>> hello everybody this is al jazeera america. live from new york state i'm david schuster. gist ahead: fire ball. in china it was a huge explosion in the city, hundreds are injured and the death toll is rising. we have a reporter on the scene. poll position in the democratic nomination race, bernie sanders is the man with the momentum, polls show him beating hillary clinton in an early primary state. we'll take you inside the

sanders search. plus ten years after katrina. new orleans is a changed city, schools are dramatically different. and standing up. our conversation with ba barry cremens. the focus of a new film. >> we begin this hours in northeast china where there have been a series of horrific and deadly explosions captured on television. in the city of tinejen, a blast in a warehouse that was home to dangerous and volatile chemicals. at least 32 are listed in critical condition and up to 30 other have been injured. explosion shattered windows and knocked off doors from several areas in the city.

first blast happened late wednesday night a warehouse shipping container. adrian brown reports from nearby beijing. >> this was a major incident and it is continuing. according to local authorities, the force of the first blast quamed morequaled more than 310f tnt and the second more than 20 tons of tnt. some residents said they felt it was like an earthquake. as many as 300 have been taken to hospital. there have been a number of tests. now the authorities stress that they believe this was simply an industrial accident. nothing more serious than that. but we have to put this into context. industrial accidents like this sadly are all too common in china. for instance in channing tse province on wednesday at least 40 are reported missing after a

mining accident and in guaju province more deaths after an industrial accident. an seclusion accident is imposed around the area. you can't get near where the blast happened. but the air around tiengen is now badly contaminated and that is a very sinister development. >> adrian brown reporting from china. epa accident caused by epa inspectors, which spilled millions of gallons of contaminated water. some of the water still looks unusual thanks to the yellow color thanks to the contamination. mccarthy stressed the spill and its aftermath will be the

subject of investigation. >> we are also looking proactivity at the investigation of the incident itself. we are doing an interna internaa investigation and also going to seek independent review and investigation of what happened. >> authorities say 3 million gallons of waste water spilled into the animus river. the company involved in the spill was missouri based environmental restorations llc. ground zero of the toxic spill the gold king mine and allen joins us live from durango. allen. >> david, the pictures and video from five or six days ago, the amazing pictures of the mustard

colored plume coming down the stream into the river. we finally found our way up into the san juan mountains north of durango. the blowout is near silverton, colorado, a town built by mining. hundreds of old abandoned shafts are cut into the hillsides. we passed them as we drove the dirt roads further into the country. there is no public access to the site itself. we take a rocky one lane detour into the road closure. slow going, steep going, and where the road ends, is where all the trouble started. so finally we get a chance to see ground zero. this is entrance to the gold king mine that blew out last wednesday. it was a mine entrance dammed by

a landslide, crews were trying to figure out how much water had built up behind it. the ugly answer, at least 3 million gallons that burst out of the mountain and spread into the animus rivers. directly below the blowout hole and the corner of the mountain below two other mine entrances. gina mccarthy visited nearby durango earlier. >> the status of the cleanup and the status of the monitoring of the plume, i am excited that they are fully operational and they have been fully operational and we are working this issue very hard. >> reporter: we came to the accident site with a member of the local incident management team and several congressional staffers getting their first look. also with us steve ferron an engineer with 40 years in mining, who thinks what happened

here shouldn't signal an end to mining in these mountains. >> given what happened what are the opportunities for miners? >> they're good. you know we can comply with those rules. and even in today's market. metal pric prices it can work. >> we can see mining growing in the silverton area? >> some of us in mining can start that again. >> reporter: but any chance that mining could disappear in this area as designated superfund cleanup site something peek downstream would like to see. -- people downstream would like to see. but it's a contentious issue and has been for dates where the superfund label could not only slow development but the tourist trade, silverton's true gold mine. >> this is where the flow initially came down. >> our guide anthony represents the city and san juan county as a spokeman on the incident

management team. >> those funds from the national priority list may come quickly or may take decades and the stigma of superfund site if it's on the community without true cleanup it can be really devastating to the people who live here. >> this infamous hole in the ground isn't gushing sludge anymore but gold king and other mines still leak contaminated water at hundreds of gallons a month. superfund or no superfund will be a much smaller battle stretching into the future. >> so many questions for the future. anthony edwards is also a judge in san juan county, the only judge in san juan county and he says he expects to be dealing with the results of this spill and the condition of those mines and the constant leakage for the rest of his life if he stays in silverton. david.

>> allen fisher, thank you. toxic plume now makes its way to arizona and utah, heading for a main tourist destination on the border, however, lake powell is now bracing for another blow. jake ward is at the lake. jake. >> david, lake powell is what is expected to be a catching basin downstream of this disaster in colorado. people have a misperception that a red light goes on, past this level it's dangerous to go in the water. it's not how it works. it is the long term effects that have scientists concerned. lay powell is a fisherman's paradise. the capital of striped bass fishing and of drinking water. that's why officials are trying

to sort out the downstream effects of this spill. >> we need to check out the spill and take baseline data, water samples, sediment samples, and fish samples. fish eat plankton. fish eat shad, and every time they do that they build up eligibility of the heavy metal. and it builds up. >> lake powell is 200 miles from the gold king mine. with tens of thousands of mines a potential source of spills into the river, a source that provides drinking water to the western united states, lake powell is not safe in the long run. the people are not worried about instantaneousl instantanee

effects. the rivers that flow into lake powell. >> this flows down the river, it will stay there in the sediment and get locked up in there. as the lake goes up and down, the lake can release those things, we need some long term modeling and perhaps monitoring to understand what are the full implications of this over time. >> what are the effects a generation, two generations from now? >> the metals and things that are so high in there they each have individual effects on humans and on other organisms. we are concerned for native fish and their eggs being exposed to this and things like that, these metals are bad news and we don't want anybody or anything getting in contact with them. >> reporter: this event doesn't seem to pose an immediate threat to human health

200 miles downstream but it's the cumulative effects that scientists worry about. over time, events like this will endanger a fragile eke he system and the millions of people who depend on it. david the thing to understand is that it's going to take at least six months from the state officials department of fish and wildlife in utah, to measure. there is no way to immediately test. if fishing is outlawed at lake powell, striped bass, the dominant specious would thrul slul take iabsolutely take it o. we by hook or crook keep things alive by structure and if it's disturbed in any way especially

over time, if something like this buildles builds up, will be disastrous for the western united states. >> jimmy carter, 39th president of the united states, has revealed he has cancer. carter who is 90 years old will undergo treatment at emory medical center. he lost his father and three siblings to pancreatic cancer. for the first time in this election cycle it shows hillary clinton is losing a crucial primary state to bernie sanders. the poll comes from new hampshire where the same organization found, earlier this year, clinton with a double digit leads. to her left, sanders is

generating a flurry of interest. >> as vermont senator bernie sanders was drawing massive crowds monday in los angeles and over the weekend in seattle and portland, oregon, a new poll was being conducted in the crucial first primary state of new hampshire. the results suggests sanders has just overtaken democratic front runner hillary clinton under likely primary voters. 44% to 37. six months ago when clinton began her campaign, the same poll showed her leading sanders, 44 to 8. the surge among democrats has been growing for months, fueled by his fight against wealth. >> you can't have it all.

>> we caught up with the senator in washington, d.c. >> the beginning stages of revelation, we have a long way to go. >> reporter: whether it's a revolution remains an open question but sanders is clearly gaining steam. in recent weeks his campaign says tens of thousands of people have signed up as volunteers. campaign donation is are way up and then there are the crowds. the portland, oregon rally drew more than 28,000 people, the biggettes campaign event for any candidate this year. >> and that is what this campaign is about. is bringing people together. >> many people say they are united behind the calls for economic justice and the end to big money influence over politics. others say they are simply intrigued by the h self-describd democratic socialist who is outside the washington establishment.

firmly inside the establishment is hillary clinton. >> thank you so much, wow! >> she continues to face questions about her reliance on a personal e-mail account and private server she used while she was secretary of state. tuesday her campaign announced she would hand over her personal server from the fbi. it is a dramatic departure from the position she held for months. >> the server contains personal communications from my husband and me. i believe i have met all my responsibilities and the server will remain private. >> reporter: the controversy may be hurting clinton politically. when cbs news recently asked democrats inflation wide if hillary clinton was honest annaland

trustworthy. fewer said yes. now in new hampshire it's hillary clinton who is feeling the burn. >> when we stand united we can create a new america! >> crs calldieri joins us from manchester new hampshire. hillary clinton, won the 2008 democratic primary beating barack obama. what has happened to hillary clinton, have the controversies taken their toll or is there intrigue with are bernie sanders explaining things? >> i think it's mainly bernie sanders. the phenomenon is mainly more than bernie sanders. he has been taking advantage of the ground swell of support we saw for elizabeth warren, when we had a draft warren effort.

someone who is going to be an unabashed proifununabashed prog. >> with the massive crowds he's getting. >> i think there may be an element of that at work here. i think a lot of democrats were uncomfortable with the idea of hillary clinton essentially being unopposed for the nomination. and so when sanders announced his campaign and started doing the sort of full throated economic message that a lot of democrats have been waiting to hear, they found that extraordinarily appealing. i think a lot of people are supporting bernie sanders in part because they don't think his support for him will hurt hillary clinton should she wind up to be the nominee. >> all the crowds he's drawn around the country obviously he needs organization to win.

what do you see on the ground there? >> well, i think you're seeing a lot of younger folks who are intrigued by his message. a lot ever students of mine said they were depressed and disspirited at the prospect of another clinton election. they got through the obam obama-mccain and ibm-clinton -- sanders himself -- >> go ahead. >> sanders has been to new hampshire more than clinton has at least this year so in terms of putting in the shoe leather time he has got something of an advantage as well. >> when you win new hampshire and you see this happen in the past, your polls can go up 15 to 20%, simply because south carolina looks to new hampshire and sees a winner. is that the sense in new hampshire that they believe they

are still taking seriously the opportunity to kick the tires of the candidates up close and personal and make the difference that people are paying attention to? >> yes, new hampshire does really take the role seriously. and they see an obligation to look at these candidates up close and personal try to get to talk to them, try find out where they stand on the issues and all that sort of thing. >> is there an area where bernie sanders might be at odds? >> one of his issues coming from vermont just over the border he's talked to in his career a lot of democrats who are very similar to democrats in new hampshire. but you mentioned south carolina and i think that might be a state that could potentially trip him up if he does do better than expected here. because once you get to south carolina you have states much more diverse in electorate, lots of hispanic in nevada and so on

and those are elect rats that sanders has not really had to contended with in his previous campaigns. >> those are elect rats thrash going towards bernie sanders and away from hillary clinton. in any case, us chris thank you for joining us. >> happy to be here david. republican presidential race, a new poll in iowa suggests that two outsiders are leading the field. has donald trump leading with 22%, ben carson with 14%. others polled in certainly digits. retiring achiever of staff is speaking out on the stalemate with i.s.i.l. and the continuing conflict. ten years after katrina, the schools have been transformed, we'll report on gains and the glaring failures. failures.

>> china devalued its currency for a second straight day causing stock markets to shudder today. the free falling yuan could complicate. the u.s. decision whether to raise u.s. interest rates. biggest one day decline in the chinese currency in a decade. bashar al-assad met with the foreign minister of iran for the possibilities of ending the war. ceasefire, formation of a national unity government amending the constitutions and holding nationally supervised elections, fighting between syrian forces and rebels, battles that left dozens more dead. out going chief of staff,

general ray ornierdo, spoke of the growing conflict in iraq. more now from mike viqueria in washington. mike. >> good evening to you, david. it was the swan song for this top military official and before he was done, general ray ordirrno had some interesting thoughts. talked openly of partitioning iraq. >> it may be the only solution but i'm not ready to say that yet. >> reporter: it's an idea dismissed out of hand when proposed by senator joe biden in 2006. dividing iraq into kurdish, sunni and shia regions, the

continuing sectarian violence that required it, now discussing publicly. a four star general who served several tours in iraq from desert storm in the early '90s to 2011 when he commanded all u.s. forces there. odierno will retire as army chief of staff, a post he has held for four years. in his final press conference he says the fight against i.s.i.l, a year into the u.s. led coalition bombing campaign still has a long way to go. >> i think right now we are kind of that stalemate. the kurds continue to make progress and i think it's important we support them. i think it's that way, we are continuing to retrain iraqi forces to build up the capabilities. >> reporter: the problem says odierno, the fighting against i.s.i.l. which has 20 to 30,000.

american trained forces will begin a fight against i.s.i.l. in a few days. he raises the possibility of having u.s. forces deployed alongside iraqis not closer to combat. >> i think that's an option we should present to the president when the time is right. >> reporter: and david one subject is inescapable. whenever a public official is behind a microphone like the general was today, believe it or not he was asked about donald trump, the republican phenomenon you are covering very assiduously. to send in u.s. military to take over iraqi oil facilities, i.s.i.l. has taken that over and has generated a considerable amount of revenue a threat to the united states as it carries on its air campaign. odierno was asked did he endorse that campaign, he said he did

not, he didn't endorse that idea. >> an american couple says where is the outrage when their son who was white, was shot and killed by police. >> tracy morgan, we'll talk about what needs to be fixed. fixed.

fixed. >> hello everybody, this is al jazeera america, live from new yornewyork city. i'm david schuster. >> use of force. police in south carolina shot to death an unarmed teenager. the victim's family is now asking for a federal investigation. street fight with homelessness booming in the big apple a police union is stirring controversy by posting pictures that critics call a campaign of shame. unsafe at any speed. investigators are blaming a

truck driver's fatigue for the deadly crash that seriously injured actor tracy morgan. we'll examine the prevalence of the problem on our nation's highways. plus, tragic comic. our conversation with barry cremens. >> there are children going through absolute hell and we need to know bit and have the courage to talk about it. >> how the trail blazing comedian overcame trauma to help save other kids from abuse. there is anger and debate in south carolina tonight after the police killing of an unarmed teenager last month. 19-year-old zachary hameham19-yd was shot and killed.

>> breaking news from the doj, washington, they are actually making the announcement that they are going to do a parallel investigation in south carolina that the state is doing, trying to get the bottom of what occurred two weeks ago of the unarmed zachary hammond. we sat down with the parents of that young man, and they expressed their concerns of being fair as this investigation gets rolling. >> what we want is answers. >> the parents of 19-year-old zachary hammond say they want justice. >> you never expect a coroner to come to your door and say your son is dead, much less he was shot. >> shot and killed by a white police officer as the young man sat in his car in seneca, south carolina. the shooting happened after a

marijuana sting quickly escalated. >> he had his troubles. >> but he was growing out of that and now he is never going to be able to have the chance to be an adult. >> we'll never see him grow into the man that i think woe have became one day. >> we knew he could be. >> hammonde's attorney says, their son's case would have been treated differently, if their son had been black rather than white. >> we see the white on black cases are getting more attention but this should affect all americans. >> john covington said in a news release said that mark tiller was in firing as self defense.

his attorney said in a statement that in order to stop the continuing threat to himself and the general public two shots were fired by lieutenant tiller in quick reflection, if not for his quick reflections and his ability to push off of the car the lieutenant would have been easily run over by mr. hammond. >> the family disputes the official police autopsy report so they hired their own pathologist. his conclusion was that zachary was shot from behind and in the left showered and in the chest. when the bullet entered it went through his lungs and heart. that's what killed him. >> we want answers. if the public has anything please come forward with stuff. anything. it might just be something little but i could help. >> right now as it stands we

with really like to see the video. >> we loved our son. >> he had his flaws but none of us are perfect. and we knew every day he would, you know he would -- he was going to grow up. and now -- >> and be a great man. >> and now he won't. >> and we miss him. >> reporter: you know david the main reason the family and the hammond attorneys want the doj to be down here is they believe there is a bias in the small town of seneca, south carolina. family members said it to us at a. we'll see how this progresses as the family reels and the community tries to figure out how the young man died two weeks ago. >> robert ray thank you. a police union is urging people to take photos of homeless people and post the

pictures online. hoping to shine a spotlight on a growing program, new york city's mayor and pawns in political trouble. >> a woman holds a child. a man passed out on the steps of a building. they are among the thousands of holmless people in new york city and their faces their pictures are being posted online, by police officers. one of the unions representing the nypd, the sergeants benevolent association, calls this flickr account peekaboo. to tackle the soaring homeless population, instead of dealing with the problem politicians are spending their time attacking police officers. so the union has asked members when they're off duty to photograph the homeless. but who do these pictures shame? the people you see, or the officers who take them? this all comes a week after

mayor bill deblasio announced a program called nyc safe. the money used to house mental illness and put more police near homeless shelters. according to the coalition of homeless over the last ten years the number of people sleeping in new york city shelters rose steadily, raising to 60,000 a year. the city says the number living on the streets is about 3,000. disturbing statistics and for many people these pictures do nothing to solve the problem. joining us is william burnett. you were once homeless you areself. >> i just read about this yesterday, i was pretty livid. i got on the phone and had a few cussing sessions with people about why the sba would do that.

>> is there any infringement on the homeless rights if they are on a public street and a police officer decides all right this is how i'm going to embarrass the mayor, i'm going to take a picture of the problem, the problem is not us, but the mayor is not doing anything about it, i'm going to make a visual reminder of it. >> part of it is the mayor and part of it is the bratton, you know in the late '90s came into nypd with a policing philosophy that he got from the manhattan institute called the broken windows theory. and the idea is if there was anything in an environment that kind of degraded the environment for instance the presence of a homeless person that that would attract crime. and he's really committed to that philosophy. and so he doesn't want homeless people in any given area because he believes that if a homeless person is there then criminals are going to show up.

and the police officers who have developed since he introduced that in the '90s really have that philosophical sense that you have to be hard on getting rid of the appearance of degradation in a space in order to prevent crime. >> and you obviously disagree. what do you make though of the mayor's effort, $22 million to try the help deal with mental health issues, the reason so many people are on the streets? >> i agree with the mayor's effort, my problem is going back to these pictures that the police union are putting online, the mayor's effort about he's trying to take people who are mentally ill, and direct them to mental services, instead of directing them to jails, to reicrykers. direct them to mental services, don't criminalize them. my problem is i don't trust

police to carry it out. and the fact that the police union has chosen to take -- that they're going to do a campaign to take pictures and humiliate homeless people -- >> but let's say that the city isn't paying enough treang atteo the homeless and sent the mayor pictures and say do something about this, what -- >> but i don't think ordinary citizens would be taking pictures of homeless. >> but that would be to say you're not doing enough. >> the police union is trying to embarrass this man so he would back off and let them engage in the style of policing they want to do. he does have a program that he put in place where he -- i agree with its intentions they're fine. he wants to direct people into mental health services. the problem is you have too many police officers in nypd who have actual contempt for homeless people. and these pictures they're

posting on publicly demonstrates that contempt. i don't trust those same officers who have that kind of contempt for homeless people that they would violate their privacy and dignity by posting them online. i don't trust those police officers to carry out what the mayor is trying to do in good faith. >> william burnett, thanks for coming in. >> all right. >> ten years ago after the damage of hurricane katrina, new orleans schools were replaced with an all charter school system. it has proven to be a success and there are studies that back it up. but reports out state that students aren't better than they were a decade ago. jonathan martin reports. >> what do we say, to identify louisiana -- >> the public school system in new orleans, reshaped by katrina, is unlike any other

school districts. >> 98% in students in public schools attending a charter school. >> weeks after the storm, a failing school system was dismantled. thousands of teachers were fired. >> we had a governing body, orleans parish, we had $70 million in federal dollars missing. >> this was the result. cultural arts academy more than 90 publicly funded but privately operated charter schools students must now apply for. >> just sending your child to the nearest school that doesn't exist anymore. >> caroline romeer runs the louisiana association of charter schools. she says it's forced competition. >> you have to produce to attract those parents, those

teachers, those students into your building. >> you are not comparing, what are you doing? >> they actually care about the kids want them to thrive and do better. >> cambrian johnson has three children in the schools. like many parents she's not given a real choice more of a chance to get her children into the best schools. >> if i want my child to get into an a or b school, and there's no seating available, they have to suffer by being in a c d or f school. which is totally not fair. >> her son didn't get into a higher rate school and had to settle for a lower ranked school, more than 30 minutes from their home. many of the conceals involve mandatory parent involvement. >> this is the way to give advantage to the already advantaged and create more

disadvantage to those that already have a significant barrier. >> still, governor bobby jindal and other reform advocates cite remarkable gain. they point to the graduation rate, 73% today up from 54% in 2004 and the number of kids in failing schools just 8% today compared to 62% before katrina. but critics say the fuller picture isn't nearly as encouraging. >> it's been ten years and the gains are fairly marginal. >> tulane university professor j celeste leigh has studied the improvements and say they are small. she points to the act scores, the average student scored a 17 ten years ago. today it's risen by more than a point. >> the scores are still so low that the average student in the new orleans district can't get into lsu. louisiana state university. and louisiana is one of the

worst performing states in the nation. so if we are a below-average district in the state, in a state that's at the bottom, in terms of education, then in terms -- in absolute terms, i don't know that children are that much pert off. >> to make your -- that much better off . >> most parents and advocates admit there is still a long way to go before public education here can be considered good but a decade later, a far cry from where it was. >> from where we have come from, a place where most families would never dream of putting their children in a public school, we are at a place where you can do that, you can feel good about it and i think that speaks volumes. >> reporter: and david again when you talk about charter schools in new orleans one of the words you often hear used is competition, competition, competition. it really is a marketplace here in the city. you often see many of the

schools taking out ads. they hire administration and go knock on doors. because it is really about the landscape in new orleans attracting students, attracting peoplattractingchildren to yours building. >> jonathan, thank you. investigators blame driver fatigue for the collision that almost killed tracy morgan. the driver had been awake for 28 hours before plowing into the limousine that was carrying morgan and his friend. the driver had not slept in 28 hours. investigators say driver fatigue was likely to be blamed. >> the driver and his family decline to be interviewed. intaicteindicated he had only fs

of sleeping opportunity in the 48 hours prior and had been awake 28 hours at the time of the crash. >> investigators recreating the accident show what happened. the limo carrying tracy morgan and four friends was traveling on the new jersey tur turnpike. when the traffic slowed, the truck rear ended the limo at 60 miles an hour. kevin roper pleaded not guilty to criminal charges and is contesting the findings. >> traffic slowed to 10 miles per hour over a quarter mile but again the driver did not respond. >> investigators concluded that roper was sleep-deprived. he had driven 800 miles in 12 hours from his home in georgia to a walmart distribution center

in delaware. >> driving overnight caused him to miss a sleep cycle and the crash happened at 27:55 a.m., where humans are biologically predetermined to sleep. >> federal law also requires truck drivers to track their hours behind the wheel. according to aaa, drowsy driving is to blame for one out of every six deadly traffic accidents. safety advocates have been lobbying, for longer rest periods but the truck industry has pushed back and the changes have been delayed while more studies are done. in 2006 a federal study found that fatigue accounted for 13 that% of all truck accidents and officials say that number could

be higher because when truckers do get into accidents they often don't want to admit that they were sleepy. paul beban, al jazeera, new york >> owner operator independent drivers association, todd what do you think when you heard driver fatigue being involved in an accident like the one with tracy morgan? >> certainly fatigue is an issue when it comes to drive a truck. it is when it comes to driving car. it's all about how a driver handles that fatigue. i are heard earlier some of the others suggesting the percentages of fatigue related crashes for truck drivers are really really high. fmcsa's data says they're 1.6% of truck involved crashes. 1.6. it's fatigue is an issue but it's not a great big issue. the more important thing at this particular instance is the scheduling. this driver, although he

undoubtedly wasn't in the best physical shape when he started his shift was in compliance with the regulations. the truck he was driving had every piece of available safety data you can put on it. the -- based on his schedule, his time, the time he had, it's clear that the driver is driving to stay in compliance with the regulations. and still make his delivery. the question should be -- >> right but doesn't he also have the incentive of still trying to make profits and is that the underlying problem that within these federal rules, as complicated and confusing perhaps unproductive as they may be, people are still trying to make money within the system and as a result it's compressing the time they have to do that. >> the driving shift that he's on is one that walmart lays out. now anybody that drives a car or truck will periodically feel drowsy when they're on the road. the dilemma that truck drivers

have is that when that feeling comes on them, they don't have any ability to stop and take a break. on the new jersey turnpike had he pulled to the side of the road he would have been ticketed. had he pulled to the side of the road because he needed to and a drunk driver ran into him he would have been sued there is no environment -- >> but he could have gone to a rest stop right? >> there are finishes rest stops are as prevalent as hen's teeth on our roadways. law makeers talk about it when it's time to do a highway bill but they never come up with any money to appropriate, or build any new rest stops that is a big big issue. >> there are rest stops every 20 o30 miles on the new jersey turnpike but look your main point is well taken and federal officials haven't made this any easier, and more difficult for the truck drivers. we do appreciate your

perspective. tom spencer, representative of the independent owners association, thank you for coming. >> glad to, you're welcome. >> barry crilminrimmins and thew documentary of his pliec life. life.

>> barry crimmins is tone as a comedian's comedian, a political satirist, that inspired john oliver, the private pain he is now talking about. it is the focus of call me lucky, a new documentary that takes a serious look at the stand up comic. >> he would go into a rage. >> just get up i don't like you. >> he stopped i think worrying about whether he was being funny or not. >> there was a lot of personal things that happened in his life when he was young that came out later. >> it was the most shocking thing in my life that i heard. >> it's scary of anybody of any age to really see the face of somebody that is evil. >> barry crimmins talks about being sexually abused as a child. we asked him whether it's so important to talk about it.

>> one of the things people say about those who are abused, mean well, you admitted you were abused? yes, i was raped as a small child. and i don't confess or admit anything concerning that. if you are held up at gunpoint you don't confess that you did something, you know? and part of the reason you need to talk about that is because the language of complicity is very important to the perpetrators of these things so they trick children into thinking well if anyone finds out about what we did, or whatever. i found out early on from when i started dealing with it, i haven't had a lot of trouble discussing it. particularly because i know people need to know bit and it still goes on and somewhere where you sit and where i sit there are children going through you know absolute hell and we need to know about it and have the courage to talk about it. >> there seems to be a

perception among most folks who look at incredibly talented comedian such as yourself. >> you realize those texts are rented, yahya. >> and believe that it's drawn on some -- sometimes dark experiences that you have had in your life. is that fair to suggest that? >> well, everything in your life informs you. but i know a lot of great comics who seem to have, you know, exemplary childhood. so and have had it pretty much okay. they've had pretty quote unquote normal lives. but then it informs me i'm particularly as a political satirist who has spoken up for the underdog for a lot of years. >> i'd like to overthrow the government of the united states and kilo the catholic church. >> that's part of me but i like to think would i have opposed death scwadz had i not been sc n

raped at ofive-year-old. >> what about bobcat? >> a lot of people would say, are you talking to anybody about this? yeah, i thought i was talking to you. you know? that was the beginning of that. and when i first talked about it on stage i spoke about it because it was right after the rodney king stuff went down. a lot of people were making judgments about a lot of kids out in los angeles and i decided that night to say well you know there's context for people, people come, there's differently things that lead up to different things in certain types of actions, so on so forth. so i've been pretty public for this for a long time now. >> barry crimmins, thanks so much for being on al jazeera, we appreciate it. >> i'm very happy to be here. thank you for helping us

publicize the film. >> call me lucky is now playing in select theaters around the country. and that is our news for this hour. thanks for watching. i'm david schuster. the news continues next with libby casey.

>> china inferno. a huge blast in northeastern china, causing casualties in hospitals in the area. dissing the dissidents. >> castro knows he can fool the obama administration so easily. >> not inviting cuban activists to the historic flag raising ceremony in havana. show me the money. >> there is no way we can sit down and negotia