06/26/20 06/26/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy:y: from new york, this is democracacy now! >> so effectively what they're is a very do is ban -- dangerous path for the united states. amy: in a major victory for the trump administration, the supreme court has ruled the u.s. government canan fast-track deportations of asylum seekers without them first appearing before a judge. we will speak to the aclu attorney who argued the case in the court. then we look at the growing

controversy over police use of facial recognitionechnology as an african-amecacan main michigan revlsls he s fafalsy arrestedhahanks tohehe failed tetechnogygy. >> detectctive turns or a picture of a guy and he is like, so that is not you? i look and i said, no, thaisis t m me. hehe tur anoer picture of her and says, iuess thiisn' you, eher? i pick that par up anheheld it t to face. ani said, this is not me. likei i hope you d d't think all black people look alike. sayshe says, the computer it is you. amy: and johnson & johnson has been ordered to pay $2.1 billion to a group of women who developed ovarian cancer after using talcum products contaminated with asbestos. johnson & johnson heavily marketed the product to african-american women despite the products could

cause cancer. a number of plaintiffs in the johnsoson & johnson case e died before the trial or after it finished. all that and more, coming up. welcome to d democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine reportrt. i'm amy goodman. dailily u.s. coronavavirus cases surged to their highest level since the start of the pandemic for the second straight day thursday and showed no signs of slowowing down, wiwiping out gas made a after hundreds of millios of u.s. residents spent weeks under lockdown. 31 states are now reporting daily increases in covid-19 cases of 5% or more. the u.s. has confirmed more than 2.4 million cases -- the highest number in the world by far -- though on thursday, the centers for disease control and prevention said antibody testing shows the true rate of coronavirus infection is likely 10 times higher.

in arizona, republican governor doug ducey called thursday for state residents to wear masks in public, reversing his past opposition to requiring facial coverings. >> covid-1-19 is widespread in arizona. it is in all 15 of our counties. it is growing and it is growing fast. andss all age groups demographics. amy: at t the texas medical cenr in houston, texas's largest hospital, 100% of icu beds are full and public health officials are worried the virus could soon overwhelm the city's health care system. this is drdr. peter hotez of t e baylylor college of memedicine. > i believe if the numbers continue to rise at this pace, houston is on track to bece the worst affected the in the united states. amy: texas governor greg abbott has ordered elective surgeries canceled in several counties.

on thursday, he conceded his state is facing a mamassive outbreak of covid-19 but said he was pausing, and not rolling back, the reopening ofof texas's economy. >> if you do not need to go out and go to work or have to go to the store or engage in some other activities, the best thing you can do is stay-at-home. amy: in florida, richard -- a record search in cases has brought the death told over 3400. alabama, missouri, nevada's all record highs thursday while mississippi's top public health official said he was "terrified we will overwhelm the health care system." the coronavirus task force of president trump and vice president pence will meet today for the first time in two months. in major victory for the trump administration, the supreme court ruled thursday the u.s.

government can fast-track deportations of asylum seekers without first allowing them to fight for their case in front of a judge.e. the 7-2 ruling affects the ththousands of asysylum seekers whose initial credible fear claims are denied by immigration officers in bare-bone proceedings without a lawyer present. the american civil liberties union responded -- "today's supreme court ruling fails to live up to the constitution's bedrock principle that everyone gets their day in court." we'll have more on thursday's ruling after headlines with lee gelernt of the aclu immigrants' rights project, who argued the case before the supreme court. the trump administration on thursday asked the supreme court to overturn the affordable care act, even as tens of millions of people have lost their jobs and employer-based health insurance coverage amid the pandemic. presumptive democratic presidential nominee joe biden responded during a campaign event in pennsylvania. mr. biden: i think it is cruel,

heartless, callous. it is all because, in my view, cannot abide the thought of letting stand one of president obama's greatest achievements, the affordable care act. amy: biden promised to outline a new proposal on healalthcare in the comiming weeks. throughout the campaign, biden is supposed senator bernrnie sanders's medicare-for-all bill. he's instead called for an expansion of the affordable care act and a a public health insurance optition that would compmpete with private health plans. more than 9.6 million coronavirus cases have been reported around the world and nearly half a million deaths. in india, there are nearly half a million coronavirus cases after the country reported its lalargest 24-hour spike thursday with o over 17,000 new infectio. ukraine also reported a record over 1100 new cases in 24 hours, prompting warnings a lockdown may have to be re-imposed. cases are rising in africa, topping 330 thousand confirmed infections across the continent. nearly 9000 people have died of

covid-19 as egypt anand south africa are among the hardest hit by the pandemic. the world health organization has declared an enend to an outbreak of ebola virus in the democratic republic of congo, which killed nearly 2300 people after itit erupted in august of 2018. this is ththe world health organization's regional director for africica. >> at a time itt seeeemed like a mission impossiblble, ending ths bull outbreak is sign of f hope for the e region and for the wod , solidarity and science encourage and commimitment, even the mostst c challengiging epids can be contrololled. amy: the u.s. house of representatives on thursday approved a democratic-led police reform bill demanding sweeping changes to laws and policies that have contributed to decades of police misconduct. its passage came exactly one month after george floyd's killing at the hands of four minneapolis police officers set off a global uprising against

police brutality and systemic racism. this is california democratic congressmember karen bass. noteople marching to demand just change, but transformative change. oft ends the practice denying americans the ability to sue when they have been injured, denies local jurisdictions the power to fire prosecuted for defending officers. amy: a much weaker police reform bill stalled in the republican-led senate after democrats say it didn't go far enough. president trump has saidid he would veto thehe house bill if t reached his desksk. here in new york, a group of activists have camped outside city hall for a third night in a row. they are vowing to continue the ococcupy city hall encncampment until mayor bill de blasio agrees to cut a billion dollars from the police department's $6 billion budget. tatiana hill is an organizer with voices of community activists and leaders new york. >> we voted for city council. we voted for this mayor. some have made promises as far

as addressing the needs that we have, and that has not happened. we see the harm being done to our communities via the instrument of the police and we want to end the harm in ways that will increase healing and our community. amy: in wilmington, north carolina veteran police officers , three have been fired for misconduct after accidentally recording themselves talking about killing black residents. one officer said, "we are just going to go out and start slaughtering" them -- using the n-word to describe black people. he went on to say, "i can't wait. god, i can't wait." the same officer said he felt society needed a civil war to "wipe them off the f-ingng map." the departmentnt learned about e comments after the officers accidentally recorded their own phone conversations in a patrol car. the firings were announced by ththe city's nenew policece chi, donny williams, the first african american to o ever holdd the poposition. he jusust took the post ththis .

wilminington, north carorolina,s the scene of a v violent massace in 1898 when heavily armed white supremacists launched a coup to topple the city's biracial government. they burned down black businesses, including the local african american newspaper. as many as 300 african americans were killed. a former confederate army officer who helped lead the coup then took over as wilmington's new mayor. in o other news about ththe confederacy, preresident trump s personallyly requested that a statue of confederate general albert pike be put back up in washington, d.c., after protesters toppled it and set it on fire on juneteenth. nbc is reporting trump personally called interior secretary david bernhardt to ask the park service to restore the statue. meanwhile, the army has activated 400 national guard troops to protect other monuments in washington. in madison, wisconsin, police have launched a hate crime

investigation after a black teenager reported being attacked early on wednesday while she was driving. 18-year-old althea bernstein says she was stopped at a red light when four white men approached her car. one screamed a racial epithet and lighter fluid was sprayed into her car. she told madison365 -- "i turned my head to look and somebody's throwing lighter fluid on me. and then they threw a lighter at me, and my neck caught on fire." she was able to drive away and was later treated at t the hospital for burns to her face and neck. the attack occccurrewhwhile a black liveves matter protest was winding down nearby. in sports news, nascar has released a photo of the noose found in the garage of bubba wallace at talladega superspeedway. wallace is the only black elite nascar driver in the country. earlier this week, the fbi said the noose was a garage pull-down rope, in place since at least

october, long before the garage was assigned to wallace. on thursday, nascar revealed it had examined nearly 1700 garage stalls at 29 tracks across the country. steve phelps, the president of nascar, said -- "they found only 11 total ropes that had a pull-down rope tied in a knot and just one noose -- the one in bubba wallace's gagarage." earlier this month, nascar banned the d display of confederate flags a at the races after bubba wallace called for them to be removed. in media news, "the los angeles times" is settling a proposed class-action lawsuit brought by six black and latinx journalists, arguing the paper's under-representation of people of color in the newsroom is a result of longstanding discriminatory payay practices. on tuesday, black "l.a. times" journalists called out the newspaper with the hashtag #blackatlat to share their experiences s with racism at the paper. the following day, "l.a. times"

staff held a near five-hour forum pushing executivive editor norman pearlstine and other "l.a. times" leadership to propose sweeping changes at the paper addressing decades of neglect against journalists of color and to foster a more inclusive and equitable newsroom. the federal communications commission is finalizing plans to link the telephone numberer 9-8-8 to thehe national suicidie prevention hotline. it's just the third three-digit nationwide phone number, after 3-1-1 and 9-1-1, and supporters of the m me say it w will direct people in crisis to trained mental health professionals, ratherhahan policece. according to the centers for disease control and prevention, u.u.s. suicide rates are highest among veterans -- more than 20 of whom die by suicide each day -- while lgbtq youth report they're three times more likely than other young people to contemplate suicide. in louisiana, two environmental acactivists fighting the constructionon of a major new plastics plant are facing felony charges for "terrorizing" an oil

and gas lobbyist. anne rolfes and kate mcintosh, who are members of the group louisiana bucket brigade, turned themselves in on thursday. in december, the activists visited the home of an oil and gas lobbyist and left a box of plastic pellets, bit of plastic pollution n found off the coastf texas. the action came as part of a campmpaign to halt plans by formosa plastics to build a new plant in st james parish, in an area known as cancer alley. senanator bernie s sanders has proposed a s sweeping 10% to the military's budget saying the money could be invested instead in education, health care, and poverty reduction. >> is ththe horrific pandemic, e are now experiencing, has taught us anything, it is that national security is not just building bombs, missiles, jet fighters, tanks, summaries, nuclear warheads, and other weapons that

mass destruction. amy: senator sanders spopoke on ththe floor of thehe senate on thursday on the same day president trump visited a shipyard in wisconsin where he boasted about the administration's "colossal" military spending. pres. trump: we totally rebuilt the military. 2.5 trillion dollars. some people say, that is out of the budget. let me telell you, there is n no budget when it comes to the military. amy: the pentagon's budget is larger than the next 11 nations combined. a correction to an earlier headline, the white house coronavirus task force will be holding a public briefing for the first time in two months. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. in a major victory for the trump administration, the supreme court ruled thursday the u.s. government can fast-track deportations of asylum seekers without first allowing them to fight for their case in front of a judge. the 7-2 ruling affects the thousands of asylum seekers whwhose initial l credible fear

claims are denied by immigration officers in bare-bone proceedings without a lawyer present. the american civil liberties union said the supreme court's ruling "fails to live up to the constitution's bedrock principle that everyone gets their day in court." fofor more, we're joined by lee gelernt, deputy director of the aclu immigrants' rights project. attorney for the sri lankan asylum seeker who was at the center of the case before the supreme court. welcome back to democracy now! first, explain his case and then what you argued before t the supreme c court and the significance of its ruling. >> so he is a sri lankan asylum seeker. is an ethnic minority in sri lanka, historically persecuted. hehe was abducted by men, blindfolded, brought in a van, and beaten senseless. he finally escapapes sri lanka,

got to the u.s., and had what is called fast-track or expedited hearings without an attorney, a veryry short hearing where he explained his story. the asylylum officer believed hm but said, "i'm still not going to greater asylum because i don't think you're legallyly entitled to it." and that was notwithstanding -- the reason the asylum officer said is, how canan i be sure tht it was government forces who beat you and that is what it takes to get asylum. yet, he told them m he thought e was arrested, used the word "arrested," which impmplies that it is govevernmentnt officials. who beatn know exacactly him, of course, and did not have an attorney and did not investigate. but the other thing he pointed out is he was abducted in a van. ever r report yoyou look at t at sri lalanka showows this thing called the white man phenomenon

where people arare abducted in a white e vann by government officials. so it was a wewell known phehema , and the asylulum offificer was charged by law witith knowing wt hahappens in each country. once he heard this maman was abducted in a van comoming shoud have undererstand that was a pra facie case of asasylum. nonetheless, he said i am not going to great asylum. so we didid what most people wod do in that s situatition, and ty anand get a judge, a a neutral e because the asylum m officer ultimately is part of f the exececutive branch, to say, lete review this. the administration said, no, y u can't go to o federal court basd ,n a a law that wawas passed unfortunatately, in 1996. we belieieve thehe law was unconstitutional and everyone is supppposed have their day in cot by virtue of what is called habeas corpus, which simply means you have y your day in cot we were liberties could be taken away. we prevaileded in the court t of

appealals. we wouldld to the supreme court. we argued thatat the denial of yourur day in court where yououe liberties s are atat stake is unconsnstitutiononal. and the framerers of the constititution w wanted a judidl check on the executitive brancnh and on congress where someone's liberty was at stake. unfortunately, the supreme court ruled againsnst us and for the government. as a practical matter,r, and isa very serious decision -- it is a very serious decision and will adversely affect any, many asylum-seekers, particularly now. judicial revieiew is always impoportant, particucularly now where the trp p administration has eviscerated so mama of the protections s and the asylum hearing itself that it is that much more critical to have a backstop of a federal court. amy: lee gelernt, can you talk about the significance of the justices who voted either way, -2 ruling.

anduth badeder ginsburg justice breyer concucurred, butn extremelnanarrow grounds and said taking all the specifics of this case, t they joined the majority. the majority's opinion was broader. what remains to be seen is how broadly the trump admininistratn will t try and intnterpret it. opinion, , ithe apapplies only to people right t the border. who have asylum claims. we will have t to see if the trumpet adadministratition trieo expand it. righght now the trump administration had already b ben trying to fast-track people -- deportatioion for p people lilin the country up to two years ananywhere in the couountry, ine interior of the country. i think what we are in poor is a fight with the trumpet adadministration a about whether tohis opinion does it is ok

use fast-track deporortations without judicicial r review i ie interior of the country. we believe it does not come and that would raise distinct issues. but i suspect we are in a fight about that. amy: this issue of expedited removal was actually not very frequent until the dramatic increase in a american asylum-seekers arriving at the border. so more specifically, how you are fearing it will affect them? and even though your client was tamil from srsri l lanka. > r right. i think there will be a double whamammy here becausese judicial review was always going to be important for those cases that failed at the initial stage, but i think what we are like that is the are more people failing at the initial stage becauause as truncateted as the hearirings we to begin with, the administration has now for 3.5

years bebeen trying to take away procedural rights even i in the initial hehearing with the asysm offificer and make it more difficult to getet asylum basesn thinings like gend discriminatition.. so we're likely to see m more peoplele fail theirr hearing and now they donon't have a backstop in the federal couourts. so i t think we're likely to see mamany more people get fast-trak deportatations removoved. but even before that, we are fighting another fight, which is that the administration is nice in the pretext of covid to bypass the whole asylum system altogether and do poor people within days without any hearing whatsoever. so we are in the district court in d.c. now figighting that c ce about whether the government can bypass the whole asylum systemm. if ultimately they are allowed to bypass the asylum system and all the tinkering will be largely meaningless. comment you also quickly on the aclu lawsuit that you recently brought against the

--mp administration ordering against the order that restricts immigration at the border based on the unprecedented indication of the public health services act? you u filed on behalf of the 16-year-old honduran boy? >> yes.. that is the tetest case. that is whatat i meaeant by bypassing the whole asasylum syststem. the admiministration f for the t time in history is trying to use the public health laws to expel people on the pretext of covid. those laws have been in n place since 1893. no administrtration,n, democratr republican, has tried use thehe publicic health laws to expel people. the administration admitted in the hearing on wednesday that i argued that they thought public health laws even allow them to expel u.s. citizens. fortunately, the judge said we were likely to prevail on our i'm a public health laws a and t

be a parallelel deportation system. and if the government t wants to do p poor people, i it has to ge themhe protections, inclcluding asylumum protectionsnsin the immigration lalaws. i think the stakes are enormous in this case because if that expulsion ororder stands in the president is reelected, , i suspect he will end asylum for the whole e second t term babasn the pretext that it is too dangerous to allow children of asylum-seekers in the country. amy: we often n had you on talkg about sub to children. i was just wondering if you can give us an update in the midst of this horrific pandemic, how many children do you still believe are separated from their states?es in the ununited >> that is a great question. unfortunately, the government had d only givenen us part of te names in the beginning. they gave us another 1500 children and only y because it s

exposed by internal government reports. we are unfortunately still looking for the bulk of those children. we were going door-to-door in central america with our partners looking for those children. anand now because of covid, we cannot do that. so we still do not know how many children are separated. we have yet to find hundreds of those children, many of them under five years old. the asylume fate of law in the united states and are four years of presidident truru? > i think it hangs in the balance. i ththink we really at that turning point where if our legal andlenges don't succeed, we the president selected, there really won''t be asylum. the e border is sort of out of sisight, out of mind.. people need toto look back on history and think about what happened with their ancestors. a lot of people in this country benenefited from the uninited ss to provide protection

after worlrld war r ii. this would be an unfortunate thing in the united states if all this had we turned our back onon thohose who need asylum mo. we really cannot and asylum. that is what is happening if the trump administration gets its way. amy: lee gelernt, thank you for being with us. direrector of the aclu immmmig'' deputydirector of the aclu immigrants' rights project. next up, the p police use of facial tech knology -- facialal recognition techchnology. stay with us. ♪ [musisic break]

amy: "prayer mat" by nadine shah. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. after the first known case of police wrongfully arresting someone in the united dateses basedd on facial technology, though critics say there are likely many more cases that remain unknown. it was january 9 w when detroit police wrongfully arrested

robert williams, an african-american man, in front of his own home, based on a false facial recognition hit. his wife and daughters, ages two and five, watched him get arrested thiss s willms a andis cououn robin taylor dcrcribinthee ordeal in n an aclu video. >> i wasasompletely shocked and stunned to be arrested in broad daylhtht in front of my dahthter, front of my wif in front of neighbors. -- i can'rereallyut i it intotoords. it wasnene ofhe most shocki thgs i e er had happened to me >> he cld havavbeen killed if he had risteted,ou knono being a blacac m being aested or havingny encouer with t poli. it can go badly that is somethining that we wory abt in thelalack family when meone h in enunter wi the poli. amy: aft h his aest, detro poli h held bertrt wliamss

overnight in aililthy ll.. his fifierprints, a dna sample, and mug shoterere puon f fil this is willmsms desibining w the officersntnterroted d hi babased on the falsese facia recognition hit. >> will l we get to the interviw room, ththe first thing they h d me d do wasas read my rights to self. and then sign off. that i read d undersnd my ghts. the tetectiv turns over a picture a guy ande's ke, so that notou?" i looknd i said,o, t thais no me. turns ather pap opens h has says, "iuessss ts is notou, either i picked that peper up a hold it next my face and said, "this isot me. ke, hopeou d don't think all black people look alike." then he says, "the computer says it is you." amy:y: but the next day policece totold williams "the computer mt have gotten it wrong" and he was finally released -- nearly 30 hours after his s arrest. this comes as democratic

senators ed markey and jeff merkley introduced a bill that would ban these are facial recognition and other biometric surveillance by federal law enforcement agencies. on wednesday, boston's city council voted unanimously to ban its use in boston. amazon r this mononth, placed a moratorium and ibm has announced it is pulling out of the facial recognition business entirely. well, our next guest is a compmputer scientist, coding expert who documents racial bias on this type of technology. joy buolamwini is a researcher at the mit media lab and founder of the algorithmic justice league. she's also featured in the documentary "coded bias." welcome back to democracy now! it is great to have you with us, joy.y. it was great interview you first at the sundance film festival. we will see you when that film festival begins again. it won't be happening next year. joy, talk about this case.

talk about the williams case and its significance, how it happened. what is s the technology and wht is happeningng with it now?? >> the thing we must keep inin mind about robert williams case is this is not a an example of e bad algorithm posted just like inststances of p police brutali, it is a glimpse of howow systemc raracism can be embedded into ai systems likeke those that power facial recognition technologies. it is also a reflection ofof wht stududy after study after study has been showing, studies i have w where --t m.i.t., 189 algorithms, you wheresian andn afrirican-american faces were 10 to 100 times more likely y to be misidentifieied t than white fa.

you have a study february 2019 looking at skintight, showing dadarker ski indiduals a more likely t beisidentied by these tenologies so iis n a shock that we are seei whatappened toobert williams wh we haveo keep in mind this ian ok'd ---- known case. we don't knknow how many others d not haveve a situati where the policor the detecve sa, oh, thcomputerust have got wrong. and is is anmportanthing to keep mind. oftentimimes even if there is evevidence i in front of you, ts may does n not look like the picture,e, there is this reliane on the machine. and when you h have a sitituatif confirmationon bias, particulary when black people are perceived to already be guiltlty, this ony adds to it. the other r thing i want to poit out is youou can be misidentifid evenen if you are not t where a rhyme happened.

woman,ril 2019,ouou had a a brown universitity senior, who was misidentified as a terror suspect in the sri lanka eastern bombings. she was not t in sri lanka. in the movie coded bias, the film mer shows a 14-year-old boy beg g stopd byby police in thu.k. because of a midentification. this is not an examplef one bad aorithm ge wrongbut it showiwing, again, the systemic racism can become s systematitic when we use automated tooools in the context of police. amy: let me play clip from "coded bias" that shows police in london stopping a young black teen beded on rveieillance. >>, what is happening. this young black kid in school ufoform got stopped as

thresult oa a matc him down that streejujust to o one side, very thoroughly search him. plainclothes offerers asell.l. four plainclothes officers who opped him. him.rprinted after that, maybe 10 to 15 minutes, searching and chkiking details and theyamame ba andnd said -- you have just been stoppe becae e theyisididenfied y y. a bit shaken. s s fries wewerehere..

they could not belveve wha happened to him. you have been midedentifd byby thee system and stopped to you. this is s an innocent 14 euro child being stopped by the police as a result of facial recognition misidentification. amy: said that is an excerpt from "coded bias." a permit of the sundance film festival. i incorrectly said it was canceled, the sundance film festival. i don't think we do that officially for 2021. joy, tell us more. he was 14 years old. >> him being 14 years old is also important because we are seeing moree companies pushihino put facial l recognition technologies in schoolols. studiesnunuously have that show these systems also struggle on youthful faces as well as elderly faces. race and gender

and so many other factors. what we arepoint out showing examples of misidentification, there is the other side. if these t technologies are made more a accurate, right, it doe't then say accurate systems cannot be abused. so when you have more accuratee systems, it alsoso increasases e potential forr surveillance beig weaponized against communities of color, black and brbrown communities as we have seen in the past. so even if youou got this technology to have better peperformance, it doesn't take away the threat from civil liberties. it does not take away the threat from privacy. so the face could very well be the final frontier up privacy, and it can be the k key to erasg our civil liberties. the abilility to go out and protest. you have chilling effects when you know big brother is watctching. oftentimes there is no due

process. in this case, becaus the detective said, oh, the comter must he gottent wrong, this is why we got to this scenari it oftentimes people don't even know the tecologies are being us.. anitit is t just fo identifying someone's uniqueue inindividual. you have a company called higher view that claims to analyze videos of candidates for a job and take verbal and nonverbal current top on performers. so here you could be tonight economic opportunity, accessss o a job b because o of failures of these technologies. so we absolutely have to keep in mind that there e are issueses d threats when it doesesn't work d there are issusues and threats whwhen it does worork. and right now w when thinking abouout racial -- facial recogngnition technology, is tht high-stakes game w which equated to g gambling where gambling wih

people's faces, gambling with people's lives, and ultimately we are gamambling with democrac. amymy: talked about the agencies that you understand are using this. you have mentioned this in your dea,ng, drug enforcement customs and border patrol cbp, ice. explain how they're using them. >> in addition to that, you also have tsa. wild wildow we h have a west where vendors can supupply government agencies with these technologies. you might have heard of the clearview ai case where you scrape 3 million photos from the internet and now you're approaoaing government agencies, intetelligencece agencies with e technologies. so they y can be used to have investigigative leaeads, right? or they can be used to

interrogate people. so it is not a s situation where there is transparency about the scope and breadth of its use, which is another situation where we think abobout due process, think about consent, and we think about what are the threats of surveilillance. amy: joy, you have written, we must fight surveillance to protect black lives. calls can talk about the of the black lives matter movement, people in the streets to defend the police departments come dismantle policice dedepartments. how does facial recognition technology fit into this? a absolutely. when w w talk ababout defundinge polilice, what we have to keep n mind is when resources are scarce, technology is viewed as the e answer. to save money,y, to be more efficient. and d what we are being are the technologies that can comeme ino play, can become highly

optimized tools for oppreression and suppression. so as we are thinking about how we defined the police, how we shift fununds to uplift communities, invest in health care, ininst inn economic opportunities, educational opportunities, we have to also understand that as investment from surveillance -- divestment from surveillancee technology as well. amy: talk about the recent announcements by ibm, microsoft, amazon thing that will pause or into sales of their facial recognition technology. do you think what they arere saying is enough? what exactly arere they doing? s say first came out to they will nono longer sell facil recognition technology, which is the strongest position of all of these companies. that then prompted microsoft to come out as well as amazon. what i want to emphasize is they

did not do this out t of the kindness of their hearts, right? it tooook the cold-bloodeded mur in thege floyd p protests streets, years of o organizing y civil liberties andnd rights organinizations, activists, and researchers to get to this point. so it is welcome news that y you have household name companies stepping back from facial recognition technologies because it underscores its dangers and its harmrms, but there's so many other companies that are big players in this s space. we have to t talk about nec, we 1.e t to talk about rank so all of this shows we must inc. aboutut this as an ecosystm problem. yes, it is welcome news that we have three household tech giants stepping awaway from it and thtn also elevates the conversation, but it cannot end there.

ultimately, we cannot rely y on businesses to self r regulate or think ththat businesses a are gg to put the public interest above the busisiness interest. thatat is up to our lawmakersrs. so this is the moment t to stepp and enact laws. amy: talk ababoutt those laws, . give the boston's city council that -- did they unanimously vote to not allow facial recognition technology? and now you have congress coming thursdaynate just introducing a facial rececognitn bill. how much does that ban the use of federal law enforcecement in using it? close absolutely. we did have a unananimous vototn boston, 13-0, two ban government facialphase -- technology. i wawas at a hearing alongside many others s calling for a ban, including seven-year-o-old ange,

who talked about not wawanting this k kind of technology when e is going to school. so what you're saying, not just in boston come the second largest state, but across the u.s. coast to coast, we saw the van in san francisco, berkeleye, oakland, brookline, cambridge, also s seen the statate of california say no to facial recognition on body cams. so all of this shows we have a voice, we have a choice. peoplele are standing u up stutf they are resesisting supuppresse technology. what this shows is even if one city or one state makes a choice, we still have the rest of the american peoeople to consider. so this is why i was extremely happy to see the recent act that was announced this thursday for the facial recognition and biometric technology moratorium act. because now we can say, let's at least provide baselevel

the unitedfor all of states. this is the strongest bill l tht has comeme out of congreress ye. finally, masks. how do they throw a wrench into the works? people wearing masks now to protect themselves and to protect the community, all except for the preresident of te united states does not wear the affectut how does it technology? we know these protests across the country h he been fililmed, drones h have been monitoring them. what does it mean when people are wearing masks? >> it means the technology becomes even lesss reliablble. to make e a match, you want asas muchch facial information as possible. so if i cover any component on mymy face, that is less information. so you are likely to have more misidentification's. that happened to robert williams -- what happened to robert williams could become even worse. but it is also normalizing

having her face covered. if more people cover their face or resist these technologies, it will also be harder to deploy. but masks make it even more likely that you will havave a misidentification. amy: i want to thank you so much, joy buolamwini, for joining us, researchcher at the mit media lab and foununder ofoe algorithmic justice league. featured in the documentary "coded bias." to see our extended interview witherer, go to o democracacynog . look at how back, johnson & & johnson has been ordered to pay more than $2 billion to a groupup of women wo develoloped ovarian cancer after using johnson & johnson talcum is contntaminateded with asbestos. johnson & johnson heaeavily marketed the powowder toto afrirican-american women. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy n now!, i'm amamy goodman. earlier this weeeek, the courts ordered johnson & johnson to pay $2.1 billion to a group of women who developed ovarian cancer after using talcum powder contaminated with asbestos. in its ruling, the eastern district missouri court of appeals said johnson & johnson had "engaged in conduct that was outrageousus becausef evil motive and reckless indifffference." the appeals court reduced the original verdidict amount from 2018, ich had d been $4. billion. but johnson & johnson still faces thousands more lawsuits. it recently stopped selling its brand of talcum powder in the united states and canada, but it continues to sell the products overseas. the lawyer for the plaintiffs told consumers they should throw away any baby powder in their homes. according to internal memos, johnson & johnson knew that asbestos may be in its talc oducts foror at least 50 years. but as concern grew johnson & , johnson targeted ad d campaigs

black, latinx,x, and overweight women. in 2007, the year after the international agency for research on cancer determined that talc was "possibly carcinogenic," johnson & johnson plan to market the product to african americans in "under developed geographical areas with hot weather and higher aa population." this is marvin salter, the son of jacqueline salter fox, who sued johnson & johnson after being diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer in 2013. she did not live to see the trial. her family was awarded $72 million in 2016, a decision which was later overturned. marvin salter testified in 2019 before the house oversight committee. >> i sincerely believe johnson & johnson took my mother's life. we believed in the company and a product spececifically. my mother was a a true fan. it was a staple in our house and a necessary part of our hygienic routine. it was as natural for her as her brushing her teeth every single day.

she was diagnosed with late stage ovarian cancer in april 2013. it was a rough time for us but my mother was the type of woman who would never let bad news over take her joy. she was confident she would be the disease. her spirit was never broken. despite what was h happening to heher body. she smiled through it all. jojohnson & johnson is yet to te ownership for what they have done and they get to take one stepep to makeke amends to all s whose lives hahave been n turned upsidede down because wewe trusd in t this company anand they sad their productt essay. amy: that is mararvisalterer, sn of jacqueline salter fox, who sued johnson & johnson after being diagagnosed with late-stse ovarian cancer. for isabellele chaudry. more, we're joined by senior policy manager for the national women's health network. welcome to democracy now! lay out the significacance of ts more than $2$2 billion verdict against jojohnson & johnson. >> thank y you for having me coe amy. so this case i is realally

significant. the coururt found the plainintif prproved with convincing clarity thatefense -- - defendantsts engaged and outrageous conduct because of "evil motive or reckless indiffererence." reversingended up some of the jury's award and ultimately the punitive damages to johnsonon & johnson was $7159 million, and thatt alslso $900 million to its subsidiary johnson n & johnson consumerer company. so this is veryy signifificant r consnsumers who have been n figg against johnson & johnsnson and alalleging their proroducts caud their ovarian cancer. jujust last month, -- in may, te company put out a statement sayingng they were going to discontinue selling their baby powder product, their talk c-based audit t in the u.s. but continue to sesell it abroad,

which will impact countries like africa and brazil. and because whole continents, for it and brazil. explain this and also, people may be listening muslilim peopl, and saying, they could powder, why is it mainly w women whoho e the victims of this -- many sayaying, w whyng and is it mainly womomen who are the victims of this?s? >> johnson & johnson engaged in practices that specificalllly targrgeted womomen, spececificay tatargeted a african-american w, latitinx women come overweight wowomen. we knonow and johnson & & johnsn new and studies cultural n norms of certain communities knew thth as part of their self-care practices, certain women use their baby powder products. amy: for dealing with chafing. also especially in hot countries, dealing with moisture. if you could explain how the asbestos gets into the baby powder on the talcum powder that

johnson & johnson has marketed for r so long. is mind,y that talc sometimes it is comminingled wih asbestos.. asbebestos is a knknown carcino. the american cancer society y hs said so. ththere is no sasafe level of asbestos. soso w when there is anyny tracf isestos in talc, the talc ththen dangerous and can cause cancer a and johnson & johnson w at this for years going back too ththe late 1950's. w weis publicicly recordeded, o can see ththrough their r public documents during litigation that ththey knew that there were trae a massive asbestotos in those producucts. johnson & johnson hired an african-american pr firm to develolop marketing

campaigns for its baby products line. in 2010, launched a radio campaign in the south, targeting women "curvy southern women 1 18 to 49 skewing african-americanans." >> yes, so the company contracted w with the north carolina mararketing firm called segmented marketing services inc., which spepecialized in promotioion to e ethnic consusu. $100,000 --uted 100,000 gift bags containining baby powder and d other johnsos& johnson baby products in african-americanan and hispanic neighborhoods in chicago. they also launched 300,000 radio advertising campaigns and half a dozezen markets aiming to reach come as you stated, curvy age.ern women 18 to 49 of

abouto if you c can talk the women who brought the lawsuit. did any survive it? d did they l die? ofthere werere over -- upwards 20-0-ish women thahat brought lawsuits against johnson & johnson. as you statated beforere, theyae thousandss of lawswsuits against them. through this prprocess, families have lost loved ones, women have died of ovovarian cancer. so this has been a very serious issue ththat has impactedd families, has impacted women, and is going to continue impaing g these people if t ther products are still beieing sold and marketed, e especially abro. i understand their current inventntory will still be sold t the u.s.. amy: thehe current inventory,

before thehey won't make it t an bubut they contininuing to maket for other countries. i wanteded to ask you about johnson & johnson ceo alex coarsely -- gorsky issued a statement in support of black lives matter in response to the global u uprising after r the pe ahmed geoee floyd, arbery, breonna taylor. can you talk a about this statement. he said -- your response, isabel? >> my y response is t that the k of equity and justice needs to go beyond mere statements. johnson & johnson joined of course many companies who have pledged to address rism andd

ststating black k lives m matte, especially after the recent event t that has led to the upuprising and prorotests. practices, their ownn theirr histotoric practices of targeting black and brown commununities,s, historically marginalized communitities, this statatement is not enough. ththey are a manufacacturer that markets and sells products to consumumers. these are e products that wewe e on our skin. thesese are products thahat impt our health. in such a specifically targrgetd and dodouble down n on marketing effort to historically marginalized comommunitieses ano in those to engage practices and now continue abroad to places like a africa,s i mentioned, they have e -- don and continue -- canan y y in particular -- >> south africa, alsorazil

holds all ree segments of its companies. so itt is just not enougugh to t ouout statements. their actions need to match the statement and they have a history of engaging in racist practices. amy: so what are your demands right now? you are saying that if you go to a store in the united states, could possibly find this contaminated baby powder. they are saying they are discontinuing it after the current inventory is out? asia, in hot africa, countries s in partiticular and particularly communities o of color? that ththemands are outright banan these products placesy, especially in where it will impact the communitities that they haveve targeteded in the papast. so outright ban on these

products. also, acknowledging that they didn't engage in these practices to not continuing to engage in practices that target and harm black and brown communities. lawsuits doesy more jojohnson & johnhnson face? >> i know sincnce march, they he had upwardrds of i t think 19,00 lawsuits. so they have a lot of lawsuits. amy: we will continue to cover them. thank you, isabelle chaudry, for joining g us, senior policicy manager for the national women's health network. that does it for our show. 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!]

jazazeera.a al ♪ you are watching the news hour live from london. coming up in the next 60 minutes, the u.s. coronavirus task force meets for the first time in months as infections surge to a record daily high. a major spike in virus cases in india. the government readies a massive treatment center. city's police chief is shot and injured in an assassination attempt. how