tv Consider This Al Jazeera May 23, 2014 1:00am-2:01am EDT
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tonight, tomorrow. just how safe is our nuclear arsenal from a terrorist attack? a failed security test has many wondering. also, thailand turned upside down by a military coup. we take you to bangkok. chicago place say crime has plunged. a closer look shows that the department may be cooking the books how you can ruin someone's impression of you with the first word you say to them? hello, i'm antonio mora, welcome to "consider this," here is more on what is ahead. >> thailand's army chief developing a cue day tar.
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country. curfew. >> schools have been told. >> this is the 12th time the 1932. >> scenes of slaught ukraine. >> separatists... >> one of several clashes. >> violence days before the ukraine. >> remember the line from the movie jerry maguire "you had me at hello." >> research from the power of first meetings. we'll begin with a critical deficiency in security for the american nuclear armed missile force. according to a report acquired any the associated press an armed security team was unable to gain control of a captured nuclear weapon during a simulated takeover of a minute man missile in montana.
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the u.s. has three of these in montana, wyoming and south dakota. each is armed, ready to launch on the president's command. this security failure is one of a soors of wounds the force suffered over the past year, everything from a cheating scandal. high court marshall. and a removele of commander michael cary for misbehaviour. i'm joined by the former secretary assistant of defence, and assistant secretary of state and an al jazeera contributor. good to have you with us general. the exercise that the security team failed was a scenario that sim ute lated the capture of a minute man 3 silo by terrorists. that nuclear war heads could be vulnerable to terrorists is frightening. how serious was the failure?
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>> the words the air force used was a critical deficiency in the exercise was damaging. you have minor deficiencies. that's bold letter lang wig for -- language for this is a screw up. >> the security can pass the do over when the simulation was repeated in october. the air force report acquired by the associated press says part of the problem was a lack of standardized simulations for the security teams. what does that mean. training? >> what it means is that the security team probably was not training enough. it may have brought in new people not fully familiar with the responsibilities or, frankly, weren't up to the standard expected of them. >> are they doing simulations with regularity? you'd think they would, given the importance of this. >> the worse thing you can do is
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get into a rope set of standard scenarios because i think all of us recognise that the last thing you are going to expect a terrorist to do is something in the ordinarily. we never saw planes attack buildings before 9/11, and all of a sudden they did. you can expect terrorists that will go to this effort to capture a nuclear weapon, to do something you never expect them to do. against. >> i know nuclear war heads on the missiles vary in power. the use of any would be catastrophic. if one fell into the wrong hands, would it be difficult to use. >> i don't think anyone would expect them to get the launch codes or use it as a nuclear device. they are probably trying to get ploout onium in the war head and used as a dirty bomb.
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you wrap dynamite around it and you have an effective peace of material there that doesn't really explode as much as it spreads nuclear material around the area. you mentioned the panic that would result from that. >> sure. >> despite the fact that the simulation failed. do you think that there's any significant likelihood that something like this could happen, that we could see a scenario where terrorists could successfully attack these bases? >> no, i think you have multiple redundant safeguards on the missile silos. security force is important, but there's second and third-level safeguards. you can never assume that can happen, you train under the assumption that it could happen. so when an attempt is made, it doesn't matter. >> we discussed the issues of the force. defense secretary
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chuck hagel organised more information after officers cheated on tests. some lied, two officers charged with possession of illegal drugs. we don't know what the reviews are finding, but what does the air force need to do to end the misconduct. it should be among what we have, given the responsibilities. it must be above reproach. the liability programme that they live under, a formal programme to make sure they adhere to the standard expected of them 24/7 is important to maintain. more important. it sounds like there is a leadership problem that is corroding the quality of the force. i think that will probably come out in the investigation that is - that secretary hagel wouldn't be reviewing. he'll have to take harsh and top to bottom action in order to get the force back to the standard
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that the american people can be confident of the nuclear security force. >> the commander of the force, major general perry was removed for drunkenness, another top officer, who was a 3-star admiral was removed in a gambling investigation, and then there's a broader issue about morale, that the missile force suffers low moral because it used to be on the cutting edge of the cold war, now they are in a military back water to support a mission that no one wants to fulfil, is there anything that burnout. >> i wouldn't call the burnout. there's an example of a leadership problem, it's a top level leadership of the nuclear force can't persuade and inspire their forces to under the importance of their mission to the application of the united states, then something is wrong. it's a critical mission. people ought to go to work if
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not exited, sombre about the responsibilities with the application of the united states. it's not a job one should have a moral problem. they should be inspired when they take on that responsibility, and they expect the leaders to give them that inspiration. >> important point. brigadier general mark kimmitt. thank you. u.s. military is facing problems with a key south-east asian ally. thai lapped, the land -- thailand, the land of smiles is the land of coups. on thursday they suspended the country's constitution and seized power - the 12th successful coup in 80 years, the second since 2006. it follows six months of bitter struggles between populist and establishment factions. the military chief, who declared himself prime minister told thais the coup was staged to restore peace back to the
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country in a short time and reform the country's politics, country and society. for more, i'm joined from bangkok, a "the daily beast" contributor based in singapore. good of you to join us. on tuesday the thai military declared marshall law, which they insisted was not a coup, and thursday they arrested political leaders, detained others and announced they had taken over. what happened in two days to coup? >> what transpired is the general - it's largely him. this is not a consultative general - decided that he may as well go ahead and accelerate the imposition of a coup because there was no point in postponing it, especially since there was no indication that the anti-government protesters in
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particular were inclined to stand down and abandon their protest against the government. so what probably happened whats the general decided black was that the general decided to do the coup then. it was interesting how he did it. he invited the principles in the dispute, the civil -- principals in the dispute, the civil matter, invited them into a meeting at the army club. the first was wednesday, and the second was thursday. at that juncture he detained the participants, including the former prime minister from the democratic party, and the leaders of the two leading protest groups, both pro-government and anti-government, and that brings us to where we are today. >> what is the situation like today. what is it friday in bangkok. do people go about their business.
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is there a heavy troop appearance in the street? >> this is not a city that is ringed by armed soldiers in tanks and so on. it's a low-key presence by the military. in most parts of bangkok, where we are at the moment, you don't see soldiers. you saw more soldiers, in fact, before the coup. it seems to me that the generals are going to some considerable degree to not create an alarmist situation here, and they are keeping the military pretty much under wraps although everywhere knows what is going on. it's a normal bangkok friday to all intents and purposes with people going on about their business. underlying this, underpiping this is a real coupe detar and they are cognisent of the fact come 10 o'clock they'll have to
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be home because of curfew. >> we have seen some resident praising the coup. is it possible it could be popular if it end the protests that paralyzed thailand, hurting the economy and tourism? >> that's a good question. i'm not persuaded that popular is the right word. i have seen preliminary polling that shows that a majority of thats support the imposition of a coup. i think it's largy people being fed up, frustrated, tired of the seemingly never-ending protest, counter protest and the confrontations that often escalate to violence. keep in mind that 28 people have been killed in this 6-month period, along with some 700 people injured. i think there's a sort of visor
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owl response on the part of many thais who are tired of the state of affairs that existed for the last several months, are prepared to give anything a chance. also there's considerable respect in this society for the military, which is seen as a guarantor of if not democracy, certainly the that way of life. and so at the moment you don't find a great outcry against the coup in many quarters, if any. even the opposition parties, and the protest groups seem to be prepared to give it a chance. >> thailand has been split between protesters, and supporters of two deposed prime ministers. thaksin shinawatra and yingluck shinawatra. they are part of the ruling elite. is the military taking the side
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of the elites or taking control and establishing a military dictatorship? >> it may well be both, antonio. what has been going on here in this country is that there has been some traditional elites that aligned themselves against the populous prime ministerships of thaksin shinawatra and three prime ministers between and after two brothers and sister teams. so the problem has become that it's a continuing tug of war. the term populous is bit of a misnomer in a sense that it's been used to demonize a party. as if to say that being populous is a negative on its face, the
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way that in america sometimes you get the sense that some people think that being a liberal is a problem on its face, and i think that is what has been going on. the military has been scene at least in principle supportive of the anti-government protest. you can put that on one side. on the other hand, the manifestation of the coup yesterday has not quite gone by the playbook that the opposition and the anti-government protesters had laid out - namely there was an expectation that the general would stage a coup, he'd install an interim prime minister. there's be talks and an effort at reform, and then they'd have elections. well, the general
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surprised everybody by installing himself as prime minister. that takes the oomph, if you like, as the carefully oest traited plan among -- orchestrated plan where it would move towards a civilian government, then an appointed, not elected council that would be responsible for crafting these very vague unspecified reforms, and then there would be elections. plan. >> a final quick question. there are hundreds of thousands of investments there. the secretary of state john kerry said thursday that there is no justification for a coup which he said would have negative implications for the country's relations. thailand, though, is one of the top 30 economies. it gets minimal u.s. aid. is that likely to change any minds in bangkok? >> not in the short term.
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i think thai people are proud people. keep in mind this is a country that suck sus fully navigated 150 years of british impeer ralism and survived without being colonized by anyone in particular. there's say and skill and -- savvy and skill and tendency to see themselves as independent, not susceptible to normal pressures from outside. obviously they need and want aid and respect from the west. they need and want good relations from the united states. in the short term no one should expect that the condemnation from the united states or the uk or france or the united nations will have an impact in what is going on in thailand in the short term.
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overtime, depending how long it lasts, it might have impact, but i don't see it having an effect in the short term on how the coup is prosecuted by the army. >> appreciate you joining us. we'll look forward to updates thanks. an update on the al jazeera colleagues held in an egyptian gaol. the trial of our three colleagues resumed thursday, drping six hours the -- during six hours the defense said the prosecutors added evidence this they will not share. peter greste, mohamed fadel fahmy and baher mohamed have been held for 145 days. meanwhile al jazeera journalist abdullah al-shami remains in solitary confinement. last week a video emerged of the 26-year-old showing his health at a critical point. he's been at a hunger strike for 122 days and denied critical attention. his lawyer fears he's close to death. al jazeera says the charges are baseless and calls for the
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release of all four coming up, the deadliest day for ukranian forces, days away from the country's election. is russian vladimir putin trying to destabilize ukraine. stunning information about crime in chicago, police accused of doctoring >> don't miss the system with joe burlinger al jazeera america's highly acclaimed investigative series the los angeles times says... "beringer tells gripping stories..." new york times... "large complicated, sometimes heartbreaking..." >> to keep me from going to jail, i needed to cooperate... >> see what everybody's talking about the system works... says variety al jazeera' america presents, the system with joe burlinger
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and yet, there's someone around the office who hasn't had a performance review in a while. someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. i'm looking at you phone company dsl. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business. with only three days before highly anticipated federal elections in ukraine, government forces suffered a deadly day battling pro-russian separatists in donetsk. 13 were killed, dozens killed on thursday after separatists raided a military checkpoint. the escalation came as the ukrainian government
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claimed they had the upper hand and n.a.t.o. confirmed that vladimir putin may have started pulling back forces from the ukranian border. ambassador nicholas burns, u.s. ambassador to n.a.t.o., senior director for russia, eurasia and ukraine, in the past, he's director of diplomacy and international poll suggests, and former affairs politics for "the globe." good to have you on the show. acting prime minister arseniy yatsenyuk accused russia of seriously escalating the violence because of this incident in advance of sunday's election, calling for an session. is vladimir putin, do you think, hoping to disrupt the presidential elections? >> that seems to be vladimir putin's strategy. he is trying to have it both ways. he says he's withdrawing troops that have been intim diting ukraine for the last six weeks,
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and yet he is trying to instigate the russian government these armed bands of russians, who are taking over city halls, municipal buildings, government outposts, and creating mayhem in eastern ukraine. the plan is to create enough instability that there won't be a free and fair vote, that people will not be able to vote on sunday in the east of ukraine, so russia can say this was not a legitimate election. the strategy was transparent and vladimir putin shouldn't get away with it. vladimir putin sounded conciliatory, and russia may see signs that they are pulling back from the border. there's no chance that the pro-russian separatists are point? >> i don't think so. it was not the case. remember vladimir putin denied the russian government had anything to do with the stages
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of the disturbances in crimea. he similarly denied what happened in eastern ukraine. he has not criticised the armed bands of gunmen. he has not put the full weight of the russian state against them or spoken up for law and order in ukraine. he has not spoken up for the territorial integrity, he said twice recently in the last week is that he has the right to protect ethnic russians, and there are ethnic russians in estonia, latvia, moldova, places. his policies are to destabilize the government. he's doing it in an insidious way - not by rolling tanks across the boarder, but by instigating and helping to instigate the disturbances. >> russia has been on a propaganda blitz, they have been stirring things up and focussing
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on candidates who are anti-russian, right wingers, despite polls showing they have not support. two top candidates are from the east and are native russian speakers. petro porashenko, a chocolate magnate was a minister under viktor yanukovych. shouldn't this calm vladimir putin down when he talks about protecting russians in other parts of eastern europe? >> i think vladimir putin made it clear, including saying he doesn't want to own ukraine or take it over. it's too big, the economy is a mess. it's deeply fractured. i think he wants to destabilize it so ukraine is not strong enough to reorientate itself in trading relationships. he wants a ukraine dependent on russia, that's why you see that gazprom, the russian stit
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company is open reply trying to intimidate ukrainians by demanding money for back payments, by hiking the price of national gas. these are the reactions of a government stabilizing the country. the two leading candidates are people who understand that ukraine needs to have a relationship with russia, that it needs to have a working relationship, but hopefully it can have a relationship with the european union as well. as they have saying, a ukranian that looks east and west. >> petro porashenko has been central on that. i want to talk about a piece you wrote for "the boston globe" saying president obama needs to reset international strategy. you wrote you travelled to asia and south america, and you heard the same thing in all those places about american leadership. >> the united states is still
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the most powerful country. this has been a tough time for us. after 9/11 the two wars after the great recession, there has been a tendency by some politicians to bring us back to isolation. not president obama, but certainly the tea party, and very definitely some liberal democrats. the president is trying to steer a middle course. he has this many successes in foreign policy. it's been a rough year and a half since re-election. certainly we have not been effective in trying to unite with europe in sending a common response to vladimir putin on ukraine. we have not been able to deal with a serious situation, particularly when president asaad used chemical weapons and the united states didn't respond as it said it would, and now china is flexing its muscle against
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vietnam and others. we need a strengthened foreign policy. i think the president is capable of this. he has a lot of time left. he is not a lame duck, he has 31 months in office. he can make the changes that a lot of people want to see. he has a big speech at west point commencing next week, and the white house says that he'll answer critics, and point the way forward on foreign policy. it's an important opportunity leadership. >> you argue that the way to do it is to fund a strong military and diplomacy that the arm acan't be at its -- army can't be at its lowest. but in the days of budget cutting, do you think either of those will happen? >> that's what we need presidential leadership for. the president needs to argue
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that the military and diplomacy have to be strong. right now they are not strong enough. reinforcing n.a.t.o. and leading n.a.t.o. assertively is another thing to do to strengthen the american position in europe. the president has done a good job of getting us to the point where an iran deal, a deal to prevent iran from becoming a nuclear weapons power - it may be possible in 2014. if that happens, it will silence many critics. >> so many issues to be faced. good to have you on the show. >> chicago's police department is under fire for manipulating crime statistics, underreporting them and not reporting them at all. in the second part of the series about chicago's crime rates. it takes the pd to task for a host of sins. the editor in chief joins us from the windy city. elizabeth, good to talk to you. we talked about police department fudging homicide numbers showing chicago made
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great progress in a battle not to be seen as the murder capital of the country. the second part of the investigation shows questionable accounting showing a drop in other crime. you quote kerry alderman saying: sayinsaying: >> police say crime is down 56% in three years. commonsense says that's too good to be true. >> a big thing is that - which is enraging the citizens of chicago is the police department is telling them when they look around and see a bryn break-in, police say, "it's your statistics." >> the story shows behaviour by police that is more ab surd. you say an example of a guy that has a laptop and phone stolen and it's classified as lost
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property, not a crime. thugs break down a door. police don't qualify it as a burglary, they classify it as trespassing. down. >> exactly. there are a few - some crimes matter more than others. they are things that attract, reporting to the fbi, and they get more publicity than others. for example, trespassing is a more minor crime than robbery or burglary. if you downgrade it, it obviously looks better on the numbers. it's a way of making the index crimes, they call them, look like this plunge. >> the report claims the police downgrade and play with numbers in some cases, counting multiple incidents of a single offense. you site one case where 11 got shot. actually, the inspector general
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of the city released a report and audited the aggravated assault and battery numbers and found a similar thing, double counting and other things that the department underreport those crimes by 25%. >> it's a huge number, that's about what it needs to have gone down to get to the 56% since 2011. you said the fbi uses standards to measure on how safe a city is. you show that the police gives one sets of numbers to the fbi, but shows a different numbers to the citizens and on the website much on the face of it - how do they get away with that? >> this all happened shortly after ron emanuel became mare and hired gary mccarthy, trained in new york city, which had its own scandals around this in the past. they used the same system comsat and they have ceased doing
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annual reports that used to come from the press department and have gory detail about the crimes in the city that year. he discontinued them and instead is reporting comsat numbers on the city's website. essentially it's keeping two transparent. it's comparing apples and oranges to compare reports from previous years to the past three years, it's what people are doing. >> it makes little sense. the police department issued a denial about the first piece. in a statement they said: they did not answer our request for a statement. how do you respond? >> we would love to hear a
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statement from them. i asked the superintendent for this story, for a comment. he said "no." all i can say is we checked our facts and stand by the reporting. >> they argue your stories talk about the number of beat police, how it dropped by 10% since 2011, and the chicago police argue that has not happened. part of what your piece says is because of the drop in beat police, the response to crimes got slower and that's one thing that is making it difficult to report crimes. it's discouraging people from doing so. >> absolutely. if you imagine your purse is snatched, so you are waiting for police to show up. you can, you know, file a report - not a purse snatching, but something like an assault. how long will you wait there for the police to show up. you want to get to the hospital. you are like never going to come. that has been an issue.
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i have to address the statement of the officers. we were referring to a chicago tribune showing that beat comes, those walking the streets, patrolling the areas have gone down 10%. that's what they have to focus work. >> the response talk about - did not deal with beat cops, they are looking at a broader number while you were talking about those that were able to respond. how big of a political fall out has there been, and how much will there be. >> there has been a political fall out in the assistance that two alder men are under the mayor and the city council, and they - about a quarter of them, a third of them signed resolutions that sited the ig's report and our report calling for hearings into the accuracy of these numbers, and so
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that'sing something i think all chicago citizens would tlov see. >> it's a -- love to see. >> it's a powerful report. good to have you with us, editor-in-chief. straight ahead. we know bullying is bad. californian lawmakers want to make it illegal. more americans would rather have a pot smoker or adulterer president than an atheist. and how just saying hello
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>> every saturday join us for exclusive, revealing, and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. abe foxman >> we'll fight for your right to be a bigot. if you are a bigot, you're gonna pay a price... >> holocaust survivor and head of the ant-defamation league. >> there's an awful lot of hatred floating out there... >> and ending discrimination >> ...as long as the children aren't educated, it's gonna maintain... >> talk to al jazeera
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only on al jazeera america you. should bullying be a criminal offense? facing growing concerns over bullying and cyber bullying, carson, california, a suburb of los angeles tried to make bullying by kids a misdemeanour. it was narrowly defeated by a vote. had it passed, carson would have enabed one of the toughest anti-bullying laws with fines of up to $500, and parents could face misdemeanour charges and crimes if kids were multiple offenders. let's bring in mike gibson who wrote and sponsored the anti-bullying measure. councillor gibson was bullied as a child because he stuttered. he plans to commit a new version in june.
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good of you to join us. the measure was expected to pass. it was defeated 3-2. why was it voted down, do you think you can re-address the concerns so it will bass when you introduce it? >> i did this for the fact that we have to safeguard our children in our community. it did not pass, as you indicated. i will be introducing this ordnance once again on the second council meeting in june, and i believe that we would have a number of individuals concerns addressed. i believe in looking forward and expecting it to pass the second council meeting in june. >> the acou and others opposed the measure because it was too vague and overbroad. can you address the concerns. >> sure, we invited the acou to come. they came to the city coup, shared their concerns that they had with the ordnance, and the next day we invited him to sit at the table with me to share
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their concerns once again, and carve out something that they can support. most importantly, that my council colleagues can support, pass. >> so you think that the acou and others will support it, even though they said it's not about it being overbroad, there has been concerns that it would be better to address bullying through educational campaigns. >> well, i think we have a lot of educational campaigns, but we have young people who have been bullied. each and every day. i have read about it, i have heard about it. i have seen it with my own eyes. as i indicated, i was also bullied, when i was growing up, i had a speech impediment. it's not a good feeling to experience while trying to learn and be educated in the school system. so i say that education and, you know, anti-bullying programs continue. us, as a city, we need to do beyond that.
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we need to say when kids leave the schoolyard, that's when the school policy stops. we want to make sure our chin are protected once they leave the school grounds, walking home, walking to the grocery store, or whatever in the city. that they are protected, and making sure that bullies are not bullying them. i have seen where young people have taken their lives, we had a girl who was bullied, and she self-inflicted to herself and tried to commit suicide. she didn't. someone tried to stop her. how many either that don't have eem to talk to, went the extra mile and took their own life. we have a young man, bullied at elementary and military schools. the young man in high school committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. so i'm saying that we need to go as government, we need to go as
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a city of carson, to go a step further to protect our children. i realise that small bull yes grow up to be big bullies, sometimes they become husbands and wives and are abusive. that is not acceptable in our society or in the city of carson. i'll work hard to make sure there's language that people can accept and we can get it past. >> the step further that you take is criminalizing it, making it a misdemeanour. school districts take steps. carson has the toughest penalties by making it a criminal offense. >> well, it's only - no, it - if a child is damed to be a bully, the -- deemed to be a bully, the first offense to the parents is $100. we are not criminalizing children. parents take responsibility for their children. if it meets a definition of
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being a bully, and they are someone who terrorizes, threatens, demeans, intimidates, harasses, that rises to a level and a definition of being a bully. the first offense is $100 to the parents. we hope the parents will get counselling and help. if it happens a second time, we hope that parents get help for the child. if it happens a third time, it's $500. it's a misdemeanour. a misdemeanour to the parents if they don't address it. the only way they'll address it is if they get counselling. >> your city is not the only one in california considering anti-bullying legislation. there is another, and there was an uproar when this:. >> i'm against bullying, i'm tired of it used for everything, and the
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ills of the world when almost people have to learn to sting up for themselves. >> a councilwoman told him it's hard to grow a pair when you are a 10-year-old girl. how do you respond to the major? >> i'm disturbed by the mayor's insensitive comments. his head may be in the sand. clearly he has never witnessed or seen parents or child who took his or her own life as a result of bullying. he is not someone in touch with what is going on in america. these are real-life experiences with. >> have you ever been bullied. you know how you felt by the bully. sometimes people can't just turn an off and on switch when it comes to young people's feelings, when you are demoralized, stalked and harassed, intimidated and threatened. sometimes the only thing you can
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accept is taking your own life. i'm staying it's not acceptable. young children should be able to live in a society, a school community fro from those kinds of attributes and characteristics conducive to learning. i'm saying we need to safeguard the children. it's unfortunate that the mayor feels differently because of insensitive comments, and i invite him to have a conversation with me, so i can show the mother and father who buried the child in november. now he can never experience graduation, never feel or experience prom or being wed or having a first job. he'll never have those experiences again, and the countless other families that have gone through the same thing. that mayor is insensitive. >> in light of the bullying and cyber bullying that you mentions and we heard about, counselman mike gibson, appreciate you joining us.
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coming up, the power of hello, and why the way you say interecks. speaking of snap judgments, data reveals bizarre voting due >> investigating a dark side of the law >> they don't have the money to puchace their freedom... >> for some...crime does pay... >> the bail bond industry has been good to me.... i'll make a chunk of change off the crime... fault lines... al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> they're locking the door... ground breaking... >> we have to get out of here... truth seeking... >> award winning, investigative, documentary series. chasing bail only on al jazeera america
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>> on techknow... >> i'm at the national wind institute, where they can create tornados... >> a greater understanding... >> we know how to design for the wind speeds, now we design for... >> avoiding future tragedies >> i want a shelter in every school. >> techknow every saturday, go where science, meets humanity. >> this is some of the best driving i've ever done, even though i can't see. >>techknow >> is there an enviromental urgency? only on al jazeera america next. today's data dive looks into the making of a president and other leaders. americans have a host of no-nos when it comes to voting for the commander in chief. a pew study finds a big objection is i think yix. 50% votes for someone that doesn't believe in god.
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and objected less to candidates that tried pot. a warning sign, a third of people would not vote for a candidate in their 70s. she'll be # 69 on election day. the number of democrats dropped now that hillary clinton got a little older. what do voters want? military service is important, along with business executive experience. they want experience in government, preserve governor to members of congress and other experience. just as aithies was -- i thinkies was frowned upon, some see it as a plus. people face other issues. cannes dates appearance found typically feminine looking candidates - larger eye and rounded features led to more
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success at the polls than a wider face and prominent upper brows. the same did not hold true for men. men with softer features did not pay a price at the polls. wait is also an issue, according to a michigan state study of candidates in 2008 and 2012. heavier candidates received fewer votes than thinner opponents. researchers say their work is incomplete because they couldn't judge obese candidates - the reason - none made it past the primaries. speaking of superficial judging - coming up we look at the science of first impressions. why you could send the wrong
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america mobile app, available for your apple and android mobile device. download it now you on get one shot at a first impression. those impressions are formed much faster than you might think. you are being judged not just on what you say, but how you say it. it's a phenomenon one researcher calls the jerry maguire effect.
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"you had me at hello." >> joining he from glasgow is a lecturer and a lead author of how do you say hello." good to have you with us philip. hello. what can you tell me about the impression i made on that hello? >> hello. to me it sounds like you are competent and assertive that you interview. >> you are a smart man to say nice things to your interviewer. you explore the topic by recording 64 people's hellos, you got 364 to listen to the hellos and rate them. what you found is incredible consistency in how people reacted to the voices. >> exactly. we looked at 10 different traits
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and got 30 people to rate on each trait. 80% of people on the trait would be written in the same fashion, least. >> let's here a couple of examples. let's start with a male one. >> hello. >> what was that like? >> to me, if you came from the scotland glasgow area, it sounds why? >> it's to do with the way he says the words, and the way his vase works. what we found in the study is the younger the voice is, that sounded more untrusts worthy. >> let's listen to another one. >> hello. happy. >> that was trustworthy.
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>> yes, to our lispers. that was a trufth worthy voice. it's more open, higher pitched. >> let's see what the audience watching thinks about this one. >> hello. trustworthy. >> yes, that's a female trustworthy voice, if you played a female untrustworthy voice you should spot a difference. >> let's play it. hello. that was untrustworthy. it seems the trustworthy woman sounded like the male. >> exactly. maybe that's the glasgow thing. we found the trust worthiness symbolized that you would be perceived as the dropping of the intonation.
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the way that female spoke is she dropped the intonation a the end. you have the voice rising at the end. uptalking: it sunday like you ask a question. >> uptalkers are not perceived as like age or truss worthy those that end sentences on an note. >> less trustworthy, less trustworthy than a person on a downwart in tonnation. >> how much is pitch? >> in female voices we don't see much of an effect on pitch. in male voices it is a key from our study for trustiness. the higher the pitch, the more trustworthy he perceives, it takes a voice and puts it toward the female register. >> one hello makes a difference deciding wh to approach or stay away.
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is this snintive, is it -- instinctive, something that we do, mammals, not just humans? >> there's indication from the ma'amal world that they use these changes in the speech pattern, or their noise patterns to ward off predators. we think we have maintained it in our society as well, from times when having to know whether someone is friendly or approachable. we brought it through the years and still use it. >> we could hear someone on the phone, and that may be the first impression. when we see someone in real life, there are other variables coming into play. how do we know that people are judging on voices or on other things that are coming in through the other senses? >> i think that's fascinating. we don't - we haven't tested this. there's few studies that looked at that. what is the most important signal.
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is the it voice, body or the face. what we say is at least in a situation where you are only projecting your voice over a phone call or announcement, you want to be aware of what your voice is signalling. >> it's not just trust wordy inches, you look at other traits - dominance and other things. what can someone do to be perceived as level as they can be perceived? >> for dominance it's hard. it's kind of - the two main traits we found to be important are trustworthiness and dominance, dominance is built into the structure of your throat and voice, it's hard to manipulate that. trustworthy innocence, if you practice, if you know you have an important call, you raise your voice a little more, sound friendlier than you would be. if you are a female, trying to avoid raising the voice at the end of every sentence.
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>> you don't know whether the person who sounds trust worthy is necessarily trustworthy, we have not done a study to correlate that. >> the accuracy of these personality traits is still up for question. we would suggest you make the judgments from the first word someone says. it may be that you try to find clues that back up your question. it's the adage that you never get a second chance to make a first impression, right. >> it certainly is fascinating. thank you for joining us. the show may be over but the show continues on our website aljazeera.com/considerthis, on google+, on twitter. see you i think that al jazeera helps connect people
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in a way they haven't been connected before. it's a new approach to journalism. this is an opportunity for americans to learn something. we need to know what's going on around the world. we need to know what's going on in our back yard and i think al jazeera does just that. [ ♪ music ] city-dwelling americans look to the suburbs. we show you the intriguing report and fastest growing communities. home in indiana, the greatest spectacle of racing, a creative effort under way to boost the indy 500. an ambitious plan to put humans on mars is getting attention - that may be the key to fingerprinting the problem. i'm david shuster in for ali velshi, and this is "real money".
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