06/02/20 06/02/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: f from new york, the epicenter ofof the pandemic in e united states, thihis is democry now! pres. trump: as we speak, i am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed personnel,ilitary and law enforcement officers to stop the writing, looting, vandalism, assaults,s, and that wanton destruction of property. income president trump threatens

to send thousands of heavily armed soldiers into the country's streets to quell a nationwide protest against police brutality. one senator described trump's threat as a declaration of war against american citizens. we will go to d.c. for the latest and then n to minneapapos where two autopsies have agreed george floyd's death at the hands of minneapolis police was a homicide. plus, we will go to los angeles to speak with black lives matter co-founder patrisse cullors, author of the memoir "when they call you a terrorist." consistent policicing, militarized policing, i witnessed the impact of mass incarceration had on my family members and the most early beinges for me or my home raided by lapd. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, demomocracynow.org, the quarante reportrt. i'm amy goodman.

as a h historic c uprisingng agt police violence continues across the united states, president trump monday threatened to send heavily armed soldiers into the country's streets. pres.. trump: mayorsrs and governors must establish an overwhelelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled. if a city or state refuses to tatake the actions thahat aree necessarary to defend the lilifd propoperty of their residents, then i will deploy the united states military anand quickly solve the problem for them. amy: as trump spoke from the rose garden, blasts could be heard from nearby lafayette park as the national guard and police officers fired tear gas, rubber bullets flash bangs to , disperse a peaceful protest against police brutality. many officers wore riot gear. some were on horseback. moments later, trump walked through the now-cleared park to his photo taken with a bible in frontnt of st. johnhn's episa

church, which was boarded up. trump was accompananied by attorney general william barr, chair of the joint chiefs of staff mark milleyey, and defense secretary mark esper. the president's s actions were widely denenounced. d.c. episcopal bishop mariann edgar budde criticized trump for using the chchurch as a "backdrp for a message antithetical to the teachings of jesus." the chief of police, virginia, pulled his officers from d.c. after they were used to clear the park, saying their safety and the safety of others was endangered for a photo op. senator ron wyden of oregon wrote on twitter -- "the fascist speech donald trump just delivered verged on a declaration of war against american citizens." proteststs againstst police vioe continueue to rage across thee country y as well. thousands have been arrested, including 2000 p people inin los angeles alone. citieses across the country have

imposed curfews. 23 s states have called up the national guard. protests havave also spread acrs the globe, r reaching france, germany, australia, and new zealand, among many other countries. the european union's top diplomats as the eu is shocked and appalled by george floyd's killing, calling it an abuse of power by police. the protests began a week ago after a white police officer in minneapolis pinned african-american george floyd to the ground by his neck for eight minutes while floyd gasped for repeatedly, saying "i can't breathe." two separate aututopsies m mondy confirmemed floyd's dedeath wasa homicidede. the officer derrick chauvin was charged friday with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. three other officers who were also at the scene have been fired but not charged. down withm held them

the other acting as a lookout. george floyd's memorial service is planned for thursday in minneapolis and his funeral is scheduled for next tuesday in houston. meanwhile, nbc news reports that minneapolis police records show officers usesed neck restraintns over 230 times over the last five years and made at l least 4 people unconscious. in other news, louisville, kentntucky, police chief steve conrad has been fired after it emerged two officecers who weret the scene of a fatal shooting early mondayay morningng did not have their body cameras activated -- a violalation of police department policy. both police and the e national guard fired shots at a crowd on monday, which killed david mcatee, whose bobody then reportrtedly lay in the streetsf louisvsville for over r 12 hour. david mcatee owned a lococal barbececue business and wawas a beloved figure in the community who regularly gave police officers free meals. louisville police chief steve conrad had already announced his plan to retire this month in the

wake of the louisville police killing of breonna taylor, a 26-yeaear-old african-amererican woman. she was shot t to death by polie inside herer own apartmement in march. taylor was an emt and emergency room tecechnician,n, as wellll n aspiring nurse. here in n new york city, protess continueued into the night in defiance of anan 11:00 p.m. curfew, the city's first curfew since 1943. earlier in the day, protesters held a die-in in times square. in oakland, california, an estimated 15,000 people attended a massive youth march against police brutality. this is organizer akil riley addressing a sea of students, educators, and parents outside oakland technical high s school. >> poor peoplele in thiss capitalilist society, peoplele t believe.e -- d don't

ththey arere brainwashed. [indiscernible] amy: shohortly befefore thee countyty-wide 8:8:00 p.m. curfew began, p police bebegan shooootg tear gas, flash bang grenades, and rubber bullets at demonstrators inront of oakland police department headquarters. shortly after 8:00 p.m., police kekettled protesters and made several group arrests, many of them for curfew violations. meanwhile, public health experts and government officials are warning that protests could lead to new surges of covid-19 infections. the coronavirus has already killed black people in america at a disproportionately high rate. activists are calling for stice for r james scurlock, a 22-y-year old black man n who ws fatally y shot saturday ninighta white bar owner in omaha, nebraska, during anti-police brutality protests. prosecutors said monday bar owner jake gardner will not face

charges because he appeared to act in self-defense in surveillance footage of the shooting. but others say james scurlock was attempting to de-escalate a scuffle outside the bar which started after gardner and his father provoked a crowd and gardner fired his gun. a facebook post by jake gardner, a 38-year-old ex-marine, just hours before the killing, reads -- "just when you think, 'what else could 2020 throw at me?' then you have to pull 48 hours of military style fire watch." gardner has been arrested on criminal charges at least four times, including once e for third-degree assssault. he has faced accusations of didiscriminating a against black patrtrons and d making t transpc comments. facebook workers staged a virtual walk out monday, in solidarity with the nationwide demonstrations and to protest facebook's handling of trump posts that they say "incite violence." last week, twitter placed a

warning on a trump post that included the phrase "when the looting starts, the shooting starts," saying it violated rules about glorifying violence. but facebook and ceo marark zuckerberg declined to take any actionon on the sasame post dede concererns voiced d by a gwingng number of its staff. an iranian scientistst who contracted covid-19 while imprisoned in a u.u.s. immigigrn jail is being deported todayay. sirous asgari was imprisoned for years despite being acquitted in a trade secrets case. before becoming infected, he pleaded for his freedom and called out the unsanitary and inhumane conditions inside the winn correctional center in louisiana where he was being held.. as global coronavirus cases top 6.2 million and deaths surpass 375,000, countries around the world continue to ease restrictions, even as the world health organization warns that premature re-openings could cause a new wave of infections.

bangladesh, the first rohingya refugee has died of covid-19. the 71-year-old had been living in cox's bazar, the world's largest refugee camp, home to 1 million rohingya. this comes as bangladesh reported nearly 3000 new cases nationwide in the past day, the highest daily number yet. in india, more than two months after it imposed the world's largest lockdown, many businesses and services reopened monday. this comes despite the increase in coronavirus cases in the country. hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, and places of worship may also reopen as of next week. in britain, many great schools started holding in person classes again this week for most students as boris johnson's government also eases other restrictions, i including allowg small group gatherings outdoors. some are objecting to what they say is a rush to end the lockdown, with many parents opting to hold back their kids from attending. infections are trending downward but britain still repoports around 4000 nenew cass ery day and has regisistered

close to 40,000 covid deaths. this comes as teacher unions in south africa are urgrging staffo defy government orders to reopen schohools this week,k, saying schools do not have enough personal protective equipment or resources to keep educators and students safe. south africa has reported 35,000 coronavirus cases, while the african continent has surpassed 150,0,000 infections. the united nations is appealing for $2.4 billion to carry out humanitarian operations in yemen as the nation faces a dual tragedy fueled by the coronavirus s and years of devastating war. save the children warns over 5 million yemenis are at risk of losing access to food and clean water. an international pledging conference, hosted by the u.n. and saudi arabia, is taking place today. the u.s.-backed, saudi-led war in yemen has created the world's worst humanitatarian disaster. data from m intensive carere uns suggest 20% of patients treated for covid-19 in yemen are e dyi, compared with a global average

of 7%. while yemen officially has registered a around 350 cases ad over 80 deaths, the countrtry hs one of the lowest testing ratets in the world and the true e toll is expected to be much higher. the environmental prprotection agency gutted parts of the clean water act monday when it finalized a rule restricting the ability of states and tribes to block federal energy projects, such as pipelines or industrial plants, that could pollute rivers and drinking water. lisa feldt of the chesapeake bay foundation said -- "this rule is an egregious assault on states' longstanding authority to safeguard the quality of their own waters. despite the trump administration's professed respect for 'cooperative federalism,' it is clearly willing to steamroll states' rights and green light major construction projects with no regard for how they might damage state waters." and in climate n news, siberia s exexperiencing a r record-breakg heat wave. some parts of the region registerered temperatures more thanan 20 degreeees higher thane historical average for this tite

of year. wildfires are expected to intensify into the summer as scientists warn the mounting temperatures are speeding the thawing of the permafrost, which releases carbon dioxidide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, causing temperatures to further rise. and those are some of thee headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. i am in new york joined by my cohohost juan gonzalez from his son inin new brunswick, new jerseyey. hi, juan. juan: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. much to do todaday as an historic weeklong uprising against police v violence continues and curfews are in place across the united states, president trump declared himself the "president of law and order" and threatened to send thousands monday of heavily armed soldiers into the streets. pres. trump: : if a city or stae refuses to take the actions that

are necessary to defend e life and proroperty of their residen, then i will do oil the united states military and quickly solve the problem for them. i am also taking swift and decisive action to prorotect our greatt capital w washington,n, c whatatappened inin the city last nighght was a tototal disgrace. as we speak, i am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers to stop the rioting looting, vandalism, assaults, and the wanton destruction of property. amy: while trump spoke from the rose garden, blasts could be heard from nearby lafayette park as the national guard and police officers dressed in riot gear fired tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash bangs to disperse peaceful protesters. moments later, trump walked

through the cleared park k to he his photo taken with a bible in front of st. johohn's episcocopl church, which was boarded up. when he returned to the white house, trump refused to take questions from reporters as he pumped his fisist and posed for another photo op. teargas?esident -- >> mr. president, what are you doing about police excessive use of force? >> is this still a democracy? amy: that last reporter saying "mr. president, is this still a democracy?" the president's actions were widely denounced. d.c. episcopal bishop mariann edgar budde criticized trump for using the church as a "backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of jesus." oregon senator ron wyden wrote on twitter -- "the fascist speech verged on a declaration of war against american citizens." the chief of police in arlington, virginia, pulled his officers from d.c. after they were used to clear the park, saying their safety and the

safety of others was endangered for a photo op. this is police and the national guard playing peaceful protesters from the streets of washington, d.c., before the 7:00 p.m. curfew. amy: a tall barrier fence has now been erected around lafayette park across from the white house. for morerewe are joined in washington, d.c., by kristen clarke, presidident and executie director of the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law. and in irvingtonon, new yoyork, william arkin is a longtime reporter on military and n nuclr policy and author of many books, including "top secret america: the rise of the new american security state." we welcome both of you to demomocracy now!

kristen clarke, your concerns about donald trump''s speech lat night saying he is deploying thousands and thousands of troops to wawashington, d.c.,.,d alall over thehe country tquelel the protests? speechhdent t trump's almostst amound toto a declalarn ofof war on american come on peaceful amemecans who a are out right now exexercising their fit anddment right to speak out here to speak out against the long-statanding problem upp pole violence andnd racial violence which has been beleaeaguered our nation. president trump has invoked the insurrection act of 1807. this iss a law that has been usd in the past t to deploy thee military to s states to deal wi, for example, resistancnce to the desegrgregation orders s that he been put in place e for the universityty of mississippi when officials were hostile and recalcitrantnt.

president kennedy orderered the troops g go in to forcecehe stae to comply with the law, the civil rights law thahat required desegregation. deploy ththeedent busush military to louisianana to help with relief efforts after hurricane katrina, but that happened in coordination with officials in the state of louisiana. here, trump single-handedly seeks to deploy the military to states all across our country over the objections of state officials and with the sole and singular purpose of silencing americans. in many ways, this is the death of democracy because people who are out right now have one singular goal -- to ensure that this moment, we not turn our backs on the long-overdue work that is necessary to rid our nation of the police violence that has resulted in numerous

deathshs of unarmed african-n-americans. jujuan: k kristen clarke,e, you mementioned the 1962 oxford mimississippi. ththere was also inn 195958, prpresident e eisenhower sentnt fedederal troops into litittle , arkansas,, also to enforce desegregation orders in n the public schools there. but inxfxford, mississippi, ththere were armed whites that actually attacked federal marsrshals? a dozen n deral marsrshals were injured?d? but also under another democratic preresident, lyndon johnsoson, federalal troops were sent in to washington, d.c. after the assassination of martin luther king g and rioting in d.c., they werere sent to detroit and seveveral other cits in 1967. so what is the dififference between, as you are sayining, wt president is claiming to do now versus some of thesese prior

instances of not just national guard, but actually federal troops beieing sent into states? >> there is s deep hypocrisysy . you bring up e examples of white hostility and racism throughout our history that h has torn apat communitieies and divideded our nanation. in those m moments werere momens where we needed federal to ensusure complianance with our civil rits laws. anand here we are in 2020 dealig yett again with the faiailure to comply with civil rights laws.s. police d departments that abuse the cicivil rights of unarmed aafrican-amemericans far too of. quite remarkakably, w when you k ababout charlottesville and the hate r rally t that unfolded the in 2017 that resultedd in harm o individuduals and loss-of-life, ththe loss of heheather heyer's

life. presidident trump's reaction cod not bebe any different. there he referrered to thee viot inindividuals who o drove that y asas very fine people. anand here he is essentitially dedeclaring war -- the cleared r on people who are out solely to speak out against racial violence, against police violence, people were sayingg enough is enough, people who are sayingng we see thesese incidens time and time agagain captured n video and we refused to alloww you to turn a blind eye to this any longer. floyd,killing of f george these images have gone viral across our country, across the globe. it is the e straw that broke the camels back. and here we are, people all acacross our countryry w who are spspking out, and it t is most unfortrtunate that president trp seeks to shuhut them down and sisilence them with the t threaf deployining the military.

amy: this is prpresident trump speaking mondaday during a calll with the nation's governors. pres. trump: we have all the men and women thatat you need, but people are not calling them up. yet to dominate. if you're not dominating, you're wasting your time. they're going to run over you and you're going to look like a bunch of jerks. you have to dominate. you have to arrest people and you have to try people and have to go to jail for long periods of time. amy: that is president trump speaking to the governors who were pushing back. bill arkin, you have been writing about this, longtime reporter a military nuclear policy. what trump's plans are. now he has announced them, though he is not invoked the act,t, but can you talk about wt you undederstand the plans to be from r resources? >> thanknk you for having me on, amy.y. i think it is important to say at this moment that ththe insesertion act -- insurrection acact has not invoked.

ththe president has made a thre. hehe is made a threat to the governors ththat says s if you'e not able to s safeguardrd civiln lilives and propertrty and ififu refufuse to protectct the civil rights of your citizens, then the federal government will intervene. that is the provisisions of the insurrection act as it reads. that is not the only condition under which the president can call federal forces outut. in the case of the district of columbia, for instance coming is already activated the district of columbia national guard in federal status. so in fact, we have a national guard in our country as of yesterday under federal control. and there have been military police and infantry soldiers moved from fort d drum, new yor, from fort ririley, kansas, and r bright, north carolina, to the d.c.c. area, and d they are now mustering a military -- in

military bases at what is called force protection delta, the highest condition, reready to te control of f washington, d.c., f ththe president so ordered. so we have this very f fluid and difficult situation because there are alrerey 20,000 nationonal guardrdsmen and women the streets of america. the guard has been mobilizized n 26 different states and the district of columbia. but i want to say this about the military being on the streets. in many cases, we have seen instances where the national guard has played a calming role. for instance, i saw you stories last night out of tennessee where the national guardsmen of the tennessee national guard put down their shields and stood quietly and unarmed in front of a crowd and was actually serving in a calming presence.

the military a also i ththink hs the ability to relieieve police forces who have now been fighting protesters and rioters for going on five nights. so there c could be some usefulness in having the national guard and the military. the problem here is president trump and his both lack of knowledge and indifference to what the law actually requires the e president toto do. and i would say the e problem ii the defense departmement leadershipip, secretary of defee esper and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff mark milley, who i think have provided terrible military advice to the president and no pushback is what i'm hearing from my sources in terms of saying to him that the activation of those national guard forces under federal control and the intervention of federaral military forces under the streets ofof america would actualally b be inflammatory rar

than calling. so i t think the n national guas it currently is deployed, that in 20er governor control different -- 26 different states and there are additional guard units now being activated, that that is enough and that the idea that the federal government has to intervene, particularly the federal government law enforcrcement authorities whichh number in the tens of thousands, i think is an escalation that woululd just make the situation worse on t the ground. juan: william arkin, i want to pursue thiss point t that you mementioned in termsms of somets the national guard can create a calmining situtuation. i recall back -- i was there in 1992 a at the los s angeless ris after the rodney king situation when the police wewere acquitted and the beating of dutch in thee beating of rododney king.

and back then, by thehe time the guard cameme in, there were already 62 peoplee killed -- 63 ,epeople killed in los angeles over 12,000 people have been arrested. there were hundreds of millions come as much as $1 million in damage to l.a. we're seeing some disturbances and looting, but nothing at the scale that would require a massive military presence. i'm wondering your sense of this question o of proportionality in terms o o the government respon?? because by thehe time the guardd cacame into a.a., t there was a sense by the residen o of los anangeles of almost rief becacae there have been so much tension bebetween the communinity and te lolocal police. and if the commissioioner than daryryl gates, that the guard we almost seen as a neutral force to s some degree.

>> there are two things to remember when onone talkss a abt the e national guard.. the national g guard in most ste are the very citizens and neneighborss of those states.. so when n the national guard cos into los angeles in n the casese there werere the governonor of the nationalrequests guard to come in, request to president bush activate the national guauard under federal cocontrol, and bring them in, those were californians. and it reaeally dodoes make a difffference to people on the grground that they are locacal people who are involved. i think the danger of bringing federaral government troops inta state is that they're not l locs and therefore ththey see their role and thehey see the world in didifferent way. they see it as more of the military stupidly said, secretaryy esperer, the battle spacace of america. well, it is notot a battle spac. this is not a combat zone.

as far as we have seen everywhere around the country, it may be the case that the resources of local police are in fact going to be exhausted, especially if rioting continues over many more days -- in which case the national guard does provide a fresh force does provide a different face and especially i think for african-americans in ameririca,i don't think the mililitary necessarily is an opponent whereas many african-americans see the police as the opponent. amy: bill arkin, you tweeted "federal surveillance aircraft helicopters and drones from the dhs, and the fbi, plus the military have flown over at least eight cities last night comeme conducting reconnaissanc, taking phohotos and video of the protests? >> t the federal government hass done manany things including the monitoring of socicial mediaia,e intercrcepting of phone calls, e intercepting of cecell phones,se use e of cell phones to locate

people, the use of drones, surveillance aircrafaft, flolowy the fbi, by customs and border protection and by the military, including helicopters that have been flying over u.s. cities, conducting surveillance missions . this has all been dead in the last 24 to 48 hours. and it is a questionable use of the military force. but i put in the air and during that surveillance, -- up in the air and doing that surveillance, if it is under the government control and feeding that information to the governors in order for them to be able to to get their forces better situational awareness and improve -- and when amy: clearly, the governors are fighting back and the colligan's president trump last night, number of the governors on this, talking about domininating the people o of the states. juanan? juan: i wanted to a ask kristen

clarke if ththis is -- this is t the first on that t president trump p in the midst of f anotr crisisis has suddenly resortrteo calling out the military. i am thinking earlier in h his admininistration, the bringigint of troops to the border with mexico. again, overusing the milititaryn an attempt tdeal witith a anothr political problem that he hahad. i amam wonderingng, do you see parallels between his response to immigration and use of trips anand now to protests against police abuse?? weaponizaonon of tools at his disposal atat every turn. his use of sococial media, president trump uses social media is perhaps the best example of how h he he h has weaponized this platform to incite violence and to escalate tensions across our country. i i do indeed see e parallels.s. i just want to make sure that i

underscore that we can't lose sight, we can't use -- lose heart ofwhat is at the the demonstrations. it is the publilic crying outut desperately needed reform of the way policingng is carried out in our country. anand we have a roadmap fofor t. we have studied this issue time and time againin. organization, we are pushing congress, urging states right now to work on things like bans on choke holds, bans on racial profiling. we need congress to revisee federal statute which would make it easier to hold police officers accountable when they use deadly force against unarmed individuals. we need a database so we can track that cups were purged from one police so they don't jump right over to the next. racism affects every stage of our criminal justicece system in the united states.

and now is the time we confront this crisis had on. we need not be distracted by president trump's invocations of executive orders, dangling of rats of -- threats of price getting people and throwing the book at them, invoking if not literally, figuratively the insurrection act of 1807. iny view, many of these actions by president trump are intended to derail the underlying objective and goals of demonstrations and protests which i've been very intntentiol anand clear in their focus mostf amamy: we want to thanank you bh for being wiwith us, kristen clarke, president and executive director of the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law. and william arkin, longtime reporter who focuseded on mility and nuclear policy. when we come back, w we speak wh patrisse cullors [captioning made possible by democracy now!] . stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "get off the track," a prominent song of ththe 1840's abolitionist struggle made famous by the hutchinson family singers of n new hampshire, performemed here by the dutchess anti-slaveryry singers. this is democracy now!, democracynow.orgrg, the quarante report. i am amy goodman with juan gonzalez as we go now to los angeles, where protesters took to the streets of downtown and hollywood on monday in another day of mass protests against police brutality and the murder of george floyd. demonstrators briefly shut down the 405 freeway in west l.a. in van nuys, looting broke out near a peaceful protest organized by students. monday marked the third night of a county-wide curfew in los angeles, where protests have been widespread and resulted in thousands of arreststs.

the wealthy enclaves of beverly hills and santa monica set 1:00 p.m. curfews after protests reached their neighborhoods. on sunday, hundreds were arrested in a mass protest in santa monica that left many storefronts destroyed. calls are growing for the firing of the lapd chief michel moore, who said monday that looters were as responsible for george floyd's death as the police officers who killed him. >> at the protest last night, we had criminal acts, we had people mourning the death of this man george floyd. we had people capitalizing. his death i is on their hands as much as it is those officers. amy: the losos angeles p police chchief michel moore has since apologized for his statements. mayor eric garcetttti tweeted -- "the responsibility for george flfloyd's death rests solelely h the police officicers involved. chief moore regrets the words he chose this e evening and has clarified d them."

this comes as mayor garcetti is facing criticism for increasing funding for the los angeles police department in a budget for the cocoming fiscal ye.. community members s are demamang the cityty council act to o enaa people's budget that slashes money for police and invests in services for the community instead. well, for more, we go to los angeles,s, where we're joined by patrisse cullors, political strategist, co-founder of black lives matter, and founder of reform l.a. jails. she is the co-author of "when they call you a terrorist: a black lives matter memoir." welcome back to democracy now! it is great to havave you with . can you respond first to the death of george floyd and t then to thehe massive police -- anti-police brutality protests and the police response? >> it is really good to be here, amy, and thank you for having me on. i will just start with my deep condolences to george floyd's family and the community of

minneapolis. once again, we see the devastation and the impact of the killing and torture of black communities. i just wanant to start there. i think these protests are massive in the way that we haven'n't seen t them in years r number of reasons. number one, we have had to live trump regimears of that is completely devastated the communities financially, spiritually, emotionally. and number two, we have still dealt with years of police brutality with violence and police tear with no accountability whatsoever. tireded.eneration is enenough is enough.h. juan: patrisse cullors, he recently went back andnd watched

some footage o of the 1990 to 19 -- runny king uprising. what struck you most about those events? >> i think there are two things happening in our city right now in los angeles. one is massive protest in solidarity witith minneapolis bt also talking about what is happening in our own towns. sincehave been 601 deathss 2012 involved specifically with police officers killing civilians. here who is not prosecuted a single officer and it has been largely unaccountable to the community. of l.a.aid earlier, 54% city's budget is actually lapd's budget. over falsety is

promises. we are over having to dealal wih elected officials who instead of listening to like pain and grief, send out national guard, creating more havoc in our communities. amy: patrisse cullors, can you talk a about the budget that has just been unveiled and what yoyu arare demanding? where you think money needs to be spentnt at this p point? and also where you s t these protests going? >> our local chapter of black lives matter los angeleles realy has been a group focusing on the city budget specifically. for years, we have seen the unveiling of the city budget and it is always prioritized lapd money first. prioritized everything else. all the social services that our

communities need. what we're asking for is a slashing of lapd's budget. we don't believe lapd needs that much mononey. is the defining of law enforcement. minneapolis is gone for, los angeles, chicago is: ford, d.c. is calling for it. thatve created a system over relies on law enforcement and prioritizes their money, their budget, there needs over everything else. now is the time that we review redirect t social servicess back into our commununity. ofn: am asking the response these citieses, we are seeing moves byg aggressive police whethther it is in new yk or lououisville or other cities, against peaceful demonstratoro,

to what extent do you feel the police across the country, many of them have been emboldened b y the language and the demeanor of presidident trump over thesese t four years that they feel they have b basically theacacking off the white house, if they have eo exert m much more authoritarian force in their local cities? >> absolutely. we know trump's history. justow how he has impmpacted of how he communicates, how he uses the in mostlytoke fear white affluent communities. he has lined himself historically with the police, line order. he just went on the news yesterday telling people he was going to send the military into cities. this is a man who was encourag people at to beat up

his rallies. he told law enforcement at a huge law enforcement conference that they should be beating up people. and we know that he is in complete agreement with law enforcement terrorizing and using aggressive tactics like rubber bullets, like teargas. on saturday at our protest that we launched along with no power, for two hours it was full of passion, full ofof love, and w e marched together. the miminute that marge e got violent is when n the police showed up. theyey started shooting rubber bullets into o the crowd, hittig people with batons. it was disturbing and it was scary and it was so obvious that ththey feel embolden right now. amy: how do you respond to police officers showing solidarity with the protesters?

on monday, you have one of new york city's top officers, terrence monahan, taking a knee, hugging a protester. in flint, michigan, the sheriff marcrched with protesters on saturday. in wisconsin, the police chief andrew smith condemned the killing of george floyd and walked with protesters. and we are seeing this amidst the teargas income amidst the shooting, amidst the pepper spring and the massive number of thousands of arrests. your commements? >> it is like a really frightening abusive relationship when you're in an abusive rerelationship and the partners gas lighting you and telling you everything you're feeling is not true and look what i'm doing for you. it is not acceptable behavior, honestly. you're either going to be in solidarity with community and stop brutalizing us or you're

going to continue to do what you have been doing business as usual. there is no half stepping. taking a knee, marching with protesters, thatat does not chae the structure or the system we live in, which is a system that continues to violate the rights of black people, continues to kill black people, hunts black people come and traumatized by peopople. that is what law enforcement has done for years. ,hese new acts of solidarity they don't sit well with many of us. talkedt me ask you, we to you about the film "bedlam," which very much focused on you and your brother monty. so all of these mass protetest e taking place and midst t the pandemic. they could be super spreading events, the horror of what could happen in particularly impacting black and latino and native american communities. and i am wondering what has happened w with your brother moy who o lives with schizoaffective

disorder since he was a teenager in the midst of all of this, the pandemic, the police brutality, protests? >> we were lucky enough to get monty off the streets last fall. and he was hospitalized for quite a bit of time. him.e conservatorship of he endnded up gogoing to a mentl health facility, so that is where he e is at now. the e facilityty has notot exped a covid-19 outbreak, although there has been some covid-19 papatience. he is doing g well right now. he is safe. that feels really important to me, especially given what is hahappening right now. i i want toto ask you, i don't know if you can answer this from your perspective, but i'i've ben notiticing in the reports coming out ababout the proteststs and t some of the looting and the

vandalm m that has broken out, that is and is not just occucurring in the major citiess but, for instance, in the chicicago subus, f faraway subus fromom the majoror c city like , cicero, and others, , have also seen a strange incidence of looting ththat have gogone on.n. do you have some concern there y be some a attempts s to a acty -- deliberate attempts to provoke violence to stir up greater animososity among g some sectors of the american community? >> absolutely. are three sets of folks who are in the streets. there are protesters, those who are fighting against police brutality and police terror. there are white supremacists, those who are exploiting who black paint in this moment and really try to undermine our protests.

then police whwho sometitimes as protesters, so undndercovers, ad also uniformed o officers who he created significant amount of distressed havoc and confusion in protests. we have to be careful when we are protesting, both with covid-19 but also because there are times when their agent provocateurs and different people who have different agendas than what our movement actually hasas. amy: we want to thank you for joining us, patrisse cullors, political strategist, co-founder of black lives matter, and founder of reform l.a. jails. she is the author of "when they call you a terrorist: a black lives matter memoir." back, two autopsieses agree george floyd's dedeath waa homicide. we will go to minneapolis for response. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

a amy: "$20 bilill" by tom prasada-a-rao. this is democracy now!, democracynow.o.org, the quararae report. i am amy goooodman with juan gonzalez. we end today's shshow in minnnneapolis, where protesters

continue to take to the streets to demand justice for georgege floyd, an african-american man who go by white police officer derek chauvin last week when chauvin pinned him to the ground, pressing a knee into his neck for nearly ninine minutes s floyd repeatedly said, "i can't breathe." a number of those minutes he was lifeless. the viral video of the murder has sparked a nationwide uprising. two separate autopsies monday confirmed floyd's death was a homicide. derek chauvin was charged friday with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. the three other officers who were fired along with chauvin have not been charged, even as new video appears to show two of them also kneeling on george floyd's body as he lay on the pavement. george floyd's memorial service is planned for thursday in minneapolis and his funeral is scheduled for tuesday in houston. on monday, geoeorge floyd's younger brother terrance called for peace from the site of his brother's murder. here blowingot over

up stuff, if i'm not over here messing up my community, then what are you doing? what are you doing? you're doing nothing. because that is not going to bring my brother back at all. i know. i know he would not want you all to be doing this. amy: comes went after minnesota governor tim walz announced attorney general keith ellison will take the lead in the investigation and any prosecutions related to george floyd's killing. george floyd's family is calling for the other three officers involved in the killing to be charged. for more, wewe are joinened by nekima l levy armstrong,g, civil rights attorney,y, activist, founder of the racial justice network,k, and formemer presidef the e minneapolis chapteter of e naacp. if you can talk, nekima levy armstrong, and thank you for joining us once again, about the sligightest of elements. the announcement of the second independent autopsy which says george floyd died by association, but also confirming

what the coroner said, this was a homicide, then talk about keith ellison the now attorney general, first muslim member of congress, taking over the prosecution and what is happening there. usi don't think that most of are s surprised that the county medical examiner tried to find a to o why george flfloyd died thahat distanced it from law enfororcement's role. for example, ifif you think back to the night the george floyd died, the policice issued a pres release that we know was a bogus press release claiming that george floyd died as a result of a medical incident. and so the county medical examiner's report is consistent wiwith this notion that an

undederlying medicical c conditn caused his death, where is the autopsy that was conducted independently y by the family of george floyd showed he died as a result of association -- asphyxiation related to the officer holding his knee on george floyd's neck. for several minutes and not allowing him the opportunity to breathe. i think what this does is illustrate the corruption that exists within hennepin county, where you have law enforcement with thecollalaboratively county medicalal examiner's office, working collaboratively with the hennenepin county's attorney's officece, and ultimately resulting in people not being able to get justice when they are killed by police. this happensns time and titime again. many of these cases are ruled as a homicide, but that has not resulted in justice for victims

of police violence, victitims of police shootings, and in this case, victims of this fixation as a result of police conduct. -- the asphyxiation as a result of p police conduct. go ahead. juan: go ahead. > recently, it was annououed that former congressman keith ellison, now minnesota attorney general, is going to o take over the cacase. glad thatf us, we are the case will no longer be in the hands of mike freeman. however, when keith ellison said he would be taking over the case, he claimed he would be working collllaborativelyy with mike freeman's office. so that has raised our antenna as activists as well as attorneys who care about t socil justice because we know that mike freeman has keenly failed to hold police officers available who kill civilians.

we are saying mike freeman should have no role in this case whatsoever. even if you look at the oririgil chcharge decisioion, he is chard chauvin, the main cop who is been arrested and the one seen in the video with his knee on george floyd's neck, he has charged him with third-degree murder -- which is similar to someone who randomly shot into a crowd, not having a specific person they are targeting and that person dying. minnesota case law has shown you cannot sustain a third-degree conviction in a situation like the one at hand were george floyd is the victim, he was the intended target, and he died as a result of the police officers conduct. so even the charges decision by the hennepin county attorney is really setting this case up to be dismissed for lack of probable cause or ultimately, for the case to result in

officer or former officer chauvin being exonerated, which we find acceptable. juanan: nekima levy armstrong, e most r recent video atat shohowt only the one officer in the previous video chauvin was acactually had hisis knee on the victim's neck, but two other officers also had their knees down on his chest andnd his tor. do you think that is sufficient right there to charge them with having been involved in the killing? >> absolutely. it is a no-brainer. wewe have had medical profesessionals from around the country weighing in on social media raising coconcerns about what happened and calling w what occurred to gegeorge floyd murd. this is why we have been demanding that allll four offics , now by keith

ellison, because again, wewe wat the case completely taken out of the hands of the hennepin county atattorney's.s. but t beyond that, i need to tak a a little bit aboutut ourur cos regardrding keith ellison. we do not feel that keith elellison will be impartial enoh to directly oversee prosecution in this case. so what we are calling for is the appointment of a completely inindependent special prosecutor to o oversee this case, preferay sosomeone frfrom outside the ste of minnesota with a strongg nationonal reputation, a person who is credidible, a person whos known for being g fair and just. amy:y: we have 10 seconds. nekima levy y armstrongg, enke o muchch for beingng with u us, cl rights attorney, activist founder of the r racial justice , network and former president of the minneapolis chaptpter of the naacp. and that does it for our show. democracy now! is working with as few people onsite as possible. the majority of our amazing team is working from home.

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!]

hello and thank y you for joining us. this is nhl "newsline." we start here in tokyo. officials have issued an alert after confirming the highest daily tally of coronavirus infections in weeks. the governor says its a way of urging residents to remain cautious but does not alter the plan to gradually reopen the economy. the lighting of the iconic rainbow bridge in the tokyo bay ararea, as well as the t tokyo metropolitan government