08/07/18 08/07/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: frorom pacifica, this is dedemocracy now!w! >> charlottesville rally is supposed t to bebout a confnfederate monument, but anye who was thing attention could e it was a about more e than a single statue. it felt like a national reckoning around race was coming. and being here would help me understand it will stop amy: a year after the deadly white supremacist rally in

charlottesville, virginia, far right groups are converging again this weekend, this time in washington, d.c. we will speak to a.c. thompson about his new documentarary. weweill also s speak with susan bro, the motrr of heatather heyer, the anti-racicist activit who was killed by a neo-nazi in charlottesville one year ago. see heathther's deathh had memeaning inin the wororld,t her deatath that purpose. happy to bewas not the one to have to make that sacrifice. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the trump administration has re-imposed economic sanctions

against iran following trump's decision to withdraw from the landmark 2015 iran nuclear deal. the re-imposition of sanctions increases tensions between the u.s. and iran and the u.s. and its european allies. this morning trump threatened other countries seeking to trade with iran, tweeting -- "anyone doing business with iran will not be doing business with the united states." trump withdrew from the nuclear agreemenent even though international experts certified iran was complying with the terms of the deal. on monday, iranian president hassan rouhani condemned the sanctions as psychological warfare and said he wouldn't begin negotiations until the sanctions are withdrawn. would be forstep u.s. president donald trump to show that he genuinely wants to engage in negotiation to solve a problem. what is the meaning of negotiations when you impose sanctions at the same time? it is like someone pulling a knife to stab a rival or enemy

in the arm, while at the same time claiming we should be talking and negotiating. the answer in such a case would be to say remove the knife from the arm and put the knife away. amy: in brazil, the workers party has nominated and imprisoned former president da silva as the party's presidential candidate. he is currently in gel serving a 12 year sentence on a corruption conviction. his party says it was politically motivated. whole show him as the front running candidate for the october presidential election, but the supreme electoral court is expected to bar him from running. his imprisonment has been condemned internationally, including by 29 u.s. lawmakers who wrote"the fact that president lula's case give us reason to believe the main objective of his jailing is to prevent him from running in upcoming elections. to see our hour with lou look, you can go to democracynow.org. rick gates, the right-hand man of trump's former campaign chair paul manafort, testified in federal court monday that he has

been involved incredible activity with manafort -- in criminal activity with manafort. his accepted a plea deal. manafort is facing 18 charges including tax fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering. manafort strohl is the first role associated with special counsel robert mueller's investigation into trump's ties to russia. during monday's hearing, it's testified he helped manafort hide secret foreign bank accounts, obscure 15 show companies which the prosecution alleges were part of a long-running tax and bank fraud scheme. in his testimony, rick gates said "i was the one who helped organize the paperwork." voters are heading to the polls for primary races in four states today -- missouri, kansasas, michigan,, and washington state. in michigan, former detroit health commissioner abdul el-sayed is facing off against gretchen whitmer for the democratic nominatioion for michigigan's govevernor. burma senator bernie sanders an

youronongresonalal nominee alexandr o ocasicortrteznd her progressive leaders veve endorsed dr. el-sayed, w i is vying to bece e the tionon's rst mumuim governor. this is dr. el-sayed speangng th t thentercece's medhi hassan about what he would do on his first day y of office, if elected. >> i want to shut down line five. our great l lkes a account for % of the worldld's freshwater. right now we have an oil pipeline that is 15 years pasas when i it was supposed to shut down. lineve to shut down that five because we'e've got to protect that water. there are issues r related to water in flint and detroit. inin flint, i want t to set up a tasksk force that would work within the first yeaear getting all of the lead pipingng out of the ground so that folks can city ofsily in the flint. ththey have suffered too m mh ad they still do not have clean water. then we need to put a moratorium on water shut off to the city of detroit. the cicity shut down about 17,00 homes am having basic access to

water because they cannot pay. meanwhile, live nestle b bottlig our freshwateter $400 year and people have to pay $400 a month. i want to put a moratorium on that as well. amy: his one of the handful of muslim american candidates on the ballot. meanwhile, in kansas, a crowded congressional race pits progressive labor lawyer brent welder against sharice davids, a native american lawyer and former mixed martial arts fighter. in ohio, avoiding an embarrassing defeat in an election district republicans felt for decades. the republican is facing a democrat daniel connor. of democrats and republicans have poured millions into the race to replace a power republican congress member pat to bury. in more election news, democrats in tennessee are celebrating a blue wave that swept through shelby county last week, as democrats won 21 of the 26 county offices up for grabs.

the blue wave reinstalls democrats to power after republicans seized control in 2010. among the winners was democrat lee ardrey harris, elected mayor of shelby county. in bangladesh, massive student protests have brought the capital dhaka to a standstill, as students demand safer roads. the protests began after a speeding private bus ran over a group of students, killing two teenagers on july 29. since then, massive, youth-led demonstrations have swept the country, which has one of the highest rates of road accidents in the world. the bangladeshi government has responded by violently crackdown -- violently cracking down on the student protesters and arresting journalists reporting on the protests. this is one of the protesting students, nazmul houssain. we have been protesting for a few days. we're demand justice for those students who were killed by a bus and we want safe roads. amy: d diplomatic tensions are rising between saudi arabia and

canada after canada accused the saudi government of human rights violations and demanded the release of feminist activists imprisoned in the kingdom. in response, saudi arabia has expelled the canadian ambassador, frozen trade witit canada, and suspspended direct flights to toronto. since mamay 15, saudi arabia has arrested at least 15 high profile human rirights and wom's rights a activists. back in the united states in california, the raging mendocino complex fire is now the largest wildfire ever recorded in california history. the fire has are ready scorched more than one quarter of a million square acres and one of more than a dozen fifires burnig statewide. google, facebook, youtube, and spopot if i have infoed alex jones and his wars website from their platforms. apple removed five of his six podcast saying apple does not tolerate hate speech. facebook said removed jones

pages because he was "glorifying violence and using dehumanizing language to describe people who are transgender, muslims, and immigrants." alex jones regularly schedules is busy theories and is being sued by the parents of the elementary school children killed in the 2012 sandy hook school massacre for claiming the massacre was a hoax staged by gun control advocates. the for-profit prison company geo group has threatened to sue the human rights group, the dream defenders, which is planning a national day of action today to protest the private prison company. biggestp is the single conflict receiving hundreds of millions of dollars to run private immigrant prisons. the dream defenders are planning to disrupt geo group operations in cities across the united states today, including in florida, arizona, california, and new york city. in wisconsin, a masked gunman opened fire on a madison community radio station early sunday morning, injuring one person.

a station dj who shot in the buttocks was taken of the hospital and later discharged. wort fm has resumed normal programming sunday morning, just hours after the attack on their studio. no arrests have been made. broadcast to south-central wisconsin that has been on the air since 1975. the madison police told -- said they do not believe the attack was motivated by hatred of the media. and in new york, former black panther robert seth hayes has been released from prison after 45 years behind bars. he was convicted of the 1973 killing of a new york city transit officer. he has been eligible for parole since 1998, but had been denied parole 10 times before finally being set free. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

this week marks one e year since white supremacists and neo-nazis descended on charlottesville, virginia, in the deadly "unite the right" rally to protest the city's decision to remove a statue of confederate general robert e. lee from a downtown park. it became the biggest and deadliest white supremacist rally in the united states in decades. the violence began on the night of august 11 when hundreds of white men bearing torches marched on the university of virginia campus and attacked a small group of anti-racist protests. -- protesters. then on the morning of august 12, up to 1000 white supremacists gathered in charlottesville. many were carrying nazi flags and other white supremacist paraphernalia. some wore body armor and carried assault rifles and pistols. they were met by thousands of antiracist counterdemonstrators. police did little to intervene, even as violent street fights broke out.

that afternoon, a white supremacist named james alex fields, drove his car into a crowd of counterdemonstrators, killing an anti-racist activist named heather heyer. 19 other people were injured. fields has since been charged with first-degree murder as well as federal hate crimes. well, this weekend, white supremacists are planning to mark the first anniversary of charlottesville by a holding another unite the right rally, this time in washington, d.c. anti-fascist and anti-racist protesters are preparing to stage a counter protest. today we look back at the deadly rally in charlottesville. new frontline propublica investigation. an excerpt of the investigation. i arrived in charlottesville for r what would become the largest gathering of white

supremacists in a generation. we called unite the right. it wasas drawing groups from at least 35 states. > good afternoon. i'm ththe chief of the chararlottesville police department. wewe will have a a significant police presesence or other can, well over r 100 officecers froma agency several hundred from the virginia state pololice. we were inrmrmed the national guard d is m monitoring the situtuation. >> the day b before the rally, a few reporters s gathered for the police press confererence. but i have begun to hear f from otother sources in charlottesviville. >> chief, we're hearing rumors of t there being another torchlight march t tonht, in ann permitteted march. do you have any y information? >> i've heard the same rumors, but i d don't k know a lot of te details. whwhat if you u heard? >> 5:00,0, 6:00 -- >> w whereat?

>> not far from here is whatt we're heariring. >> the policice at her t the sae rumors i had, but t the universy grounds werere quietnd it seemed like t the march might not be happening after all. until suddenly, the torches appeared. us!ou w will not replace you will not replace us! you will not replace us! in a matter of moments, hundreds of neo-nazis and whwhy someme premiseses assembleded ad mamarched on the university. , butt arrived on the scenene watched from the sidelinenes asa small group of antiracist activist were quickly surrounded. one of t them was strtreaming it from a phone. we are and a and. we're surroununded on all sides.

by hundreds s of nazis. we have e no way out.. >> whitete lives matter! white lives matter! >> i got p punched. i remember g getting hit in thee headad. i thouought it was w with a tor. i i got shoved b back. i thought i wawas going to die. the thing i was t thinking as it was happepening, i justst need o keep the camamera goingng, you ? that was thehe all in thing i could do. yeah, it was like 10100 people beating up, like, a small g grop of us. a few people. you could feel how angry they were coming but also how happy they were to b be doingg this, o

the intimidating people like this. >> had you e ever seen that displayed before? >> no. nevever in my life. they were cheheering and rurunng through the strereets, yelling t people. and they walalked away and got away with it. they're coming inin h here the t they ready to do more. i thought, like, here we go. yeah, here we go. the documenentary will be played tonight across the country. this is another excerpt. >> you will not replace us! you will not replace us1 >> charlottesvsville, virgrgini, august 12, 2017. i have been tracking hate crimes since thehe 2016 presidential election andnd could seeee that something g was happenening in s cocountry.

charlottesville rally was supposed to be about a , but anyone monumument who was paying attention could see thatat it was ababout more n a ngle statatue. it felt like a national reckoning around race was coming. and being your would help me understand it -- and being here with help me understand it. i came here to ask questions and as the day unraveled and the cows around it, when -- one thing became clear. this was not a place to listen or understand the charlottesville was a crime scene. any up from a.c. thompson's document "document hate: charlottesville" which is premiering tonight on pbs

stations around the country. a.c. thompson is joining us here. welcome back to democracy now! what a critical documentary this is as the unite the right rally is planned again for washington, d.c. this weekend. talk about this journey you took starting in charlottesville. you were there on that day a year ago, on those days come august 11 and 12. >> we went down there and we went to the event, myself and my colleagues, because i had been this resurgence of white power, what's the premises to activity that i had not seen in decades. i reported on these people in the 1990's and they sort of faded away. in the last two years, they have really come back with a vengeance. there are all of these new groups, these new activists, these new leaders. they sort of thing to be the backing on the trump moment and trying to build their movement again. we went down there. we were expecting it to be possibly bloody, possibly

violet, that we did not expect it to be what it turned out to be, which was legal. amy: so we see you in the documentary questioning the police chief the day before. you were among a handful of reporters at a press conference. you asked this last question. explain what it was that you asked and what information you had. >> i wanted to know if they were going to do anything about the torch march we were hearing what happened that night on the campus of the university of virginia. andchief was kind of coy did not say much about it. it turned out that really nobody was ready for that. the university police were not ready. the local police, the charlottesville and county sheriff's, were not ready for that. it turned into basically a bloodbath. when you go back and look at the video in our film, what you see are white supremacists attacking mostly antiracist student group over and over again with flaming

torches and hitting them in the heads with them. police were late to the scene. basically, intervevene very, vey late. amy: you say to the police chief, you talked about plans for tomorrow, but what about tonight? >that was the thank you told in -- i'd is a tiki torch because it minimizes them yes, and ridicules them, but it takes away the violence of what happened. withter what would happen both that night and the next day is the city commissioned an exhaustive investigative or to test report about police failures. they said, looook, the universiy of police, they did not know what they were dealing with. they thought this was goingng to be a typical protest march, not a volatile, violent situation. they were out of place and unprepared. the next day, more of the same. amy: before we get to the next day, democracy now! spoke with cornel west last year, the harvard, princeton university theological professor who was in

charlottesville that weekend for the counter demonstrations with members of clergy, students, black lives matter activists, protesters with the anti-fascist movement known as antifa. i asked about the reports that counterprotesters were attacked with torches, pepper spray, and lighter fluid. >> absolutely. yet a number of the courageous students of all colors of the university of virginia who were protesting against the neofascist themselves. the neofascist had their own ammunition. this is important keep in mind because the police for the most part pulled back. the next day, for example, the 20 of us that were standing, many of them clergy, we would have an crushed like cockroaches if it were not for the anti-fascists who approached to 5000, three anti-fascists. we just had 20. and we're singing "this little

light of mine." amy: antifa meaning anti-fascists. they saved our lives, actually. we would have been complpletely crushed. i will never forget that. amy: talking about the events of august 11 and 12 in charlottesville. and you have in your documentary, the image of no west and other religious leaders -- cornell west and other legislators arm in arm. cults we followed them from the sunrise ceremony they had at the nearby church to the part where the main unite the right rally occurred. i think to be one of the images that i have early on that morning being with that group of clergy as i remember there was a white man wearing a nazi swastika t-shirt. within the first five minutes of being there, he was shopping around and african-american photographer. and that sort of was the tone fofothe day, thatat it was going to b be violent. it w was going to be aggressive. really, nobody was going to stop the violence. amy: we're going to break and

then come back to our discussion with a.c. thompson, correspond for frontline/pbs, reporter with the people go. this investigation "documenting hate: charlottesville" premieres tonight on pbs. we will continue what he did next going to charlottesville, across the country, to track the unite the right activists who it seem like the federal government was not exactly investigating. we will begin with what president trump had to say after that rally. this is democracy now! we will be back in a minute. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. withwe will be speaking susan broyer's mother joining us from c charlottesvsv. ottawa to turn back to president

trump last august speaking at a news conference he held in the lobby of trump tower, his residence here in new york, defending his decision to wait to full days before placing blame on white supremacists for the daily violence in charlottesville, virginia. the president attacked the antiracist counterprotesters repeating his earlier claim there was violence on all sides. >> there was hatred and violence. pres. trump: i do think there is blame on both sides. you look at both sides -- i think there is blame on both sides. i have no doubt about it and you don't have any doubt about it, either. and if you reported it accurately, you would say -- >> killed a person, heather heyer -- >> they should have -- pres. trump: excuse me. you have some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine

people -- on both sides. amy: so that was president trump, a.c. thompson. talk about his response and the effect to believe it had. >> for members of the white power movement, this was a sort of opening. they said, hey, the president is basically lending us some support. he is not totally condemning us. are fineing some of us people. the folks i talked to in that movement took heart in that. they felt inspired and excited about that. they thought, this guy is on our side. amy: so you decide in charlottesville, you are trying to figure out who the people are who are caring the torches. who are the people hitting, thoseg, going after bystanders, also a smaller group of protesters who were directly confronting them in the thousands that were also there. >> right. what we saw there was a police

failure on the day, but we also saw what seemed to be a sort of ongoing, slow-moving law enforcement failure to bring the people who have been involved in these incredibly vicious altercations to justice and hold them accountable. we wanted to figure out, who were these people? what had they done? why had they alluded the authorities? what happen in the nerve ending months? -- intervening months? we set out to identify these characters and crimes that we could tell people, look, this is something that happened and nobody has been held accountable. amy: were you just tracking the fbi, tracking the police, tracking these people? >> we were doing our own investigation. towere basically trying figure this out all on our own. and for me, i was immediately drawn to a group called the rise above movement will step they are based in southern california. i live in california. they had been involved in down myprotests up and

state. when a realized, oh, these guys were in charlottesville, too, i thought, this is a group i need to focus on because they are a white power, streetfighting crew. they are capable of significant violence in ways that other actors are not. they are trained fighters. i had seen them involved in these really, really nasty attacks on both coasts. , rise above the ram movement. is the founderro of the group. he is a young man who grew up is the founder of the group. he grew up here in flushing, queens. growing up, he ran a small role -- multiracial gang. at a small altercation with ms 13, the salvadoran gang. he ended up stabbing a member of a gang multiple times. amy: you show that on video. >> we have the surveillance video. upstate to prison in

new york. at a time he got out of prison, he was definitely a committed white supremacist. he ends up moving to california and he starts up a new gang, the rise above movement. this is a political w white supremacist gang. charlottesville and rob's presence there. >> he wasn't there, but as people were there. they were involved in multiple skirmishes that we saw. one of them was named might miss ellis. we have documentary evidence of coke cans and rocks etc. protesters. he came with his hands take of like a boxer. as if you were preparing for a fight. he was wearing a mouth guard like a boxer would wear. live video of him engaging in his altercation with counterprotesters where he pushes a couple to the ground and starts punching them when they are on the ground.

his colleague anders and the fray and chokes and attacks to femaleunterprotesters -- counterprotesters. this was a pretty nasty fight that seemed totally unnecessary wewe captured on video. we first started doing this, we did not know these guys names or what they had done. we were trained to identify them. we said we want to know who these-this deal are. amy:y: on july 5, you reported a story about michael miselis for propublica headlined "he is a member of a violent was the premises to group, so why is he working for a defense contractor with a security?" one day after your story was published, michael masella's lost his job. talk about how you track him down. >> so we had these photos and videos and we had seen him at these rallies that we did not know his name. we did not know who he was. eventuallyly, over many months,e were able to get a break that

led -- gave us his name and we were able to corroborate that, yeah, this is the guy -- on amy: talk about that break all stuck >> whittle law-enforcement sources said, hey, this is evidence that is whehen a lead u to this and d help us lead us so thatat name. we went and sasaw michael misel. we s said, hey -- amy: you confront him when he is getting this car, where? >> in southern california,a, not far from the nororth of germaman pl. -- northrup german plant. you go watch the video. i was struck by he seemed highly and surprised that somebody, say, hey, what were you doing in charlottesville last summer? to m make him hehe did nothing paparticularly shocked by that. amy: he said a meal he, "i was not there," but you kept pushing. >> he denied being there at the time. his group has since gone back on that and acknowledged he was there. amy: talk about northrop grumman.

>> at first i said nothing. we cap asking them, what is the story with this guy? how does he get a security clearance? what is he doing working for your company? they said nothing to us. we made repeated inquiries about this. then we published our story, they issued a statement saying, hey, we do not approve of this. we are investigating. we are concerned about this. the ceo of the company at the time sent out a bulletin to everybody on the staff, and internal b bulletin, saying this is not g good and we are not don with this. eventually, we were alerted he had been let go from the company. amy: when was that? >> about 24 hours afterwards. amy: did you have images of him at other locations? >> we have video of him in ,erkeley and in charlottesville both times in these violent altercations. really looking like he was prepared for violence. hence take up, goggles,

mouthpiece end, that kind of thing. amy: when you talk about these protests inc. california, for those who are not familiar with they know about charlottesville because a person die there. in a few minutes we will be talking with heather heyer's mother. but you had seen this coming. of unitet the series the right rallies that were held throughout california. >> in n 2016 2017, thehere was a whole string of far right and racist rallies that occurred throughout california. and almost everyone one of these turn into a bloodbath. rally in theklan spring of 2016 in anaheim, three people were stabbed. you had a nazi rally in sacramento in 2016, seven people were stabbed. then you had conflicts in huntington beach, a trumped march, worthy rise above

movement first made its presence known and were numerous altercations. weeklyalist from oc newspaper was attacked by the rise above movement. then he had berkeley. the berkeley battle, the berkeley demonstrations were incredibly violent, sort of street fighting, political warfare in the street event that went on through the spring that rise above movement was present, nazi groups were present in other white supremacist groups and sort of less extreme approach from groups were there. it these were really highly violent scenarios that were per -- that were poorly policed and spun on for hours. amy: earlier i asked you for your tracking fbi tracking them, but i think what clearly comes through in your documenter is you are -- your utter surprise that you felt like you were out there on your own tracking these people. >> exactly. that was our sins for much of the work we were doing was that

there was not a lot of interest from law enforcement in these characters. i believe that has possibly changed, but while we were doing our work, it wasn't like there was an investigative trail left by law-enforcement for us to follow. amy: i want to ask about the u.s. marine corprps lab -- and corporal. yo i would say he is a fascinating and disturbing character. at the time of the charlottesville rally, he was a member of what i would say is the most extreme, most dangerous white supremacist group and that is the division that is a group of committed domestic nazi terrorists whose goal is to start a race war, overthrow the u.s. government, and establish a fascist state and they aimed to do that through guerrilla warfare, assassination and political terrorism. tolise same time pis

serving the marine corps, he's in a group dedicated to overthrowing the government and force of arms. amy: atom wassen. >> that means nuclear weapon in german. the third of a nod to reich. encryptedabout the chat they have online. talk about discord. my colleagues, we were able to get access to 250,000 chat messages sent privately by the group. the sort of really lay out ideology, their intentions, and sort of -- some of the chat messages that we got included people talking about specific plans to blowup the power grid in western states. they talked about plans to manufacture weapons.

they talked about training camps there were doing in the nevada desert in the midwest, training people in hand-to-hand combat and guerrilla warfare. amy: you take your information back to emily gores and ski in charlottesville. explain what you found andnd wht she had been looking for as well. beenily and i had messaging one another since shortly after the charlottesville event. she was trying to figure, hey, who attacked me on t the night f the 11th? we had some notion it was perhaps the rise above movement. we knew they were there and close to her. maybe it was somebody else. eventually, , i come across in pistollis talking quite extensively about attacking emily and many other people. amy: wait, this is really important. he did not just say i attacked this person, he talked about her

emily gorzinski. >> you never see that. it is like someone has offered you up the evidence right there. i think it is because emily had been live streaming that and so people started on the far right started knowing her name and then he wanted to take credit for that assault. from everything we can tell, we know he was there. we have video of him entering that fray. emily is not entirely sure if the kick he launched actually hit her, but she knows and we can see from the video, that he propelled himself into that melee and basically the violence escalated from the time he jumped in. he also later said -- we have video of him beating someone with a wooden flagpole the next day. he posted these messages saying, today split three skulls with virtually no damage to myself. i had so much fun at unite the right. so he was a guy who was bragging

about the violence he engaged in. he posted photos of himself in these private chat attacking people. amy: so talk about how you track him to his employer. >> that is one of the fascinating things about these chat logs from the division. you start realizing, oh, there are several people who are active duty or former military in this group. people that have good combat training, people that know their way around weapons. go we thought, let's finally -- we had enough evidence, let's go to the marine corps and say, this is what we know about this, who works for you -- amy: and where does he work? >> at that time he was a miserable at camp lejeune in north carolina, a place that has had persistent p problems. amy: this leader. >> yes.

he is on base working with the marine corps down there. he was a water purification specialist at that time. we said, here are photos and video and this is what we're going to say, we need to know if you guys are taking action against the staff. do you know about him?m? whwhat should we know about him? and put that out to them. amy: what did they say? >> what we found out is there had already been an investigation into pistollis by military investigators. apparently, the investigation stalled or was dropped or did not go somewhere. but there had been an investigation for at least six .onths into his conduct in the military, you cannot be a member of an active white supremacist group. that is against military regulations in all branches ofof ththe service. also engaging and camilla to be like assaulting people is also

barred -- also engaging in criminal activity like assaulting people is barred. for some reason, the marine corps did not act on the information they had. .hey had been tipped off they alloweded him to remain in the e core. amy: you have the evidence, the video, him beating emily and others. >> right. at that point, it seems like they took more aggressive action. they ended up court marshaling pistollis and they recently separated him from the service, which is charting as they they have ousted him from the service. but i would point out that the court-martial that they did with pistollis was basically a misdemeanor court-martial. it just said, hey, you're not following orders. you were misleading or superiors and they gave him 30 days in the brig. the discharge they went through them i would say from what i can tell is not particularly severe

sort of discharge because those things are graded. sure that it was the kind of thing he got. amy: because it just happened. >> it just happened. basically, this was a misdemeanor court-martial that he got. amy: and you tracked h him down. you talk to o him in thehe documentary. >> i.e. melt him first -- i emailed him first, which contains "88" which is a code for how hitler's. he gave me a bunch of different stories. he said i have a a right believeses. he suggested i am a whitee supremacacist -- john amy: he denied he was in charlottesville. >> at first. videos ofok, i have you, photos v, chat logs for your talking abobout this stuff. it sure looks like you. you don't have a body double that i know of, so explain this to me. he just basically said, hey, how

about you don't publish this in somewhere down the road i will give you information about other white power figures and that will help your career because you probably don't want to work at propublica for the rest of your life. i said, no thanks. i think we should do the story. amy: we're going to go to break. when we come back, we willll alo be joined by susan bro, the mother of heather heyer, the 32-year-old antiracist activist who was run down by a white supremacist a year ago and killed. a.c. thompson's correspondent for the frontline pbs formentary and reporter propublica. his investigation document hate: charlottesville" will premiere around the country tonight. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amamy: "heather's song" byby tri eagle. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

look back ate to last year's deadly white supremacist rally in charlottesville, virginia, at neo-nazi a nazi -- killed 32 year old antiracist activist heather heyer with his car. 19 other people were injured. alex fields has since been charged with first-degree murder as well as federal hate crimes. we are now joined by heather's mother susan b bro. shshe joins us frorom charlottesville. and joints a.c. thompson as well who did the documentary premiered tonight on pbs frontline. susan, it is a year later but it is my first time to offer you my condolences, the whole family at democracy now! condolences on the death of your daughter heather. >> thank you very much. amy: it has been a year since august 12 when you lost your daughter. tatalk about why heather w was t ,here on august 12 last year

one of those were protesting the white supremacist rally. believed andways acted on her beliefs that you quality was for all people -- equality was from people. that if anyone is marginalized in the human race, then we all are. so when her friends who are african-american were going to be at the rally, they said, with us. ever she was like, no, i think i'll stay away. and she saw were her friend courtney had livestream the events of friday night and she said, i have to go. her friend try to talk her out of it and she said, i know it is dangerous. i could die, but i have to be there. and of course, when we say things like that, we don't really think we're going to die. that she was there to support

her friends. the group she was with deliberately stayed away from the fighting all day. whatever they saw fights, they turned away. she was with a very large group of counterprotesters. did not eveny carry any signs. she just had her cigarette, her lighter, her keys, and her phone with her. she had parked her car nearby. dressed to go to work as a waitress- as later. she had her hair in a long break and she had on her black shirt and black top she would wear to waitress. she thought it was going to be just a day of walking the shoutingyou know, "black lives matter" and "whose streets? "ur streets what i understand from her friends, they thought the nazis were leaving. everyone was relaxed and happy

as there are coming back on the barricaded mall. there were going to get some food and water. that is when mr. fields chose to drove his car into the crowd. amy: and he hit. >> your daughter. >> yes, he did. amy: injured her friend. i just recently saw pictures of the wedding you are at of her dear friends made famous because her friend, his feet up in the air as he was just appended by this car. >> his leg was shattered. his as he was pushing partner away from the car, trying to save her life. >> right. he told me he reached for heather and could not get to her, but he at least knocked marissa out of the way. he still cries about that to this day. he is so frustrated and angry about that. it is what it is and we move forward. grief toe consumed by

where i can't function. i have to move forward. my life now revolves around not only have i picked up heather's ton and running with it, but i'm passing it off to his many people as i can. they tried to silence my daughter. one voice. you don't get to do that. i said at her funeral, you just magnified her. not only am i going to speak up and speak louder, but i'm going to make sure lots of other people speak up, too. amy: susan, did you think of heather as an activist? >> she was a quiet activist. she was very passionate about her beliefs, but she was only groups, inin small one-on-one conversations and in small family groups or on facebook. that was her method of changing people's hearts and minds. and what she would do was what she was actually taped doing

that day. she walked up to one of the girls as the neo-nazis were living, a girl in a black helmet, and she said, talk to me about why you are here. why dean feel this way? what made you want to come? can you talk to me about it? can you explain to me? tried to be gently pulling the tol out of her belief system talk to her. all the girl would say was "no comment." that is what they are trained to do. that was heather's method of converting people, talking one-on-one. amy: her last message "if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." heather alalso worked down peope going into bankruptcy. is that right, susan? >> yes. one press article mistakenly put that she did that doubt the poor in summary, they got that from the website.

not only poor people file for bankruptcy. donald trump has filed for bankruptcy many times. i don't think he actually came to heather for help. a lot of people file for bankruptcy. she was in -- she was the bankruptcy intake person. she handled everything will file that came to the office. after she died, thousands of people over the course of the last year have come to me and said, well i knew heather. i say, how did you know her? theyimes they will say knew her as a bartender or waitress, but sometimes, more often than not, they say they met her at miller law group and that she was a person who made them feel comfortable, at ease. many times she would help people figure out how they did not even have to file for bankruptcy so they never became a client because heather could help them figure out what they needed to do to save their car or house and get themselveses back on track.

so i was very proud of that as a mother, but i never knew any of that until after she was gone. amy: i want to turn to an interview that a.c. thompson did with democrat might signal, the former mayor of charlottesville ---- mikike cigna, t the formerr of charlottesvillele. >> groups that previously had been stuck in the shahadows come at themargins, anand mainstream werere brought into e forefront and that is what i feltlt comfortable. at the in of the day, it is the cicity of just under 50,000 people, anand we werere this tat for forces much bigger than us. >> i saw you that night over the county g governmentt headquartes and you looked s stricken. wordricken is notot a bad for it. i wish w we had known n more. i wish w we had been given momoe information by the state intelligence appararatus -- >> did they say, hey, these guys

are going to come w with clubs, pepper spray, you knknow, implements of violence? >> no. we a at one brieiefing with thre members of virginia state police who camame and talked to us at cityty council. they d did not present us with y evidence of a a credible threat. > a as i understand it, abou0 peoplele altogetheher have been prosecuted from those days. dodoes that sound accurate to y? >> it sounds like it should be a lot higher. amy: that is mike cigna, the former mayor of charlottesville. since then, thehe kyle walker hs been elected, the first african american woman mayor of charlottesville. the night the right rally certainly may have helped her in her bed as she challenged the establishment. her name was unmasking the illusion. into the bring this conversation with you, susan, and a.c. a.c., do you think the response

afterald trump before and somehow the trump administration is dealing with white supremacy, left the charlottesville establishment flat-footed before? >> what do you mean>>? were not that they prepared in a did not feel they were properly brief, they did not understand who these people were. >> our understanding is this, the federal intelligence agencies and the federal one for spent agencies compiled research on these groups and they had intelligence on these groups. and now i'll sort of question is , why did that not reach the local authorities? why did that not reach the city council? and what happened between the federal government compelling research, the state police fusion center, and the state police compelling research and intelligence, the local police compelling intelligence that leads to somehow folks thinking

that nothing bad is going to happen that day? amy: susan bro, who do you hold respononsible in addition to jas alex fields who has been charged with first-degree murder for the death of heather? issue.s a very complex a lot of mistrust and all of the wrong places. my understanding is that local investigation were focused investigation were focused on the local activists, the local antiracist activists, and not on outside forces coming in or even the inside forces who were already here in place. jason kessler is one of charlottesville's own. he also graduated from uva. amy: one of the organizers of the rally and richard spencer. >> right. and my understanding is southern poverty law center had issued warnings, but they were not

being heeded. i think many people thought, as i did, that basically, the alt-right and the not so new nazis are basically buffoons and idiots and did not really take them seriously. from what i have seen and observed since then, is that presenterally will themselves as so outrageous that nobody will take them seriously. they will come with a serious intent, but they generally will --ack if they're going to most likely try a lethal attack as people are relaxing, when people are letting down their guard saying, oh, they're leaving. i know in florida, they actually into anbers get

altercation where they were firing a gun at people at a bus as rally participants from both sides were leaving. it seems to be a pattern. this is what they did and charlottesville as well. amy: is it a question of corporate leasing or perhaps protecting was a firm says, for example, w what happened in berkeley, california, arresting anti-fascist protesters, not the white supremacists, posted their names and photos online, have not even been n convicted. >> i don't think it was that sort of thing where the police were protecting one side or the other. i think the police e essentially -- amy: andnd charlottesville. >> i think the police control is so abdicated the responsibility almost entirely -- amy: you were saying, what are you doing? >> we have had 50 years of i would say violent resistance against the lan, against nazis

cut against whites for mrs. groups. they will meet heavy resistance. if your law-enforcement, you know the thing i need to do is keep these two groups separated and make sure that people don't bring clubs, weapopons, other st attack eachey will other with. it is not that hard. amy: susan bro, what do you want us to remember about heather as we move into this next weekend, the anniversary of her death and other unite the right rally, this time in washington, d.c.? >> what i want you to remember is that everyone needs to stand up against hate. everyone needs to pick up that baton. if you need information on how to do that, contact me at the heather heyer foundation and i will help you find ways to do that. amy: susan bro, mother of heather heyer him now runs the heather heyer foundation a.c. thompson and can correspond for frontline pbs, reporter for propublica. his investigating -- his investigation "documenting hate: charlottesville," premieres

tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern on pbs stations around the country. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!] çç??óaócñógñtñrñxñúña

woman: i came around the corner, i was at the top of the stairs, and what i saw from at the top of the stairs was a man right here around the corner with his arm like this and a gun pointing up at me. alls i could see was a black hat and a black jacket, and that's all i could see, and the gun, and i stood there thinking that this was a serial