captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sa, may 26: the two koreas meet again. what does it mean for the on- agn-off-again u.s.-north korean summit? in our signature segment, voters in maine go to the polls to rank all of the candidates. and, are police officers being asked to do too much? next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> "pbs newshour weekend" isby de possibl bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family elue and edgar wachenheim, iii. dr. p. roy v and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. the anderson family fund. rosalind p. walter. hbarbar zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america--

delgning customized individ and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. >> additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and byco ributions to your pbs iewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at rk lincoln center in new hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. north korean leader kim jong uan and south koresident moon jae-nd held an unexpected seco summit today. the two leaders met in secret for two hours on the north korean side of the demilitarized zone. they emerged for handshakes and hugs. officials said the two men agaie disctheir plans to "de- nuclearize" the peninsula and the possibility of reviving a june 12 summit between kim jong un and president trump in singapore. ano days ago president trump abruptlyled the planned summit with kim jong un, but tien yesterday he told reporters

it was possible. the president tweeted last night, "we are having very productive talks with north korea about reinstating the mmit." a u.s. advance team of white house and state department officials are reportedly heading to singapore to prepare for the possibility of the norean- u.s. summit. the u.s. has reached a deal with the chinese telecommunications w firm z.t.e. thld restore its ability to do business with u.s. suppliers, according to reports quotina senior congressional aide. in april z.t.e. was banned from doing business with u.s. technology suppliers after it was discovered it had violated u.s. sanctions against iran d north kore president trump appeared to confirm the ports tweeting late yesterday, "i closed it down then let it reopen with high level security guarantees"" senator mark wner, vice chairman of the intelligence committee, responded this morning, ctioning the president, "that z.t.e. poses a s.tional security threat to the

united st" president trump also announced this morning on twitter that a utah man jailed in venezuela for two years without a trial has been released. >> america, i need your help to get me out of this place. >> sreenivasan: joshua holt traveled to venezuela in 2016 to marry a woman he met onle, but authorities there accused him of stockpiling weapons and held him in a caracas jail. holt's release is a result of two years of lobbying by his family and u.s. officials.e holt and his we expected to be reunited with family at the white house this evening. the president of the university of southern california isst ping down after being accused of putting the school's reputation and fundraising above student safety. faculty, alumni, students, and the board of trustees called for the resignation of president c.l. max nikias for failing to report abuse by a school gynecologist to the state medical board. a 2016 internal investigationeo found that dr.e tyndall had conducted inappropriate pelvic exams andade sexually offensive remarks to students at

the campus health center. thd,u.s.c. academic senate s" new leadersh is in the best terest of the university now and going forward." florida governcl rick scott ared a state of emergency this morning as subtropical storm alberto, the famed storm of the 2018 hurricane season, moves through the caribbean toward the u.s. gulf coast, florida, cuba and mexico. alberto is expecte deliver heavy rainfall, mudslides, and severe flooding to southern florida and the panhandle. officials are warning that the entire sta could be affected. the six-month hurricane season does not officially begin until june 1. >> sreenivasan: it'srimary season around the country, and during this election cycle, one state will be trying out a new way of deciding who wins. s maine to become the first state in the nation to use a method called ranked-choice

voting. rather than picking just one orndidate, voters will rank their preferenceach candidate on the ballot, from first to last. the system is signed to ensure at candidates win not just with the most votes, but with a majority of the votes. advocas say it will make elections more democratic; opponents say it violates the state's constitution. t a recent spring saturday in a small maine town w bangor, republicans gathered in a local school gym for a gubernatorial debate, and there was one issue on which all agreed. >> it's a scam. it undermines the integrity of our election pross. >> it was put forward by a group of people who wanted tmake sure that a conservative governor never got elected again. >> so, the reality is, we're not happy with it. >> blatantly oosed to it. very unconstitutional. >> sreenivasan: the issue that united them is how the winner in their election will be chosen. instead of voters just picking their favorite candidate in maine's primaries on june 12,

ey will be listing their choices in order from favorite to least favorite, and the votes will be tallied ing a new system. it's called ranked-choice vo here's how it works. let's say there are four candidates. voters fill out their ballots indicating their preference for rtrst, second, third and f the results are then counted. if any candidate gets more than 50% of the first place votes, a majority, he or she is the outright winner. idt in a scenario where no one gets 50%, the cae with the fewest first place votes is eliminated. and now, three are left. yo your first place choice is now gone second choice moves up on your ballot and becomes your first; your third moves to second, and your fourth moves to third. the votes are reunted, and if there still is no candidate with mo than 50% of the first place votes, the process continues. the person with the least first place votes is again eliminated. now, two are left.ar the votecounted a final time.

the candidate with the most votes will certainly have more an 50%. that person wins. also known as "instant run-off,h system has been used in countries like australia and ireland, as well as in municipal elections in u.s. cities, including san francisco and portland, right here in maine. a but rican state has ever used ranked-choice voting in aat ide primary until now. >> we are the people... >> sreenivasan: dick woodbury served as an independent state legislator for ten years. he says ranked-choice voting is key to improving the political system for everyone. >> i'm hopeful that it'll be transformative to politics inma e but also a model for the country. >> sreenivasan: bills to use rank-choice had been introduced in maine's legislature for more than a decade but had not passed, so taodbury and cara mccormick, a political consul who has worked for democrats and dependents, helped organize an effort to get it on the ballot 16for voters to decide in they thought it made sense in a

state where many elections include more choices than just cae democrat and one repub and candidates have often won without getting even 50% of the votes. >> nine of our last 11 governor's races were won by less than a majority. >> we have so many iependents that run in and are competitive in our politics, and yhave a system that forces us to choose just to make just one choice. >> sreenivasan: maine's republican governor, paul lepage, has been elected twice while never receiving a majority of the votes. in 2010, he won a five-way race with less than 38%. in a three-person race in 2014, he was re-elected with8%. advocates say ranking candidates gives voters confidence that choosing a long-shot candidate won't lead to so-called "wasted vos." that's because a voter's second and third choices will be counted if their first choice is eliminated, and no one can be elected without winning a

majority. podbury says it changes the way candidates engage itics. they can't afford to alienate voters who, say, might pick thes ond choice. >> you've got to reach out more broadly to the... to the populous, and you can't be too negative to people who are your opponents. it nudges politics toward more ofntrism where you're appealing to a broader numbeeople. and you move that into the policymaking arena gi think you' people who can work together better in a lessdi partisansive, gridlocked way so that we have potential to really improve policy-making at the same time that we're improving politics. >> sreenivasan: thanging the way votes are tabulated requires a major administrativee effort foreople charged with running elections in maine. matthew dunlap is maine'sar secrof state. >> you know, when we talk about, you know, massive changes to election law, typically it's replacing a period with a comma. so, this is very, very new. >> sreenivasan: dunlap has released sample ballots, is participating in town hall

iments around the state, and even published an ed video to help educate voters on the new system. >> ranked-chce voting allows voters to choose candidates in order of preference. >> the key here, though, more than the people coming into the polls being able to understand it is really them being able to trust it. and voter confidence has got to be our ultimate goal, that no iotter what happens in the outcome of the ele- i don't care who wins-- i just want people to believe in the ensult. >> sasan: maine also has a unique history with a contested gubernatorial election that puts a change like ranked-choice voting in conflict with the state's constitution. mthree-way race for governor in 1879 with ority winner almost led to a violent confrontation ter the legislature was unable to decide who won the election. >>joshua lawrence chamberlain, the... the hero of gettysburg, ntwas called out of retireo protect the capital from insurrection. they put a cannon in the front door of the state house,nipers on the rooftops, and, after 12 days, they finally sorted it out.

and after that, ofe legislature red up an amendment to the constitution to say whoever gets the most votes wins. so, that's why we do it that way. so, ranked-choice voting goes in the opposite direction.en >> sasan: state courts have ruled that without changing maine's constitution, ranked-choice voting can only be used in the primary for statewide offices. but for some opponents of the tuw system, even that is unconstional because it doesn't make the candidate with the most votes-- what's known as a plurality-the automatic winner. >> the word "plurality" is very specific in maine's constitution. it means "first past the post," whoever has the most votes win. and that was deliberate and on purpose. >> sreenivasan: republican garrett mason is the maine senate majority leader and ago candidate fornor. >> i took an oath to uphold the onnstitution, and the constitus clear on this matter. it's illegal. sreenivasan: mason says partisan forces are behind the push for the new system. >> this was a way to make sure that paul lepage never got elected again, or someone like paul lepage never got elected

again. it's mean spirited, it is partisan, and it's just... it's what they're doing is dragging maine people through a complete ss. >> sreenivasan: mary mayhew is another candidate for governor liin the repn primary. >> my own 84-year-old mother e who, every time lks to me about ranked-choice voting, gets angrier and angrier. she has been voting for a very long time, and she does not understand now what she has to do when she goes into the ballot bo t >> bringing s complaint about how it's going to be too confusing is really just a red herring and brought up by people who oppose the policy ofti ranked-choice . >> the first reading of printed bill. >> sreenivasan: in fact, last year, the legislature voted to delay ranked-choice voting. in response, advocates collect nearly 80,000 signatures, which, according to maine law, overruled the legislature for the time being. next month, there will be a

ballot measure asking voters to make the system permanent for statewide primaries and federal elections. cara mccormick says this is an issue that attracts people from ncross the political spectrum. >> it is the parti politicians who are trying to fit it into one of two boxes. but the people of maine-- the democrats, republicans and dependents, and the volunteers-- it's all of us. we are absolutely npartisan. >> people are just ready for somethin upd maine has done enough of the legwork leadino this point that we can be where we are raere we're actually going to implement ed-choice voting. >> sreenivasan: mainers will he to polls on june 12. >> sreenivasan: videos showing police use of force and police-involved shs have become commonplace and divisive in the united states.

while many police departments are initiating reforms, there's a growing call for alternatives to policing. that is, identifng situations where it might be best not to call law enforcement. author alex vitale hen a look at this issue and makes his case in his recent book, "the end of policing." in the first of our two-partpo on alternative policing methods, newshour weekend's yvette felicianopoke with vitale about whether or not we're asking police officers to do too much. >> reporter: from last month's controversial arrests of two black men in a philadelphia starbucks, to the viral videos of a black woman's contentious arrest in an alabama waffle house, to a school-based police ficer near san diego slamming a 17-year-old student onto the ground, to the fatal police shooting in new york of an unarmed black man who suffered from bipolar disorder, conversations about how police react when they're called to a scene-- especially invng

communities of color-- are everywhere. but there's one idea that is different from all the others. what if poli hadn't been involved in these incidents at all? that's what alex vitale, professor of sociolo and coordinator of the policing and social justice project brooklyn college, argues in his recent book, "the end of licing." >> in many cases, the solution toome of the problems with policing is not rejiggering what we do but to just quit using police for that functi. altogeth i think it's a fair thing to say that most police officers wake up in the morning thinking about how to help ople. i think they're motivated by the right kinds of desires. the oblem is, is that they'v been given a limited set of tools and placed into circumstances where those tools often can be counterproductive. >> reporter: vitale says that modern-day policing was shaped by our country's racial histy.

>> policing in the era of jim crow segregation in the southto and ghation in the north was shaped by pretty strong racial politics during that period. and so, in a lot of northern and western cities, one of the major functions of policing was the ghettoization of black populations, the enforcement of racial borders both in terms of social behavior and actual reography. >> reporter: was t specific decade when we saw this change and, you know, an overuse or over reliance on police? >> i think the expansion ofer police preally happened heer the last 40-plus years. and it begins withind of war on drugs, war on crime discourse that comesut of the nixon administration but really acontinues through the '8 even into the '90s and the clinton administration. tifor instance, we see dra expansions in school policing, the war on drugs, borr policing.

so, it's been a kind of long-term bipartisan process of defining more and more social problems as things to be dealt th by police. e''re not concerned about slave uprisings anymore; concerned about things like mass homelessness, black markets tround drugs and sex work, the management of ted mental illness, violence and behavioral problems in schools. and so, as the social problems shift, the mission of policing shifts. and the question is really whether or not policing as an institution is best equipped to manage some of these problems. >> reporter: some police officiree that policing was never meant to solve all of those problems. at a press conference in 2016, then-dallas police chief david brown said the country's police are being asked to do too much. >> every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve. not enough mental health funding?

let the cop handle it. not enough drug addictio funding? let's give it to the cops. here in dallas, we've got a loose dog problem. lolet's have the cops chase dogs. >> reporter: san jose's polit chief says the onus to deal with mental illness right now comedown to a police officer, and that is unfair." although police have little training in mental health, about 10% of police interactions involve a person with a mental illness, and one-in-four people th mental disorder have histories of arrest. many people do see police as protectors. how do race and class impact how you view the police? >> when we apply policing as t primary solution to a set of problems that are really driven by histories of economic exclusion, racialized oppression, then we produce outcomes that are racially skewed regardless of the

attitudes or biases of individual officers. t t the war on drugs may be carried out in the places wherai the most coms happen, but there's a reason why the complaints happen in poor communities and communities of color disproportionately. even though drug dealing is widely distributed throughout our society, poor peop'tva have p spaces. they have limited resources. they're more likelinto be engagelack market activity for survival purposes. there's more hopelessness among young people so that their drug use takes a more dangerous and disruptive form. and so, even the neutral professional application of the drug laws produces a racially disproportionate outcome. >> reporter: as newshour weekend has reported, many police forces have implemented diversity initiatives or anti-bias and de-escalation trainings. t vitale says there is n

empirical evidence that theseie types of stratimprove police/community relations. for instance, one stund that police crisis intervention teams, in which offirs are trained in de-escalation tactics by mental health prossionals, did not reduce arrest rates for people with mental illnesses. at about spending more money on more effective police academy trthning? >> ovelast several years, we've responded to these most serious forms of police violence thro procedural reforms to make the police more professito better communicate with the public, to try to restore trust in policing. but even if we reduce the most egregious use of for're not really addressing the tens of thousands of non-violent nnitive interactions betw police and the public that produce the resentment and the hecalation of tensions between police andublic.

and i think we can look at the eric garner case in new york as an example of this. >> reporter: in 2014, police tried to arrest eric garner, a black resident of staten island, new york, on suspicion of selling loose cigarettes. garner, who had many run-ins with the police, complainessof being hara and resisted arrest. one of the officers put him in a choke hold, asphyxiating and killing him. >> a totally seemingly innocuous interaction escalates over what are really non-criminal behaviors for the most part, tax avoidance and... and disorderly behavior in public.t and it's tsistance that gets reacted to by tackling him, jumping on him, choke... putting him in a chokehold and ultimately killing him. >> reporter: so, what should helice be doing? where... should we be pulling back? but also, what is their role in modern societylo >> we need t concretely at e e problems that police have

been asked to sod decide whether or not we can find non-coercive, non-punitive alternatives. and whatever's left atnd of that process where we need that kind of powerful coercive errce, then so be it. i think the ans to quit using police to solve every social problem under the sun. instea new systems of discipline that treat people with dignity and respect and try to identify what's driving problematic behavior and actually address those root causes. we know how to do this. il just need the political to make it happen. >> sreenivasan: read about developments this week in three prominent cases police misconduct. visit our website at pbs.org/newshour. >> this is "pbs newshour weekend," saturday.

>> sreenivasan: by a largema rity irish voters legalized abortion today, repealing a 1983 constitutional amendment that banned almost all abortions. the referendum follows a recent vote in ireland to legalize same sex marriage, and is seen as a continued rebuke of the catholih ch's authority. i.t.n.'s penny marshall reports from dublin. >> reporter: ireland spoken with a clear strong voice, this afternoon, dublin castle was packed with thoseho wanted to shout about it. the prime minister came hare the moment witthe campaigners. he said respect for women to make right choices >> what we've seen ty really is a combination of a quiet

revolution that's being taken place ireland the past ten 20 years, this has been a great exercise democracy. >> reporter: repealing a amendment mark as kw start for i should as it breaks further from its conservative past >> we don't y ow what to sa we're so emotional. my god, we're so sho >> it's a huge event for ireland. everybody feels it >> we've been waiting on a long time. >> reporter: reveals the yes vote won the day everywhere, rural and urban areas alike, setting ireland on a new path, br egs to months of divisive campaigning which forced the old conservative ireland to confront iounger more liberal self. turn-out was high. t han 2 million here made their way to the polls. it's been a day ofe h emotion especially fwo n the day history recorded massive social change. the government said new abortion

laws will be inlace by the end of the year. >> sreenivasan: be sure to joinm us trow for the second part of our report on alternative policing methods. to'll look at new technology and training designeive officers "less-lethal" options. >> reporter: its silicone tip expands upon contact, slowing the round d broadening the area of impact, but not penetrating the skin >> just stop breathing and gently pull it. ( gun shot ) dead center. >> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of "pbs newshour weekend." i'm hari sreenivasan. have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possle by: bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and philip milsin family.

sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. the anderson family fund.sa nd p. walter. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america--cu designinomized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional supportovas been ed by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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