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tv   The Last Word  MSNBC  September 29, 2011 12:00am-1:00am PDT

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wall street. >> the reason that man is being assaulted by the police, he's holding a professional-grade videocamera. >> the nypd calls the officers' actions appropriate. protest against corporate greed is in its second week. >> protest against wall street greed. >> what i want is i want to see a perp walk. i want to see some of the people on wall street who created this crisis and see them arrested. >> more poverty. less wealth. hollowing of the middle class. >> the poor need jobs and also need to share some of the responsibility. >> 23% of all american homeowners are now what they say is under water. >> this is not fair. >> would you please raise my taxes? >> the only warfare i've seen is the battle that's been waged against middle class families. >> we're on the right side of the struggle. >> you should get to keep every dollar that you earn. >> on taxes she's con fused.
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>> corporations are people. >> that's not a heartless position. >> the heartlessness of america which i think frankly doesn't wash at all. >> oh, please, please stop asking me to be leader of the free world. >> i think you kind of put the nail in the coffin. >> look, you have to find some excitement. >> sort of embarrassing for mitt romney. >> does a title shackle a person? >> i simply do not have the desire. >> we've seen new candidates come and go and they usually fall on their face. >> what helps is for that politician to have a foundation of having come from the real people of america. the working class. >> have you ever worked fast food before? >> no. i was a locker room attendant and a bartender. today was like every other day in washington since the president announced his american jobs act. absolutely no progress was made in passing that bill.
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congress took no steps to address the 9.1% unemployment rate nationwide. the 16.7% unemployment rate among african-americans. and the 18.1% unemployment rate among workers age 18 to 24 who are trying to get their start in the american workforce. trying to become payers into the social security trust funds which so desperately need the weekly fico taxes from young workers in order to continue the intergenerational compact to provide retirement security to older americans. america is in the merciless grip of an economic crisis but washington is not in crisis mode. washington continues to play its business as usual games. those games delight many of the top 1% of income earners whose burden sharing in funding our government and our societal
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investments was dramatically reduced by the bush administration tax cutting policies. business as usual in washington means that no progress has been made today on a more equitable description of tax burden sharing in this society. a more equitable description following the buffett rule, the simple concept that billionaires like warren buffett should pay a higher tax rate than their middle class employees do. the easy ride that wall street billionaires are provided by the tax code went unmolested today in washington. the notion that wall street billionaires' income should be taxed at a lower rate than the income of the janitors who clean their office towers remains deeply embedded in the tax code. washington did nothing today. nothing to rip that travesty out of the law of this land. congress didn't hold a hearing
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today asking why a billionaire, why a billionaire should pay a 15% rate on his so-called carried interest income when public schoolteachers and nurses pay higher tax rates. the washington power elite went about their business today making fund-raising calls, meeting with lobbyists, scheduling re-election campaign events. while ignoring the massive economic inequities in this society that have become ever so painfully more clear in this economic crisis. if you lost your job today, washington didn't notice. if you got foreclosed on today, washington didn't notice. if you couldn't afford to see a doctor today, washington didn't notice. and if you're a wall street billionaire who made another billion today, washington made no real attempt to tax that billion fairly. it was business as usual in washington today and no one, no one caused the power brokers any
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trouble. possibly because my first guest was in new york today. joining me now is michael moore, academy award winning filmmaker, activist and author of the new book "here comes trouble: stories from my life." michael, thank you very much for joining me tonight. i love this book and i love its title. "here comes trouble." where are you right now, michael? >> thank you. >> are you causing trouble? >> what are you doing? >> i'm here in liberty plaza in new york city. we are a block or so off wall street. with financial buildings all surrounding us here. we're in the financial district. and we're in the 12th day now of an occupation of liberty plaza here. thousands of people over the last 12 days have come to this plaza. thousands of americans. thousands of people who have come from all walks of life
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because they have had it. because, i mean, that opening you just gave this segment, that's the most brilliant thing i've heard on television this week. thank you for saying what you just said because nothing happened today for these people, nothing happened yesterday and nothing is going to happen tomorrow. and, you know, they're not going to do anything because they're bought and paid for. these politicians. they're bought and paid for by the people who work in these buildings, up here on the top floors of goldman sachs and morgan stanley. all these people. they buy these politicians. nothing is going to get done. the people have had it. that's why they've come here. this is only going to grow. this is going to grow here in liberty plaza. you're going to see this happening in cities all over the country because not because i say so, not because they say so -- >> it's because we say so! >> no, no, actually what happened was is that the rich, the rich weren't satisfied with
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having practically everything. they wanted it all. and so they have made lives miserable for so many millions of people. people that lost their homes. people that are being foreclosed upon. over 50 million people that don't have health insurance. the people that lost their jobs, they say it's 14 million. that's the official number. it's well over 20 million. and if you count all the people who are underemployed, in other words, they're working but they're making a poverty wage, you're talking upwards to 30 million americans. we have 46 million living in poverty. people have had it. people have absolutely had it. and they're not going to take it anymore. and you see now the seeds of this revolt that's going to take place. nonviolently across the country. the reason it will be nonviolent, the reason it doesn't have to be violent is because there's millions of us and there's only really a few hundred of them.
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so it's -- it's not really a fair fight. >> well, you know, michael, it's going to be nonviolent as long as the police around those protesters stay nonviolent. i'm going to talk later in the program as i did earlier this week about some of the police brutality that they've had to suffer in trying to express themselves on this issue. and michael, is it your sense that what you have there, and what you have going on in the country, is basically a cry from the heart? it's not so much specifically about we want to change this clause in this bill or we want to do -- but you just need to bring attention to these massive inequities and, in fact, the stall that no one is doing anything. there isn't necessarily the right big piece of legislation to get behind right now, is there? >> no. we're not down here to support senate bill 25-67. we're beyond that.
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they -- they had their chance a long time ago to try and fix this. they didn't fix it because they're in the pocket of these people down here on wall street. so this is not about supporting some piece of legislation or let's get behind some politician. this is going to be and historically in america, this has happened a number of times. it happened after world war i where the veterans were not paid their benefits. it happened during the great depression when workers rose up in my town of flint, michigan, where the modern day union movement began because people just took over the gm factories. this is what happens when people have had it. and it's not -- it's not about policy wonkness and beltway bull shit -- nobody wants to, nobody cares about that anymore. they are just going to descend on whether it's new york, whether it's in d.c., whether it's in los angeles, san francisco, this is just going to build and build.
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and you're going to see what i see here -- i don't think your family probably can't pick this up. you see a variety of americans here. you see really the mosaic of this country. you have young people here. you have senior citizens here. you have teachers here. you have nurses here. you have unemployed people here. you have young people who will be paying off student loans until their 40s. and if they lived in any other western democracy, they wouldn't be in hawk for half of their adult lives. this is -- i thought somebody put it best the other day when they said, the main reason people are down here is to reclaim their future. not the past. not even the present. but the future has been stolen. that's just how greedy these people are here on wall street. and so i just -- i'm honored to be part of this and i'm glad
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that you have put focus on this. i'm glad that you put focus on the brutality that these demonstrators and protesters had to go through on saturday. it just -- lawrence, can i just say this? after what the individuals in these high-rises did back in 2008, where they crashed this country right into the ground and they just ruined it, millions more without work, millions lost their pensions, just total calamity and chaos for the last three years in this country. to this day, not a single one of them arrested. not one of them, not one of them. but on saturday, 100 of these citizens who were being nonviolent, they were arrested. how can i live in a country that arrests 100 nonviolent people and doesn't arrest a single one
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of these bankers or the people that caused this collapse? just boggles the mind. >> well, you live in a country where that kind of conduct has to be protested and is being protested. we are grateful to be able report. michael, i want you to know in our control room here, we have a very simple policy. when an academy award winning director asks to widen the shot, we widen the shot. and i'm very glad you did that because we did get to take in all those people around you down there and it is an inspirational looking group down there. i'm going to do one twitter question for you, michael, before the break, then we're going to come back after the break. this one is from irene, she's one of my favorite tweeters. m. moore could articate some specific, tangible goals for this protest as i've yet to hear any and really would like to. >> right.
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a lot of people are asking this question. what are the goals, what are the demands? you have to understand about this protest is this is unlike any other protest that you've seen in your lifetime. because there's no dues-paying organization that we all belong to. you know, there's no membership form. there's no one person that comes in here and says, now, this is our agenda and this is the way it's going to be. there are a variety of demands and concerns within this group and i can say what some of mine are, but don't mistake that for what the breadth of this group here because there are -- i saw ron paul people here. there are all kinds of them. there's all -- there's all kinds of americans here. there's all kinds of americans here. and nobody here is calling themselves a democrat or a republican or a liberal or a conservative.
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we're beyond that. that's right. this is the people and everyone here represents thousands of americans who can't be here tonight who feel the same exact way. so, i mean, i've said what i've said for a long time. tax the rich, jail the bankers. end corporate welfare. end these wars which are costing us $2 billion a week. you know, it goes on and on. and if we pass the microphone around, you'd hear 15 other things that need to get done. and you know what? they're going to get done because this is our country. we're the majority. the majority. we're the majority. never forget that. that the people who work for a living in this country, we are the people. not the people up here who are taking people's pensions and their bank accounts and ruining it and destroying their lives. this is -- they are not running this country anymore. they think they are, but that's
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going to come to an end right now. >> okay, michael. standby. we're going to take a break right here. we're going to be back with more with michael moore right after this break.
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we're going to be back with more from michael moore from wall street. and later in the program, we will examine some new evidence that the police are now considering in an internal affairs investigation of police brutality, the use of pepper spray. in that demonstration that occurred here on saturday that we've showed you on this show monday night. we'll show you more of that tape. that will be later in the "rewrite."
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we're back with michael moore who's joining us live from wall street. and the protests that have been taking place there now. michael, it's in the 12th day, is it? >> this is the 12th day. that's right. i think a lot of people thought this might last a day or two. it's only grown. and not everybody stays overnight, but people come. and you don't have to -- you can come for an hour, come all day long, come down here. it's on the corner of broadway and liberty street. right in the heart of the financial district here in new york city. >> michael, i want to talk to you about this class warfare argument that the republicans keep throwing at president obama and throwing at anyone who talks about trying to do something about the massive income inequality in this country that is not healthy for any sector of the economy. it's not healthy for the rich, either. chris christie last night, the now most praised and most adored
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republican nationally was at the reagan library and he said this about the president. he said that the president is, "telling those who are scared and struggling that the only way their lives can get better is to diminish the success of others." i've never heard the president say that. have you, michael? >> wow. no. that's incredible. what's in their heads? i mean, really? how does -- how do they -- i don't -- i don't -- i can't interpret that for you. i don't understand that. >> he's trying to say that it's a zero-sum game, that this economy, in effect this economy will never grow, so whatever you have now, especially if you're at the top of the pile, hold on to it because barack obama and those democrats want to take it away from you and give it to something else, to someone else and this economy won't grow, so you'll never have more than you have right now. >> listen, they've been conducting class warfare on the
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people of this country for a long time. they should know about class warfare. they started the war. they started the war 30 years ago under ronald reagan. when they fired the air traffic controllers union, when they busted that union, they've been busting unions ever since and expecting people to work for less money and expecting people to work for longer hours. they want you to work your butt off so the company makes huge profits and can take those profits and move them elsewhere and exploit other people in the third world. that's been their game plan for the last 30 years. they are, yes, they believe in war. it's to paraphrase seth myers from "saturday night live" this past weekend, if there's one thing these republicans know something about, it's war. when they talk about class war, they are certainly the instigators of it. let me not leave the democrats out of this because they've been at the same trough, taking the same money from the same people. and i think even you pointed out on this show that barack obama's
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number one contributor, private contributor, was goldman sachs. in the last election. and within a month after he was elected, he appointed timothy geithner and larry summers to run our economic policy in this country. so, you know, that's a problem that he's going to have to face as he's asking everybody here to vote for him again. because he decided to become part of that problem. but make no mistake about it, whether it's governor christie, any of these republicans, the reason they're floundering is because they're trying to find a message to give to the average working person so they can get their vote. how do they go to those people when they were with george w. bush who literally drove this country right into the ground? made life worse for everybody and then told everybody to -- their grandchildren and children are going to have to expect the worst life than the life they've
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had. people here reject that and that's why -- that's why people are here and that's why this is going to happen across the country. you're going to remember that it started here. this was the place. these were the seeds that were planted. and i'm very hopeful of what's going to happen. >> michael moore, thank you very much for bringing us there tonight to wall street. i hope people there can see on >> michael moore, thank you very much for bringing us there tonight to wall street. i hope people there can see on our monitors later on when i come back again later in the program to the discussion of the police brutality that they suffered this past weekend in new york. i have much more to say about it. that's going to be coming up in the "rewrite." we'll be back. >> thank you very much.
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tonight the state of florida carried out the 38th execution in the united states this year. 61-year-old manuel valle was pronounced dead at 7:14 p.m. at the state prison in stark, florida. he was sentenced to die in 1981 for killing officer louis pena during a traffic stop in 1978. still to come tonight, governor chris christie has repeatedly said he is not up to the job of being president, but that didn't stop him from insulting the president of the united states about how he does the job. and new video out today of the police officer who pepper sprayed the wall street protesters and the late breaking news today that he is now the subject of an internal affairs investigation.
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in the "spotlight" tonight, new jersey governor chris christie chooses not to end speculation that he still just might run for president. last night, christie praised himself for his budgeting skills and taking on public sector unions in a speech before a sold out crowd at the reagan library in california. christie also rattled off a long list of lies about the president of the united states beginning with the despicable insult that president obama is, "a bystander in the oval office." the governor of new jersey would have you believe that the president who saved the american auto industry, the president who gave the country our first hispanic woman on the supreme court, cut taxes for working families, who succeeded in passing the kind of health care reform bill that presidents from harry truman through bill clinton and very much including richard nixon tried to do and failed, the first president to
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actually do something about out of control piracy off the coast of somalia and the president who decisively ended this nation's obsession with osama bin laden. that president is a bystander in the oval office. and presumably a bystander in the situation room. then to the delight of his republican audience, christie lied about the president's policies and the president's rhetoric. >> telling those who are scared and struggling that the only way their lives can get better is to diminish the success of others, try to cynically convince those who are suffering that the american economic pie is no longer a growing one that can provide more prosperity for all who work hard, insisting that we must tax and take and demonize those who have already achieved the american dream. that may turn out to be good
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re-election strategy, mr. president, but it is a demoralizing message for america. >> of course, the president has never demonized any american, never said or done any of those things that christie imagines, but christie knew he was working in a fact-free zone. no one in that audience was prepared to recognize the truth, if christie had suddenly stumbled into telling it. after the speech, a particularly emotional audience member in the swoon of christie mania begged, just begged christie to reconsider his decision not to run for president. >> i mean this with all my heart. we can't wait another four years to 2016, and i -- [ applause ] i really implore you to as a citizen of this country to please, sir, to reconsider. >> i hear exactly what you're saying and i feel the passion with which you say it.
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and it touches me. that heartfelt message you gave me is also not a reason for me to do it. that reason has to reside inside me. and so that's what i've said all along. and so my answer to you is just this. i thank you for what you're saying and i take it in and i'm listening to every word of it and feeling it, too. >> joining me now, "philadelphia inquirer" reporter, matt cats, who runs the christie's chronicle blog and attended last night's speech. thanks for joining me, matt. >> sure thing, lawrence. >> i didn't hear christie get around as to an example of sensible bipartisan compromise that he admires. any, any of the tax increases that ronald reagan agreed to as governor. or as president of the united states. there he was in reagan's library. didn't mention a word about reagan, reasonably raising taxes and compromises with democrats. why did he leave that out?
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>> that's a good question. he did bring up reagan's attack on the unions and the airline industry. and, of course, that's a reference to his work against the unions in new jersey. and he brought that up at the top of the speech. >> now, matt, he is the darling right now of the republicans, but they don't know that much about him. i've been interested in what are the things that the republicans will be shocked to discover if he ever did decide to run for president? for example, christie on medica marijuana? >> there is a medical marijuana program about to be instated in new jersey. it was approved prior to his administration. he slowed it down, but it is going to happen on his watch. >> and is he in favor of people being able to carry any kind of gun they want when they buy their medical marijuana? >> gun control is not much of an issue in new jersey, but it did
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come up during the campaign and he supported -- expressed support for new jersey's gun control laws which are the most stringent in the country, so, yes. >> now, matt, it's good business for any politician to be talked about as a presidential candidate. it helps his fund-raising for his own re-election as governor. it helps everything you do as a politician. if he were to call up senators and congressmen in washington today from other states needing their help on something from new jersey, they're going to grab the phone. there's a tremendous benefit to him, even if he has no intention of running for president, to allow this stuff to go on as long as possible. has it been generally helpful to him among voters in new jersey? >> i mean, listen, lawrence, his poll numbers are up. he's at over 54% right now which is pretty tremendous for a blue state like new jersey. so it certainly hasn't hurt him. there's a theory that maybe, you know, new jerseyans who might be skeptical of him, they see him go around the country, get a standing ovation all over the
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place and there must be something to him. so they like him because everybody else likes him. maybe that's what's going on. >> mark, quickly before we go, do you have a bet on whether he's going to run? >> i wouldn't dare do that on american television. the point is confusion. that's what the point is. >> "philadelphia inquirer" reporter matt katz. thanks for joining us tonight. >> thank you. on monday we showed video of an nypd officer pepper spraying a group of peaceful protesters in the wall street protest. now we have new video that shows that officer that reveals exactly what that officer did to other protesters. we also have his name and his rank. all of that will be in the "rewrite."
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on monday as we reported here, the new york city police department said that pepper spray was used against wall street protesters over the weekend, sparingly and appropriately. the department stuck to that
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story as long as they possibly could, but today the police department gave up and ordered an internal affairs investigation into what really happened on the street that day. and later, we will have new details in the case of michael jackson's personal physician. the man who is now charged with killing him. michael jackson's friend, the reverend al sharpton, joins me. daddy, come in the water!
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[ gnome ] awwwwwwww. i just feel bloody awful. she told tiffany, stephanie, jenny and becky that she was coming to a place like this! but somebody didn't book with travelocity, with 24/7 customer support to help move them to the pool daddy promised! look at me, i'm swimming! ♪ [ gnome ] somebody, get her a pony! [ female announcer ] the travelocity guarantee. if your booking's not right, we'll help make it right, right away. from the price to the room to the trip you'll never roam alone. time for tonight's "rewrite." monday night in this space, i
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told the story of the police misconduct and police brutality that erupted on saturday at a peaceful demonstration by the occupy wall street protesters. we brought this story to a national television audience complete with video of the police violence. >> get in there and help. [ screaming ] [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. [ screaming ]
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[ bleep ]. >> pepper spray. seriously? pepper spray for what? [ screaming ] >> we then showed you a slow-motion version of that last piece of video which revealed a police commander using pepper spray against some young women for absolutely no reason. we now have video shot from another angle immediately after that first pepper spray attack. >> get out of here. go. >> we're here in peace.
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we're here in peace. >> we're now going to slow that down so you can get a clear view of the white shirted indiscriminate pepper spray attacker. we now know his name and rank. "the new york times" has confirmed that the out of control officer is the high ranking deputy inspector anthony bologna. since our program monday night, much has changed in the life of inspector bologna. on monday, the police department was blithely insisting that the use of pepper spray and all of the rest of the brutality caught on tape was appropriate, even while they knew that we and anyone with internet access had
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video proving that it was completely unjustified. city councilman peter valone, the chairman of the city council's public safety committee watched the video and said the use of pepper spray, "didn't look good." councilman vallone explained "if no prior verbal command was given, the use of spray in that instance is completely inappropriate. the police department's patrol guide states pepper spray can be used, quote, when a member reasonably believes it's necessary to effect an arrest of a resisting suspect." you see in this video that inspector bologna makes no attempt to arrest anyone, nor does he order anyone arrested who he sprays. he just indiscriminately sprays people as he marches down the sidewalk. you can see here in this frame that he's spraying people who
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are walking away from him. they are not resisting him in any way. they are not resisting arrest. >> we're here in peace. we're here in peace. we're here in peace. >> no video has surfaced anywhere that shows from any angle any provocation or justification for the use of this pepper spray. this story has managed to stay alive in the local media, exclusively because of this incriminating video. "the new york times" has been busy asking all of the right questions about it and today the police department has finally stopped saying that the pepper spray was used sparingly and appropriately. that was their words. sparingly and appropriately. in fact, police commissioner raymond kelly today announced that the internal affairs bureau will investigate inspector bologna's use of the pepper
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spray and commissioner kelly whose department had been publicly defending the use of the pepper spray admitted, "i don't know what precipitated that specific incident." i predicted this investigation on monday. the department may be forced to conduct an investigation of the police conduct if police brutality complaints are filed but police investigations of this sort are always a sham, designed from the start to the finish to defend the police conduct. the head of inspector bologna's union blames the investigation on us. he says the only reason inspector bologna is being investigated is "the notoriety the wall street protests have attracted in the media." and he's absolutely right. the police get away with this kind of abuse in this country every day without being investigated because there is usually no videocamera around to
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capture such routine abuse. enough video was recorded of this incident to show that most police officers on the scene were not violent and did not overreact. some of the video shows officers conducting themselves in the most honorable tradition of those who take the oath to serve and protect. and enough video of deputy inspector anthony bologna was recorded that the department by day four of this controversy could no longer completely protect him. of course, as his internal affairs investigation proceeds, the culture of the department will do everything it possibly can to protect inspector bologna and it remains very, very unlikely that the police department investigation will result in the disciplining of inspector bologna or any other officer. the spirit of these investigations is always a mix of investigation and instinctive institutional cover-up.
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police departments don't want to know the truth about these incidents and they don't want you to know the truth about these incidents. they do everything they can to hide these truths. that's what the police department was doing on monday when they kept insisting that the use of the pepper spray was appropriate. they stuck with that story as long as they could. the only reason that story couldn't hang together is that the video shows it is false. the bravest people on that street on saturday were not police officers. they were the people who pulled out their videocameras to record the truth. many of them were beaten and arrested simply for exercising their legal right to press the record button on their videocameras. [ bleep ]. [ bleep ].
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[ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. [ bleep ]. >> soon enough, the protesters realized that using their cameras meant they were running a much more serious risk of being beaten and arrested. and still they had the courage to do it. there's a very brave man in this picture. a very brave man. and it's not the guy in the white shirt. look, every day we're using more and more energy.
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this was day two of the trial of michael jackson's personal physician dr. conrad murray, charged with involuntary manslaughter. today michael jackson's personal assistant described the call he got from dr. murray the day michael jackson died in 2009. >> he said, where are you? and i said, i'm downtown. and he said, get here right away, mr. jackson had a bad reaction. get here right away. and i said, what's going on? and he said, get somebody up here immediately. and then -- >> and did that terminate that phone call? >> yes, sir. >> yesterday prosecutors showed evidence that includes an image many of us will find very disturbing. the jury was forced to look at a side by side photographs of michael jackson, the one on the left shows him alert and dancing and vibrant during rehearsal. and on the right, just 12 hours later. michael jackson's lifeless body on a hospital gurney. jurors also heard a recording of
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michael jackson made by dr. murray on his iphone just a month and a half before his death. >> when people leave this show, when people leave my show, i want them to say, i've never seen anything like this in my life. go. go. >> joining me now, michael jackson's friend, the reverend al sharpton, host of msnbc's "politics nation." which airs weeknights here on msnbc at 6:00 p.m. reverend al, what's it like to be taking in this new information? you might have had a feeling for some of the goings on around michael, but now you're getting this level of detail of neglect, of exploitation. >> it is heart wrenching. i did the eulogy at michael's burial and spoke at his funeral. and the family and everyone was
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saying, how could they let this happen? and when you hear that tape, how could anyone not have gotten michael into a medical facility? why would you drive this tour if you're hearing this, what is the world has heard now? this is inexcusable but it shows the level of exploitation and insensitivity that many has seen that we thought was over in the music industry. and no one knew it better than michael. michael used to say all the time, they're trying to take my money, they're trying to use me. and to see and hear this is just heart wrenching. >> yesterday there was all this testimony about the massive amount of drugs that the doctor was ordering from las vegas, shipped to his girlfriend's apartment in santa monica. and then you go to the voice. after hearing that there's this massive shipment coming in of a drug that can kill him at any point if now administered. did the people around him have a
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sense that this medical care might be wildly out of control? >> i have no idea of what the people around him knew. i knew his family would have known. and his family was isolated. and his family loved him and i think that's why they were isolated. clearly the people around that had the knowledge were not exercising any concern for michael. it was to the benefit of some that he continued to be a moneymaker. even if it ran his health and ultimately his life in the ground. they ought to pay for it. i don't know if it was dr. murray, alone, i don't know if it was dr. murray at all. whoever drived that bus that wrecked michael in terms of the bus of negligence, no human being should be subjected to that. >> here's michael jackson dying, the physician knows that. today's testimony is no 911 call. >> no 911 call.
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when you listen, lawrence, to the tape, why wouldn't you immediately hospitalize him? why wouldn't you immediately say, we can't have this guy going to -- why would you be arranging for medical attention in london meaning you're preparing to take him on out of the country anyway? you're not concerned about him. you're concerned about the enterprise. and that's in my judgment inexcusable and illegal. >> now, when you watch "this is it," -- have you seen "this is it," the movie that came out? when i watched it i was stunned at just what a beautiful movie it is in so many ways. when you watch it you see, here's a guy who after that tape, after that audio we heard, is showing up on this stage and doing the most amazingly ingenious creative work, full of energy, full of life. which is what makes it -- and even that image of him rehearsing 12 hours before he's dead -- you can see why people at the staples center would have no idea how bad things were at
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home. >> well, you see the michael jackson that those of us that knew him, who he was. he was determined. even in that tape, as seemingly out of it as he was, he was determined to give a great show. he wanted people to enjoy. he was always determined to be at his best, but people exploited it rather than appreciate it. we owe it to michael and others that they not get away with this. >> you can see in "this is it" that he felt a debt to the audience. >> he went on that stage and tried to pay the debt. unfortunately people felt they had no debt to him for making them wealthy. >> al sharpton. thanks for joining me. "politics nation" airs at 6:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. have the last word on our blog, thelastword.msnbc.com. the rachel maddow show is up next. good evening rachel. good evening, lawrence. thank you.