[captioning made possible by democracy now!] ♪ amy: from pacifica, ththis is democracy now! >> we are going to see donald trump's tax r records before lo, because state and federal prosecutors are digging deeply into the house of cards that is is finances. amy: the president facing a new probe as the new york attorney general's issues subpoenas to deutsche bank and investors bank for records related to the trump organization's real estate dealings. we will speak with put

prize-winning journalist david cay johnston about the probe. we will also talk about trump's new budget, which calls for massive increases in military medicarewhile slashing funding for the poor, elderly, and disabled. then, we look at the financial crisis at hampshire college, where students have entered their 41st day of a sit-in. >> we have been the target of a shock felt like doctrine style attack, a blind situation thated threatened to destroy the college. we mobilized in a short amount of time to try to verse that process. amy: and we go to sacramento, where protests are continuing after county prosecutors declined to prosecute the officers who shot dead stephon clark, a 22-year-old unarmed african american, in his grandmother's backyard last year. all l that and m more, coming u.

welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the president presented his proposed 2020 budget monday, which includes $8.6 billion to fund a wall on the u.s.-mexico border, more than six times what congress approved for border projects in each of the past two years. the budget also includes an almost 5% increase in military spending while calling for cuts to domestic spending, including for both medicare and medicaid over the next 10 years, as well as to federal student loan programs and the supplemental nutrition assistance program, or snap. funding for the environmental protection agency would be slashed by 31% and the interior department's budget by 14%, while providing over $900 million in law enforcement funding for the agency, which would be directed toward border

security. democrats blasted the budget. house speaker nancy pelosi said, "the cruel and shortsighted cuts in president trump's budget request are a road map to a sicker, weaker america." we'll have more on ththe 2020 bubudget with investigative reporter david cay johnston later in the broadcast. the "new york times" is reporting the new york attorney general's office issued subpoenas to deutsche bank as part of an investigation into the trump organization's real estate dealings. the probe was reportedly spurred by michael cohen's congressional testimony last month, in which trump's former lawyer and fixer asserted that trump regularly inflated his assets in official documents. cohen provided lawmakers with copies of such statements that were submitted to deutsche bank. deutsche bank is the president's largest lender and loaned hundreds of millions of dollars to trump organization for real estate projects even as other banks refused to do so. house speaker nancy pelosi told the "washington post" she is not planning on launching impeachment proceedings against president trump, saying, "he's

just not worth it" and that impeacachment is t too divisive. she called trump "ethically and intellectually unfit" for the presidency but said congress would require an overwhelming and bipartisan reason for impeachment. in response, washington congressmember and progressive caucus co-chair pramila jayapal said congressional investigations should determine the appropriate course of action and that evidence of a, quote, "consistent pattern of abuse of power or of obstruction of justice" would be grounds for impeachment. meanwhile, michigan congressmember rashida tlaib is expected to introduce articles of impeachment this month. algerian president abdelaziz bouteflika announced would no longer seek a monday fifth term after weeks of protests have demanded the ailing president stepped down. he has really been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013. algerians took to the streets to celebrate. >> it is a good thing, but only if they change the government

completely. if they bring someone just like him, it is not worth it. they have to change the whole government. amy: critics of the ruling government warned that bouteflika's announcement that the april election would be postponed could signal his intention to stay in power through 2019 or beyond. his announcement, read on air by a newscaster, also said a new constitution would be put to a referendum. protests are expected to continue until he leaves office. the u.n. has found that 2011 was the deadliest year yet for syrian children since the start of the conflict in 2011. unicef says fighting caused over 1,100 verifiable child deaths but t that the actual tollll was likely much h higher. unicef's executive director warned in a statement monday, "today, there exists an alarming misconception that the conflict in syria is drawing quickly to a close. it is not." 59 children have been reported killeded in idlib in recent wee, and another 60 have died as they made their way to a camp in

northeastern syria. the dire warning from the u.n. comes as the u.s.-backed syrian democratic forces say they are fighting the final territorial enclave of the islamic state in the town of baghouz near the iraqi border. in yemen, , the u.n. said monday a series of strikes over 2 days killed 22 women and children. the strikes, which hit the northwest province of hajjah, injured at least 30 others, including many children. renowned iranian human rights lawyer nasrin sotoudeh, who is currently in jail on spying charges, has received a new sentence for 33 years and 148 lashes, according to a facebook post by her husband. the sentence means she is now facing 38 years on combined charges. sotoudeh, who previously served 3 years in prison after representing political activists and campaigning against the execution of juveniles, was arrested last june as she worked on behalf of women protesting the law mandating the wearing of

headscarves in public. in the colombian region of cauca, indigenous activist alexander cunda was killed by unidentified gunmen on friday. his murder is the latest in a surge of attacks on indigenous and rural movement leaders in the region. at least 20 activists have been killed so far this year in colombia, according to local reports. nearly 1.5 million puerto ricans are seeing cuts to their food stamp benefits, including hundreds of thousands of children and elderly people. the trump administration has refused to extend additional emergency disaster funding for the island as residents recover from 2017's devastating hurricanes. a plan that would increase food stamp benefits has received bipartisan backing, but it's unclear when or if the legislation will p pass. the "washington post" reported trump told white house officials in september he thought puerto rico was misusing federal funds and that he wanted to withhold any additional recovery assistance from the island.

senator bernie sanders condemned the cuts, tweeting, "puerto rico needs food assistance funding due to the hurricanes which devastated the island. some 1.4 million u.s. citizens will face large cuts to their food assistance benefits. 230,000 will lose the benefits entirely. we must act now to end this crisis." a day after audio of fox news tucker carlson using explicitly misogynistic language was circulated online by the group media matters for america, the nonprofit posted new audio recordings showing carlson making racist and homophobic remarks about iraqi people, black people, lgbt people, and immigrants. [no audio]

-- and that immigrants should, quote, "have something to offer," such as "being hot or smart." on sunday, audio was posted of carlson calling rape shield laws "totally unfair," defending underage sexual encounters if the minor is a male and the adult isis a woman, and d descrg women as, quote, "extremely primitive." in response to the uproar, carlson has dismissed criticism of the recordings as "mob" attacks. fox news has yet to comment. a growing number of countries and airlines have grounded boeing 7 737 max 8 aircrafts followining sunday's ethiopopian airlines crash, which killed all 157 people on board and came just 5 months after an indonenesian lion air flight off the same model killed 189 people. 25 airlines have taken the planes out of service since the disaster. southwest airlines and american

airlines said monday they would continue to operate flights on the boeing 737 max 8. the union representing american airlines told flight attendants monday they do not have to work on those flights if they had safety concerns. the pilots union has also expressed concerns. facebook temporarily to down ads night senator elizabeth warren's presidential campaign, which the breakup of big tech companies, including facebook. the ads, which directed supporters to a petition for warren's recently announced anti-trust proposal, read, in part, quote, "three companies have vast power over our economy and our democracy. facebook, amazon, and google. we all use them. but in their rise to power, they've bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field in their favor." facebook later restored the ads. senator warren tweeted in response to the news, "curious why i think fb has too much power? let's start with their ability

to shut down a debate over whether fb has too much power. thanks for restoring my posts. but i want a social media marketplace that isn't dominated by a single censor. #breakupbigtech" as the 2020 democratic primary heats up, the democratic party announced it will host its 2020 national convention in milwaukee, wisconsin this july. wisconsin had been a reliably blue state for presidential elections since 1984 but voted for trump in 2016. dnc chair tom perez said of the decision, quote, "this is a statement of our values. the democratic party is the party of working people, and milwaukee is a city of working people." the republican national convention will be held charlotte, north carolina. both of these take place in 2020. and u.s. olympic cyclist kelly

catlin died by suicide last thursday at the age of 23. catlin, who won a silver medal with her cycling team at the 2016 olympic games, was a graduate student in computational and mathematical engineering at stanford university and died in her residence on the university's campus. catlin was one of a set of triplets. in addition to cycling, she was an accomplished violinist. her family reports she seemed to change after two accidents at the end of last year, one of which resulted in a concussion. speaking to the "washington post," her father said, quote, "she was not the kelly that we knew. she spoke like a robot. somehow, her thinking was changed, and she couldn't see beyond, i guess, her depression. after her concussion, she started embracing nihilism." her family says she first attempted suicide in january and that the family narrowly stopped her death by calling the police after receiving an alarming email. in a post for the website velonews last month, kelly catlin wrote, quote, "most of the time, i don't make everything work.

it's like juggling with knives, but i really am dropping a lot of them. it's just that most of them hit the floor and not me." last month, another stanford student, 26-year-old ziwen "jerry" wang died by suicide in his lab. wang was a 5th year ph.d. student in materials science and engineering. you can reach the national suicide prevention lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. juan: and i am one gonzalez. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. the "new york times" is reporting that new york's attorney general issued subpoenas to deutsche bank for records related to the trump organization. this comes just weeks after the president's former lawyer, michael cohen, testified before

congress that trump had inflated his assets and financial statements. the "times was quote states the probe focuses on how the trump organization financed several large projects, including trump international hotel in washington, d.c. and the trump international hotel and tower in chicago. in addition, the new york attorney general's office is looking at the trump --anization's on accessible unsuccessful attempt to buy the buffalo bills. amy: the house judiciary committee also recently requested documents from 81 people and groups in trump's inner circle. meanwhile, trump's former campaign manager, paul manafort, will be back in court wednesday. last week, he was sentenced to 47 months in prison for a count of b bank fraud and tax evasion.

this week's sentencing stems from his guilty plea on two conspiracy charges. he could face an additional 10 years in prison. we are joined now by a journalist who has been closely reporting on donald trump's financial dealings since the 1980's. david cay johnston is pulitzer prize-winning investigative reporter who previously worked for the new york times. he is the founder and editor of dcreport.org. his most recent book is titled "it's even worse than you think: what the trump administration is doing to america." david cay johnston, welcome back to democracy now. right now, this latest news of further investigations of the president -- david: donald trump has always been able to stop investigations into his background. juryat four grand investigations. now, he has the new york state attorney general who ran for office saying i will dig into donald trump. we have the southern district of new york, which is very

experienced in these, anand we have a host of committees in the house. we will see donald trump's tax returns. we will see how much money he got from russian oligarchs. is deutsche bank matter particularly important, because deutsche bank whicich has beenn fined over $22 billion for seconduct, is the leading bank in the world for laundering russian money. arguably, it is not a bank, it is a criminal enterprise. the german government is trying to figure out how to get rid of deutsche bank by folding into commerzbank. juan: you mentioned trump's taxes and the efforts by the house to get out them. will we ever see trump's taxes? you mentioned how he wants got a star tax credit. can you sling what that is? david: since 1924, we have a law that says congress can look at anyone's tax returns. they do it all the time.

if you get a refund of over $2 million, it is automatically sent to congress for review by staff experts who work on tax committees. we will see his return. they will lose that fight. the star tax credit is something where if you are a hohomeowner n new w york state, if you make ls than $500,000, you get a credit on your property tax bill. at one point, you got a check in the mail. donald collected this for at least fofour yeaears. it is pupublic record. you only get it if your income on your tax returns shows less than $500,000. juan: so it indicates that, for four years, his official tax returns were saying he may less than $500,000. david: that is right. his cockamamie story was there was a mistake about the address. it does not work about -- that way. the a box that says this is number, and it is automatic. congress has special rules foror

the real estate business that allows real estate people to live tax free, but there is plenty of other evidence. donald was tried two times for income tax fraud, and he lost both cases. they are civil cases. in those cases were very harsh on him. amy: what do you want to see most matter these investigations, where something like 81 people or entities connected to trump are being requested documents of? most importantle thing is how much money he got from the kremlin. the russian oligarchs are essentially a criminal gang led by vladimir putin. we know they have been putting money in his pocket. the collapse of the soviet union led to the theft of the property of the people of the old soviet union. donald has been a person who has laundered money for these people, held money for these people, done deals thahat make o sense for these people and with

them. we need to understand donald trump is not a loyal american. the kindest thing i could say about donald is he has divided loyalties. his own actions have shown that. i think he is a kremlin agent -- unwittingly, perhaps. but he is absolutely, in my view, criminal agent. amy: we have not seen the mueller investigation yet, but when you look at the numbers, people who have been charged and the people now being sentenced, they are not being gotten on collusion charges. you do not to get president trump on collusion charges for questions to be raised on him. david: you do not have to show conspiracy -- that would be the criminal charge. the oath of office is faithfully execute what congress tells you to do. here we have a man who rejects the advice of our intelligence services and military. he says i believe vladimir

putin, i believe president xi, i believe dictator kim -- really? he is s a clear and present danr to us. i believe the mueller report and other investigations will show improper relationships before he took office with the russians. saidemember donald junior in a response to the russian government wants to help you win the presidency, love it. the only response is called the fbi and say i need someone in counterintelligence. they did not do that. they tried to lie about it. they tried to set up a secret communications inc. using thee soviet e embassy's cable system. imagine if somebody in obama or george w. bush's administration tried to do that -- they would be impeached by now. juan: i want to ask you about the budget, the president's

budget. about a 5% increase for the military. at the same time, dramatic increaseses for social programs. you have been going through it. lessons donaldet trump learned from dictator kim. the first thing is you poor every dollar into the military, which is bigger than you need. that is your number one goal to make sure you have loyalty and stay in power. then you take the disabled and poor on medicare and cut close to $1 trillion of care from them. you take snap, which provides nutrition to pregnant women, children, and other early people, and the disabled, let's slash that. education. they were all of these students ripped off by for-profit colleges. make them pay every penny. they say this is fair unless these students pay it back. they are taking the side of the

bankers against the students. housing -- cut money for housing, people who are disabled, people who are poor. we will cut that. and to new york and new jersey, by saying we will not find the replacement of the hundred 10-year-old tunnel through which thousands of commuters and people traveling up and down the east coast every day, tunnels ,wned by the federal government under the hudson river -- donald trump's message to new york and new jersey -- "drop dead." juan: you mentioned education. it is only those delinquent on loans, but he also proposes to eliminate federal subsidies for student loan interests and also to eliminate the debt forgiveness for those students who either work for the government for 10 years or work for a nonprofit, that they would be forgiven their loans -- you -- he wants to get into that. juan: why would you want anyone to do any service for the

government except the military? that is the message donald trump ascending. one of the things i have not heard anybody talk about is he is continuing to go after basic science. more than half of the economic growth in america since world war ii is because of investments we made in basic science. only governments find basic scscience. thea large degree, it was u.s. who did so. if you do notot find basic science, you do not come up with this instrument. companies build it but used the basics -- amy: you're talking the iphone. david: gps, computers, streaming movies and also to things, all grow out of research funded by the federal government, some of it before world war ii. this budget is basically an attack on middle-class people and poor people, and it is designed to help people like donald trump, people who have a lot of income, live a much better life. and i do not meaean the botttt f the 1%. that is two income career

couples in their 50'0's and 60'. i mean people who clip coupons and collect dividends and own very large businesses. amy: in his new budget, the president is calling for drastic cucuts to domestic c spending,, including an hundred 45 billion dollars from medicare spending over the next decade. monday, representative ilhan omar tweeted a short video of trump's campaiaign promiseses on memedicare andnd social sesecur. >> will save social l curity, i llll savmedidica. n carson wants to get rid of medica.. u cacann get rid of medicare. medicare is a prraramhat works. every publblic wants to do a big number on socialecurity, theyanant to do it omedicare, mecacaid. anande cannnn do that is not fair to the pple at have be payin in four years,owow allf a a suen, thth want to cut. >> do not get rid of mecacare. you cannot do th. pele love medicare, and it is unfairo them. i willix it anmake it

betterbut im not gog to cut t it amy: s tmp proposed cuing 45 billi from medicare spenng over e next decade. that was his campaign at. david: donald once told me health care should be like the roads. when you need it, you just use it. nonow, he hass gone to the republican position of if you are not well-to-do, you do not deserve health care. remember, congressman grace meng -- graysonon was mocked and censured when he said the republican tax plan was if you get sick, die quickly. now, you're seeing donald trump is not interested in what he said. where is his infrastructure bill he promised out-of-the-box? where is the 10% tax cut for the middle class he promised last october? everything he says is just transactional. if it gets him a vote today, that is fine. tomorrow, he will turn around and stab you in the back. juan: this budget has very little chance -- i should say

zero chance of passing in congress. he couldn't get cuts like this through a republican-controlled congress. now with the democrats in control of the house, what you expect to happen? david: what is important here is a budget is a statement of values. donald trump revealed his values. he has the values of a dictator. that is why i said budget lessons from dictator kim. all of his claims about i love the cops, and then he took away their ability to take tax dues,ions on paying union uniform cleaning. he says i love students, and then he wants to take subsidies pay for-profit colleges. as long as we treat donald trump as a sears person who has real policies, we will get nowhere. we need to mock him and make fun of him. he is not very smart.

he does not know what he is doing. amy: $8 billion and morore --- coconsiderably more than that -- for the wall he originally asked $5 billion for -- david: that is not going to go either. amy: explain both the military budget and the wall and then the massive cut backs for social programs. david: essentially what trump is trying to do is cut social welfare programs everywhere he can to put more money ininto the broader national security budget, which is both the military and border issues. he is never going to get his wall, beyond the fact you physically cannot build it in some places. and it is a terrible symbol to america that completely undoes our position in the world, to pursue this. but as long as he listens to fox he isnd ann coulter, going to continue to do these

things. he is not trying to expand his base. he is not trying to win over more people. because he does not know how to do that. juan: i want to ask you also about the projections of his budget of 3% growth for the next 10 years in the united states, as if there will -- at least for the next 10 years. we have already had 10 years of solid growth. david: the economy is already slowing down. 10 years into this market, which began under president obama, you would expect at this point to slow down. we only saw 20,000 jobs last month. trump goes around talking about i have the biggest employment in american history -- that is not the measure. job growth is a good measure. job growth has been about 20% lower under trump than obama since the economy turned around. tax revenues in the last 90 day period were 2% lower, which goes to the heart of how this tax cut for the rich is not paying for itself. little-known fact -- donald trump's tax law gave eight-year

loans at zero interest to all of the multinational companies that have siphoned profits out of the country. it also gave them a discount. i have written about how apple alone will turn a $120 billion profit off the trump tax law. have reported on that, and i've written about it for other publications. amy: you have written about donald trump in two books, his biography and your more recent wrote "the0, he america we deserve." he wrote, "i'm a conservative on most issues but a liberal on this one. we should not hear so many stories of f families ruined b y health care expenses. we must not allow citizens with medical problems to go untreated because of financial problems or red tape. the canadian plan also helps canadians live longer and healthier than america. we need, as a nation, to reexamine the single-payer plan, as many individual states are doing." david: that made him look good back then. today, he wants to look good

with a different group of people. donald has no open tables accept "i am a winner." we need to not treat him as if he is a serious policy person. he is not. he does not understand any of these things, and he will flip on a dime from a to b, yes to no. in watching careful him in the 2020 election, where if he wins, we are in deep country -- deep trouble as a country. if he loses and there is no prosecution of him for the many crimes he committed, he will go the rest of his life fomenting violence against the united states and his people, because he was i i was ripped off, i should stay in the white house. amy: your response to nancy pelosi saying impeachment is off the table? dadavid: absolutely. there are no votes on the table. why would you strengthen him by impeaching him?

continue the investigations. general ini is a strategy. donald trump is not even a buck private. now david j collinson, founder of dcreport's.org. he has been reporting on donald trump since the 1980's. his most recent book, "it's even worse than you think: what the trump administration is doing to america." this is democracy now! what is happening to hampshire college, we will find out in a minute. ♪ [music break]

breathe," written and performed by ellisha flagg

flagg, the brother and sister of eric gagarner. eric garner was killed in 2014 when an nypd officer wrestled hihim to the ground and applieia fatal chokehold, while garner said "i can't breathe" 11 times. juan: we turn now to sacramento, california, where protests continued wednesday over the fatal police shooting of 22-year-old stephon clark, an unarmed african american, and his grandmother's backyard last year. after -- [ --

attorney general xavier becerra has also announced his office will not file charges. amy: news that the officers will not be chargrged has sparked massive protests across sacramtoto, with walalk-outs at local colleges and high schools, demonstrations at the city council, and ongoing occupatioin of sacramentntpolice stion a , die-in at uc davis, and a protest in one of the city's wealthiest neighghborhoods thatt led to 8arrerests. protesters are dememanding juste for stephohon clark and greatatr police accouount ability in sacramento. this marks the 34th consecutive police shooting review where in sacramento district attorney anne marie schubert found that the officers acted legally. for more, we go to sacramento, where we are joined by berry accius, founder of voice of the youth and a community activist. talk about what you are demanding. berry: thank you for having me

baback. unfortunately, with the circumstances we have now, we are in a difficult place and a didifficult situatition in sacramento. right now, we are just respsponding t to the da's decin not to charge officers. woulding we all knew whatt happen, but something that has highlighted our anger and frustration is how she criminalized stephon clark, who was the victim of this heinous murder or assassination. the fact that she decided to put stephon clark on trial for his own murder was something i think has heightened the response from the community. juan: and it was not just her decision but also the becerrament by xavier at the state level that there would be no action. there was a bill passed, bill 1421, which requires disclosure policernal

investigations. it was passed as a result of the stephon clark killing. it was supposed to be retroactive. why has becerra declined to release informamation in the investigation into stephon clark? berry: i think they all sleep in ththe same bed. to o press decided not chargeges and lamented the idea that stephon clark was a criminal, remember, he was a vandal, so that is why he died anand got executeted. you did nonot really expect as a commununity that the ag would do something g different.t. i think therere was a lot of toh tatalk aboutut what he would do moviving forward to get the vot. when it was time, he showed us who he was and what he was about. the e surprising notion was how they painted this young man, who got murdered, a father of two, was s a criminal. the idea that his relationship with the mother of his child had anything to do with his murder, trying to create this criminal

element, and the real criminals are still on our streets, being police officers. amy: tell us what you understand happened. it has almost been a year. march 18 that stephon clark was gugunned down in his g grandmo's backyard. what do you understand happened? berry: i understand the police mamade a grave mistake. the unfortunate part about it all is when do we hold police accountable? when do police officerers actuay mistatake" and, ininstead of doing that, create the criminal element of every time they go after an alleged suspect, here is what they painteted. they painted thahat this s younn was a crimininal. to me, w when you look at it,t,i just visited stephon clark's demise in ththe backyard of f hs grgrandmother's hououse. the young and had no opportunity. you had a helelicopter moved d y the sheriff f that was giving pd onuctioions to sac

ground. they gave e all bad infoformati. the his commute reputation i in between n both entities has kind of led to the death of stephphan clark. ark.idea -- stephphon cl the idea of the time that first the weapon was a gun, then a toolbar, and ultimately they said it was a gun. it is more of the same type of business here in s sacramento. what happened afterwards i is te death of brandon smith, of darrell richards, and marshall miles. when y you look at sentimement a whole,e,e have notot really heed the words of the people or look at the results of excessive force by police. juan: i want to ask you about sacramento,hief of promising a separate internal investigation. he is an african-american police chief. what has been his role, and do you have any hope that anything will be done, even at an

initiative level, to hold these officers responsible? berry: one of the officers was african-american. a andea that african-american c chief, to be the hero of a commumunity, isise , but the reality is he is under a shield. that shield is blue. hahn, the letter of the law protects ask a police like this, and has not changed since 1872. when you think of 1872 and think about the origin of police as slave catchers, a.k.a., the slave patrol, you have to understand where we are at. in 1865, this is when african american citizens were let out of slavery. anything about the idea of what the origin of police are and the idea that, because of the

shooting of joseph mann, the resignation of sommers, or the fact that sommers resigned, allegedly, you have hahn come in as a superstar, because he used to be part of this community. it does not mean he will clean up the cultural policing. nonot only in sacramenento but throughout the country, cultural policing is deemeded to be corrupt. it is going to be a hard piece for daniel hahn t to come in and dodo the rightht thing, and the riright thing now is to fire the officers. we are notot going to get a criminal conviction, so fire the officers. we wait patiently. not t really worried about an investigation. we have been here over a year. whwhat more of an investigigatin army going to have? i do not think the city of sacramento a and stephon clark's through thisto go pain again. stephon clark was a man, a black

man, who got murdered, unarmed, at his grandmother's housese. amy: what are you calling for now? berry: firing. absolutely these officers cannot be in the community of sacramento. the firing of f these officers need to happen immediately. it is not just on chief hahn. it is also on city management. the city manager could actually say the officers would have to go, but the letter of the law, that kind of holds these officers in this wave of production, it makes it more difficult for them to do the right thing. in a humanity standpoint, you would think these officers, whether it is a mistake or they did it on purpose, they did something that they can no longer be in a community policing the peoeople of this commununity without the people n the community hahaving distrust. and a whole lot of other things that folks have been telling us for years and years is we have to trust the police officers and we are community -- the new thing is we are healing. but how can you heal without

justice? amy: we want to thank you w with being with us, berry accius, foununder of voice of the youth- berry: can i say onene more thi? we need to put ab 392, a bill that will hold policice acaccountable for these heinous actions. this is a bill we are pushing to make sure police officers are held accountable. amy: thanks so much for being with us. this is democracy now! when we come back, we will look at what is happening to hampshire college. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

by hamsherme #3" alum elliott smith. juan: we turn now to massachusetts, where students at hampshire college have entered the 41st day of a sit-in in the

president's office, protesting what they fear may be the future closing of their school. in january, hampshire college president miriam nelson announced the board of trustees and senior administrators would seek to merge the school with aa "strategic partner." the announcement was followed by staff layoffs in the school's development and admissions offifices and news that ththe sl would not be admitting a full class in the fall. this is a hampshire college student with the group hamp rise up, which has been organizing the protests. >> we are fighting for better transparency and an education system that actually serves our best interest. it is really tragic, the fact that schools like this are closing down so rapidly. now that we are here, in the midst of this movement, i realize how important education is and how essential it is for these places to exist. juan: many of hampshire college's faculty, students, alumni, and staff have

criticized president miriam nelson for her handling of the crisis, saying they were caught by surprise that the school was in financial trouble. critics say it runs counter to hampshire's unique mission as a progressive liberal arts college committed to social justice. amy: we are joined now by three guests. margaret cerullo is a professor at hampshire college, a professor of sociology and feminist studies, where she has taught 40 years. her recent piece for the "nation" is called "the unmaking of a college: notes from inside the hampshire runaway train. " we are also joined by a senior at hampshire college, desta cantave. and joining us via skype is william null, a hampshire college alum. we welcome you all. let's begin with margaret cerullo. you have written this article called the unmaking of a college, notes from inside the

-- called "the unmaking of a college: notes from inside the hampshire runaway train." what is your understanding of what is happening in hampshire college? margaret: it has taken us a bit of time, because we have felt ourselves to have experienced what feels like a shock doctrine attack that everything happened extremely rapidly, starting anyway 15th, when the first announcement was made that hampshire was seeking a strategic partner and may not accept a freshman class. that news was devastating. it was confirmed on the first of february but a decision from the board of trustees. devastating because hampshire is tuition dependent. so failing to take in a class means, automatically, the 50%ssity of a cut of 5% of of faculty and staff almost immediately. that was followed by a bizarre letter to the early acceptance students, because the college had legal obligations to them, they had already been accepted,

inviting them to come to hampshire but warning them they would probably be no dining hall, no dorms, a few faculty, and none of the services that one could usually expect from a real arts college, such as sports, clubs, a study abroad office, or even on-campus jobs. that was another cold water bath that said to us that not only andthe college discouraging entering class, but having seen that letter, it seemed to be a all the rest of their students, the transfer and get out as soon they could, virtually eliminating our revenue base. juan: william null, you are a trustee of hampshire college. can you talk about, because at least throughout the fall, the financial situation, for anyone looking from the outside or even the faculty, was in good shape. what happened to suddenly create

this financial crisis? i am sorry, we are having some problems with william null. can youl ask desta, talk about your reaction and the reaction of the other students when you heard the sudden announcement? desta: yeah, so the announcement that first came out actually came out during winter break. a lot of the students were not around. returned fromnts winter break, there was meetings with the students to talk about what was going onn, and students reacted in protest. -- january 31,t marching to the dean of student's office and president nelson's office. the students have been occupying the president's office since

then. and we occupy the dean of students' office for some time. we cononceded the dean of students' office after what we thought were making headway in a list of demands we created in our protests. those demands are radical transparency, shared governance, and overall equity, none of which have been met. bubut when it t looked likike ts were going to be met, we stopped occupying the dean of students' office. we have been there 41 days. amy: margaret cerullo, can you tell us what is special about hampshire college, for people who have not been familiar -- for people not familiar with it all? margaret: hampshire is an extra ordinary place. it was founded on the heels of the 1960's, the student movements, and it has always had an x licit upfront social justice mission. we were the first college in the

country to divest from south african apartheid, winning us a letter of recognition fromom nelson mandela from jail. we were there first to divest from the israeli occupation of palestine. in 2001, the entire college community voted against war with afghanistan. there has been a consistent history, both on and off campus. as i said in my article, i think it would be hard to mention a progressive project or program, including democracy now!, or any social movemenent the last 49 years that has not seen the act of-- active preservation student, alumni, and staff from hampshire college. so naming social injustice and acting on it is part of the dna. one other thing i would like to say that is perhaps less well-known is that hampshire has also been a refuge for political intellectual refugees.

zimbabwean, a revolutionary who was imprisoned, who i wrote petitions for, was 10 years later my colleague. james baldwin. people who had no place in the macon university system after political engagements, during the vietnam war, in favor of the palestinian people. extraordinary place. the presence of those people has a normal sleep -- enormously enriched the educational experience. juan: i think we have william null now. we have him now by phone. as we said earlier, you are a

trustee. what happened between the fall and then early january and february, for such a drastic change in the announced position of the college under its finances to occur? william: to begin with, i agree with margaret cerullo's comments on how important hampshire college is and the situation. i am an alum. my spouse is an alum. my son is an alum. this is in my dna. and most of the trustees are of alummni or parents ni. we aresion is something very focused on continuing. that is essential. the challenge here is that, in the face of a $5 million deficit next year and $20 million over the next three years, hampshire was faced with a situation of

not being able to continue to -- 87% the reliance reliance -- on tuition, room and board, and reliance on donors' therosity to balance budget. what we wanted to do was make it clear and transparent to students that our first commitment was to them andd grgraduating them and to faculty and staff, continuing to keep the institution momoving fororw. not to bring in another class where we did not have the funds, were confident we do not have the funds, to continue and teach them out over a four-year period . when we made the announcement in january, having to confront the fact we had 1400 students in 2014, down to 1100 students in 2018, 2019, and we were looking at a continuing falling enrollment, which is a trend in the u.s., a demographic shift,

with a less high school graduates, and colleges in the northeast in particular are competing for these high school graduates. with a lower endowment, we do not have the money to essentially provide greater financial aid. we focused our financial aid in trying to increase diversity at the school, which we have been successful at, and to try and what we get students who can succeed at this rigorous institution. i have to say this is a terrible situation for hampshire college to be in. the loss of faculty and staff who are deeply dedicated to the mission and have dedicated their career is one of the worst things that any of us have faced. the disruption for the students and their education is something we would all like to avoid. what we are looking to try and do is steer the ship to a safe landing and a place where we can continue this important s social justice mission for years to come.

amy: let me get comments from presser -- from professor margit cerullo. margaret: one of the things that has been most puzzling to all of us is why the dire financial straits that administration and trustees are now claiming faced hampshire? that information was not made known to hampshire's extraordinarily loyal trustee -- , who are understandably furious, because they were not told we are facing what is now called an existential crisis and are being blamed for not being willing to b be contributors. so that is a great puzzle, for one. william: we are not looking to blame faculty or staff. last year, if you recall, there was a voluntary separation havement, so we could early retirement for about 30 people. at that point, we were looking

at a $3 million deficit that was funded for a one-time dividend from one of the investments in our endowment. so we basically got by on that deficit at that time, and that was discussed with faculty and staff. in fact, there were many people who sought to take advantage of that voluntary separation. the fact that hampshire has year-to-year being in a challenging financial situation is considerably a result of such reliance, almost 90%, on tuition, room and board -- margaret: if i could interrupt -- amy: i want to bring desta cantave back in the position. asked what hamp rise up demands are, you met with the president -- desta: yes, i would like to clarify with our demands, because i think it works with what this trustee is saying, in which we are asking for o overal

radical transparency, which none of this financial information was clear to members of the hamsher community prior to january 15 -- hampshire community prior to jerry 15th. if it was in any way made known, it was not to the degree in which we are being told now. everyone was blindsided by the fact that, all of a sudden, thee school couldn't go on without not accepting an incoming class and withthout makingng these few changes. we also asked for shared governance, which there were two vacancies on the board, and we asked two students be elected on that board. and there is also an options committee, a search committee for the potential strategic partner that may be coming in to help us, and we asked for two elected students to be on that options committee. two students were appointed by miriam nelson but were not elected by the students.

and we were declined to have two students added to the board of trustees that were elected. our third overall equity was protect programs like the james baldwin scholarship program, the cultural center, and other affinity spaces that have been prioritized. in our last meeting around our demands with miriam nelson, she was claiming to have met some of those demands, which she had not. she even said that the overall equity demand, those affinity-based programs, were important to the college but not 9 go fishable -- not nonnegotiable. amy: we will do part two of this discussion and posted online. desta cantave, margaret cerullo, and bill null. atill be speaking in denver east high school march 15, friday night at 7:00. check our website at democracynow.org. we also have an immediate job

opening for a full-time junior systems administrator here in new york. check democracynow.org. democracy now is produced by mike burke, deena guzder, nermeen shaikh, carla wills, tami woronoff, sam alcoff, john hamilton, robby karran, hany massoud, charina nadura, tey-marie astudillo and libby tey-marie astudillo and libby rainey.

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