tv Democracy Now LINKTV May 27, 2022 8:00am-9:01am PDT
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05/27/22 05/27/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> we have big myths about mass shootings. one is that massive shooters just snap and come out of nowhere, and that is not true. these are not impulsive crimes. they are planned. there are a lot of warning signs along the way. there's a lot more we can do to create awareness about that, to try to step in and intervene before it is too late.
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amy: as families in ulvade, texas, begin to make funeral arrangements for the 19 children and two teachers shot dead at the robb elementary school, we will speak to mother jones reporter mark follman, author of "trigger points: inside the mission to stop mass shootings in america." plus, we will go to minneapolis two years after the police murder of george floyd and speak with the city's first black democratic socialist city councilmember. the to the battle for the nbas. will go to easrn ukrne to speak with indepdent journast billy nessen. he has jt left the city of severodonetsk, which has come under intense russian shelling. >> this is the thing. people who have not been in the situation, artillery, it is an and human sound and unhuman shaking of the earth that is hard to describe. amy: all that and more, coming
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up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in texas, anger mounting and the police response to the massacre at robb elementary school in uvalde that left 19 children and two teachers dead. on thursday, victor escalon of the texas department of public safety said there were no officers out by the school to confront the 18-year-old gunman, contradicting earlier accounts that school resource officer unsuccessfully eaged the team. he also had feanswers abt the initial police response and why officers took over an hour to directly confront the shooter, even though scores of police officers were on the scene. >> once we interview all those officers, why they were thinking, what they did, why they did it, video, residual
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interviews, we will have a better idea could have anyone gotten there sooner. amy: one mother was handcuffed by u.s. marshall as she pleaded with officers to do more to help the students trapped inside the school. i never officer was seen another officer was seen holding a taser to keep angry parents at bay a. one law-enforcement officer of the local news channel some officers would need to -- appearance when it to rescue their own children. he husband of a fourth-grade teacher killed in tuesday's massacre died of a heart attack. 50-year-old joe garcia had just returned home from dropping off flowers at a memorial for his wife irma garcia when he collapsed. garcia's cousin wrote, "i truly believe joe died of a broken heart." joe and irma garcia were high school sweethearts who had been married for a quarter century. they leave behind four children. in toronto, canada, five schools were placed on lockdown thursday as police shot and killed a man seen carrying a rifle near an elementary school. toronto police chief james ramer
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wouldn't name the person killed, but described him as a young man in his late teens or early 20's. >> due to the proximity of a school, i certainly understand the trauma of how traumatic this must have been for staff, students, and parents given the recent events that have happened in the united states. amy: students at scores of schools across the united states walked out of classrooms at the stroke of noon thursday in a coordinated protest demanding passage of gun control laws. in michigan, hundreds of oxford high school students assembled on their school's football field, forming a giant "u" in solidarity with victims of the massacre in uvalde. four oxford students were killed in november by a 15-year-old gunman. data from the centers for disease control shows firearms have surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death for children in the u.s. on capitol hill, senate republans used the threat of a
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filibuster thursday to block a bill to combat neo-nazi and white supremacist violence. 47 republicans voted against ending debate on the domestic terrorism prevention act, which would create domestic terrorism offices within the fbi and the departments of justice and homend securit this comes less than two weeks after a white supremacist gunman killed 10 african-amerins at a grocery store in a predominantly black neighborhood of buffalo, new york. on thursday, the senate adjourned for a 10-day recess ter failing to take action on gun violence in the wake of the mass shootings in buffalo and uvalde, tes. democrats rallied outside the capitol demanding gun controls while rejecting republican calls to arm teachers and school resource officers. this is california senator alex padilla. >> no, putting more arms, adults in schools is not the answer. if more guns was the answer, the
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united states of america would be the safest nation in the world, but it is not. amy: texas governor greg abbott has canceled plans to speak at the annual convention of the national rifle association, which opens today in houston less than 300 miles from the site of tuesday's massacre in uvalde. but he will send a video. two other prominent texas republicans, senator john cornyn and congressmember dan crenshaw, also canceled plans to attend the gathering, as have musical guests. texas republican senator ted cruz and texas lieutenant governor dan patrick still plan to attend, as does today's featured speaker, former president donald trump. the nra says the secret service will prohibit guns inside the houston convention center during trump's speech. ukraine's military retreated from several positions along the
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eastern front thursday as russian forces made slow but steady gains in a push to seize control of ukraine's donbas region. russia appears to have seized control of lyman, a town with a strategically important railway junction. meanwhile, the mayor of severodonetsk in eastern ukraine claimed russia's assault has killed 1500 city residents while destroying over half of the city's residential buildings. on thursday, ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy accused russia's military of genocide, saying it was burning whole cities into ashes. in sudan, security forces were deployed the capital khartoum thursday as massive protests demanding an end to military rule continue. thousands of people took to the streets and marched towards the presidential palace demanding a return to civilian rule following a coup by sudan's military in october. this is one of the protesters. >> today there are a lot of injuries. they are targeting children and women who are specially hit in the head and eyes. a woman told me she was hit by
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security vehicle firing tear gas. amy: in colombia, voters are choosing a new president sunday. leftist candidate gustavo petro shows a significant lead in recent polls, with right-wing rival federico gutierrez in second place. petro's running mate is the goldman prize-winning environmentaactivistrancia márquez mina. both candidatehave dennced mounng death threats they've reived ding theicampaign d racistttacks againstina, who is poid to bece coloia'first black vice president. tro has wed to sp all new -- to fig inequaly in lombia and stop alnew l devepment,edistrute peion savings, amongther forms. see ournterview with francia márquez mina, go to democracynow.org. coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths are rising in most regions of the united states heading into memorial day weekend. officially the u.s. is averaging over 110,000 daily infections, though the widespread use of at-home tests means the true number is likely far higher. this week the cdc published a
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study finding more than one in five adults who survive covid-19 go on to experience at least one symptom of long covid, with problems including fatigue, heart, lung and kidney damage, cognitive decline, blood clots, and more. the world health organization estimates as many as 100 million people around the world may experience mid- and long-term health effects of covid-19. and the protection offered by vaccines against long covid appears limited. a department of veterans affairs study published in the journal nature this week found vaccination reduced the risk of long-term lung and blood clot disorders from covid-19 but did little to protect against other long-term health effects from the disease. former black panther sundiata acoli has been reunited with his family after serving nearly half a century in prison. acoli is 85 years old and suffers from dementia. earlier this month, the new jersey supreme court ruled that acoli is not a risk to public safety, paving the way for his
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release. oklahoma has banned nearly all abortions beginning at the moment of fertilization. the new law took effect immediately after it was signed by republican governor kevin stitt on wednesday. the bill allows private citizens to sue abortion providers, with a bounty of at least $10,000 for successful lawsuits. this comes after a leaked supreme court draft opinion showed justices are prepared to strike down roe v. wade, the landmark 1973 ruling legalizing abortion nationwid the department of justice has decided not to charge the fbi agents who for months failed to properly investigate serious sexual abuse accusations against former usa gymnastics doctor larry nassar. this comes after a report in july of last year found indianapolis fbi officials failed to follow up with key witnesses or alert other law enforcement agencies of the crimes. the neglect led to nassar abusing or assaulting more than 100 other gymnasts between the time the fbi first heard of the
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accusations in 2015 until dr. nassar's arrest the following year. the two fbi agents also made false statements and omitted key information in trying to hide failures in the nassar investigation. and spain's parliament has approved landmark legislation that would codify the definition of consent as an explicit expression of a person's will into spanish law, freeing survivors of sexual assault from the burden of having to prove violence or intimidation was used against them. the measure known as "only yes means yes" makes consent a key determinant in sexual assault cases and emphasizes that a person's silence does not equal consent. the efforts were spearheaded by spain's equality minister irene montero. >> today, the feminist movement makes history again. the opus to each one of the
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survivors, we owed it to ourselves, and most likely it will be one of the most important rights that we can leave to our daughters but the present and future. only yes means yes. long live the women's fight. many thanks. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. families in uvalde, texas, are beginning to make funeral arrangements following tuesday's massacre at the robb elementary school where an 18-year-old gunman shot dead 19 fourth graders and two teachers. the police in uvalde are coming under mounting criticism for its handling of the shooting and for releasing misleading, and often inaccurate, information about what happened. authorities now admit the gunman was able to enter the school unobstructed through a door that was apparently unlocked. he then remained in the school for over an hour before he was shot dead by an off-duty border patrol agent. during this time, local police blocked parents from trying to
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enter the school -- in one case, handcuffing a mother who drove 40 miles to the school to save her kids. one father was tasered. the massacre is the 27th shooting at her school this year. the shooting in uvalde came just 10 days after an 18-year-old self-described white supremacist attacked a grocery store in the heart of buffalo's african american community. shooting dead 10 people, all of whomere black. ree of theictims are being buried today. well, shortly before the buffalo shooting, i interviewed mark follman, national affairs editor at mother jones. he is author of the new book "trigger points: inside the mission to stop mass shootings in america." in the book, he closely examines another school shooting -- one that took place at oxford high school in michigan where a 15-year-old student sh dead four students last november. seven people were injured, including a teacher. the shooting occurred shortly
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after school authorities had a meeting with the student and his parents about "concerning behavior." the student was allowed to return to class carrying a backpack that contained a semi-automatic pistol which his father had bought just days before. the gunman's parents were later arrested after a manhunt. on thursday, hundreds of oxford high school students assembled on their schools football field forming a giant "u" in solidarity with the victims of uvalde. other walkos occurred across the country. i asked mark follman to talk more about the oxford high school shooting and how it relates to his book "trigger points." >> i continued to report on this case and just published another piece about it this week and mother jones looking deeper into its details because get is a particularly dark case terms of all the warning signs that were present prior to the attack. this is especially true in school shootings. there are so many cases going
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back in time that a dug into for my book "trigger points" mi for the reporting onhis where you see a number of people around the perpetrator had indication and attack was coming, often there are peers, other students who know in some way -- they may not know what to do about it or may not take it seriously, that has happened in a lot of cases, and you also had a very stark situation with the parents as you were describing who seemed to have completely ignored if not enable what the child was doing. there are big questions about how the school handled it, would people on the staff and other faculty became alarmed, deeply alarmed to the point were essentially demanding that parents remove him from the school and yet that allowed him to go back to class the day of the shooting. it is really a very tragic case study in the lessons that still have not been learned and should be about this problem that we
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see over and over again in our country and that are well understood in the field of behavioral teat assessment which is the focus in my book from this prevtion method where there are opportunities to get in the way of this before it happens. with that perpetrator in michigan, he was posting dark things on social media, including photos of him holding the gun that his parents had purchased in the days before the attack. he had texted with peers about sort of joking about "i'm going to shoot up the school." making comments like that three months before he did it. the signs continue to escalate as the attack approached, which is also a behavioral pattern seen in a virtually all of these cases. to the point where the days before the attack, he was searching for ammunition on his cell phone. the teacher saw that the day before the shooting and repoed it to the administrators or falty at the school.
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the next day, teacher in class observed him making violent drawing on a math sheet, including comments that say things like "blood everywhere" and "the thoughts. "clear signs of suicidal thinking. this is a range of warning signs that are no to this prevention field. their big questions in this case as to why they work seen or taken seriously or whatever the case was that allowed such a glaring situation to continue to escalate toward its tragic outcome. amy: and the idea the school allowed the parents to say, no, he will stay in school. why bother having a meeting if you're just going to completely go by what the parents are saying? now, they end up going into hiding. if you could then also talk about this new development --,
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and, in dealing with mass shootings at a school, where the parents are actually charged? >> this case is unprecedented where local prosecutor has brought involuntary manslaughter charges against the parents in this case. it is going to be a very interesting test of potential criminal liability that we have never seen before in school shooting case. there's an interesting set of legal questions whether or not that will be proven in court, whether the laws in the state of michigan will accommodate that. but the prosecutor herself said in a press conference announcing these charges she wanted to make an example out of this and try to deter other situations like this in the future. it speaks to the availability come access to firearms for people who clearly should not have that.
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in this case, the question of how the gun was secured or not at home is an issue in civil lawsuits that have been brought by victims families, and then there is the criminal question. i want to be clear here also, this is a complicated problem and i try to be careful about describing blame because, clearly, the role of the parents and this case -- and there are other cases, where parents are not helpful in a worsening situation like this -- and then there is the role of the school, which is vital important in terms of how they handle this apparent rising danger. one thing that i think is very interesting about the method of threat assessment is it is fundamentally a paradigm of shared responsibility, of community-based violence prevention. the blame falls on everyone here. it falls on the family, the school, local law enforcement to the extent they may be aware of a problem.
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that also exists in many cases going back in time. there are some big questions about how we can do better as a society to get in front of this problem when we can see it coming, when there's opportunity to see it coming. that is one of the fundamental themes of my book. we have big myths about mass shootings. one is that mass shooters just snap and come out of nowhere. that is not true. these are not impulsive crimes. they are planned. there are a lot of warning signs along the way. there's a lot more we can do to create awareness about that, to try and sp in and intervene for it is too late. amy: let's talk about that. what are the trigger points? what exactly is behavioral threat assessment? and then folded into the work you're doing at mother jones with this mass shooting database that you have been keeping f years? >> what threat assessment is, prevention method that brings
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together collaborative expertise , primarily in mental health and law enforcement, in a community, working with leaders in those professions as well as others in the setting where a program is in place. so in school system, you also have administrators, will psychologists, and counselors involved in a workplace setting would have personal specialists involved, often partnership with agencies and juvenile services, other kinds of social services programs. the people who serve on these teams, their mission is to evaluate concerning cases as they come up. in mossituations, that is when an ordinary person reaches out for help because they're worried about the way someone is acting or perhaps appearing to plan violence. when that is the case, then team
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uses the protocol to evaluate what is going on. they will interview people around the subject, talk to the subject themselves, try to understand what is the problem here and can we step in and help. the method fundamentally is preventative, not predictive. there's no way to predict who was going to become a massive shooter. that is another myth. you cannot profile mass shooters in that way. it is not possible. the research is clear about that in this field. instead, the field looks at the set of behaviors and circumstances that lead up to these attacks -- as i was describing about the oxford case , warning signs that are recognizable from threatening communications to signs of suicidality, personal deterioration to triggering events, the major problem the person goes through that may set off violence that they have been planning. so there is a whole range of factors that a team will look at to evaluate the level of danger
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and also to think about what are the best ways we can try and help this person. fundamentally, that is the goal. it is a dual goal. it is to head off what appears to be planned approaching violence while at the same time getting help to someone who is in serious need of help. there are many cases where this has worked successfully that i write about in "trigger points." watching teams do this work, looking at case files over long periods of time. we never hr about these because it is not news when nothing happens. that is the evidence of success in these cases, when there is not a violent outcome, where there was concern there would be. but its remarkably effective when it is done well. the programs where i was able to observe over a periods of time, the work being done. amy: mark follman, were the first journalist to deeply document the copycat problem of,
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for example, columbine. talk about how you avoid that. >> it is a challenging issue because it is important for the news media to report on mass shootings. they have a big impact. they are significant part of the gun violence problem, which is much broader in other ways. but there's a strong public interest in these cases. it is also important report on them clear right and accurately so that there is it misinformation. that is happen a lot, too. i'm not sure people are aware there are people misidentified as mass shooters in the immediate aftermatof these cases,hey are used for political arguments in ways that are wrong or perpetuate the mythology. there is a strong need for good media coverage of these and yet we do a lot of harm when we sensationalize these cases, which historically has been the pattern. you know, putting excessive focus on the perpetrators.
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splashing the pictures everywhere. putting her name in headlines. we see less of this now because the media i think it's kind understand that is problematic, but there is very clear case evidence with the copycat problem going back decades that perpetrators of this crime often are seeking that kind of sensational media attention. this problem has never been more pronounced than it was with the columbine shooting. so many school shooters looked to that case, the sort of mythology around the case of columbine as inspiration. when the news media constantly recycles those themes, you literally see into this -- to this day you'll see media figures and public officials as well refer to school shootings as "columbine-style attacks." th keeps the height of consciousness -- we don't really need to say that to understand the school shooting is anymore, sadly.
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there are ways in which the news media can frame this problem diffently. i use the term i call "strategic diminishment" to report forensically on these cases, we need to the way i was describing, but also to shrink the frame around the perpetrators, to stay away from the sensational ids that these are sinister, evil villains, treat them as these almost mythic figures in a way by splashing their crazed images on the front pages or their posing social media with guns. that is how they want to be seen in the public eye, and we don't need to do that to provide that context. amy: i want to talk about the politics of gun control and the abysmal failure of containing guns in united states. on monday, president biden announced a new rule to rein in ghost guns. he was joined by a survivor of a
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school shooting in southern california in 2019. this is what she said. >> i'm speaking on behalf of two classmates who can't be here with us. one of whom was my best friend. when i woke up on november 14, 2019, my biggest worry of the day was a spanish test. i was a freshman at saugus high school. determined to get good grades. so as soon as i got to school, i made a beeline for the quad to meet up with my best friend dominic blackwell. it is hard for me to talk about dominic. like me, dominic had big dreams. like doing well in school and planning for our futures. we spent the morning like any other laughing and talking until we heard a loud pop. it was a gunshot followed by six more.
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one of the bullets hit me in the stomach. somehow i was able to get up and run away. but dominic couldn't. amy: that is mia tretta speaking at the white house on monday. this is when president biden finalized a new federal rule that would regulate ghost guns more like regular guns. ghost guns, of course, firearms without serial numbers that are usually assembled from kits, often sold over the internet were created in 3d printers. the justice department reporting about 6000 such guns are recovered at crime scenes each year. i wanted -- give out this particular regulation -- i wanted to ask about this particular regulation. this idea that this is as far as the administration can go? you have now the democrats controlling the house, controlling the senate, and the presidency and yet -- and the nra at its weakest point in
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history, what does it take, mark follman? >> well, this is a question that we have faced for a long time. to be honest with you, it is one of the reasons i was led to the subject of the book because i became frustrated like i think so many americans are with the political dynamics that are so stuck, so entrenched, so polarized over the issue of gun regulations. it is remarkable that we don't have more effective regulations, more broadly. there's a very basic reason for that, ich is a lot of thiis a matter of what goes on at the state leve we have seen congress is not going to take action on this and the political framework of that i think is well known and well understood in terms of the power of the gun lobby. even with the nra becomg more weakened irecent years, the power of white they were able to do over decades politically --
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what they were able to do over dedes politically to sway the republican party but also the democratic party, from doing anything meaningful about gun reform, is just -- it is a deep long-term problem. there are some i think very powerful grassroots efforts that have gone on in the opposite direction over the past decade, and it has created progress at the state and local level. the problem is you really need a broad national picture of change ee to beruly effective. we still have a very patchwork system the state and lal level in tms of some places having very strict laws and others been very loose and loosening further in recent years. so the reality of firearms in our country, we have an estimated 400 million of them now, loely gulated in many places, that is not going away anytimeoon in a broader,
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meaningful sense. therefore, the question for me became, what more can we do to do with his problem? i think what they've just entered the white house with ghost guns is very important. that is a rising issue. it is very concerning, this new type of access to firearms. again, this cannot be the only way we address this major societal issue, which is really a public health crisis. seeing it through that lens, i think we can think more in terms of prevention work and dare i say that there is hope in that. that is what led me to do the book as well. we don't have to be resigned to the idea that we are just going to the stuck forever in this battle, this polarized battle over firearm regulation. there are other things we could do to get in the way of this problem and prevent it from happening. amy: mark follman, author of the new book "trigger points: inside the mission to stop mass shootings in america."
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i spe to him prior to the recent mass shootings in uvalde, texas, and buffalo, new york. the nra is meeting for the first time in three years today. their meeting in houston, 300 miles from uvalde. guns will be banned during donald trump's speech to the nra today. meanwhile, senate minority leader mitch mcconnell has directed texas republican senator john cornyn to work on so-called partisan gun safety legislation with key democrats, including senator chris murphy of connecticut, who represents sandy hook, where a gunman shot dead 26 people, including 20 children between the ages of six and seven nearly a decade ago. coming up, we go to minneapolis. it is two years after the police murder of george floyd. we will speak with the city's first black democratic socialist councilmember. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]
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amy: "change for the world" by charles bradley. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. this week marks two years since george floyd was murdered by former minneapolis police officer derek chauvin. his death spurred a global movement for racial justice and intensified the push for police accountability and abolition. on wednesday, the city of minneapolis renamed the intersection where he was killed as "george perry floyd square." on the same day, members of floyd's family attended a white
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house ceremony where president biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies to revise use-of-force policies, banning tactics like chokeholds, and restricting practices like no-knock warrants, while establishing a national database of police misconduct. biden's executive order came as a reform bill, the george floyd justice in policing act, remains stalled in the senate amid republican opposition. on wednesday, juan gonzalez and i spoke with robin wonsley worlobah. she is a longtime activist in minneapolis. earlier this year, she became minneapolis' first black democratic socialist city councilmember. she was part of a coalition successfully blocking the relocation of the third precinct police station, where chauvin was based -- which still sits vacant today. i began by asking her where she was when she heard about george floyd's murder memorial day weekend in 2020. >> i was like many residents at
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the time. was running errands when i heard word of it. then i had, you know, community members are the historic footage of floyd be pinned against thground, with derek chauvin, officer derek chauvin's knee, you know, forcefully placed upon floyd's neck. that image in itself forced me to pull over, and i just remember being in a deep paralysis and shaking and crying. and, you know, as you noted in my intro, i've been a organizer in minneapolis. and unfortunately, a lot of my organizing work has revolved around police-related murders of black people, from jamar clark to philando castile. and, you know, i was there with philando castile watching as st.
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anthony and their officers washed the blood off the sidewalk -- or the street, and now here i am watching george floyd be killed, like millions of others around the world, and, of course, just was forced into a pause of, you know, all the things that have transpired that led to that moment, the failure of our leadership to really address the deep inequities that have been documented here in minneapolis, specifically, for a number of years, especially around policing. and how if we had better leadership, willing to exercise even the bare minimum of political will and political courage, especially with our police federation, with our officers, how we would not have had to endure the collective trauma of watching george floyd be lynched. and then, basically, afterwards
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seeing our city burn nearly down because of this collective oppression. you know, martin luther king says, you know, the riots are the sounds of the oppressed. you know, i just think there was so much that could have happened, that activists and residents had been organizing around clear demands, public safety demands, for a number of years that could have prevented that. and just the unknown of what was actually going to come in the wake of everything that transpired here in minneapolis after george floyd, and now being in this position of power and saying two years later, we have not made much progress. actually, if there was a way to go backwards, we've done it. and that's disheartening to say in this current moment where we're honoring such a historic moment in, not only u.s. history, but global history. as you noted, his murder sparked a national movement, one of the
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largest civil rights movements in u.s. history, and that will go on to prompt actions and protest in more than 50 countries around the world. and to be able to sit here as an elected official who ran, you know, in the wake of organizing for justice for george floyd, being tear-gassed by our police in the midst of all that, and now have to see our leadership continue to fail to rise to the occasion to prevent another black person from being murdered, another working-class person from being murdered -- we have failed to rise to that occasion even two years later, and it just makes you think, what does it take to get justice for black lives at this point? juan: and i wanted to ask you -- in the wake of those protests ter george floyd's rder, there did se to be se attempts by political leaders, not only in nneapolis t around the country, to institute
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some changes. ere was reduction the lice department buet initiay in minapolis. but as often happens with these prests, thsystem figures out a way toasically let the moveme spend its energy and th seizes back its power. i'm wonderinhow thatappened, specifically in minneapolis? how did the movement backwards occur? >> i think, for one, i do want to note, there was never a reduction in police funding. there has been, you know, years of efforts from residents to say, "let's transition dollars from mpd into other, you know, holistic social services that actually deals with the root causes of crime." and, you know, there have been very small investments into that work. but as we stand right now, of
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today, two years later, the the police budget for the minneapolis police department still stands close to $200 million. and as you mentioned, the movement backwards, we really saw -- in the wake of george floyd's murder and the uprising, we saw this, you know, broad movement rallied around the demand to defund the police. you know, there was efforts by that coalition of organizations, black-led organizations, to try to even put something on the ballot that would have allowed us to basically dismantle the police department as it currently stands and create a new department of public safety, that would have, you know, not replicated many of the racist and violent components of policing as it currently stands. and we had an unelected body, the charter commission. and we've seen this play out throughout all levels of government. you know, when we tried to pass 15 federally, we had a parliamentarian commission come in and say no.
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so we always have these unelected bodies that are able to assert themselves and block the changes that working-class people are demanding. we had that with the charter commission. they delayed that and then that forced our movements to have to look into putting a charter amendment forward for the following year, which was our election year. and what we saw was the status quo of minneapolis fight tooth and nail to keep any transformative change around public safety from coming into fruition. and when i say "fight tooth and nail," some of the things that they did was build a broad coalition of some of our most big business -- powerful big business actors. we're talking about the chambers of commerce, the downtown council. they formed these pacs where they pulled millions of dollars together to do, you know, repeated media blitzes, saying that, you know, this demand will get rid of police, it will defund the police.
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and also we were seeing somewhat of a rise in community violence at the time, and they were leveraging, you know, the justifiable pain and trauma that many of our working-class black residents were experiencing, you know, as it related to that community violence, and saying, "look, you can't have transformative change and be able to keep, like, your community safe. so you have to pick. so either you're going to keep the cops to keep the bullets from flying, from keeping babies from dying, or you're going to have like a new model of public safety. and that's too risky. so let's just keep the cops as they are." so we had this whole powerful coalition. that was tied into an election year. so you had a number of candidates who were tying themselves to this anti-public safety amendment, you know, pro-policing agenda. our current mayor was also at the helm of a lot of that and basically saying, "we don't need to make any major changes. all we need to do is trust that
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our current police chief" -- at that time, a well-respected black man, no, from st. paul and minneapolis. "we just need to trust him to carry out the reforms necessary to rein in the racist and terrorizing dynamics of mpd that led to george floyd's murder. let's just trust him to do that. don't trust these crazy activists." and they were able to run a successful multimillion-dollar campaign, a fear campaign, to squash any type of efforts to make meaningful change around public safety. but what i want to know is while they were successful on november 2 defeating the public safety amendment and getting a pro-police majority on city council, what has happened since is that whole thing has fallen apart. their whole fear campaign, fear-based campaign promises have fallen apart. a month after we got elected, chief arradondo, the chief who was going to save the entire police department, retired.
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in february, minneapolis residents watched another police killing of a youngan by the name of amir locke while he was sleeping in an apartment at 6:30 a.m. mind you, the officers involved in shooting that young man while he was sleeping have not been charged, and charges will not be brought forward to those officers, and they will likely come back on the force to police our communities. we also have had a release of a damning human rights report from our state department, the minnesota department of human rights, which has basically said -- you know, confirmed minneapolis police department is entrenched in racist, misogynistic, and violent practices that mpd leadership, as well as city leadership -- we're talking about our current mayor who's been there for five years, many of my fellow councilmembers who have been there for a number of years. this report names that all of those leaders were aware of
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these human rights violations that were taking place in our department and did nothing. so we've had that report come out. and we've had our current mayor even resist talks -- has made public declarations to walk away from all conversations with our state human rights department around entering into a consent decree. we still have a mayor that is championing resistance to any type of reform. we've passed a police contract that has further emboldened our officers, given them incentives, monetary incentives with no level of accountability in which they are being forced to be beholden to by our current leadership. so we've seen again, just regression and regression, after communities have continued to rise up and say we must do better. we need a new department of public safety. we need to address the fact that mayor frey and many of our council leadership, you have not
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-- and mpd leadership, you have not enacted any meaningful and effective oversight over one of the most dysfunctional, racist and violent policing departments in the country right now. and you, in turn, to those residents are still resisting every effort from councilmembers like myself who ran on a platform for public safety beyond policing. you're resisting any efforts from community members, even state departments to create any meaningful reforms. so we're just seeing a full doubling down on basically protecting mpd policing as it currently stands. amy: robin wonsley of the minneapolis city council. next up, we go to eastern ukraine. ♪♪ [music break]
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amy: "welcome to the cruel world" by ben harper. this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman. heavy fighting is continuing in the eastern part of the country as russia attempts to seize the entire donbas gion where fighting beg in 2014. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy has accused russia of turning towns and cits in the region to ashes. some of the heaviest attacks is occurring in two cities that remain under ukrainian control, severodonetsk and lysychansk. the mayor of severodonetsk said 60% of the city's homes have been destroyed. last week, democracy now! spoke to independent journalist billy ssen in severodonetsk. dung the intview, a ruian shl hit the ilding lated next to whe nessen was standing.
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>> there have been foreign fighters here but i think a lot of them, from what i hear from ukrainians, not ver effective es. there are probably some. you know, it's mostly not ex-special forces. [alarms] amy: billy? >> yeah. amy: billy, are you ok? >> yeah, i'm ok. just right next door to us. amy: my god! [alarms] >> that landed right here. amy: that was independent journalist billy nessen on democracy now! last week. on thursy, nermeenhaikh d i spe to him ain short ter he left sevedonetsk r the cityf kramatorsk, about 60 mileto the wt. i began by asking why he left severodonetsk and about reports that russian shelling hakilled sipeople in e city.
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>> the whole time i was there, there was a lot of shelling but it was mostly over the towns and it is increasingly landed in the town and i think -- there is a good reason militarily for that. i think some of the troops from the frontlines have moved back and they are trying to hit batteries that pull back into the town. but it is hard to explain t increase in shelling, the increase in people killed. i think it has got to be at least twice that number of dead. we had one person guy in the stribution center -- one person die in the distribution center just a few feet away for me, the bottom part of her lg have been blown upnd she bled out despite two tourney kits and
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the best efforts. amy: explain what that distribution center is. take us back there. >> the distribution center the place that organizes the evacuation of people who want to be evacuated to other tns west of their and sometimes out of the country. and it also distributes aid that come in by the road from the west to the people who want to stay. last night after we treated the wounded, there was an attack -- the building was hit several times. very largearehouse, about five floors above it, and thankfully, it has another building at one end. i think it was probably hit thereby couple of rounds and the whole building just shook.
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people who have not been in this situation, artillery, it is an uhnuman sound and shaking of the earth tt is hard to deribe. pefully at some point we can play some of these sounds. it is most like some deep sea monsters battling under the sea and you hear these echoes and tremors. we gathered -- they have a generator th went off,as knocked f and we gathed flashlights and were scared the buildingas being tgeted and wehought tis could be a terrible night, but it turned out in the end to be better than we feared. nermeen: billy, can you explain, descri for us yourourney to kramatorsk?
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what did it in detail and why did you and the photographer you spoke of, why did you decide to go there? >> well, so the russians are trying to encircle two cities, severodonetsk and lysychansk. they are doing that by trying to cut off the roads west of lysychansk. so this was -- not nessarily mo safe place, but there's a hospital her and i thought i wod come herand try to spend a day or two. i was aware tt i had reached an emotional limit, and colleague is sing -- isith
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some oer peopl it just got -- i think we realed there w a good chce we were ing toet killed. there were too many shells coming down all around the center and just throughout the city, and too many people wer coming in d dying analmost dyin it was coming closer and closer to us. we both felt guilty about leaving. nermeen: what about other people still there? were there any other evacuations , ongoing or planned, the old couple of whom you spoke of earlier? >> people are hesitant to leave. th is the taft thing. spite the war, people are scared to go away. often these people have never
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been anywhere outside eir city. is starting to rain here,o i'm going to satisfy amy and put on my helmet. there it is, folks. so they're going to try to be more evacuations, buthe road even out of sevedonetskight have been cut already. and then the roadrom lysychan, the ssians a on it. its very hd to get tough. thevacuations might be at an end. there are volunteers still at the center. they are all local people and they have decided they are going to stay and brave whatever comes . amy: how do people communicate with each other from city to city, billy? what means of communications, internet, is there?
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in the last few days, have you seen a qualitative -- this is in severodonetsk -- but aassive increa in the shelling? take as from the significance of lysychansk to -- constitute donetsk, to kramatorsk and what it means in this battle. >> i think the shelling has not necessarily increased, it has just drawn closer and closer and the russian presence in severodonetsk and a sense that they can take it and that they can take lysychansk, which i hadn't heard before. i think there is, you know, i movement withdraw -- it is going
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to be a very big below i think to some of the morale of the people here and to the troops. and i think it will be a big propaganda victory for russia. and i think it is especially dangerous in that it will begin to affect the politics and the support in the west, in the united states. as this war over time, it is inevitable it drops from being the primary issue for american and european politics. i think it has dropped down a notch already. and i think things like this will begin to pressure or see
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politicians saying, well, maybe we need to negotiate with russia, with putin. maybe ukraine has to give up something. that is not how ukrainia feel, but i think there is an awareness there that this is a danger. amy: where do you had from here, billy? from kramatorsk? >> i'm jusgoing to give it a good couple of days here. i'm going to stay in this hospital for a couple of days and have a good cry. when you ce out of these things -- i ve been there for a nth. even though this is still a war zone, that was beyond, you kw -- i had experienced something similar when i was with the guerrillas, daily battles with the indonesian military and quite scary. but it ilike you're coming
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from a different world and the emotions on the way here, just earlier, began to have that cry and i became aware that i had really pushed down my fear and the pain. amy: billy, we thank you for being with us and we will get in touch with you again soon. please be safe. billy nessen has just left severodonetsk, now in kramatorsk , will stay there at a hospital for a few days. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. amy: independent journalist william "billy" nessen speaking to us from ukraine. 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!]
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