09/01/20 09/01/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> what prpresident trump p is demanding is that we'll cut any bureaucratic red tape out of the way because he is demanding t tt we get therapies and vaccines to the e american people e soon asy memeet fda s safety and efficacd regulatory standards. amy: as the number of confirmed covi19 caseses in the unitited states tops 6 millioion, presidt trump pressurures the fda to

approve emergency use for a covid-19 vaccine before safety trials are complete. his coronavirus task force has made key decisions whilele top public healtlth expert dr.r. any faucuci w was in surgery.y. now another of trump's top medical advisors with no expertise in infectious disease or epidemiology, is pushing a controversial herd immunity strategy. we will speak with "washington post" health reporter yasmeen abutaleb as well as epidemiologist gregg gonsalves. then as president trump heads to kenosha, the handling of the investigation into the police shooting of jacob blake has brought new scrutiny to the case of black teenager chrystul kizer, who faces charges of killing her alleged sex trafficker, a white man. kenosha police knew the man had a history of sexually abusing underage black girls, but he remained free. a key figure in the case is kenosha county district attorney michael graveley, the prosecutor

in jacobob blake's shooting. then hurriricane laura left thousands withthout power in louisiana, includingng hundredes heheld in immigration jails who are protesting their conditions. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. president trump is headed to kenosha, wisconsin today about the objections of the governor, lieutenant governor, and kenosha mayor and as protests over police violence and white supremacy continue. trump has refused to condemn either the police shooting of

jacob blake or the white 17-year-old militia member who last week killed two protesters. he instead defended the teen, kyle rittenhouse, who has been charged with first degree homicide. pres. trump: he was trying to get away from them, i guess. it looks like. and he fell. and then they very violently attacked him. and it was something that we are looking at right now and it is under investigation, but i guess he was in very big trouble. he probably would have been killed. amy: the video in fact appears to show a group attempting to disarm rittenhouse after he had already lethally shot the first protester. inin a fox news intervrview mon, trump again defended police officers who killed. pres. trump: they took. just like an aunt golf tournament, they miss a -- close you not comparing it to golf. pres. trump: i'm saying people choked. amy: even fox news host laura ingraham interrupts him during his sports analogy.

rusten sheskey, a white police officer, shot jacob blake seven times in the back at point blank range as he was walking away from him. trump is not planning to meet with jacob blake's family in kenosha. he has not spoken to them on the phone after refusing to do so with their legal counsel present. blake's father said he is not interested in playing politics with his son's life. democraticic presidedential nome joe biden gave a spepeech in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, monday, blaming trump for the recent violence. >> this president long ago forfeited any more leadership in this country. he can't stop the violence because for years he has fallen in it. he may believe mouthing the words law and order makes him strong, but his failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia and in this country shows how weak he is. amy: joe biden has come under attack from some progressives

for the same speech condemning what he described rioting and looting by anti-police brutality protesters. professor aused him of "walking into trump's trap." abides remarks, for trump defended a pro-trump rally in portland, oregon, in which people fired paintball guns from cars and trucks. he also tweeted a tribute to the man who was killed over the weekend during clashes in portland who is believed to be associated with the far-right group patriot prayer. "rest in peace, jay!" trump tweeted. trump has repeatedly refused to acknowledge black victims of police violence. in other news about joe biden, a group of 1 145 organizations hae released a letter caining on t prpresidential candate to o ban fossilil fuel interests from his campaign a and administration. the letter reads -- "nearly half of americans now breathe polluted air, the vast majority of which comes from burning fossil fuels. to advance environmental justice, you must stand up to

fossil fuel ceo's, stop the expansion of oil, gas and coal production, and rapidly transition us away from fossil fuels." during his speech in pennsylvania, biden said he will not ban frackining. in louisville, kentucky, prosecutors s reportedly offered brbreonna taylor's exex-boyfriea plea deal if he named taylor as a member of an alleged organized crime syndicate in return for leniency on drug charges. jamarcus glover turned down n te plea agreement. prosecutors on monday denied naming breonna taylor as a co-defendant in glover's case and argued a document leaked on social media was just a draft as part of early negotiations. an attorney for taylor's family who posted the plea deal on facebook said this was a desperate attempt prosecutors to justify the police killing of taylor. protests have been ongoing to demand justice for breonna taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician who was fatally shot by louisville police in her own home in march. the officers involved in her killing have not been charged.

as u.s. covid-19 cases sailed past 183,000 monday, the newest member of president trump's coronavirus task force is reportedly pushing for the u.s. to adodopt a herd immunity approach to tackling the virus -- a strategy which has beenen widedely condemned by health experts both in the u.s. and around the world. scott atlas, a neuro-radiologist with no expertise in infectious diseases, is reportedly -- the world health organizationn meanwhile e reiterateded mondays recommendadation for countries o suppress t transmissions b befoe further opening up. pretendtry can just the pandemic is over. the reality that this coronavirus spreads easily, it can be fatal to people of all ages, and most people remain susceptible. amy: politico is reporting the

department of health and human services is bidding out a contract worth over $250 million to a pr firm in an effort to "defeat despair and inspire hope" about the pandemic in the run-up to the elections.s. no mention of pushing masks or social distancing. in immigration news related to the pandemic, buzzfeed news is reporting a 50-year-old honduran man has died of covid-19 after being jailed at the joe corley processing center in conroe, texas. more than 50 immigrants have tested positive at the jail since the pandemic began, and over 5300 have tested positive across all ice -- or immigrant and customs enforcement -- jails. 19 immigrants have died in ice -- meanwhile, in california, governor gavin newsom has handed over two people -- a domestic violence survivor from belize and a vietnamese refugee -- to ice, even as scores of immigration advocates, public health experts and state legislators have repeatedly urged the governor to stop the transfer of californians to the federal agency amid the

heightened risks posed by the pandemic. in gaza, hamas says it has reached a deal to end the latett conflict with israel. the israeli army has been bombing gaza since early august, which it says is in response to fire balloonons, an airborne incendiary device, launched from the gaza strip. israel has also banned palestinian fishermen from accessing the sea, even as people in gaza are suffering the dual threats posed by mounting coronavirus cases and the ongoing israeli blockade. in turkey, humuman rights lawyer ebru timtik has died after holding a seven-month hunger strike from behind bars demanding a fair trial for herself and 17 other colleagues. timtik was sentenced to over 13 years in prison on a terrorism conviction last year and accused of links to the outlawed revolutionary people's liberation party-front. she and a colleague started a hunger strike in february protesting unfair trial proceedings. her case was under review by an appeals court. in environonmental news, thehe p

administration has rolled back obama-era regulations that protect waterways near coal-fired power plants from being flooded with toxic coal ash. earthjustice said in a statement monday -- "the trump administration is once again jeopardizing people's health to give coal power industry lobbyists what they want. the trump administration's rollback will be responsible for hundreds of thousands of pounds of pollutants contaminating sources of drinking water, lakes, rivers, and streams every year." primaries are taking place in massachusetts today. in the senate, incumbent ed markey is hoping to stave off a challenge by congressmember joe kennedy iii. markey enjoys the support of high-profile progressive democrats, including congressmember alexandria ocasio-cortez, with whom he introduced the green new deal resolution last year. meanwhile, insurgent progressive candidate alex morse is looking to pull off an upset against richard neal, 16-term incumbent and chair of the ways and means committee.

morse, the openly gay mayor of holyoke, supports medicare for all and a green new deal. the house oversight committee says it will subpoena postmaster general louis dejoy, a major trump donor, this week for withholding documents from congress. democrats are seeking answers as to why recent changes were made to the postal service that have caused widespread delays in the run-up to the november election, as a record number of people prepare to vote by mail. a federal appeals court denied the justice department's effort to end former national security adviser michael flynn's case on monday. attorney general william barr has been pushing to drop charges against flynn, even though he twice pleaded guilty to lying under oath to the fbi. meanwhile, in a win for trump, a federaral appeals court ruled te house judiciary committee does not haveve the authorityty to se trump's former white house counsel don mcgahn for refusing to testify.

house democrats were hoping to compel mcgahn to testify about possible obstruction of justice in the mueller i investitigatio. and in sports news, tennis champion naomi osaka walked onto the court of her first-round match at the u.s. open monday wearing a face mask bearing the name of breonna taylor. osaka, whose father is haitian, recently withdrew from her matches at the western & southern open to protest against racism. the breonna taylor mask is one of seven face coverings, each one honoring a different person that osaka brought with her to the u.s. open -- it takes seven wins to claim victory at the tournament. osaka said -- "it's quite sad that seven masks isn't enough for the amount of names, so hopefully i'll get to the finals so you can see all of them." and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine reportrt. i am amy goodman in new york, joined by my cohost juan

gonzalez from his home in new jersey. juan: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from araround the couountry and aroud the world. amy: the number of confirmed covid-19 cases in the united states hasas topped 6 million, with a death toll of over 183,000. more than a million n ople tested positive over the past three weeks in the united states and over 4000 americans died of covid 19 just during last week's republican national convention alone. that is more than the tol number opepeopleilleled the 11 a attks. is comom as the food and drug adadminiratitionas appppved the use r remdevir r foalll patitsts hostalilizewith covi1919 deste t theack ofof published ieientif supuppo. meanwhil t the f hasas ousted its top okokeswon anand pr consulta j just ys a afterda commsioner sphen hah apogized f overstang the potive rests of usg blood

asma as a treatmt t for covid-19 under ormous pressurfrom esident trump, whoalled the fda part of the deep state, the fda recently gave emergency-use authorization for the plasma treatment. the fda chief is now admitting the agency may also consider emergency use approval for a covid-19 vaccine before phase 3 trials are complete. meanwhile,e, the centers for disease control and prevention has quietly dropped its recommendation that people quarantine for 14 days after traveling from an area with a high rate of infection. even though public health experts say the moves will undermine efforts to control the spread of the disease. the decision was reportedly made by the white house coronavirus task force while top public health expert dr. anthony fauci was undergoing surgery and recovering. the changes were backed by the task force's newest member, dr. scott atlas -- a fox news contributor and neuro-radiologist from

stanford's conservative hoover institution with no expertise in epidemiology or infectious diseases. atlas the focus of a damning new report by "the washingn post" headlined "new trump pandemic adviser pushes controversial 'herd immunity' strategy, worrying public health officials." for more, we're joined by one of the lead authors, yasmeen abutaleb, national health reporter foror "the e washingtgn post." also with us is professor gregg gonsalves, assistant professor in epidemiology of microbial diseases at yale school of public health and co-director of the global health justice partnership. we welcome you both to democracy now! yes mean, layout what you found about the president's new addition to the coronavirus task force, who he recently introduced. tell us about dr. scocott atlass anand what he is pushing. >> the president announced earlier i in august that scott

atlas is joining as a pandemic adviser. we know w he meets with the president must t every day. the administration brought upon -- himim on becauause trumpmp hd enuragaged his advisisors to lok for a doctor or some sort ofof medical advisor with h ivy leage or top universrsity creredentias also basically would argue whaht he wanted to hear ababout how we ndememic was going, that the country should reopen. basically take the opposite route of dr. . birx a and dr. fi chchief and have said ththe panc is a a threat in every part of e coununtry. there urged partial lockdowns in areas expensingng surges and encouraged s state mask mandata. those are not thihings the president really wants to hear. scott atlalas is more in line wh what the president once to do and wants to hear on the pandemic so he has said things kids don't get covid. he said schools should reopen no

matter what. thatat college spoports should resume. he is pushing hihis herd immuniy strategy which says s you let te coronavirus spread through most of the population and you prototect the e most vulnerable populationss -- nursing homes, prisons, tightly congregated places. that iss practicable -- that is imprpractical.l. stillronavirus is evolving. there plenty of yououng, healthy people that coronavirus that die order have long-term applications. on most every health expert would very much argue against the strategy sing was dangerous d some of the dangers could even be unknown. newsuring the conference come he was asked about his report. >> 25 plus percent of our young adults, 18 to 25, have

contemplated suicide in the past 30 days. this is really got to end. we know the president has a strategic and appropriate policy, which is protecting the vulnerable. we know who is at risk here. it is not everybody. it is not about all the cases. it is about saving lives by protecting the vulnerable, preventing hospital overcrowding -- which we are really doing well -- and by opening the economy, opening the schoolsls. because american lives are being destroyed. , if youmeen abutaleb could respond? that was him speaking on fox news. >> is essentially advocating herd immunity strategy, s saying it not explicitly, but saying plenty of p people arare not vulnerable to this, just protect the momost vulnerarable -- thee elderly, people wiwith underlyig health conditions. so he is not sayaying it supposedly, but those are the tenetsts of the e strategy thatt is not a big deaeal if it gets

into the general population, and he sort of wanted to make sure the most vulnerable e are protected. he also talked a about preventig hospital overcrowding, but that is difficult to do ifif you're letting the virus spread unchecked through the population. , theeyasmeen abutaleleb issue here of herd immmmunity. sweden is the bibiggest example that has held up in terms of deliberate policy of a governmement to develolop herd immunity. could d u talk aboutut your understandnding of how harmful t could be in the u.s. givenhe high p percentage of americans o have chronic conditions, whether it is asthma, diabetes, obebesiy come and so o forth? >> right. i think one of the important things is swsweden has about a 0 million person population inin e u.s. is 330 million people. the u.s. has extraordinarily high rates of underlying health conditions that are known risk factors for coronavirus, so like

you laid out, obesity, heart disease, diabetes -- all of these make people much more vulnerable for severe effects of coronavirus are more susceptible to d dying from the disesease. this idea that you can separate the vulnerable from the healthy is just impractical. someone with diabetes this under the same household was someone who was otherwise healthy, not every vulnerarable persrson livn a nursing home. --gg gonsalalves amy: juan: i in terms of the cdc recommendation recently that the change against quarantining for 14 days, if you come from an area that has a high incidence rarate of covid-19? changedthe cdc c last weeeek its testing guidance to say asymptomatic people who come in contact with a confirmed infection don't necessarily need to get tested. we lay out in the article while

the e white house e has not fory embraced this strategy, there are policies that start to fall in line withth the tenets of hed immunity strategy. unlikeke countries that are rampmping up testiting and contt tracing and haveve been fofor se time, the e lessons to be moving in t the direcection of testing fewer pepeople. this lastt week sasaying you dot necessarilily need to test asymptomatic people who came into contact with a confirmed infection, the cdc estimates up to 40% of cases are asasymptomatic. we know the surge we saw in the country was lalargely dririven y young healthy people a symptomatically spreading the disease. we also laid outut they invokoke defefense productionon act to rp up tests to nursing homes but you have not seen them ramp up testing and other parts of the country, whether for schools, businesses, just the general population. you already see the strategy of let aggressively test these vulnerable populations that we know are most at risk and not worrrry as much about the more

general populationon. at a roundtable yesterday that at, said youngs ou healthy people don't need to get tested. amy: i want to go to scott atlas the responding to your report. >> i was shocked to see the story because they never asked me for a a comment, first of al. then is news, opinion, and overt lie. that was never a strategy that was advocated by me and the administration. thee president does not have a strategy like that. i have never advocated that strategy. "thewhole discussssion in washington post" was sort of irresponsible to write an article like t that. amy: can you respond, yasmeen abutaleb? did you reach out to scott atlas? >> we didid and we updated the artiticle that we reacached outo the white house threeee differet times to give him a chance to comment, ask for an interview. i think was augugust 21, 28, 29, both your r email and phone.

there was plentyty of time and plenty of opportununity to commenent. we know from several sources he is p pushing t the strategy andf youu look at the public statement, he advovocated a herd immunity strategy would in an apappearance on fox x we also od in t the article at an event in florida he wasas advocating tens of herd immunity strategy. there was plenty of time to commenent. he did comment after the fact. it is just not true we did not reach out. i think the policies a and his public position speak for themselves. amy: i want to bring gregg gonsalves into this conversation with the yale school of public health. professor, if you can respond to this issue of herd immunity and then go on to all the messages that are being changed right now, particularly talk about has just floated, the idea that the vaccine phase

three trtrial will not be done beforere they move aheaead with making it available to the public. what is happening here? >> a couple of things on herd immunity. en's article deserves a kilis her. it was thoroughly document it. any attempt to suggest thehere s any kind of falsity is not truth was that many people in t the publicic health commununity have watch thisis with horror. this implicit herd immunity strategy down thing asymptomatic testing, how the withdrawal of the 1414 day quarantine period r people moving from one part of the country to another. the amountility too get of ppe we need for health-care workers, let alone teachers and others who will l be in high high-frequency interactions with people. herd immunity is a policy of the

united states and i think they realize [indiscernible] duck and >>like a like a duck, it is a duck. many oftirely risky f for the rereasons you mentioned, one is because we have many more people with underlying ednditions in the unit states. we won't even be able to deal the impact of the death by the cocoinuation o of the white houe strarategy. hn at the fda, now with the p plasma emergency use authorization, is to do the bidding of the white house based on scanty data about treatments for coronavirus. the danger about the vaccine eua before phase three trial results are out is much more dire.

we give treatments to the sick. in this case, many people were hospitalized. vaccines go to millions of people. we depend on them to be effective so people don't get the wrong impression about what they should be doing in terms of social distancing. we depend on them to be safe. a vaccine will be an important long-term way to control the virus, and we need public confnfidence in n vaccines.. craig covid, passive americans don't get vaccicinated with seasonal flu. we have seen outbreaks of other childhdhood diseasases because e have pockekets of people who are skeptics about vaccines. dr. hahn's willingness to play fast and loose with h the dadata when vaccine devevelopers, are terrirified they will get ahead of the data because the president wants octoberg by ththe end of so he can bring it into the electition week with him hoping

for victory. this is threree strikes for the fda.a. hydroxychloroquine, convalescent eua.a, and the vaccine the nih director said today to --p this thing to the cdc listening to the cdc. what are w we going g to do abot the fda? they're not giviving this reliae information about the things we put in our bodies, d drugs and vavaccines commit statatutory mandate andnd they are feelining this right now.. amy: profeor, what about this wholole issue that even c counts that did practice sharp lockdowns early on in the pandemic, like spain, are now saying a second wave of increasing infections? your assessment should be e the right policy here in the united states. >> nobody never said there would

be -- there would not be a second way. this will be a rolling pandemic. spain and italy were later to lock down and some other countries in europe and had very substantial epidemics. we need to scale up tetesting. will diagnose people who are sick in the hospititals, but we need to know where the virus is spreading in the communities. then we need to think about targeted lockdowns s stop if we had done this in march and april, soo longg down as we were supposed to, provide social economic support to peopople god isolated home without economic fears and without social fears and scale upp contact tracing, isolation, we would not be saying, god, shohould i send m y kids to schoolol? or sitting at a university campus, we worried about 200 t o 50500 s students outbreaks s on campus? we can still turn it arounund bt we need to scale up testing of

asymptomatics. getting the third relief bill it of congress does when really provides support to local and state e governments,s, econc [i[indiscernible] the things we've been talking about left and right. scott gottlieb has talked about this explicitly since march. others on the liberal side saying this is not bipartisan -- this is a bipartisan strategy that has been articulated since march and april. the white house keeps turning a blind eye on it adopting conspiracy theories, finding people who will tell them what they want to hear rather than what needs to be done. amy: gregg gonsalves, in a long series of tweets monday, you wrote -- "dr. atlas, a radiologist, has no training or expertise in infectious diseases, but what he does have are the words the president wants to hear -- you can let the virus spread widely throughout the u.s. if you just try to keep the elderly safe, open up everything and let 'er rip."

talk about who scott atlas is and why he now has the ear of the president as dr. fauci is recovering from throat surgery, and what this means at a time, especially the asymptomatic issue -- for so long we've been told people must be tested can spreadmptomatics the covid-19. kids are gathering together all of the country to go to school. this is the point when the testing is becoming more and more difficult to get, and when he is talking abobout opening things up. talklk about who he is.. > look, dr. atlas has medical training. plenty of people have general radical expertise who have been fine public health and agency leaders in the united states. you don't have to be an infectious disease epidemiologist to do the right thing, but you should know when you're getting ahead of your

skilills. so faras' comments are from the mainstream of thinking in public health and clinical health. he could have engaged experts, try to figure out what the consensus view was, what we need to do, and to advise the president in that way. whwhat he e has done insnstead s think about whether p president wants to hear. we are doing great. we don't need to do more tests. economy,en up the schools, universities, and we can sort of get through the epidemic in that way. because of his appearances on fox -- ththat is why he sitting where he is, not because he has expertise. he is not contrarian, he is wrong, foolish, and dangerous. juan: i wanted to ask if you can put yourselves inin the shoes oa political leader in the united

states or some o of these under- other countries t that are dealg with these situations and finding a s small but significat portions of their populations activelyesisting b basic public suggestions or recommendations by the government about how to o prevet the spread of thehe disease. what do you do wiwith these fols that are in germany, for instance, a protest outside the german parliament of right-wing folks who are opposed to the lockdown measures in germanyny? could you tatalk about what you remap - -- recommend polilitical leaders don ththe situatioion? >> first of all, people like angela merkel have been pretty good at t rallyiying their couny to do the right thing around social distatancing aroundnd undederstanding ththe risks prevented -- presenteded by the pandemic. have beenjacininda arderern good about rallying their countries around the united, copper is a response.

of course there will be people whwho don't believeve what theye being told by their government or for some other reason and they don''t t want to compmply h public health recommendations. ,hink back t to vaccicination childhood vaccinations. you have to not shame them and not go after them in that way.. you need to figure out what is going on. builild incentives intnto the sm that helps them get to better place than they were yesterday. i think there's always going to be a minority of people in a given country who are resisting public health orders see public health as an imposition on their liberties. and d even in the u.s., remembe, we do great things this spring. we did beat down the virus in many places because we took care of each other. we stayed at home and social distance. even the president would be loath to admit it. amy: thank you so much, , gregg gonsnsalves, for joining us,

school ofof the yale public health and epidemiologist. and thank you to yasmeen abutaleb, the "washington post" reporter who broke the story on scott atlas, the new advisor to president trump on the coronavirus task force. when we come back, president trump has two kenosha, wisconsin, despite fierce opposition from the wisconsin leadership. we will look at a case that implicates very local authoritieies who will bdedealig wi the jacobob blake case. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "silent all these years" by tori amos. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. president trump heads to kenosha, wisconsin, today despite fierce opposition to his visit and as protests over the police shooting of unarmed black father jacacob blake continue. on monday, trump defended 17 the-old kyle rittenhouse, white militia member who opened fire on black lives matter protesters in kenosha last week, killing two of them. this comes as calls are growing for the kenosha police chief and county sheriff to resign after kenosha police allowed rittenhouse to leave the scene after gunning down the protesters. video shows police officers offering members of the armed white mob water earlier in the night. rittenhouse faces up to life in prison and was charged last week with first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless homicide. well, jacob blake's shooting and

ththe subsequent police behavior in the streets of kenosha have brought renewed scrutiny to another case from 2018, that of black teenager chrystul kizer, who faces charges of killing her alleged sex trafficker, a 34-year-old white man, when she was just 17 years old. court records show the man, randall volar, had a history of sexually abusing underage black girls as young as 12 that was known to the kenosha police, but he remained free for months. in june, 2018, kizer says she shot and killed volar in self-defense after he drugged her and tried to rape her. chrystul kizer was freed from jail on $400,000 bail in june, but is still fighting her case. she faces life in prison. a key figure in this story is kenosha county district attorney michael graveley, the prosecutor in kizer's case who will also decide how to prosecute the officers involved in jacob blake's shooting.

well, for more on this story and the role of kenosha police and prosecutors in it, we go to akron, ohio, where we're joined by "washington post" reporter jessica contrera, who has covered this story extensively. last year she wrote an in-depth piece headlined "he was sexually abusing underage girls. then, police said, one of them killed him." jessica, thank you for joining us. why don't you go back to 2018 and talk about what happened and why chrystul kizer ended up in jail and is facing life in prison. >> thank you for having me. chrystul kizer was 16 years old when she met randy volar. she e was livingng in milwaukeet the time. her family had moved there recently and they were in and out of h homelessness. rate of all our was sexually abusing -- randy volar was sexually a abusing her f for ova year. he filmed it and there is video evidence of him filming sexual

abuse of other underaged like girls. said she018, chrystul went to his house one night because she had had a fight with her boyiend that she was hoping to just find refuge and itit is adult who she had come o trust. what happened was that in the middle of the night, chrystul shot and killed randy volar. she had run a gun just brought a gun wiwith her to the house, she lit the house e on fire and fled in his car. the prosecutors say crystal premeditated the murder, that she intended to go there and they say bececause she was interested in stealing hihis car. she wasul has said thatt

as -- acting in self-defense. basically, chrystul said the center of this case that is everytytng aboutut the sexual trauma that so m many young blak girls go through when they are trafficked and what t can happe. she is n not the first sex trafficking victim to be criminalized for what she says is self-defense, but her case took place in kenosha. theeally says a lot about police force there, the prosecutors there, and she is now out but she is still charged intentionalegree homicide and could face life in prison. , when yououcacaontrera talklk about this isis a lototbt the criminal jusustice systetemn kenosha, we recall that after the shooting o of michael broron

ferguson, it was discovered thtt ththere had been systetematic ae by the police in the black community come almost in terms warrantss todnd basically y raise rerevenue fofe town that were d directeted agat the black commumunity. what havave you found in n your reportining of how kenosha polie have dealt with situations or crimes within -- that affect the black community? >> i can speak to what happened to chrystul specifically. we know that when -- at the time that chrystul was being sexuauay abuseded by randy volar, he was under investigation by the kenoshsha police department. the kenosha police department actually arrested him in february. during the course of that arrest, they raided his home and --nd video evidence that they found video evidence that mrmr. volar was sexually abusing

multiple undnderaged black girl. i did not know hohow all ththese girls were. in their documents, they said they believe some of the g girls appeared to be as young as 12. they also found video evidence said,e had hundreds, they videos of child pornography. but on that very same day, they released randy volar. three months passeded before thy tuturned that evidencece over te district attorney. even once the district attorney had the evidence, 12 days passed before mr. volar was killed andd they no longer could prosesecute the case. reason forwas the the e three-month delay in turng over the evidence to the district attorney? > the kenosha police department would not comment for my story. they still have not provided a reason for that. the kenosha district attotorney said they had assigned a sex

crimes prosecutor to the case and were under continued investigation, trying to figure out things like how old the girls w were and what charges wr available. but we spoke in the course of our reporting to other district attorneys, other prosecutors who have experience with sex crimes who s say this case was -- witho much video evidence is something that should have been handled in a much different w way. amy: you were with chrystul's mother when she opened the boxes of evidence that had been gotten under discovery? is that right, jessica? can you describe what she saw? we're talking about hundreds of pictures and videotapes. that the police had when they releasased him.. >> yes. in the course of our reporting, i tried to get access to the investigative file on mr. volar. the police continued to deny

that request.. but chrystul had access to that information while she was in jail. and because she moved between jail and a prison at the time, the box that the evidence was in was actually mailed to her mother. i was with her mother when she was seeing it for the first time , theartial report investigation into mr. volar. there were a number of pictures that were screenshots from these videos, including a screenshot of her daughter. that police had evidence that her daughter was with this man and that they had this evidence that he was abusing not only her, but multiple girls. it was devastating to watch. i can't describe -- of course her mother was crying and screaming. and her mom was grappling with the fact that if this man had

if he hadted and been held, her daughter would not have done what she did and her daughter would not be facing life in prison. juan: could you talk about the affirmative defense for child sex trafficking victims that chrystul kizer's legal team is attempting to use in this case? >> thank you for so much for asking. inin many states, there are versions of what is called the affirmativee defense for sex trafficking items. inin this case, c chrystull was clearly a sex trafficking victim because she was underage at the time. affirmative defense allows someone to do is point to a crime that theyey commimittedd say that they cocommitted that crime because they were a sex trafficking victim at the time. this is something that is used frequentntly of the country for charges rerelated to prostitutin

or solicitation. it is also sometimes used for things that young women in most cases can be forced into such as robbery or carrying drugugs. it is not anywhere across the country been used in the case of a homicide. defense teamr's says in this particular circumstance, she should be allowed to use the affirmative defense to explain what happened. amy: and graveley. can you talk about the da? that goes to this c case today which we are not asking you to comment on and a jacob blake, but hehe is the da invololved in both cases. >> absbsolutely. michael graveley is the district attorney of kenosha county. case, has been at the center of it from the very beginning. swayed byisted being public opinion in any way, and i think you would be the first to tell you that that even though

there are over 100,000 signatures on a petition for chrystul, even the protesters haveve come to his o office ande come to where he teaches to try to get him to listen, to understand what they see as chrystul as a victim, he has in sayingpersistent he will not be swayed by public opinion. and i think we saw that in his reaction after jacob blake. he got up toto the microrophoned said that a thorough investigation would be conducted , ofofourse, befefore he came eo any decision, and that he would make his decision only on the basis of the results of the investigation. amy: jessica contrera, thank you for being with us, reporter at of growth the washington post." we will link to your piece on

chrystul kizer case. that piece is headlined "he was sexually abusing underage girls. then, police said, one of them killed him." this early is reminiscent of the cyntoia brown case. this is democracy now!, democracynow.o.org, the quarante report. i'm amy goodman. when we come back, we go to louisiana. people in areas devastated by hurricane laura. we're going to go to those in immigration jail stayitith us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "overcomer" by kayusa. this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we turn now to louisiana, where people in areas devastated by hurricane laura may be forced to go weeks or months without power. peopople held in immigration jas report horrific conditions. immigrants detained at the lasalle and jackson parish correctional center say the two jails are flooded with urine and feces, and they don't have electricity, clean food or water. this is a video posted on

facebook, inside the jackson parish detention center after hurricane laura. coronavirus cases, 25 cases in jackson parish. no water, no electricity. insane at alloing ice detention centers. please help if you can. amy: two immigrants held at the jackson parish jail, run by lasalle corrections, said they were held in the same cramped roroom as people with h covid-19 symptoms who later tested positive. at leastight new immigration jails have opened in louisiana under trump and some that are former prisons. some of the immigrants being held in louisiana were transferred there from florida after immigrgration and customs enforcement refused to comply with public health safety guidelines and release people

from a crowded detention c cente many are from camemeroon. for more, we a are joined by sysylvie bello, founder of the cameroon amemerican council, one of the leaeading immrationon advocacy groups workining with black and african communities in the u.s. welcome to democracy now! can you explain the dire conditions, howow many cameroroonians are in ththese j, and what t they're facacing now, especially after the hurricane? >> bon jouour. wakanandat to do the salu. this is a very timely discscussion. right now weave abouout 10,000 cameroonians at various stages of asylum seekingng coming to te southern b border. many of them coming through tijuana on the california side and transferred to louisiana. right now i pipine. louisiana, thehe center, whichcs a privately ownwned detention

center owned by geo, there arare ovover 40 cameroonians who o arn hunger strike. juan: could you talk about how thee black asylum-seekers ae disproportionately targeted by ice and placed inin thesese t humanizing conditions? >> absolutely. immigrationonhe system as it is today is a direct result of black peoplplen america, right? because 40400 years ago when our anceststors were stolen from the shshores off cameroon and sold o ththe americans, ththe u.s.anned immigration fromom africa whilie the restst of the worldld to get immigration.n. now fast-forward after the haitian revevolution, to makekee the enslaveded africans get no ideas of revolting in amemerica, it puts further bans within the

immigration n system. now after the e civil rights movement, we got the immigration act. what it is is the current immigration system is based on the racist practices of white susupremac of 400 0 years. we have these camemeroonians tht are essentially fleeing ourr ancestors being enaved, fleeingg colonizatation, fleleeg foreign picy from just heavy militatarization from the u.s. acacross thehe w world includidg cameroon, and they get to america and aree stitill being subjected to anti-i-blackness, anti-africaness that quite frankly up to today stililfavors done africananand nonblalacks. for ininstance, in california in detention centersrs like otay memesa, you have everyoyone else gegets bomb but t when it is cacameroonians,, we -- $50,000 bondnd. the u.s. shoululnot be charging

that high h of a bond for blacak peoplele. instead, thehey should be payayg blblack people repeparatio. the reason they give these large sums for bondsds, they say we don't hahave family ties. how are we supposed to have family ties when for 400 years we were banneded from comingng t america? how arare we supposed to make te ststrong family ties like e evey other country ththat could come hehere willyly-nilly? those are one of many, many, mamany ways -- as you knonow, in thisis time of racial reckoning whwhen we are looking to the criminalal justice system, the same exact l law enfororcement within ice where because blackck communities are over policed come as black immigrants whoho e art of that communinity -- take haitian immigranant and amado diablo, like immigrants part of a black community, part of an african-american community which is over policed and racist. and that leads to higher

deportation as well as higher incarceration and just worse treatment, especially in places like the south. ofe in louisiana where a lot -- if f you look at from katrina to laura to coronavirus, the disparities of t the black community's are heightened and it is no differerent in the immigration system and detention. amy: i want to go to law enforcement officers clashing with protesters outside of the pine prairie ice detention center last month, using tear gas and pepper spray to clear the protesters. this is an activist speaking with localal news station krqe.. >> we're out here today to say we are against this ice concentration camp in our state. we are against our tax dollars being used to cage people for nothing other than from where they are from. we are saying if you say this is the land of the free, whyo we have more peoeople incarceratatd than any other place in the world? my hands were up and we were all tear gas for nothing butut standing on the siside of the rd .

using our right to free speech. amy: if you can talk, sylvie bello, about the cameroon n hunr strikers and also about the death of the c cameroonian immigrant?t? >>hank you so much.. we are soo grateful to our frnds at the newew orleans woers groupup and to rebebecca o is a cameroonian sub out there in new o orleans who showewed un solidarity on freedom friday. juneteenth of this year,r, the cameroonians led a protest and tapped into those sceneses of .reedom from their ancestors they t tapped intoto that and prototested the racacist judgesn the immimigration system, protet the racism within the detentitin centnter, and from then on every frididay we had what we call freedodom friday. email b blasts.

our friends, student solidarity, 100 of them -- yes, , they were tear gas guess w what? they -- they were babanging on the door. theyey could feel the love that was coming out from ththe peopoe of lisisiana. there were aut 100 o of them, includuding our fellow camemeroonian. what it is is these protests inside, r right, this is that te first time these cameroonian men have protest anti-blacackness andd antnti-cameroonianism.. duringng blalack history month,y protested -- they went on a hunger strike as well. prior to that, right, throughout ecuador, [indiscernible] t then trekk ar and

countries to the u.s.s.-mexico border. in mexico, they y are met with anti-blackness a that is why the southernmost part of mexico, you know, the cameroonians prprotested t there. they proteststed as well in tijuana.a. why? jujust a system of getting into america is very rigid in general . but also anti-i-blackness is toh in americaca most of the mexican gogovernment will let evevybody else through except the africans. so thesese cameroonians, by the time they get intoto the u.s. deteteion centers,, are already knknown as troublemakers. already known as wewe have to wawatch out for r them. they're not the only ones who protested or w went on hunger strike. outside of w women austinin, texas, 15150 protestee same racist t and anti-blblackns within thehe detention center. right now ththeyre on hungnger

strike. it has been terrible because ththey have been put on solitary confinement. what h happens in solitary confinementt is you getet -- because already you'rere on hunr strike, icee does not what you doing that becau they want y y alive, they want you fed. they are saying if they're going to get deporteted, if ththey're gogoing too through all of these trials and tribulations after they havee crossed eight countries to get here, theyy w t to use their bodies as resistance. amy: 10 secondnds on the final cacall? grateful for this plplatform. wewe wou love her folklks to jon every fririday for freedomom friday. and in detention with h hurricae laura in louisiaiana have experienced treremendous, trememendous outbreaks of not jt coronavirus, b but o other form, for instance, no running water.

their medications are being capped. amy: sylvie bello, we have to leave it there but we will continue to follow this story. bound of the cameroon american council. that does it for our broadcast. democracy now! is looking for s

maintain your health deliciously. ready when you are. nhk world-japan. ♪ hello and welcome to nhk "newsline." i'm yamamoto miki in tokyo. we start this hour in the united states. president donald trump is visiting kenosha, wisconsin, where police shot an unarmed black man seven times last month. the city has since become one of the flash points of ongoing protests against