[captioning made possible by democracy now!] from pacifica, this is democracy now! shocked. i thought it was a nightmare. it was crazy. your friend getting shot in front of you. it is horrifying, scary. amy: those are the words of the baton rouge shop owner who witnessed and filmed last week's police killing of alton sterling. abdullah muflahi. what happened next to mulfahi may shock you. police detained him, took his

phone, and seized the store security camera footage without a warrant. he wilill join us today along wh an atlanta man who says he too has been targeted by police after posting the alton sterling video online. chris leday says police detained at a u.s. air force base and let him away in shackles. then to new york where two years ago this week eric garner died in staten island after officers wrestled him to the ground, pinned him down, and applied a fatal chokehold. >> i can't breathe. i can't breathe. i can't breathe. i can't breathe. i can't breathe. i can't breathe. >> b backup. amy: the man who filmed the police killing of eric garner,

ramsey orta, is now heading to jail for four years on unrelated charges -- making him the only person at the scene of garner's killing who will serve jail time. we will speak to garner's daughter erica and "rolling stone" reporter matt taibbi. we will also talk about bernie sanders' endorsement of hillary clinton. all that and more, coming up. welcome to fromom pacifica, this is d docracy nowow! president obama has called for unity while speaking in dallas at a memorial for five police officers killed by a sniper thursday evening. the shooter, micah xavier johnson, opened fire at the end of an anti-police brutality march, killing five officers, and wounding at least 7 more. johnson was an army veteran who served in afghanistan in 2014. a female soldier

accused him of sexual harassment, took out a restraining order, he was sent back to the u.s. by the army. speaking tuesday, president obama acknowledged racial discrimination exists within police departments. president obama: perhaps we have heard prejudice in our own heads and felt that in our own hearts. we know that. and well some suffer far more , some feelm's burden to a greater extent discrimination's sting. although most of us do our best to guard against it and teach our children better, none of us is entirely innocent. no institution is entirely immune. and that includes our police departments. we know this. amy: president obama will meet today in washington dc with law enforcement officials and civil

rights leaders, as daily demonstratations against policee brutality continue across the country. meanwhile, the losos angeles policece commission has ruled officers did not violate the department's policy on the use of deadly force when they shot an african american woman last year. police have claimed redell jones was armed with a knife and had charged a police officer. but at least one witness said jones had her back turned to police when she was shot. after the commission's announcement, protesrs called for the resignation of the city's police chief during a demonstration inside city hall. >> black lives, ey matter r now. >> black lives they matter now. >> black lives, they matter here. >> say our namame. >> they will not be fired, they will note moved, notothing will happen to them. ththey keep p coming here, theyp asking us to have a dialogue

th us. we have beeeen having a a dialoe with them for r 11onths aroundd redell jones. we have been saying, give us justice, do something different. amy: the protest in los angelels cocomes amamid nationwide protes over the fatalolice shootingngs of african-american men, alton sterling in baton rouge, louisiana,a, and philando casti, in falcon heighthts, minnesota. we'll have more on the killing of alton sterling with abdullah muflahi, the triple s convenience store owner who filmed his death, and with chris leday, who posted the video of the police shooting g of alton sterling on social media and helped it go viral, after headlines. both have been detained by police. in news from the campaign trail, democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders has endorsed former secretary of state hillary clinton as the democratic party's presidential nominee, while speaking tuesday in portsmouth, new hampshire. senator sanders: she will be the democratic nominee for president .

i intend to do everything i can to m make c certain she will bee next president of the united states. amy: sanders's supporters have fought in recent weeks to have initiatives the senator championed in his campaign for the nonomination added t to the democratic platform. but both candidates said that with the election less than four months away, the most important thing was to unify the party around defeating presumptive republican presidential nominee donald trump. supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg has issued a scathing assessment of a potential donald trump presidency, calling trump a "faker" and saying "i can't imagine what the country would be -- with donald trump as our president." she went on, "how has he gotten away with not turning over his tax returns? the press seems to be very gentle with him on that." it is unusual for a sitting supreme court justice to speak out on presidential candidates, but ginsburg has recently made on-the-record remarks to several news organizations. trump responded by calling on

ginsburg to resign, tweeting, "her mind is s shot." ruth bader ginsburg is not the only judge donald trump has recently tangled with. the republican presidential candidate is a prolific litigator. donald trump and his companies have launched 1900 lawsuits since 1970. since he has become the presidential campaign, he has become involved in 70 new lawsuit. the republican party's platform may include the entirety of a bill that prevents federal funds from being used for abortions. the party will ratify the platform at their convention in cleveland next week. it also includes support t for a plan to build a wall on the beico border and a plan t to

anti-gay marriage -- also includes a rejection of same-sex marriage. meanwhile, pulitzer prize-winning hihistorian n davd mccullough and award-winning filmmaker ken burns have teamed up to launch the group "historians on donald trump." the facebook page includes a series of prominent t historia eaking about the dangersrs of a trump presidenency. this is mccullough. >> so much of what donald t trup spouts is bobolder. he i is unwisise, plainly unprprepared,, unqualified, anae often seems ununhinged. how can we possibly put our future in the hands of such a man? amy: that is historian david mccullough, speaking about donald trump. the two-time pulitzezer prize winner for the biographies "truman" and "john adams" has historically refused to comment on contemporary election cycles, saying his specialty is "dead politicians." other historians involved in the group include ron chernow, whose pulitzer prize-winning biography "hamilton" served as inspiration for the hit musical, david levering lewis, biographer of w.e.b. dubois, and vicki lynn ruiz, former president of the

american historical association. in britain, theresa may is becoming the prime minister today, as david cameron tenders his resignation at buckingham palace. this comes less than a month after britain shocked the world by voting to leave the european union -- a move strongly opposed by cameron. he announced within hours of the referendum that he would resign by october, although it had been expected he would stay in power at least through the summer. theresa may becomes only the second woman to serve as prime minister in british history. she has served as the home secretary since 2010. as a parliamament member, she supported the war in iraq, and she voted to deploy british troops to afghanistan, libya, iraq, and syria. this past may, she voted in favor of repealing britain's human rights act. she has, however, worked to fight police corruption and has challenged the british police's "stop and search" policies -- which is similar to "stop and frisk" in the united states. meanwhile, labor party leader jeremy corbyn has been assured

of a place on the ballot in upcoming party leadership elections after surviving a coup waged by more conservative members of the labor party. the chinese government has rejected a an inteternational ct ruling on itits dispute with the philippines over territory i in the south china sea. the south china sea is one of the busiest trade routes in thee world and also contains significant oil and gas reserves. the filipino government had asked the international court of arbitration to take up the issue after complaining the chinese government was preventing filipino fishermen from working near a chain of islands claimed by both cocountries. amnesty international has accused the egyptian government of making enforced disappearances an instrument of state policy. the report focuses on 17 cases in which prisoners were held incommunicado for as long as seven months. the egyptian government has jailed more than 30,000 people for political activism since 2013, when the government of democratically elected president mohammed morsi was overthrown a military coup. the report says that forced

disappearances have increased in the last year. the u.s. briefly put military aid to egpyt on hold after the coup, but has since resumed its support for the government there. and, in new haven, connecticut, and african-american dishwasher has lost his job at yale university after he intentionally smashed a stained-glass panel that depicted enslaved africans carrying bales of cotton. corey menafee worked at yale's residential dorm calhoun college. he says he used a broomstick to knock the panel to the floor a month ago because the image was "racist, very degrading." he said, "it's 2016; i shouldn't have to come to work and see things like that. calhoun college is named after former vice president john c. calhoun, one of the most prominent pro-slavery figures in history. students have demanded the building costs name be changed. and those are some of the headlines. democracy now!,

democracynow.org, the war and peacace report. i'm amy goodman. juan: i'm juan gonzalez. on tuesday, president obama spoke in dallas at a memorial service for the five dallas police officers killed by sniper. the shooter, micah xavier johnson, opened fire at the end of an anti-police brutality march, killing five officers, and wounding at least 7 more. obama urged the nation to reject despair saying the country is not as divided as it may seem. president obama: i know that americans are struggling with what we have witnessed over the past week. first, the shootings in minnesota and baton rouge, the targeting ofn the police by the shooter here. and active demented violence and racial hatred.

angry us are wounded and and hurt. it is as if the defense fall lines of our democracy have suddenly been exposed, perhaps even widened. juan: for the past week protests against police violence have spread across the country. tens of thousands have taken to the streets. hundreds have been arrested. the protests began in the wake of the fatal police killings of alton sterling in baton rouge, louisiana, and philando castile in falcon heights, minnenesota. today, we look at a side of the baton rouge story that has received little attention - what has happened to the individuals who filmed and distributed the shocking videos of alton sterling's death. the videos show a baton rouge police officer pinning sterling to the ground outside a convenience store, then pointing a gun at his chest and opening fire. a warning to our television audience: this video is graphic.

>> he's got a gun! >> [indiscernible] [gunshots] [screaming] >> get on the ground! [gunshots] >> [indiscernible] >> what did you do that for, man? >> s shots fired. shots fired. amy: that video was filmed by abdullah muflahi owner of the triple s convenience store where sterling died. he recorded it on his cell phone. muflahi has since filed a lawsuit against the city of baton rouge, the baton rouge city police, and four of its officers. the lawsuit alleges the police took his phone, locked him for hours s in a police car, and seized his security camera footage without a warrant. the lawsuit also contends muflahi was prevented from making a phone call to his family or an attorney. he is seeking damages for false

imprisonment and the illegal taking of his property as well as for release of his store's security camera footage. activists say this fits a pattern of police retaliation against people who dare to film police misconduct. in new york city, ramsey orta, who filmed the police killing of eric garner, is slated to go to jail for four years on unrelated charges -- making him the only person at the scene of eric garner's killing who will serve jail time. we speak to eric garner's daughter later in the show. right now, joining us from baton ,ouge, is abdullah muflahi along with his lawyer, joel porter. we welcome you both. explain what happened on that fateful day when alton sterling was shot dead by the police. where were you, what did you see? it looks like we may have just lost the satellite connection to

baton rouge, but we have it back. if you can explain what you saw. abdullah: by the time i got out the store, they were already slamming him on top of the car. him.were tasering that is when another officer ran and tackled him onto an suv and then both cops slammed him on the floor. amy: did y you have your cell phone out at this time? abdullah: when they slammed him on the floor, that is when i pulled it out and started recording. juan: what happened subsequent to thahat as you were recording? abdullah: i'm sorry? juan: what happened after you started recording? abdullah: that is when one of the officers screamed out, "gun" and opened fire on him. juan: at what point did they become aware that you were there

and move toward you? abdullah: after the shooting. , one they had killed him of the officers got up and grabbed me. when back up had arrived, he grabbed me and pushed me toward another officer and told him to put me in the back of a car. amy: what was your reaction to what you were filming? i know it happened very quickly, but as you are filming, seeing the officers on top of alton sterling and then shooting him. abdullah: i was in shock. i did not know if it was real or if i was in a nightmare. i did not know what was going on. acquaintance of yours, wasn't he? the victim? abdullah: yes. juan: could you tell us how you knew him? abdullah: well, when i first

moved to down to baton rouge, he was in front of the store that i first started working at. that is how me and him actually met. amy: do you on the store now? abdullah: this is a different store from when i met him and yes. amy: now he was selling cds in front of the store, the triple s, where the police --? abdullah: yes. amy: what happens to you then? what did you hear the officers say and what happened to you after alton sterling was killed? abdullah: well, after the shooting, one of the officers that was there, i'm not sure what he said, but the other officer close to me had said, him, just let him lay

there." talking about mr. sterling. amy: you heard an officer say "eff him, just let him lay there?" using a curse? abdullah: yes. juan: at some point, while they had you in the car, they went into grabbed the store video? could you explain what happened there? first, theyll, at asked me if they can copy the surveillance. i told them i would like to be present if they were going to go in. they told me that it was not possible and that i could not watch the footage because i'm a witness. they went inside my store anyway and when they came back, i had knocked on the window and told one of the officers to tell them that i did not want them inside my store without me being present.

that is when they came to me and told me that they were going to go get a search warrant and just take the surveillance camera. amy: did they get the warrant? abdullah: i was never presented with a warrant at all. amy: where were you taken? how long were you held? they took your cell phone, but you got it back. did you post that video online that we watched? abdullah: me and my lawyer ended up taking it to a tv channel, a news channel, and gave it to them. porter, you are his attorney. could you summarize your complaint, your legal complaint, and how you feel the officers violated his rights here? joel: they violated his rights in manany ways. fifirst of all, he was only an innocent person, a person who

witnessed a horrible killing. he was illegally detained for six hours. hot hours in the back of a police car. he w was not permitted to go to the bathroom. when he asked to go to the bathroom, he was escorted to the side of a building, where he was forced to use thee bathroom in the public's site. he was not allowed to go back inside of the building, his busisiness was commandeered fort least six hours. he was taken down to police headquarters where he was once again detained illegally for two hours behind closed doors. this is not ththe kind of activy in how a police officer should treat innocent people in society. he is an innocent victim. my client believed that those responsible, baton rouge city police, should be held responsible for illegally detaining him, for illegally commandeering and seizing his building, and the security

equipment out of his building. he jusust wants them t to be hed accountable. he wants america to know how he was treated. he wants somebody to be held responsible. did not. porter, they merely copy the surveillance video, they confiscated it, right? joel: they confiscated the entire security system. amy: the camera and the video? joel: without a warrant. they took the video footage and the equipment. what they did, they swooped down in an effort to control ththe evidence, in an effofort to control the witness, in an effort to control the narrative, they swooped down to grab the witnesses, the grabbed my client, they grabbbbed the cell phone. they seized them and that was once again in an effort to control the narrative of what happened. they did not know that he had taped the killing and had they known that, , he never would hae gottenen his cell phone back.

we f felt that it was i importat that america see the violence that black males face in this society. amy: the authorities say they handed it over to the justice department, which has taken over the investigation here. what about that? it is my understanding that doj is involved. they are having conversations with the f dei. i know they are involved. it has been turned over. amy: can you, abdullah muflahi, as we show the video, take us through what you are filming? you've got these two officers. you came out when alton sterling was on the ground. is that right? out -- i'mo, i came sorry, i came out while he was hood slammed on top of a

of the car. amy: why did they say they were doing this to him? sayllah: they did not anything. i did not even know. he did not even know what was going on. he was confuse the whole time. he was asking, "what did i do wrong?" juan: when you say that he was on the hood of the car, you are saying they already tasered him before he went down to the ground in the video that we see? abdullah: yes. tasered him after they slammed them on top of the hood. they backed up off of him and tasered him. that is when the other cop ran and tackled him. amy: was alton sterling saying anything? abdullah: he was telling them, "what did i do wrong?" he was pretty confused. he did not know what was going on, why they were there or what happened to even have them out

there in the first place. juan: and the shooting that we see in the video, were those the only shots the police fired? abdullah: yes. six shots they had fired. amy: we are going to break and when we come back, we will also be joined by a man from atlanta, georgia, who posted video online of this very same shooting. abdullah muflahi's video and the video posted by this man are the two we have seen of alton sterling's death. we will be joined by chris leday in addition to abdullah muflahi and his attorney. he posted it, he was shackled on a military base where he worked, and held for more than a day. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "one hot night" on democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. with juan gonzalez. juan: protests have spread across the country. tens of thousands have spread across the country. totoday, we are looking at a sie of the baton rouge story that has received little attention, what happened to the individuals who filmed and distributed the shocking videos of sterling's death? ,my: we turn now to chris leday who posted online the first video that went viral. he obtained the video from a friend of a friend. he showed the video with 10,000 followers on facebook, twitter,

and instagram. soon after it went viral, he said he was detained at his job. police then let him from his job in shackles. he was released after paying $1200 in traffic fines. he now feels his job is inin jeopardy. he is joining us in atlanta. welcome. explain what happened. how you got the videotape of the police killing of alton sterling and what happened after you posted it. chris: thank you for having me, first of all. originally, i'm from baton rouge. that is why this hits close to home. i just live in atlanta. i received the video from a girl who knew the young lady who shot the video. , ing that i have a platform knew we could put it on to tryry to make it go viral. at was the main goal for me from the jump. louisiana, wen

always have a high public corruption rate. we have the highest prison right person had i in the world -- per head in the world. it shows how they always try to keep us in prison. when i got the video, the main thing i wanted to do was put it out there because it was a cold-blooded case of murder, clear-cut. i wanted to put that on display so these cops could stop getting away with this type of ordeal. juan: when you said you posted it because of the platform that you have, how have you amassed this significant following on various social media? musician and a leader in the community. i hope a lot of other musicians that are popular now a mass success with their careers, as well. that is how i gained my following. strictly through business and a lot of the work i have done in the area. video,fter posting the

tell us what h happened to you. back -- ias coming was in new orleans the night that the shooting happened. the very next day when i received the video, i was headed back to atlanta that day to go to work. when i come into work, the protocol is i don't have an official badge yet, because i've been at the job about a month. the jobless so flexible, i was able to work -- the job was so flexible, i was able to work when i wanted to, which was one of the key factors of me taking the job. if you don't have the paper that gets you on and off the base, all you have to do is show your id and you call the person from the job to come up front and escort you want, which i did. that they were taking a long time with my identification. as time passed, i saw my coworkers come up front to the

gate and they would not let him come near me. they kept him about 40-50 feet away from me. what wasied to ask going on, they asked me to stand in a certain area. literally, i'm confused as to why it is taking them so long to get on base. i'm trying to go to work. minutes, i 30 decided that i seal these extra cops coming up, there are more cops coming up, so i decided to take action in my own hands and i put it on facebook. i tagged my mother and my father and i let them know. i said, i'm surrounded by cops right now, city and military. know that if you anything happens, i'm not resisting. basically letting them know that i was being cooperative because these days, you can't really trust the cops, point blank, i did not know what was going to happen next. i asked the cop, i said, and my

being g detained? he said, yes. i said, for what? he said, we will let you know shortly. which is illegal to be detained without being let no what is going on. they come back several minutes aner and tell me that i have open warrant for assault and and somebody's reading me my rights and putting my caps on. i stayed calm because i'm six foot 370 pounds. i did not want to give them a reason to put their h hands on e asaside from putting the c cuffn me. i kind of just chuckled and said, i've never been arrested a day in my life. it was a shock to me. amy: then what happened? --is: well, they escorted me the air force base did not have an official jail cell, so they took me to the headquarters and put me in there for an hour and a half. i'm questioning them about this charge and they know little to

nothing about how this charge came about. that i told me earlier fit the description. that was as vague as he was. that fit the description. i'm like, the description of what? they never said what i fit the description of. they told me it was eventually about the case that i had for assault and battery, which i've never been arrested for in my life. amy: are you still in shackles? chris: not yet. at this point, i'm just in handcuffs. they wait for the police to show up. the dumb woodie cop shows up and he has all of my charges on paperwork, on his paperwork. i just so happened to look over my shoulder and look down at the paperwork and i see that there is no aggravated assault and battery on there, it is only traffic tickets that i had from a couple of to -- of years ago that needed to be paid. i asked about the assault and battery charge.

i said, what happened to it? they simply said, i guess not. they left it at that. the cop then decides to take it a step further. he asks me to see my legs. i am wondering why he wants to see my legs. he puts shackles on my legs to escort me from the military base to the prison. before i walk out the door, i said, i looked at the cop who is in charge, which was a black man and i said, really, brother? 2016 and you are allowing us to get shackled? the guy put his head down. he shook his head. he escorted meme to jail. jujuan: so, they came to a military base, arrested you, shackled you, and it was all over traffic tickets? soon after you posted this video. chris: yes, sir. the crazy thing is, an investigative reporter called me

last night and he said he called the police to get down to the bottom of it and dobbins said that they were looking for me and they told them that they attached by name to the base and they knew i was coming to work that day, so when they came, they should hold me. the police told the investigative reporter that they were never looking for me. it was just a case -- which was strange to me because when it is a traffic situation, if they catch you in traffic and you just so happen to run your name, that is a different story. nobody sets up a sting operation to detain somebody for traffic tickets. that is the thing i'mm trying to make people realize. amy: did they ever mention to you the video that you posted online? chris: they never did mention it. however, the county told me i was not able to -- they said i had no bond.

about it.very adamant customarily, you get to see a judge the next day for things of that nature. they told me i would have to wait until next wednesday, which would have been a full seven days away to see a judge for this case. amy: so what happened? my son's mother, heher mom is a lawyer, she c called arorod to get to the bottom of it. they just wanted the $1200 i owe them in traffic fines, to send the e perwork ovover to release me. the county was pretty adamant about saying i still did not have a bond. essentially, they dressed me out , they put me in an orange jumpsuit, they assigned me to my own cell with a cellmate, they fully processed me for something i should have been able to pay and get out of jail for. they ended up fully processing me and i'm just playing the waiting game. theyt waited until luckily sent the proper paperwork

through and they ended up letting me go. they never said anything else about the assault and battery charge. they never said anythihing about any of the other matters that took place. amy: have you gone back to work on the military base? chris: my job is still at the near. it is contingent upon the same people who arrested me, for them to clear me to be able to come back on the base. when i spoke to my supervisor the following day, they do a strict background check, a security clearance, you have to have a security clearance to be evil to work around these military planes. -- to be able to work about these military planes. he said, we figured you knew better than to admit prior information. i was like, exactly. i would not omit information of that magnitude. i would never leave that off if

i had an assault and battery charge. my supervisor said, we were not even worried about traffic tickets. that would not have affected your job in the first place. amy: you served in the military? chris: yes, ma'am. i was in the u.s. air force. so, are you sorry you posted a video of the police killing of alton sterling? chris: not at all. because the main thing i wanted to do was try to help the sterling family get justice and use my platform to put these cops on display. i think it was an atrocity and they handled it wrong. it was a clear-cut case of murder, in my opinion, even though i am not an expert. i saw his son crying on television. that really broke my heart. i have three children. i'm very active in their life. specifically, i have two boys. being black men in this country,

especially in louisiana, it feels like it is almost illegal to be black and it broke my heart to see him crying for his father who he will never see again, all due to negligent police behavior. something has to be done about it. amy: i wanted to turn to that moment when alton sterling's family addressed the media. this is the mother of sterling's son cameron, who is 15. cameron is the child. at the beginning of the press conference, he consoled his mother and then he broke down into the arms of supporters standiding behind the two of th. >> the individuals involved in his murder took away a man with children, who depended upon .heir daddy on a daily basis my son is not the youngest.

he is the oldest of his siblings. he is 15 years old. this as it was and everything that was possible to be shown. amy: that is cameron, the 15-year-old son of alton sterling, crying at the news conference next to his mother. i wanted to get your thoughts, chchris, and then abdullahah mui , who knew alton and the family. my thoughts on just hearing that audio clip, i'll most cry just now, you know. i cannot imagine not being able

to c come home to my kids. those was sitting in jail 26 hours, my boys had to stay with my daughter's mom from a previous relationship. all the kept saying was, "i just want my dad." and i'm sitting in jail for something i didn't do, basically exposing the underhanded nests of the baton rouge cops. and the murder they just committed on camera. they need to be held accountable for it and we see what theyey he done. in batonllah h muflahi rouge, how long did you know alton sterling for? did you know his family? did you know his son? i've known him for six years. yes, i knew his son.

his son was at the store with him a few weeks ago on his dad's birthday. he cannot with his dad. after they -- he came out with his dad. after they leftt the store, , ty went to o the movies together. joel: you also need to be aware mr. abdullah muflahi has received death threats, negative hate. we need to get behind mr. abdullah muflahi, we need to protect him. he is only an innocent victim in this matter and yet he is being held responsible for what baton rouge city police officers did. juan: has there been any reaction or communication between baton rouge police department and yourself since your client was first grabbed and then released? joel: none, whatsoever. amy: abdullah muflahi, do you you were right in making

sure that the video that you took got out and was seen by giving it to a tv station? abdullah: certainly, definitely. amy: well, i want to thank you all for being with us. we will continue to follow what is happening with the family of alton sterling, w with thee protests taking place in baton rouge, and in both of your cases, abdullah muflahi, who owns the triple s convenient store outside of which police killed alton sterling, and chris leday, in atlanta, who got the second video online to show the police killing of alton sterling. thank you so much for being with us, as well as joel porter. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. when we come back, it has been two years since eric garner was in a choke hold

in staten island. we will be joined by his daughter ericaca, as welell as e "rolling stone" reporter matt to -- taibi. ♪ [music break]

amy: the words of eric garner over john cole train's "alabama." democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. with juan gonzalez. juan: two years ago, eric garner died after officers pinned him to the ground and applied a fatal chokokehold. >> put youour hands behind your head. >> i can't breathe. i can't breathe. i can't breathe. i can't breathe. i can't breathe. i can't breathe. i can't breathe. >> once again, police beating up on people. >> backup.

juan: the man who filmed the police killing of eric garner, ramsey orta, is heading to jail on unrelated charges, making him the only person at the scene of the killing who will serve jail time. last week, he typically deal on weapons and drug charges. he said he has been repeatedly arrested and harassed since he filmed the fatal chokehold nearly two years ago. amy: the death spurred protests over the new york police department's use of excessive force and cracking down on low-level offenses. aic garner's family reached $5.9 million settlement last july. to talk more about where the case stands today and the fact that ramsey orta will be going to jail and a also bernie sand'' concession to hillary clinton, daughter.er's

we are also joined by matt taibi , working on a book on eric case, the author of a number of books, including "the divide." i'm so sorry, erica, to see video after video of police killing culminating and once again seeing the video of your father gasping and saying, "i can't breathe." you have been speaking out publicly about this. you have not stopped. i protested. i've exhausted all avenues. i even endorsed bernie sanders to get my message out. we keep having the conversation i exhausted for two years. how much talking do we need to have?

,he black lives matter movement very compassionate, patient, begging the nation. we are being attacked as black people, we are being gunned down every day and these officers are not being held accountable. no charges from tamir rice to my dad to freddie gray. to theour reaction events last week. two more incidents. erica: all i'm hearing is conversation. we need legislation put in place. we need a special prosecutor. they are just now using a special prosecutor for a guy last week named delroy smalls. that was the undercover police officer who shot a black man. amy: this was the off-duty

police officer who shot delron smalls. erica: yes. we need some type of legislation put in place. we need a special prosecutor. governor cuomo put that as an executive order temporarily after my father passed away and no one is talking about it. .o one is trying to make it amy: the reason we know exactly what happened in your father's death because of that videotape. the man who filmed the police can deal -- video of your father, ramsey orta, is headed to jail for four years on unrelated charges. last week, he took a plea deal on weapons and drug charges. he has said he has been repeatedly arrested and harassed by police. earlier this year, he came to democracy now! ramsey: clearly, that was the

first thing that came out of his mouth. we filmed it. he said, do you have your cameras out? we had the phones instead of the guns or anything. i asked, why is he filling me? he said, because you filmed us. amy: that is ramsey orta speaeaking on democracynow! the significance of what he did. at a memorial service that was held, there is actual applause during the service for one man, for ramsey orta, who was sitting in the audience. erica: it showed the courage to do it and also he told the whole world, he showed the whole world what exactly went on. if there was no video, we would not know how he was killed.

we don't have that from the police department. we don't have transparency. a new body cameras would be a bad idea if it was not federal legislation or some type of thing that says, if you mess with this camera, if you turn it off, or if anything goes wrong, you will be held accountable. now, you are hearing cases like the camera fell off, like in the alton sterling case. it is basically our word against theirs. i wanted to bring you in. you have been doing research consistently on the eric garner case. this whole issue, as we have seen, in the alton sterling case, where e somebody does do independent filming and they are confiscated, meanwhile,e, the police c cameras falloff.

the importance of these cameras and the battle over cameras. matt: it is critically important that citizens make these recordings. i think the eric garner case plays a classic example of why this is necessary. reports later surfaced that the official police report later that evening left out the fact that a chokehold had been used. had there been no film of what happened, we might never have heard of this case. it would have gone down, probably, as an accident that took place where a person who is in bad health simply gave out in the middle of a routine arrest. have the video, we saw exactly what happened. it is critically important that people make these videos. issink what is going on now that now everybody has cell phones and people are seeing how common this is. can you talk about what is

happening now with the federal investigation? the police officer in the case was not charged. you did havave a lawsuit, the family had a lawsuit that was settled for $5.9 million. but the federal investigation, what is that? this is two years now. erica: yes. it is like the doj is dragging their feet. a couple of months ago, i sat on a civil liberties panel and i ,indly asked robert menendez what is taking so long? how come the family did not get no answers on my father's case? they told me they would answer my question soon. here we are almost to the two-year anniversary and i see how tocle out about federal prosecutors in brooklyn

and prosecutors from washington are fighting over whether or not there is enough evidence to go on. the brooklyn side is saying, we don't have enough evidence. the people from washington are saying, we do, we want to push forward. it is up to loretta lynch to make the decision. even some of the basic information two years later is not out. for instance, the past record of the officer involved, in terms of his excessive force decisions in previous cases. what is happening? erica: i put in countless foia requests. the response i get was letters underneath my door or males from the nypd telling me i have to ask the officer for permission to look at his records.

what i'm asking for is unwarranted, they say. what could be more warranted than his daughter asking about what complaints was made against this man? amy: matt, if you could talk more about this in this major piece the times did about this battle that is going on within the justice department about whether to even continue with this investigation in the eric garner death. matttt: if i could follow up quickly on this issue of the personnel records. . this is been a fight that has been going on for two years. the legal aid society filed suit and actually got a judge to order the civilian complaint to disclose very limited information about how many substantiated abuse complaints there were in his file. the city could have just released the information, but they chose to appeal and they

are fighting this basically to the death. it is now two years and it will probably be three years before this is resolved and the law is not on the civilian side. it says you need the express, written permission of the police officer to obtain personnel records. of the new york civil rights code. it provides extraordinary protection to police officers. it is extremely difficult for somebody, even a family member of a victim, to get to those records. it is a most impossible. that is one of those things that has played out in this case. amy: erica garner, i wanted to get your response to bernie sanders now conceding that hillary clinton ishe t democratic presumptive presidential nominee. you campaigned with bernie sanders, he made a tv commercial with you as the subject. taking on the issue of police brutality. what are your thoughts today?

how your story, what happened to your dad, the issues you care about, are you also throwing your support to hillary clinton? throw mywill my -- support toward any presidential nominee that is going to show you what the doj will look like, what they are going to do about the crisis going on in america right now, and that is going to stand behind the chokehold bill. james has been putting that bill in for a while and has not gotten support from anyone. any elected officials. it is like, right now, every elected official in the house is up for election. , we refuse our vote until they hear our issues. juan: the chokehold bill? erica: it will make it illegal

officer'sthe police to choke anyone. it is a new york police department policy, but it is not a law. amy: according to the e "new yok lawsuithe last time a for deadly force was brought against the new york police was in 1998. i want to thank you both for being with us. i want to thank you both for being with us. erica garner, even on the second anniversary of your father's death. our condolences to you and your family. thanks so much, matt, for being with us and pursuing this case for rolling stone and for your book. that does it for our broadcast. after the conventions, we will be broadcasting to our specials every day from cleveland next week and then from the

democratic convention in philadelphia. i will be doing a convention wrapup at provincetown town hall and in martha's vineyard. i'm amy goodman. thanks so mu