captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, thepa emic's impact. as deaths mount at home and abroad t biden campaign nounces he won't attend the democratic cvention in person due to concerns over covid-19. then, the aftermath-- beirut takes stock of the damage wrought by a massive explosion as the death toll rises and questions remain. and, defunding pice-- the effort to re-imagine public safety in minneapolis faces hurdles as the city sees spikes in violent cri and a deterioration of police- community relations. >> right now, all we really have in terms of public safety is one

system and that's policing and people are going to be scared to create a new system ofency response and i think it's going to take of conversations. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

>> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's mosts- pressing probl skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lntes through inn, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. >> supported by the . and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: new milestones tonight in the "covid-19" pandemic. in public health, the world has ocpped 700,000 deaths. in politics, dt joe biden

has decided against accepting ons presidential nomination at the party conven in milwaukee. and, president trump says he might give his acceptance speech at the white house. all of this comes amid a viral resurgence. but today, infectious disease expert dr. anthony fauci dismissed talk of a new shutdown >> we can do much better without locking down. and i think that strange binary approach: eith you lock down or you let it all fly. there's someplace in the middle where we can open the economy and still avoid the kind of surges that we're seeing. >> woodruff: meanwhile, the democrats negotiated again on a new economic relief package. there was no sign that a final

our other major story is in beirut, lebanon: the aftermath of a cataclysmic explosion that killed at least 135 people and injured 5,000. special correspondent jane ferguson reported for us for years from beirut, and has tonight's report on a city shatted. >> reporter: it ben with a fire at the port, and then, an explosion so great it created a red mushroom cloud, and a shockwav the entire city.ugh on the city's streets, everyday life was shattered. a wedding photo shoot, turns to dister. and a priest performing mass, runs for safety. >> oh my god, it's all gone! >> reporter: residents returning to their apartments found blasted-out windows and glass- covered streets. 72-year-old janitor boulos touma

was standing outside his artment when the explosi threw him back inside. >> ( translated ): we were laying down me and my wife inside, and i saw my wife here covered in blood, hit on her head, on her ears, my wife has high blood pressure, everyg e was worryout their own condition. >> reporter: beirut's hospitals, already overrun with coronavirus tients and partially destroyed, were flooded with the bloodied bodies of the walking bwounded, and those carri others. >> i just was shouting, is myer daugkay? i got to my apartment which was unrecognizable with no door and gasaw my daughter at the beginning had twes on her leg and was naked and wrapped in a towel with mhusbd applying pressure. >> risorter: dr. seema jilani anmmergency room doctor fro texas working in beirut. she spent the hospital ride singing to comfort her four- arar-old daughter. >> i've worked is of conflict like iraq, afghanistan and gaza. what i saw yesterday was on the

scale of that if not more in my particular personal experience. i have never experienced something like this. >> reporter: lebanese security officials have said nearly 3000 tons of the fertilizer ammonium nitrate was stored in the port. it's highly explosive and can be used for making improvised bombs. it had been there for six years, after being confiscated from a ship. a level of mismanagement hard to comprehend. today lebanese president michael aoun visited the blast site. in a speech later in the day, aoun promised justice. >> ( translated ): we are determined to investigate and reveal what happened as soon as possible, to hand out punishment to those responsible. the port ia lifeline for a

city and a country already in the grip of an economic collapse, the result of years of the large white bungs here, half-destroyed, are grain silos, holding the country' pref ous supplieseat, needed to provide subsidized bread to millions. non's people have been struggling to buy food in the midst of currency collapse and hyperinflation. now, in a country where 50% of the populationbeave slipped neath the poverty line, the loss of grain supplies only adds to this catastrophe. packed families are still desperately trying to find missing loved ones. this instagram account holds atnful pleas for any informn. many of these people worked at the port. an entire teamf firefighters that rushed to the initial blaze is missing. for dr jilani, she's grateful she has her daughter back in her ar, safe. >> the main thing is she is out of the hospital, she is stable, she is not needing oxygen, and she is back to her feisty self. t the moments that you us curse as a mother, those moments of tantrums, are joyful now,

when you hear your child's cry. it is a joy now. reporter: the lebanese people, so often described as avresilient, hno choice but to live through yet another s agedy, and try to mend their homeand their lives. for the pbs newshour, i'm jane ferguson. >> woodruff: in the day's , her neports from south korea say deadly explosions in north of people on mondar the dozens chinese border. video obtained by the "associated press" shows flames and black smoke firi into the sky amid loud bangs. the reports say gas cylders may have exploded in a residential area. in u.s. election news,

some key wins in tuesday'sed primaries. in detroit, first-term congresswoman rashida tlaib won re-nomination over city council president brenda jones. matter" activist cori bush beat longtime congressman william lacy clay. we'll take a deeper look at these and other races, after the news sumry. a former deputy attorney general denied today that president obama and vice president biden thied to influence a probe of trump 2016 campaign. it involved chael flynn, who came national security adviser, a his contacts with russia, during the trump transition. at a senate hearing, sally yates said flynn was trying tone ralize sanctions against russia. she rejected claims that president obama wanted to lbotage mr. trump. >> somethie that would

have set alarms from me. and it would have stuck out both at the time and in my memory. no such thing happened. the president was focused entirely on the national encurity implications of sharing sensitive intell information with general flynn, during the transitn, a process that was obviously already underway. >> woodruff: the flynn probe later morphed into a full-blown investigation of russian interference in th2016 election. the u.s. state department's acting inspector general stephen akard has resigned. today's announcement gave noas . akard's predecessor, stephen linick, was fired less than three months ago. congressional democrats allege it's because linick was pevestigating secretary of state mike pover claims that he had staffers perform personal errands. poeo has denied it. narendra modi broke ground today

for a hindu temple, where a 16th century mosque once stood. hindu extremists tore down the mosque in ayodhya in 1992, and 2,000 people died in the ensuing violence. today, worshippers danced in cebration as modi offered foundational stones for the temple. it will be dedicated to th the remnants of hue "isaias" are now in eastern canada, after killing at least x people in the u.s. the storraked much of the east s,coast, spawning tornadoe downing trees and triggering flooding from north carolina to new england. morehan three million homes and businesses lost power in the u.s. and canada. wall street advanced again today, partly on hopes for a pandemic relief package in washington. the dow jones industrial average gained 373 points to close at

27,201. the nasdaq rose 57 pnts, and, the s&p 500 added 21. and, legendary new york city columnist and author pete hamill died today at a brooklyn hospital. he'd suffered heart and kidney failure. for deilcades, hs story- telling captured the color and everything from politics to civil rights to sports. pete hamill was 85 years old. omstill toon the newshour: former secretary of defense william perry on why the president shouldn't have the sole authority to order a nuclear strike. minneapolis struggles as it tries to defund the police and reimagine public safety. d much more.

>> woodruff: at a fundraising event today, joe biden told supporters he hoped to set an example by attendi the democratic national convention virtually from his home rather than in person. "from the start of the process, we've made it clear science matters," he said. the pandemic's impacts not only the actions of political leaders but also upends the lives of those living in the most rural parts of ontry. for more on how voters outside the beltway are thinking about the pandemic and it's political ramifications, i'm joined by gary abernathy, in hillsboro ohio. he's a contributing columnist for the "washington post." and sarah smarsh, in rural kansas. she's a freelance journalist and author of the book "heartland."

welcome to both of you. it's great to see you. let's start, sarah smarsh, by lking about what on the minds of voters you're hring from? the pandemic, the numbers were grim again today, over 1,300 deaths were reported overnight, somethin like 53,000 new cases in one day. but what are voters saying? >> well, here in my state of kansas, this is one of the stes where new cases is on the uptick, unfortunately, and in th region just like across the country, i think it's certain that the pandemic isoremost on voters' minds. t that, of course, sort of twin issue with the economy, the present state of which we can't se from the public health crisis. but, certainly, the pandemic and main street, as well as thelk on stuff of lal politics we've

aad here in kansas, which has split party control of state government, a lot of back and forth, basically, battl between a democratic governor and republican legislature, democratic mayors and republican-leani counties. so it feels, i suspect, the way it feels in the rest of the counwhich is there's no federal leadership, and it's sort of a mess. >> woodruff: so gary abernathy, what about where you are in, wheris i, southern ohio? >> yes, southern ohio, judy. and thanks for havi me on. there may be a little different attitude here. people are talking about the pandemic, they take it seriously, but it's also where a you're going to havt of people push back, worried about the violati of their constitutional rights. there has been a lot of pushback in this area on mandates by governor dewineat masks and that type of thing, which, again, people takeit seriously,

but they also think that, you know, constitutional libert mies habe been not taken as seriously as they could. they don't like the idea they have been, you know, ordered o t to work, been thrown out of work, the economy has been shut tdown. soink people here, their adults, give us the information we should have, tell us what the health experts say, and then let us decide for ourselves how to deal with it. >> wooduff: sarah smarsh, kansas, are you hearing any of that conversation with the people you talk to, and how much are they connecting what's going on to what's happening in washington? >> sure. well, i think thre, the mask is in order in these timesa grtainly tracks alon party lines. what i would say, you know, if i go to a farmers market, somewhere, a public place of commerce, this is a state where a governoattempted to make a

statewide mandate and there w pushback from other jurisdictions and that was the sort of debate i was refere ming ent ago. so, at the moment, you know, local places are sort of at the mercy of their local government, those who feel that a maskor infringes upon their personal liberties in a way that outweighs their responsibility to their neighbors, that they are reliably conservative and, so, that tells me that they are probably listening to messaging from washington. on the other hand, i would say that's not the same thing as saying sall conservatives ree to wear a mask. there's certainly been an erosion of followship of theup, perhaps more for that reason. >> woodruff: and i want to pick up on that with you, gary, in terms of t ahe economynd how people are seeing what's loss of jobs, to what extent do

they connect to decisions being made by president trump, by democrats? >> i think, again, keep in mind i'm in a part of the country that's very firm trump country, so they see things in terms of maybe a little more effort of intentionally trying to hurt trngp through clo the economy. a few months ago, everyone trump had going for him was a strong economy, and, so, the quick efrt to kind of crash it, to turn it on its head, to throw peple out of work, is seen here by a lot of people, right or wrong, as an effort to hurt trump. so there's a resistance to that. on the other hand, jud a,s has been reported elsewhere, in rural areas, we do s coronavirus cases rising, so people are starting to notice, wellokay, you know, it's a , al thing,ist not just in the citi's coming to the rural areas, too, and i think the more that those numbers ri a little bit, a little less people will

blame it all onpolitical effort. >> woodruff: and just finally to both of you, sarah smarsh, we are getting closer to the conventions, to honest-to-goodness election season. joe biden is staying t, he's not going to his convention, president trump, apparently, isn't either. how much are people looking at the partisan divide right now and these two candidates? >> well, i can tellt,ou tha in contrast to four years ago, during the election leading up to the 26 casting of votes, i see fewer trump signs for of qualitative measure alongort twoane, black-top highways in rural kansas where i live, as well as in towns and cities. that doesn't mean that folks have swung left, necessarily. i have seen a lot of signs for far right and certainly

conservative-leaning candirutes who aring for state offices.or representatives ctually just had a primary yesterday, and the republican candidate for our noenu.s. senate seat who was sort of favored by establishment republicans over the more extremist chris kobach, one, which is seen for a boon for republicans in that race. but ultimately, i think things have shifted away from embracing trump since 2016. >> woodruff: how do you see, finally, gary abernathy, the trump popularity and joe biden's presence now?el >> i'm sure sarah's right about where she's at in certain parts of the country, but, right here, the enthusiasm is unabated, the signs are up and have been for quite a while. hae oldmake america great again sign been replaced by

trump 2020 or keep america great. people are very anxious and motivated. the enthusiasl m level wilbe high here in southern ohio, and i think the decision by vice president biden so far to ind of run, if he was in the white house you would call it rose garden strategy, can't last for too much longer.th i thine media will pressure him to come out more. but right now, in areas where i'm at, it's not doing him any favors. >> woodruff: well, we shall see. we'r watching this with great interest, as you can imagine, as this very unusual election year unfolds. gary abernatrah smarsh, thank you both so much. >> thank you. thank you, judy. >> woodruff: stuart stevens is one of the republican party's campaign strategists.n his career spans decades andn

his revealing new book, "it was all a lie: how the replican party became donald trump," he admits t.p has used race as an issue to divide americans, in order to win elections. k you so much for talkingus now. with us. the book is jarring. i have to say, you write about how the republican party, ov the last half century, its hi pock circumstances what you call self-delusion, led it naturally to embrace donald trump, and to embrace what had been its racism. explain what you men. >> well, i think there's been it an eisenhower strain in thel '50s and a mccarthy strain. wethink william buckley is this intellectual soul of the repuican party to a certain point, which he was, but we forget he began as a racist. so there's always been an element. since 1964, the republican party

has failed to attract large numbers of african-americans. we used to acknowledge this as a failurand talk about how to try to change it. taw, we don't even hear any anymore of a big tent, and we seem toave settled into a very comfortable whitgrievance identity. >> woodruff: and you acknowledge you yourself werofe part this you said, in your first race you played the race card, so to speak. there's a lot of blame to go around here, isn't there? >> yeah, i think it's really important, at least for me when i wrote e book, not to blame others but to accept responsibility for it myself. personal responsibility is one of the key elements that drew me to the reblican party and we copletely abandoned that, it seems. in my first race, there was an african-american republican. we made sure to inform

african-americans there was an african-american in the race. if you re the pat buchanan memo for nixon which outlined the strategy, the acknowledgment republicans can't get african-americans so the need is the democratic par been at from the core of republican electoral strategy. y >> woodruff: a write about how that and how what you describe as the hypocrisy around family values, and you do name names. you talk about newt gingrich, jerry falwell, some of the evangelical leaders, and how all this culminated in the easy acceptance of donald trump. >> yeah, i think that donald trump exposed these fault lines in the party and made it impossible for a lot of us to deny. really, the partearly doesn't believe in what it said it believed in. i think that, you know, you go

back a fewears ago, we would have said there's a core set of beliefs, personal responsibility, character counts, strong on russa, fiscal sanity, free trade, pro legal immigration, all of these werepr bed rociples -- bedrock principles, and now the party iy actigast each of these principles. s woodruff: again, whether it's family valu, again, race, your point is that it comes down to some pretty ugly truths abthe party that you say is an entity that can't be fixed. >> yeah, you know, i really have given up hoping that there's going to be so line donald trump could cross. since i wrote th book, that has only been reaffirmed. be it race -- you know, the same weekend in my home state of mississippi finally took down the state flag which is

basically the confederate battle flag, donald tmp was defending the comfort flag. he's out twilighting white power, tweeting about protecting the white suburbs and for the most part the republican party is silent or goes along with it. i think that's incredibly damning, and trumpism i deeply embedded in the party, and i don't think there's any way that's going to be changed in at least probably for a generation >> woodruff: and, so, what happens now? you and other republicans who are dedicated to making sure donald trump is not re-e you don't have a home in the party anymore. where do you go? you know, i think thos of us who are work in these various projects to defeat trump who are republicans, i think each of us will have to come to grips with that and see what the wld looks like on november 4. for myself, judy, i'm going to work with democrats. i think that the future of america, the policy is going to be decided by decisions inside

the democratic party. so take healthcare for inance. in 20 years, is america going to be the only countryhat doesn't have national health insurance? no, we'rnot going to be that. so what that's going to be, it's not going to be decided in the reblican party, it will be decided in the democratic party, whether itni's a.o.c., b sanders or more of a biden wing, and i think the republican party has made itse irrelevant in those discussions by just saying no. i'd like to be a part of what's going to happen. >> woodruff: what's going to happen, though, stu stevens, to the republicans who contind to support president trump, lindsey graham, republicans senators, you could go down the list. >> my feelinis trump is george wallace, and george wallace actually did good things as governor. he passed three textboos. but nobody is remembered as a free textbook george awallace gu i think donald trump is going to be the same way. i'm astounded there's not re

self-awareness of how trump will be remembered, not in the long-term fuure, bu even in the near future, and why there hasn't been moreopposition, why there hasn't been just more selfish realization that if i don't standp to trump, i'm going to go down as a trump person. but it hasn't happened, and they're very comfortath trump, obviously, and that's how it's going to be remembered. >> woodruff: and what do you republicans who have worked with you over the many, many years and say he's a traitor to cause, he's gone over to the other side, he's forgotten all the good things we did together? >>y feelings about this is very corresponden don't contrad. they're good people, they'd make good neighbors. my feeling isere's a collective failure by the party. most of us goes through life

trying to avoid moral test. nald trump was a moral test we couldn't avoid, the party couldn't, and we failed. i think it'sarticularly tragic in this generation of american politicians are heirs to the greatest generation. people like my dad, spent three years in the south pacific, 28 island landings. courage is standing up to trump, courage is standi up in the boat when the last guy got shot. i think they didn't stand up to the principles the legacy sa it was for. >> woodruff: stuart stevens,l "it was allie: how the republican party became donald trump." thank you so much for talking with us. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: on august 6, 1945, tpphe united states d the first atomic weapon ona, hiroshapan.

over the next few days, we willm e this 75th anniversar- the bomb's immediate aftermath, and its lasting togacy in japan. y, we focus on the president's sole authority to launch such a weapon, and how that authority came to be. here's nick schifrin. >> a sho time ago, an american airplane dropped one bomb of hiroshima, andestroyed its usefulness to the enemy. >> schifrin: 75 years ago announced the u.s.arnessed the "basic power of the universe." ( explosion ) the manhattan project took three years to succesully build and test an atomic bomb. throughout, truman and his advisors called it the gadget, thinking it was just another, very big weapon. >> even the men and women working on the project had no idea the staggering energy they were to release. >> schifrin: truman had actually chlegated to the military, when, and where, to la on august 6th, he believed only atomic bombs, could end the war. >> if they do not now accept our terms, they may expect a rain of

ruin from the air the likes of whisech has never bee on this earth. >> schifrin: but after the enola gay flew over hiroshima, and the mushroom cloud slowly darkened the sky, the devastation of the city was overwhelming and dless. survivor skin peeled off.eir >> a few days later, the second d omic terror was unleasheon nagasaki. >> schifrin: after that, truman decid the decision to drop a third bomb, could only be made by him. presidential solauthority was born. >> the purpose of these bases can be nonother, than to provide a nuclear stri capability, against the western hemisphere. >> schifrin: in 1962, after the cuban missile crisis, president kennedy wanted to tighten nuclear control, sa briefcase with launch codes, started traveling with the president. today, the so-called football, is the symbol of the president's sole authority to launch. >> they will be met with fire

and fury like the world has never seen. >> schifrin: president trump is the first president in more than 40 years to have his sole authority openly questioned by congress. >> many americans share my fear that the president's bombastic words could turn into nuclear sality. ifrin: and sole authority is the subject of a new book: "the button, theew nuclear arms race, from truman to trump," by former secretary crlliam perry. ary perry, welcome back to the newshour. let's bendn with this ental question. is the threat of nuclear a annihilatiistant one? >> well, we can be thankful that we're going to 75 years since hhiir and nagasaki without launching the bomb. but i believe the likelihood of it being used now, of breaking that record, is higher today than it was any time during the cold war. that is, the danger of a nuclear catastrophe today, is eq the darkest days of the cold war. and most of the public simply do not understand that reality.

>> schifrin: there are man checks in the system that you write about: preventing an enunintentional launch, prng an unauthorized launch. but is there any way to prevent a determined president from >> if the president decides to launch, he h the authority to do it, he has the equipment to do it, and if it goes, there's no way of calling it back d there's no way of just destroying it in flight. it would unprecedented catastrophe, far greater than world war ii. >> schifrin:hat's, of course, the context for the main proposition that you have in th boat the president should not have the sole authority to launch. why is that? >> there is a likelihood oa nuclear catastrophe today, but that's not because we expect russia to be making an attack on us. that's not going to happen. their leaders are not suicidal. deterrence really does work.

it could happen by political mienalculation by the presid a false alarm. a lack of sanity on the part of either the american president or the russian president. tall of thongs, none of them is likely, but even if it's only one in 100, these odds are not good when you consider the other end of the odds would be the end of our civilization. >> schifrin: the main argument, of course, for having nuclear avweapons at the ready andg the president as the sole authority to launch is the requirement to respond quickly. as you write, russian nuclear weapons hypothetically could be launched and land inside the united states within 30 minutes. doesn't the president need to be able to respond quickly? >> the reason we thought we needed a quick launch was because we believed that wwere going to get a surprise attack, originally from the soviet union, today from russia, and we wanted to launch our i.c.b.m.s before that attack landed and destroyed our i.c.b.m.s is in their silos. we have, however, at sea, more

than enough nuclear capability to respond to russia. and russia knows that. there is no hurry about ending civilization. that.ould take time consider we can wait it out to ensure, it really is an abefore we respond. the best way of ensuring that is to givnough time to consider what's happening. br consuation, technical consultation, and political consultation before a launch is ever made. >> schifrin: i want to ask about her this is about the current inhabitant in the white house. you write that for donald trump, starting a nuclear war is as easy as sendinmua tweet. ho of what you're arguing here is about donald trump personally, whom you call impulsive? >> i believe that no person, no president should have that authority power solely by himself without consultation, without taking time, deliberation. president kennedy was tang heavy medications, and that could have clouded his judgment. we had ricrd nixon, who was,

in the last few nths of his office, drinking heavily. that could have clouded his judgalnt. even rond reagan, the last few months hwas in the white house, was in the rly stages of alzheimer's. so there is no reason that we have to give this authority to one person. and we should make every effort then to bring as many, other people into the decision, and slow down the decision process. >> schifri other main change you advocate in the book, mr. secretary, is that the u.s. k,nnot launch on the warning of an atthat is, before an attack is unambiguously confirmed. why is that?ca >> e we have had false alarms in the past-- three of them that i'm historically.ware an rd if a presideponds to an alarm, and it turns out to be false, there is nothing he can ledo to recall the mis so he will have started a nuclear war by accident. >> schifrin: and lastly, mr. secretary, if i could ask you, you were a soldier who helocd

py japan and saw the aftermath of a nuclear weapon. you've of course seen and been through a lot in those decades since. but how much of your argument today is grounded on what you saw back in the 1940 >> i saw, first of all, the devastation in tokyo. and then i saw hiroshima and nagasaki-- one bomb, one airplanen an insnt. if is a nuclear war, not just a city can be destroyed an instant, but a whole civilization can be destroyed. ronald reagan and gorbechev said it best, which is a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. >> schifrin: former secretary william perry, thank you very much. >> you're very welme. >> woodruff: now, an update on efforts to dund the police in minneapolis, where the killing of george floyd prompted calls to change the policing structure there. tonighcity's charter commission will decide whether

to ask voters in november to start a process spat could lead ial correspondent fred dem zaro has our report. ee reporter: they are called the minnesota frm fighters: an openly armed, mostly black t citizens grot in recent weeks has provided what they calln added layer of securit to the community through a paicularly difficult time, says tyrone hartwell... >> we're trying to be a part of the solution. we're tired of waking up looking at the news or looking at another facebook video with another person or my skin tone,s shot dowangled whatever they is the issue because a lack of communication, lack of diipline, a lack of understanding. >> reporter: they came together soon after theprising that followed events at a one nondescript street corner that is now named george floyd square. a growing shrine, with artworks, tributes to floyd and dozens of others killed in police

encounters across the country. it is also ground zero of a campaign to abole minneapolis police department by defunding it. proponents of defunding the police, including a majoty of the city councilrein before. seveblk n have been kiofedolice. there was talk to reform and nothing happened. th say it's time for the city to start over from scratch and reimagine public safety. policing as a concept has had a complete monopoly on public safety. >> reporter: and, city council member jeremiah ellison says, it's been a failure. >> i don't just mean a failure because it has perpetuated the kind of harm that you see in police killings, and things that fall well, short of police killings that still constitute harm. but it also fas to keep people fe proactively. >> reporter: the council wants to amend the city charter, which now requires a police force with a minimum staffing level. that requires ter approval. among those opposing the move is

mayor jacob frey. he says the council hasn't presented any alternative plan. >> we have all this anger and frustration, and sadness, all of this energy and it's our obligation to channel that energy and harss it towards something that is specific and productive, not vague and ambiguous . >> reporter: amid the debate has seen both a spike in violent crime and a record number of complaints against the department since the city erupted in protests after floyd's killing. protests that resulted in a police precinct being burned, r officers were ordered to evacuate. >> ourorale has never been lower. they're scaredo death to answer calls in case something turns violent, because they're actively trying to send us to prison. >> reporter: sergeant walker, who worked at the precinct, told a minnesota 0 nate committee that as many as ficers, about a quarter of the entire force, may soon

depart. mber have filed disabili claims. >> i've never been more broken as a police officer than i was to watch our leaders give up on our home. od the truth is the leade minneapolis fail>> minneapolis. eporter: mayor frey says he has no second thghts about his decision to abandon the princt. >> we only had about 15 to 20 officers inse with almost nothing to defend themselves with than guns. imagine what would have happened if they had continued to fight, thereas hand to hand combat and likely a scenario of death. >> reporter: so, what now, when you have almost a quarter of the police force, in some form of absentee situation? that sounds like a significant staffing shortage. >> we do have a staffing shortage right now. and i disagree with the notion

that we should be abolishing the police department. our officers are dealing with some very difficult situations. >> reporter: or, according to many complaints, they're not. ebony chambers described a recent incident outside her hom. >> there was about four teenagers walking down the middle of my street with guns out. my neighbor stood up to them, which i don't know why he did. but he said you please put the ns down. i'm calling the police, called the police never showed up. 15 minutes later we heard about 30 shots being shot off. i don't know if the person they werehooting at lived or died or athing. >> rorter: in another instance she saysolice came to her door to tell her they gave up chasing a suspect who harun through her backyard, and if she didn't like it, the officer sai.. >> you need to speak to your

mayor so we can do our job. >> reporter: chambers and dold crumbley are part of a larger community organization called isiah. they say they're open to new ideas about public safety. >> it's not about good police and bad police. we're past that. it's about right and wrong, and the community has to step up now, because we've received ough injustice. >> reporter: but lisa clemons, a former police officer who founded a counity group called a mother's love says the city council's actions haven't helped ers. she says they've only emboldened criminals. >> when the city council came out with their statement of abolishing and dismantling and disbanding the police department, those incendiary terms, i think it created a lot of fear in the community. but it also at the same time created a brazen attitude. i think the community has been left to fend for themselves.

>> we need a full culture shift in our police departme culture, to a certain extent, is about personnel. it'sbout peopl so right now, when the chief or ine aninate or dis officer, as much as 50% of the time, thatfficer gets returned right back to the department from which they came because of an arbitration system. >> the mayor is going to have to recognize that againthis is not a personnel problem, but a systems problem. >> reporter: councilman ellison e ys the powerful police union would never conc arbitration or other changes. what's needed he says, is a complete revamp: moving funds into vioprevention, mental health care and fixing other underlying causes of crime. he admits it will be a culture shift for the larger community. >> and right now all we really have in terms of public safety is oneystem and that's policing.

and people are going to be scared to create a new system of emergency response. and i think it's going to take a loof conversations. >> reporter: the council's temediate hurdle is to get to approve a city charter amendment that would allow it to phase out the police department and phase in a broader office of public safety and violence. preventi for the pbs newshour, this is fred de sam lazali in minneapo >> wf: the focus on black lives matter remai, of course, obine of thest subjects in the national conversation right now. new book looks at how hierarchy and class are very intertwined in the way race and racism plays out in america. jeffrey brown talks to author isabel wilkerson. it's part of our ongoing arts and culture coverage, canvas.

: in 1959 martin luther ysng jr, visiting india and seeing its castem, realized he was a kind ofe untoucha his own land. it's one of many stories told in the new book: "cae: the origins of our discontent," which asks us to see our country in a new way. >> i really was looking to beer understand the origins, enthe anorigins, the very long standing origins of divisions in our country. you know, the era in which we live is an era of upheaval, really requires and calls for new language, new ways of seeing une another, new ways of rstanding how we interconnect and also what we've inherited as a country and as a people. >> brown: isabelfoilkerson is a er pulitzer-prize winning journalist with the "new yorkd times," thor of "the warmth of other suns," a history of the great migration of african-americans ouhe south. g on that book, she came to see something embedded in american culture, even beyond race.

>> the word racieemed inadequate to capture the full effect and full total experience of being in a world in which every single thing that you could and could not based upon what you look like, a world in which everyone was in some ways consigned to preconceived notions as to who should be where. and people had to be careful to stay in a place or it could it mean their very lives. >> brown: wilkern looks to india, where we're used to seeing ¡caste,' and to germany, where the nazis created a racial hierarchy that formalized persecution and, ultely, genocide. drawing on the works of past anthropologists and historians she reveals america's own insidious and artificial caste system, a strict hierarchy with rules that held in place both privilege and privation. you write of caste as the," infrastructure of our dis." in what ways does castes help us think about what's going on in americ htory and now? >> the word caste is a reminder

of an infrastructure beneath somethin we do, something that's larger than something that sits beneath the foundation. it is the foundation, the framework for how people interactith one another. and so i have come to believe that caste, the infrastructure, the hierarchies that we often don't see,ones of a thing, i think of caste as the bones and race askin. and that is the way to see that race is used or has been used historically as the cue, as the signal, as the indicator of where an individual fits in th preexisting hierarchy that have been created from the time of colonial era america. >> b beginning, manifest that hierarchy-- one life worth more thannother. but wilkerson sees a continuity: waves of european immigrants arriving in this country and, in a sense, learning they are white whand therefore above thos aren't.

>> when you're in caste system, a hierarchy, everyone is affected by it. it's not o group versus another group, it's about the investment in the hierarchy, how one moves about in the chy. and the insidious thing about such a hierarchy is it's something that we don't see, again, ¡bones' versus 'skn '. you e the skin. you can see the outward manifestations. butou don't often see those unseen inputs and triggers and tions, the unconscious biases in society that are there below the surface of consciousnss, the ways that everyone has been socialized to know and recognize who is it, you know, who is very likely toi ben positions of power, who is likely to be poor, who is likely brown: who is likely to sit in a position of power in the boardroom? who is likely to live in certain neighborhoods? whtoo is likele stopped by police and treated with brutality-- the focus of current

black lives marotests. >> well, i mean, american history is reflective of the ebbs and flows, progress and pushback, moving forward and then receding. that's essentially the history of our country. and so this is a moment, another moment that could be potentially a sea change. i view it as being the cusp of an awakening, an awakening to a part of much, much of american history that many people may not have known. the goal of this work is to allow us to see, again, the structure that we have inherited. but most importantly, to recognize that we all have a stake in it. and to recognize thait will take each and every one of us to make it the strongest house possible. >> brown: in reading this, caste as you describe, it seems even more fixed in a sense than race so what is to be d structure. is it something that is fixable? >> i would like to believe that 's fixable.

i wouldn't have written this if i didn't think that it was. i have to remain hopeful. i have to remain. i have to believe that oncehi awakened to ouory and to our current reality, as has occurred in recent months, that th would move all of the w these divides to fys toidge scale the walls that have been built between us and to recognize that these are these are false and artificial divisions. these are man made divisions. and if they were made by man, then they can also be fixed by man. >> brown: the book is "caste," by isabel wilkson. thank you very much. >> thank you.

there are those inning homes who have survived the disease spite their age. tonight's tonight we feature grace davis who shares werhat h experience was like. >> i was a victim of the coronavirus, and i st sayi'm happy that i survived it and told i did come down with a fever. trfhfully, i wasn't aware it, and it might be that i was not mentally fang it.be there han no activity in the ha sirdression because on, so i said, when i was asked to be interviewed, only if i can have my hair done,nd that's what happened, i had my hair done, so i'm number one on the hit parade. i'm 10years old, and i live in

a retirement development called the mary wade home which is in new haven, connecticut. as a littleirl, we lived in a tenement, actually, in harlem, new york,t on 1h street. i never heard of a pandic before this one. we had what we called epidemics, and one was whooping cough. i remember my mother aking us on the subway to the staten island ferry during the whooping cough epidemic because saltwater was good for the whooping cough. i remember that very clearly. while my life hasn't changed much, and i feel like i still can have some fun and a few laughs and still have my mentala lities -- or faculties, i should say -- (--laughter) ll i know is that i tell all

call my hair dresser first.e i want to ha my hair done and look well at my funeral. (laughter) i've led a nice life. i have bn eevery fortunate. i would like to be remembered as a good friend, as aood relative, and as a good person who lived on this wonderful earth and hope that it all works out well. my name is grace weisman spiegel davis, and this is my not so brave but spectacular life. >> woodruff: grace weisman spiegel davis, we are so you survived, and a lot of us share your appreciation for hair dressers. that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm judy and that's the newghour for toni i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs

newshour, thank you, please stay fe, and see you soon. >> major funding for t pbs newshour has been provided by: >> consumer cellular understands that not everyone needs an unlimited wireless plan. our u.s.-based custom c service repsan help you choose a plan based on how much you use your phone, nothing more, nothing less. to learn more, go to consumerceular.tv >> when the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management, a dedicated advisor can tailor advice and recommendate.ns to your l that's fidelity wealth management. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the

frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the onsupport of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. station from viewers like you.bs thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbhce .wgbh.org

hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. more than a billion children around the world are out of school and getting them back can be a life-or-death decision s i'llak with the school superintendent in mississippi facing tt dilemma as infections are already rising. nd to arnan du the former u.s. secretary of education,k whose bo's furious leaders who put kids in danger. ♪ put your han the air >> megan rapinoe, superstar athlete, activist and rolees model, tn a new challenge. hosting a political talk show for hbo. and later -- >> seeing the suffering and death around us from this pandemic, i'm n immun from wondering why would a loving god allow such a thing to happen.