theintercept--2020-04-15--Wall Street Titans Finance Democratic Primary Challenger to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The donors include Glenn Hutchins , the billionaire co-founder of Silver Lake Partners ; James Passin of Firebird Capital ; Bruce Schnitzer of Wand Partners ; Jeffrey Rosen of Lazard ; and Bradley Seaman , managing partner of Parallel49 Equity .
Disclosures show that at least two dozen finance industry professionals , including several prominent private equity executives and investment bankers , made early donations to Michelle Caruso-Cabrera , a former CNBC contributor who is challenging Ocasio-Cortez .
Caruso-Cabrera was a registered Republican until a few years ago and authored a 2010 book advocating for several conservative positions , including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which she called “ pyramid schemes.
” “ I met Michelle when she was a business reporter and she is bright and understands the financial markets well , ” said Doug Cifu , the chief executive of Virtu Financial , one of the donors who gave $ 2,800 to Caruso-Cabrera .
“ Her opponent , ” Cifu added , “ does not in my view.
” The Caruso-Cabrera campaign announced last week that it had collected nearly $ 1 million in fundraising over the first quarter of this year .
The U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by anonymous corporate donations and has spent tens of millions of dollars electing congressional Republicans , also said recently that it would mobilize business interests in support of Caruso-Cabrera .
In her first year in office , Ocasio-Cortez has used her perch in Congress to eviscerate leading figures on Wall Street .
During congressional hearings last April , she pushed JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon over whether bankers should have been criminally prosecuted over the 2008 financial crisis .
“ I wasn ’ t sent here to safeguard and protect profit , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protect people , ” said Ocasio-Cortez in November during a hearing over the conduct of the private equity industry and its role in downsizing companies .
Ocasio-Cortez has served as a lightning rod in the Democratic Party , attracting criticism from more business-friendly elements of the establishment over her outspoken support for Sen. Bernie Sanders ’ s presidential campaign and her advocacy for policies such as Medicare for All .
The lurch towards that left has provoked some traditionally Republican interests , such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce , to use the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ opportunity to push back on the ideological shift represented by Ocasio-Cortez .
Steve Holzman , the head of the hedge fund Vantis Capital and a previous donor to Mitt Romney ’ s presidential campaign , donated to Caruso-Cabrera .
Lobbyist Ron Christie , a former aide to Dick Cheney , also gave to the challenger ’ s campaign .
Other donors include Facundo Bacardi , an heir to the Bacardi fortune ; Thaddeus Arroyo , a leading executive at AT & T ; and Jeff Kwatinetz , an entertainment industry promoter who has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ past .
Caruso-Cabrera ’ s campaign did not respond to a request for comment .
Caruso-Cabrera does not have a policy page outlining her beliefs or positions on her campaign website .
In recent radio interviews , she has positioned herself as a stalwart of the moderate faction of the Democratic Party , including Gov .
Andrew Cuomo and Joe Biden .
“ I ’ m pro-choice , I ’ m pro-same sex marriage , I ’ m very pro-immigrant , I am centrist for sure , ” Caruso-Cabrera said on New York @ @ @ @ @ @ @ candidate ’ s beliefs are explained in detail in a book she authored in 2010 titled , “ You Know I ’ m Right : More Prosperity , Less Government , ” which included a forward by Larry Kudlow , who now serves as President Donald Trump ’ s director of the National Economic Council .
In the book , Caruso-Cabrera calls Medicare and Social Security “ the country ’ s biggest pyramid schemes , ” and wrote that she would end both programs in favor of a privatized voucher system .
Medicare @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pay-as-you-go Ponzi scheme ” that should be replaced with a health savings account that gives “ seniors $ 1,000 or $ 2,000 a year to start.
” Social Security , she notes , should be replaced with a private account system , in which Americans are incentivized to invest in the stock market .
Caruso-Cabrera devotes an entire chapter to the many policy successes of the Reagan administration , and writes that she favors tax cuts and deregulation , including eliminating entire federal agencies such as the Labor Department .
Some of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reserved for the Obama administration ’ s attempts to crack down on wealthy individuals who had taken advantage of offshore tax havens .
The push to force Switzerland to hand over the names of U.S. nationals using secret bank accounts to dodge taxes , she wrote , put America on a “ dangerous path ” that would enable foreign dictatorships to similarly seize wealth kept abroad .
“ Freedom and democracy are best secured when banking secrecy and tax havens exist , ” Caruso-Cabrera wrote .

Wall Street titans are financing a direct challenge to firebrand progressive lawmaker Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the New York primary on June 23.
Disclosures show that over four dozen finance industry professionals, including several prominent private equity executives and investment bankers, made early donations to Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, a former CNBC contributor who is challenging Ocasio-Cortez. Caruso-Cabrera was a registered Republican until a few years ago and authored a 2010 book advocating for several conservative positions, including an end to Medicare and Social Security, which she called “pyramid schemes.”
The donors include Glenn Hutchins, the billionaire co-founder of Silver Lake Partners; James Passin of Firebird Capital; Bruce Schnitzer of Wand Partners; Jeffrey Rosen of Lazard; and Bradley Seaman, managing partner of Parallel49 Equity. The chief executives of Goldman Sachs and Virtu Financial, as well as the former chief executive of PNC Bank, James Rohr, are also among the Caruso-Cabera donors.
“I met Michelle when she was a business reporter and she is bright and understands the financial markets well,” said Doug Cifu, the chief executive of Virtu Financial, one of the donors who gave $2,800 to Caruso-Cabrera. “Her opponent,” Cifu added, “does not in my view.”
The Caruso-Cabrera campaign announced last week that it had collected nearly $1 million in fundraising over the first quarter of this year. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is funded by anonymous corporate donations and has spent tens of millions of dollars electing congressional Republicans, also said recently that it would mobilize business interests in support of Caruso-Cabrera.
In her first year in office, Ocasio-Cortez has used her perch in Congress to eviscerate leading figures on Wall Street. During congressional hearings last April, she pushed JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon over whether bankers should have been criminally prosecuted over the 2008 financial crisis.
“I wasn’t sent here to safeguard and protect profit, I was sent here to safeguard and protect people,” said Ocasio-Cortez in November during a hearing over the conduct of the private equity industry and its role in downsizing companies.
Ocasio-Cortez has served as a lightning rod in the Democratic Party, attracting criticism from more business-friendly elements of the establishment over her outspoken support for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign and her advocacy for policies such as Medicare for All.
The lurch towards that left has provoked some traditionally Republican interests, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, to use the New York primary this summer as an opportunity to push back on the ideological shift represented by Ocasio-Cortez.
Kenneth Langone, a billionaire investor and major donor to GOP causes, donated the legal maximum to Caurso-Cabrera.
Steve Holzman, the head of the hedge fund Vantis Capital and a previous donor to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, donated to Caruso-Cabrera. Lobbyist Ron Christie, a former aide to Dick Cheney, also gave to the challenger’s campaign.
Other donors include Facundo Bacardi, an heir to the Bacardi fortune; Thaddeus Arroyo, a leading executive at AT&T; and Jeff Kwatinetz, an entertainment industry promoter who has represented Korn and Limp Bizkit in the past.
Ocasio-Cortez released her fundraising numbers, showing that she has brought in over $8 million this election cycle, with $3.5 million in cash on hand.
Caruso-Cabrera does not have a policy page outlining her beliefs or positions on her campaign website. In recent radio interviews, she has positioned herself as a stalwart of the moderate faction of the Democratic Party, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Joe Biden. “I’m pro-choice, I’m pro-same sex marriage, I’m very pro-immigrant, I am centrist for sure,” Caruso-Cabrera said on New York’s AM 970.
But the candidate’s beliefs are explained in detail in a book she authored in 2010 titled, “You Know I’m Right: More Prosperity, Less Government,” which included a forward by Larry Kudlow, who now serves as President Donald Trump’s director of the National Economic Council.
In the book, Caruso-Cabrera calls Medicare and Social Security “the country’s biggest pyramid schemes,” and wrote that she would end both programs in favor of a privatized voucher system. Medicare, Caruso-Cabrera wrote, “is another pay-as-you-go Ponzi scheme” that should be replaced with a health savings account that gives “seniors $1,000 or $2,000 a year to start.” Social Security, she notes, should be replaced with a private account system, in which Americans are incentivized to invest in the stock market.
Caruso-Cabrera devotes an entire chapter to the many policy successes of the Reagan administration, and writes that she favors tax cuts and deregulation, including eliminating entire federal agencies such as the Labor Department.
Some of the most strident language in the book is reserved for the Obama administration’s attempts to crack down on wealthy individuals who had taken advantage of offshore tax havens. The push to force Switzerland to hand over the names of U.S. nationals using secret bank accounts to dodge taxes, she wrote, put America on a “dangerous path” that would enable foreign dictatorships to similarly seize wealth kept abroad.
“Freedom and democracy are best secured when banking secrecy and tax havens exist,” Caruso-Cabrera wrote.
Update: April 15, 2020, 8:50 p.m.
The Caruso-Cabrera campaign sent a statement following publication. “MCC has said from the very beginning she got into this race to bring jobs and opportunity back to the working people of the Bronx and Queens. When she’s elected, her office will be ‘open for business.’ Now, more than ever we need jobs,” said spokesperson Katy Delgado.
Update: April 16, 2020
This story has been updated to reflect new financial disclosures by the Caruso-Cabrera and Ocasio-Cortez campaigns.
Correction: April 20, 2020
This story has been updated to reflect that James Rohr is the former, not the current, chief executive of PNC Bank.


theintercept--2020-04-15--Mehdi Hasan and Noam Chomsky on Biden vs. Trump

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The Intercept’s Mehdi Hasan spoke with world-renowned political dissident and linguist Noam Chomsky on the 2020 presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Now that Bernie Sanders has dropped out and endorsed Biden, does the progressive left have a moral obligation to hold their noses and vote for the former vice president, despite his many sins?


theintercept--2020-04-15--As Coronavirus Ravages New York, the NYPD Is Detaining Kids for Selling Candy

New York City residents have died of the coronavirus in recent weeks .
Life in the city has been upended , replaced by a surreal stillness and the endless wail of ambulance sirens .
But for the New York Police Department , it ’ s largely business as usual .
On Friday night , a group of police officers was filmed at a Harlem subway station as they grabbed and restrained a child who was apparently selling chips and candy .
In the video , the officers are seen struggling with the boy , who is crying , and kicking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , while a woman claiming to be the child ’ s mother begs them to let him go and bystanders angrily shout that he is “ a little boy.
” The incident came hours after a different group of officers was filmed violently arresting a man at a different subway station , reportedly after they told people waiting for a train on a crowded platform that they needed to disperse , and the man replied that there was no way to do so .
Incidents such as these are hardly unheard of in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grapples with an unprecedented public health emergency and New Yorkers are told to minimize all contact with one another , many have questioned the logic and safety of police continuing to execute low-level arrests and physically escalating interventions that even in normal times seem unnecessary at best .
In a letter sent last week to Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea , attorneys at the Legal Aid Society called the city ’ s failure to curb nonessential arrests at this time “ highly irresponsible.
” “ We are deeply concerned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have not modified or reassessed how the NYPD interacts with already vulnerable communities , ” reads the letter , which was shared with The Intercept .
“ In every aspect of life , we are expected to act responsibly in order to flatten the curve .
As part of a coordinated Covid-19 response by Mayor de Blasio , government and businesses are drastically modifying practices to limit physical contact , and yet that practice has not been implemented by NYPD .
In cities across our country , elected officials are directing police to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contacts ’ and to slow down arrests .
Mayor de Blasio has made no such similar request of the NYPD.
” A spokesperson for the NYPD did not comment on Legal Aid ’ s letter but wrote in a statement to The Intercept that “ the NYPD has adapted swiftly and with success.
” “ Every day , both our uniformed and civilian members of the service are working around the clock to protect New Yorkers during this crisis , ” the spokesperson wrote .
“ Their commitment to duty , in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a model of courage.
” The spokesperson added that officers stopped the 10-year-old child at the Harlem subway station after a conductor alerted them that he was exiting and re-entering train cars .
“ The child became uncooperative and upset , and for the child ’ s safety , the officers physically restrained him , ” the spokesperson wrote .
Asked about the second incident , the spokesperson pointed to a statement by the NYPD ’ s chief of transit , Edward Delatorre .
“ Officers reinforcing safe distancing rules last week @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alarm on a Bronx subway platform , ” Delatorre tweeted .
“ When the individual failed to comply with requests to stop his disorderly behavior , he was taken into custody.
” The mayor ’ s office did not respond to requests for comment .
The number of arrests in the city has dropped in recent weeks as crime has plummeted .
But particularly in poorer neighborhoods that are home to many essential workers — the neighborhoods where the risk of contracting the virus is highest and where aggressive policing is most common @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and “ quality of life ” infractions have continued .
As The Intercept reported earlier this month , police now also have a new reason to stop and arrest people : failure to socially distance .
About 15 people who have violated the distancing measures have been arrested so far and officers have issued 76 summonses , the NYPD spokesperson said .
“ What we are concerned with the most is that the NYPD is utilizing their resources for low-level enforcement of quality of life offenses rather than concentrating and reallocating their resources @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in this pandemic , ” Jennvine Wong , a staff attorney at Legal Aid ’ s Cop Accountability Project , told The Intercept .
“ Low-level enforcement like a kid selling candy on a subway car should not be a policing priority ever and especially in the middle of a pandemic .
… These are issues that could be better addressed with community alternatives , with public health alternatives , connecting somebody to resources .
It ’ s not something that is best addressed with policing and criminalization.
” In their letter , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ban criminalization of the failure to socially distance — a failure that is in fact not a crime and that de Blasio had promised would result in fines at most .
They also called on the city to refrain from conducting sweeps of homeless encampments if it couldn ’ t provide individual housing units for those it was dispersing , reduce custodial arrests and the number of officers on duty , and provide every on-duty officer with personal protective gear .
While the department has recently provided officers with tens of thousands of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ complaint by the city ’ s largest police union , some officers are still patrolling and even making arrests without protective gear .
They are also regularly failing to practice social distancing , even with as much as 20 percent of the force calling out sick in recent weeks and after nearly 7 percent , more than 2,400 people , tested positive for the virus .
While some precincts moved their daily roll calls outdoors in an effort to promote better distancing , not all precincts have done so , and officers have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ another , even without masks .
The NYPD spokesperson did not answer questions about why so many officers are failing to wear protective gear or practice social distancing .
“ Officers are physically protecting themselves with an array of personal protective equipment , ” the spokesperson wrote .
“ NYPD has a responsibility to the public and to their officers to enact policies that reflect the advice of public health experts , ” Legal Aid wrote .
“ The NYPD has not changed its protocols even in light of this rapidly spreading virus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ personnel is eight times that of New York City , and 10 times higher than the rest of New York state.
” New York police are not alone as they continue to make arrests that seem to defy all logic and public health recommendations .
Last week , the Philadelphia Transit Authority reversed its policy mandating face coverings for riders after four Philadelphia police officers were filmed forcibly dragging an unmasked man off a city bus over his failure to cover his face .
And in Miami , a doctor who has been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic was detained while loading his van when police thought he was “ illegally offloading trash.
” “ It ’ s endemic of the overall overreliance on police in American culture to solve all of our societal ills , ” said Wong .
“ And in this case , to try to police our way out of this pandemic , which we just can ’ t. ” But at least in New York , police have responded to the pandemic differently depending on the neighborhood .
If in parts of the city their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crowds at Trader Joe ’ s , ” in others , residents accustomed to aggressive policing feel that not much has changed at all .
Legal Aid mapped all the 311 calls made in the first two weeks of April that were tagged as related to “ social distancing ” and found that most came from gentrified neighborhoods like Harlem , Greenpoint , and Williamsburg .
But the analysis also showed that police tended to respond to those calls mostly in poorer neighborhoods , for instance in the Bronx .
“ Even if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ snitching on their neighbors , police are taking action in particular neighborhoods more than others , ” said Wong , adding that the data is limited to what police report publicly and doesn ’ t include information on the summons they issue , which is not public .
As more than 700 officers saw their duties shift to social distancing enforcement , for residents of already heavily policed neighborhoods , social distancing has become just one more reason for police to stop them .
“ It ’ s the same kind of enforcement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new spin on it , ” Mick Schommer , who lives in Harlem , told The Intercept .
In late March , Schommer was one of several people who filmed a group of police officers as they arrested a man on a sidewalk in Harlem .
It ’ s not clear from the video what happened before the man was arrested — some bystanders told Schommer that he was talking to another person and others said he was stopped for spitting on the sidewalk .
One of the officers can be heard telling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the man that it was “ because of coronavirus.
” Schommer added that the man had been wearing a mask but that he lost his mask as two officers , unmasked , arrested him .
Police told bystanders that they were waiting for an ambulance for the man , but instead loaded him , headfirst , into a police van .
“ If that was the violation , why would seven cops take a man , throw him up against the wall , demask him , and then dump him into a patty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ distancing ?
” said Schommer .
“ It stretches the line of credibility , but this is also not unusual.
” Schommer added that in the days since the incident , he has repeatedly seen police in Harlem ordering young people to disperse , even as people in line at grocery stores stand closely to one another .
“ I have seen unmasked cops and ungloved cops breaking up people for social distancing and for not wearing masks , when they themselves aren ’ t , ” he added .
But what struck @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the ways social distancing was enforced depending on the race and apparent wealth of those violating it .
“ I live near Marcus Garvey Park and Central Park , ” Schommer noted as an example .
“ Central Park is packed full of people running as normal and walking as normal .
Marcus Garvey Park is empty because of the consistent patrol of cops.
” “ You can walk through anywhere in Central Harlem , and you can see hundreds of examples of the disparity.
” Update : April 15 , 2020 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has been updated to include comments from the NYPD received after publication .

More than 10,000 New York City residents have died of the coronavirus in recent weeks. Life in the city has been upended, replaced by a surreal stillness and the endless wail of ambulance sirens. But for the New York Police Department, it’s largely business as usual.
On Friday night, a group of police officers was filmed at a Harlem subway station as they grabbed and restrained a child who was apparently selling chips and candy. In the video, the officers are seen struggling with the boy, who is crying, and kicking a bag of snacks he was holding, while a woman claiming to be the child’s mother begs them to let him go and bystanders angrily shout that he is “a little boy.” The incident came hours after a different group of officers was filmed violently arresting a man at a different subway station, reportedly after they told people waiting for a train on a crowded platform that they needed to disperse, and the man replied that there was no way to do so.
“Government and businesses are drastically modifying practices to limit physical contact, and yet that practice has not been implemented by NYPD.”
Incidents such as these are hardly unheard of in New York, but as the city grapples with an unprecedented public health emergency and New Yorkers are told to minimize all contact with one another, many have questioned the logic and safety of police continuing to execute low-level arrests and physically escalating interventions that even in normal times seem unnecessary at best. In a letter sent last week to Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, attorneys at the Legal Aid Society called the city’s failure to curb nonessential arrests at this time “highly irresponsible.”
“We are deeply concerned that our New York City government officials have not modified or reassessed how the NYPD interacts with already vulnerable communities,” reads the letter, which was shared with The Intercept. “In every aspect of life, we are expected to act responsibly in order to flatten the curve. As part of a coordinated Covid-19 response by Mayor de Blasio, government and businesses are drastically modifying practices to limit physical contact, and yet that practice has not been implemented by NYPD. In cities across our country, elected officials are directing police to use discretion, make only ‘necessary contacts’ and to slow down arrests. Mayor de Blasio has made no such similar request of the NYPD.”
A spokesperson for the NYPD did not comment on Legal Aid’s letter but wrote in a statement to The Intercept that “the NYPD has adapted swiftly and with success.”
“Every day, both our uniformed and civilian members of the service are working around the clock to protect New Yorkers during this crisis,” the spokesperson wrote. “Their commitment to duty, in the face of our national health emergency, is a model of courage.”
The spokesperson added that officers stopped the 10-year-old child at the Harlem subway station after a conductor alerted them that he was exiting and re-entering train cars. “The child became uncooperative and upset, and for the child’s safety, the officers physically restrained him,” the spokesperson wrote. Asked about the second incident, the spokesperson pointed to a statement by the NYPD’s chief of transit, Edward Delatorre. “Officers reinforcing safe distancing rules last week encountered an individual shouting profanities & causing alarm on a Bronx subway platform,” Delatorre tweeted. “When the individual failed to comply with requests to stop his disorderly behavior, he was taken into custody.”
The mayor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
The number of arrests in the city has dropped in recent weeks as crime has plummeted. But particularly in poorer neighborhoods that are home to many essential workers — the neighborhoods where the risk of contracting the virus is highest and where aggressive policing is most common — arrests over minor, nonviolent offenses and “quality of life” infractions have continued. As The Intercept reported earlier this month, police now also have a new reason to stop and arrest people: failure to socially distance. About 15 people who have violated the distancing measures have been arrested so far and officers have issued 76 summonses, the NYPD spokesperson said.
“What we are concerned with the most is that the NYPD is utilizing their resources for low-level enforcement of quality of life offenses rather than concentrating and reallocating their resources to what should actually be a priority in this pandemic,” Jennvine Wong, a staff attorney at Legal Aid’s Cop Accountability Project, told The Intercept. “Low-level enforcement like a kid selling candy on a subway car should not be a policing priority ever and especially in the middle of a pandemic. … These are issues that could be better addressed with community alternatives, with public health alternatives, connecting somebody to resources. It’s not something that is best addressed with policing and criminalization.”
Read Our Complete Coverage The Coronavirus Crisis
In their letter, Legal Aid attorneys asked city officials to ban criminalization of the failure to socially distance — a failure that is in fact not a crime and that de Blasio had promised would result in fines at most. They also called on the city to refrain from conducting sweeps of homeless encampments if it couldn’t provide individual housing units for those it was dispersing, reduce custodial arrests and the number of officers on duty, and provide every on-duty officer with personal protective gear.
While the department has recently provided officers with tens of thousands of masks and latex gloves, following a complaint by the city’s largest police union, some officers are still patrolling and even making arrests without protective gear. They are also regularly failing to practice social distancing, even with as much as 20 percent of the force calling out sick in recent weeks and after nearly 7 percent, more than 2,400 people, tested positive for the virus. While some precincts moved their daily roll calls outdoors in an effort to promote better distancing, not all precincts have done so, and officers have continued to keep close contact with one another, even without masks.
The NYPD spokesperson did not answer questions about why so many officers are failing to wear protective gear or practice social distancing. “Officers are physically protecting themselves with an array of personal protective equipment,” the spokesperson wrote.
“NYPD has a responsibility to the public and to their officers to enact policies that reflect the advice of public health experts,” Legal Aid wrote. “The NYPD has not changed its protocols even in light of this rapidly spreading virus, where the infection rate amongst NYPD personnel is eight times that of New York City, and 10 times higher than the rest of New York state.”
Policing a Pandemic
New York police are not alone as they continue to make arrests that seem to defy all logic and public health recommendations. Last week, the Philadelphia Transit Authority reversed its policy mandating face coverings for riders after four Philadelphia police officers were filmed forcibly dragging an unmasked man off a city bus over his failure to cover his face. And in Miami, a doctor who has been working to help homeless people during the pandemic was detained while loading his van when police thought he was “illegally offloading trash.”
“It’s endemic of the overall overreliance on police in American culture to solve all of our societal ills,” said Wong. “And in this case, to try to police our way out of this pandemic, which we just can’t.”
But at least in New York, police have responded to the pandemic differently depending on the neighborhood. If in parts of the city their new role has become “breaking up crowds at Trader Joe’s,” in others, residents accustomed to aggressive policing feel that not much has changed at all.
Legal Aid mapped all the 311 calls made in the first two weeks of April that were tagged as related to “social distancing” and found that most came from gentrified neighborhoods like Harlem, Greenpoint, and Williamsburg. But the analysis also showed that police tended to respond to those calls mostly in poorer neighborhoods, for instance in the Bronx. “Even if these are the neighborhoods where people are snitching on their neighbors, police are taking action in particular neighborhoods more than others,” said Wong, adding that the data is limited to what police report publicly and doesn’t include information on the summons they issue, which is not public.
As more than 700 officers saw their duties shift to social distancing enforcement, for residents of already heavily policed neighborhoods, social distancing has become just one more reason for police to stop them. “It’s the same kind of enforcement, they’re just developing a new spin on it,” Mick Schommer, who lives in Harlem, told The Intercept.
For residents of heavily policed neighborhoods, social distancing has become just one more reason for police to stop them.
In late March, Schommer was one of several people who filmed a group of police officers as they arrested a man on a sidewalk in Harlem. It’s not clear from the video what happened before the man was arrested — some bystanders told Schommer that he was talking to another person and others said he was stopped for spitting on the sidewalk. One of the officers can be heard telling someone who asked why police were holding the man that it was “because of coronavirus.” Schommer added that the man had been wearing a mask but that he lost his mask as two officers, unmasked, arrested him. Police told bystanders that they were waiting for an ambulance for the man, but instead loaded him, headfirst, into a police van.
“If that was the violation, why would seven cops take a man, throw him up against the wall, demask him, and then dump him into a patty wagon as a way to enforce social distancing?” said Schommer. “It stretches the line of credibility, but this is also not unusual.”
Schommer added that in the days since the incident, he has repeatedly seen police in Harlem ordering young people to disperse, even as people in line at grocery stores stand closely to one another. “I have seen unmasked cops and ungloved cops breaking up people for social distancing and for not wearing masks, when they themselves aren’t,” he added.
But what struck him the most was the clear disparity in the ways social distancing was enforced depending on the race and apparent wealth of those violating it. “I live near Marcus Garvey Park and Central Park,” Schommer noted as an example. “Central Park is packed full of people running as normal and walking as normal. Marcus Garvey Park is empty because of the consistent patrol of cops.”
“You can walk through anywhere in Central Harlem, and you can see hundreds of examples of the disparity.”
Update: April 15, 2020, 5:25 p.m. ET
This article has been updated to include comments from the NYPD received after publication.


theintercept--2020-04-15--Watch: The Mental Health Dimensions of the Coronavirus Pandemic and Isolation Measures, with Andrew

Watch: The Mental Health Dimensions of the Coronavirus Pandemic and Isolation Measures, with Andrew Solomon and Johann Hari

It has long been the case that western societies focus more on , and value much more greatly , physical health over mental health .
The former is universally viewed as a necessity while the latter is often treated as a luxury or an abstraction .
For understandable reasons , that disparity has intensified with the outbreak of a global pandemic , in which there is seemingly endless discussion of lethal viruses and immune systems and less attention than ever paid to emotional well-being and mental health challenges .
But the failure to pay sufficient attention can produce extremely damaging @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the advent of the coronavirus pandemic , rates for mental health pathologies in the west — depression , anxiety disorders , addiction , and suicide — were rapidly increasing to disturbingly new levels .
The internet , hailed at the start as an innovation that would connect humans more than ever before , has instead isolated us from one another , worsening these deprivations It goes without saying that the traumas of this pandemic — the unraveling of our way of life for however long that lasts , the compulsory viewing of all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sustained isolation and social distancing — will only exacerbate those trends .
Our newest edition of SYSTEM UPDATE , broadcast today on the Intercept ’ s YouTube channel , is devoted to exploring the mental health and emotional well-being dimensions of this pandemic and our responses to it .
Joining me are two authors who have written among the most influential books on these topics : Andrew Solomon , Professor of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University Medical Center and author of the worldwide 2002 best-seller A Noonday Demon : an Atlas of Depression @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the 2015 book on the causes of addiction , “ Chasing the Scream , ” author of the 2018 “ Lost Connections ” about depression , and the speaker of one of the most viral TEDTalks ever delivered , about myths surrounding addiction .
You can watch the full program on The Intercept ’ s channel or on the player below , where a transcript will also be posted later today :

It has long been the case that western societies focus more on, and value much more greatly, physical health over mental health. The former is universally viewed as a necessity while the latter is often treated as a luxury or an abstraction. For understandable reasons, that disparity has intensified with the outbreak of a global pandemic, in which there is seemingly endless discussion of lethal viruses and immune systems and less attention than ever paid to emotional well-being and mental health challenges.
But the failure to pay sufficient attention can produce extremely damaging and enduring outcomes. Even prior to the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, rates for mental health pathologies in the west — depression, anxiety disorders, addiction, and suicide — were rapidly increasing to disturbingly new levels. The internet, hailed at the start as an innovation that would connect humans more than ever before, has instead isolated us from one another, worsening these deprivations It goes without saying that the traumas of this pandemic — the unraveling of our way of life for however long that lasts, the compulsory viewing of all other humans as threats, and especially sustained isolation and social distancing — will only exacerbate those trends.
Our newest edition of SYSTEM UPDATE, broadcast today on the Intercept’s YouTube channel, is devoted to exploring the mental health and emotional well-being dimensions of this pandemic and our responses to it. Joining me are two authors who have written among the most influential books on these topics: Andrew Solomon, Professor of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University Medical Center and author of the worldwide 2002 best-seller A Noonday Demon: an Atlas of Depression, and Johann Hari, author of the 2015 book on the causes of addiction, “Chasing the Scream,” author of the 2018 “Lost Connections” about depression, and the speaker of one of the most viral TEDTalks ever delivered, about myths surrounding addiction.
You can watch the full program on The Intercept’s channel or on the player below, where a transcript will also be posted later today:
* * * * *
Last night we broadcast a special edition of SYSTEM UPDATE to explore the question of whether Sanders supporters specifically and the left generally should throw their support behind Joe Biden’s candidacy. My two guests were the Sanders campaign’s former Press Secretary Brianha Joy Gray, who announced that at least for now she would not be endorsing Biden, and the activist and journalist Benjamin Dixon. The program, roughly 30 minutes long, can be viewed here.
I also conducted the first live chat of SYSTEM UPDATE last night where I answered viewers’ questions about that debate as well as a variety of other topics. That can be viewed here. Be sure to subscribe to the Intercept’s YouTube channel to be advised of all of our original new content when it is published.


theintercept--2020-04-15--As Virus Spreads in Federal Prisons, People Inside Describe Chaos, While Families Are Left in the Da

As Virus Spreads in Federal Prisons, People Inside Describe Chaos, While Families Are Left in the Dark

out of the Federal Correctional Institution at Otisville feeling nervous .
It was March 24 and he was getting ready to board a shuttle bus in Middletown , New York , to make the 70-mile trip to Port Authority in Manhattan — the first leg of a long journey home .
“ I didn ’ t think it was safe at all , to be honest with you , ” he said .
Carrillo had been following the news .
He knew that New York City had become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic .
“ I mean , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and you ’ re gon na send me to Manhattan to wait at the bus terminal for one , two , three , five hours ?
” Carrillo ’ s travel had been arranged months earlier , before the coronavirus gripped the country .
But by March 18 , the day the U.S. Bureau of Prisons confirmed its first two cases , FCI Otisville had suspended visitation and gone into “ modified lockdown , ” reducing access to recreation and dining to one housing unit at a time .
The attempts at social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ facility where Carrillo was housed , men were double-bunked , with more than 100 people per unit .
Just days before his release , he said , men in his unit were subjected to random breathalyzer tests that required blowing into a small funnel attached to a portable machine .
“ There ’ s no way you ’ re going to tell me right now that germs or particles aren ’ t gon na blow up in your face , ” he said .
Carrillo was arrested on federal weapons charges in 2013 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he was sentenced to 8 1/2 years under the Armed Career Criminal Act but won early release after a portion of the law was declared unconstitutional .
Back home in Moorhead , Minnesota , he found a job , a house , and gained partial custody of his daughter .
He also got involved in his community ; in 2019 , he helped organize the first Juneteenth celebration in Moorhead , appearing on the local news .
But later that summer , Carrillo violated the conditions of his probation by drinking with some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ records .
After 20 successful months on the outside , he was sent back to prison .
With tests for Covid-19 scarce on the outside , there was little reason for Carrillo to expect to be tested before his release from Otisville .
Staff just took his temperature and sent him on his way .
At the Port Authority bus terminal , “ the whole six-foot distancing was pretty much thrown out the window , ” he said .
People were coming and going , some approached asking for change .
After more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he boarded a Greyhound bus for a two-day trip with stops in Pittsburgh , Chicago , Milwaukee , and Minneapolis .
“ We were not distanced on that bus at all .
At all.
” Carrillo ’ s destination was a halfway house in Fargo , North Dakota , just over the river from Moorhead .
On his way , he called the facility , which is run by a nonprofit called Centre Inc. , and warned a program manager that he had just been in New York City .
When he finally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he again had his temperature taken and was told he would be quarantined .
Instead , he was placed in a room with a man who had just come from a different federal prison — and “ I was able to mingle and mix with every other person in the building , including staff.
” Even more disturbing to Carrillo , he was told to start looking for work , which meant going out for job interviews .
He had little choice but to comply , since it is a condition of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the same day the BOP announced a 14-day quarantine across its prisons , Carrillo went to an interview at a pawn shop downtown .
Later , he called his mother , who was stunned .
“ She said , ‘ I don ’ t think they ’ re supposed to be doing that.
’ ” Carrillo said he was briefly isolated after he raised concerns .
But it was too little too late .
If he was infected in New York , “ you just exposed the whole city and this whole halfway @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an email , BOP spokesperson Sue Allison said that medical screening and quarantine are now requirements for people transferring to the community , but she did not specifically address halfway houses .
She did not respond to questions about the BOP conducting breathalyzer tests .
Centre Inc. Executive Director Josh Helmer said the halfway house was following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines .
New arrivals are “ placed in a sleeping room designated for quarantine in accordance with CDC recommendations , and monitored by on duty staff , ” he wrote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ individually , as long as sufficient rooms exist .
If necessary , residents who are quarantined because of travel who pass the screening could be quarantined with a roommate.
” As for job interviews , “ residents can be approved to participate in an interview telephonically and/or in person with appropriate precautions in place , ” he said .
But Carrillo , who had another interview at a grocery store on Monday , said the halfway house has not provided masks for such outings .
Today , Carrillo says the rules do seem @ @ @ @ @ @ @ arrival .
He is not showing symptoms of Covid-19 .
But he and his family have other reasons to worry .
His younger brother Shawn is incarcerated at a different federal facility , FCI Atlanta .
To date , 16 people at the prison have tested positive for Covid-19 , including three staffers .
In an email to Carrillo last month , his brother wrote that things were getting bad .
They were barely getting enough food or toilet paper and had no access to the commissary in order to buy soap .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t hear from me in the next few days , know I love you , know that I care about you , and God bless you .
I ’ ll talk to you as soon as I can.
’ ” As the coronavirus outbreak has spread inside the nation ’ s prisons and jails , people inside and outside BOP facilities describe a system mired in chaos .
Families are scared and mostly in the dark .
“ They ’ re unbelievably stressed out , ” said Kevin Ring , president @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advocacy group .
“ And they have terrible , terrible stories of what ’ s happening.
” The anguish and anxiety are not entirely new .
Although the threat posed by Covid-19 is certainly unprecedented , it ’ s also a magnified version of a struggle that is all too common .
It is often impossible under ordinary circumstances to get timely or reliable information about loved ones on the inside .
Advocating for improved conditions or medical care has always been an uphill battle , let alone for early or compassionate release @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the BOP has rolled out a series of “ action plans ” aimed at combating the virus ’ s spread .
Visits have been eliminated and transfers have largely been halted .
But many of the precautions have come too late , if they have been implemented at all .
On the section of the BOP ’ s website tracking Covid-19 cases , the numbers are rising every day .
At Otisville , 13 cases have been confirmed since Carrillo was released , including five employees .
As of April 14 , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 446 incarcerated people and 248 staffers .
Fourteen incarcerated people have died of Covid-19 to date , according to the bureau .
Five of the fatalities have been at FCI Elkton in Ohio , where two new deaths were reported within 24 hours this week .
The Ohio Justice and Policy Center and the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio have filed a lawsuit on behalf of men incarcerated at Elkton , who described cramped , unhygienic conditions .
One man said medical personnel were “ taking temperatures using the same thermometer for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with a sanitary napkin.
” The petition seeks the immediate release of individuals vulnerable to the virus , along with those who are close to their release dates .
The lawsuit comes on the heels of a disturbing video recorded on a contraband cellphone and posted on Facebook , which showed a man at Elkton wearing a mask and saying that they were being left to die .
Vice News later identified the man ; prison officials said he was negative for Covid-19 and denied most of his claims .
On April 6 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ broke , Brenda Cooper ’ s husband called her from the prison .
He asked her if she ’ d seen the video , then waited while she looked it up .
“ To me , it ’ s just terrifying , ” she said .
“ I don ’ t want to lose my husband.
” Cooper , who is going by a pseudonym to protect her husband ’ s identity , lives in Manchester , Kentucky , where she works at a manufacturing plant .
In the years since her husband @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been able to make the trip to see him once a year .
The prison in Lisbon , Ohio , is hundreds of miles away .
Between a hotel , gas , and meals , “ I don ’ t have the money to go up there all the time , ” she said .
“ I make $ 9.50 an hour.
” The situation feels all the more senseless given some of the alternatives closer to home .
The plant where she works sits in the shadow of FCI Manchester , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were there instead of in Ohio , she could make the drive in 15 minutes .
“ It ’ s just really hard the way that they place everybody , ” she said .
“ It ’ s like they try to hurt the family as much as they can.
” When Congress signed the First Step Act in 2018 , one of its bright spots was supposed to be a provision that would allow people in federal custody to be moved closer to home .
But thus far , the law has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The transfers rely on the discretion of the BOP , which makes housing decisions based on numerous factors , from the programming available at a given institution to the need to keep co-defendants separate .
Ring , who was instrumental in ensuring the passage of that provision , is disappointed with how it has played out .
“ I think the exception is still swallowing the rule , ” he said .
For Cooper , it would not have made a difference anyway .
The provision applied only to people incarcerated more than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ husband is some 430 miles away .
Cooper makes no excuses for her husband ’ s past .
“ He was on drugs and he was wild .
He put me through hell the last two years he was home.
” But he ’ s different now , with a good behavioral record , she said .
She wishes that the BOP could release more people .
“ Let them wear an ankle bracelet , you know , home confinement .
They ’ re just so crowded together , there ’ s no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not gon na sweep through there .
… I stay a nervous wreck about him anyway , ” she said .
“ But to me , this is a sickness that they need to take serious .
And they ’ re not.
” While Carrillo was on his way to the halfway house in Fargo on March 26 , U.S. Attorney General William Barr issued a memo directing the BOP to transfer certain “ eligible inmates ” from prisons to home confinement .
“ Many inmates will be safer in BOP facilities where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ready access to doctors and medical care , ” he maintained .
But for others , including older people susceptible to the virus , home confinement would be “ more effective.
” That same day , FAMM sent a letter to the Department of Justice .
The $ 2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill passed in late March allows the BOP to extend the amount of time a person in custody can be placed in home confinement , Ring wrote .
Ordinarily , it can not exceed six months or 10 percent of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ CARES Act allows for the relaxation of this rule .
Ring urged the BOP to “ quickly transfer prisoners who are at high risk for complications from Covid-19 to home confinement.
” The following week , Barr issued a second memo authorizing the expansion of home confinement under the CARES Act .
The BOP now says it has released more than 1,000 people to home confinement since March 26 , but the figure is misleading at best .
For one , transfers are only conducted after a 14-day quarantine at a given BOP @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mean being immediately quarantined .
An untold number are still waiting .
What ’ s more , families have described a chaotic process across the country , with loved ones approved for home confinement placed in the same special housing unit as people isolated due to symptoms .
In a text message this week , Cooper also echoed what others with loved ones at Elkton have described : that the majority of men told to quarantine at the prison in preparation for home confinement have actually been returned to their cells .
Although @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many people have actually gotten home , Ring says it is almost certainly a fraction of the total figure cited by the BOP .
And despite Barr ’ s suggestion that those who are older and most vulnerable would be prioritized for home confinement , instead it has been mostly those serving time for low-level offenses who are close to their release dates .
When it comes to halfway houses , “ I don ’ t think I know what the policy is even if there is one , ” Ring said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be making its own rules , with many residents describing crowded conditions .
“ I don ’ t know why they have not cleaned out the halfway houses , ” Ring added .
“ To me the halfway houses are worse for social distancing in most cases than the prisons are .
And these are the people who are closest to the door.
” Helmer , the Centre Inc. director , said “ we have substantially increased our use of home confinement to help mitigate any possible spread of the virus , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But Carrillo has been told that home confinement is not an option , even though he is already on an ankle monitor — and even though he has a house minutes away where he could easily self-quarantine .
At 42 , he is not within the age group at greatest risk , but he does have a history of seizures that could compromise his health .
Although Helmer said that no one has tested positive at any of the Centre Inc. facilities , the arbitrary rules and lack of precautions Carrillo describes create @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about a possible exposure at the halfway house on Friday night , a neighbor brought him Easter dinner over the weekend , Carrillo said , which he was able to receive in the parking lot .
A supply of hand sanitizer dropped off for him was confiscated for containing alcohol .
Carrillo ’ s mother , Denise Johnson , lives in Moorhead .
She had hoped to put together a small welcome home dinner for Carrillo over Easter weekend , but that plan is on hold indefinitely .
She ’ s having a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s 8-year-old daughter , who lives with her .
And she ’ s having problems with her own health .
Johnson has hemochromatosis , a hereditary blood disorder .
“ It ’ s actually killing me slowly , ” she said .
Every few weeks , she has to go to a clinic for treatment that leaves her exhausted .
Usually she brings her granddaughter , but under the new Covid-19 protocols , this is prohibited .
“ I was counting on Richard to watch his daughter , but now he can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ halfway house to do it.
” Johnson is especially worried about her youngest son , Shawn .
Ironically , it was his good behavior that landed him in his current circumstance .
He was in the process of being transferred to a low-security institution when he got stranded at FCI Atlanta .
A family friend remembers getting a series of alarming emails last month .
In one , Shawn wrote , “ This illness will not kill me .
I ’ m healthy plus the Lord has a plan for my life.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ asked for information on the virus , such as the symptoms and death and survival rates .
Carrillo partly blames himself for his brother ’ s incarceration .
“ He looked up to me , ” he said .
“ And honestly , you know , my brother wouldn ’ t be in the situation he ’ s in if he didn ’ t look up to me.
” Johnson said her son was “ more of a follower than he was a leader.
” He was just 19 years old when he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In an email Johnson received from Shawn on March 29 , he said the virus had gotten inside the prison .
“ There is a really good chance for it to spread , ” he said .
“ I am trusting God to deliver me , but you never know.
” He made some requests in case he died .
He wanted to be buried , not cremated .
He also wanted to make sure his writing was preserved .
It was stored in a clear green trapper keeper , he said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ these things to help others , if the worst should happen to me.
” He told his mother he loved her — and “ don ’ t be out running around .
Keep yourself safe and trust god.
” Update : April 15 , 2020 , 3:10 p.m .
ET This article has been updated to include reports of a fifth death at FCI Elkton attributed to Covid-19 .

Richard Carrillo walked out of the Federal Correctional Institution at Otisville feeling nervous. It was March 24 and he was getting ready to board a shuttle bus in Middletown, New York, to make the 70-mile trip to Port Authority in Manhattan — the first leg of a long journey home. “I didn’t think it was safe at all, to be honest with you,” he said. Carrillo had been following the news. He knew that New York City had become the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. “I mean, I’m just getting out of BOP and you’re gonna send me to Manhattan to wait at the bus terminal for one, two, three, five hours?”
Carrillo’s travel had been arranged months earlier, before the coronavirus gripped the country. But by March 18, the day the U.S. Bureau of Prisons confirmed its first two cases, FCI Otisville had suspended visitation and gone into “modified lockdown,” reducing access to recreation and dining to one housing unit at a time. The attempts at social distancing were futile. In the medium-security facility where Carrillo was housed, men were double-bunked, with more than 100 people per unit. Just days before his release, he said, men in his unit were subjected to random breathalyzer tests that required blowing into a small funnel attached to a portable machine. “There’s no way you’re going to tell me right now that germs or particles aren’t gonna blow up in your face,” he said.
Carrillo was arrested on federal weapons charges in 2013. Based on his previous convictions, he was sentenced to 8 1/2 years under the Armed Career Criminal Act but won early release after a portion of the law was declared unconstitutional. Back home in Moorhead, Minnesota, he found a job, a house, and gained partial custody of his daughter. He also got involved in his community; in 2019, he helped organize the first Juneteenth celebration in Moorhead, appearing on the local news. But later that summer, Carrillo violated the conditions of his probation by drinking with some guys who also had felonies on their records. After 20 successful months on the outside, he was sent back to prison.
With tests for Covid-19 scarce on the outside, there was little reason for Carrillo to expect to be tested before his release from Otisville. Staff just took his temperature and sent him on his way. At the Port Authority bus terminal, “the whole six-foot distancing was pretty much thrown out the window,” he said. People were coming and going, some approached asking for change. After more than four hours at the station, he boarded a Greyhound bus for a two-day trip with stops in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis. “We were not distanced on that bus at all. At all.”
Carrillo’s destination was a halfway house in Fargo, North Dakota, just over the river from Moorhead. On his way, he called the facility, which is run by a nonprofit called Centre Inc., and warned a program manager that he had just been in New York City. When he finally arrived late at night on March 26, he again had his temperature taken and was told he would be quarantined. Instead, he was placed in a room with a man who had just come from a different federal prison — and “I was able to mingle and mix with every other person in the building, including staff.”
Even more disturbing to Carrillo, he was told to start looking for work, which meant going out for job interviews. He had little choice but to comply, since it is a condition of his release. On March 31, the same day the BOP announced a 14-day quarantine across its prisons, Carrillo went to an interview at a pawn shop downtown. Later, he called his mother, who was stunned. “She said, ‘I don’t think they’re supposed to be doing that.’” Carrillo said he was briefly isolated after he raised concerns. But it was too little too late. If he was infected in New York, “you just exposed the whole city and this whole halfway house,” Carrillo said.
In an email, BOP spokesperson Sue Allison said that medical screening and quarantine are now requirements for people transferring to the community, but she did not specifically address halfway houses. She did not respond to questions about the BOP conducting breathalyzer tests.
Centre Inc. Executive Director Josh Helmer said the halfway house was following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. New arrivals are “placed in a sleeping room designated for quarantine in accordance with CDC recommendations, and monitored by on duty staff,” he wrote, adding that “residents are quarantined individually, as long as sufficient rooms exist. If necessary, residents who are quarantined because of travel who pass the screening could be quarantined with a roommate.” As for job interviews, “residents can be approved to participate in an interview telephonically and/or in person with appropriate precautions in place,” he said. But Carrillo, who had another interview at a grocery store on Monday, said the halfway house has not provided masks for such outings.
Today, Carrillo says the rules do seem to have grown slightly stricter since his arrival. He is not showing symptoms of Covid-19. But he and his family have other reasons to worry. His younger brother Shawn is incarcerated at a different federal facility, FCI Atlanta. To date, 16 people at the prison have tested positive for Covid-19, including three staffers. In an email to Carrillo last month, his brother wrote that things were getting bad. They were barely getting enough food or toilet paper and had no access to the commissary in order to buy soap. “He goes, ‘If you don’t hear from me in the next few days, know I love you, know that I care about you, and God bless you. I’ll talk to you as soon as I can.’”
Photo: Bureau of Prisons via AP
An Uphill Battle
As the coronavirus outbreak has spread inside the nation’s prisons and jails, people inside and outside BOP facilities describe a system mired in chaos. Families are scared and mostly in the dark. “They’re unbelievably stressed out,” said Kevin Ring, president of FAMM, a criminal justice reform advocacy group. “And they have terrible, terrible stories of what’s happening.”
The anguish and anxiety are not entirely new. Although the threat posed by Covid-19 is certainly unprecedented, it’s also a magnified version of a struggle that is all too common. It is often impossible under ordinary circumstances to get timely or reliable information about loved ones on the inside. Advocating for improved conditions or medical care has always been an uphill battle, let alone for early or compassionate release.
As the crisis has escalated, the BOP has rolled out a series of “action plans” aimed at combating the virus’s spread. Visits have been eliminated and transfers have largely been halted. But many of the precautions have come too late, if they have been implemented at all. On the section of the BOP’s website tracking Covid-19 cases, the numbers are rising every day. At Otisville, 13 cases have been confirmed since Carrillo was released, including five employees. As of April 14, the BOP had confirmed 694 total cases — 446 incarcerated people and 248 staffers. Fourteen incarcerated people have died of Covid-19 to date, according to the bureau.
Five of the fatalities have been at FCI Elkton in Ohio, where two new deaths were reported within 24 hours this week. The Ohio Justice and Policy Center and the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio have filed a lawsuit on behalf of men incarcerated at Elkton, who described cramped, unhygienic conditions. One man said medical personnel were “taking temperatures using the same thermometer for multiple people and only wiping it off with a sanitary napkin.” The petition seeks the immediate release of individuals vulnerable to the virus, along with those who are close to their release dates.
Read Our Complete Coverage The Coronavirus Crisis
The lawsuit comes on the heels of a disturbing video recorded on a contraband cellphone and posted on Facebook, which showed a man at Elkton wearing a mask and saying that they were being left to die. Vice News later identified the man; prison officials said he was negative for Covid-19 and denied most of his claims.
On April 6, the day that the Vice story broke, Brenda Cooper’s husband called her from the prison. He asked her if she’d seen the video, then waited while she looked it up. “To me, it’s just terrifying,” she said. “I don’t want to lose my husband.”
Cooper, who is going by a pseudonym to protect her husband’s identity, lives in Manchester, Kentucky, where she works at a manufacturing plant. In the years since her husband went to prison, she has only been able to make the trip to see him once a year. The prison in Lisbon, Ohio, is hundreds of miles away. Between a hotel, gas, and meals, “I don’t have the money to go up there all the time,” she said. “I make $9.50 an hour.”
“This is a sickness that they need to take serious. And they’re not.”
The situation feels all the more senseless given some of the alternatives closer to home. The plant where she works sits in the shadow of FCI Manchester, a medium-security BOP prison. If her husband were there instead of in Ohio, she could make the drive in 15 minutes. “It’s just really hard the way that they place everybody,” she said. “It’s like they try to hurt the family as much as they can.”
When Congress signed the First Step Act in 2018, one of its bright spots was supposed to be a provision that would allow people in federal custody to be moved closer to home. But thus far, the law has not lived up to its promise. The transfers rely on the discretion of the BOP, which makes housing decisions based on numerous factors, from the programming available at a given institution to the need to keep co-defendants separate. Ring, who was instrumental in ensuring the passage of that provision, is disappointed with how it has played out. “I think the exception is still swallowing the rule,” he said.
For Cooper, it would not have made a difference anyway. The provision applied only to people incarcerated more than 500 driving miles from home. Her husband is some 430 miles away.
Cooper makes no excuses for her husband’s past. “He was on drugs and he was wild. He put me through hell the last two years he was home.” But he’s different now, with a good behavioral record, she said. She wishes that the BOP could release more people. “Let them wear an ankle bracelet, you know, home confinement. They’re just so crowded together, there’s no way that [the virus] is not gonna sweep through there. … I stay a nervous wreck about him anyway,” she said. “But to me, this is a sickness that they need to take serious. And they’re not.”
Halfway Home
While Carrillo was on his way to the halfway house in Fargo on March 26, U.S. Attorney General William Barr issued a memo directing the BOP to transfer certain “eligible inmates” from prisons to home confinement. “Many inmates will be safer in BOP facilities where the population is controlled and there is ready access to doctors and medical care,” he maintained. But for others, including older people susceptible to the virus, home confinement would be “more effective.”
That same day, FAMM sent a letter to the Department of Justice. The $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill passed in late March allows the BOP to extend the amount of time a person in custody can be placed in home confinement, Ring wrote. Ordinarily, it cannot exceed six months or 10 percent of a person’s sentence, but the CARES Act allows for the relaxation of this rule. Ring urged the BOP to “quickly transfer prisoners who are at high risk for complications from Covid-19 to home confinement.”
The following week, Barr issued a second memo authorizing the expansion of home confinement under the CARES Act. The BOP now says it has released more than 1,000 people to home confinement since March 26, but the figure is misleading at best. For one, transfers are only conducted after a 14-day quarantine at a given BOP facility — and being approved does not mean being immediately quarantined. An untold number are still waiting. What’s more, families have described a chaotic process across the country, with loved ones approved for home confinement placed in the same special housing unit as people isolated due to symptoms. In a text message this week, Cooper also echoed what others with loved ones at Elkton have described: that the majority of men told to quarantine at the prison in preparation for home confinement have actually been returned to their cells.
“I don’t know why they have not cleaned out the halfway houses. … These are the people who are closest to the door.”
Although it is hard to know precisely how many people have actually gotten home, Ring says it is almost certainly a fraction of the total figure cited by the BOP. And despite Barr’s suggestion that those who are older and most vulnerable would be prioritized for home confinement, instead it has been mostly those serving time for low-level offenses who are close to their release dates. When it comes to halfway houses, “I don’t think I know what the policy is even if there is one,” Ring said. At the moment, each facility seems to be making its own rules, with many residents describing crowded conditions. “I don’t know why they have not cleaned out the halfway houses,” Ring added. “To me the halfway houses are worse for social distancing in most cases than the prisons are. And these are the people who are closest to the door.”
Helmer, the Centre Inc. director, said “we have substantially increased our use of home confinement to help mitigate any possible spread of the virus, including those who are most vulnerable.” But Carrillo has been told that home confinement is not an option, even though he is already on an ankle monitor — and even though he has a house minutes away where he could easily self-quarantine. At 42, he is not within the age group at greatest risk, but he does have a history of seizures that could compromise his health. Although Helmer said that no one has tested positive at any of the Centre Inc. facilities, the arbitrary rules and lack of precautions Carrillo describes create a risky environment. After a scare about a possible exposure at the halfway house on Friday night, a neighbor brought him Easter dinner over the weekend, Carrillo said, which he was able to receive in the parking lot. A supply of hand sanitizer dropped off for him was confiscated for containing alcohol.
Photo: Courtesy of Denise Johnson
Carrillo’s mother, Denise Johnson, lives in Moorhead. She had hoped to put together a small welcome home dinner for Carrillo over Easter weekend, but that plan is on hold indefinitely. She’s having a hard time explaining the situation to Carrillo’s 8-year-old daughter, who lives with her. And she’s having problems with her own health. Johnson has hemochromatosis, a hereditary blood disorder. “It’s actually killing me slowly,” she said. Every few weeks, she has to go to a clinic for treatment that leaves her exhausted. Usually she brings her granddaughter, but under the new Covid-19 protocols, this is prohibited. “I was counting on Richard to watch his daughter, but now he can’t even get out of the halfway house to do it.”
Johnson is especially worried about her youngest son, Shawn. Ironically, it was his good behavior that landed him in his current circumstance. He was in the process of being transferred to a low-security institution when he got stranded at FCI Atlanta. A family friend remembers getting a series of alarming emails last month. In one, Shawn wrote, “This illness will not kill me. I’m healthy plus the Lord has a plan for my life.” But in a subsequent message, he asked for information on the virus, such as the symptoms and death and survival rates.
Carrillo partly blames himself for his brother’s incarceration. “He looked up to me,” he said. “And honestly, you know, my brother wouldn’t be in the situation he’s in if he didn’t look up to me.” Johnson said her son was “more of a follower than he was a leader.” He was just 19 years old when he was arrested on drug conspiracy charges.
In an email Johnson received from Shawn on March 29, he said the virus had gotten inside the prison. “There is a really good chance for it to spread,” he said. “I am trusting God to deliver me, but you never know.” He made some requests in case he died. He wanted to be buried, not cremated. He also wanted to make sure his writing was preserved. It was stored in a clear green trapper keeper, he said. “Maybe you can make use of these things to help others, if the worst should happen to me.” He told his mother he loved her — and “don’t be out running around. Keep yourself safe and trust god.”
Update: April 15, 2020, 3:10 p.m. ET
This article has been updated to include reports of a fifth death at FCI Elkton attributed to Covid-19.


theintercept--2020-04-15--Medical Residents Demand Covid-19 Hazard Pay

But as residents were still gathering signatures , they got a revealing answer from the administration , who had already seen a copy of the letter .
In an email explaining why they were denying the request , the NYU residency program ’ s top brass accidentally forwarded private emails between program directors discussing the residents ’ demands .
After his first few days of work with Covid-19 patients , Peter signed a group letter from NYU medical residents asking the hospital for hazard pay — a common demand from health care workers being sent to the front lines of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ York City , the group pointed out in their letter , had raised pay and given additional benefits to their residents .
Like the thousands of medical residents in New York and across the country , Peter and his fellow residents at NYU are facing months of terrifying work during the coronavirus crisis .
As New York ’ s hospitals scramble for extra labor , many residents — who occupy the lowest rung in the physician pecking order in a hospital — are being redirected from their training programs into an intense war @ @ @ @ @ @ @ answered the phone .
It was 10 a.m. , and he ’ d just gotten off his overnight shift caring for coronavirus patients at NYU Langone hospital in Manhattan , where he said he ’ s seen four to five people die each night .
He ’ s used to working in intensive care units , but Peter , whose name has been changed to protect him from retaliation , felt totally unprepared for what he was facing .
“ My first night , I was just like — please don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ someone to die , ” he said .
But as residents are drawn into hospitals to work on the pandemic , some say their advocacy may take on a different form .
And they ’ re facing a question of how to make hospitals listen .
Medical residents — the overworked , underpaid apprentices of the medical world —have for years largely accepted the status quo of their intense training .
Resident unions have remained a perk , but not a compelling draw , of programs , and organizing for better working conditions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my personal phone so a family could video chat with their mom as she was dying , ” Peter said .
“ To be told I lack compassion because I think that that ’ s worth extra compensation when I ’ m exposing myself to a virus in order to do that … it ’ s hard to come back from that.
” The head of urology called the ask for hazard pay “ not becoming of a compassionate and caring physician.
” The director of gastroenterology asked to see the names of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ petition .
On March 20 , soon-to-be medical school graduates around the country marked Match Day , when more than 40,000 applicants all learned what training program they ’ d been accepted into .
The annual process is run by a nonprofit that operates an unforgiving algorithm , which matches students to a single residency program where they will spend the next three to seven years .
Alex Adami , a second-year resident at the University of Washington , likens matching to a bizarre NFL draft with no options for players .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to play for the Lions , or some other terrible team , ” he says .
“ It doesn ’ t matter what the conditions are , whether you like the place , whether something happens while you ’ re there , you ’ re almost a 100 percent stuck there .
There ’ s basically no way to go anywhere else without torpedoing in your career.
” New residents know that they ’ re about to enter one of the toughest periods of their lives .
Residency positions are funded largely by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which pays hospitals to train the next generation of doctors .
In turn , hospitals try to get as much work as possible out of their cohort .
Most residents can expect to work up to 80 hours per week , often pulling shifts of up to 28 hours .
The extra work doesn ’ t come with extra pay — even in expensive cities like New York .
The average medical resident in the US earned $ 61,000 in 2019 , while carrying an average medical school debt of $ 200,000 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ lack of sleep can be deadly : At least two NYC residents killed themselves between 2016 and 2018 .
“ Our medical educational practices are medieval , ” one doctor wrote in an opinion piece for Medscape in 2018 .
“ [ This training ] has rendered a corpus of burned-out physicians who are far from the healers — technically and spiritually — that you ’ d want caring for your family.
” The intense training comes with an implicit promise : Survive this ordeal , and you get to be a doctor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ since the practice of residing at hospitals became widely accepted in the 1930s .
The lowest-paid resident specialties last year were in internal medicine , family medicine , and emergency medicine — expertise that is in high demand during a pandemic .
Salaries for doctors in those areas remain low compared to specialties like cardiology and urology .
“ Residency is a temporary thing , and we ’ re all very very aware of that , and we ’ re reminded of that on a regular basis , ” Peter says .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re on the exact opposite side of the negotiating table and opposing all the things you were previously for .
No one wants to burn those bridges.
” But the novel coronavirus is throwing a wrench into the system .
On a Saturday night in early April , while Peter was working his first shifts at the ICU , Reddit ’ s subforum for medical residents was alive with hearsay .
Two residents at different programs in New York City , posters wrote , had died while working without proper PPE , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Michigan .
The moderators quickly deleted several posts , but a rebellious sentiment brewed through the next week .
Someone posted a video of a NewYork-Presbyterian executive reprimanding residents for complaining during the crisis — but intercut with footage from a dictator in the movie “ V for Vendetta.
” A Google Doc where residents could anonymously share stories about hospitals not providing personal protective gear and disciplining staff who spoke out was passed around .
Posters shared contact information for the handful of resident unions around the country and repeatedly raised the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Residents were spooked by weeks of crushing bad news , grim reports from emergency rooms , and the lack of PPE .
The first health care provider died in New York in Mount Sinai Hospital at the end of March .
Days after his death , Mount Sinai nurses posted photos of themselves on social media wearing garbage bags after the hospital ran out of gowns .
Hospitals increasingly used military terms — talking about “ redeployment ” of residents from nonemergency specialties to ICUs — while warning doctors , nurses , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
As New York ’ s strong nurses ’ unions made showings to push for protections for its members , many residents questioned how they could get similar protections .
The Committee for Interns and Residents , or CIR , which is associated with Service Employees International Union , is the largest model for collective resident action , with 13,000 members in a handful of states across the country .
The union says that nonunionized residents from across the country have been reaching out since the pandemic began to ask about their rights @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of concerns and questions on its web site .
But Peter , who is a CIR member , is doubtful about how much organized unions can actually accomplish .
“ If the nurses ’ union presses for something , they actually have leverage , ” he says .
“ That ’ s not something you really have in a residents ’ union .
There ’ s nothing you can really threaten to do .
There ’ s no set of residents that are going to be willing to go on an actual strike.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ CIR are also getting attention .
Residents at University of Washington have been working since last summer without a contract as the University of Washington Housestaff Association , where Alex Adami serves as treasurer , bargains for better pay and benefits .
The union staged a 15-minute walkout in September that got national attention as one of the only collective physician actions in recent decades .
The hospital had offered the residents a disappointing deal before the pandemic struck , and they ’ d resumed negotiations in early April — over videoconference .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ an “ uptick ” in attention to residents , and says better treatment is crucial in a pandemic , even as hospitals face huge budget shortages .
“ If you have a bunch of burnt out , sick residents , you ’ re going to give worse care , ” he says .
Benefits like hazard pay place “ a value on the time of the residents so that the institution doesn ’ t just use you without caring .
If we are not a cost of some sort to the institution , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to what we ’ re doing , then why wouldn ’ t the institution just use you as much as they can ?
” The threat of bad press may be enough action for now .
Soon after the email snafu , NYU leadership let residents know that after “ additional feedback , ” they ’ d be bumping up planned raises for residents from July 1 to April 1 .
In a statement , NYU confirmed that “ resident and fellows who have provided direct clinical care to Covid patients at a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have their compensation advanced to the next PGY level retroactively to April 1 , 2020 , rather than July 1 , 2020 .
We will also seek to raise funds to help off-set financial stress for those house officers whose partners have lost their jobs .
Additionally , we will soon announce how we also plan to address the needs of our staff beyond just our house staff .
These individuals , from health care professionals to the maintenance staff , also face similar personal risks , challenges and fears as they too @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patients.
” It ’ s a small concession , but it might be enough for now , Peter said .
“ I think with the level of emotional exhaustion that we all have just from doing all this that this will probably be enough that people don ’ t have enough fire to really fight back for more , ” he said .
“ I think they did the bare minimum to make us keep quiet and do what we ’ re supposed to do .
”

Peter sounded tired when he answered the phone. It was 10 a.m., and he’d just gotten off his overnight shift caring for coronavirus patients at NYU Langone hospital in Manhattan, where he said he’s seen four to five people die each night. He’s used to working in intensive care units, but Peter, whose name has been changed to protect him from retaliation, felt totally unprepared for what he was facing. “My first night, I was just like — please don’t let me make a mistake that causes someone to die,” he said.
Like the thousands of medical residents in New York and across the country, Peter and his fellow residents at NYU are facing months of terrifying work during the coronavirus crisis. As New York’s hospitals scramble for extra labor, many residents — who occupy the lowest rung in the physician pecking order in a hospital — are being redirected from their training programs into an intense war zone.
After his first few days of work with Covid-19 patients, Peter signed a group letter from NYU medical residents asking the hospital for hazard pay — a common demand from health care workers being sent to the front lines of the pandemic. Other hospitals in New York City, the group pointed out in their letter, had raised pay and given additional benefits to their residents.
But as residents were still gathering signatures, they got a revealing answer from the administration, who had already seen a copy of the letter. In an email explaining why they were denying the request, the NYU residency program’s top brass accidentally forwarded private emails between program directors discussing the residents’ demands.
The head of urology called the ask for hazard pay “not becoming of a compassionate and caring physician.” The director of gastroenterology asked to see the names of any gastroenterology fellows who had signed the petition.
“I used my personal phone so a family could video chat with their mom as she was dying,” Peter said. “To be told I lack compassion because I think that that’s worth extra compensation when I’m exposing myself to a virus in order to do that … it’s hard to come back from that.”
Medical residents — the overworked, underpaid apprentices of the medical world —have for years largely accepted the status quo of their intense training. Resident unions have remained a perk, but not a compelling draw, of programs, and organizing for better working conditions a foreign concept.
But as residents are drawn into hospitals to work on the pandemic, some say their advocacy may take on a different form. And they’re facing a question of how to make hospitals listen.
On March 20, soon-to-be medical school graduates around the country marked Match Day, when more than 40,000 applicants all learned what training program they’d been accepted into. The annual process is run by a nonprofit that operates an unforgiving algorithm, which matches students to a single residency program where they will spend the next three to seven years.
Alex Adami, a second-year resident at the University of Washington, likens matching to a bizarre NFL draft with no options for players. “It’s like Tom Brady has to play for the Lions, or some other terrible team,” he says. “It doesn’t matter what the conditions are, whether you like the place, whether something happens while you’re there, you’re almost a 100 percent stuck there. There’s basically no way to go anywhere else without torpedoing in your career.”
New residents know that they’re about to enter one of the toughest periods of their lives. Residency positions are funded largely by various arms of the federal government, which pays hospitals to train the next generation of doctors. In turn, hospitals try to get as much work as possible out of their cohort. Most residents can expect to work up to 80 hours per week, often pulling shifts of up to 28 hours.
The extra work doesn’t come with extra pay — even in expensive cities like New York. The average medical resident in the US earned $61,000 in 2019, while carrying an average medical school debt of $200,000. For some, the pressure combined with lack of sleep can be deadly: At least two NYC residents killed themselves between 2016 and 2018.
“Our medical educational practices are medieval,” one doctor wrote in an opinion piece for Medscape in 2018. “[This training] has rendered a corpus of burned-out physicians who are far from the healers — technically and spiritually — that you’d want caring for your family.”
The intense training comes with an implicit promise: Survive this ordeal, and you get to be a doctor. But the world has shifted dramatically since the practice of residing at hospitals became widely accepted in the 1930s. The lowest-paid resident specialties last year were in internal medicine, family medicine, and emergency medicine — expertise that is in high demand during a pandemic. Salaries for doctors in those areas remain low compared to specialties like cardiology and urology.
“Residency is a temporary thing, and we’re all very very aware of that, and we’re reminded of that on a regular basis,” Peter says. “As soon as you finish, you’re on the exact opposite side of the negotiating table and opposing all the things you were previously for. No one wants to burn those bridges.”
But the novel coronavirus is throwing a wrench into the system.
On a Saturday night in early April, while Peter was working his first shifts at the ICU, Reddit’s subforum for medical residents was alive with hearsay. Two residents at different programs in New York City, posters wrote, had died while working without proper PPE, and another resident had passed away in Michigan. The moderators quickly deleted several posts, but a rebellious sentiment brewed through the next week.
Someone posted a video of a NewYork-Presbyterian executive reprimanding residents for complaining during the crisis — but intercut with footage from a dictator in the movie “V for Vendetta.” A Google Doc where residents could anonymously share stories about hospitals not providing personal protective gear and disciplining staff who spoke out was passed around. Posters shared contact information for the handful of resident unions around the country and repeatedly raised the idea of a walkout or strike.
Residents were spooked by weeks of crushing bad news, grim reports from emergency rooms, and the lack of PPE. The first health care provider died in New York in Mount Sinai Hospital at the end of March. Days after his death, Mount Sinai nurses posted photos of themselves on social media wearing garbage bags after the hospital ran out of gowns.
Hospitals increasingly used military terms — talking about “redeployment” of residents from nonemergency specialties to ICUs — while warning doctors, nurses, and other staff against speaking to the media. As New York’s strong nurses’ unions made showings to push for protections for its members, many residents questioned how they could get similar protections.
The Committee for Interns and Residents, or CIR, which is associated with Service Employees International Union, is the largest model for collective resident action, with 13,000 members in a handful of states across the country. The union says that nonunionized residents from across the country have been reaching out since the pandemic began to ask about their rights and has put together an exhaustive list of concerns and questions on its web site.
But Peter, who is a CIR member, is doubtful about how much organized unions can actually accomplish. “If the nurses’ union presses for something, they actually have leverage,” he says. “That’s not something you really have in a residents’ union. There’s nothing you can really threaten to do. There’s no set of residents that are going to be willing to go on an actual strike.”
Residents’ unions formed separately from CIR are also getting attention. Residents at University of Washington have been working since last summer without a contract as the University of Washington Housestaff Association, where Alex Adami serves as treasurer, bargains for better pay and benefits. The union staged a 15-minute walkout in September that got national attention as one of the only collective physician actions in recent decades. The hospital had offered the residents a disappointing deal before the pandemic struck, and they’d resumed negotiations in early April — over videoconference.
Adami says that there’s been an “uptick” in attention to residents, and says better treatment is crucial in a pandemic, even as hospitals face huge budget shortages.
“If you have a bunch of burnt out, sick residents, you’re going to give worse care,” he says. Benefits like hazard pay place “a value on the time of the residents so that the institution doesn’t just use you without caring. If we are not a cost of some sort to the institution, if there’s no value attached to what we’re doing, then why wouldn’t the institution just use you as much as they can?”
The threat of bad press may be enough action for now. Soon after the email snafu, NYU leadership let residents know that after “additional feedback,” they’d be bumping up planned raises for residents from July 1 to April 1. In a statement, NYU confirmed that “resident and fellows who have provided direct clinical care to Covid patients at a higher level of responsibility than usual will have their compensation advanced to the next PGY level retroactively to April 1, 2020, rather than July 1, 2020. We will also seek to raise funds to help off-set financial stress for those house officers whose partners have lost their jobs. Additionally, we will soon announce how we also plan to address the needs of our staff beyond just our house staff. These individuals, from health care professionals to the maintenance staff, also face similar personal risks, challenges and fears as they too work to support care for the Covid patients.”
It’s a small concession, but it might be enough for now, Peter said. “I think with the level of emotional exhaustion that we all have just from doing all this that this will probably be enough that people don’t have enough fire to really fight back for more,” he said. “I think they did the bare minimum to make us keep quiet and do what we’re supposed to do.”


theintercept--2020-04-15--Introducing Somebody Episode 1: Courtney

2016 , Shapearl Wells wakes up to a bamming at her door .
It ’ s the police , telling @ @ @ @ @ , Courtney Copeland , has been shot .
Detectives tell her Courtney drove his BMW @ @ @ @ @ help .
But Shapearl ’ s grief turns into suspicion when police start asking her @ @ @ @ @ her own investigation into her son ’ s murder , teaming up with journalists from @ @ @ @ @ the cops and find the truth about Courtney ’ s death .
This week on @ @ @ @ @ first episode of Somebody , a new podcast from the Invisible Institute , The Intercept @ @ @ @ @ iHeartRadio , in association with Tenderfoot TV .
Somebody explores the racial disparities and turbulent @ @ @ @ @ citizens in one of America ’ s largest cities .
Listen and subscribe wherever you @ @ @ @ @ for more information go to somebodypodcast.com

Subscribe to the Intercepted podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Radio Public, and other platforms. New to podcasting? Click here.
On March 4, 2016, Shapearl Wells wakes up to a bamming at her door. It’s the police, telling her that her 22-year-old son, Courtney Copeland, has been shot. Detectives tell her Courtney drove his BMW to a police station for help. But Shapearl’s grief turns into suspicion when police start asking her questions, so she launches her own investigation into her son’s murder, teaming up with journalists from the Invisible Institute to confront the cops and find the truth about Courtney’s death. This week on Intercepted: We air the first episode of Somebody, a new podcast from the Invisible Institute, The Intercept, Topic Studios, and iHeartRadio, in association with Tenderfoot TV. Somebody explores the racial disparities and turbulent relationship between law enforcement and citizens in one of America’s largest cities.
Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and for more information go to somebodypodcast.com