>> consider this: the news of the day plus so much more. >> we begin with the growing controversy. >> answers to the questions no one else will ask. >> real perspective, consider this on al jazeera america >> canada's parliament rocked by deadly gun violence. we will take you to ottawa for the latest. also a new report on the shooting in ferguson reveals critical details. and we'll go to sierra leone with a medical system stretched to its limits. i'm lisa fletcher in for antonio mora, welcome to "consider this" those stories and more straight ahead.

>> terror, north of the border. a canadian soldier is killed, a gunman brought down. >> michael shot and killed a soldier at the national war memorial. >> we're going to do everything we can, to make sure we're standing side by side. >> a blockbuster report. >> on michael brown's death. >> seemed to support the officer's side of the story. >> if this report holds up warren will not be indicted for michael brown's death. >> orphans only a few days old stigmatized shunned. >> university of north carolina. >> you made the dean's list despite never attending any of the classes. >> as an athlete we weren't there for education. >> not one person should be dying from an unintentional overdose of painkillers prescribed by your doctor.

>> are we a healthy people or are we creating an epidemic. >> we begin in ottawa, where a man fatally shot a soldier, then entered the parliament building, continued firing shots and was shot and killed. authorities identified the man as michael zehaf bibeau. , the candidate prime minister addressed a shocked public on tuesday night. >> canada will never be intimidated. in fact this will lead us to strengthen our resolve and our efforts and those of national security agencies to identify threats and keep canada safe here at home. >> joining us now from ottawa is john iverson, a political columnist for the washington

post. he filed a story describing what he witnessed. john thanks for being here. in your piece you describe a chaotic scene in the minutes following the shooting of the soldier. you described a chaotic scene, tell whaws you heard? >> i was giving a speech five minutes away, and i had a friend whose office overlooked the war memorial. he described what he saw, i hotfooted it, four or five minutes after the shooting at about 9:52 in the morning. when i got there there was four people crouched around the figure who had clearly been shot, they weren't official, one of them turned out to be a nurse. a dutch tourist said he had seen a young guy dressed in black carrying a large rifle fire four shots and then head off towards parliament hill. subsequently spoke to a

gentleman who said he saw the suspects pull up in a car, he said suspects, two people, one climbing out and heading south towards town another one heading towards parliament hill. another guy on parliament hill said he saw the suspect on parliament hill councilma commaa car. >> a man who didn't want to be identified witnessed the shooting of the soldier and what did he tell you about the incident itself? >> well, he said that the soldier paifl ha became of had . he's carrying an unloaded firearm, a ceremonial guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. he fired a shot, two or so other

shots, his face was covered in a scarf. he pulled the scarf down and showded something witshouted soe in his hand. we can speculate what he said when he shouted. >> told you to move away from the car that the suspects were driving because he september it might have been booby trapped. what were you thinking, how did it feel, very surreal? >> it was completely surreal. because we got there, i got there and a few of my colleagues, all of the media are based very close to the war memorial, obviously way closer to the war memorial than paramedics and the police force who showed up earlier. we were there first, milling around, completely oblivious that there could have been another shooter or the car could have been booby trapped which was entirely possible. we got advice and as more and more cops showed up the cordon

extended further and further from parliament hill and the streets were cleared and we were all under lock down. >> speaking of concerns whether there was more than one assailant, law enforcement kept parliament under lock down, only lifted a couple of hours ago. there may have been one or more people involved what are your feelings do you think this may have been a coordinated attack or are they thinking at this point a lone wolf scenario? >> i think it's very hard to tell right now. i think they wouldn't have given the all clear if they thought there was still somebody out there. i mean there will be security cameras all over the downtown of ottawa that will give a far better indication what happened than perhaps eyewitnesses who i think it's been shown are pretty unreliable on more than one occasion. so they must have good grounds for saying there's an all clear. but at the time it was pretty chaotic and there were reports that a nearby shopping mall

there had been a shooting, in fact the cops even confirmed there had been a shooting in the shopping mall. it was very unclear, i think canada lost its innocence, 150 years old, had never suffered a terrorist attack but nobody thought this sleepy town would be attacked by terrorists. >> it comes two days after another canadian soldier was killed in a hit and run, that has since been called an act of terrorism, committed by a person who was on the morris of terrorists, security raised to a level of medium. is there a sense that maybe the thoshts should have been more prepared, since they'd had their eyes on this guy? >> well, i think they probably should have been more prepared in parliament hill as far as

somebody getting into the building, i think that's regrettable and could have been avoided. but the situation on monday was being monitored very closely by rcmp, but he hadn't done anything wrong, they knew he held opinions that were noxious, looking at his facebook site, but unless there were grounds for arrest there was very little grounds to intervene on. this individual too, both were native born canadians, both quebecers, the government has told us there are 90 people who fall into their category, it is a bit of a conundrum, do you arrest these people on the suspicion that they might do something or suspicion that a judge will grant you some form of arrest document. >> you know on monday, ray boysbert, a former canadian

counterterrorism chief spoke, and said, "i think the problem now is there are too many target sets" and he went on to say the caint officials, stopping them from doing anything is especially challenging when extremists act alone using special weapons. here in the u.s. we had someone jump the fence at the white house tonight. do you get the sense john that while security forces are -- >> i think that's huge. there have been coordinated attacks, that are linked to back to al qaeda or to i.s.i.l. there were people who tried attack a via rail train. they were intercepted. there were group of 18 young people known as the toronto 18 who planned to do something very similar to today, they were going to charge parliament hill and cut off the prime minister's

head in the house of commons. these planned affairs were intercepted, it requires coordination and communication. unlike today, if it was a lone wolf assailant, very hard to intercept that, there is no communication for anyone else. >> john, thank you for your time. turning now to ferguson, missouri where protestors are reacting to more leaks in the fatal shooting of michael brown. obtained by the toronto dispatch, says the 18-year-old was behaving belligerently during a scuffle with darren wilson, and wills fired his weapo --and wilson fired his gug the struggle. brown was hit in the hand and ran but then charged back at the officer and wilson says he then fired again. for more, we're joined from st.

louis missouri anthony french and, with us in studio, good to have you with us. >> thanks for having me. >> antonio i want to start with you, this is the official autopsy report, the medical examiner provided it, it describes in most detail, the wilson account that brown kept charging at him. we're going to get to the many leaks, but what is your reaction to this because it's not consistent with what other witnesses have said in terms of him having his hands up. >> well, it is one of three autopsies, so we are still waiting on the fbi autopsy report. the danger with these things being leaked the way they have these aren't really layman documents. so it's not really something that could be easily interpreted by the public.

even experts will disagree on exactly what they say and what it means happened. you know, it has been reported that this is consistent with the officer's story. i do believe, though, that it contradicts at least a half dozen witnesses. so we don't know really what happened. so the reason that we've been really asking for an indictment is to get to a trial. so that we can get all the evidence out and people can see all evidence that can be cross examined, can be done in public and we can find out what happened and justice can be served. >> eugene, antonio mentioned the multiple autopsies so there's a third one that still has to come out. the first one was down by the brown family's private m.e. conflicts with the results of this. the police in ferguson says we're not going to believe any other than the official autopsy. what is your reaction?

>> they are often left in new te dark. we had a very controversial shooting in new york, and detailed report that detailed exactly why they decided not to indict a police officer. i don't know if that applies to missouri, but the people in the best position, who know the law, are the prosecutors and they should step up. they should explain their decision assuming there is no indictment, and that really seek to shield themselves with the grand jury. >> antonio, will protesters trust any autopsy report if it doesn't point to an indictment for wilson and if it doesn't point to an indictment, the place is a powder keg. what kind of explosion are we looking at if he's not dieted?

>> specifically with an autopsy report, an autopsy report is a scientific document, this is not something people can interpret on twitter very well. these things are usually used in courtrooms. you have experts from both sides interpreting them. sometimes these well trained experts will disagree on the same document. it is dangerous i think especially considering the mood here in st. louis for these leaks to be coming out. these piecemeal documents coming out. the only solution for the short term and long term situation here in st. louis is going to be a trial. that way all the information, not a little bit here little bit there but all the information comes out and both sides get an opportunity to interpret it. >> what is your thought on this? >> i think it's impossible or the predict what's going to happen but in this power from coast -- but in this nation

coast to coast, police have very broad power. if we want to change that there are issues that we need to look at which is really the overcriminalization, overuse, too large a footprint for police, the police have too much to do, too much enforcement. we try the ignore this, we continue to legislate, and we're shocked when there's bad endings. lawmakers should say this. the police have broad authority and the only way you can really convict an on duty police officer is if you can put beyond doubt that the officer is not justified. whether there are doubts, in a police case or even in a civilian case, those doubts are decided in favor of the person requiring the most. >> probably quite frankly in the grand jury in this case in the ferguson case i asked you a

minute ago, i'm not sure that you directly answered it but i think a lot of americans having observed what's gonl on in ferguson -- gone on in ferguson, they're concerned about violence and riots if the officer is not indicted. what is your concern? >> i'm concerned too, we have people on edge, the entire community is really fatigued, this has gone on into our third month now and people are still very angry and they want to see justice done as they see it. and so i think we have a responsibility to both make sure the process is fair in this particular case, in this specific case of michael brown, but also, to try restore people's faith in the system somehow. i think outside of the michael brown case you have so many cases in a row of young black men being killed, that you have a large segment of society now that really feels that the justice system does not value

their life and they cannot get justice in it. and that's what we have to deal with right now. that's what's dangerous for our whole country. >> antonio, you tweeted about this case, that attorney general eric holder should be investigating into police jurors, antonio there was some sense that there was intentionality about these elaboration, to get people mentally prepared for there not to be an indictment. what is your sense who is leaking and who should be held accountable. >> the grand jury celebrateas a good idea, i don't think it's a good idea at all, it's not an adversarially system, they get a one sided presentation. there are people that have the skill set, prosecutors, investigators, who could work in the public realm, could give us as much information as possible. that would help to restore trust. people wouldn't necessarily agree with the judgment but

there shouldn't be any doubt about why judgments are made. and again when you combine the broad legal attitude the police have with the possibility when an officer's telling a story about his life being in danger that just happens to be a very difficult set of circumstances. and i should say that nobody, nobody in this 61 should be prosecuted or indicted because we take a poll because more people want the person prosecuted. no matter who the parties are we have to be a system of law and a presumption of innocence and even if people are saying 80-20 that we want to see somebody indicted nobody should be indicted on those grounds ever. >> antonio, governor jay nixon says he is creating this commission studying social and economic conditions, highlighting thhighlighting thef michael brown, it is going to take the 15 member panel six to 12 months to come up with conclusions, which is great but what's going on in terms of what law enforcement is doing, what

government at the state and local level in ferguson to deal with what inevitably is going to happen when this grand jury decision comes out regardless what the grand jury decides? >> i think that's a good step, what the governor announced, we have short term and long term problems and there are lots of things that need to be done to address both. i think the governor's commission is one of those things that will be along with other things that deal with the long term problem. it is not dealing specifically with the michael brown case but the long term issues that have come to light because of the case here in st. louis. there are a lot of different organizations, nonprofit organizations religious organizations, the protesters themselves who are having conversations about how to keep the peace. whatever happens with this grand jury, i want to go back to what eugene said. i do agree that it should never

have gone to a grand jury. we might disagree with what we think the outcome should be, if the prosecutor handled it himself but what we set up is the absolute worse possible scenario, this could have been decided behind closed doors in a tremendous nontransparent way, that would make the situation much, much of much, much worse in st. louis. >> thank you for joining us, now for more stories from around the world. we begin in washington, d.c, where a jury reached guilty verdicts against four former employees of blackwater, military employees in 1997. the guards were accused of going in a shooting spree in nisar square in baghdad. the defense argued the guards had reason to believe they were under attack, and acted in self

defense. the three's lawyers intend to appeal the verdicts. after attempting to join islam ick militants, two of the girls are of somali origin and a third from sudan. girls had taken their passports and $2,000 are from their homes. the two were stopped at frankfurt germany and asked to return home. as all three are minors, none is expected to be charged. shadow of inflated grades with little or no work. improper benefits within the football team has ballooned to include some 3100 students

nearly half of them athletes that took classes that handed out easy grades, according to a report wednesday. disciplinary procedures against nine employees in the wake of the report. that's some of what's happening around the world. coming up the fda, under fire, why would it okay a painkiller ten times more potent than vicodin. and overseas, unicef's chief of staff joins us from sierra leone. our social media producer, hermela aregawi is tracking what's up on the web. >> one liberian woman is using social media to show that ebola shouldn't define africas around the world. let us know what you think.

>> the centers for disease control imposed new restrictions for travelers coming from west africa, the area where the ebola virus has killed 4500 people. starting monday, travelers from sierra leone, guinea and liberia. will have to self-monitor. nor more on the ebola epidemic in west africa and especially its impact on children i'm joined by dr. mickey chopra. before joining unicef, the doctor directed research. thank you for being here. in sierra leone where you are, more than 20 deaths a day are

being report ed in the western part of the country alone. are the quarantines having any impact on stopping the disease from spreading? >> it's difficult to tell. it has spread. i.t. started in the east of the country -- it started in the east of the country and as you're reporting, it's heading to the west of the country. free town, about a third of the country's people living in freetown. quarantine is very difficult to enforce in the country such as sierra leone where there is a lot of movement of people. so it's challenging. >> doctor, it is somewhat indelicate but we've just seen some images of corpses being removed. how are officials doing on keeping up with the corpse collection and how critical is it that that is done in a timely

manner? >> it's probably one of the most important things that needs tono be done. we estimate more than half of the infections are due to burial practices. traditional practices in this part of the world. and so safely removing a corpse and educating people about how not to touch and how to safely deal with a dead body is one of the most critical interventions that needs to be happening. it's a challenge because as you said the number of deaths is increasing and therefore we're having to really scale up and support the government in having safe burial teams. they themselves have to have the full protective equipment. we have to have the body bags. there are many things that go into the burial process now which are very different from what is happening before. so you can imagine the shift, the cultural shifts, the investment required now, to make this happen straight away. we can't afford any more time to be lost.

>> doctor, we have seen different numbers anywhere from 3700 to 5,000 kids have been orphaned by ebola. do doctors know how many have been orphaned by ebola so far? >> it's difficult, because it's spreading so quickly, we are struggling to keep up with the laboratories and testing, it's difficult to know, how many are caused by ebola or other diseases such as mal malaria ano forth. we are seeing more and more fans and we are recognizing this is a real problem and a real challenge as we get hundreds if not thousands of fans across the country. >> when parents die of ebola, their homes are burnt, their possessions are burnt to get rid of infection. other family members take in

kids but that isn't happening because of family members afraid of contracting the disease. what is happening? >> that is part of the challenge, the stigma. we're working very hard with community leaders, with religious leaders, with key people in the community to change that perception to celebrate survivors and to strengthen the resilience of the the communities. another part of i.t. is the high levels of poverty that was already here. and therefore it's difficult for families sometimes to also absorb new children and new dependents. and so part of our response is also about giving direct support, both psychosocial but also financial and food to families, extended families to absorb these children. so we're trying as much as we possibly can to keep the children in the communities to assist with families and communities, to accept these children and to get over that stigma which has, as you put, is

a very important part of why and the challenge of why we cannot care for these children as well as we would like. >> and all that work that unicef of course is doing takes money. i know the organization has asked for $200 million. how is the funding coming in and what are you doing with it? >> so we have got the appeal and it's very important that we have these resources. we are working across all three countries and here in sierra leone, just today, yesterday, i wept to visit a few sites -- i went to vista a few sites where we've been providing some of the tents and the equipment for treatment centers. we provide up to half of all the supplies for ebola treatment centers and the ebola response in sierra leone. as unicef. and we are also working particularly with vulnerable children, whether it's in liberia, employing social workers and psychosocial workers for children and orphans or

whether it's in sierra leone where i am now. and working with the social services here, to as we said strengthen families and strengthen networks. so the appeal is very important so that we can really move much more quickly and accelerate our response and support governments and other civil society organizations to get these networks in place as quickly as we can. >> okay, dr. mickey chopra coming to us from sierra leone, thank you so much for your time. the doctor touched on stigma that the children face. but the stigma goes beyond. hermella. >> u.s. residents from the hardest hit sierra leone, colorado high school cancelled a planned visit by 18 african students, none of whom were from countries affected by ebola. in new jersey students from rwanda can't attend school for

21 days even though they don't exhibit any symptoms. liberian photographer said her daughter was teased about having ebola in school. after talking to other african american women, solomon decided to do something about it. she started a social media campaign, with a slogan that was, "i am a liberian, not a virus. it is to stereo type and stigmatize an entire people. i am a liberian, not a virus. >> that video has gone viral and other liberians and nonliberians have joined solomon's cause. let us know what you think about the situation, @ajconsiderthis. the fear is are spreading faster

than the disease. >> thank you, hermella. overdoses from opioid painkillers, the most controversial of it is zohydro. there are many questions over why the food and drug administration approved it over the objection of 28 attorneys general, members of congress and the fda's own advisory committee which rejected the drug by a vote of 11-2. >> i was quite surprised. you invite us in and then you tell us, forget it. >> i voted no. >> i voted no. >> i voted no. >> are we really in the long run helping people or are we creating an epidemic? >> for more we are joined from san francisco by fault lines correspondent intafn sebastian ,

opioid wars debuts sat at 7:00. good to have you sebastian. >> good to be with you. >> critics call it heroin in a capsule but the fda told you it was approved because the benefits outweigh the risks. what did you discover about the drug, the ease with which it's used and its benefits? >> the fda actually didn't even tell us anything in person because they refused our requests for an interview. and their decision to approve zohydro, could lead to the increases in overdose related deaths and addiction rates. this is already a massive problem in the united states. as you said more than 17,000 americans dying every year from opioid overdoses.

the prescriptions have quadrupled in the last 15 years. the fda putting a more potent drug onto the market was something a lot of people were asking what the motivations were. that was the starting point for our documentary. we looked into the role of the fda, who is actually in the position of being the gate keeper for these kinds of drugs. that is agency that is supposed to play that role but their decision to approve zohydro, they said in response to an e-mail response to our questions was basically made the greater good of the pain patients. so the group of the people who were the targeted consumers of this drug. they didn't want to unfairly penalize pain patients but critics would say that's at the cost of the greater public health impact which is going to be considerably impacted by a new drug like zohydro, coming on to the market.

there is a lot to impact. >> you mentioned ox oxycontin ad other drugs. quite an unsavory history for this class of drugs. why do you believe fda approved zohydro, despite objection he and asking them to reconsider? >> the surge in heroin use is something a lot of people are talking about. it's estimated four out of five heroin users in the united states actually started by using painkiller opioid drugs. these are all derived from opium. it is a quick transition. we've spoken in our film with these addicts who have transitioned from taking these pills to shooting heroin. he started on these drugs when he was just a teenager by taking

these pills. so it does seem to be something that is creating or factoring into the surge of heroin use. when you bring that back to the fda and you ask, well then why would you see putting another drug onto the market as the right step to take, i think the argument is that there is a perception that the people who abuse these drugs are people who are predisposed to taking narcotics. that is a big misconception. people who are prone to this epidemic are from all walks of life. we met a young lady in kennebunkport in the state of maine whose husband passed away from an overdose. she was a professional, the husband had never been addicted to any kind of substances and it's really happening across the board. i think that's a question that the fda has to really bear in mind when they're making these decisions. a lot of the critics from the decision were saying how can you

go against the recommendations of your own advisory panel who say, putting another drug onto the market is going to have a huge consequence for public health. the answers we got to that were that we have a very small remit, you know we have to consider whether the drug is going to benefit this particular group of people, those who suffer from chronic pain and the fda's argument was that they needed a new drug that would actually help that particular group of people and they can't be the agency which factors in the wider public health impact. so then the question is who is. >> and you are hopefully going to answer that or at least try to answer that in your upcoming documentary. sebastian walker, thank you for joining us, opioid wars debut sat night at 7:30. we will look into the hidden agenda of the political mind and whether we always vote in our own self-interest.

also, the remarkable story of an honor student returned to a life of crime. how his drug habit affected his family friends and victims. the national weather service, just how accurate is your local weather person?

>> as we continue our count down to mid term elections, we ask is self interest the only motive that counts when people make decisions in politics, gop candidate mitt romney, when he lost in 2012, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote. but according to my next guest, romney was actually onto something, even if he left out the benefits he hoped to offer

his base. i'm joined by jason weeden. the author of the hidden objective of the human mind. is self interest the dominant motive, jason? >> it's not the only motive, we looked at same sex marriage and abortion and income driks. distribution. we found out that self interest is much higher. >> aren't they voting against their own self interest? >> well, sure, there's a lot of noise in the system. any social science there are lots of exceptions. when the planet is warming you don't say, well, it was cold in d.c. last year.

when we look at the data on tax and spend issues, it's wealthier people with tax and spend efforts, don't see any need for deposits to step in. whereas poorer people, are more in favor of tax and spend issues. >> is it money is it position is it something else? >> we have a pretty broad definition of self interest in our work. political sciences have often said it is short term economic self interest. we look at longer term interests, we also look at interests with social status, fights over discrimination and meritocracy, we think there are interests there, we look at lifestyle fights, fights over abortion and premarital sex, we feel there are lifestyle interests driving people's awareness on those issues. >> let's look at self interest. do you think people generally

know where their self interests lie? especially on cultural issues to vote against their best self interests, you even quote an nyu professor that says self interest is a weak predictor, doesn't he have a point? >> well no, they usually have a list of claims to back that up. and we marched through that list of claims and said most of them are false. one of the chestnuts of that literature, we just went to a large database and did a fact-check on that and unemployed people are twice as likely to favor unemployment benefits and people who are working full time. what's the matter kansas, what is going against working class whites, why are they voting against their economic self interests, it is certainly not true among white voters, if you

look at whites in the top 20% of the income bract for america, for every 10 democratic voters there are about 16 republicans but if you go down to the bottom 20%, there's only about eight republicans. but really, the point we emphasize is, these interests aren't just limited to economic interests, they also relate to these other kinds of issues, discrimination ant meritocracy and lifestyles. as to whether people are aware of their interests, you know you can get to a level of policy detail, where clearly i don't understand, you know, if we're arguing about single payor health care versus the affordable care act, with a public action versus the affordable care act without a public option, there are very few that understand the public interest but the kinds of interests we're very high public level. do you think it's a good idea to be taxing the wealthy to distribute those programs for programs for poor, i think

people can understand their own private interests, and discrimination, i think people know when they're the targets of discrimination and know it's against their self interest. >> in terms of a divided and polarized politics? >> we emphasize there are a lot of things at stake in these political fights. if you are talking about abortion there is something real and tangible, at stake. when you are talking about same sex marriage there's something real and at stake, the ability of people to come to solutions when they're both happy when their lives are really being affected by these issues. >> the book is the hidden agenda of the political mind, jason weeden thank you for your time. >> my pleasure. coming up does prison actually offer redemption? the honor student who tried to turn his life around after he

was convicted of armed robbery. but first, how accurate is your weather person? our data dive is next. >> since 9/11 the us has spent has spent billions of dollars on domestic counter-terrorism operations. >> i wanted to be in on the big game and to be paid top-dollar for it. that's it. >> many of these involved targeted informant led stings. >> to them, everyone in the muslim community is a potential informant or a potential terrorist.

>> start with one issue education... gun control... the gap between rich and poor... job creation... climate change... tax policy... the economy... iran... healthcare... ad guests on all sides of the debate. >> this is a right we should all have... >> it's just the way it is... >> there's something seriously wrong... >> there's been acrimony... >> the conservative ideal... >> it's an urgent need... and a host willing to ask the tough questions >> how do you explain it to yourself? and you'll get... the inside story

ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5 eastern only on al jazeera america >> today's data dieive get diveo forecasting. severe weather risks like tornadoes, hail storms, marginal and enhanced to those already in use, slight, moderate and high. so if they're fixing the model just how accurate have meteorologists been up until now, the new york times looked at three day forecasts, and it found from 1972 to 2012, the national weather service went off from 6° to just three. the chance of being killed in lightning in 1940 was said to be

1 in 400,000. by 2012, that plummeted to 1 in a million, actually one in four million. and wet bias, the weather service said it would be, being a 5% would be inflated to a 20%, why? apparently viewers are not that upset when rain is predicted and they have a nice day, but they're furious if they get soaked without an umbrella. more than 20 years, meteorologists have been right more than half the the time to over 75%. the national atmospheric association, every minute saves lives, of course you could rely on the farmers almanac, that claims 80% accuracy. bill murray, said, fool me 375

times, you are a weather man. got to love bill murray. evolution of a criminal. how an honor student fell into a life of crime and fell into out. >> profiting from ebola, how some companies are making money off the deadly disease. and from sopranos star to art collector. how frederico carlucci fell onto a masterpiece. after this.

>> does prison actually offer a shot at redemption? our next guest was an honor student, before he turned to a life of crime. he made prison, into nyu film school and spike lee has signed on as executive producer take a look. >> i thought that this was possible. >> i saw that box and that's

when i went crazy. >> it's not going to go well. >> if something goes wrong, something goes wrong really fast. >> nobody knew something yet everybody new something. >> he had robbed this bank. >> i said have you seen my cousin? have you seen my cousin? you ain't got to worry about him, he's going to be gong a long time. >> did you know i went to prison? >> no, no. >> evolution of a criminal is open in select cities and will be going nationwide over the next few weeks. darius clark monroe is the subject of the film, darius, thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> let's start with your story. good kid in honors classes with a solid family but they dealt with massive debt, you helped out with petty theft and then you robbed a bank. a lot of parents fall on hard times but don't fall into priz

upon. >> i saw my family working and working and everybody was just trying to pay the bills and just to increase our quality of life. but we just couldn't get out of that rut. and i just felt like as a son as the oldest i needed to help out. my part time job it didn't seem like i was going to do enough to help. after watching an episode of america's most wanted, i saw a piece on a robbery and got an idea, to do a robbery myself. >> when you gave your mother the money, $140,000, she was conflicted. >> it was my extended family, we were hurting in our household, i had an aunt who was in foreclosure, behind in light bill water bill it impacted everybody. >> how did your family deal with what you had done? how did that he react when you came home with that sack full of

cash? >> initially everyone was shocked. my immediate family and a lot of my extended family members they had no idea that we did the robbery so they were just excited that we had this money that they thought came from you know winning at a casino to help out but once people understood the ramifications of the choice i made people were terrified because they were worried about my freedom, they were worried about what was going to happen to me. they didn't know. >> i want to talk about those ramifications, that is a big part of the film. you turned your camera on yourself, you asked people who you held up at the bank for forgiveness, what percentage forgave you and what was that experience like? >> it was an incredible experience, unfortunately we weren't able to find all of those in the bank but only one person chose not to forgive me. it was healing. it wasn't just me who had this weight on my chest and wanted to have this experience and talk about the events. the people who were in the bank

wanted to share their story. it was illuminating for me because i never really understood how heavy the situation was and how much emotional and psychological trauma the people had to go through so it was a healing experience to have that exchange. >> obviously a traumatic situation. but what you sought out to do in the film was how your actions affected people. what did you find out when you put the camera on them? >> we needed to talk about it and sitting down and having this conversation was thei therapeutr all of us. there were so many parts of the robbery that i wasn't able to understand as a child and hearing my mother talk about having to sit alone in silence and having to wonder about my safety in prison while she was at work just hearing about her day-to-day life while i was in jail incarcerated, that was

tough for me. i felt it was all a -- a true healing experience. i feel we were all able to get through a very tough situation in a very positive way by sitting down and talking about the subject. >> darius, your film raises whether it's possible to redeem yourself behind bars. the system tracked and more than half found they were rearrested within the first year, two thirs two-thirds were rearrested, and within five years three quarters were. how hard is it to stay away from trouble and where does redemption enter in? >> it's not rare, people who came from good families who came from situations that were dire and had made just a really, really bad choice. in terms of just getting out and the recidivism rate, i had the support of my family, my community and nyu and that

support allowed me to do something with my life, to move forward and close this chapter through compassion and through forgiveness. >> are you hoping this film is an antedote to kids? >> absolutely, it's a warning call to adults. we need compassion. you need a society that's going to welcome individuals back into the community, who's going to allow people to get employed vote, and for kids who are a member of the society. >> evolution of a criminal will be going nationwide over the next few weeks. that is all for now but coming up thursday on "consider this" as america to fight off ebola we see how likely it is for small pax to make come back. james moore, i'm quoting here,

one lucky bastard. we're on facebook and twitter @ajconsiderthis and you can tweet me at lisa lisa flech. we'll see you next time. >> hi, everyone. this is "al jazeera america." i am john siegenthaler. the ottawa attack. what we are learning about the suspect, the victim, and the investigation. revelers or thugs? racial bias allegation with two clashes with police. the river rungs dry. california's severe drought choking one of the most productiving a cule agricultura in the world. the soprano