[captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, thisis is democracy now! >> late night, it was an ugly plot to try and oust the u.s. attorney, geoffrey berman. i am calling for a t three-prond investigation to find out what happened and why. amy: after a dramatic showdown, the trump administration has

ousted the u.s. attorney in manhattan who led multiple prosecutions and investigations into allies of the president. we will look at the extraordinary measures taken by attorney general william barr to protect the president. then, as the u.s. death toll from covid-19 nears 120,000, president trump is facing condemnation for remarks made during a poorly attended campaign rally in tulsa, oklahoma. testingump: when you do to that extent, you are going to find more people, find more cases. so i said to my people, slow the testing done, please. amy: and amidst mass protests against racism and police brutality across the country, at men, f four black and one latinx, have been found hanging in public across the u.s. in recent weeks. we will speak to jacqueline olive, director of "always in season," a documentary that examines t the history of

lynchings. all that and m more coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm m amy goodman. the house judiciary committee is launching an investitigation ino president trump's firing this weekend of u.s. attorney geoffrey berman, who has overseen prosecutions and probes of several associates of prpresident trump and h has lood into the president's finances. on friday night, attorney general william barr issued a prpress release claiming berman was "stepping down" as head of the southern district of new york, but then berman announced he was not resigning and had no intentioion to resign. ththis led to a dramatic showdon that resulted in barr sending berman a letter on saturday stating president trump had fired him. but then trump distanced himself from the move, saying "i'm not involved." barr initially tried to install his own pick to head the sdny, but by saturday it was announced that berman's deputy audrey strauss would temporarily take over. as u.s. attorney, berman had led

the investigations of trump's former personal attorney michael cohen and trump's current attorney rudy giuliani. berman also led the prosecution of the turkish bank which had ties to turkish president recep tayyip erdogan. we'll have more on the story after headlines.s. the world health organization warned the world is in a new and dangerous phase of the coronavirus pandemic. over 183,000 new cases were reported aroround the worlrld on sunday in n the biggest t singly increase to o date. brazil, whwhich recently surged past 1 million coronavirus cases, h had the highest daily total, followed by the united states, then india. here in the u.s., confirmed coronavirus cases have topped 2.20 5 million, witith 125,000 reported deaths. cases are on the rise in at least 18 states, with young people now seen as driving recent spikes. california reported over 4,500 nenew cases on s sunday, the h t onone-day increaease since thehe

pandemic started. 11 otherer states also recently reported records in new daily cases. the white house said sunday it is preparing for a possible new wave in the fall. echoing the trump administration's s messaging, te republican governors of florida and texas are blaming spikes in covid-19 cases on increased testing. but florida governor ron de santis admits there is a a searh amamong young people undnder 37d that the age is going down but alalso blamed migrgrant worker communities. in northern california, rights groups and families of prisoners and -- at send quinton have sounded the alarm after cases have tripled since the end of the month. activists who are organizing hashtag, #stopsanquentinoutbreak, say a may 30th transfer of prisoners from a facility in chino is likely the reason for the outbreak and that prison staff did not isolate themselves even though prisoners are being

quarantined. in other c coronavirus news, cha has suspended chicken imports to the united states did covid-19 infection among workers. protests against racism and police brutality continued in cities and towns across the united states and around the world. in new york city, an estimated 10,000 cyclists rode in a 20-mile procession through manhattan saturday, demanding justice for victims of police violence. their protest came a day after throngs filled the brooklyn bridge on a march marking juneteenth, the day celebrating african americans' liberation from slavery. in san francisco, protesters painted "defund the police" in giant yellow letters outside city hall, demanding mayor london breed divert police funding to community programs. the international longshore and warehouse union brought shipping traffic to a halt at 29 ports on the west coast friday as dodockworkers mamarked juneteenh

with a one-day strike. in washington, d.c.c., thousands mamarked juneteeeenth with rall, marches, a and a protest on the steps of the lincocoln memorial. >> black people e do not havee freedom, jusustice, or equality. we are slaves to a system t that is fouounded by the u.s. governmement. blacka blacack m man, and all people, we have options based on obedience. amy: meanwhile, in geneva, switzerland, the u.n. human rights council agreed to commission a report on systemic racism and discrimination against black people, though it stopped short of singling out the united states. the "new york times" reports the department of homeland security deployed helicopters, airplanes, and drones over 15 u.s. cities to spy on protests after the police killing of george floyd in minneapolis. data from u.s. customs and border protection show federal agents recorded at least 270 hours of aerial surveillance footage.

meanwhile, s statues to confederates, colonizers, and other raracist historical l figs continue to fall. in raleigh, north carolina, protesters used ropes to pull two statues of confederate soldiers from a monument outsise of the state capitol building friday. in san francisco, protesters tore down monuments to francis scott key, who comomsed the u.s. national antnthem, a a juniperer serra, a an 18th century spapanh prpriest whoho oversaw a missisn ththat enslaved, tortured,d, and mumurdered indigigenous pepeopl. they also toppled a statueue of union n army general and u.s. president ulysseses s grant who , once held a person in slavery. in washington, d.c., protesters toppled a statue of confederate general albert pike and set it on fire. and here in new york, the museum of natural h history says it's removing a statue of forormer president teddy y roosevelt, who is depicteted riding on a horse

above an indigenous peperson and enslaveded person on either side of him. in los angeles, hundreds of protesters marched o on the compton sheriff's statation suny , demanding justice for andres guardado after the 18-year-old was shot and killed thursday by a sheriff's deputy. he was reportedly working as a security guard at an auto body shop when two officers approached him. one of his co-workers say guguardado became scared and ran after an officer drew a gun. police claimim guardado brandisd an u-local -- brandished an illegal firearm. his family claims he was shot in the back and that a handgun recovered by officers didn't belong to him. southern california congressmembers nanette diaz barragan and maxine waters are calling on california's attorney general to launch an independent investigation into the teen's killing by police. in kentucky, louisville's police chief said friday he will fire detective brett hankison, more than three months after he shot breonna taylor to death inside her own apartment in march. officers jon mattingly and myles cosgrove were also involved in

taylor's killing and have remained on the force as well. before killing taylor, a 26-year old emergency room technician, brett hankison was accused of multiple sexual assaults. in at least two cases, he preyed on young women after they had been drinking, offffering to gie -- to take them home in his squad car. before he allegedly assaulted them.. in seattle, a 19-year-old was killed and another person critically injured early saturday during a shooting in na part of the city occupied by protestersrs. a separate shooting g late sunuy left another person hospitalized with gunshot wounds. both shooting capitol hill occupied protest zone, a a severalallock area a of seattle taken over by activists earlier this month after police abandoned their militarized response to prprotests d demandg an end to racism and police brutality. the area is called t the chaz or

the chop. in sports news, a noose was found in the garage stall of bubba a wallace, the only african-american driver in nascar's elite cup series. wallace recently led a successful campapaign to get nascarar to ban displays o of confederate ags from itsts ents. bubba wallace' car is black with the words "black lives matter" and he wears a a t-shirt that ts "i can't breathe." president trtrump held his first campaign rally since the start of the pandemic saturday, in tulsa, oklahoma. despite predicting a turnout of tens of thousands of supporters, the tulsa fire department says attendance was about 6,200, less than a third of the capacity of the 19,000-seat arena. trump canceled a planned address to the overflow crowd due toto e -- overflow crowd outside because there was virtually no one there. part of the reason for the low turnout may be attributable to

tiktok users and k-pop fans, who said they flooded the e trump campaign with ticket reservations prior to the event, with no plans of attending. during his speech, trump again referred to covid-19 with the racist terms "chinese virus" and "kung flu." he also lamented that t he doe't get credit for "saving hundreds of thousands of lives." another point, he says "a million lives." this is trump speaking about the issue of testing. pres. trump: when you do testing to that extent, you are going to find more people, find more cases per so i said to my people, slow the testing done, please. amy: prior to the rally, six trump campaign staffers working on the event tested positive for the coronavirus. protesters demonstrated outside the event. one demonsnstrator, a 62-year-rd arart teacher and grandmother named sheila buck, was handcuffed and arrested at the request of the trump campaign, even though she had reserved a ticket. buck, who says she was inspired to protest after years of witnessing her black students

suffer from racism, says she plans to sue the city, the police department, and the trump campaign. president trump's son eric trump also spoke at the event, where he referred toto black lives matter protesters as "animals." the family of late singer tom petty issued a cease and desist letter after his hit song "i won't back down" played at the tulsa rarally. "tom petty would never want a song of his used for a campaign of hate. he liked to bring people together," the family said in a statement. -- trump is still planning to go to a rally at a mega-church in phoenix, arizona, despite the mayor asking hihim t to because of a surgeon coronavirus cases. she also said however that phoenix will not enforce a city policy requiring face masks to be worn at trump's rally. in other news from tosa, a white security guard faces charges of

manslaughter for the fatal shooting of a black man, carlos carson, in a motel parking lot earlier this month. new video emerged friday showing christopher straight, a former sheriff's sergeant, pepper-spraying, then shooting 36-year-old carson in the head. carlos carson was a father of three. the killing has put the private security industry in the spotlight amid nationwide calls to defund and hold the police accountable for killing black people. warning, this- headline contains graphic footage of police violence. in new york city, the policee departmement has suspended an officer whwho was filmed on suny using g a banned chokehold on an african-amamerican man named riy bellevue. video has gone viral showing four officeses on top on the man as bystanders screamed "quit choking him."" bellevue, who has a history of mental illness, lost consnsciousness during the arre. mayor bill de blasio praised the suspension of the officer, this was "the fastest i have ever seen the nypd act to discipline

an officer," he said. inin kentucky, voting rights advocates are sounding the alarm ahead of tuesday's primary after the state reduce the number of polling stations. there will be few than 200 polling stioions. normally the ste has 30 lling ples on election day. thrarace f t the u. sesena is heating as democrats hope to ununseat sator mit mcconne. prressive ndidate,entucky state reesentati charles oker, harecentlyeen a major boost in polling a receeded higprofofil enenrsements from senators elizeteth waen, bern sands,s, andongrgresember alexdria ocasio-cortez. book, who islack, has been tending ack livematter protes and wasear-gass by lice at recent ent. he is ruing agait former rine figer pilotmy mcath.h. baton rge, louiana, a a video of communi activis callg out meers of t scho board f their rism s gone val.

e board s meetinto discu a relution tchange t name ofee high hool, nad after confederate robert e e lee. this is gary c chambers, jr., addressing boardrd member connie bernard, after he noticed she was online shopping during the meeteting. >> robert e lee was a brutal slave master and said lay it on them hard. that is what robert lee did. and you set your arrogant self in here and sit on their shopping while the pain and the hurt of the people of thihis community isn display, so you do not give a damn and should resign.. amy: just days before the meetining, bernard defended the name of the high school and robert e lee, telling community members to l look into his history. the school board resolution was ultimately unananimously approv. in reproductive rights news, tennessee lawmakers passssed a bill friday banning abortion as early as six weeks of pregnancy, before most people even know they are pregnant. the bill, which republican

governor bill lee is expected to sign, would criminalize abortion providers, who could face up to 15 years in jajail and a $10,000 fine. several groups, including planned parenthood and the aclu , immediately challenged the momove. a federaral judge denied a requt saturday by ththe trump administration to block john bolton's forthcoming book inin which hehe alleges trump directy asked for chinese help getting reelected. saturday marked world refugee day. the u.n. repor nearly 8080 million pepeople worldwiwide are forcibly disisplaced, amouounti araround% of h humity. the u.n. reports refugee numumbs hahave doubled in the last deca, thth syriavenenezuel afghanistan, south sudan, and burma being some of the hardest hit countries. and thosose are some of thee headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman.

the house judiciary committee is launching an investigation into the trump administration's ouster t this weekend of u.s. attorney geoffrey berman who has overseen the investigations of several assosociateses of presit trump. last friday night, attorney gegeneral william barr issued a press release claiming berman s "steppining down" as head of the southern district of new york, but then berman announuncd he was not resignining and had o intention of resigning. this led to a dramatic showdown that resulted in barr sending berman a letter on saturday saying president trump had fired him. but then trump distanced himself from the move saying, "i'm not involved." barr initially tried to install his own pick to head the sdny , but by saturday, it was announced berman's deputy audrey strauss would temporarily take over. as u.s. attorney, berman had led the investigations of trump's former personal attorney michael cohen and trump's current attorney rudy giuliani. berman also led the prosecution which had tiesnk

to turkish president recep tayyip erdogan. republican senator lindsey graham called the late-night shake-up a "inartfully handled personnel decision." graham chairs the senate judiciary committee which would have to approve trump's intended replacement for berman. securities and exchange commission chairman jay clayton, who has no experience as a prosecutor. for now graham has said he will defer to new york's democratic senators. senate minority leader chuck schumemer of new york has alalry called on clayton to withdraw from the nomination. more than 100 former manhattttan prosecutors have also condemnend the berman firing. for more, we're joined by emily bazelon, staff writer at the new york times magazine where she has profiled attorney general william barr. she's also a lecturer and senior research fellow at yale law school. welcome back, professor. can you explain what happened and why president trump had so few people at the rally that even that dominated the news? but it is what schumer called friday night and saturday the

friday night massacre.e. tata as step-b-by-stephrhrough this and what barr has done and who he is. attttorneyas the u.s. in the southern district of ww york and was a powowerful figure who was bringing investigations, pursuing investitigations, that seems like they were the kinds of investigations that president trump has objected to. berman was investigating rudy giuliani, t trump's close associate, for h his invololvemt in the u ukraine affair, asking whether giuliani went against laws that allow -- require you to register as a foreign agent because of what giuliani was doing g there -- amy: isn't he giuliani's former law partner? >> exactly, that is part of this spectacle. and you also have berman's office investigating a banank in turkrkey that presidentnt trumps expressed interest in protecting.

so berman is out there doing this work as an independent prosecutor, and friday night we have explosive news that barr has very suddedenly -- thahat hs going to resign, and then berman, amazingly, says,, no, 'm not steppiping down and have no intention to do so. it becomes clear that barr actually does not have power to fire berman because of the way he was appointed, actually appointed by a three-judge panel in new york, not confirmed by the senate. so it seems like the route to getting rid o of him is actually that trump has to firere berman himself. onnhile they're working that saturday, berman is getting something important that he wantnts he wants to bebe succeed by his second in command, presuming lee to make sure that these investigations continuee and that there is some independence preserved in the southern district of new york. berman was able to pull that off. then trump supposedly is involved in this firing, as is legally necessary, but then

claims he was not involved. so you have a real sort of fumbling going on. and the underlying issue here is this is one of many sudden personnel moves, the kind of moves that really do threaten ththe independence o of the juse wallartment and the kind of we have that sepaparates investstigations from the president. amy: what is amazing here is, first, you have ththe trump barreraration firing and then they put in a trump ally. and you have giuliani, law partner, and he raised money for trump, not only gave his own money but raised other money f r trump,p, and t then he movoves d starts seriously investigating even trump's inaugural finances. is that right? the on operation committee. -- the inauguration committee he also investigated jeffrey epstein before he died and investigated now the guards who

wewere responsible f for jeffrey before hisjail apparent suicide. so there is a lot going on here with berman, who was a trump ally. > that isis right, and bermas also the person who charged michael cohen and that whole affair thahat exposed the hush money for women who president trump allegedly had affairs with. you have a really independent prosecutor who is doing his job. amy: let's talk about how, in the end, berman agreed toto leae after being fired by the president although the president said he had nothing to do with it. explain who is replacing him and why that matters to berman. >> he is being replaced by hisis second in c command, audrey strauss, and she has a reputation for being a strong figure in the office. she was actually running some of these sensitive investigations. i think from his point of view, he was protecting the office, at

least in the immediate time period, from an outside takeover. he did not want barr's preferred person t to be installed, the u. attorney in new jersey. he wanted his own deputy to continueue. then thehere is a question mark about whether r the adadministration's prefeferred permanent replacement, head of the sesec, will cononfied. he is someone come as you said at the top of the hour, has really no experience as a prosecutor, quite a surprprising pic for leading this impmportant and very large office in new york. so it is really unclear what will happen beyeyond this and fm appointment. barr,o talk about william the man u profile for the "new york times." talk about his power. you see this, even for trump, sort of catastrophe unfold. this comes after a few weeks after apparently barr took

responsibility for the attack on the peaceful protesters outside the white house that led to that calamitous walk of trump and barr and ivanka trump head of the joint chiefs of staff and his defense secretary walking throrough lafayette e park and n trump holding of this upside down bible in front of a church. barr took responsibility for that and then said we did not use chemical irritants and then said pepper balls were not chemical irritants. inat is barr's role protecting the president? >> there are two things about willlliam barr that have made hm an excellent match for president trump and this administration. they have been true about barr since the beginning of his career. the first is that he believevesn a very strong executitive and presidency, kind of what peoplpe call an imperial presidency in which a huge amount of power resides in the president. so in 2018, barr, unsolicited,

sent a memo to the justice department saying the president, he alone is the executive branch, and criticizing the muelleler investigation. that was beforore barr got his current job, and it sort of read in this weird way like ann auditition memo. the second thing about william barr is that he is a devout catholic who is very conservative and sees religious people as beining at war with secular people. he talked d about that in hihis speeeech in the 1 1990's. he reprised really the same language in the justice department in speeches last year. so you see the sense that ththee is this pitting of valulues between n the religiouanand the secular,r, and it turns b barr o a a kind of f warrior for relig, devout people. that, as you can imagine, as part of why he is so eager to be in this position and to be wielding the power. amy: talk about bararr's

worldview, what else he wants to acaccomplish as attorney general and why you think he is soo significant and perhaps dangerous. >> i think we have this attorney general who really does not respect or does not see the same boundadaries and limitits aroune president's power when it comes to these investigations. barr was attorney general when the mueller repoport came ouout. we s saw him not present a all f ththat report, talk about it ina way that a federal j judge latar said was misleading. that was all too trump's benefit, protecting him from the full implications of this report. barr has also been involved in some of the very conservative judicial picks that come to this administration, one of the chief justifications for supportining president trump t that republics continue to give is this really efficient assembly line of judges.

they really are confirming hundreds of judges. barr is close with leonard lee jo, head of the federal society, who has also had a key role in selecting jute -- these judicial candidates. this is a completely legal and board part of his role, something he supports to change the ideological portrait of the federal judiciary so the president trump is able to leave in office many judges whwho are deep conservatives. amy: and his past history very quickly, who he served in n his role in the reagan administrationon. >> i in the reagan administrati, he had a kind of deputy role. he started talking about this idea of a very strong presidency. then he became the attorneyy general under geororge h w bush, and he was in favor of pardoning a formerer defense secretary and five other people involved in the iran contra affair. so youou see then, as well, this willingngness --

abrams.luding elliot >> yes, so you see the role barr was playing then in pardons. now we have a backing away from the michael flynn investigation, which has been really shocking to a lot of lawyers, the decision after flynn has pleled guilty to say the justice dedepartment has no interest in pupursuing thehe charges againim and a decision to intervevene to make the r roger stone sentence more lenient. both stone and flynn obviously worked close with presidenent trump. by taking these e actions, barr made a a so that trump would not hahave to directly pardon either stone or flynn, right, so using the power of the justice department to go easy on them, rather than asking trump to take a more politically divisive step of intervening himself. on, thank you.el stay with us. i want to get your take on the tour umbrella in tulsa.

she has provide -- profiled william barr, and she teaches at arthur --chool and is and is author of "charged: the new movement to transform american prosecution and end mass incarceration." she coco-hosts the s slate's s r podcast political gabfest. stay with us. 06/22/2020 06/22/20 democracy now! test ♪ [music break]

who alonggold by bts, with vans recently donated nearly $2 million to black lives matter. part of the reason for the low turnout at trump's tulsa speech on saturday, some believe,e, may be attributable to the k-pop's baband'ss fans. saying they bought thousands of tickets with no intention of going. this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman. as the u.s. death toll from covid-19 years 120,000, president trump is facing combination -- condemnation from

remarks made and tulsa, referring to covid-19 with racist termsms "chinese virus" d "kung flu." here he is speaking in tulsa. pres. trump: when you do testing to that extent, you will fifind more people, find more cases per so i said to my people, slow the testing down, please. amy: slow the testing down, please. prior to the rally, six trump campaign staffers working on the tulsa event tested positive for coronavirus. trump also used the speech to attack nationwide protests against police abuse and racism or demonstrators have toppled statues and other symbols of the confederacy. pres. trump: the unhinged, left-wing mob is trying to vandalize our indndustry, desecrate our monuments, our beautiful monuments. [crowd boos] pres. trump: tear down n our statues and punish, cancel, and persecute anyone who does not

conform to their demands for absolute and total control. we are not conforming. that is w why we are here. amy: he trieied to dismsmiss cas to defund police department's by making up a story about a "tough e," he said, breaking into a home of a woman who was home alone. pres. trump: 1:00 in the morning, and a very tough -- i have used the word on occasion, hombre isvery tough brbreaking into the window of aa young woman whose husband is awaway as a traveling salesman r whatever he may do. and you call 911 and they say, i'm sorry, this number is no longer working. now trump is in arizona where, tomorrow, he will hold a rally at a mega-church in phoenix,x, arizonana. that was just a fewew of the thingsgs he saiaid.

emily bazelon, i wanted to get your comments, staff writer at "new york times" magazine, and your new book -- hehe went backo his old tropes, talking about aronavirus as a kung flue a and chinese virus. he was there in tulsa, 99th anniversary of the tulsa race massacre. he did not make mention of it or juneteenth. talk about what he did and did not talk about and the significance of the racism that just infused the speech where he said he would be speaking twice come outside to an overflolow capacity of something like 40,000 people and virtually no one was outside, and inside, about a third of the arena, according to the fire chief and tulsa, was full. held 6200 people, and it 19,000. >> when you see president trump

going back to his characteristic script, a didivisive script t in which the peopople who he is caricaturing are people of color and in which coronavirus is kind trumpmissed or mocked, said after the speech, or the white house did, that he was just joking w when he talked abt slowing down the number of tests. but that allows him to have itt bobo ways he both gets to stir up his base with this idea that coronavirurus is safe or not woh taking seriously, and then back away from that statement. you see when he is using these racist terms, this attempt always to blame foreign adversaries, to turn coronavavis into t the kind of enemy that he cacan recognizeze, associated wh china, as opposed to just an illness that the country needs to contend with on its own terms. i think you just see this tremendous impulse to divide. this is what has worked for trump in the past. he is not going to change now.

amy: of course, the racist illusion he made, not talking about any story in particular, but talking about an hombre, which goes about -- goes back to when he first ran for presidede, talklking about mexicans and rapists, and he says this hombre goes into a house where woman is alone and breaks into her house. the ongoing litany of racism, and then this all happening in the context of the protest. and this is an issue you have dealalt with extensively, actually, and your book has now ,ust come out in paperback "charged: the new movement to end mass incarceration." if you can talk about the significance of these protests when it comes to issues like mass incarceration. >> two things are happening. one, trump is tapping into these law w and order themes that republican candidates have been sounding since 1 1960's. you talk about out-of-control protesters, cities that sosound

like t they are in trouble, and you p paint a picture of crime going unaddressed, the idea that you call 911 and no one is there. these are not real images, but they conjure up this notion that the country is in danger and that security is being threatened, and that has typically helped republicans in the past and helps president trump. so it does not matatter that cre is way down and that the country is verery concerned right now about racial jujustice and d the criminal justice system. president trump harkening back to this old era in which people, especially white people, were afraid. in termsms of the connectction o the protesests, what we are seeg is this just outpouring of concern about the way blalack people and latino peoplerere treateby t the police. the criminal justice system is justst riddled with racial disparities. when i was reporting my book, i was really struck by how much research there is at every phase

of the developing of a case, from a stop on the street to an arrest to prosecution and a plea bargain. you see racial disparity. it is not explained by the kinds of charges, by the conduct of the people involved. itit is an extra penalty that black people and latino people bearar. wewe are seeing a rereal dawninf awareness about that an interest in doing something about it. the president is not a match for this moment. amy: emily bazelon, thank you for being with us. staff writer at "new york times," where she has profiled attorney general william barr, and also teaches at yale law school and is author of the book, "charged: the new movement to transform american prosecution and end mass incarceration." she is also cohost of the slate podcast political gabfest. we are going to talk about the issue of lynching in this country, not talking about 100 years ago but now, in the moment. first, want to go to a video that has gone viral.

we are turning to baton rouge, louisiana, where a video of a well-known community activist calling out members of the school board for their racism has gone viral. the board was meeting to discuss a resolutition to change t the e of lee high school, named after confederate general robert ely. thisis is gary chambmbers, jr., addrdressing board member connie bernard after he noticed she was online shopping d during ththe meeting. an art can be seen walking out as chamber speaks. intended to talk about how racist robert ely was, but i am going to talk about you, connie, sitting over there shopping while we are talking about robert e lee. you shopping while we're talking about racism and history and this country. you do not give a damn, and it is clear. but i am going to tell you what the slaves, my ancestors, set about robert e lee, since you do not know history, sister. they said when he got the

plantation, after he got off the field where 20,000 people died at gettysburg, cononnie, robert ely was a brutal slave master. not only did he whoop the slaves, he said lay it on them hard. after he said lay it on them hard, he said burn them. that is what robert e lee did. and you said your arrogant self in here and sit on their shopping while the pain and the hurt of the peoeople of this community is on display, so you do not give a damn, and you should resign. when do we in baton rouge stopping in 1856? if you want to name a building after somebody, how about the first like governor of the state of louisiana? you want another name? the lieutenant governor of the --te of louisiana that gave you want to name it after someone? name it after the people who fought a bullish and.

if you want to name it after somebody, honor the right people, the people on the right side of history. but it is your ancestor that the school is named after, so you are holding onto your heritage. free, built this join for and we done begging you to do what is right. amy: y yes. that clilip hasas gone viral the fullerton school board of trustetees is voting to a approe resolulution in support of black lives matter and to encouourage districtwide participation in the national black l light -- black k lives matter at t school week, which was brought fororrd byby the boaoard, jeanette vasq. this is democracy now!! when we c come back, lynching in america. stay with usus. ♪ [mumusic break]

amy: "hold on jujust a little choirlonger," ththe virirtual mass for the moral monday march on washington. this is demomocracy n now!, demomocracynow.org, the quarante report. i am amy goodman. amidid mass protests against anti-black racism and polilice brutality across the country, at least five men, four black and one latinx, have been found hanging in public across the u.s. in recent weeks. all five deaths were initially deemed suicides, but community advocates, scholars, and those all too familiar with america's racist history say there's another possibility, lynching. in palmdale, california, authorities are investigating the death of 24-year-old robert fuller, a black man who was found dead, hanged from a tree near the community's city hall earlier this month. city officials said he died by suicide, suggesting the cause was due to mental anguish related to the coronavirus

pandemic. but fuller's loved ones believe he was lynched and the community has been holding protests calling for justice. a week after fuller's death shot and killed another man. and another black man, , wasar-old malcolm harsch found pained in a tree in victorville, and california, on may 31. after calling for further investigation, malcolm harsch's family said over the weekend that his death was in fact a suicide and that they had reviewed video footage the police provided. community activists are still asking why it took so long for a thorough investigation into his death. in new york, the new york police department is investigating the death of dominique alexander, a 27-year-old black man who was found hanged in a manhattan park two weeks ago. the local medical examiner's office ruled the cause of his

death suicide. and in texas, congressmember sheila jackson lee of houston is calling for an investigation after two recent hangings. last week, police found a 17-year-old black boy hanging from a tree in an elementary school playground in spring, texas. earlier that week, a latinx man was found hanged in houston. this all comes as a noose was found in the garage stall of bubba wallace, the only african-american driver in nascar's elite cup series. wallace recently led a successful campaign to get nascar to ban displays of confederate flags from its events. well, for more on this topic we are going to durham, north carolina, to speak with jacqueline olive. she is the director of a film called "always in season," a devastating documentary that examines the history of lynchings in the united states through the story of lennon lacy, an african american teenager who was found hangeged from a swingset in 2014. his mother claudia lacy believes

he was lynched. "always in season" premiered at the sundance fililm festival in 2019. well, we're going to go to jaqueline in a minute, but first, this is the film' trailer.r. a warning to our audiencnce, ths clip contains violent and racist imagy. >> male hanging from swing. >> i think they hung him up to ma i it lo like a suicide. it looked like a back in e day lynching. by would be hung in the courououse sare for all to see. all white folksre invit to e party. >> the lynching waaa message crime. they happen in plac where the body wldld be seen, and it is thpupublicaturure lynchchg that really condemns the white community. because e e ideahat t pele didid not know, they did know.

>> as i started researching acack mas cocommting suide public, i became quee coererned that there may be a bigg movement t at play here. pickption, last night's before the game. amy: that was the trailer for "always in season." jacqueline olive, welcome back to democracy now. this is under hohorrible circumstances, one death after another, young african-american men hanging from trees in the united states. in 100 or 200 years ago but these last weeks. can you talk about the significance of this? again, family members are not saying absolutely they know what happened in each case, as s was ththe case in n the particular hanging you looooked at i in "as

in season," but they are demanding answers and d seriouss investigations. can you start off with thee palmdale hanging i in calilifor? >> a absolutely. so these hangings really come out of a climate in the white house in which there is intense vitriol and hatred d being messaged, anand people are being energized and activated around those messages. you hahave militia groups that e activated in n increasing numbe. yoyou have increasing numbers of nooses, includiding the o oneoud in oakland, californrnia, lest e cocome incididents in which blak people a are being thrhreatenedh nooses. escalates andlimate you u have these hanging deaths that are incredibly alarming, then the f first question t that black folks ofoften h have is

whwhher or notot there was lynchihing involved. thatit is reallyy impmportant whwhen local officicials come oo investigate these casases, that they frame their investitigation and their lookok at the evidence in this histotory, with historic lynchings but also around ththe racial violence and d divisionon gogoinonon currentlyly. amy: so o you have e robert f f, found hanged outside of city hahall inn palalmdale. then you have malcolm harsch,h, like 60 miles away, found hung near the publilic library in victorvilllle. now the p police departments in boboth these cases immediately closed the investigations and said that it was suicide. it took enormous pressure from activist in victorville and the family to finally actctually see video that the p policee had tht showed, in fact, malcolm harsch, it did look like he had taken

his own life. that is not the case for robert fuller at ththis point. we d do not know what happened. then you have these latest hangings of black and brown people up wednesday police fouod 17-y-year-old african-americacan teenen hangi frorom a t tree elementary school playground in spring, texas. on m monday, a latin man found hanged in houston. and then when here in new york city. so talk further about h how peoe can know whatat policice assumed what the history is. > sure. lennon lacy thahat i researcheded thoroughly as we filmlmed, thee p police s show p within three days or so and made their conclusion of suicide. what t they do notot take into account t is his history or the family's concerns deeply enough that there mightht have been a

lynchihing and that theieir famy member m may have met violence. so it wawas the case with h lenn - -- the bodye p police was found on august 29,9, 20 das in fergusonon,ingg missouri, with b bike brown. august 29, 2014, on a f friday. and the e police station was closed over the weekekend becaue it was a a holiday, so t they dd not come to i investigagate anyg until tuesday. when they approach claudia, lennon's motheher, they did not look throuough hisis phone or lk for evidence of anything beyonod susuicide, but they w were insit thatat was the case. ththis is happening again and again. so families s are really calling for there e to be a deeper investigation anand for justice. yoyou mentioned that the family member of -- ththe family membes of malcolm harscsch have concedd that he committed suicicide. one of the interesesting thingsi was reading, one thing is that the police did not really

investstigate his cacase. even though it was s a s suicid, ended up being a suicide, it is importanant that they shohow u d investigate e it thororoughly, d they did not do that untntil the was press a attention. thing is it other is important that t in these cas of suicide, we looook closely at ifif it was a lynchining. so in my research, a as i wasas researching for r "always in season," i found that there was dozens of cases of black people beining found publicly since 20, and i looked at the case of anton cedric, , found hanging in virginia, hours after the o.j. simpson verdict, and that case was ruled a suicide. there have been dozens of deaths, and they sadly do not have exact numbers. therere is a cdc report i h have been looooking at that says t te have been 79 unsolved hangings of blacks, and they have all

been male. report, 79 hangings unsolved between 2000 and 2016. so you have all of these cases in the midst of violence we know that is not being acknowledged. it is important for the public outcry around ahmaud arbery's murder, for example, then gregory mcdaniel and the accomplice being held accountable and that. even when the result is a suicide, there is a justified outcry that comes out of the black cocommunity, but by anyone paying attenention andnd is concerned these might be lynchings. amy: i wanted to ask you about the e case of tt goalie, a black transgender woman experiencing homemelessnessss who was found hanging in portland, oregon. it got a lot o of attentioion recently. in fact, it got so much attention that a lot of people,

including us, thought it just happened in may of this year, but it was actually a year ago. a local medical examiner ruled her death to be a suicide, but her family believes she may have been killed. now it is getting renewed attention as a result of the hangings in california, texas, and new york havee gaiained national a attention. as you pointnt out, it is not oy black men in these cases. talk about the significance of thehe renewed interesest in fing out what happepened, investigatg titi gululley's death. > it is important to lookok . i also thought it happened may 2727 of this yearar, but it was 2019, andd part of that is because ththe story was droppedy the press in 2019 and d then kicked up withth thehese more rt hanging deaths. invisibility that goess with h these e hangig cacases in general is even grear

wiwith trans women, , trans peo, whomtiti gulley, , for the family still believes that she did not commit s suicide. the last newews report us off on the case wasas f from 2019 until vevery rececently. thatat is just an example of f w when we look at ththese cases individually, we arare not givig e issue ththe attention that fits the narrative, the issue about, collectively, whahat is goining on, beyond just dropping in on n one case and then n outn the police decid that they have figured o out or that they havee investigigated enough. it is important for journalists in particular to look at all of it c comprehensively a and in te context of historic lynching narrows him. jujust as historic lynchihing, certainly blackmkman were e the primary victims o of lynching, t

women and children were also the victims of lynching. amy: can you talk about how are often after eventnt, of horrific like the pololice killing of michael brown inin 2014? lennon lacy, the c case you lood at in "always in season," that happened right after that. then, of course, you have the killing of george floyd and the police uprising and the subsequent h hangings. also come a after touchstones that are raciaializ. soso there w was an upupsurge is incidentnts, threaeats by noosek, whehen president obobama campaigned f for the very firstt time b between 200005 and 2 200n upsurge reported. so there are thehese points in some momentum by

ththe black community, a bit of prprogress, thatat is met with backlash, anand there are a also claims in whicich there e is a signaling from leadership that violence is ok. so you have come out of this, all of this violence that we see in particularly black people and brown people, in ways that the mainstream does not necessarily acknowledge. winter stand that there are connections between what happens -- we understand that there are connections between what happens when police shoot a man in the back, when they murdered george floyd on video, and these hangings, and there could possibly be a connection. so the outcry, even when there is a suicide, is out of this sense of urgency that all of these things, including the noose incidents, and all of these showing l lack of a are

threatened and minimize, they could easily result i in lynchi. also have the case in 2018, the son of a prominent son foundctivist, her hanging behindnd the family home in ferguson. he was 24 years old. she says he wasn't lynched. in all these cases, what t are u demandingg hapappens -- she saye was lynched. in all these cases, what are e u demandining happppens now? >> thehey deservrve a fulll investigigation, giviven the c t of history and given whwh people in the communitities understanad about the racialal division in these communities anand the famimilies' concern that t we lk at tm momorehan ththree d days, and then that ththere lookoked s a whole. because whether or not these are lynchings or w whether or not ty are suicicides, suicicides, ther questionss around, is s there ts new trtransfer b black people to hang t themselelves publiclyly? there is a stigma fofor black

peoplele about hanging, certainy hanging publicly and hanging from trerees. if thesese are suicides, thahats information that is reallyly important to undnderstand,d, in addition t to understatanding wt the issu a are around ststructul that can increase depresession andnd increasase ay and the suicide r rates for blak peoplele. those are all really imimrtant to u understand you have, , for example, welelcome harsh whoho s fofound h hanging -- malcolm ha, who wawas found hanging, eveven though the investigatition has t coconcluded yet, you have him found hangnging at a homelesess encampment, so there arere issus aboutt housing insnsbility and insecurityty for black people in particular t that is important o talk about. amy: jacqueline olive, ththank u for being with us, and thank you for your remarkable film, "always in season." a clarification come earlier in

the program we reported fullerton school board of trustees will vote to approve resolution in support of black lives matter, this was in reference to the fullerton school board in california, not louisiana. in baton rouge, louisiana, the school board committee voted last week to set up a committee to