05/26/21 05/26/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> george floyd should not just go down in history as a martyr. @@he should go down in history s the turning point of how we deal with policing in the united states. amy: protests and vigils were held across the united states and the world tuesday to mark one year since the police murder of george floyd in minneapolis. we will speak to the historian

elizabeth hinton, author of the new book "america on fire: the untold history of police violence and black rebellion since the 1960's." >> america on fire traces the cycle of police violence and community responses to that violence that we have been stuck in since the 1960's. as we witnessed last summer perhaps one of the largest mass mobilization in the united stat history with 10 siblings people around the coury calling for racial justice. unless we make significant structural changes, this cycle will continue. amy: then we will look at the shocking cover-up of the police killing of marcus smith in north carolina. mcus smith was hogtied by eight white greensboro police ofcers on september 8, 2018, faced out the streets. three minutes later, he stopped reading and was pronounced dead

at the hospital. the city commits to cover up that continues to this day. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. the united states marked one uses the murder of george floyd at the hands of minneapolis police tuesday. the murder of the 46 year-old father who was a security guard and rapper, sparked a national uprising and global movement to end racism and police brutality. it also resulted in the drafting of the george floyd justice in policing act, which has yet to be enacted into law. george floyd's family spoke after meeting with president biden at the white house tuesday. this is his brother philonise floyd. >> we just want this george floyd policing act to be passed in the future. >> [indiscernible] >> no, because this is the

thing. if you can make federal laws to protect the bird which is the bald eagle, can make federal laws to protect people of color. amy: protests and gatherings took place around the country and around the world tuesday, including in brooklyn, new york. >> i am not here only for the one year, but the hundreds of thousands of people who have also been killed. things do to change. defund the police. amy: after headlines, we will speak with historian elizabeth hinton, author of "america on fire: the untold history of police violence and black rebellion since the 1960's." secretary of state tony blinken is meeting with egyptian leader abdel fattah al-sisi on the second day of his middle east tour as the israel-hamas ceasefire holds for a sixth day.

on tuesday, blinken held separate meetings with palestinian president mahmoud abbas and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu during which he outlined the biden administration's goals in the region. >> first, to demonstrate the commitment of the united states to israel's security. second, to start toward greater stability and reduce tensions in the west bank and jerusalem. third, to support urgent humanitarian and reconstruction assistance for gaza to benefit the palestinian people. fourth, to continue to rebuild our relationship with the palestinian people and the palestinian authority. amy: secretary of state blinken also announced the u.s. would reopen a consulate in jerusalem for palestinians and send palestinians an additional $112 million in aid money, including $5.5 million in immediate aid to gaza which is facing a

humanitarian disaster. oxfam is warning 400,000 people in gaza do not have access to a regular water supply after israel bombed key parts of gaza's civilian infrastructure. meanwhile, the state department has reportedly approved the sale of $735 million of bombs to israel despite congressional opposition. this comes as israel continues to crack down on palestinians living in israel and occupied east jerusalem. haaretz reports israeli police have arrested hundreds of palestinians since monday morning. in other news from gaza, the head of unrwa, the united nations relief and works agency in gaza, has expressed regret after saying the israeli airstrikes were carried out with sophistication and precision. a number of palestinian groups criticized matthias schmale saying his remarks "completely ignored the crimes committed during the latest israeli

offensive against palestinian civilians in the gaza strip." the united states has joined mounting calls for further investigation into the origins of covid-19. a world health organization mission earlier this year found it was extremely unlikely that it emerged from a laboratory and more likely originated from an animal source. but some top health experts are questioning whether it accidentally escaped from a lab. this is health and human services secretary xavier becerra addressing a who meeting tuesday. >> phase two of the origin covid study must be lunch with terms of reference that are transparent, science-based, and give international experts the independence to fully assess the source of the virus and the early days of the outbreak. amy: moderna says its vaccine is 100% effective in children and teenagers from 12 to 17 and will seek emergency use authorization from the food and drug

administration early next month. the pfizer vaccine is already in use for those 12 and older. this comes as the white house announced another milestone in its vaccination drive tuesday. this is senior covid response adviser andy slavitt. >> today the u.s. will hit 50% of adult americans that are fully vaccinated. this is a major milestone in our countries vaccination efforts. amy: meanwhile, the centers for disease control warned unvaccinated americans heading into memorial day weekend that they remain at risk and need to continue wearing a mask and following other public health guidelines. kristen clarke was sworn in by vice president kamala harris tuesday evening after the senate confirmed her to lead the civil rights division at the justice department. she is the first black woman to assume the role. the vote was 51-48 with maine republican susan collins joining democrats.

biden nominated her in january but republican spent months trying to block her confirmation. kristen clarke is the former head of the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law and a prominent voting rights advocate. for more, can go to democracynow.org. in iraq, security forces killed one protester and injured scores of others at a baghdad rally calling for justice for murdered activists and protesters. the protest was called following the killing of civil society activist ehab al-wazni in karbala earlier this month. this is a demonstrator speaking tuesday. >> we return to protest to demand the dismissal of the central government because of previous governments to reveal the killers of the protesters had been at norton. amy: according to the iraqi high commission for human rights, at least 35 activists and 600 protesters have been killed

since the fall of 2019 when the mass protests started forming. president biden d russian president vladimir putin will meet next month in geneva, switzerland. the june 16 summit will be the first in-person meeting between the two heads of state since biden took office and comes amid tensions over cyberattacks, russian military build-up at the border with ukraine, the jailing of opposition figure alexey navalny, and nuclear arms. samoa is facing a political crisis after the long-standing prime minister refused to concede to the newly elected leader. primminister-elect fiame naomi mata'afa, who is samoa's first woman leader, won a one-seat parliamentary majority but her incumbent rival and samoa's ceremonial head-of-state are blocking her from taking power. on monday, she was physically locked o of parliament and forced to hold a makeshift swearing-in ceremony in a tent. mata'afa called the attempts to

shut her out of office a bloodless coup. in colombia, the national strike committee and the government of far-right president ivan duque say they reached pre-agreements this week in talks that could end weeks of mass protests calling for an end to militarized police, violence, and inequality. one group says security forces have killed over 40 protesters. this is a member of a group known as "front line moms" speaking from a protest in bogota. >> the people got sick of it. we're are tired of their not being work, not being health care, the violation of our rights even to protest. as women, we don't have many benefits. amy: back in the u.s., the manhattan district attorney has nvened a grand jury to decide whether to indict former president trump, other executives, or the trump organization itself, if criminal charges are brought. the news suggests the d.a.'s investigation is at an advanced

stage. new york's attorney general recently announced her office launched a criminal investigation into trump, and was working alongside the manhattan d.a. investigators have been looking into financial crimes at the trump organization, including possible tax fraud. in other news about trump's legal troubles, the former president argued monday he possesses absolute immunity from a lawsuit filed by california congressmember eric swalwell over his role in inciting the insurrection at the u.s. capitol. the lawsuit says -- "the horrific events of january 6 were a direct and foreseeable consequence of unlawful actions. as such, trump is responsible for the injury and destruction that followed." after days of silence, house minority leader kevin mccarthy condemned recent comments by far-right georgia congressmember marjorie taylor greene comparing mask mandates to the holocaust. greene said on a conservative

talk show last week that house speaker nancy's pelosi's requirement that congressmembers keep wearing masks while on the house floor is "exactly the type of abuse" experienced by jews under the nazis. on tuesday, greene tweeted an article about a grocery store where vaccinated employees will wear a vaccination logo on their name tag, likening t logo to the yellow star of david badges forced to be worn by jews in nazi germany. illinois congressmember brad schneider is calling on other democrats to join him in a motion to censure greene. a coalition of jewish organizations is calling on president biden to appoint a special envoy to monitor the rise of antisemitism in the united states. on monday, biden condemned what he called despicable attacks on the jewish community. on tuesday, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu claimed anti-zionism is a form

of antisemitism, but many progressive jewish groups and writers reject the claim. peter beinart writes in the guardian -- "anti-zionism is not inherently antisemitic -- and claiming it is uses jewish suffering to erase the palestinian experience." the attorney general for washington, d.c., has filed an antitrust lawsuit against amazon, which he accuses of fixing prices to charge consumers more and maintain its monopoly power. this is d.c. attorney general karl racine speaking on bloomberg tv. >> they require sellers first to pay it, amazon, very significant commission, prince of 40%, for a good. then it requires the sellers to not provide for access to their product on any other site, including thr o -- the seers' own side, for price

lower than they sell on amazon. that means you and i are locked into buying a good at an arficially high price set by amazon. amy: and josep almudéver mateu has died at the age of 101 in france. in 1936, he volunteered to join the international brigade to fight in the spanish civil war against general franco and fascism. he was believed to the last surviving member of the international brigade. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. we come back come as protests and vigils are held across the road to mark one year since the police murder of george lloyd in minneapolis, we will speak to the historian elizabeth hinton, author of the new book "america on fire: the untold history of

police violence and black rebellion since the 1960's." stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by my co-host juan gonzález in new brunswick, new jersey. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: protests and vigils were held across the country in the world -- and the world tuesday to mark one year since the police murder of george floyd in minneapolis. floyd's death sparked a national uprising and global movement to end racism and police brutality. on tuesday, president joe biden

and vice president kamala harris met with members of the floyd family. biden reiterated his support for the george floyd justice in policing act, which is still being negotiated by lawmakers. civil rights attorney benjamin crump joined the floyd family in washington and urged passage of the legislation. >> their blood is on this legislation so we're going to continue with this family and this legal team to continue to press to say we have to respect the skilled blood that is on this legislation. it must be meaningful and we can do this together. this is an american issue. this is that of police issue or a civil rights issue. we have to look at this as a national issue that we have avoided dealing with. amy: here in n york, the reverend al sharpton paid tribute to george floyd on tuesday. >> george floyd should not just

go down in history as a martyr. he should go down in history as the turning point of how we deal with policing in the united states. amy: we are joined now by the historian elizabeth hinton. she is an associate professor of history and african american studies at yale university and a professor of law at yale law school. her new book is "america on fire: the untold history of police violence and black rebellion since the 1960's." she is also the author of "from the war on poverty to the war on crime." professor hinton, welcome to democracy now! it is great to have you with us. why don't we start off by this significant week, the first anniversary of the police murder of george floyd -- not only the story of the murder, but the story of the unprecedented rebellion that ensued for the next year. >> well, so, what we witnessed

la summer was what some have called the largest mass mobilization in the united states history. let me point out that most of the protests last summer were nonviolent. it was only after police came to nonviolent protests and peaceful vigils with tear gas and riot sticks and batons that some protesters responded to that police violence with violence, which is a familiar pattern we see from rebellions stemming from the 1960's. but the vast majority of what we saw last summer were nonviolent, peaceful protests. i americans of people around the world standing up to racial injustice and saying, "we wanted different kind of governance. we want to build a different kind of society. we don't want to continue to have to bury people of color at the hands of police officers." juan: professor hinton, your book tries to put what is

happening now in the historical context because many of the people who are participating in these protests don't know a lot of the history. i think what struck me is you went not only into the period of the 1960's and 1970's, which was crucial, but even further back pointing to some of the civil disturbances and rebellions that had occurred in prior decades. i have always been particularly struck by the impact of world wars, both world war i and world war ii on racial unrest in the united states and how the returning soldiers often were not as willing -- black and latino soldiers were not as willing to accept it just is. could you talk about the early teens of the 20th century and this historic conflict between black immunities and the white

establishment? >> that is such an important part of our history that i think we fail to recognize. and that is for most of the 20th century, the majority of collective violence was inflicted by white mobs against communities of color, especially black community's. very much in the context of migration simulated come as you said, the first and second world wars. beginning in springfield in 1908, but also east st. louis in 1917, basically white residence in east st. louis attacked black worktime factory workers in one of the bloodiest race riots of the 20 century, forcing black families to choose between being shot to death or burned alive. and then the red summer of 1919, she mentioned, with returning gis who fought for democracy abroad, returning gis of color

wanting to stake a claim for citizenship and saying, ok, with proper democracy abroad now let's realize democracy at home when faced with segregation and white vigilante terror and violence, we saw the outbreak not only of racial strife and industries of american cities like chicago and washington, d.c., but also the continued attack by white vigilante forces on black communities. then of course we are coming up next week i the 100 year commemoration of the tulsa massacre where thousands of white men who work deputized by the county government destroyed completely the thriving greenwood community in tulsa. let me also emphasize deeply entwined with law enforcement. law enforcement was complacent in many of these episodes and massacres and attacks on black communities, turned a blind eye

or actively participated in the violence. then of course during and after world war ii, the race riots that we saw after world war i literally street fights between black and white residence in places like detroit were federal troops had to be called persisted. what is important about this back history and this history of white collective violence is that it was only in the 1960's would like people rose up against repressive and exploitive institutions that these incidents of collective violence became labeled as criminal and as riots. amy: i want to stick with for one minute tulsa. we will have stanley nelson, the great filmmaker on, on friday because he has a documentary that is going to air on sunday on this centennial of the tulsa massacre. last week, three survivors of one of the worst racial terror attacks in u.s. history

testified to congress in favor of reparations ahead of the 100th anniversary. over two days beginning on may 31, 1921, racist white mobs set -- basically burned down greenwood, the thriving african-american business district in tulsa, oklahoma, known as "black wall street." this is 107-year-old viola fletcher, the oldest living survivor, testified before congress. >> i will never forget the violence of the white mob when we left our home. i still see like me being. black bodies lying in the street. i still smell smoke. i still see black businesses being burned. i still hear airplanes flying overhead. i hear the screams. i have lived through the massacre every day.

the country may forget this history, but i cannot. i will not. and other survivors do not. in our descendants do not. amy: again, that is 107-year-old viola fletcher, the oldest living survivor of the tulsa massacre were something like it is believed 300 african-americans were killed. even people in tulsa, even african-americans, talked about how is it possible that they did not know this history. not to mention people throughout the united states over this last 100 years that this was not taught, professor hinton. >> i think there are many aspects of, one, the extent to which white supremacist terror -- the impact of white supremacist terror in black commities and also extension violence. that is one of the things i tended to do in this book "america on fire," based on new

data we now know in the aftermath of martin luther king's assassination, violent political rebellion to the presence of police and the expansion of american police forces and the militarization of police in a targeted low income communities of color was responded to by political violence on most of perpetuated by young african-americans -- and this was the most widely adopted form a protest after the civil rights movement. it is a sty both of continued white supremast terror tt getsidden, but also a black resistance to that terror and to police violence that we have yet to reckon with. juan: professor hinton, i think one of the most interesting observations in your book was -- to me was that most people associate the federal government's involvement on the war on crime as coming during the nixon years.

but you show how he was really under president johnson that the real expansion of the federal support for local law enforcement does you know in one section of your book that in 1964, there was only $10 million in federal funds given to local police but by 1970, it was over 300 million dollars. an enormous increase just in the late 1960's under president johnson's safe cities act. could you talk about the impact that h on locapolice forces? >> right. just to give listeners sense of what that $300 billion, 400 million dollars translates today, several billion dollars being invested in the expansion of american policing and courts and the prison system. at the height of the progressive social change in the 1960's.

i think this is a really important aspect our domestic policy and the kind of origins or shortcomings even of liberal social policy is that, you know, ring theohnson adminiration, there were two approaches to aling wi bh e thre of blk rebelln t als perty a racial inequality in the u.s. one of those was the war on poverty community action program through education, drug training programs. the other was programs that were to manage the material effects of poverty and inequality as they appear through violence and crimes in the threat of rebellion. that is the war on crime. in the end, the war on crime won out. the story of the black rebellions themselves, as i see arthe residen respons to e expansn of polingn their commutieshat accompan this unecedente deral interventioin your locapolice fces for e

fit time iu.s. history ginning th the jnson ministtion inhe mid-196's. an: anher pect of ur bo tt -- while y do focus and say was largelack rellions ttccurred througuthe960's and 70' you do teeveral key bellions tt occurd in the latino comnity you ta about t rooseve park rellionn 1971 in buquque and alsn hoben, w jersey. but there was string rebellns tt occurr inhe puto ricannd mexic counities, 1966,969, th divisi street ots in 19 in chico, the hble parriot in chica in 197 ere re quite aew other communits of col that so rosep durinthis perd as we.

>>hat is ather hidn aspect i thinkf our histof both racial oression d resistce and many of ose counities like harord and rsey cit the were thoughly muiracial rebellions ere ack and pdominalyuerto rican sidents se upgainst policeiolence gether. by m accou from wh i call the crucible period afthat mar pce of feral legiation, thetate street act, so frojune 1968 thugh 19, there re abo 2000 rebellns in segregat black communies an abo two ndred inuerto rin and mexicaamericanommuniti. thisust underscos thextent to whi the picing strategies that policymakers and officials at all levels of government and for the war on crime really targeted use of color in latinx

and lack communities. black community. as part of the targeting and the strategies, people in these communities were subjected to not only increased control and surveillance, but increased for police violence that accompanied that. in the context of other shared social not -- socioeconomic, jobs, failing public schools, bstandard housing run by either absent public housing authorities or exploitative slum landlords, many of these communities that were over policed and under protected became potter cakes. with a shared set of grievances related to the overall racial inequality in the country at the time. amy: i want to go to attorney general william barr, not under a 1992 appearance on "face the

nation" when he was attorney general in the administration of george h.w. bush barr blamed gangs for the uprising in los angeles after a jury acquitted four white police officers in the brutal beating of rodney king. >> we are investigating all of the violence, the arson that was involved in the riots. our preliminary information is there was significant involvement of gang members at the inception of the violence, also involvement in the spreading of the violence in the arson. amy: i remember at that time. the descriptions of those who work rising up being arsonists and vandals and gang members. martin luther king famously talked about a riot being the language of the unheard. juan:, you recovering will recall the l.a. rise. elizabeth hinton, if you can talk about the language used to

describe this stuff you used the word "rebellion" and when it means when they are called riots and people are called vandals and arsonist but police are not called murderers. >> right. this goes back to the crucial moment in the 60's when lyndon johnson labeled this political violence as a riot. basically ignoring the underlying socioeconomic grievances that were shared with the mainstream civil rights movement that drove people to resort to political violence in the first place. in labeling them riots and crinal and ignoring the demands for jobs and better housing and better policing and protection from white vigilante tear and political economic inclusion in society that drove the rebellions themselves and calling them criminal, then the only solution becomes not what the residents themselves want, buthe police. so this is partly why terminogy is so important.

and also, many of the people who participated in these instances of collective violence understood themselves as rising up, as rebellion. not as rioting, not something criminal. we have to get out of this criminal framework for which we understand these forms of political violence. i think the other barr quote is illustrative and gets to the points that juan raised which is the l.a. rebellion in 1992 was also thoroughly multiracial. in addition to targeting gangs, so-called gangs, the federal government also -- with the support and help of what we called ins at the time -- also blamed "illegal aliens" for the violence. so the rebellion provided law enforcement authorities in opportunity to target two groups th they had long been the

subject of both national security and law enforcement attention. again, policymakers ignored the kind of larger grievances behind rebelling in both the injustice thatas the acquittal of the four officers for the brutal beating of rodney king -- kind of the first viral video of police violence -- but also rampant inequality, unemployment, and problems of violence and crime in many communities of color in los angeles that were not being adequately addressed, not being addressed with robust social programs but were being managed by heavy-handed militarized police that were literally rounding up people of color and arresting them enmass, beginning in the 1980's. juan: professor hinton, i would ask about the lessons for activists today in terms of the response of the establishment of

those in power to these rebellions, whether it was in the 1940's or the 1960's or even now, there is a period of time when the system -- because it has taken aback by the mass upsurge and then agrees to certain reforms -- in the case of the rodney king situation, there was a second federal trial of the officers that sort of sought to calm the public. as we have seen with the derek chauvin trial now after george floyd. but the promises of systemic change rarely occur. what happens is the system almost seems to wait until the movement subsides and then goes back to its old way of doing things. >> that is actually a great way to understand the current tendencies of history. this stems from my previous comment about some of the missed

opportunities in l.a. we have to go back to that critical moment in the late 1960's with johnson's on national advisory commission on civil disorders basically called for what you're talking about, that kind of structural change. they said, the johnson administration and the nation, we are serious about preventing rebelling in the future, we need a massive investment in low-income communities of color and not in the form of policing and surveillance and prisons, which is what ended up happening but in a robust job creation program that is made possible by the mobilization of both the public and private sector. a complete overhaul of urban public schools and complete transformation of public housing and the continued support of community action programs that would empower the grassroots to address problems in the community on their own terms with funding from the federal government.

unfortunately, time and time again, every time inequality and police violence is evaluated come all of these structural solutions are always adjusted and yet they are never taken up. we know what needs to be done. if we are serious about addressing the problem of police violence in this country and addressing the larger issue of racial inequality of which police violence is a symptom, then we have to move beyond police reform. we have to support and bring about that kind of systemic transformation that the critter commission suggested more than 50 years ago. we can only imagine what the united states might look like today had policymakers invested in those kind of robust social programs rather than in policing and prisons. i would be certain that george floyd would still be with us today. amy: professor hinton, the significance of kristen clarke, first african-american woman sworn in last night by the first

african-american vice president, to be head of the civil rights division of the department of justice and the significance of this division when it comes to writing in police? -- reading and police? >> i think like al sharpton said, we are facing a turning point in american policing and the provisions of the george floyd and justice act are just a baby step. if we are serious about public safety, we are going thave to look beyond the police. yes, we need to put police violence and check but we also need to change the condition that leads to the deadly encounters that we've seen all too often throughout our history and due to the bodycam and the fact that we all have cameras in our pockets now frequently on our screens. amy: finally, i wanted to ask

about the backlash growing after the university of north carolina chapel hill denied tenure to the pulitzer prize winning journalist nicole hannah jones, best known for producing the 1619 project with "the new york times" which reexamines the legacy of slavery. you signed one of the many letters of protest as an academic yourself that she was denied tenure. can you talk about the significance of her work and why this is so important to you and in his last 30 seconds? >> i think it relates to this larger -- we have this structural transformation that we need urgently in the united states is going to be a matter of changing hearts and minds and political education and reckoning with our history. and placing at the center of the narrative that we tell about our history. we opened this segment talking about hidden history. with the centrality with racial oppression to political and onomic develop in the united states.

and until we begin to confront this history had on instead of trying to suppress and hide it, i fear we won't be able build the kind of support to bring about the changes that are necessary to put the nation on a different path, one that does not continue to exacerbate the racial inequities that have defined this country historically. amy: thank you for being with us and congratulations on your new book. elizabeth hinton is an associate professor of history and african american studies at yale university and a professor of law at yale law school. our new book "america on fire: , the untold history of police violence and black rebellion since the 1960's." her previous book "from the war , on poverty to the war on crime." next up, the shocking cover of of the police killing of marcus smith in north carolina, the report just out from the marshall project "he died like an animal." stay with us.

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. a warning to our listeners and viewers, this next story contains graphic police violence. we look now at the shocking cover-up of the police killing of marcus smith in north carolina. it was september 8, 2018, when smith, a 38-year-old homeless black man facing a mental health crisis, asked greensboro police officers for help. he approached them and asked them to help him. instead, they brutally and fatally hogtied him. please body camera video footage shows officers pushing smith face down into the street and tying a belt around his ankles and then attaching it to his cuffed hands so tightly his knees were lifted off the pavement. this is part of the video

footage. >> what is your name? >> i name is marcus. >> ok. >> please, sir. please. help me, man. call the ambulance. >> take it easy. >> we are not trying to hurt you. >> settled down. >> rollover on your stomach. >> roll him toward us. you got the cuffs? >> they are right here. >> take it easy. >> watch yourself because somebody got blood on them. >> take it easy. >> give us your other hand behind your back. >> we are trying to hurt you -- we are not trying to hurt you.

just relax. we're trying to help you. come on, buddy. >>, on, man. there we go. come on, but. >> he is bleeding somewhere. >> let's just go ahead and do this and if you could help me carry him to the truck. amy: marcus smith's family is charging cover-up and follow lawsuit in 2019 alleging wrongful death. for more, we're joined by joseph neff in north carolina, an investigative reporter for the marshall project who examines the deaths of marcus smith and others in a new report headlined "'he died like an animal': some police departments hogtie people despite knowing the risks." and in chicago, flint taylor is one of the lawyers for the

family of marcus smith. he is a founding partner of the people's law office in chicago. we welcome you both to democracy now! flint taylor, start off by continuing to describe that night where mark is approached eight white police officers and asked them for help. within minutes, he would be mo dead. close thank you, amy. it is great to be on with you and juan and to follow professor hinton. i can't see the video as you showed it, but just listening to it as i have watched it several times, of course, makes me completely upset. i am sure it is tremendously traumatizing to not only people who are watching, but to the family. what happened in that case was that these eight white police officers decided they were going to hogtie marcus smith. this was not something that was unusual in that greensborough

police department. we have inur lawsuit documented that in the past five years before the hog tying of marcus smith caused his death, 275 people were hogtied by the greensborough police department and that 68 or 69% of those people were african-american. over 50% of them were suffering a meal crisis -- over 15% of them were suffering image of health crisis, which is what marcus was suffering. what happened in the case after marcus died in the hospital were actually lost his breath and stopped breathing and his heart stopped on the street, the greensboro police department spearheaded by the chief of police at the time watched the video and then chose to put out a press release that, like the first press release of in minneapolis, ignored and left

out the crucial factor that he was hogtied. what the called in the parlance of the police department, maximum restraint. they put out a press release that made a sound like marcus had collapsed, he was suicidal and was agitated. and he just collapsed in police custody. and that was the start of a cover-up that has continued in various forms, has been perpetrated and continues to be perpetrated not only by the police department, but by all of the politicians -- many of the politicians -- the mayor, the city council, the city attorney, and others in greensboro. and as you mentioned, we had a civil suit that we have been dealing with for the past two years. we have taken statements and depositions of all of the main actors in the case, all of the police, the chief of police, the mayor, the city manager.

what is happening now is the city wants to put all of that testimony and all of our arguments about why it should not be secret under seal and they want to hold us in contempt for what they say is disseminating information. information that is not confidential. information that should be in the public domain. they want us to be held in contem and unbelievably they want to bar us fropracticing law in the state of north carolina. so that is where we stand now and it is remarkable case, a case that should be looked at along with the george floyd case and 70 other cases where an unnecessary and brutal restraint is used. and it is starting to come to light thanks to people like joseph neff at the marshall project and you, amy, so that people can see and understand the breadth of racist police

violence in this country. juan: joseph ne, i want to ask you, your investigation uncovered at least 23 deaths that have occurred in the past decade from people being hogtied by police apartment across the country? could you talk about how extensive this practice is? >> it is hard to know how extensive it is because there is no reporting read raymond. for example, in greensboro where marcus smith died, police do not u -- view the hogtie as a use of force so they do not even counted within their own department. we may public records requests in the country's 30 biggest police department on use of force, every type of use of force, and we got records back om about 11 of them. it is hard for the public to know. we find these 23 people who died while being hogtied.

we looked in court records, looked for news stories. we just had to scrape the web like that to find these cases. juan: could you talk about how many departments permit this or which es don't? >> out of the top 30 departments that we surveyed, the 30 largest, 22 of them explicitly forbid this practice. another four -- charlotte, houston, indianapolis, and one other -- allow it under different circumstances. so it is -- i would say the practice is more common in smaller police departments. the big ones -- new york has banned this practice for decades. amy: i want to turn to another case.

in 2017, vanessa peoples was doing laundry in the basement of her aurora, colorado, home when police officers showed up for a child welfare check. peoples told nbc what happened next. >> the next thing i knew, they threw me down on the ground and they had my arm behind my back. i kept telling them, said, there is something wrong. my arm does not feel right. it hurts. he had his knee in my back. and it was like at that moment, i felt like i was going to lose my life. amy:, and, this is vanessa peoples describing this, joe. this is aurora. that is where elijah mcclain would be killed a few years later and then another woman describing the same thing happening to her.

she was hogtied in front of her neighbors. can you also talk about the hobble? >> the hobble is the actual strap that police use to rep. brown: someone's ankle -- to wrap around someone's ankle and they attached to the handcuffed or in the case of vanessa peoples, to a belt around her waist. if you show this picture to any person in the walmart parking lot, they would look at it and say,, that is a hogtie, because the feet are pulled up behind the person's back and the person is handcuffed behind their back. the's a slight difference in the hobble is used without attaching to the handcuffs sometimes, but if you look at it, it is virtually the same position. vanessa peoples, she shouted out

seven times while she was restrained, while they were restraining her, that she could not breathe. you're right, they took her out and eventually she was lying in her front yard for all her neighbors to see like that. juan: flint taylor, you mentioned the efforts of the officials to get you to run you out of north carolina but in terms of -- what kind of attacks has the smith family had to deal with since they sought to find justice for marc? >> well, juan, i first want to commend the wonderful strength thatary smith, the mother of marcus smith, and the father and the sister kim and george, have showfrom the moment that they saw the video that revealed their son had been hogtied.

it wasn't until a month later that the video was shown to the smith family. mary could not watch it, but george watched it and that is the first time that anyone knew outside of the police department and the powers that be that there was a hogtie. they had completely covered up not only the fact he was hogtied, but the video is so. they had noteleased it. they had not moved to release it to the public. from that moment that the family learned what actually happened to marcus to this present day, mary smith, particularly, and the family generally, have stood behind justice for marcus smith. i want to say there is a remarkable movement on the ground in greensboro that is a multiracial, multigenerational movement that adheres at every city council moving -- meeting and asked questions about what is being done abt this case. they stand in front of city hall

every monday -- monday's for marcus -- with banners calling for justice in the marcus smith case. and one of the things that is being demanded by the movement on the ground there is there be a full apology from the mayor and the city council for the death of marcus smith. that there be a memorial for marcus smith in the cityf greensboro and there be just compensation for t family. the city council and the mayor have been doing a lot of different diversionary tactics misinformation publicly from including slandering the family and particularly mary smith, who is the plaintiff in our lawsuit. we havbeen trying to fight back publicly. and that is when they came down on as an said, we can talk, but you can't. i think it raises not only does

the hog tying and the idea of the diffent kinds of prone restraints their use across this country that being so dangerous because of positional asphyxia and sudden death syndrome and all those kinds of activities, but also now we are looking at an attack on lawyers, an attack on the community which they are singling out as well as the community activist who have spoken up. first amendment attack. amy: you mentioned marcus' sister kim smith. here she is speaking to nbc about the treatment of her brother. >> imagine your sibling, looking at them die. i had no idea what a hogtie was. i had no clue. that is how you treat an animal. amy: looking at this nationally, the scores of people who have died with this use of the hobble, no centralized database

about how it is used, joseph neff was tough the responses of the police departmt your repeated requests to explain what their policies are. >> some departments were very helpful. in aurora, they reased th data, actually released on the types of restraint they were using, so that is how we were able as one of the few cities where we could actually count the times the hobble is used. and to their credit -- amy: 15 seconds. >> the police chief announced the practice and fired the officer who hobbled ms. scalia left her in the car. amy: astounding story, which you write about in your marshall project piece "'he died like an animal': some police departments hogtie people despite knowing the risks."

we will link to it. joseph neff and flint taylor, thank you for being with us. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the close

. hello, and thanks for joining us on nhk world japan. this is nhk "newsline." we start with fresh calls to extend coronavirus emergency measures in japan, this time from the governor of tokyo. the capital's case counts are going down, but the medical system remains under strain. and the olympics are less than two months away. new infections have declined week on week for 13