07/02/19 07/02/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! hundreds of protesters storm hong kong's legislative council in the latest round of protests of that have rocked hong kong. we will speak with leading pro-democracy activist joshua wong who was recently release from prison in hong kong. >> it is time for us to urge

carrie lam to withdraw the proposal and it is her responsibility to step down and a face how to me and people already join the fight and urge her to bear the political responsibility. amy: as senator kamala harris rises in the presidential polls, we will look at how she is being targeted with a string of racist conspiracy theories. and we will look at her record as a prosecutor in san francisco and attornrney general of calilifornia. >> w when i became e a prosecutr and when i was elected district attotorney and also attorney generaral of califorornia, i imimplemented some of the mosost significant reforms to date during thosese years that had bn implemented. amy: we was big to university of san francisco law professor lara bazelon. op-ed, shek times"

says kamala harris was not a progressive prosecutor. all of that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as president trump signed the $4.6 billion border bill approved by congress last week, a delegation led by the congreressional hispanic caucus visited two immigrant prisons monday amid growing outrage at reports of inhumane conditions due to trump's border policies. texas congressmember joaquin castro described the conditions at an adult facility as being akin to a prison, where women were held in cells without access to running water, proper medical care, and some had been held for over 50 days. others reporteted they had no information on the whereabouts of their separated children. the congressionanal delegation also visited the clint border patrol station which has come under fire after recent reports of overcrowding and inhumane

conditions for the children being locked up there. congressmember alexandria ocasio-cortez tweeted after yesterday's visits, "it's not just the kids. it's everyone. people drinking out of toilets, officers laughing in front of members congress. i brought it up to their superiors. they said 'officers are under stress & act out sometimes.' no accountability." congress members held a press conference outside of the children's prison in clint amid boos and racist jeers from protesters. this is congressmember ayanna presley. >> keep yelling. this is very appropriate. vile rhetoric. hateful rhetoric for hateful behavior. racist words and venom for racist policies.

this is about the preservation of our humanity. this is about seeing every single person there is a member of your own family. --m tired of the house freedom being negotiated and compromised and moderated. works andsystem that is compassionate and k keeps familieses together. amamy: on friday, a fedederal je ordedered c customs and border protection, cbp, to let independenent health monitors io deteion fafalitieses in texas holding migrant children to ensure conditions are safe and sanitary. last week, lawyers asked u.s.

district judge dolly gee to hold the trump administration in contempt over conditions in the facilities and to mandate immedie e impremenents inin reled n new nbc n news is reporting fefederawatctchd warned in may that borr r agen armed ememselv andnd fred possible rio d due tthee conditions at an el paso, texas, imimmigrion deteion facity. thassociat press h reased a veo showi a -year-olgirl speing to a laer abouter and her siyear-oldister's experice the borr virtua staon in clint,exas,hich has been called ahild jai the two young rls were taken the facility afr being sepated from their aunt when they arred in thu.s. in y. e clint rder patl statio rently camunder innse sctiny aft reportsf wispread nlect andnhuman livi conditis, inclung lackf food, ter, sanation, and medil care.

this is a an excerpt of the lite girl from the ap video.. >> thehey gave us little food. some c children did not t bathe. they did not pay them -- batathe them. they t treated us badly. they were mean to us. >> did you sleep on beds? >> they slept on n just the flo. >> did they give you blalanketsr not? >> they would only give us one blanket. >> was it enough to withstand the cold? were sickome children and they said they would take them to hospitals but they did not take them. amy: the young girl also told the lawyer and term would cry out for their mothers and separated family members. custom and border protection is open an investigation into social media post by a racist, xenophobic group. it follows the publication of a

new piece uncovering the secret facebook group in which current and former cbp employees post racist, homophobic, anti-immigrant and misogynistic content about migrants, as well as some lawmakers another high profile people. one post contained a photoshop image of congress member ocasio-cortez alexandria big sexually assaulted by president trump. members made fun of a video of a man trying to carry a child through a rugged river in a plastic bag. someone commented, at least it is already in a trash bag. asked by reporter yesterday to respond to her depiction in the facebook post, commerce member ocasio-cortez said it was indicative of the culture she observed inside the migrant present she just visited did not feel safe around the officers. joaquin castro said some have

"become desensitized to the point of being dangerous to the migrants in their care." posts were also uncovered that mocked the salvadoran father and his young dadaughter who drowned last month while attempting to cross the rio grande to get to the u.s. border. oscar alberto martinez ramirez and his daughter valeria were buried yesterday in their hometown in el salvador in a private ceremony. a photo of the pair after their drowned bodies were discovered in the rio grande river caused both widespread outrage at the humanitarian crisis at the u.s. southern border and raised questions about the ethics of exploiting such images in the press. journalists were not permitted to attend the funeral. el salvador's president nayib bukele said sunday that their tragic deaths were caused by flawed immigration policies and unsustainable situations in all the countries implicated -- the u.s., mexico, and el salvador.

in more immigrants rights news, coalition of human rights and other groups are holding close the camps demonstrations around the country today, calling on lawmakers to shut down immigrant jails, defund detention and deportation, and reunited separated families. meanwhile, south of the u.s. border, mexico's newly formed national guard officially began operations sunday, deploying 70,000 membersrs across the country.y. the force was set up by president andres manuel lopez obrador to combat violence from organized crime but critics have called out recent incidents showing members detaining central american migrants atat e border. in relelated news, mexican immigration officials s sa they recently deported over 80 haitian migrants, amid mountntig presessure from the u.s. to stem the flowow of nortrthbound migr. in hong kong, riot police used tear gas to forcibly remove hundreds of protesters occupying a legislature building early tuesday morning. the activists began their

occupation on monday when they stormed hong kong's legislative council and smashed the glass to gain entry, tearing down portraits of officials and spray painting the walls. the action took lace as hundreds of thousands flooded the streets monday to markrk the anniversary of hong kong's return to chinese control 22 years ago. it is the latetest and masassive civil unrest that starteded last month when millions to give the streets to protest a bill that would allolow the extradition of hong kong residents and visitors to mainland china. the vice chair hong kong's pro-democracy labour party said the protest would continue to the government completely wiwithdraws the exextradition b. >> i think this is going to go on for a real long time if the government does not withdrawal the bill completely and does not express or has any actual p plan

to rebuild the communinications between the people and the regime. hong k kong is still i in unres. we are v very much not satisfied with the government not allowing a complete withdrawal of the extradition bill, anand also a real urge from all s sides to establish an independent inquiry into the whole fiasco. amy: we will have more on hong kong after headlines. iran announced it has surpassed the limit on uranium enrichment permitted under the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal and said it would continue to increase its stockpile. trump responded to the news by saying iran was playing with fire. the iranian foreign minister mohammad javad zarif said they would now bow to u.s. pressure but would engage in dialogue with any parties that demonstrate respect. last week, france, germany, and the united kingdom said that instex, an alternative financial mechanism that would circumvent u.s. sanctions, was operational.

iran said that the system was a popositive developopment but tht europe was not buying iranian oil l d needed t to do more to uphold its commitment to keeping the landmark 2015 agreement alive in the face of president trump withdrawing last year and crippling sanctions. japan has resumed commercial whaling after over 30 years of adhering to a global ban on the practice. japan, which has argued whaling is part of its culture, continued to hunt whales during the ban for what it claimed was scientific research, t though critics say that w was merely a veil as it continued selling whale meat for profit. last december, japan announced it was leaving the international whaling commission. greenpeace japan called that decision out of step with the international community, adding, "japan must urgently act to conserve m marine ecosystems." back in the united states, the department of agriculture is in turmoil as the agency prepares to move hundreds of jobs from the capital to kansas city.

last month, agriltlture secretary soy y perd annnnoued the relocation of t keyey resesear agencncs, prompngng a dramamat silenenprotest by over a dozen employees who ood d up and tueded the b backso ththe age perdue was sakaking om. employees stst nowecide whether to move orosose thr jo. politico irereportg a a suey showthat four out ofive in place of decide to quit thato reloce. nurous scitists, lmakers, agricuural andnvironmeal grps have lled outhe move by pere, whichhey warnill ha employe of the ency and farms, and ipart of e trp adminiration's agen to suppss climateesearch. last month, politico reported the agency stopped promoting dozens of publicly funded, scientific studies about the impacts of climate change. democrats have thus far been unsuccessful in their attempts to stop the move through

legislative and other measures. mamany of those who were being forced to move our economist & economistsnsible -- & tests responsible for cutting-edge climate research and this country. president trump has requested a military spectacle including tanks and fighter jets for the upcoming fourth of july rate and his address to the nation. officials have raised concerns abouout the balloonining cost oe evevent as well as t the potentl for physical damage to the mall to to the massive military hardware. a plan military parade for last year proposed by presidentnt trp was scuttled after it was revealed it would cost up to $92 million, including $50 million in pentagon costs. on monday, the d.c. council expressed its opposition to having tanks drive down washington, d.c., streets, tweeting -- "we a are set a before and we wl

say it again, tanks, but no tanks." 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'm juan gonzalez. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. we begin today's show with mass civil unrest in hong kong, where riot police used tear gas to forcibly remove hundreds of protesters occupying a legislature building early tuesday morning. the activists began their occupation on monday when they stormed hong kong's legislative council and smashed the glass to gain entry, tearing down portraits of officials and spray painting the walls. some demonstrators held a sign reading, "there are no violent rioters, only a violent regime." the action took place as hundreds of thouousands flooded the streets monday to mark the anniversary of the city's return to c chinese control 22 years a. it was jusust the latest m mass demonstration since millions

took to the street ia series of march last montto protest a contested bill that would allow for extraditions of hong kong residents and visitors to mainland china. activists say the law is an infringement on their legal rights and on the independence of hong kong. amy: protesters are calling for hong kong chief executive carrie lam to step down over the legislation. she postponed the bill under public pressure but has not yet fully withdrawn it. this is carrie lam speaking at a news conference earlier today. >> we have not responded to ofry demand asked because good reasons. first of all, if the c cost of e social tensions that we have -- the a bill to amend 15th of june, of announced t the suspension of the bill. and subsequently, we have explained and elaborated by

defending the bill at this point in time with no timetable and no the debate of the bill in the legislative council. amy: that was hong kong chief executive carrie lam. well, for more, we go to hong kong where we're joined by pro-democracy lawmaker claudia mo. welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. can you talk about what to place yesterday? see a ratheres you shockiking. they were devastating. perfectly unexpected. and then behind all of this, i hope the whole world will try to understand and sympathize with hong kong's young people the anger in the resentment, the frustration that has been penting up all of these years, the environment.

they might have become -- probably and unnecessarily militant. they are trying to get their voices heard, not just in hong kong, but hopefully, across the world. amy: can you talk about where you were yesterday, claudia mo? was milling around, basically. some time in the afternoon i to appear to leaders of the more militant protesters to rethink about their planned to storm the legislative building. -- the client i got reply i got, don't worry about us, we are ok. what we are new doing. the sad thing is, there seems to be a tiny bit of this marcher

thatlity among our young they would die -- they don't mind dying for this democracy fight in hong kong. what their voice, it is basically democracy now. juan: claudia mo. i would like to ask you in terms of the existing so-called democratic structure in hong kong, obviously under china's one country, two systems policy, how is the legislature chosen in hong kong and what is the impact of the people's republic of china government over hong kong? >> yes, exactly. that is a great question to be answered. the young have particular anger at the legislature. fact mainly stems from the

this very legislature that was going to pass thee c controversl china extradition bill. why. because they have enough beijing votes in their. and it is all because of our very twisted and convoluted kind of election system. they make sure their pro-beijing vote will occupy at least half of our seats. that is a total number of 70. they make sure they would have just votes to pass anything, any policy, any bill, any funding application from the government. and democrats arere alwayss outnumbered. we are outnumbered, not because we are unpopular, but becausesee just don't get the seats.

we have more votes, but if your seats. that sums up the hong kong legislative election. and the young knew it. and from the last election back in 2016, right after that, taking of someoath ceremony, political stunt on the part of a few, the hong kong government managed to twist and bend rules and laws without breaking them, of course, and successfully take out altogether six of our electeded democratic lawmakers. and the young grew up with that sort of news. they knew perfectly what is going on in hong kong. ofir anger is justified most -- their anger is justified. maybe other actions, but their anger needs to be understood. juan: hong kong is relatively prosperous as an entity in the

world. it is rated with the highest level of economic freedom for business in the world. very low taxes. it has the seventh highest human development index of any country in the world. and it's gdp, per capita gdp is a must as high as the u.s. at 56,000. so it has prospered economically under chinese rule, but could you talk about the impact of the economic prosperity versus the lack of political democracy? >> now, you have to know that hong kong's coefficient is also among the highest t in the worl. the wealtlth d divide in this cy is incredible. it is preposterousus, really. it is s free to businenesses. thenessmen make money, but

wealth divide is getting worse and worse. i just heard this afternoon from -- we arare very money minded i in hong kong because political protests, where do they take us? the government simply doesn't pay attention to you. beijing tells you just to restore order. we have tried to turn as much money as we can so that we can leave hong kong. amy: are you calling for carrie lam to resign? that shepecific bill put afford, if you can briefly explain it. >> carrie lam has been saying she would suspend this particular controversial bill. now, suspension is always temporary. it can come back any time. why couldn't she just use the word "would drop -- use ththe wd

"withdraw"? i was told it was a face issue that she has agreed to suspend itit and she is not going to mae any further - -- it is so pathetic, right? convinced she would not dare to bring back that issue. but the thing is, it boils down to trust among the people, which she has completely lost by today. amy: can you e explain what happppened inside the hong kong legislature yesterday? the militant -- well, mostly young protesters, stormed the legislator's complex. they were genuine students.

ory are not infiltrators that sort of thing. they were so angry. they did everything they could to damage the chahaer, obobviously. but one pepeculiar thihing is, t before the storming, the police -- who have been at the station inside to guard the building -- suddenly sort of retreated. the police c chief subsequently said they had to redeploy their teams, the police teams due to very flimsy reasons. you could not help but thinking it is just possible they were trying to lure the protesters into the compound, the building, the vandalism expected.

so the whole world will see those shocking photos and pictures and footages. the young will get the blame for vandalism in hong kong. the course there china fight for will be forgotten. juan: so far it has been the hong kong police who have been dealing with the demonstrators. do you have any fears of the protest continues or the possibility of military from china coming in to hongng kong r not? >> that is a fundamental scare about the hong kong sececurity situation. last night i heard the youngsters talking about them needing to stay on side -- outside the legislative building because they need to outnumber the police force.

as long as we have enough people, they can't possibly arrest us all and we have to protect those who have already -- i heard similar lines from young protesters 30 years ago on cinnamon square in beijing. they were saying the same things. there were so many of us, they just cannot grant all of us. that kind of mentality. under hong kong's constitution, the government allowed to anlare hong kong to be in emergency state and the people's liberation army would be sent out to the streets of hong kong to retain social order, what have you. scacary thought. thank god it did not happen. get to thatll never

sort of situation again. amy: are you asking for carrie lam to r resign? >> of course. of course. as days are numbered, as far i can see. and many of us in hong kong -- beijing has tried to distance itself from carrie lam, suggesting she is the one who started all of this controversy and sauget in hong kong. and assuming that is the case, carrie lam is proved herself to be completely inefficient and she is been untruthful to the hong kong people. you saw the footage for speaking at a press conference in the middle of the night yesterday. she was putting on his bureaucratic face, complete with her bureaucratic voice, telling hong kong people, "yes, i will humbly listeten to you again."." where is the humility?

you never got it. aroundl be sticking still because i understand -- well, many of us understand there is no replacement that is acceptable to beijing yet at the moment. for beijing ifot they would have to let her go now, too soon. it is like bowing to the people, bowing to public pressure. i would not be surprised if she i would sayaygo this time next year. amy: claudia mo, thank you for being with us democratic , lawmaker in hong kong. attended the protests on sunday. this is democracy now! stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "do you hear the people sing?" from the soundtrack of "les miserables." protesters in hong kong have adopted the broadway show tune as their anthem. this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman, with juan gonzalez. juanan: california senator and presidential candidate kamala harris is riding a new wave of momentum following her debate performance last week when she challenged joe biden's past history of working with segregationist lawmakers and his opposition to busing to integrate schools in t the 197'. harris has jumped in several opinion polls, but there has also been a right-wing backlash online. on thursday, the president's son, donald trump, jr., retweeted a message from an alt-right personality that read -- "kamala harris is not an american black. she is half indian and half jamaican. i'm so sick of people robbing american blacks, like myself, of our history. it's disgusting. harris' family were actually slave owners."

amy: so between said. donald trump, jr. reposted the tweet, adding "is this true? wow." trump jr. deleted the tweet later that night after coming under fire from several other 2020 presidential candidates including joe biden who tweeted -- "the same forces of hatred rooted i in 'birtherism' that questioned @barackobama's american citizenship, and even his racial identity, are now being used against senator @kamalaharris." 2020 democratic presidential hopeful julian castro told cnn donald trump, jr. behaved like a coward. >> this is a g game these folks play. they put something out thehere. you noticece what he did. hehe tweeted i it and then deled it from electric powered, so he could say, oh, that was just a mistake. but he knows what he is doing. he is giving voice to these racist utterances about senator harris. we needd to dispel them and

condemn them and not give them any more life, because they are disgusting. amy: that is julian castro. for more, we go to washington, d.c., where we're joined by shireen mitchell, founder of the group stop online violence against women. shireen mitchell, welcome to democracy now! can you respond to this tweet and delete of donald trump, jr. and talk about this in the tradition of the trump family, really, president trump himself, just as a private new york developer, leading the birther movement against president barack obama, questioning where he was born? >> yes. this is not just a pattern of this family, the trumpmp family. please, remember, trump is also the one that tried to get five inwn and black boys executed central park. let's not forget this is a history within this family of racism. the other parts of this is we also need to remind ourselves --

also, they participated inn housusing discriminationon. there were all kindsds of legal ramififications about t them tatargeting black anand brownn cocommunities. so this is not new. this is not t a surprise to me d should not be a surprise to anyone else. the ways in which they use our identity as s a weapopon to raly their base is very problematic and very consistent. kakamala harris being g a womanf color and running for office and running against donald trump, going -- maybe going forward, this is not a surprise it would start this this early. but also be clear that this online harassment of black and brown women has been going on as a part of the election process and has been going on since 2013 as we track many of these behaviors of this pretending to be black women trying to defame or discredit black women. in this example is exactly that.

is not an american black when she was born in oakland is ridiculous. but this harkens back to what was happening with obama as well, that his father was kenyan, so somehow that made him .ot black enough, not born here yet to prove that he was. and that is the part of the birtherism that was being expanded upon when donald trump himself started promoting that campaign that barack obama had to explain his existence in this country. i would say there is no other group that is constantly asked to identify as american because we have the term "african-american" that somehow we are choosing african first. that example is an example that happens in our community, but also very much used as a weapon against us. , what doreen mitchell

we know about the person who actually posted the tweet, this ali alexander? ofwhat i found outut or some us digging deeper, this gentleman happens to be connected to some of the other right-wing groups in the alt-right groups, associations with jacob warhol. so he is associated -- it was not surprising the donald trump reach we did him because he is been a part of that community. amy: finally, your response to, well, this went before the tweet and delete of donald trump, jr.. in february, senator kamala harris spoke to the breakfast club. this is radio host charlamagne tha god questioning harris about memes circulatining online about her. isanother meme says, kamala was african-american, she raised in canada, not the united states. >> so i was born in oakland.

[laughter] in the united states except foror the years i was in high school in montrtreal, cana. look, thisis is the sameme thing they d did to barack obabama. this is not new to us. i think we know what they are trying to do. they're trying to do what has been happening over the last two years, which is powerful voices trying to sow hate and omission among us. we need to recognize when we are being played. >> i'm glad you brought up barack. what do you say people questioning the legitimacy of your blackness? >> i don't think that understand who black people are. because if you do, if you walk on hamptons campus or howard's campus were more house or spellman or fisk, you'd have a much more appreciation for the diaspora, for the diversity, for the beauty in the diversity of

who we are as black people. so i'm not going to spend my time trend educate people about .ho black peopople are amy: that was senator kamala harris speaking on breakfast club, the radio show. shireen mitchell, your response? >> she's absolutely right. one thing is for sure, i graduated from hbcu. once you havave that expxperien, you would never question what black identity is. the only people who question us like that are from outside our community. and the other parts of that is, within ourur community, yes, weo haveve people coming from different walks of life, but that is the same of any other community. there is nothing different about our community than others, but somehow it is being used as a weapon, being used as a way to discredit us, a use case in black identity being used as a weapon for not only to polarize

tryblack vote, but also to -- i hadther people to " used the word hate, but to make it look like we're the ones who are the threat for the threatt upon u us. the ignorant and how we are being targeted, how the example of what donald junior did is an example of hate. the example is what trump did to those boys in central park. when they see the documentary about that. those are a prime example of ways in which we are not only questioned about who we are, but questioned about ourur loyalty o this country. and we were born here, so there's no question about that. juan: shireen mitchell, president trump has also senator elizabeth warren and accused her of not being truly native american, now resist questions

about kamala harris. the whole issue of online attacks on women and your stop online violence against women, can you tell us the impact that is having on the national discourse? 's second report coming out, but first report revealed within the mueller report documented by 17 agencies, literally and intense and focused target on black fortity used as a weapon voter suppression. and that example is what we're seeing. you have to understand even with elizabeth warren aspect of it, that was a target to sow discord within the native e americanan community. if you look at thiss pattern, there's a targeted pattern of going after brown and black votersrs to interfere in the was in which they decide to choose

who they want to vote for. thethat in itself is one of focused problems we need to be paying attention to. our work shows black women were being g targeted as earlrly ass. this is well befefore everyone understood what was happeningngn 2016. and yet we still are having this conversation as if this is new. this is not new. it has been going on for years. what we're leaearning is therera different way we need to approach voters branch -- voter repression and pay attention to what is hahappening to women off color because theyey are the targets. black women are trusted voters in our community. and if we are not paying attention to what is happening to them or how they are being targeted, we will have a problem going into 2020. amy: shireen mitchell, thank you for being with us founder of the , group stop online violence against women. when we come back, we look at senator kamala harris record as

the san francisco da and california attorney general. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman, with juan gonzalez. juan: as senator kamala harris rises in the early presidential polls, she is facing increasing scrutiny over her record as a prosecutor in california. in 2004, harris became district attorney of san francisco. she held the post until 2011 whereupon she became the attorney general of california. we are joined now by lara bazelon, a professor at the university of san francisco school of law. in january, she wrote a widely-read article in "the new york times" titled "kamala harris was not a 'progressive prosecutor'." bazelon wrote -- "time after time, when

progressives urged her to embrace criminal justice reforms as a district attorney and then the state's attorney general, ms. harris opposed them or stayed silent. most troubling, ms. harris fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions that had been secured through official misconduct that included evidence tampering, false testimony, and the suppression of crucial information by prosecutors." amy: lara bazelon joins us now from san francisco. thank you for joining us, professor. can you start off by going harris's record, starting with her being da of san francisco? >> sure. she was elected in 2004. she took a pretty courageous stance initially and that she did not seek the death penalty against a man who have been accused of murdering a police officer and she did get a lot of blowback from that.

subsequently, she moved much more for the center in many of her positions. two thingsgs happen in herer tee as da beto o'rourke mentioning. one there is a big lab scandal where a loved ignition using drugs rather than testing them. as a result, many convictions became tainted and it turned out her office had known for a month , top attorneys had, and had not disclose that information toto e defense. when a a judge found outut, she ote an opinion castigating harris for allowing this to happen. harris's reaction was to get the judge disqualifified by saying e had a conflict of interest because her husband was a defense lawyer. that failed and 600 cases were thrown out. the second piece that i think is important that not a lot of people know about is a case involving a man named jim all true loved. it was tried by linda allen, one of harris' deputies. it was the one i witnessed in the vacation case. use convicted and sentenced to 50 years to life.

in a was a one eyewitness conviction case. he was convicted and sentenced to 50 years to life. true love recently sued san francisco and won a $13.1 million judgment. juan: you wrote about george gage. could you talk about that? >> this is what prompted me to write this piece. harris' record on wrongful convictions. after true love, there was gage and daniel larson and a man named jose. topis w was at that point the official in the state of california, the top prosecutor. when these convictions came up, they had b been handled byby lor da's andd it was her job to decide whether to defend them. in george gage's case, it was his stepdaughter who accused him of sexually abusing her. out the turned

prosecutor had suppressed a lot girl,erial about the including medical records and a note from her own mother saying my daughter is a pathological liar who lives her lies. rather than acknowledge this really terrible thing had happened, that this prosecutor held back information that might have swayed the verdict, harri'' what attorneys did was look him in george gage, who been forced to act as as a lawyer, did not raise his claim in exactly the right way. so f for this technical reason, you should affirm this post a it would to oral argument and the judges were concerned and told the deputy to go back and talk to a supervisor to try to resolve the case -- which was a signal to get rid of it and do the right thing. office -- ands' george gage is currently 80 years old, serving an effective debt in prison sentence. amy: i want to go to an interview kamala harris did last month on face the nation with ed

o'keefe you take your prosecutorial record. a lot of concern among liberal and younger party. you may not be the best person to do o that given you are implementingng those tough on crime initiatives as a prosecutor. can i trust you toto do that? > when i i came a prosecutor and when i was elected district attorney and also attorney gegeneral of c california, i implemented some of the e most significant reforms to date during those years that had been implemented. like i said, i created one of ththe first reentry initiatives that became a model -- it was designated as a model in the united states fofor what law enforcement should do to be, as i call it, be e smart on crime. i was the first in the nation leading ththe state department f justice in california -- which, by the way, is the second-largest in the u.u.s. --o

require my agents to wear body cameras. i created as attorney general the first in the n nation implit bias and procedural justice training for law enforcement, knowing t that had to be addresd -- which is the implicit bias that exists and law-enforcement and potentially lethal o outcoms that o occur from that. >> so the coconcerns are overblown? >> the concerns are overblown, yes. no question. amy: that is senator kamala harris on "face the nation" speaking to ed o'keefe. if you could respond to this, lara bazelon? >> sure. you can hear her struggling to cocome up with the list. she starts with her program she implemented as da, a programam that did help certain very select nonviolent offenders reenter society. she then talks about body worn cameras. she was asked by the california state legislature to support a bill to mandate all police officer's wearing body worn cameras and she declined to do that.

with respect to implicit bias training, that is important all stop what i would say is more important is investigating officer involved shootings. she was called upon by the legislature to do that and decline. when you go down the list of the issues we think about when we think about a progressive prosecutor, on every single one of those issueues she was s on e wronong sidede. in some cases, her opppponent rn to the left. with marijuana legalization and her run for reelection as attorney geneneral, her opponent major legalized and she was a against it. now she is changed again. her failure to support legislation to reduce certain felonies t to misdemeanors, goig after parents criminally for having truant children. there is a link the list of policy positions where there was the progressive past and the center-right and she did not take the progressive path. >> i want to ask you specifically about the issue of

parents which rent children and her policy of trying to prosecute them. i want to go to kamala harris is 2011 inaugural speech as california attorney general as she touted her truancy policy during her tenure as district attorney of san francisco. this is what she said. >> we know chronic truancy leads to dropping out, which dramatically increreases the ods that he young person will either become a perpetrator or a victim of crime. folks, it is time to get serious about the problem of chronic truancy in c california. had 600,000one, we truant students in our elementary schools, which roughly matches the number of inmates in our state prison system. and is it a coincidence? of course not.

this problemle as is, i know we can fix it. in san francisco, we threaten the parents of vetererans witith prosececution and truancy droppd 32%. onare putting parents notice. if you fail to take responsibility for your kids, we're going to make sure that you face the full force and consequences of the law. inn: that was kamala harris 2011. what exactly did she do as da in prosecuting ocasio-cortez -- prosecuting parents? shehis took effect after left them become attorney general. prosecutors have the power under this law to prosecute parents for a misdemeanor for being essentially responsible for the children missing numerous days of school. the idea being they would be scared into making sure theirir kikids actually did attend scho. some parents were prosecuted. the pushback about this i thinik was on two fronts. one, a disproportionately impacted communities of color and parerents of color who are

more often targeted by this law than thosese who were white. aand two, this idea of removing parent from home or subjecting them to criminal prosecution would be a tool to reunite a family. which i think is questionable. there a lot t of things going on including poverty, drug issues, different issues with kids. it is not clear to many who work in the juvenile space the right answer is to criminalize the parents conduct. amy: has she responded cents? that was a clip in 2011. now that she is running for president and her record as being question on a number of these issues? that to me has bebeen frustratating. i don't find her once us to be responsive to the questions she is being asked and i don't fefel oftentimes she is bebeing asked the hard questions. the "face the nation" clip is an example where she is throwing what i think is a softball and

response by ticking off f a coue of accomplishments. when y you look at them in the bigger context, actually are not that progressive. part of it is she is not been pushed to record to answer for george gage, jamaal truelove, truancy, marijuana, opposing testing and kevin cooper's case. she is not getting those andtions directly forcefully enough. disappointingly, she is not said, look, i'm responsible for those decisions. broadly, theore buck stops with me. but she needs to acknowledge these specific things she did and reckon with that record. amy: i would to go to senator kamala harris speaking to reporters in january as she announced her candidacy for president. she was asked about her role in defending the california department of corrections efforts to prevent t tnsgender prisononer from getting gender reassignment surgery. i was, as you are rightly pointing out, the attorney general of california for two

terms. i had a host of clients i was obligated to defend and represent. not fire my clients. and there were, unfortunately, situations that occurred where my clients took posititions that were c contrary to my beliefs. and d it was in an office with a lot ofof people who would do the work on a daily basis. do i wish sometimes s they would have p personally consulted mee before thehey wrote the thingsgs ththey wrote? yes, i do, but the b buck stops with me. i take full reresponsibility for what my office didid. but onon the issue, i will tell you i vehemently disagree and affect w worked behind thehe scs to ensure the department of corrections woululd allow transitioning inmates to receive the medical attention that they required, needed, and deserved. amy: that was senator harris

when she was announcing for president, speaking at howard university. professor lara bazelon, your response? >> i think what is important to do is to back up and talk about what the job of a prosecutor is. many people think it is about convicting people. and it is not. it is about doing jujustice. that meansns if you see somethig , violates equal protection clause or the due process clause for example, you are required as the top prosecutor to stand up and say i'm won't enforce this law. that is what she did a proposition 8. i will give you an example. proposition eight was passesed babanning same-sex marriage. when she was basically told she needed to defend this law, she refused to defend it because it violates equal prorotection law. so she had that option when it came to this transgender

surgery. she had that option when it came to the debt and all too. -- the death penalty. been,sponse is always these are my clients. no, your job is to uphold the constitution and if you think these laws violate the constitution then you should not defend them. juan: in your op-ed these, you say the term "progressive prosecutor" has become a trendy subject these days. -- wouldou see as what be some of the hallmarks of her truly progressive prosecutor in america in 2019? >> it has become the real buzz word. we just saw last week with this insurgent campapaign of tiffany queens, never prosecuted a case and ran on a platform of dismantling our system of restoration, decriminalizing certain crimes, not prosecuting certain crimes, bill, cash money

essentially a criminalization of poverty because it says to people whether you can get out or not does not really depend on anything other than your ability to pay -- which means a wealthy person can be free and a poor person has to stay and languish in jail while the case goes forward. progressive prprosecutor's run n those platforms and run on n a atfoform of "we'e're going t to correct wrongful convictions." when people are wrongfullyy convicted because of corrupt official misconduct, we're going to uncover that and you're going to go to court and we're going to undo those convictions. it is a laundry list of policy positions. they are brave and new in our system because we have had for so many decades, people running on who can be the e toughest on crime. but a lolot of americans are getting fed up with that because it is expensive, ineffective, unjust, and racist. these do prosecutors are embracing reform and running and winning on that platform. amy: lara bazelon, thank you for being with us professor at the

, university of san francisco school of law and director of the school's criminal & juvenile justice, and racial justice law clinics. we will link to your piece in "the new york times" "kamala harris was not a 'progressive prosecutor'." democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mailil you

welcome to "nhk newsline." it is 9:00 a.m. on wednesday in tokyo. i'm keiko tashiro. we begin in southwestern japan, the island of kyushu there is record rainfall and flooding and landslide. parts o of t the area have seen0