01/31/23 01/31/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> we were definitely happy they are moving in the right direction. the organized crime unit, they all wo under t same umbrella as the scorpioand they should be dbanded as well. amy: as the memphis police department disbands its scorpion unit after the fatal police beating of tyre nichols, we will

look at the vocal rise of the wire cop" with radley balko. did in new york, a special unit designed to protect trans women at the rikers island jail has fallen apart, straining many trans women in male jails where they have been harassed and raped. then we will talk about theebt iling. >>he debceilindisputes between esident den a spker mccary's most t politicalheater. hiddenehind it, a movement thathifts thburden oour vernnt off o corporaons and the ch onto l the rest of us. that is what should be being discussed and debated. amy: we will speak with economist richard wolff about the debt ceiling, and economics of the ukraine war, and more. all that and more, coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. u.s. secretary of state antony blinken is meeting with palestinian leaders in the is really occupied west bank. it comes days after the palestinian authority ended its security coronation with israel following a spate of killings by israeli forces. in the latest violence, the forces shot 16-year-old palestinian in the head. the palestinian ministry of health reports so far this year is really soldiers and settlers have killed 35 palestinians including eight children and an elderly woman. on monday, blinken met with the israeli prime minister. >> throughout the relationship between our countries, what we

come back to time and again is that it is rooted both in shared interests and values, including our support for more democratic principles and institutions including human rights and euclid administration of justice for all. equal rights of minority groups, free press, robust civil society. amy: many of blinken's remarks were drawn word for word from previous state department statements. his meeting with netanyahu came just days after the state department spokesperson refused to describe palestinians in the west bank as living under isareli military occupation. in pakistan, the death toll from monday's suicide bombing in the northwestern city of peshawar rose to 95 after first responders ended their rescue and recovery operation. a local official said more than 225 people were also injured in the attack, whictore thrgh a packed mosque inside a police and government compound. most of the dead were police officers. an offshoot of the taliban known

as ttp claimed responsibility for the massacre. in iran, human rights groups are demanding authorities throw out the convictions against three young men sentenced to death for their involvement in anti-government protests that erupted in september after the death of mahsa amini in police custody. their cases are detailed in a new amnesty international report, which denounces iranian authorities for torturing the three men and denying them a fair trial. the report describes 19-year-old mehdi mohammadifard was raped and beaten so brutally by prison guards that he had to be taken to the hospital. the two others, 18-year-old arshia takdastan and 31-year-old javad rouhi, have also been subjected to horrific beatings in prison. the three were denied the right to choose their lawyers to fight the charges and their hearings lasted less than an hour. president joe biden has informed congress he will end the national emergency and public health emergency declarations over covid-19 in mid-may and will ask the federal government to treat the coronavirus as an endemic threat.

the announcement comes after lawmakers repeatedly rejected requests from the biden administration for billions of dollars in additional aid to combat the pandemic, including funding for free covid vaccines and testing. last year, covid-19 remained the third leading cause of death in the united states for the third year in a row, surpassed only by heart disease and cancer. on average, the disease is killing more than 3500 people per week across the united states. in tennessee, the memphis fire department has terminated two emt's and a fire department lieutenant over their roles in the killing of tyre nichols, a 29-year-old african american father who was fatally beaten by police on january 7 after a traffic stop. memphis fire officials say an internal investigation revealed that the first responders "failed to conduct an adequate patient assessment of mr. nichols." video shows the emt's walking away from tyre and leaving him

on the ground as he roils in agony. meanwhile, the memphis police department has revealed that a sixth and seventh officer were placed on administrative leave after tyre's killing. one of the officers, preston hemphill, who is white, participated in the initial traffic stop and fired his taser at tyre. hemphill was recorded saying, "i hope they stomp his ass," referring to tyre. an initial police report filed just hours after tyre's violent arrest shows wide discrepancies between the claims of officers and what video from the scene reveals. the video shows no evidence that tyre tried to fight the officers or reached for their guns as the arrest report alleges. on monday night, residents gathered to remember tyre in a candlelight vigil at the site of his killing. pastor charita mccoy helped organize the protest. >> i want peace. i represent peace. i want to see that. i want to see peace -- there are

hurting families behind us, hurting -- the nation is hurting. amy: in new jersey, racial justice advocates and the family of carl dorsey, an unarmed black man who was killed by newark police on new year's day 2021, are calling on the u.s. attorney to launch a civil rights investigation into the case. this comes after a new jersey grand jury last week decided not to indict newark police detective rod simpkins for fatally shooting dorsey two years ago. simpkins was undercover, in an unmarked police minivan, and in -- after he arrived at the scene after reportedly hearing gunshots. within seconds of exiting his car, simpkins fired his gun at dorsey. it is unclear if he first announced himself as a police officer. to see our coverage of this case, go to democracynow.org. in madagascar, at least 25 people have been killed and tens of tusands displac by a tropical cyclone that made landfall last week. the storm also decimated crops and cut off major roads. in new zealand, auckland

residents are bracing for more downpours after record rains on friday killed at least four people, and triggered flash floods and landslides. new zealand's new prime minister chris hipkins said monday global heating is to blame for the extreme weather. >> climate change is real stuff it is having an effect on our weather. we are seeing more these extreme weather events. we need to be prepared. we need to do everything we can to combat the challenge of climate change. amy: in mexico, relatives of two land defenders who've been missing since january 15 are demanding authorities investigate their abductions and bring them back alive. ricardo arturo lagunes gasca, a human rights lawyer and empire medalist, and -- environmentalist, and antonio díaz valencia, an aquila indigenous leader, were last seen two weeks ago after leaving a community meeting in the state of michoacán against mining in the region. witnesses said the environmentalists were followed and threatened by a group of men.

their vehicle was later found abandoned with several bullet holes. their family members have accused transnational mining company ternium of their complicity in the kidnappings. the steel manufacturer has faced mounting opposition from community members who say ternium's mining operations have destroyed the environment, triggered health issues, and brought violence to the region. here in new york, the manhattan district attorney's office is presenting evidence to a grand jury about $130,000 hush payment donald trump sent to adult-film actress stormy daniels through an intermediary. the move signals trump could face criminal charges for violations of campaign finance law. in 2018, trump's former personal attorney and fixer michael cohen was sentenced to three years in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion, bank fraud, and lying to congress about the hush money payments. cohen has said donald trump directed him to make the payments through a shell company shortly before the 2016 presidential election. in france, hundreds of thousands

of people marched through the streets of cities nationwide today as unions went on strike to protest a bid to slash pension benefits. president emmanuel macron has proposed raising the age of retirement from 62 to 64 years old and refused to back down earlier this month when more than a million people took part in a similar nationwide strike. meanwhile, tens of thousands of workers are poised to strike across the united kingdom on wednesday after members of the ruling conservative party advanced legislation that would allow the government to break strikes by ensuring workplaces maintain minimum services during work stoppages. on monday, labour mp zarah sultana joined a protest against the anti-worker bill outside the prime minister's downing street residence. >> they know the program is unpopular. they know the plic does n want to government that sacrifices people for profit. they wt to crush us. they want to rob us of our rights and stop us from fighting

back. amy: and finally in new york, dozens of asylum seekers continued a peaceful demonstration monday outside a manhattan hotel where they'd been living for weeks until city officials suddenly evicted them er theeekend to move them to a remote camp at a cruise terminal in red hook, brooklyn. a wareuse facility has been filled with 1000 cots had to toe. there's no heat and no space for them to safely store their personal belongings. dozens are sleeping on the sidewalk outside the watson hotel pleading with the city to provide permanent and humane housing as well as job permits so they can make a living. democracy now!'s maría taracena and sonyi lopez were on the ground as police barricaded the hotel and forced several asylum seekers to board buses to be taken to the new camp. others refused to go. this is ximena bustamante, mutual aid organizer and founder of the undocumented women's fund. >> any of them -- many of them

[indiscernible] there is a right to shelter. police come here to intimidate them. they are camping outside. amy: mutual aid organizers have rallied in solidarity with the asylum seekers and have vowed to fight the evictions. this is yahaira saavedra, co-founder of the la morada mutual aid kitchen. >> the police are here to intimidate us. we have a lot of mutual aid, a lot of people in solidarity. amy: iván, an asylum seeker from venezuela, said he was assaulted sunday night by a security guard working at the watson hotel. >> i was filming the men being loaded onto buses. several of us were filming. the security guard assaulted me. he tried to take my cell phone. he punched me really hard.

amy: meanwhile, another group of asylum seekers shared an exclusive video recording with democracy now! of a watson hotel staff member telling them the city is not giving them other options and that the hotel had to be emptied out to carry out construction. >> this city is not giving you any more options. they want everything here to be emptied out because they have to demolish everything. they are bringing construction crews. amy: new york officials are reportedly planning to use the hotel to house asylum seeking families with children. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. when we come back or, well, we will go right into the story, the first story we bring you today. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by democracy now!'s juan gonzález in chicago. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: we are going to tennessee. fallout from the fatal police

beating of tyre nichols continues to grow. the memphis fire department has terminated two emts and a fire department lieutenant over their roles in the incident. the police department has also placed two more officers on administrative leave. five memphis police officers had already been fired and face murder and kidnapping charges. the five officers were all members of a special unit known as scorpion, which stands for street crimes operation to restore peace in our neighborhoods. on saturday, memphis disbanded the scorpion unit a day after the ty relead shocki police body cam footage of officers beating tyre nichols aftea traffic stop. activists welcomed the decision to shut down the scorpion unit but said much more is needed. this is amber sherman the mphis chapter of black lives matter. >> we were definitely happy that they moved in the right direction by permanently deactivating the scorpion unit, but they need to deactivate all of them. the gang unit, organized crime

unit operate under the same umbrella as a scorpion unit unit and need to be disbanded as well. they need to have the same path -- assaulting people over criminalizing of the poor and black -- the poor and low income black neighborhoods, mostly were black people live. we want to make sure all of those are disbanded. amy: increased scrutiny of the scorpion unit in memphis has prompted reports from other residents stopped by the same unit. days before tyre nichols was stopped, cornell mckinney told wreg the same unit violently pulled him out of a car at a gas station where he was picking up a pizza and threatened to arrest him for drugs before saying they were "just playing." he tried to file a formal complaint but never heard back. >> all heard was, "freeze, get out of the car. both of you, get out of the car. put your hands up."

so i put my hands up and one of the officers came to the car and physically pulled me out by my shoulder with a gun no more than a foot from my head. >> cornell mckinney said he could get no response to his compint to police internal repairs over how he was stopped -- affairs over how he was stopped without reason. his story is now getting national attention after the dramatic video of scorpion officers seeming to do the same thing to tyre nichols, and going even further. >> i was like, that is them. it's crazy, that's them. this could have been prevented if the internal affairs had taken action like i was asking them to do. amy: well, today we look more closely at these so-called special police units that operate with little oversight. here in new york city, protests led nypd to shut down its street crimes unit after officers shot and killed amadou diallo in 1999, firing 41 bullets at him as he reached for his wallet outside of his apartment. diallo was unarmed.

the officers were acquitted of murder charges. democracy now! spoke with his mother kadiatou diallo in 2014. >> when my son was gunned down in his own vestibule, he was doing nothing wrong. and that night, no one called 911 saying that any crime was being committed, has been committed that night. they just came with their guns drawn and just executed my son. my family and the community at large called for changes. it seems to me that call has not been answered because we keep on seeing many victims of the same similar cases, and even different cases. amy: this comes as new york city mayor eric adams, himself a former police officer who has spoken out against police brutality and says he and his brother were beaten by police as teenagers, now says he plans to restart a controversial nypd

anti-crime unit that was broken up after protests over the police killing of george floyd. the units will have a new name, neighborhood safety teams. no matter what you call them, our guest radley balko writes in "the new york times" that "tyre nichols's death proves yet again that 'elite' police units are a disaster." radley balko is an investigative reporter and author of "rise of the warrior cop: the militarization of america's police forces" and of the criminal justice newsletter "the watch." welcome back to democracy now! thank you for joining us from nashville. let's start off with what you are saying, that these elite police units are disaster. respond to what happened to tyre nichols in memphis and how this illustrates what is going on around the country. >> what we saw in memphis is a very familiar story, unfortunately. what has happened probably the

last 40 to 50 years or so going back to the stress unit from the 1970's, when crime goes up in the city, the police officials and civic leaders decide they need to show their doing something. they will start one of these elite units. under this false assumption the best way to fight crime in a city, particularly if crime is rising, is to give less oversight to police, to sort of get police more room, more leeway to kind of knock heads, to supervise them last. this is not true but it is a way for the officials to kind of show that they're doing something or taking crime seriously. what we saw in memphis in 2021 when crime went up as it has all over the country, most likely due tohe pandemic among other factors, they start this unit called the scorpion in order to sort of demonstrate their getting tough on crime.

the problem is not only is there no evidence or data showing these units effectively or even correlate with lower crime rates, they probably inhibit the ability to fight crime effectively because they undermine trusbetween t police in the community's the police serve. you need to ha cooperation from the commuties yo're serving, particularly in high crime areas. yoneed people to ll the police when things are wng, to talk to youhen yoare investigating a serious crime. there are polls showing, particularly in african-american communities, people are more afraid of police than criminals. that is not a good way to promote public safety in neighborhoods. juan: in terms of -- why are some of these units or many of these units then prone to be especially violent? the intercept reported that the

special -- the street crimes units, other special units like that, represent only 6% of the total officers but were involved in more than 30% of fatal shooting's. so why do you see this tendency in these groups? >> i think what these units do is they concentrate some of the more unfortunate more problematic parts of policing into one unit. so because there is less supervision and a longer leash for police, they attract officers who want to work in that environment, and those officers in turn recruit other officers who are going to share their sort of outlook on how policing ought to be done. would you call it a police unit something like scorpion or stress or these intimidating names, not only that name is designed to intimidate or instill fear in the communities

the police serve, it is also designed to attract officers who want to be feared. so that is how i think we get some of these units staffed with officers -- in chicago, for example, one of their street crimes units disbanded i believe in 2011 after a huge scandal involving kidnapping, drug dealing, police officers bting people, planting evidence on pele. subsequent investigations found i believe four officers in the unit had more than 50 citizen complaint against them, which put them in the top 1% of the entire department. that is a department with over 10,000 officers. to have officers in 1% of the complaint and the entire department in the same unit tells you that unit was designed to attract those kinds of officers. juan: we have heard so much in recent years about police reform. we have seen in several cities

reform-minded police chiefs come to power. but why do you think the police departments of this nation are so resistant to systemic or change? you talk about little rock, arkansas, which elected its first black mayor in 2018 and sought to bring a reformist police chief. what are some of the barriers? >> i think little rock is a good example to the problem. little rock in 2018 yet a mayor who ran on a police reform platform and won and became the first black mayor in little rock history. he appointed a police chief who was a reform-oriented police chief, but that sheep was barely in office and the reforms implemented to start were no particularly radical. there were good governance types of reforms that other police department have had for decades. there was immediate pushback

from the police union and supporters in the city to where the -- to the point where there were rumors spread about him, racially motivated rumors about harassing white women. they went into his finances. none of these allegations or allegations panned out but he was harassed to the point where he eventually resigned and left the office and the city police department is now led by officer who is been -- has been there for 20 years and has the full support of the police union. there are institutions in place. policing is something that has evolved in this country since the 1920's, even earlier in some cities. they are institutions that have sprung up to keep things the way they are, to promote the status quo. it becomes difficult to overcome those interests. we are seeing some reform across the country. we are seeing the election of reform-oriented prosecutors,

city council members, mayors, particularly after the george floyd protest, we have seen substantive changes on the state and local level. i think it is a drop in the bucket for what is needed, but i do think for the first time since i been covering this issue, about 20 years, we are seeing some movement in real substantive change. amy: i want to go to the issue of conspiracy. the police officers lawyers that are charged with murder and trying to separate each individual and say once they go to trial you will see he did not exactly do this and then you have the one we just learned, the white police officer who was suspended at the time the others were fired and charged with murder, who you here saying in the first stop, he tased or tried to tase tyra, you know, stop his a. i don't want to say the whole thing.

the idea of these units working together, and that is the argument that the prosecutors are making, that unless they are actually actively stopping the assault, whatever role they play, they are all working to move in -- in this case, beat and ultimately kill --tyre. >> i think that is why a lot was passed that basically says police officer see another officer violating someone civil or constitutional rights they have an obligation to step in and try to stop that. those laws are going to be difficult to enforce in part because of police unions. there is the blue code of silence, probably most effective stop snitching campaign in u.s. history. effective at getting police officers to stopping police officers from turning each other in. and a lot of these cases, i've

written about numerous cases over the years where you have a scanner like this where you have a police unit that was shown to engage in massive corruption, and the only officer held accountable, the one who turned the other officers in, blew the whistle. a good example is a new york city police department a few years ago, adrian tried to blow the whistle on quotas. you not only was arrest, they raided his house and forcibly and turn him at a psychiatric ward -- interned him at a psychiatric ward. i think there is a very strong sense of camaraderie within the policing today. i think police culture has very "us versus them" mentality. it is difficult to get the good officers to report and hold the bat officers accountable because a lot of officers if you do that

you're not going to remain in policing for very long. juan: i have covered a lot of these incidents of police police killings over many decades. i was surprised and i wondered if you were as well, about how quickly these officers were not only fired but charged for this killing? it usually takes months, sometimes years or more, to get indictments of officers in police killings. many people are wondering if this had something to do with the fact they were five black officers involved in this particular death. also, the issue of the fact tyre nichols was a fedex worker in a city, the headquarters of fedex were more than 30,000 people -- the largest employer in memphis. i'm wondering your thoughts about how quickly there was

movement by law enforcement in this case? >> those are two interesting theories that i actually had not considered. it was unusually fast but i think there are two other factors at play or three at play. one is, i think this is one of the substantive changes i think we have seen since george floyd, even going back to ferguson, is we have seen the prosecutors are more willing to bring charges against police officers in the really egregious cases. memphis just elected a district attorney who ran heavily on reform platform, so i think there were sort of political standing or political support for him to hold these officers accountable pretty much. immediately the other thing i think at play is that video is just so incredibly harrowing is so incredibly horrifying. people who routinely and reflexiveldefend law enforcent, people on the far right, the right, even they are

not defend the police officers and instead have pivoted to this argument those officers were affirmative action hires, this was some sort of example of woke-ism in police departments. it is telling they turned to that. no one can watch that video and not be just completely horrified at the utter lack of humanity shown by tho officers, much less try to defend them. i think all tho things played a big role in the quick application of accountability in this case as well. amy: we will continue to cover this case as well as others around the country. tyre nichols will be buried tomorrow. the funeral is wednesday in memphis, tennessee. radley balko, thank you for being with us, investigative reporter. we will link to your piece "tyre nichols's death proves yet again that 'elite' police units are a disaster." author of the book "rise of the warrior cop: the militarization

of america's police forces" and also editor of the criminal justice newsletter "the watch." next up, we look at how a special designed to protect trans women at rikers island jail here in new york has fallen apart, straining many trans women in male jails where they have been harassed and raped. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "something in the air" by sault. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we look now at a new investigation into the collapse of the lgbtq+ unit at the massive rikers island jail in new york city that was meant to help protect trans women held their, straining many in male jails where they have been harassed and raped. this comes as trans women across the country are routinely jailed in male facilities and are many times more likely to be sexually assaulted than other incarcerated people. the changes at rikers came after new york city's mayor eric adams

installed a new jails commissioner who pushed out top department leaders who were supportive of the unit and shelved a draft policy directive aimed getting more trans and gender-nonconformingetainees into gender-aligned hoing. last week, the new department of correction commissioner louis molina testified before the city council about staffing at the lgbtqi initiative unit at riker's island. he was questioned by new york city councilmember carlina rivera. >> the initiatives unit has lost three of four employees in the past year. what is the total number of staff at present? >> that particular unit, we have one executive director that is still on staff. we have vacancies in that unit as well as we have vacancies in a number of positions within the department. our challenges both uniform and 90 form staff -- nonuniform

staff. people in a professional job move on to do other things. >> right now there's probably one staff member, the director? >> we have one executive director. amy: for more we are joined by george joseph, a senior reporter at the city, focusing on criminal justice and courts. his new investigation is headlined "under eric adams, a rikers island unit that protected trans women has collapsed." also with us is robin robinson, a former services coordinator with the lgbtq+ unit at rikers island jail complex who quit in protest this past june. we welcome you both to democracy now! let's begin with george joseph. lay out what you found. >> in the years before eric adams came into office in new york city, the administration and the jails had tried to take an incremental step to protect trans women. they created this unit which it had done unique programming for

the lgbtq+ community. that unit eventually got more and more authority in the department so it had more decision-making power in terms of where a vulnerable lgbtq detainees were kept, especially trans women who have one of the greatest risk for sexual harm in the jail system. it was on the verge of winning a new policy directive that would've helped create or gender-aligned housing spaces for trans across rikers island so they could get into safer living conditions without being harassed and sexually violated. within months of eric adams appointing his new jail commissioner, almost all of those progressive steps were reversed, the unit that we were referring to collapsed -- and now just has one staff member -- and all that programming, all that authority had in that a permit has more or less vanished

according to sources in the jail we spoke to as part of this investigatn. juan: the issue of trans women being routinely jailed in male facilities, there are many more times likely to be sexy assaulted than other incarcerated people. what are the other forms of abuse faced by trans people at rikers? >> it was part of this investigation. we spoke to at least four tran women currently in male housing gels at rikers island. all of them said just on a day-to-day level from both guards and other incarcerated people they face sexual harassment, they face transphobia, often called derogatory names. oftentimes they are pressured into doing sexual acts which they don't want to do.

in addition to full on sexual assault, there are all sorts of inappropriate touching and just violence enacted onto them. this is very well known in new york city jail systems and jails and prisons across the country. juan: can you tell us about one of the trans women that you dealt with in your story? >> she is someone who came to rikers island late in 2022, for the part of the story we reported on. she was a neatly placed in a male jail and reported to corrections authority she had been groped repeatedly by another incarcerated person most of despite that report, they continue to ep her in male jails and out of desperation she ended up taking a razor blade and cutting both of her arms -- her right and left arm. even after both of those acts of self-harm, the corrections

authorities were unwilling to move her to female housing. she went to the lgbtq unit, which at this point we had one employee. though the unit try to get her moved to a medical facility where she had been requesting a transfer, she was basically unable to get moved out of the same male housing unit. after learning about the failure, she swallowed batteries, forcing her to go to the hospital. even in the department of corrections did not move her to another facility that she wanted. by this point, she was asking to go to rosie's, which is the women's jail on rikers island. several weeks later, she cuts her arm for a third time, requiring serious stitches. all the after that did the department of corrections finally move her to the women's jail where she now reports feeling much safer and being able to live day to day without

harassment. amy: i want to bring robin robinson into the conversation. you resign from rikers lgbtq+ unit this past june in protest of the conditions faced by people jailed there and the rapid deterioration of the unit. can you describe what you saw while working there and what your job was that pushed you ultimately to quit and speak out about what was happening? you began working there in 2021? >> yes, that is correct. i started in 2021. what i saw there, from what many trans women have told me, they were called names by staff members, but other people in custody, called derogatory names. we had one particular trans man who was pretty much scared out of one heat to go into one of the housing units that housed

other transgender men and women by staff members. he stated the correctional officer said not to go into that unit because those trans women are just men and you're going to be raped. there were many instances where, again, a light of trans women are being harassed in the male facilities and when trying to ask for help, they are not believed by the correction officers. there was a situation where a trans woman was physically assaulted and burned with hot water and suffered third-degree burns. nothing was done about the situation at all. there was supposed to be an investigation and every thing just went dead. at the point where i was getting tired of being in the spaces when i was on a call to advocate

for someone to go into safer housing, gender-aligned housing, this trans woman was in the mail facility and was raped twice. when trying to advocate on the phone call, staff members disagreed with me in trying to get this person into the female facility. they labeled the trans woman as aggressive. they were more concerned that she would try to have sex with the other women. there is this hyper fixation on trans women's bodies, particularly what is in between their legs. a lot of times when a trans woman is denied gender aligned housing and the female facility, it is because of this idea that these trans women are really just men who want to prey on women or have sex with the women. so i decided, like, i can no longer working in a space that

causes so much harm to the trans people on rikers. i did not want to be complicit in that harm. as a black non-binary trans person myself, i saw myself in these individuals. we have a lot in common as far as our experiences as trans people. so i saw myself in these people. it was a hard choice. i feel guilty for living but -- i feel guilty for leaving but knew it was the right decision. i could not be in a space where i am constantly witnessing people being abused, verbally, specially assaulted, no one is doing anything about it. amy: like the case of layleen polanco. i want to go to that for a moment. this is melania brown reading from an op-ed she wrote for nbc news about her sister layleen who was a 27-year-old trans woman who died in solitary

confinement in rikers in 2019. >> my sister layleen died last year in the rikers island prison. she suffered an epileptic seizure and died alone in solitary confinement. she was only 27 years old. nowhere close to getting to fully live her life. the system killed her. liket kills so many black people and other people of color. to be clear, my sister's death was preventable. e new rkity depament of correctis new abt her dical coition an y phed tolace hern solita confinentver jectionsf mecal staf membe. theyushed heinto solary in rt becau they dinot know how to house a transgender woman in rikers. amy: as hundreds of people protested the death of layleen

polanco, the trans woman who died in solitary confinement at rikers, the department of corrections now's a what was known as the lgbtq+ initiatives unit. george, if you can tell us more about her case and how now the whole thing is unraveling? >> so layleen polanco had been in solitary confinement and according to her family had a seizure which helped result in her death, and that spurred a larger movement led by her family to end solitary confinement in new york city jails. up toward the tail end of the de blasio administration, our former mayor of new york city, there were some limits put on solitary confinement, limiting the amount of hours someone can be kept in a cell and what they call punitive segregation by themselves. that measure did not go as far as the lungo family wanted in terms of totally getting rid of

solitary confinement but it was a restriction. two weeks before mayor eric adams took office officially, he held a press conference where he introduced his new jail commissioner and he announced himself that he was going to get rid of those restrictions on solitary confinement. that was seen as a major win the corrections officers union in new york city which have been pushing for years against any changes to the solitary confinement policy. as one of his first acts before he even let into office, he rolled back those protections. juan: robin robinson, i want to ask you, in terms of the power of the corrections union to have an impact on city jail policy, whether it was under de blasio or mayor eric adams, what is your sense of the ability of the

corrections union to determine what happens at rikers and other city jail facilities? >> from my understanding, in terms of -- excuse me -- to the segregation or housing in general, a decision is usually made based on phone calls their hearing, maybe genentech footage as well, also going to the individuals, speaking with them and knowing what is going on. that is usually how situations -- trans people or people in general are either put in punitive segregation or moved to general housing units. juan: what was your experience in terms of commissioner molina once he came into office come how things changed in terms of

the jail system or rikers dealing with trans people? >> when the adams administration came in, it felt like a lot of things that were moving forward were now going backwards. it felt like we were going backward. we did not have much of a say so we use to have in the lgbtq affairs unit. eventually, a point where staff just refused -- lgbtq staff refused to be on the housing calls because nothing we said held any merit. even when trying to push for the new lgbtq policy that would help support trans people and lgbtq people in rikers was stalled. myself and other colleagues felt

powerless because there was nothing we could do to try to push it forward. it felt like we had no say so in anything anymore. i tried asking my supervisor, like, what is going on with the directive? like, is it going to move forward? often times, it was just, oh, we have to wait and see. there were a lot of steps but it was really overall just exhausting. because everything we had worked so hard for, it felt like it was for nothing. amy: robin robinson, we want to thank you for speaking out, former services coordinator with the lgbtq+ unit at rikers island jail, quite in protest in june. and george joseph of the city, we will link to your new investigation "under eric adams, a rikers island unit that protected trans women has collapsed." next up, we speak with economist

richard wolff about the debt ceiling and the economics of the ukraine war. back in 20 seconds. ♪♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. house speaker kevin mccarthy and president biden are preparing for their first face-to-face meeting wednesday to discuss raising the debt ceiling. the u.s. technically hit the debt ceiling earlier this month,

janet yellen has taken extra new measures to keep paying the government's bills. house republicans are pushing for major spending cuts as part of any deal to raise them more than $31 trillion borrowing limit. to talk more about this and the economy of the ukraine war, we're joined by richard wolff, professor of economics emeritus, university of massachusetts, amherst, and a visiting professor. the founder of democracy at work and hosts a weekly national television and radio program called economic update. richard wolff if you can talk about the debt ceiling, what is happening right now, and what you feel is most important to understand about it. >> the debt ceiling is a decision made by the congress of the united states to limit themselves. let me explain. in o federal budget in the government, in order to spend

money on the defense department, the war in ukraine, social security, and all the rest, the but -- the government basically relies on taxes. therein lies a problem in our economic system because the corporations and the ridge on the one hand and the rest of us on the other want the government to provide services but we don't want to pay taxes. the politicians we elect are caught in that dilemma. they don't want to lose votes by taxing the rest of us beyond what they have already done, and they don't to lose donations and all the rest of it from corporations and the rich by taxing them. and they found the solution because they don't have much political courage, namely, to borrow the money. and that way they can pay for their spending without taxing anybody and they can parade around as if this is an act of efficiency rather than an act of no courage to do what they know could be done -- raise the taxes

or cut spending. they have been borrowing so much. for example, in 1982, the debt of this country and the gdp were roughly the same. today, our output is $21 trillion but our national debt is $32 trillion. that is over all these years when we have had a sequence of debt ceilings, a rule you can't borrow more after the theater of their president and the head of congress getting together, they extend the debt, raise the debt again, the ceiling is eliminated or postponed or reset at a higher level, and so the debts keep going. it is 99% theatrics. mr. mccarthy can say "i'm against taxes" which is base likes, and the democrats can say, "we don't want to salvage

the spending the country needs post quote which is what their base once. it goes back and forth and gets dicey. late-night press conferences and then we raise the ceiling, which is literally kicking a problem down the rd. juan: richard wolff, it is not just a question of not wanting to raise taxes but under various republican presidents and congress, the actual cutting of taxes. did the bush tax cuts and in the trump tax cuts have an important effect on the growth of the debt ? >> absolutely. the debt rose again. if you cut taxes, obviously, and you don't cut spending, you're going to have to borrow the difference. or if you like, you don't mess with the taxes but you spend more, then you're going to have a bigger debt problem. what we have had is a series of actions in which the euphoria of

the moment gets a vote in the congress without anyone speaking publicly about the impact. i will give you two examples. the one you refer to, the tax cut a mr. trump. still one of the greatest tax cuts in american history. december 2017. it was a savage reduction in how much taxes government could get and therefore, of course, it expanded how much you have to borrow to replace that debt. here's one on the others i've. if you suddenly over the year 2022 expand by 100 plus billion dollars a spending plan for ukraine, then of course -- for the war there i mean, of course you're going to therefore get yourself again in an imbalance between the money coming in through taxes and what you're spending. there is another dimension to

this that people are afraid to talk about but needs to be talked about. if the government borrows instead of taxing, this is really good news for corporations and the rich, particularly. and here is why. if they can succeed in cutting their taxes as they did under mr. trump, or example, in the government has to borrow -- you know who the government bars from? them most of it borrows mostly from corporations and the rich. the average people of america do not lend to the government because they don't have the money. so the irony is there is an and balance of corporations and the rich. they can get out of the taxes they might have to pay and instead the government comes to them and borrows from them the money they otherwise would have had to pay in taxes, they have to pay that money back to those people, plus interest, for the time they hold this debt, so you

could see when corporate america pushes for tax cuts, it is looking at two benefits. it doesn't have to pay taxes and instead it gets to have a loan to the government, the choice between those two is kind of obvious. >> the link between this increased spending, especially for the ukraine war and the inflation thatany americans -- all americans are confronting today? >> the biggest thing, which is for some of us economists, kind of amazing to watch, over the last year, we have been told the government, the federal reserve has to raise interest rates and the logic of hurting all the people whose credit card bills, whose college payment bills, and car payments are all going up as interest rates rise, we are told

this is necessary because if interest rates rise, becomes more expensive to borrow and therefore people will do less of that and they will have less to spend. and with less to spend, we will be stalling our inflation. at the same time, the government is spending tens of billions of dollars on a new program, namely the war in ukraine, which has exactly the opposite effect. but the rules of our politics seem to me we have to talk about ukraine only in terms that are carefully cleansed from the inflationary impact, such a plan has. it is a kind of split consciousness that goes togeer with the theatrics of biden and mccarthy because they are not facing the hard realities but kind of dancing around in order to distract us. amy: finally, richard wolff, if you could talk about the just concluded strike at your own

school come at new school university. tell us about it and whether you supported it. >> i supported it. if it was more than 100%, i was a more than 100%. i am happy, i am proud we were part of a strike wave across this country. it is the american working class waking up, realizing what has been done to it for the last 40 years, which include inflation, rising interest rates, several collapses of our economy -- the worst one in 2008 and 2009. we have been suffering as the employee majority of the united states, and now there is the beginning of the realization that getting together at the workplace, to have a union, to fight, to strike if necessary -- these are traditions that the american working class has the right to be proud of in the past and even more the right to begin to exercise again now. so i am very happy to be part of

that process. america richard wolff, thank you for being with us professor of , economics emeritus, university of massachusetts, amherst, and a visiting professor in the graduate program in international affairs of the new school university. host of the weekly program economic update. we will link to your writings and work.