02/01/23 02/023 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> the ft is a traffic stop should not be a life-and-dea situion. the terry nichols cas shows once again police violence comes in many shapes and forms and it not just a civil rigs issue, it is a human rights issue. we will not stop figing to the entire system of racist policing is undone.

amy: mourners are gathering in memphis, tennessee, today for the funeral of tyre nichols. he died after being brutally beaten by police following a traffic stop. we will speak to howard university professor james hansford and andrea ritchie, co-author of "no more police: a case for abolition." then a standoff continues outside a hotel in midtown manhattan where asylum seekers are protesting plans by new york city to move them to a remote facility in brooklyn. >> this is a very unfortunate situation. they are mistreating as what we are here because we want to provide a better life for our family. amy: more than 40 thousand asylum seekers have arrived in new york city since last spring. they are pleading with the city to provide permanent and humane housing. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and

peace report. i'm amy goodman. the funeral for tyre nichols is taking place in memphis, tennessee, today. over 2500 people are expected to pay tribute to the slain 29 year-old father who died last month after being severely beaten by five police officers. tyre nichols' family was joined by community and religious leaders, including reverend al sharpton, tuesday evening at the mason temple. this is nichols' brother jamal dupree. >> i broer was the most peaceful person i ever met in my life, never raised a finger to nobody. never raised his voice. if my brother were here today and had to say so, he would tell us to do this peacefully. amy: the mason temple is where martin luther king, jr. delivered his "mountaintop" speech on april 3, 1968, the eve of his assassination.

that is where the news conference took place. on tuesday, memphis authorities said they will release more of the video and audio of tyre's fatal beating after it completes its investigation sometime "in the coming weeks." we'll have more on the police killing of tyre nichols after headlines. a warning to our audience, this story contains graphic images of police violence. in california, activists and family members of anthony lowe, jr., a 36-year-old black man who used a wheelchair and was fatally shot by huntington park police last week, are demanding the officers involved in his death be brought to justice. lowe's mother spoke at a press conference monday outside the huntington park police department, where she said, "they murdered my son." lowe had both of his legs amputated at the knee. his family says he was suffering from a mental health crisis when he was shot by police after officers responded to a reported stabbing in the area.

atlanta mayor andre dickens announced tuesday the highly contested $90 million police training facility known as "cop city" is moving forward despite growing opposition and the police killing of a forest defender last month. activists have been camping out in weelaunee forest for months to prevent its destruction. demonstrators at atlanta's city hall yesterday chanted, "cop city will never be built," while members of the press were locked out of mayor dickens' news conference. this is community organizer micah herskind responding to the city's plans. ow dartheytand i fnt people d s, oh, this plan wherwe are tringown tree is actlly gd for peop and go for the economy a it is tually gng tprotec people it is alwaysate fls and i ho it is rorted as such beuse th islassic blata in that they are taking us for ols ifhey thinany of u believtearing wn treesnd puttg cementvert is

prectinghe environment. that is outrageous. amy: to see our coverage of cop city, go to democracynow.org. a group of democratic u.s. 20 lawmakers is urging the biden administration to temporarily suspend security aid to peru over a "pattern of repression" against antigovernment protesters that have taken to the streets since december after the impeachment and arrest of former president pedro castillo. the democrats letter comes as peruvian forces killed their first protester in the capital lima saturday. 55-year-old víctor santisteban death brings the death toll to 58 people. this is his sister. >> today was notnly one perso who died. a ole fami died. heartfelt condolences from the president, from congress, from the police will not bring my brother back. the 74 year-old father is dying because of the pain.

amy: four key suspects in the assassination of haitian president jovenel moïse have been extradited to the united states to face prosecution. the u.s. justice department said tuesday three haitian americans and a colombian national face charges that include conspiracy to commit murder and providing material support and resources resulting in death. this comes 18 months after moïse was fatally shot at his home near the capital port-au-prince july 7, 2021. dozens of suspects have been arrested, but the case has been at a standstill as haiti faces a worsening political and humanitarian crisis. haitian authorities say other suspects still remain at large. in afghanistan, officials say at least 166 people have died as the country faces a wave of freezing winter weather with widespread snowfall. authorities said the recent deaths were caused by floods, fires, and gas leaks from home heaters used by afghan families to cope with the cold. tens of thousands of livestock have also died due to extreme

wint weather as more than half afghanist's population, including minds of children, are facing hunger and malnutrition due to a worsening humanitaria crisis exacerbated by international economic sanctions on the taliban government. twgrieving parents sre the harrowing loss of their infant to the brutal cold. >> the weath was extrely cold andll the wdows we frozen. it w fridanight. we wed ourselv and all the blankets we had. it was 12:00 midnight when the child died from extreme cold. we h no choice but to wait until the morning and tn we buried him. >> when i saw my son had died, i thought for a moment to my heart might stop beating. amy: this comes as united nations and taliban officials are negotiating the ban on women aid workers, including guidelines that would allow some afghan women to work in a

certain humanitarian operations. the u.s. is acsing russia of violating the new strategic arms reduction treaty, or new start, the only remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the two countries. the state department said tuesday moscow was refusing to allow inspections on its territory. russia said it was complying with most terms of the treaty but that it could not allow u.s. inspections at its strategic facilities given the nations are on opposing sides of the ongoing ukraine war. anti-war activists have warned the threat of nuclear war is at its highest point in history due to t russian invasion. embattled new york republican congressman george santos says he won't serve on the two house committees he was assigned to pending investigations into the many lies and unanswered questions around his life and finances. santos shared the news after a private meeting monday with house speaker kevin mccarthy. it comes as mccarthy is pushing to remove influential democrat ilhan omar from the house

committee on foreign affairs. meanwhile, santos' treasurer has resigned amid intense scrutiny over his campaign funding, including the source of at least $625,000 that santos had previously claimed were personal loans. last week, mother jones reported many people listed as top donors to santos' campaign don't appear to exist. six western states that rely on the colorado river for their water supply have agreed to drastically cut water use in response to the federal government's call for a concerted plan to conserve water amid looming, and possibly catastrophic, critical shortages. a seventh state, california, remains at odds with the plan reached by arizona, colorado, nevada, new mexico, utah, and wyoming, suggesting major cities like phoenix and las vegas should be cut off from the water supply in order to protect california's agriculture. two decades of climate change-fueled drought have brought reservoirs at lake powell and lake mead dangerously

close to what's known as dead pool, when water level becomes so low it no longer flows through the dams. this is a stanford professor and former climate advisor to president biden david hayes. >> the crisis is incredibly severe. the interdepartment is faced with potential for not being able to make deliveries of water out of the hoover dam to the city of las vegas or to the state of california. period. the water levels behind the dams have become so low, they may not be able toake delivery. and that is the worst of all possible worlds. amy: the environmental protection agency announced federal protections for alaska's bristol bay watershed under the clean water act in a major victory for environmentalists and indigenous groups, which have fought against the development of pebble mine for over two decades.

the move will bar a proposed gold and copper mine that would have destroyed the world's largest sockeye salmon fhery. alannah hurley, executive director of the united tribes of bristol bay, said -- "the epa has not only restored its commitment to science and law but truly listened to the original stewards and first peoples' of this land." exxonmobil announced a -- environment and didn't dig his groups have -- exxonmobil announced a record-smashing $59 billion in profits last year, up by over 150% from the previous year. this comes after chevron recently announced $35.5 billion in 2022 profits, also a new record. climate groups say the massive earnings underscore the need for a windfall profits tax.

the group stop the oil profiteering said -- "we're paying more for gas and electricity because big oil companies are gouging americans and benefiting from a rigged system that keeps prices high in times of war and crisis." and climate activists with greenpeace scaled a massive shell vessel in e atlant oceaas it heed to th britisnorth se displing a bann that re, "stop drillingstart pang." acvists us ropes tclimb ontohe 51,0-tonne atform and the ur that de it abrd say theyave enou suppls to ocpy the sp for da. yeb sano, ecutive director of greenpeace southeast asia, and former chief climate negotiator for the philippines, was among the group of activists though was not able to make it on board. greenpeace's victorine che thoener, a cameroonian-german activist who did successfully mount this ship, says the group took the drastic action to compel fossil fuel companies to stop drilling and pay for the loss and damage they have caused. in other climate news, a new

report by the world inequality lab shows the difference in carbon emissions between rich and poor people within the same country is now greater than the difference in emissions between countries. the report backs windfall taxes and progressive taxation to help fund low-carbon initiatives. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. coming up, mourners are gathering in memphis, tennessee, for the funeral of tyre nichols. he was brutally beaten by police following a traffic stop. we will speak to howard university professor justin hansford as well as andrea ritchie, co-author of "'no more police: a case for abolition." back in a moment. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "father's child" by michael kiwanuka.

this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by 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: today mourners are gathering in memphis, tennessee, for the funeral of tyre nichols. he died on january 10, three days after being severely beaten by five police officers following a traffic stop near his home. the funeral will be held at mississippi boulevard christian church. expected attendees include vice president kamala harris and relatives of george floyd and breonna taylor, who were both killed by police violence. the funeral comes on the first day of black history month. on tuesday night, the family of tyre nichols held a news conference at memphis' mason temple in memphis, where martin

luther king, jr. gave his last eech. it was april 3, 1968 on the eve of his assassination. speakers last night included the reverend al sharpton, who will also give the eulogy at the funeral today. >> what happened to tyre is a disgrace to this country. there is no other way to describe what hasappened in this situation. people from around the world watched the video tape of a man, unarmed, unprovoked, being beaten to death by officers of the law. amy: van turner, president of the naacp in memphis, also spoke tuesday night. >> we want action this time. we want them to pass the george floyd police reform at this time.

they owe us that. they owe this family that. they owe all of us who have been hurt or brutalized as a result of interactions with law enforcement in this country. and when that happens, we have to call on the tennessee general assembly. we have to stay focused on humidity, stay focused on the cause, stay focused on making sure tyre nichols did not diane vang. justice for tyree! >> justice for tyre! amy: van turner, president of the naacp in memphis. we're joined now by two guests. andrea ritchie is a lawyer and organizer who has worked on policing and criminalization issues for over 30 years. she is the author of several books, including most recently, "no more police: case for abolition," co-authored with mariame kaba. she is joining us from detroit.

in washington, d.c., we're joined by justin hansford. he is a human rights lawyer and howard university school of law professor. founder and executive director of the thurgood marshall civil rights center. professor hansford is also the first american nominated and elected to the united nations permanent forum for people of african descent. we welcome you both to democracy now! professor hansford, let's begin with you. today is the first day of black history month. last night in memphis, the family gathered in the historic mason temple where martin luther king gave his last speech, a day before he was assassinated, as they called for accountability and toy is the funeral. if you can respond to what is taking place right now and what you feel needs to happen as more and more information comes out not just the people who brutally beat him -- and we may not know

everyone who did it at this point -- but also the people who stood by, whether they were emt's or other police officers or sheriff's deputies. >> first, thank you for having me. i want to start off by reminding everyone that this situation reminds us that these are structural problems that are going to call for structural interventions. too often we are forced to focus on people at the end point of these broken processes, and i know people look at the fact the initial five officers who were involved were all black and they said it themselves, well, what does race have to do with it? looking at all of the people involved, looking at the entire structure from the beginning to the end, we need to understand this is a broken structure.

structural racism. i'm not surprised from george floyd, mike brown, now tyre nichols, the structures have not changed over this period of time. we still have a lot of work to do. juan: professor, so many of these horrific incidents occur during traffic stops. your response to those who say this case of tyre nichols is just a few bad apples? what does the data and research show about how traffic stops or implement a by police around the country in terms of racial groups? >> critical race theory scholars have shown again and again that basically the more times there is contact between police officers and citizens, especially citizens that are black, the more likely there is

to be violence. there's is really no reason for police to be involved in traffic stops to begin with. there have been scholars who have proposed police be taken completely out of traffic stops. i know the city of pittsburgh has experimented with that. and also berkeley, california, has had calls for that. here even in washington, d.c., the d.c. police commissioner recommended that. that is a workable alternative. it is not a solution because these are broken systems and structures that go all the way deep to the root of what american policing is in the united states, but this is one example of the type of needless interaction that we can find a way to eliminate, working strongly in trying to create change. juan: you mentioned the need for structural change. but what i've seen over the decades is that every time an

incident occurs and there is massive protests, there are promises by local leaders and sometimes national leaders of making some attempts at major or systemic reforms. but as soon as the protest movement dies down, the politicians pull back on whatever the promises they may have made. how do you overcome this constant attempt to sort of co-opt movement for a while and then a neatly go back to business as usual? >> right. another critical race scholar who i admire, derek bell, has this philosophy called -- he essentially argues racial reforms only happen when there is a convergence of the interest of the protesters and the people and the power structure on the issue of race -- white power structure. for example, so after the

protest in 2014 and 2015, we called for change and they gave us body cams. why did they give us body cams after all the different things we called for were put to the side? because dy cams were an intervention that ended up putting more money into police budgets and also trainings another one of these reformist reforms that actually don't change anything. you do see things happen but almost always these are changes that ultimately serve the interests of the existing power structure. there are moments in our history where there are intersection of our interests in the power structures interests. that is how integration took place in the 1950's, 1960's. but finding a way to gain some reforms in the context of the interest convergence reality makes it difficult to find that short, small window of opportunity. so we have to think -- that is

why think something like intervening in traffic stops, although not a solution and perhaps could be one of these small windows of opportunities that we take advantage of in this moment. amy: i want to bring in andrea ritchie. we are to professor justin hansford for a graduate from howard law as is andrea ritchie. it is great at two graduates of howard law school, the historically black college having a debate, discussion i should say, about this issue of police reform, police abolition. tomorrow president biden will be meeting with the congressional black caucus to talk about police reform. you are co-author of the book "no more police: a case for abolition." if you could first respond to tyre's death, how he died, the number of officers, law and

health authorities that were on the scene from emt's to a fiery fire lieutenant. a white officer who was only recently named, although he was suspended at the same time the others were fired, the one who said, "stop his ass." he is the one who tased him in the beginng. we don't know the identity of the seventh officer who was suspended. respond to that and what you've been calling for for a very long time. >> first, i want to acknowledge the incredibly brutal and horrifying nature of this particular incidence of police violence. my heart goes out to his family and community. devastating impact on the individuals involved is really important and also important to

note this is, as you heard from memphis organizers earlier this week on the show, an extension of everyday policing not only in memphis but in nashville where a man was killed by police just a day or two ago and at the top of the hour as you mentioned come across the country. for me, i concur with professor hansford's indication that police should taken o of traffic stops. that domain has been coming long from organizers. we need to go beyond that. we need to recogni it wasn't just about the individual officers on the scene or the supervisors are the officers who were training them or the leadership in place in memphis who came from another city where they supervised a unit that engaged in similar violence. it is really about the entire structure of policing. yes, what we call for in no more police a case for abolition is a

recognition that this is policing. this is not an aberration. this is not an exception to the rule. this is the rule of policing. it is essential we think about responses that will take not only power away from police who gave this kind of behavior but also the resources and the weaponry and the legitimacy that enables them to continue to engage in this kind of behavior. to look at legislation like the federal legislation reference as legislation we need to really be critical about because that legislation would pour millions of more dollars into police department like the memphis police department that received 9.8 million dollars in federal funds in 2020 in addition to the 40% of the city budget that it takes up to higher officers like the ones that killed tyre nichols. we really need to think carefully as we move forward,

are we going to continue to pour more money, more power, more resources, and more legitimacy into departments that have proven and policing that has proven over and over again that incidents like the murder of tyre nichols is the rule, not the exception? that is the question we need to think about and one of the solutions we are advancing, as professor hansford pointed out, going simply to continue to legitimize policing well allowing incidents likthis to continue with impunity and unabated, or are we going to take steps that will build a world where tyre nicho would still be with us today? >> juan: andrea ritchie, how would you envision police abolition? clearly, there are some who would say this is pie-in-the-sky and it is unattainable as long as there are societies with huge class and racial divisions. what concretely would abolition look like? >> you are correct to point out

it would require a complete restructuring of society that we live in and that it would require us to shift our priorities from responding to every form of need, conflict, and harm with agents of violence and more and more policing and criminalization. and instead to address the root causes of the issues we face in our community, to ensure everyone's needs are met, to ensure we all have the skills and commitment and ability to intervene and prevent, de-escalate, and heal from harm and we have the resources we need to do that. it does require radical re-imagination of what we understand safety to be and the means we devote to achieving it. i think anything's get named as pie-in-the-sky and unattainable but i think what is really unrealistic is to continue to invest in a system that has proven over and over again that not only does it not prevent come intervene, and/or heal from

violence, but perpetuate more violence. that is the unrealistic position that we are going to somehow try to tweak policing as incidents like tyre nichols's murder happen over and over again. i have been in the since rodney king was beaten in 1991 and i've seen nothing change. in fact, just a greater recognition, does not matter who the police officers are, where they live, what the policies are, how much oversight there is, how any prosecutions there are, we are going to continue to wake up as we did the morning we learned of tyre nichols's brutal murder until we make those fundamental changes. it can stop with taking police out of traffic stops or dismantling groups like those that killed tyre nichols, but we have to reimagine a world where violence is not a response to every situation. amy: the term police abolition. abolition coming from the

abolitionists who wanted to get away from slavery, from the enslaving of africans in the united states. can you talk about your response to that in terms of all that you have looked at from, specifically and fascinating you had to sort of particular focus looking at why do people who stop people for traffic stops -- i think of walter scott. i went to the autozone in north charleston south carolina, where he is stopped for a broken brake light and as he ran across the street, the police officer's later shot him -- officer slater shot him in the back. what this would look like, police abolition, and you support something like this? >> when i think a police abolition, i think about the abolitionist we saw in the 19th

century, harriet tubman, frederick douglass, and their work, our destiny as a people to be free. that is part of the same tradition i think, the same work that the systems we are facing today are continuations of the systems the abolitionist in the 19th century worked against. yes, i support that. i think that has to be the ultimate goal. in terms of how quickly that happens, that is something that is likely to be governmental, just like all big dreams. they don't happen overnight. but something like traffic stops. i want to say it is a conundrum because often times when you look at the past reforms like body cameras and other reforms, traini, those reforms ultimately ended up where we have over 1100 killings in the past 12 months, black people more likely to be -- twice as likely to be killed as white

people. so killings have increased even with all this money given to police to partners to do more training and more body cameras. this type of reform, we have to be concerned about power shifting to these other government officers to conduct surveillance, use more technology during the traffic stops if they are not police officers, does not mean they will have the power to search. that does not mean they will have weapons. that does not necessarily mean they will be using cameras to conduct surveillance. so we have to be very careful with how the actual implementaon of reform like this takes place because the devil is in the details. thats what whave seen over the past couple of years with the killing of george floyd, really since the killing of trayvon martin and mike brown post responses have taken place but almost always if we don't keep ourye on the actual implementation, we end up in a worst place because more money is put into these departments and we get worse outcomes under

the heading of goodwill and reform. juan: speaking of devil in the details, there's a lot of attention focused on the federal level on the legislation like the george floyd justice in policing act and the even more progressive breathe act. can you talk about your sense of these initiatives and still going to be very difficult to be able to get them through any congress right now, but your sense of these attempts at some sort of -- not structural, but substantial reform? >> my reading of the distinction between the breathe act and the justice in policing act is similar to professor ritchie's distinction between reforms that actually invest money in the system and divest money. there breathe act, in addition to try to divest money and put

that toward other solutions to provide public safety also provides more of a healing, reparations-focused lens on how to respond to the system of violence that they call policing in the united states. justice in policing act, no senator cory booker is likely to introduce -- i know senator quite bookers lightly to reintroduce that. there likely to use that as a negotiating tool the next few weeks. with republicans in control of the house of representatives, it is hard to be enthusiastic about the prospects. could not have it happen when democrats were in control of both houses, howlett happen now? there's really -- there needs to be an honest discussion about what we can accomplish and perhaps a reform like this traffic reform or some other reform that may be a small piece of these larger bills would be

something that could be a possibility. amy: andrea ritchie, i was wondering if you could go more into -- as biden is about to meet with the congressional black caucus on thursday to talk about poli reform. on monday you tweeted -- "y'all do know that we police 'misconduct' attorneys sometimes win motions to defeat qualified immunity, and those cops are still out there beating, sexually assaulting, and killing people, right?" if you can explain that and also just simply further explain polls that have been done, recent study of a strong public opposition to abolishing the police even though a substantial majority of people are also concerned about police violence, really lay out concretely what you mean. >> about legislation, i believe there is no justice in policing. many people have written that the act thawould be named after george floyd would not

have prevented his death a would not have stopped the killing of breonna taylor, either. what it would have done is poured millions more dollars into policing instead of into the things that communities need in order to build safety for themselves. that is an important thing to point out. also the focus on ending qualified immunity i think is one of those sort of interest convergence moments that the professor hansford was referring to. i want to emphasize qualified amenity only comes into play after someone has been harmed. after someone has been killed. it is a defense in civil litigation that a cop can raise in defense of their actions to avoid having to pay compensation to the family members and it is a defense that we can sometimes overcome in litigation. there are officers who have raised that defense have not been able to assert it. motions have been defeated stop those cops still were able to remain on the force, continue

their employment, and still out there doing the violence of policing we've been talking about. that is what i was getting up in the tweet, i'm not interested in reforms that only focus on what we do after police officers have beat a 29 year-old father to death. i want to focus on reforms that will stop that from happening in the first place. i want to focus and invite everyone who is thinking about what to do in this moment to think about what is going to prevent actions like this from happening, not what we do after the fact -- which won't even stophe individual officers involved from continui to engage in that behavior, much less address the system that enables anmakes that behavior possible. for me it is about reducing the power and legitimacy and resources and invest in things that communities need to be safe. that is the point, people questioning what abolition looks

like because what they're being told is that we will take away what is often the only government response to any harm, conflict, or need, whether that will produce more violence or produces any greater safety. people don't think there will be anything put in the place. with abolition, it is creating resources of pouring the nutrients that are being robbed of our communities by police, the money that cops or looting from our communities and putting it back in things that create safety -- housing, income, education, public spaces, strong communities, skilled community's , those that have the capacity to be the and with each other and prevent violence. i ink when we ask people, sure, without further explanation do you think we should take away the one thing you have been taught is the only way to safety? of course people will have a reaction. but if we say, do you believe in

investing in things that have been proven scieifically through study to increase safety in communities -- we talk in our book about a study of an increasef 10 community-based organizations in the community will decrease violence and the community in a reciprocal relationip. if we point people to what we want to invest in, what kind of society we want to build, and those investments will increase safety, the vast majority people support those kinds of proposals. it is a question of how the issues are framed and how they are framed particularly by people who are invested. juan: andrea, a deeper look at this issue of the resistance of so much of the american public to reallyismantling or systematically changing policing, does it have to do more, i wonder at times with dna of the country? after all, a country that has been built on guns, violence,

and repression of the other in u.s. society? the united states is really an outlier among the industrialized countries of the world when it comes to the prevalence of violence and guns and toleration of killing. even after all these school shootings, people still don't want to have any kind of regulation or serious relation of guns in the country. i am wondering, does not have anything to do with the inability of people to understand how police are functioning in our society? >> of course. we would be remiss if we did not emphasize this country is built on violee, particularly built on the violence of genocide of indigenous people, the enslavement of african people that was enforced, both of those things, by police and policing as was the exclusion of migrants and policing of migrants.

those things are very much embedded in the very structures of american society. and also in the culture of american society that has embedded policing in our minds as the solution as opposed to a problem, even in the face of instances like the one we are currently sitting with of their brutal murder of tyre nicholsn top of the deadliest year in 2022 in terms of police violence in a decade despite the reforms that have been advanced or proposed in the wake of the murder of george floyd and breonna taylor. and mike brown. i think we need to recognize that we have to unlearn this notion that violence is a solution to violence, that policing is our only path to safety, and really recognize and look to what communities know to be true, which is it is our relationships, our resources,

and our commitment to each other safety and well-being that is actually the pathway to safety. we have to unlearn that in the face of a wave of propaganda -- every time there is an instance of police violence like this, police have to react to the challenge of their legitimacy by reaching for the most reliable weapon which is fear and fear mongering and try to reinforce in people's minds the only solution to safety is police when in fact police are a threat to our safety as evidenced by this. you mentioned breonna taylor and tyre nichols. they are the same age, born on the same day. they were 29 -- rihanna would have been 29 years old. tamika palmer, her mother, will get the funeral today and pointed this out. justin hansford, before we go, i know the world is watching the

united states right now. you are the first american non-native elected to the permanent forum for people of african descent. can you talk about how your work has been inspired by the internationalist vision of malcolm x and how it applies to what is happening today in the united states? >> for me personally, it is a continuation of that dream where malcolm x, upon his assassination when he created the organization of african-american unity, what it did take black people's case to the world court, which was the united nations, and argued our issues like police violence are not civil rights issues, not just domestic political issues, but human issues because they speak to our need for human dignity and respect for our lives as human beings and under citizenship rights. in 2014 when i was in ferguson and worked with mike brown's

family to take the mike brown case to the u.n., i realized it was a vision we have to continue because we need to make sure not only is the world watching but make sure the world is participating in the discussion, especially in the black diaspora we have to support each other. there is support for us all across the globe. so this u.n. permanent forum -- amy: we just lost professor hansford. we will link to the continued coverage of what happened not only with tyre right now, the funeral today, but what unfolds and in the future. and continue to cover it on democracy now! professor justin hansford's howard university school of law professor, also as i just said, human rights lawyer as well as executive director of the thurgood marshall civil rights center. andrea ritchie, lawyer, organizer, and co-author of the

book "no more police: a case for abolition." next up, a standoff continues outside a hotel in midtown manhattan were some seekers are protesting plans by new york city to move them to a remote rockland terminal. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "svalbard" by leland whitty. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. more than 40,000 asylum seekers

have arrived in new york city since last spring. some were sent here on buses against their will. we're going to look now at how many are pleading with new york officials to provide permanent and humane housing, as well as job permits so they can make a living. the city says it has opened 77 emergency shelters and four humanitarian emergency response and relief centers. but this week, dozens of migrants have been sleeping on the sidewalk outside the watson hotel, not far from times square, where they were living for weeks until city officials suddenly evicted them over the weekend to move them to a remote terminal facility filled with 1000 cots head to toe. this is labrador, a venezuelan asylum seeker who was evicted from the watson hotel. as he spoke, he held up a picture on his phone of the new site.

>> it is like a jail. what is that? they take million dollars for immigrant programs -- what is that? that is no good. amy: the new facility is at a cruise terminal in red hook, brooklyn. asylum seekers who agreed to tour it on tuesday with the mayor's office of immigration affairs said their tour confirmed it is too isolated and lacks privacy and sufficient heat. on monday, democracy now's maría taracena and sonyi lopez were on the ground as police barricaded the hol. some a some seekers were taken on buses and others refused. this is ximena bustamante, mutual aid organizer and founder of the undocumented women's fund. >> many of them had just in the area, you know, like, they have built community around here. and actually, they cannot be forced, because there is in new

york a right to shelter. however, there have been police called here to intimidate them, and they have stood their ground. they are camping outside. amy: a 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. >> the city is not giving you any more options. they want everything here to be emptied out because they have to demolish everything. they're bringing construction crews. amy: and asylum seeker said he was assaulted sunday night by a security guard working at the watson hotel. he says he has been in new york for about three months and trekked for thousands of miles from venezuela, crossing through the deadly jungle along the colombia-panama border where several other migrants lost their lives in the journey. this is ivan outside the watson hotel monday afternoon.

>> i was filming the men who were being loaded onto buses. several of us were filming them when a security guard, a staff member from the watson hotel, assaulted me. he tried to take my cellphone. when i tried to move it away from him, he punched me back here. he punched me really hard. this is a very unfortunate situation that they are mistreating us when we are here because we want a better future. we came here to work and provide a better life for our families. everything we have been doing has taken a toll. we don't have anywhere to sleep. our fate is still strong. -- our faith is still strong. if we don't have anywhere to sleep and rest, then we can't work or do much. some of my friends have been out here for two days and have not slept at all. they kick us out of the hotel without a motive. we denounced the abuse by the

guards at the hotel. we are human beings, just like all of you. amy: new york officials are reportedly planning to use the hotel to house asylum seeking families with children. all of this comes as new york city mayor eric adams has rejected the idea that asylum seekers are protected by the city's right-to-shelter law. he spoke last week on wabc's "sid & friends" show. >> the courts ruled this is a sanctuary, sanctuary city. we have a moral and legal obligation to fulfill that. we don't believe asylum seekers fall into the whole right to shelter conversation. this is a crises. amy: for more, we're joined by josh goldfein, a staff attorney for the legal aid society's homeless rights project. the mayor says though there is a right to shelter, it does not extend to these asylum seekers. can you respond to the crisis not only at the watson hotel, but happening all over, just playing out in front of everyone

there? >> let me clarify, i think the mayor waseferring specifically to rules around who gets a bed win. the city hall and the mayor were not saying a some seekers don't have the right to shelter, they just are concerned that the city won't be able to comply with various requirements, for instance, what i'm summit he gets a vet or how long they can be in the application office. there were not saying they don't believe asylum seeker somehow are not people, able to shelter the way everyone else's. i think what we're seeing is the result of failure of the government on every level. we have to start with climate change in immigration policy. the federal gernment could make all of this go away in a second by giving these folks work authorization. you heard people just want to

work. many are working and being taken advantage of. if they were given work authorization, they could have honorable jobs and be able to leave these shelters because they would have enough income to find a place to live. there is also failure by the state to contribute to assisting to relocate people to other parts of the state. the federal government should be paying for the cost of the shelter as well. but has access to various programs it developed to move people into permanent housing. what we're seeing right now is that this administration and their prior administration, mayoral administrations, did not move people fast enough out of shelters. as a, shelters were already full when migrants started to come. if we could invest in affordable

housing, invest in programs that we have to keep people in their homes and move people out of shelters and into permanent housing, it would free up a lot of space in the shelter system and allow them migrants to be sheltered and we would not need to put people increase terminals or tents on randall's island or cruise ships or summer camps or some of the other things they're talking about doing. juan: josh, the sheer number of people that have come to n york, more than 40,000, the size of a small city. to what degree is the federal government responsible for being able to assist localities? it is not just new york -- chicago, philadelphia, many of the nation cities suddenly as people are being bussed from texas and florida have encountered huge numbers like they have not seen in a while for people needing temporary shelter. what is the responsibility of the federal government? >> you are right.

this is a nationwide problem. people and every community in the uned states, more people in florida, for instance, who have crossed the border. most people crossing the border do not have in their heart they wanted to be in new york city. 40,000 is a relatively small percentage of the number of people who have crossed. the federal government could solve this problem immediately giving people work authorizations. we have labor shortages in this country and a group of people who are here legally entitled to be here because they have a pending asylum claim and they need to be able to support themselves. it would be a win/win to give people the opportunity to work legally on the books and not be exploited rather than forcing them into the shadows. obviously, people need income while they are here. they will find something to do to gain income. amy: i also went to the watson hotel and a number of the people

there are already working and are horrified that having to go to this remote terminal in redhook, they won't be able to easily get to their jobs. we're joined on the phone by desiree joy frías. i met her outside the watson hotel with many other community organizers with south bronx mutual aid. in this minute, if you can tell us what is the latest after the city took people who wanted to go to look at the facility, come back and report to others? >> a delegation of migrants who have been leading all of this work went yesterday to redhook to see the conditions. some of them had already been there and walked back to watson because the conditions were so poor. videos have been circulating on whatsapp of the conditions inside. only four showers for over 500 people, not enough running water, the beds are head to tail. a lot of issues right now of communicable diseases.

covid-19, chickenpox. we've been dealing with these outbreaks at the 25 shelters we serve across new york city. i understand the interest want to house migrant families, but you cannot create second-class citizens just because they are asylum seekers, just because there single men, and put them in a different kind of shelter, detention cam just because they are single men. amy: so will they stay outside the watson at this point where they are camped out over the last few days after being evicted from the hotel? >> i did not -- i am here with one of them migrants as well. he told me the call right now for migrants is to be allowed back into the rooms at the watson. we keep shuffling people around like they are not real human beings with needs. they need everyone. all new yorkers have a right to permanent, stable housing. like the attorney said earlier, they areot moving people fast

enough into the shelters. amy: desiree joy frías, thank you for being with us, community organizer with south bronx mutual aid. help and folks outside the watson hotel. and josh goldfein, staff attorney for legal aid society. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to

hello, there. welcome to "nhk newsline". i am catherine in new york. the people with their hands on the levers of the u.s. economy are balancing their words with their actions. policymakers at the federal reserve have been cautious about communicating what is ahead. but for now, they have decided to raise interest rates again by 0.