with training.”
Elijah McClain was a massage therapist, a gentle soul who loved to play the violin. He would often go to animal shelters to play music for the dogs and the cats there.
Well, for more on Elijah McClain’s killing, we go to Denver, Colorado, where we’re joined by his family’s attorney, Mari Newman. Her op-ed in The Denver Post is headlined, “Colorado’s police reform law will help rein in worst of law enforcement behavior.”
Welcome to Democracy Now! It’s good to have you with us, Mari. If you can take us through, once again, what you understand and how it is possible that it’s only almost a year later that the attorney general is now reinvestigating this case and the officers are at work? What happened to him that night?
MARI NEWMAN: Thanks, Amy. You’ve given a great summary of what happened.
You know, it’s really atrocious that it’s taken almost a year for this case to gain the kind of attention that it should have gained immediately. Back in November of last year, we were standing on the steps of the municipal building in Aurora, Colorado, demanding an independent investigation. And at that time, all we heard was crickets. The new mayor was elected of Aurora, Mayor Mike Coffman. Even before he came into office, he said his first order of business was going to be to address this case. He did nothing. He never reached out to the family.
We heard nothing about that until very recently, after an online petition, once it reached somewhere over a million signatures. I understand that it’s something over 3 million now. We heard, through the media, that Aurora had hired a so-called independent investigator to look into the case. It turned out the independent investigator wasn’t independent at all, was in fact a former police officer turned lawyer whose practice is dedicated to defending officers accused of excessive force. So, that’s who Aurora brought in for their independent investigation — obviously, yet another effort to deny all accountability.
So, finally, now that there has been this massive outcry, millions and millions of signatures, international media attention, the governor of Colorado has actually stepped in and called for a truly independent investigation from our state attorney general. So, hopefully that will lead to some more robust outcome.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Elijah was walking home from the grocery store with an iced tea, and the police stopped him. And then, explain exactly what they did to him.
MARI NEWMAN: You know, at the outset, there was no legal justification for them to stop Elijah. He wasn’t suspected of committing any crime. And I know you played part of the 911 clip. The caller says, “No, I don’t believe he’s committed any crime. There’s no weapon involved. I’m not in danger. Nobody else is in danger.” So there was no reasonable suspicion to believe he had committed any crime, and thus no reason to even stop him.
And yet these three officers not just stopped him, but grabbed him, threw him up against a wall, tackled him onto the ground, inflicted multiple kinds of force upon him, two carotid chokeholds. His entire body is covered with abrasions. And as you saw, he’s vomiting from the pain.
And as he’s crying out, saying that he’s — he’s giving his name, he’s saying that he doesn’t fight, that he’s a vegetarian, that he doesn’t kill flies, he doesn’t judge people — and, of course, the tragic last words that we’ve heard from so many men who are killed by law enforcement: “I can’t breathe.”
AMY GOODMAN: They were mocking him as he threw up?
MARI NEWMAN: It’s astounding. you hear one officer saying, “Oh, don’t get that on me,” and then another one who threatens, “I’m going to bring in a dog to bite you if you don’t quit messing around.” I mean, if that is the quality of law enforcement in Aurora, then people should be petrified.
AMY GOODMAN: And then paramedics came in and injected him with a massive dose of ketamine? Explain what it is, why they would inject him.
MARI NEWMAN: You know, there’s no reason for them to have injected him at all. He was handcuffed on the ground. His hands were cuffed behind his back. He was down on the ground. He was being pressed down by officers, each of whom very significantly outweighed him. He was being pressed down into his own vomit. He was struggling to breathe, but he was not fighting. So, there was no reason to inject him with anything at all, much less a dosage of ketamine that would have been appropriate, if for anybody, for somebody well over twice his size.
AMY GOODMAN: So, what are you calling for now? I mean, the vigils that have been held for him, the violin vigils of thousands because he played the violin. What does the attorney general — what are you calling for? These three police are out on the street working?
MARI NEWMAN: The three police, just very recently, within the last couple of weeks after this case gained international attention, have now been placed on desk duty, not to protect the public, but protect them. So, this just is one more illustration of Aurora’s motivations here. The city has not been concerned one bit about the safety of the public. In fact, the only officer who received even the tiniest hand slap was the one who threatened to sic a dog on a dying man who was being pressed down into his own vomit. The rest were back out on the street until just a couple of weeks ago.
AMY GOODMAN: What does his mom want to see? What does Elijah’s mom?
MARI NEWMAN: You know, the hope — Elijah’s family hopes to see all of the officers who were involved criminally prosecuted, certainly the three who were directly involved, but also the seven officers, including a sergeant, who stood idly by and failed to intervene as their son was being killed, a sergeant who even says he was becoming increasingly concerned about Elijah’s physical well-being but did nothing about it. And then, of course, the two medics who gave him this massive dose of ketamine, they should also be criminally charged.
AMY GOODMAN: Mari Newman, I want to thank you for being with us, attorney for Elijah McClain’s family in Aurora, Colorado.
We’re breaking for 30 seconds. Then we go to Louisiana, where two environmental activists are charged with, quote, “terrorizing,” and we’ll find out why. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: “Killing Me Softly,” performed by violinists Ashanti Floyd and Lee England Jr. during the Justice for Elijah McClain protest over the weekend, a violin vigil because Elijah played the violin.