tv Democracy Now LINKTV August 25, 2014 8:00am-9:01am PDT
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from pacifica, this is democracy now! >>from pacifica, this is democracy now! we're not going to be restricted by borders. >> as the islamic state seizes a major air base in syria, will the united states respond with airstrikes inside syria? we will speak with vijay prashad . then, to the streets of staten
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island new york. thousands marched to protest the death of eric garner. >> no justice, no peace. reston priest eric garner, mike brown, trayvon martin. >> then, we go to ferguson misery, where the funeral is being held for michael brown. we will speak with the hip-hop star, talib kweli. >> the fact that he is someone who could be my son, someone who could be me, someone i relate to on a lot of levels, being a black man and my experience in america, it touched me in a way that the news stories could not capture. >> all of that and more, coming up. democracy now!.
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has level of a 12 story apartment building and a seven story office roaming as it continues its assault on gaza. than 100 palestinians have been killed since israel resumed airstrikes last week. on saturday and sunday, medics said at least 22 people were killed, including a one-year-old girl and a mother and three children from the same family. beenal palestinians have killed today, including a three-year-old boy. on friday, a four-year-old israeli boy was killed by a mortar near the gaza border, becoming the first israeli child killed in the nearly seven-week conflict. 500 palestinian children have been killed over the same period. the occupied west bank am a 14 euro boy who was shot during a protest against the gaza assault on friday has died from his wounds. benjamin netanyahu to continue the airstrikes. >> hamas will pay and pay heavily for its crimes.
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every one of these places is a target for us. >> there has been talk of a possible breakthrough that could lead to the resumption of talks between israel and hamas over another cease-fire, but nothing has been announced. hamas said it supports the push to bring the conflict before the international criminal court, a move that could expose, us and israel to probes into possible war crimes. --fficial, mushir al-masri hamas official mushir al-masri said israel has more to fear. the nations resisted occupation. we are in a state of self defense. >> more than 300 people affected by the holocaust have published "ongoingcondemning the
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genocide of palestinian people. in the letter, published in theyday's new york times, wrote "genocide begins with the silence of the world." in washington state, protesters converged on the port of tacoma in a bid to block bm loading of an israeli cargo ship. the block the boat action in tacoma came after a similar campaign at the port of oakland and california. among those attending the protest was cindy corrie, whose daughter was crushed to death by an israeli army bulldozer while trying to protect a palestinian home in gaza from demolition. step tois an important raise our voices, to challenge
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occupations, to challenge the siege of gaza and to challenge the violence. the -- iran claims to shut shot down an israeli spy drone near anz nuclear enrichment site. iran is in ongoing talks with its -- over its nuclear program, which it insists is peaceful. michael brown will be remember today at a funeral in st. louis, missouri. his father has requested a day of silence and after two weeks of nightly protest and ferguson. the death of the unarmed black teenager by white police officer has sparked a national conversation about race. in new york, thousands marched in staten island to protest the police chokehold death of eric garner. the father six died after police
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wrestled him to the ground and pinned him down. was july 17. he was accused of selling was cigarettes. his death has feel the national debate about police use of excessive force and the nypd's policy of cracking down on low-level offenses. we will have more later in the broadcast. a u.s. journalist held for nearly two years by an al qaeda affiliate in syria has been released. the release of peter curtis came less than a week after the beheading of james foley by the islamic state in syria. the obama administration denied pay any ransom for curtis' release. an airts have stormed base and captured it from government forces in syria. at least 346 islamic state fighters and more than 170 members of government forces have died since tuesday in the fight over tabqa base.
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is obama administration considering expanding its airstrikes against the islamic state in iraq to include targets inside syria. islamist militants in libya say they have solidified control of the capital tripoli after taking over the main airport an outstanding -- and ousting rival militias. libya is facing its worst violence since the u.s. backed gaddafi inuammar 2011. the democratic republic of congo has confirmed an outbreak of ebola, which has killed at least 13 people. not linked to the one impacting four countries in west africa. that outbreak has killed more than 1400 people pull -- people. sierra loan has made harboring ebolanew -- harboring an
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become a crime punishable by up to two years in prison. -- quake hitde hit south of napa and wine country, and destroying homes, bursting water mains and sending wine bottles to the ground. more than 120 people were injured. losses could total $1 billion. rand paul has criticized hillary war.on for her stance on she voted for the 2003 u.s. invasion of iraq and criticized obama for not acting quickly to our rebels in syria. paul said voters might reject clinton if she is chosen as the next democratic nominee for president. election,neral there's going to be a lot of independents and some democrats who say we are tired of war, we are worried hillary clinton will
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get us involved in another war because she is so gung ho. if you want to see a transformational election, let the democrats put forth a war a warike demo night -- hawk like hillary clinton and you will see a change like you have never seen. militants from the islamic state stormed an air base in northeast syria, capturing it from government forces. least 346 islam and state fighters and more than 170 members of government forces have died since tuesday over the fight over tabqa base. pentagons as the insiders expanding airstrikes against the islamic state in iraq to include targets inside syria. hinted atpsey possible intervention against the islamic state in syria. >> this is an organization that has an end of days strategic
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vision which will have to be defeated. can they be defeated without addressing that part of the organization which resides in syria, the answer is no. that will have to be addressed on both sides of what is a nonexisting border. when we have a coalition in the region that takes on the task of defeating isis over time. dempsey spoke after the islamic state posted video showing james foley being beheaded. foley was captured in 2012. another journalist kidnapped in syria, peter curtis, has been freed after two years in captivity. during an interview sunday, general dempsey told reporters once he determines the islamic state militants have become a threat to the u.s. homeland, he will recommend the u.s. military
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move against the group. alsoiday, ben rhodes, raised the possibility of u.s. strikes inside syria. >> we are considering what will be necessary to deal with the threat. we will not be restricted by borders. we have been shown time and time again that if there is a threat, we will take action against that threat if necessary. meanwhile, officials say suicide bombers targeted a shiite mosque in baghdad. this comes after at least 68 when suspecteds members of a shiite militia attacked a mosque in diyala province. prominent sunni politicians
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pulled out of the talks to form a miller -- to form a more inclusive government. to talk more about the crisis, we are joined by vijay prashad. he is the author of several books. he is a columnist for the indian "frontline" where he has been writing about the islamic state. democracy now!. talk about what is happening in syria. it is interesting the united states is thinking of striking inside syria at this point. the question is, to what end? now, the state has taken a major airport outside --.
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it is a military airport. they have possession. they have surface to air missiles. that is not what they are after. what they are to make a move for syrian government control over the entire western plank of syria. they have an interesting , aition, to create a zone crescent, as it were, from tripoli out to northern iraq. to stop thenlikely march forward. it will help them. it will make them change direction. united states struck to protect 198 that thehe
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islamic state had taken in mosul . the islamic state turned around and went back towards trucker. -- towardsthe car drew car -- drukar. if you're going to defeat the state, it is going to have to come on the ground. -- that ise to come not something people are talking about. there is a belief in the silver bullet of aerial strikes. sounds like the americans are doing something, but it is not strategically useful in the long run. john mccain appeared on fox news and criticized president
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isis for not responding to more forcefully. >> they have obliterated the boundary between iraq and syria. are going to need more boots on the ground. that does not mean combat troops. rather than the incrementalism needwe are practicing, we a comprehensive strategy that can be explained to the american people, which is designed to defeat isis wherever they are. it is interesting that he talked about boots on the ground. going to wear those boots? american troops have tried to
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defeat the ancestors of the islamic state, which was al qaeda in mesopotamia. goingis a dangerous game on here from hillary clinton, the republicans. they want to make the case that the state is a child of the syrian war. they want to deny the fact that the state has its roots in the destruction of the iraqi states by the american invasion in 2003. it is easy to destroy a state. it took the iraqi people over 100 years to build and test to do -- to destroy an institution. a jordanian militant came in and created al qaeda and mesopotamia. bin laden found him to be unpalatable.
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he was extraordinarily violent. al americans tried to crush qaeda in mesopotamia, but by 2006, despite the surge and the bombing of falluja, names that the american public is familiar with, despite the raising of the razing of the cities, the islamic state was born. the americans have tried to defeat them. the whole province has been defeated in 2007, 2008. you cannot fight them with troops on the ground. that will unite people who are .ot behind isis
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the most powerful fighting force against the islamic state over the last two years have been the kurdish militia, but since the united states believes that the militias are terrorist organizations, partly because , on thes a native ally other hand they have been the most fierce fighters against the islamic states. united states is trapped by its syria and turkey policy and the inability to help reconstruct an iraqi state. >> will he be working with bashar al-assad? >> it is interesting. -- wase air base in seized, they say we need to deal
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from. theas the support front for syrian rebellion. over the course of 2012, 2013, some tension broke out between isis and --. al qaeda leadership intervened to say that -- is the authentic is the alnd syria qaeda in iraq. keep to your borders. that is what the statement came from. has been trying to differentiate a system. fightershters and isis have been fighting together. tocould be that nusra tried differentiate themselves from isis, on the other hand, it states arehat the feeling a lot of pressure to break their relationships with these groups and they persuaded
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nusra to release an american because what happened to john podesta james fully was disgusting and barbaric. ago, a majoreeks figure in saudi arabia, foreign minister made a statement that the only problem in the region is not the islamic state, what he was doing was pointing a finger at iran. the are afraid that if islamic state comes to dominate the politics of greater arabia, their principal contradiction, iran, is going to be forgotten. ofave a feeling the release theo curtis, a great thing that happened may have been a bargaining chip, much more than by nusra itself. >> was talk about saudi arabia. >> people very loosely -- what
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we forget is the government don't often support these groups. they know that the last thing they want to do is to have their hand in the back pocket of a group like the islamic state. --t you typically have is you independently donate small percentages of their holdings to various militant groups. if i get half $1 million to a group based in northern iraq and i set them off with guns and that is an enormous amount of money. a lot of money has been coming from private donations. when americans say you have to stop supporting these groups, we
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do not support them. the other side of it is not just support with money. there has been a crackdown by the saudi's over the last six to eight months against the muslim brotherhood. saudi arabia pledged a vast amounts of money to egypt. there is pressure to minimize the brotherhood role. similar things have happened in iraq and in syria. the tension is significant. inhas not stop the chaos northern syria and iraq.
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they have been making a because thatpush has been a channel through which foreign fighters have been coming in. because they controlled much of , they were able to get the first dibs, as it were. very large numbers of people have been coming into the islamic states. there are all kinds of numbers. no one knows whether to take things seriously. people say there are 10,000 people in the islamic state in the fighting brigade. some people have higher numbers than that. whatever the numbers might be, there are thousands of foreign fighters. these are the most dedicated and ruthless fighters. >> britain says they are about to identify the man who is standing over james foley.
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that he is most likely british. >> he is likely british, except that the accent is his accent and not that it was overdone. released whichs is apparently a british-muslim rapper. whatever is happening in the west, for whatever region, -- for whatever reason, the checks can fighters, the european fighters, some of the most brave and dangerous fighters, the people have been saying they can fight anybody with ease, but when they come up against the islamic state fighters, those guys are roofless. syrian army and the free syrian army are trade in a technique of fighting a battle. you set up an artillery.
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when it is quiet, you enter. that is how the americans fight. group -- a few ground troops in. they are roofless fighters. they cannot be defeated conventionally. unconventional fighting is necessary. they could not tackle the islamic state. >> president obama said the u.s. is going to save the is edie's and stop genocide. they said they were saved and people asked if the troops would be out and they said no, they would add many more troops. situation was a deeply troubling situation. is a diverse society.
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there are ancient names. you think these are biblical people, how are they alive? there are small valleys and ancient towns. when the islamic state moved in, it is suddenly the case that they have -- this is not the first time they have fled persecution. wanted to bring them down from the mountain. people are dangerous. that is his view. this is not the first time. it is interesting that president obama said america is going to help, help is on the way. , the kurdish, --, the farther in
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eastern provinces of syria, these fighters fought along the ground and opened a land court and gotnd corridor thousands of people through a difficult situation. when the first helicopter landed, to welcome them where the fighters. it was something the state department could not say in the briefing because it is a notified terrorist organization. when president obama says help is on the way, it was on the way, it was just not the americans. did the bombing help the --? not exactly. the bombing was of the attila read -- the artillery battalion.
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it was not entirely germane to the situation. the role of oil and what is happening in libya? >> the role of oil is not that significant. oilfields are very useful. the slamming state controls oilfields in syria. it sells the oil to everyone. they require oil. they are also hustlers. they are not all diehard militants. possession of oil is significant. one of the problems is that the baghdad government failed to pay the salaries of the bishop verga murder -- he dish
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bishmirga. baghdad has not been coming back and paying salaries. there is a push and turkestan -- . real push in kurdish stan an interesting development. what to say about libya? the slogan i have been trying to promote, you can build a state takes you 100 years, you destroy it in an afternoon. for all kindsoors of human rights. the fighting is so bad that the airports are closed, the governments are thinking of cruig a crews ship -- a se ship .
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>> on saturday, thousands marched in staten island, new york to protest the death of eric garner, who died after being placed in a police chokehold. the death of the 43-year-old african-american father of six debaterked a national about the new york police department's use of excessive force. many called for the officers to be brought to justice. was in staten
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island on the scene. as we walked the streets of staten island, you can see most of the stores are closed. this would be a busy saturday afternoon. we're going to the corner. >> i am the daughter. i am 24. my dad was a loving man. he was a nice man. he was very nice. you could never get a no out of him. he did whatever he could for anybody who came around him. everyone was touched by him.
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>> what does that mean to seeing so many people out today? >> my father's voices being heard. we are standing as one. there is a makeshift memorial here with candles and posters. say -- now.posters one of the police officers involved, just as for eric garner. just a few feet from here, we can see -- --. cell phone up his and film what happened.
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they do not want to talk today. after the corner's office declared it a homicide, ramsey was arrested and so was his wife. there are more than 1000 people here. iny are awaiting the march honor of eric garner. make the connections between the 'sath here and michael brown death and ferguson, missouri. >> "hands up, don't shoot" has become a mantra. people held up signs that said "i can't breathe.
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>> it says no justice, no peace, rest in peace. fallen soldiers. clicks did you make that yourself? >> i had some help from my sister. >> police officers need to be sensitive. family and trayvon martin's family and eric garner's family, they have so much pain. >> i am hurting. that is why i am out here. i was marching 50 years ago and i am marching for the same thing.
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it hurts. >> have we made progress? >> not enough. not when you see things like this. things like this and ferguson and staten island. it makes your heart. it really does. my kate says police of america fight hateful love. people plus evil never equals good. it is the longest petition cape in the world, shout out to guinness. >> i live in staten island. i go to school in the city and work in brooklyn heights. >> what have you learned in relation to what you are protesting about today.
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>> it is supposed to be about nypd. they have police advisers. they teach us about how it started in the best ways to try to change it. >> have you discussed the eric barner case? >> school has not started yet. i am sure it will be a topic once we start. i am a member of morningside meeting. ofkers have a long history nonviolence, civil resistance, civil disobedience. we stand for the protection of civil rights. what do you hope to accomplish with this protest? i am 18 and not get shot. you do not want to die in a matter of seconds because of cops. not get shot.and the wish of a 13-year-old girl.
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she is one of thousands of protesters marching against the police killing of eric garner. al sharpton introduces eric garner's widow. widow and mother of eric garner. >> i do not know what to say. what -- i do not know what to say. thank you so much for your support. we miss him so much. i do not know what else to stay -- to not know what else to say. thank you for coming out to support me and get justice for my husband. >> we have a retired police officer here in support of what we are doing. i want to bring him to the stage. -- will you stand by
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and [indiscernible] you are just as bad as the rest of them and all of you should be held accountable. say,ther thing i want to the reason why we want all of in the case to be held accountable and arrested, when our kids decide to do something that [indiscernible] case, andic garner's he said i cannot breathe and they did nothing, [indiscernible] >> my name is constance.
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the staten island da should not be prosecuting this case. cop --ot want the same when they dropped the ball. we cannot have that happen. we need the feds to come in and take this case. we need accountability. payeed these officers to the price for what they did to our sons. >> our next speaker is a congressman from brooklyn. congressman, if i was not on the floor of the house of representatives, if i were not , if i were not in a suit and tie, and i ran into a wrong police officer because i am a young black man in america, he might think i am a lawbreaker, but it turns out i am a lawmaker. ago, six members
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of the united states congress , wrote a letter to eric holder, urging that the department of justice get involved and investigate the case of eric garner and the nypd because of their broken window policing strategy. >> we have to accept this. struggle, too many tears. many victims have fell victim on the police who are supposed to serve and protect.
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we live in national competition that will continue to go on. the former governor of the state of new york. this is the 24th anniversary of the unfortunate murder of --. ofs is the 50th anniversary a terrible crime committed by a policeman when he shot a 15-year-old boy named james howell in harlem. it started the harlem riots. i want you to know that there was a case 72 years ago in the summer of 1942, that is when my father was the store with in front of all of his -- when my father was pistol whipped in friends.all of his
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are we committed to teach our children that i can always get better. we alld with you because understand, we can always make things better. thank you. speaker, the president of the united federation of teachers both supported the protests and came under fire from the police unions for green to participate in the rallies. [captioning made possible by democracy now!] [♪]
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rapper and activists. they spoke in a packed gym. >> we are in a st. mark's church and rosa cleeli mente. why have you come to ferguson? because id ferguson respect to life. i try to be a compassionate person. --espect people's bake is a people's basic right to exist. people's rights to due process. he is someone who
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could be my son, someone who could be me, someone i relate to on a lot of levels, being a black man. that thee in a way news stories could not capture. some of the other aspects are critical of al sharpton and jesse jackson, but these are people who never speak out on behalf of the people. want to show up myself so i can shine a light on the real protest movement that is going on here. a lot of people think that because they choose to ignore protests on a daily basis, they choose to ignore and on a daily basis, that the whole world is like that. -- wayk why there is no
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black man shoots a black man. they ask questions that deflect and distract from these things that happened to john crawford and eric garner and mike brown. it is such an ill pattern and i felt like i had to go past the retweets at this point. >> it is getting world attention. what can we learn as a country from what is happening here and ferguson. we shouldlearn that not give up our rights so quickly. terrorism has instilled, the fear has been used to convince us to voluntarily give away our rights. we have been talking about the abstract about the militarization of the police force and the byproduct of it and the ramifications and what it means for the rights of citizens and if ferguson -- and
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in the ferguson is the first time we get to flex some muscle. from thehe response people of the bundy ranch, they were talking about using women as shields and put women in the from because they know fleming get shot, those are images they want to put out to the world. guns at thenting fed. here, you have someone who bottle and that the reason to brutalize an entire community of people. >> there is a big protest over the death of eric garner, killed by a police chokehold. can you connect what is happening in your hometown to what is happening here and ferguson? ofnew york has a long story police brutality.
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just new york. connection of all these people who were murdered by police is what makes --. criticizeple protesters? they should not be looting. with all due respect, shut up. what do you -- were you talking about? rights thatn of our happen when people lose pales in comparison to the violation of rights -- why are you outraged about the reaction? is the fact that they're connected. this can expect to trayvon martin, way back to things in new york. next i to michael stewart, to new york 21.
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if you do not policy connection, that is what allows people to say that the rage is not justified, when they're able to look at things and think this is a vacuum and they are isolated incidents and not connected. these are patterns. mentioned the limitations of twitter. can you talk about that? >> i got a lot of flack from -- theypeople who think wrap themselves up in social media. it makes them feel warm and fuzzy to support causes on twitter. i understand that. i feel the same way. aen i am at my home or in hotel room or enjoying my privileged life and i am able to support a cause, that makes me
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feel warm and fuzzy. i feel good and able to do that. i get what feels good about twitter. be wheret i would not i am without twitter. i am on twitter all the time. however, i remember a world before the internet and i remember what it really takes to have a movement on the ground. did notthe day, they have twitter, but they have letters. they wrote letters to each other. letters did not start the revolution. look at the revolution what happened in egypt, when i look street,happened in wall without the bodies in the street, the people being there that,twitter work like
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there was no actual movement connected to --. nobody is on the ground. no flesh involved in those billions of tweets that broke the internet. it was a false movement. we can tweak. it does not change -- we can tweet. it does not change the fact that -- >> part of building the movement is also changing the narrative. it is not just african-american men being killed. there are women being terrorized by police sexually assaulted, murdered by police. what is happening on the borders ? you want talk about a militarized face in america, let's look at how militarized the border is. you to the history of new york
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put -- in a choke hold. they killed an african immigrant. there are some cases in a bigger with is how are we dealing the system of white supremacy? how are we dealing with a system -- as children, the , particularly, how we understand the systematic attack against us as a people. at kimberlyto look crenshaw, talks about the intersection of violence. there is no way we can not rebuild a movement based on what is happening now. >> they are changing the narrative on how we view capitalism.
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>> you are a popular hip-hop musician. can you talk about the response and responsibility of artists in times like these? >> artists have responsibilities to the communities that support the careers. cannot blame a baby for what he does not know. a lot of artists do not and have the -- a lot of artists do not informationitical to get involved. artists speak on real issues that our communities face, but for me, and is not about eight -- it is about a timing thing. respect, these are not guys that do not say nothing. based become got our community.
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to make your focus on the reaction, to me, that the flex and distracts what we should be focused on. that is feeling was of our presser. they don't want us thinking about the horrible circumstance, so they want us to focus on how you're acting now. if we start using the oppressor possibly which, we have no chance for justice on the ground. >let's say cop is arrested and sentenced to death. withve to be satisfied waiting for a verdict from a system that has --. that is what we should be talking about.
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looters, it is like malcolm said about airing your dirty laundry. when we get in the press and do the interviews, we need to be talking about these people who are organized to protest. people out there with justifiable rage. i have tweeted and talked about it and challenged. put the focus on that. can't just say that from an abstract place. at to myself here for people to hear me. -- i have to put myself here for peop to hear me. .> talib kweli visit our website to watch the
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