07/13/20 07/13/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amamy: from new yorkrk, this is democracy now! pres. trump: we hope that most schools will be open. we don't want people to make political statements. >> do you have a plan? schools should do what is right on the ground at that time for their students. amy: as the world and the united states shatter the daily records of covid-19 infections, president trump and education

secretary betsy devos push for public schools to reopen in the fall witithout a plan to adhereo cdc guidelines. ththe white house contntinues to atattack the nation's top infectious disease specialist, dr. anthony fauci. we wilill get response from emergegency room physician dr. leana wen. describesx booker surviving an attempted lynching when a group of white men pinned him against a tree on july 4. the police came, the fbi says it will investigate, but no one has been arresteted. vidideose seen lots of that were lately racist and folks still dismiss racism. i think this moment is undeniable when a group of white men feel they can call for a headed,all me nappy attempt to lynch a man in broad daylylight. amy: t then we look at h how the twinin pandemimics of cocovid ad

racism are impacting people with disabilities. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democraracy now!, democrcracynow.org, the quararae report. the world hehealth organizations rereports 230,000 new coronanavs cases were r reported d across e globe on sundaday, the highest single day total since the pandemic began. the united states reported 60,000 new infections saturday, 68,000 friday, the two highest totals to date. florida root did over 15,000 new coronavirus cases sunday, setting a new single day high for any state, but florida's republican governor ron desantis continues to downplay the pandemic and has refused to order a new lockdown or an order for residents to wear face masks. deaths are also increaeasing in many states as the official u.s. death toll tops 135,000.

at least eight states set new single-day records over the past week -- alabama, arizona, florida, mississippi, north carolina, south dakota, texas, and tennessee. in texexas houston mayor sylvesr turner p proposed shututting don the state for two weeks as hospitalizations surged to record highs but republican texas governor greg abbott has jected the c calls. on saturday, president trump was photraphphedearingng mask in publ for theirst time since the e paemic began. trump put on the mask during a visit to the walter reed national military medical center. this comes as trump and the white house continue to attack the nation's totop infectious doctor dr. anthony fauci. over the weekekend, the e white housuse attempted to discrcredim by distributg a a document likened to an opposition research paper conontaining g pt comments made by fauci. dr. fauci's last briefing for the president came on june 2. they are not speakiking to

each other. meananwhile, trump retweeted a a message today in the former r ht of "love c connection come proclaiming the c cdc is lying about covid-19. in california, the coronavirus death toll at t san quentin stae ison has reacheded 11 after two more prisoners died on saturday. nearly 1500 men held at the prison have now tested positive. dozens of critically ill prisoners have already been hospitalized. on friday, california governor gavin newsom ordered the release of 8000 people from the state's prisons by the end of august. researchers at johns hopkins school of public health have found prisoners are three times as likely to die from covid-19 and 5.5 times as likely to get infectcted as the general population. in greeley, colorado, workers at a jbs meat processing plant held a wiwildcat strike fririday, demanding better pay and safety improvements amid the pandemic.

the work stoppage came after hundreds of plant employees tested positive for covid-19, with six dying of the disease. in a april, presidident trump ordedered meatpacking plants to stay open despitite healthth ris to workers.. a lalarge covid outbreak has a t a factory run by los angeles apparel where workers make facial masks and other cotton products. four workers have died and more than 300 have tested positive. most of the workforce are latinx. the factory is owned by dov charney, the disgraced founder of american apparel. in internationonal news,s, the coronavirus death toll in mexico has topped 35,000. mexico now has fourth highest death toll after the united states, brazil and the united kingdom. on saturday, the mexican government held a ceremony in mexico city honoring the repapatriation of 245 urns containing the remains of mexicans who died of coronavirus in the united states. this is jorge islas, the

mexico consul general in new york. >> 2 250 of our compatriots who died are arriving in mexicico. the majority of them were alone and isolated as a result of them fulflfilling their duty to worko sustain their families in both the united states and d in mexi. amy:y: authoritieses in india he announced a new week-long lockdodown in bangalore and othr regions as covid-19 cases reached new records. on sunday, india reported nearly 29,000 newew cases and 550 deat. in hong kong, authorities have shut down its schools again due to a new surge in cases. colombia's two largest cities, bogota and medellin, are reinstating partial lockdowns as coronavirus cases surge. on saturday, colombia recorded nearly 7000 new cases and just over 200 deaths -- both record highs. in israel, thousands rallied in

tel aviv to protest the government's handling of the outbreak. and in japan, the u.s. marines have acknowledged at least 60 marines have tested posititive t a base on n okinawa. president trump and d education secretary betsy devos are continuing to threaten to cut off federal funding for public schools that refuse to fully reopen in ththe fall due to ee pandndemic. divorce appeareded on fox news. >> amerirican investment in education is a a promise to students and their families. if schools are not going to reopen and not fulfifill that prpromise, they should not get e funds.s. give it to the famililies to decide to gogo to a school thats going to need that -- we that promise. and because the national education association and american federation of teachers are calling on congress for more funds to help schools purchase personal protective equipment as well as better ventilation systems and cleaning equipment.

a new study from the kaiser family foundation finds that nearly 1.5 million teachers are at risk of serious illness if infected with covid-19. on friday night, president trump commuted the sentence of his longtime friend and campaign adviser roger stone who was set to begin a 40-month prison sentence on tuesday. in november, a jury convicted stone of seven criminal counts including obstruction of a congressional investigation, making false statements to congress, and tampering with a witness in connection to the probe of russia's interference in the 2016 u.s. election. on saturday, president trump claimed stone was a victim of a witch hunt. pres. trump: roger stone was treated horribly. roger stone was treated very unfairly. roger stonone was brought into this witchhunt, this whole political witchhunt and the molar scam. it is a scam because it has been proven false. amy: democratic senator chris murphy of connecticut criticized trump's commutation. he tweeted -- "stone had info that would have

put trump in jail. he told trump he'd obstruct justice if he got clemency. trump agreed." in sports news, the washington redskins nfl franchise will change its racist name, which it's held since 1933. espn reports the team hasn't yet decided on a new mascot, but will include the military in its new name. indigenous campaigners celebrated the move as long overdue and are calling for the kansas city nfl franchise to follow suit. navajo nation activist amanda blackhorse tweeted -- "it's time for the chiefs to defuse the cultural offenses they enable and reflect #notyourchief" in indiaiana, the e first plannd -- risen officials are s set to correct the first federal execution in nearly 20 years. a judge had suspended it after the victims' family members said they were afraid to travel during the coronavirus pandemic to bear witness to the execution. but a federal appeals court panel ruled yesterday the

victims' family doesn't have to attend. 47-year-old daniel lewis lee was sentenced to death decades ago for his alleged role in a 1996 murder. since then, several family members of the three victims have urged lee''s sesentence be commuted to life in prison. in media news, the chief writer at the fox news chanannel show "tucker carlson toninight" resigned f friday after cnn revealed he had written racist and sexist messages online. blake neff routinely posted to the website autoadmit using a pseudonym, attacking asian-americans and african-americans in highly offensive language, while maintaining a thread harassing a woman with information about her personal life. in a statement, fox news called neff's online comments "horrendous and deeply offensive." tucker carlson has called white supremacy a "hoax." he's repeatedly made racist, homophobic, and explicitly misogynistic remarks. in one 2006 audio recording, he's heard attacking iraqis as "semiliterate, primitive monkeys."

president trump lashed out susunday against a section of wl along the u.s.-mexico border that was privately funded by his own supporters. the three-mile barrier in the rio grande valley was completed just months ago with support from the pro-trump nonprofit "we build the wall," whose board of directors includes trump allies kris kobach, tom tancredo, and steve bannon. the wall is already showing signs of heavy erosion. on sunday, trump tweeted -- "i disagreed with doing this very small section of wall, in a tricky area, by a private group which raised money by ads. it was only done to make me look bad." in more news from the border, u.s. customs and border protection says an agent ran over an undocumented immigrant with his vehicle earlier this month near a border entry point -- border crossing in el paso, texas. the man was reportedly treated for injuries to his leg and torso and depoported to mexico n julyly 3. a former trump cabininet officil has revealaled president trump

suggested selling puerto rico after hurricane maria devastated the territory in 2017. in a new intnterview, former acting homeland d security secretary elelaine duke quotes trump saying, "can we sell the island? you know, or divest of that asset?" new york congresswoman nydia velazquez, who was born in puerto rico, responded to the report by tweeting -- "you may try to sell the office you hold, your personal integrity and your soul, mr. president -- but i assure you puerto rico is not for sale! congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez, artist lin-manuel miranda, and former presesidentl cacandidate julian castro are all backing calls to boycott goya foods -- a staple brand of ingredients and seasonings in community. it comes after ceo robert unanue praised president trump during a houseat the white thursday. looks we are all truly blessed at the same time to have a

leader like president trump who is a builder. amy: on friday, he said he e wod not apologize for statements, coming the boycott of goya is a " suppression of speech." julian castro responded on twitter saying -- "free speech works both ways. goya foods ceo is free to support a bigoted president who said an american judge can't do his job because he's 'mexican' who treats puerto rico like trash, and who tries to deport dreamers. we're free to leave his products on the shelves." the united nations secururity council voted saturday to open a single border crossing to allow humanitarian aid deliveries from turkey into a rebel-held region of northwest syria. the weekend agreement broke a week long stalemate after russia and china vetoed plans to allow humanitarian aid shipments through two border crossing points. idlib rerecently recorded its firsrst case of covid-d-19, raig fears fofor more than a million internally displaced syrians living in sprawling camps.

in poland, incumbent president andrei duda has declared victory in sunday's presidential run-off election after narrowly defeating pro-european union candidate. duda is a far-right nationalist who's backed by president donald trump. he campaigned on an anti-lgbtq platform and has proposed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex couples from adopting children. in l london, animal rights activists on saturday dyed the water of two fountains in trafalgar square bright red during a protest against the farming of animals. at least two protesters with the group animal rebellion were arrested. in arizona, thehe family of a 65-year-old latino man who died of covid-19 has s accused state officials for being responsiblbe for his death. in a scathing obituary the family of mark anthony urquiza wrote -- "his death is due to the carelessness of the politicians

who continue to jeopardize the health of brown bodies through a clear lack of leadership, refusal to acknowledge the severity of the crisis, and inability and unwillingness to give clear and decisive direction on how to minimize risk." a correction in california, the coronavirus death toll at san quentin state prison has reached nine after two more prisoners died on and those are some of saturday. the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report.. i'm amy goodman. as the world and the united stateses shatter the daily recos of covid-19 infections, president trump and education secretary betsy devos are continuing to push for public schools to reopen in the fall despite concerns from educators and public health officials. they've also vowed to cut off federal funding for public schools that do not reopen . devos is a longtime advocate for privatizing the public school system. in an interview sunday, cnn's

dana bash questioned devos about how the trump administration could safely reopen schools amid the pandemic. >> your the secretary of education. you are asking students to go back. why do not have guidance on what a school should do just weeks before you want those schools to reopen? what happens if it faces an outbreak? >> there is really good examples that have been utilized in the private sector and elsewhere, also with front-line workers in hospitals. all of that data and all that information and all of those examples can be referenced -- >> but i'm not here -- do you have a plan? -- schools should do what is right on the ground at that time for their students and for their situation. there is no one uniform approach that we can take or should take

nationwide. >> but you are arguing over and over again they should handle this on a local level, but at the same time, as the secretary of education, you are trying to push them to do a one-size-fits-all approach, which is go back and reopen schools. you can't have it both ways. >> i am urging all schools to be -- to open and be providing their students a full-time education. amy: democratic congresswoman ayanna pressley of massachusetts tweeted in response to devos -- "you have no plan. i wouldn't trust you to care e r a house plant let alone my child." this comes as the national education association and american federation of teachers are calling on congress for more funds to help schools to purchase personal protective equipment, as well as new ventilation systems and cleaning equipment. a new study from the kaiser family foundation finds that nearly 1.5 million teachers are at risk of serious illness if infected with covid-19.

in arizona teachers who shared a , three summer classroom at a school all contracted coronavirus last month, and one one of them, kimberley chavez lopez byrd, died last month at the age of 61. last week, president trump lashed out at the centers for disease control and prevention, saying the cdc's guidelines on safely reopening schools was "very tough and expensive." hours later, the cdc announced it would revise its guidelines, which call for staggered scheduling, new seating arrangements to encourage social distancing, the use of face coverings, and the closing of communal spaces. prpres. trump: we hope most schools are gogoing to be opepe. we don't want people to make political statements or do it for political reasons. will bebe good fofor the politically, so the key to schools close.e. no way. we will keep t the pressure e on govevernors and d everyoyone el get theme schools, to

open. itit is very imporortant for our country, very imporortant for te well-b-being of the student a ad the parents. so we're going to be putting a lot t of pressure on openen your schools s in the fall. amy: for more on a all of this,e are joined by dr. leana a wen, emergegency physysician anand pc health p professoror at geororge wawashington universrsity. she preveviously s served asas baltimore's health commissioion. she is a also a cocontbutiting columnist for "the washington post." her recent piece is headlined, "if trump wants to reopen schools, here's what his administration needs to do." welcome back to democracy now! what does trump have to do? what is the trump administration not doing as it demands all schools reopen and they will cut federal funding for public schools if they don't? >> well, this is the thing. i agree and i thinink every americican agrees with thehe gof reopening schools. we would agreeee with ththe goaf reopening ththe economy. but the key is we need to be doing this safely. we have alreadady seenen what happens when we use shortcuts.

and go against public health guididelines a and reopening. we are seeing these massive susues occurringng in multiple parts of the country. frankly, it is very strange when you hear t that, well, we cannot meet these guidelines that are evidenced-based. so the answers to change the guidelines. that is not right.t. it s should be the opposite. if we e are unable to get t the guididelines for safe reopening, we need to putut in the hard wok so that we can a actually meet thesese guidelines and ensure ee safety of our r students and teachers and staff and their families, not to go back and change thehe guideliness. it is to do the workrk. do your point, the singlgle most importanant thing that we can do right nowow in ordeder to ensure safe reopepening schools in the fall is to reduce the levevel of coronavirus inin the comommunit. there is no way yoyou can k keea scschool say from coronavirus if the virus is raging out of control whwhere the school is in thcocommunity. we have m multiple partrts of te country where one in 100 people

have covovid-19. so if you have a school of 1000 people on day one, are goioing o haveve 10 people in ththat s scl have covid and don't knknow they have it. that is outbreaks that will happen on day one. so we as a society need through our priorities. if the priority, if the goal is to reopen schools in the fall, maybe we should keep bars and restaurants and nightclubs closed in the summer. amy: i want to turn to the superintendent of schools for fairfax county in north virginia, one of the largest school districts in the country. the district plan is to have schools returned to school just two days a week in a remote learning the rest of the week. he explained to cnn how schools in the area or r planning to reopen in the fall and was viciously attacked by betsy devos. closely were in a classroom now where we have spaced apartrt des at six feet. we will have ppe for all our teachers and stutudents and we'e

gogoing to have a return to schl and a new normal.. covid does not discriminate based d on wealth oror poverty. covid it's all of us. and the guidedelines for six x t social distancing simply mean that you c can't put every kid back in a school with the existing square footage footprint. it is just that simple. we are t the size of five pentagons commuted another five pentagons of space to be able to safely accccommodate all of the students unfairly expanding -- in fairfax county. wen, the devos attacked him last week, attacked his plan. means tot what it reopen when increasingly tests are not available, as we see in places like texas and arizona, people are waiting 10 hours online to get a test. president trump has signaled he

wants fewer tests because he thinks it makes him look bad. public baseda sane health program where you cannot figure out who is sick, and then people, once again, do not have enough access to personal protecective gear. schoooolo i've spoken to adadministrators a and teachers acacross the c country who arere trtrying their best. they are balancing some incredibly complex factors, including they're trying to follow the cdcdc guidelilines fr physicalal distancing and for p, ventilation. theyey're also tryiying to takeo account the needs of students with special needs who may depend on the school for lunch and maybybe a place for safety,, combined with the real healtlth risks of students and teacherss anand the family members. they are trying their best to stop what the trump administration should be doing is support t them in this, not shame theheor threateten them wh

lots of funding. all of these things like changing bus routes come having schools s be open different hou, spacing out the desks, new equipment -- that will all cost funding. we should be putting in the work and the resources to help schools reopen. you mementioned about testing. i can't believeve it i is now jy anand w ware still l talking a t the need for a national strategy araround testing. whenen we look at otherr countrs that happen successful in suppressing the level of covid-19, they have one thing in common, ththey have e a national coordinated strategy, don't just let different regions and different states and cities figured d out on n their own, 't test dififferent areas,, competg against one another for things like m masks another ppe. i a also cannnnot believe thahae are atat this popoint again -- k in mararch you and i i talked at how doctors and nurses on the front lines don't have enough masks and downs and are begging their friends over social media

in ordrder to try to g get that extraa mask so they don't get infected from their patients. i can't believe we are facing the same situation once again. in this comes from not having a national strategy and also, unfortunately, having this really confused and mixed messaging coming from the white house that instead of using science and evidence to make their decisions, their based on ideology of partisanship. that has politics has no role in a public health response. amy: yeah president trump yesterday for one of the first times wearing a mask in public at walter reed hospital. he said it was appropriate to wear in a hospital, though he did not previously, sort of marching down the hall with a group of military men, and then he is seen talking to some of them with the mask under his nose. mean, it is a strange state of affairs we are in for a lack of better word when we are

trying to command the president or anyone for wearing a mask -- which is something that all public health experts advise, when the evidence is so clear this point, in the middle of the pandemic. that should be a baseline of what we are talking about. talking aut the importance of leadership, go ahead, dr. wenen. >> i think i it is really important that thee president ad all of our e elected leaders m l good public hehealth behavior because like it or not, there arare millions of americans for whom the president is s the most trusted messenger, and he needs to model the behavior that he wants s all americans to have. at this point, that is uniniverl mamask-wearing. that is staying six feet away from others. at this s point, it is our own action that will make a difference in saving lives. amy: i want to go to florida governor ron desantis who said schools must reopen in the fall. florida come the single day

largest spike, larger than the total number of infections in number of countries combined, over 15,000 yesterday. this is the governor. depot, , ifn do home youu canan do walmarart come ifu can do these things, we absolutely can do o these schoo. i want our kids to be able to minimize this education gap that i think has developed. it should not be able issue. it should be based on the facts. if we see this is very low risk and we see -- i think overwhelmingly in every study -- that the schoolkids are not vectors of transmission -- amy: despite the pleading of many, he refuses to impose a lockdown or mask requirement statewide. can you talk about the significance of what is happening in florida and in the world?

the largest a single spike not only undnder f florida, but in e world yestererday. now, wecoununtry right arare in a worse position than e were back in marcrch. and i felt terrible saying it but thisis is the truth.h. in m march, we saw the number of cases skyrocketing but it was focused on what epicenter, the new york area. now we have multiple epicenteres of outbreaks - -- florida, texa, california, nowow the carolinas, tennessee, alabama, georgia. there are many areas raging out of control. and unlike in n march, we don'tt haveve a shelter-in-placace ord. we have no political -- for anything even approaching come even requesting people to stay at homome, avoiding g indoor gaththerings while we e having everyone require masks. iear at this popoint, we are not even seeing the peak of this epidemic. and we have a lot more pain and suffering and death coming our way. against this backdrop p we are sickneness and goverernors and elected officials ask for

schools to reopen. i think they're using faulty arguments in so doing. the evidence is still out. we don't know the full evidence about whether children can be just as s effective vectors for tranansmission as adults. we do know children tend to get much less sick, although, some to get there is an some children do die. the studies that are currently being done, we're looking at examples of otother counies.s. other countrtries have beenn abe to successfully reopen schoolsls but herere is why. ththey have been able to crush e curve.e. they did notot just bend the curve, they crushed it. they reduce the l level of infection n virtually zero and t the same time have a national stratetegy andnd clear communication. yes, they have been able to reopen schools safely, although even in other r countries, there have been outbtbreaks around schools, too. but the single most important thing that we can do in order to reopen s schools in the fall is suppressed the level of vivirus right now inin the summemer. afraid that t we are not d doing

that consistently across thehe country byby a long stretch. amy: dr. leana wen, the prpresident re-tweeting the forr host of "love connection" today, saying the cdc is lying in the white house putting out bullet points of opposition r researchn dr. anthony fauci? public health dependsds on publblic trust. anand everyonone from our eleled leaders to community leaders to everyone s should be doing their best in order to improveve that public trust. and the p public trust alalso depends on annoying that everyone has your best interest at heart. that therees tragic is any undermining of dr. fauci or our other public health expertrts. they are some of the b best in e country, some e of the best in e world. what i want more thahan anything is to hear from dr. fauci.i.

i w want to hear from the cdc every day. imagine how amazing would bebe r ththe country, for our m moraled our understanding, if we had daily y briengngs by pupublic hh exexperts. after all, this is a public health crisis that s should be d by public healalth experts. we neeeed to hear their voices every day.y. i want to hear dr. fafai talking about the o outbreak.k. i want to hear about the lateset research that americica should e doining. i want to heaear them tatalking about scschool guidelines s andt hearing from political offfficis pontificate e about when schools should o open. i wantnt to hearar the evividenn the scscience. that is what should be happening. amy: dr. wen, you are the mother of two, nonot quite old of to be politicalals, but would you sesend them? >> there somome parts of the country where the e virus is currently der controrol. it would also o depend on the healthth and thehe risk factorsf my children and everybody else

in immediaiate family as welell. it i is not a blanket one-size-fits-all answer. i agree with that, but w we need to have basic guidadance and met the scscience and evidence-based guidelines for whehen it is safe in orderer to protect ourr chiln as w well as our students were s well as our teachers and staff.. my mother wawas a long time i is angeles. she h has cancer and was undergrgoing chemothererapy for eight years s while she was a teacher, while she taught full-time. i know if she were alive now, she would have wawanted more thn ananything to be bacack in schol with her kids but we also have an obligation as a society t to protect thee health of our teteachers, too. amy: ♪ [music break] , thank you for being with us emergency , physician and public health professor at george washington university. she previously served as baltimore's health commissioner. we wilill link to her piece headlined "if trump wants to reopen schchools, here's what hs administration needs to do." when we come back, we go to bloomington indiana to s speak with an african-american member

of the human rights commission of monroe county. hehe described surviving in attempted lynching o on independencece day weekend. has anyoyone been arrested? stayay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "it's the hard-knock life" from "andy." we go o now to indiana, where authorities are e investigatinga violent, racist attack on a african-american man that took place over july 4 weekend that wawas caught o on film.. but more than a week later, no arrests have been n made in response to the incident. a warning to our viewers, his story contains disturbingg images. vauhxx booker was at lake monroe, near bloomington, indiana, with friends on july 4 when five white men pinned him to a tree, beat him and threatened to lynch him. booker, a member of the monroe county human rights commission in bloomington.

he says he was able to get out of the mob's hands after passers-by intervened to get the attackers off of him. last week, he held a news conference with his attorney, local elected officials, and two of the white witnesses who intervened on his behalf during the attempted lynching. this is a reporter questioning one of those witnesses, steven cox. >> has said multiple times yesterday that when there were holding him down, calling for a nonoose, threatening to haharm , he truly t thought they were gog to kill him. and al qaeda, able to seee alllf the moving parts, didid you also think it was a possibility that he might -- >> when he sasaid, you can go bt leave the boy here. the white people could go, but wanted us to leave him there and to do what they wanted to with him. i don't think anybody could do that in good conscious -- i'm not a fighter so i'mm like -- bt i would not leaeave. but it was scary. one of thehe scariest things i'e ever seen. amamy: and t this is a reporter questioning another white witness brennan golightly.

the otherr opinion, people that were there as well as yourself them have e their phones out, there wiwith vauhxx. if you are not there, do you think the situation would have ended differently? >>. differently. i feel it was me or anyone of our other campers, that would not have happened. that is my personal feeling of the situation. i do think because of the color of vauhxx's skin, this happened to him. amy: the fbi is investigating the encounter as a potential hate crime. bloomington mayor john hamilton has condemned the incident in a statement. but vauhxx booker is now calling on u.s. district of southern indiana to convene a grand jury to take up the case. vauhxx booker joins us now from bloomington. welcome to democracy now! i'm so sorry to hear about what happened to yoyou. can you describe what -- it was july 4 4? >> it wasas july 4. the nation's independence day. i was simply trying to gather with a group of friends to watch

-- watched into the indiana state forest? friend and d i were going to go meet a grououp of others.. on our way inn, we passed by man whwho was wearing an oversized camping hat with the cononfedere flag on it. .. were cordial enougugh continued toward the site.e. a moment later, he pursrsued usn an atv, told u us we were on private property.. knew we were not on private property, but rather than have some type of confrontation, we apologized and continued to our site and spoke to the organizer. we did not know we would escalate later. amy: so you went to your

campsite and what to theheerson whwho run the campsite tell yo >> he informrmed us this judgmet actually wasn't property ownere, that h he knew the property own. aheadhere, we just went and advise the rest of our group that they should take the public access way o of the beach soso e would not be any d dispute at a. shortly later, a group joined and they had informed us these gentlemen had set up sort of a barricade, a blockade on the beach using their boat and some atv's. as they were coming in, they had white power and other phrases chained to debt them. it was all very disturbing. happened.explain what explain when they actually physicalally attacked you, vauh. >> a friend and i wewent down no see if we could just talk too some of these folks and buiuilda

repoport and be able to reason.. the conversatition was going we. then this gentleman that was -- with the confederatete flag joid and quickly became belligerent. we simply walked away. a few moments later as we were walking away, i heard footsteps quickly approaching. this man came at me and swung his fist at me. another gentleman came. i was on the ground with them. a third gentleman came. we tussled for a moment. two were men came. from there, they were able to pin and drag my body to this tree. put their body weight on me. as several of ththe folks ststad kickining and punching me, there was a moment where one of ththee gentlemen jumps on my neck with both of his feet and i can feel his full body weight impact me.

it was scary. they were literally -- in the video, could hear one of the german refer -- german refer to me as nappy-headed. he was using my head as leverage to strike me in the back of his head as his friends held me down. happened?hehen what >> one of the men for space daughters comes out. they tell her to go away. more people are the dadaughter screaming because we were still close to the roadside and people were passing through. started coming to my defense. they yelled at the man to let me go. as them andrward

push them away. there is a moment where i hear a lady yell out "don't kill him." it is a moment you could usually hear your own death being narrated in front of you. you have to be aware of george floyd and how many other black thosen history have heard execution spoken before them in real time. i cried outf when "i can't breathe" with the weight of these men on top of me, i just could not say the words. stop folks continued to being nearly bystanders as we've seen in so many videos and actively engaged in resist and they're finally able to pull me

from under these men. then they used themselves as sort of a human shield to make sure as these men pursued us, that i was still safe. amy: did you hear one of the men on top of you talk about getting a noose as they piled on top of you with history? >> absolutely. there is a white where this gegentleman,n, as a command, he- told a friend to get a noose, not a robe, but t to get a noose asas if it is the firirst term o come into his mind. hear, an odd ththing to rarather that even "get a rope s quote ththat " " noose" was the first thing to come into his mind. amy: how did the police and upcoming? did d you and your party call te police? that i had called the

authoritieies. i am notot sure if other folks d already y called as well. r resourcesnt of respononded because it is a stae park. took about 40 minutes t to get there.e. before they came t to see if any of us were injured, they went and spoke to these m men that hd attacked us first. then about 20 minutes later, they came e to u us. they did not seem veryry inteterested i in actually doinn investigigation. whiten't until the bystanders that t had stayed on the beach with m me just bececae fefearfully passssionate and objecting to be being g treated this way andnd feeling like thee was s a miscarriagage of justice thatat these offfficers went bak anangot these e individuduals n. then they came and took some photographs of my injuries. they specifically asked me if i needed an ambulance.

amy:y: you had patches of your hairir pulled out? >> i did have patatches of hairr missing. there was s a moment when a cocommanding officer shohowed ud hehe instantly starts lecturinge on property rights. one of thehe thingngs that i don our community, i cheer affofordable housing. i have been there for a few years so i amm intntimately equd with property rights in our county. i pupulled up the cocounty righs come the land rights in my phone in real time to shohow this commanding officer that this land was not actually these landnd as he was climbing. he conontinued to britney. i explained hohow they y try to lynch me.e. he said, well, i couould arrest them butut then they could say, what you mean, w we can't defend our property?? notioionxated on this thatat somehow even if f i had n on private p property -- which

wasn't -- that superseded the importance of my life. amy: so they were not arrested for assault. and you made it out of the forest. can you talklk about w what hapd after this? you went to the hospitital? >> the following day, i had symptomsms of a concncussion. i i went to the e emergency roo. i i was e examined by a physisi. he was enraged.. she called thehe department t of natural resourcrces and demandea and add ao the hospital medical report into my incident report. she was very upset with the offificers. shshe indicated they should have offered me medical treatment a t the time. that they did not know whether or not i had injuries because they were not medical profofessionals. it was a very diststurbing

situation and it felelt likeke t only was i tech inin the moment, bubut i continueded to be attacd bby the events that followeded. i honestly felt like those ofofficers when they s showed un the moment would have rather the men whothan attacked me. amy: so explain what has happened at this point. it is now a week later. have the police arrested these men? have they been identified? is thehe fbi involved? >> the fbi is s actively ininvestigating. these men remain loose in n our community, free to do whatever harm they mimight do to whomemer they might finind. i feel likike the depapartment f natural resources is dragging their feet on the investigation. it has been overer a week. going back and looking at the did nothe night -- they

arrest these men who attacked me, but they arrested some folks who were skinny-dipping nearby. it just seems like my life was not a priority to them at any time. at this point, i'm not sure that we can find justice in the system, so we have asked for the federal government to step in. amy: and what are you demanding of the federal government? interestingly, indiana vice president pence's statete. >> mike pence and i are f from e sasame smamall town i in columb, indidiana. i grew w up interacting with him in various ways throughout my lifefe and our famamilies were acquainted. ththe irony is notot lost on me. but the e federal government has the capability to not only investigate this incident, indiana a has seeeen a whole stg assaultlts and violent

encounters with police. it is t time for the federal government with the resources to step in and help the people e of our state. amy: what is the prosecutor's name? what about a grand jury? >> the prosecutor's name is erika oliphant. aware o of each other. we have interacted. i hosted a a panel on the e topf racial justice. i endorsed her myself. it is painfuful in a way that i can't describe. over a week later,r, and still o juststice. as far as a granand jury goes, e grand jury is s the citizens

actiting to o indict someone. in indiana, basically two waways you can be arrested. you cacan have a probable cause issued b by an officer that coud have already beeeen done, or you can call a a grand jury and ask for the citizens to find probable cause to arrest. not d do a lot of grand jury''s. i think it h has been 40 or 50 years in our county since we had one. apparently, it s seems we need o do it again. amy: your final comment latinx , and what you think your parents would sasay? inin the meaning of your n name? >> my name vauhxx, let for "v"voice." there has never been a time that my parents haven't told me to speak up for my rights. my late mother encouraged me to be vocalal and y you stand up fr

othehers when i i saw folks put down. i think what is happening here is happening throughout the nation, where all political discordrd, where prproperty rights are elevated over t the lives of f black peo. and it isis time for our natitio demand a change. amy: vauhxhxx booker,, thank you for being with us. we will continue to follolow upn your case. vauhxx b booker, human rights commissioner for mononroe county inin indiana. also chairs the affordable housing commission. describing to u in a a attempted lynching. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "come meh way" by sudan archives. thisis is democracy now!,, democrcracynow.org, the e quarae report. i'm amy goodman. nearly two months after the police killing of george floyd in minneapolis sparked an international uprising, black lives matter protests continue putting pressure in the streets, city halls and their communities with demands to defund the police and address systemic racism. we look at an under-reported but critical part of the fight against police brutality -- the devastating impact police violence has on people with

disabilities, especially black disabled people. no u.s. federal agency officially tracks the number of disabled americans who are killed by the police. but according to at least one study, up to one half of people killed by law enforcement in the u.s. have a disability. haben girma, a disability rights lawyer and the first deafblind graduate of harvard law school, recently tweeted about police encounters witith disablbled pe. she wrote -- for more, we are joined by two guests. in berkeley, california, we're joined by leroy moore, a black disabled activist and artist, founder of the krip-hop nanation and co-fouounder of poor magazi. leroy has cerebral palsy. anand in oaklaland lisa "tiny" y , garcia joins us. co-founder of poor magazine, and an activist and writer. welcome to demococracy now! leroy,y, i assume you heard a little bit off what we jusust

broaoadcast, the story of an attempted lynching of an africacan-american man in india. we are talking today about two pandemics, one is the pandemic of police brutality and then around covid-19 and the disabled. but what do you want people to understand about the disisabled when it comes to police violence? >> i want them to understand that people e with disabilities have always been attacked by police. people with h disabilities and own people have our answers, o our own answers i iso really get rid of f police and really know our neighbor and "poor magazine" as a workshop on never calling police. that is a policy we live by for almost 20 years. ,my: lisa "tiny" gray-garcia

you have a guide in "poor magagazine" called "how to not call the police ever." explain what it says. >> thank you for having us on, but i also want to thank my mama , disabled house list woman t tt was barelely alive in the occupd lands and all the p poor people who are rarely, if ever, seen. as far as the ide, the r reality is, house list people, poor folks, indigenous people on this land, we have never been safe. aere's a false sense and false notion of safety that is kept in place by people with guns and weaponry. pepeople are killed d all the t, police -- - a man a help call.ving

a people to understand is s thoe three numbers, 911, never mean that w we are going to o be saf. one of the things we try to teach people is hohow to unlink their r minds from the lie of safety in regards to police but actualally to teach people, firt of all, the bloody genocidal history of pulleys, of the killing of indigenous peoples of this land so they could occupy this land, the killing o of enslaved people, and then out 21st the killing o of poor peop, black and brown people, andnd housuse-less people all the time under the guise of i just wanand to see if they were ok, i dono't know why thihis black person isn the park with me. you know, it is not just c butlt of the karenens,

the cult of the caring. they're very real r reasons that peopople feel afraid, and we are not disrespecting that at all. but we have actually lived this as house-less and disabled and black and indigenonous people fr 21 years because we know those calls end with the arrest and incarceration of us. amy: let me bring leroy moore back in.n. can yoyou talk about the linknkf disability justitice and raciail justice? came outlity justice and came up with this and it really says the civil rights -- for people of color, transgender. , words wee courtroom

live by. people, coloreded disabled, disabled people that are transgendeder, poor, have ee answers and we live by our lives . we fight r racism, sexisism, ag. againin, -- amy: tiny, if you could talk about the poor people's survivil guide through covid-19 and the virus of povoverty that the twof you edited togetether? occupied people, so many more, one of the reasons i bring that up as we start all of our media come on our poor people medidia come all of our land-use obobjects by askingg permission first of the folks who were

additionally removed this land. so the poor people's guide is because as popoor folksks, how o you shelter in place when you don't have a place? how do you actually even get safe -- a shout out to driver plaza, an small arein northth oakland that is currently having their hand washing station taken because a pile of tricksters, as i call them, and ginger fires don't want to see poor people, black people, housese-less i in their neighbhborhood. what we say is there is a pandemic called poverty that was here long before covid-1-19 in to occupation. we put the survival guguide outo actually give resources to house-less people on the

streets. amy: we are going to link to that. i want to thank lisa "tiny" gray-garcia, co-founder with magazine", of "poor leroy moore from krip-hop.

>> 30 years ago, the people of china dared to hope for a democratic future. >> millions of chinese for the first time, maybe ththe last ti in their lifife, tasted freedomn he air r of beijing. [gunfire] >> but on the night of june