06/01/21 06/01/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> we may have won the award tonight, but the battle is not over. we will continue to fight and speak out against those measures that attempt to silence our voices. they don't want you to know the truth on that bill. they don't want you to know how they don't want to see you at the polls. they don't want you to know you have rights. amy: democratic lawmakers in texas staged a dramatic walkout

sunday not to prevent republicans from passing a sweeping voter suppression bill. we will go to texas to speak with a state lawmaker. then we look at the severe under-unting of deaths of people of color by law enforcement. >>eople of color are being killed greater numbers and high rates than has been reported. we found000 casethat are unknown. we expect to find many more cases. amy: and we go to canada, where the bodies of 215 childrenave been found on the grounds of a former residential school where indigenous children were sent after being forcibly separated from their families by the canadian government. >> these poor children died ale and they died sred. they' not the only ones hidden in gras all ov canada. due to the canadian govement and the church plus redential school.

it is still going on now. canada is still discriminated against first nation children. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. in texas, democratic lawmakers staged a dramatic walkout on sunday night to prevent the republican-controlled legislature from passing a sweeping bill to rewrite election laws in the state. critics say the bill will lead to mass voter suppression especially of black and latino voters by eliminating drive-through and 24-hour voting as well as ballot drop boxes. the republican bill would also make it easier for elections to be overturned even if there is no evidence of fraud. just before the state's legislative session ended, texas house speaker dade phelan announced the bill had failed because there were no longer enough lawmakers present to reach a quorum. after headlines, we'll go to texas for the latest.

peru's government has admitted its covid-19 death toll is nearly triple the number it previously reported. peru's new official toll of 180,000 deaths makes it the country with the highest per-capita covid death rate in the world. malaysia has entered a two-week nationwide lockdown as cases surge in southeast asian countries that had successfully tamped down the spread of covid. vietnam has begun mass testing and will limit public gatherings after a surge that officials are blaming on a new, highly transmissible coronavirus variant. china's guandong province has ordered lockdowns after a sudden spike in cases. in geneva, officials at the world health organization called monday for a new internation treaty on pandemic preparedness. who emergencies director mike ryan said that in the fight against emerging diseases, pathogens have the upper hand. >> disrupt every aspecof our

lives, our connectedness, expose our lack of coordination, lack of sidarity, our societal inequities. in short, thpathogens are winning this fight right now and that should not be the status quo and should not be something we accept. amy: in brazil, tens of thousands of protesters marched in over 200 cities and towns saturday demanding the impeachment of far-right president jair bolsonaro. brazil continues to average more than 60,000 new coronavirus infections each day, with an official death toll of 460,000. the protests came as brazil's senate continues a high-profile inquiry into bolsonaro's catastrophic handling of the pandemic and his government's slow roll-out of vaccinations. joining rio de janeiro's protests was monica benício, whose fiancé marielle franco was murdered in 2018 by hitmen with close ties to the bolsonaro family. >> it is a duty to fight for

democracy. this government is up no use for us. he does not serve the people. we have taken to the streets because we have no alternative. amy: in colombia, right-wing president do kate deployed over soldiers to the city of cali 1000 over the weekend in response to massive antigovernment protests. on friday, tens of thousands of people took to the streets across colombia to mark one month since massive mobilizations began in late april, initially triggered by a now withdrawn tax reform. protests have continued against duque's policies, skyrocketing poverty, and police violence in colombia. on friday, at least 13 people were reported dead in the city of cali alone. china's government is relaxing reproductive limits to allow married couples to have up to three children. it's the biggest change to china's population control laws since the lifting of the one-child policy in 2016.

a recent census showed a rise in the proportion of elderly people in china as the birth rate continues to fall, triggering fears that a shrinking labor force and aging population could damage china's economy. the canadian government is facing pressure to declare a national day of mourning after the boes of 215 children were found in british columbia on the grounds of a school for indigenous children who were forcibly separated from their families by the government. the bodies were discovered at the kamloops indian residential school, which opened in 1890 and closed in the late 1970's. the catholic church rathe school up until 1969. we'll have more on this story later in the broadcast. israeli opposition parties are nearing agreement on a governing coalition that would bring an end to benjamin netanyahu's 12-year term as prime minister. on sunday, his chief rival yair lapid said he would work to form a national unity government with ultra-nationalist leader naftali bennett. the news came as netanyahu hosted egypt's spy chief in

jerusalem for talks on cementing a may 21 ceasefire that capped israel's 11-day assault on the gaza strip. the bombardment killed 256 palestinians, including 66 children, and displaced more than 70,000 gazans. here in the united states, thousands gathered in washington, d.c., on saturday for the national march for palestine. this is amani barakat of the palestinian right to return coalition. >> who among us today feels -- is closer than ever? do you think it is time for israeli settler colonialism, apartheid, occupation, and gazans blockade to be dismantled? amy: in florida, at least 21 people were injured and two dead on when three gunmen opened fire

sunday on a concert venue in miami-dade county. surveillance video shows the three hooded and masked suspects rushing out of a stolen suv with assault rifles and handguns. they opened fire indiscriminately on the crowd, some of whom fired back at them, before fleeing the scene just seconds later. their suv was found monday submerged in a canal, and the suspects remain at large. according to the gun violence archive, the u.s. saw over 200 mass shootings in the first 132 days of 2021. house democrats are planning to convene a select committee to investigate the january 6 insurrection after senate republicans succeeded in stonewalling a bill that would have created a bipartisan commission to probe the capitol assault. just six senate republicans joined democrats friday in a senate vote to break a republican-led filibuster. that prompted some senate democrats to renew their calls to eliminate the filibuster. but other democrats, including joe manchin and kirsten sinema, remain opposed, while majority leader chuck schumer has not endorsed eliminating the filibuster.

meanwhile, ex-president trump's former national security adviser general michael flynn called sunday for a military coup d'état to overthrow the u.s. government -- similar to the february coup in myanmar that killed hundreds of people. flynn is a former army general who was pardoned by trump for lying to the fbi. he was speaking at a weekend conference in dallas convened by qanon conspiracy theorists and other trump supporters. flynn fielded a question from an audience member who identified himself as a marine. >> i want to know why what happened in myanmar can't happen here? clubs no reason. it should happen. and become michael flynn now denies he was endorsing a coup. he also said president trump won the election on the electoral college boat. arizona prison officials have revived a decas-old gas

chamber and are planning to use hydrogen cyanide -- the same deadly gas used by nazis at auschwitz and other extermination camps -- to kill people on death row. that's according to documents obtained by the guardian, which show arizona's department of corrections spent over $2000 buying ingredients for the gas. the department has also refurbished a gas chamber at a prison in the town of florence that was built in 1949 and hadn't been used in over two decades. in philadelphia, a black man who spent nearly three decades behind bars for a crime he says he did not commit was released from prison friday after district attorney larry krasner's office said he had not received a fair trial. eric riddick was convicted of murdering his childhood friend in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison based on the testimony of a single eyewitness, who recanted the testimony in a 1999 affidavit. an investigation by a firearms expert in 2012 ruled out the possibility that riddick could have been the shooter. riddick won his release after

agreeing to plead guilty to a lesser third-degree murder charge. illinois state lawmakers have passed a bill barring officers from lying to children during police interrogations. thfirst-in-the-nation leslation prohibthe use of false promises of leniency and false claims about the existence of incriminating evidence when officers are questioning people younger than 18. a lawsuit filed by an prison anti-fascist activist says guards at a prison -- mccreary federal prison in kentucky allowed white supremacist gang members to beat him in 2018. eric king is currently serving a 10-year sentence for throwing molotov cocktails at an empty building in kansas city, missouri, in 2014 amid black lives matter protests. king says he's been targeted by over 40 correctional officers across multiple facilities throughout his imprisonment. he's been held in solidarity confinement for over 1000 days

and now faces an additional 20 years to his sentence for allegedly assaulting a federal officer, which king says was in self-defense. in a statement published by the intercept, king says -- "i'm a human being with a family. i have been treated deplorably, denied access to my family and my lawyers, and subjected to physical and emotional torture. they've done this because of my beliefs, not because of my actions." antenna superstar naomi slug has withdrawn from the fnch open after revealing she suffered from long routes of depression since 2018. she was fined and threatened with disqualification after she declined to take part in press conferences due to their effect on her mental health she said. sports researchers estimate one third of athletes upper from a mental health crisis at some point in their careers. prominent athletes of color have come forward to support her from steph curry to venus and serena williams.

osaka, japanese mother and haitian-american father, is a four-time winner of grand slam tennis tournaments. she drew headlines last year when she wore the names of black victims of police brutality on her face masks on the sidelines of the u.s. open and those are some of the headlines. 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: we begin today's show in texas, where democratic lawmakers staged a dramatic walkout on sunday night to prevent the republican-controlled legislature from passing a sweeping bill to rewrite election laws in texas. critics say the bill will lead to mass voter suppression especially a black and latinx voters, by eliminating drive-through and 24-hour voting

as well as ballot drop boxes. the republican bill would also make it easier for elections to be overturned even if there is no evidence of fraud. just before the state's legislative session ended, texas house speaker dade phelan announced the bill had failed because there were not enough lawmakers present to reach a quorum. >> there 86 ayes and zero nays. >> we take an oath at the beginning of session and we could look pretty improved day to be here -- to do our job on behalf of arms 30 million texans. and my sing we do not have a coram as essentially it looks to me like the democrats let the house floor and they are neglecting their duty that they swore an oath to do? >> that is not a proper inquiry. and every person left the floor is part of a party or not.

>> thank you, mr. speaker. amy: the election belkin still be revived in texas republican governor abbottcc convenience a special session. many of the democratic lawmakers who walked out gathered at the mt. zion baptist church, a black church about two miles away. this is state representative nicole collier, the chair of the legislative black caucus. >> we may have won the war tonight, but the battle is not over. we will continue to fight and speak out against those measures that attempt to silence our voices. they don't want you to know the truth on that bill. they don't want you to know how they don't want to see what the polls. they don't want you to know that you have rights. amy: president biden condemned the legislation is un-american, saying "it is part of an assault on democracy that we have seen far too often this year and

often disproportionately targeting black and brown americans. speaking after the walkout, trey martinez fischer called on the president to do more. >> mr. president, we need a national response. make no mistake, voting is but a mental. it does not know your color. it does not know who you love. it does not know your zip code. it is our constitutional right, our god-given right to exercise our right to vote. sb 7 would deny that right to many law-abiding texans simply because there were those who only wish to play gotcha politics with legislation stuck and you only have to look at the way they have tried to pass this bill, tried to ram it down our

throats. amy: that was texas tech representative trey martinez fischer speaking with other democrats after the walkout. he joins us now from san antonio. welcome to democracy now! can you layout the scene sunday night, why you walked out and whathis bill represents, wha it includes? >> good morning, amy. sunday night was a very emotional day as the president of the united states put the eyes of the nation on texas, calling us un-american. when you get down to it, this is going to have a tremendous impact on voters, all voters in the state of texas. i just like every had policy, hispanics, latinos, asian americans will be disproportionately impacted. as we came to a head sunday evening, members of the african-american caucus, black caucus or hispanic caucus, w came together behind a closed door and met as a family and we

really had aery emional conversation. we understood the consequence of this bill and we also recognize the duty we had to defend our constituents. we made the decision right then and there would use the nuclear oion. we had all the tools in our toolbox. and if they intended to stop this debate and republins intended to silence our voices, we kw we could use the pow of the corm to walk out and not only speak to these republicans for the way they're handling this bill, the tenses gislature, but -- texas legislator, but wake up nation and if you're going to go to georgia and silence voters and then in florida, republicans will march all across this country and take away people's right to vote and the time is now for national response and that is why we humbly ask the president of the united states, the united states congress, we need it -- we need a john lewis voting rights act, national response and we need it

now. juan: in terms of the demographic changes, for people across the country to understand the importance of texas and expansion of voting rights there, the state currently is about 58% people of color? 40% hispanic, 13% black, 5% asian. what would it mean for texas to have full participation of all of its residents in voting? what would it mean at the national leveln terms of politics? >> juan, it is a game changer. he had the nail on the head. he of the largest african-american population in the country, one of the largest latino populations. we always said sb 7 is a solution looking for a problem. there is a problem.

the problem is texans are voting polls of the problem is are voting but we are not voting for republicans. knowing what they know, they made a decision to put a target our backs, silence our voices so they can maintain that grip on power. it is iroc was e liberated memorial day yesterday to honor soldiers who defend freedom and democracy around the world, but yet when they come home to texas, they cannot go to their church, participate in their faith, and leave to go vote because sb 7 would eliminate the souls to the polls program. that is a shame. juan: is in texas also the state that gave birth to the south was what a registration project, willie velasquez, advocate of the mexican-american community? could you ta about that legacy th texas has more hispanic offials, eleed officials than any other state ithe country? >> you are warming my heart.

fully velasquez, i live in the sameeighborhood he lived in. th garcia,an antonio has always had a birthplace fo civil rights and falls -- cial justice and we work in partnership with african-americs to hava stro and proud minory boys it i tho teachin that ought uin the rm with nior democts. can what we called the black and brown summit along with state representative thompson, the longest serving democrat in the house, we call her the mother of the house, as well as representative davis african-american from dallas. we came together to say, this is a bicon we need to cross and we need to have a family discussion to live up to the legacy of people who were there before us, to stand up and do what is right for our constituents. amy: representative trey martinez fischer, can you talk about greg abbott site he's gone

for a special session? he did not even do that during the massive storm with the total electricity, you know, failure, but he is going to do that for this? and what does this have to do with the election foroverno in 2022? >> the campaign season is -- has already began. i think this is part of the narrative. the governor threatening special session, you're right, did not call a single special session for covid, in the response of covid. i've the 10 largest mass shootings in the country, four were in texas. he did not bring us back for that. you're talking about hurricane harvey and the winter storm make a 4.51 people no electricity in their homes, 15 million people wiout ter. yet he w to bring us back for politics? that tellse the polls make him a little nervous with his republican base.

we will do everything in our power to stand up for our right to vote and stand up for the constituents. amy: the same time you had to walk out on sunday come this week it was the qanon conference in dallas where former general michael flynn spoke and said there should be a military coup, though he denies that now, but it is on tape. also said trump won the election and the electoral college vote. this is the atmosphere in texas right now. what are you going to do if there is a special session? what are democrats going to do? >> the same rules we have in the regular session apply in the same session. a quorum being one of them. we have bn behind closed doors for 140 days. we are a citizen legislature. people have jobs, milies. when you time the session, better hope you're going to have full attendance because if you don't have a quorum, you can't meet. number two, there are lots of items on the table as to how we engage in debate and use the

parliament your procedure. sb 7 is an ugly but in wrightsville. -- voting rights bill. for support a policy that would not put people in jail and would not suppress the vote as severely as an nobel 7. i hope cooler heads prevail. if people don't want to talk, we are prepared to fight. i hope you will maintain a close eye on the deliberations once we go back to special session. juan: i want to ask about another issue, in recent news, texas governor greg abbott is to sign a recently passed bill whicwould allow texas to carry handguns openly in public without a permit? can you talk about tha >> i guess it is going back to the days of the wild west. it is impossible to get a license to carry concealed

weapon -- i mean, this is the same part of culture politics that republicans want to come to session and don't want to do with the winter storm, don't want to do with the fact we have the highest uninsured population in the country, don't want to govern responsibly but want to talk about antiabortion legislation and also how you can just carry your gun just about anywhere. listen, this is what we call the philly season of politics. nobody is -- the fact a law-enforcement was unanimous about we can't have people walking on the street with weapons is another sign of what republicans want to concentrate on, which is nothing that average texans care about. amy: you're calling on biden to do more. yet this issue of eliminating the filibuster. mentioned and sinema and senator sinema say they don't want to

eliminate it. this would also mean protection of voting all over the country. your final comment? what we have seen in the past we have a unified congress, time is limited. we need to put our priorities at the forefront. i have seen a number of discussions about hoyou can limit the filibuster and i certainly hope senator sinema would know in the state of arizona, state law, what citizenship requirement would do. this is happening across the country. we need a national response. this is the time to not think about our local politics or what bothers us as an individual, but what brings us together as a country and make sure every american regardless of color, who they love, regardless of where they live, they ought to have a right to vote without be bothered or pestered or having suppression tactics drone another phase. with all due respect to those

senators come it is time have a national response to federal voting. amy: texas state representative trey martinez fischer, a democrat representing san antonio. stubbing a voter suppression bill from being passed at least for now. we will continue to cover what happens. coming up next, we look at the cigarette undercounting of deaths of people of color by law enforcement. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. a major new report on police

killings suggests far more people of color have died in been killed by police than previously known. the report by the raza database project and unidosu.s. found at least 2600 latinos were killed by the police since 2014 -- a figure 24% higher than previous counts. overall, researchers documented the deaths of 32,542 people who have been killed by police since 2000. people of color accounted for 60% of the deaths despite making up roughly just 40% of the population. we are joined now by roberto rodríguez, the director of the raza database project, a network of some 50 researchers, scholars, journalists, activists, and family members of victims killed by law enforcement. he's also a professor at the university of arizona and the author of several books,

where roberto rodríguez details his own experience after a brutal beating at the hands of l.a. sheriffs in march 1979. professor, thank you for joining us. first, lay out what you found. >> i have been researching this since 1979. we found many more killings than expected. we did not even include the border patrol killings. we will include that in the final research. what we found is there is no systematic -- to collective data [indiscernible] regardless, we combined databases and found those 32,000 plus.

going from memory, i think like community suffers from about over 6600 killin since 2000. latino, the broad population, about 5700. the asian community, -- native community come over 500. the native community is the highesproportially. something that is important to know, it is not the percentages that is most important here. it is the number. in other words, what if we were killed at a 40% rate instead of 60%? it is unacceptable because we are still talking the same numbers. one of the other important things aside from what we found is there were 6000 cases of unidentified, unknown. much of it often is when police say no information available.

they do not release it like the same day, the next day, the next week, sometimes a few weeks later or months later, sometimes never. that complicates our research. that is why between now and the release of the final report, which will be at the end of the summer, we are going to track down those 6000 cases as best we can. the thing to remember, he will not be the most accurate in the world but more accurate than what exists now. that is why i emphasize this should not be up to us. this should be the government that requires every law enforcement agency to report. they don't. they neverave. i think that is -- the most aspect of this. everything is normalized. it is taken for granted. in europe, [indiscernible] where african-americans are killed then all europeans

combined. juan: looking at these figures, which are really astounding, it seems on average, every day in america, at least one latino and one african-american is killed either in the custody of police for through shootings. can you talk about your decision to inclu those deaths in custody as well? >> yeah. i mean, i think it answers itself. sandra bland, for example. she was in the custody of officers. if somebody is in jail or a police car, we have cases where someone shoots themselves when there handcuffed and in the back of the car and they shoot themselves in the front? and they claim that is a suicide? any debt where responsibility lies with the officers. there are cases that we did not include but we will, the people

who die along the border. they don't die accidentally. we have the documentation with the government says they drive people into -- so they can die. that way will discourage people. how do not include the border patrol that it's their policy to chase people? [indiscernible] i am not exaggerating when i say -- 1492, which means when europeans came here, they decided the people here, like myself, we were not human. africans that were brought here also were not human according -- in my opinion, it is the same dynamic taking place today. otherwise, we would not see the massive amount of killings and disparity. juan: in terms of the tremendous

explosion in numbers, especially among asian americans and native americans that you found when you began to go into that other category, could you talk about that is going? >> it was accidental. there are three categories we were looking at. "the washington post" is the standard. they have five categories. white, black, hispanic, other, unknown. i was used to going into the aesthetic category -- hispanic category. one day by accident, i think i checked the unknown category. so sanchez. i thought, why would they be in the unknown category? they would be in the other category. and i said, let me look at the white category. same thing. sanchez, gonzalez.

i'm like, something is wrong. "other" that is primarily people in the middle east, asia pacific, and natives. they don't have separate categories. i don't think you find a lot of latinos in the "other" categories but definitely in the "unknown" and "white." i don't blame the media. it is literally the government. it is the responsibility. but the media continues the dialogue. the nation can see it as this is a problem between white and black america would in reality, it is that but it is even bigger. it is much bigger. [indiscernible] continue the asian figures. those are through the roof. i had zero idea. 2014, the databases. i had never seen them before.

i am not sure what the deal is. we will pursue that. one of the things we asked ourselves as a group, should we count all deaths in custody, etc.? everyone said yes. personally, i wanted the unjustified. how do you determine what is unjustified when you don't have a judicial system that works? i would say 99.9% community in the killings examined and the border patrol. you can count on one hand with a finger or two to despair the police officers doing hard time, 30, 40, 50 years to life. i doubt there are even five. i personally believe that is the solution. until you see that, no reform is going to fix anything because all a cop has to say is "i feared for my life."

that absolves everything. amy: i also want to bring into this conversation, marissa barrera. she became an advocate against police violence after police in woodland, california, killed her brother michael in 2017. she's the founder of the nonprofit voices of strength, which works with the families of other victims killed by police. she is joining us from sacramento, california. welcome to democracy now! so sorry to hear about your brother michael. tell us what happened to him. >> thank you for having me this morning. in 2017, my brother was murdered by police in our hometown. the details are still not clear but we do know and this is through physical evidence and audio, video pictures now at this point that before being killed by police, he was assaulted in his home by an unknown assailant.

moments later, he was murdered by multiple officers. he was killed in a similar way to george floyd. he had five officers on top of him. he had a taser used on him excessively according to their own policies. he was beaten and also suffocated. he had a knee in his back. there's a question whether he had two knees from this officer sitting on his back who is over 250 pounds. my brother was saying "i can't breathe." he was asking for help. we don't know who assaulted him in his house so we have reasonably that has to do with the police for the fact the way he was murdered. he was unarmed. he was not posing a threat to these officers. he was telling them he was not a threat, asking them why they were trying to kill them as they

had guns and stuff and were unding up on him. we are reasonably they were involved in some way as my brother was speaking on things going on in the community such as missing people and missing teenagers just days before he was murdered. we do have the video evidence and the audio and the damage done to his body, but just after this happened, they covered it up and put a false narrative o him to make him look like he was this criminal who was trying to harm people and trying to kill the police. juan: i want to ask you specifically, what were you initially told by authorities had happened? what was their initial account to you? >> i do it to say we were not informed by the police on my brother's murder. we found out by an acquaintance in town who was in the hospital. we arrived -- they were refusing to let my family in with my

brother, refusing to let my mother see my brother in his final moments. he was already deceased, but he was to door down and they have police blocking us. they just told us he was found dead in somebody's yard. there were some kind of altercation. i found out by going to his home and finding police blocking off his home that police had killed him. that day we were told by the sergeant -- the police department sergeant that my brother was in some kind of fight, struggle with multiple cops, that he was running from cops, fo chase. he was unarmed and killed. 15 mines later, they released into our local news "the daily democrat" that my brother had multiple weapons -- a golf club, scissors, naked, trenchcoat,

breaking into cars, charging and attacking officers. saying so many horrible things about my brother. only 15 minutes after they told our family to your face that was an unarmed man killed by multiple officers and they did not know why. amy: we're talking to marissa barrera, founder of voices of strength. tell us what you're demanding now. >> what we are demanding now, fast-forward, so many facts have come out. all that i shared wi the first narrative was not true. my brother was dressed. he was assaulted in his home. he did not assault cops. i have seen the video and her the audio. we want full transparency. we won his case reopened. right now with everything going on in the country and police killings being brought to light, we are acting with other families that all of our cases be open. there is so much corption, so

many horrible things behind all of these killings. that is why work with the other families as well because it is happening to all of us. how bad my broer story i which i just shared a piece of it, but all of these families that i work with have similar stories just as bad. we have our own unique twist to it but ultimately, we go to the same things. juan: i want to bring roberto rodriguez back to the conversation. there has been this talk in the past year since the death of george floyd about ways to reform or defund the police. you have a long history in dealing with police abuse. what is your sense of where these calls for reform or transformation of policing are going to go? >> i am in full support of all of that. the problem, what i am saying, is an officer says they were

fearing for eir life, [indiscernible] that does not mean you stop everything you could do. like body cameras. that was not happening before. accountability projects, etc. there are a number of things that happen. personally, i mentioned a second ago, 30, 40, 50 years to life is the only thing that will stop this. however, one of the things were doing this the project is looking at going to the international criminal court. we have gone to the u.n. before. it is not enough. it has to go to the criminal level where they hunt down -- mention families. killings have no statute of limitations. that is why you can hunt down people. what marissa said is accurate,

every single family has a story and it is powerful and they have to live and relive. it is inhumane. i personally think anybody that comes up with the reform, great. but we can't stop there. we have to continue transparency, videos, everything. when the cameras started happening, people said oh, it will be over now. but all the killings we are talking about, how many prosecutions? i have to watch probably over 1000 videos. i can tell you come it doesn't really matter. you can see it in they will say, "oh, you did not see what happened before." [indiscernible] they thought he had a weapon and they found a crucifix on him.

in the state of washington, and was killed carrying a cell phone. to me, that is the scariest thing because everyone has a cell phone. they want to claim "i saw a shiny object" and they will find a on a pretty much everyone. the problem is not police violence, it is the judicial system and the politicians that are cowardly. i don't have to tell you, you coverage every single day. based on those that have and those that don't. i look at it as those that are considered humans and those that are not considered human. amy: i just wanted to thank you very much for being with us and

say we want to have you back on when you have your final report, roberto rodríguez is the director of the raza database project, which just published a preliminary report titled "deaths of people of color by law enforcement are severely under-counted." he is a professor at the university of arizona and the author of several books, including "yolqui: a warrior summonsed from the spirit world: testimonios on violence," on police violence in black, brown and indigenous communities, and "justice: a question of race," where roberto rodríguez details his own experience after a brutal beating at the hands of l.a. sheriffs in march 1979. and we want to thank marissa barrera, founder of the nonprofit voices of strength, who works with victims of police violence. her own brother was killed by police in woodland, california in february 2017. coming up, we go to canada for

the bodies of 215 children have been found on the grounds of a former residential school where indigenous children were sent after being forced -- forcibly separated from their families. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "what child is this" by throat singer duo piqsiq. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. the canadian government is facing pressure to declare a national day of mourning after the bodies of 215 children were found in british columbia on the grounds of a school for indigenous children who were forcibly separated from their families by the government.

the bodies were discovered at the kamloops indian residential school, which opened in 1890 and closed in the late 1970's. the catholic church ran the school up until 1969. over a span of a century, more than 150,000 indigenous children were sent away from their families as part of an effort by the government and church to rid them of their native cultures and languages. in 2015, the truth and reconciliation commission of canada concluded that the residential schools were "an integral part of a conscious policy of cultural genocide against canada's first nations population." the commission estimated 4100 children died while attending residential schools across canada. the commission's findings prompted a new search for unmarked graves at residential schools. this is chief rosanne casimir, the tk'emlups te suh-wep-muhc

first nation. >> knowing that children have missing, the relations have went missing and never came home. there was always questions of where and there s to be more to the story than they ran away or, you know, whatever reason they may have given. so i do know this finds it is about bnging the advanced technology to able to look beneath the surface of the soil and to confirm some of the stories that we were once told. amy: we are joined now by cindy blackstock, gitxsan activist for child welfare and executive director of the first nations child and family caring society of canada. also a professor at mcgill university. she is joining us from ottawa. thank you so much for joining

us, professor blackstock. talk about this horrific finding. >> you know what? what we know is first nations children were dying at prolific rates, often related to the federal government's underfunding of the schools in terms of health care and that health practices like putting sick kids in with healthy kids, malnutrition, abuse and neglect. the government noon about this. they chose not to address it. this is a history we see replaying itself throughout the entire history of residential schools. the stories of children dying under these dreadful circumstances were repeated, and canada continued to do nothing to help them. the important thing to note here is these children are just some of the children who died in the schools. there are many in unmarked

graves across the country. juan: professor blackstock, could you talk about the role of the canadian prime minister trudeau at this time in terms of these revelations? isn't the canadian government still actively litigating against residential school survivors? >> yeah, they are. despite the prime minister accepting all of the truth and reconciliation commission called action back in 25th teen, his government is not only litigating against residential school survivors, saint ann's residential schools, where there was an electric chair -- they would literally put children in an electric chair and shock them and canada's is litigating against survivors because it does not want to provide them compensation. but it is also litigating against this generation of first nations children. in 2016, we have a lal ruling found the government of canada is racially discriminating

against over 165,000 children by providing unequal federal services on reserves. it either public services that children need. that inequality was linked to the unnecessary family separations of thousands of children. in greater numbers than in residential schools. crimes to children and indeed some tragic cases, death of children. and yet canada, we've had have 19 procedural and noncompliance orders against this government to try and get them to a place to stop the discrimination and we're going back to court in two weeks. amy: professor, i want to ask you specifically at this place, described the school so people have a sense. so often you learn a story and learn about the whole world. of what you believe happened to these hundreds of children. >> one of the important things that your listeners may want to know is our residential school

system was actually based off a model in industrial school in pennsylvania. we set one of our emissaries down there and he modeled our residential schools after that. it is important to know the stores are probably going to unfold in the united states as well with the tragic loss of life of native americans. this particular school is right in the middle of a city that has a population of roughly about 125,000 people, kamloops. the school is beside a river. on one side of the river is a large settlement and on the others is the other half of the city. people would literally have driven past this. this school was set up in 1870's and operated until the 1970's. there are other schools across the country, 130 of them. some of them were still operating as late as 1996.

juan: how is it possible for the burial sites to be hidden for so long from public knowledge? and could you talk about the role of the church in this and what you think the church needs to do to atone for these atrocities? >> so what we have is really that these deaths would be hidden purposefully by the church and the government of canada. we know when the chief medical health officer of the indian department raised the alarm about the unequal health funding in 1907 resulting in the deaths of 70 children that the government of canada cut all of the research funding to document the death rate. they persecuted him. we have a situation where the children would die sometimes a preventable disease but in the

case of mount treatment and murder, there was a real incentive for those who had done the harm to just very the kids and not notify anyone. we have many stories where the other children in the schools were forced to dig the graves of the children who had died from these various types of maltreatment. it will be important to determine the cause of death most of in terms of the churches, the catholic church ran this. we know around the world there is been a lot of scandals about sexual abuse done by priests and other members of the clergy. in ts particular case, the catholic church was running residential schools all over canada, including the kamloops residential school. the catholic church has really not stepped forward since the truth and reconciliation commission. there was a call to action for the up to apologize -- for the pope to apologize, for the church to provide restitution for the victims, and the third

piece is to disclose all of the records. it took a lot of the records on residential schools, including who the children worked and what happened to them, back to the vatican where they were out of reach of residential school survivors who wanted to know the truth and have some sort of justice based on those documents. but they are still in the vatican. those need to be returned. amy: we will continue to follow this, cindy blackstock gitxsan , activist for child welfare and executive director of the first nations child and family caring society of canada. also a professor at mcgill university. that does it for our show. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

>> alright. have a great rest of your da y. ♪ hello and welcome to "nhk newsline." i'm catherine kobayashi in new york. hackers have taken aim at the world supply of food. they've attacked a major meat processing company. now its leaders are pointing fingers toward russia. managers at jbs noticed over the weekend that someone had gotten into their networks. so, they