and said let's get rid of nuclear weapons. i'd love to see that vision from hillary clinton. trying to be like reagan, she may be more like reagan's rhetoric and more like his reality. >> rick pearlstein, the book is " " "invisible bridge." "the rachel maddow show" begins now. good to see you again. it's good if be back. thanks to you at home for staying with us. it's fogood to be back. thanks to steve kornacki for filling in. there's a lot going on. a lot of it oversea, none of which is good right now. also a lot of news at home, politics and otherwise. there's a ton of stuff to talk about tonight. and we do have a lot planned for the show. but the very unexpected and late breaking news that has come as a real shock tonight, particularly to those of us who have grown up stewed in american political and popular culture, is that one of the most recognizable and iconic comedic talents of this jen raigs or last few generations

has died unexpectedly today. robin williams, age 63, died in his home in northern california, what the marin county sheriffs office is describing as a suspected suicide. it's hard to overstate the fame and the popularity that robin williams achieved almost instantly, thanks to his remarkable television debut in the late 1970s. february 1978 when he went from being a relatively unknown comic to one of the most famous actors in america. thanks to his appearance as a space alien named mork during the fifth season of the humongously popular 1950s themed sitcom that was called "happy days" which i watched basically on a loop throughout my entire childhood. the mork on "happy days" completely off the wall appearance freaked audiences out in the best possible way and from that appearance came the sitcom called "mork & mindy" which was an immediate

sensation. if you were an american who watched television in the late 1970s, early 1980s, you knew chap and verse about mork from ork and consciousness, turn on a tim dime, manic comedic brilliance of robin williams. sitcom was huge. appearances on late night talk shows were huge, a bigger deal then than they are now i think. his standup comedy was huger than huge. there had been comic actors before who could do 1,000 voices and comic characters before robin williams who were memorable and became household names. but nobody had ever done them in one comedically coherent rip. one after the other. right? with seemingly no unit. careening from bit to bit to bit, voice to voice to voice, at a million miles an hour in an almost unsustainable pace. if he was not the first, he was among the first funny people to make everyone in america sort of turn and ask each other, where does he come up with all that

stuff? and in that way, robin williams changed the way people could be entertained. that style, the unique speed and range of things that robin williams could put together in every performance, made him almost instantly iconic. >> would you welcome robin williams? people always think performers don't get nervous. >> not at all. really? oh, no, really, not me, no way. >> is there some reason you don't -- is it the fact you get nervous? >> very much so. i suffer from severe dyslexia, too. i was the only child on my block on halloween to go trick-or-trout. look, here comes that young williams boy again. better get some fish. here you go. say hi to your mom and dad. >> where -- where is home for you, or did you come from a home? >> they sent -- all the people in the institution, tommy, if you haven't taken your

medication yet, it's going to be fun. >> be back at 12:00. >> all right, mr. williams, i'm real fine. look at this thing. look, flipper. right now there's a saw man going, what are you doing? oh, god. >> relax, relax, relax. it's okay. i'm on tv. you're a nice man. you won't hurt me. >> no, no. >> thank you. >> don't be afraid. >> the sores went away. >> that was robin williams' first ever appearance on the "tonight show" with johnny carson in 1981. imagine sitting down at the "jaunsny carson show," the first time you've ever been there and having the chutzpa to do it the way he did. but beyond his guts, and his comedy, his raw comedy, robin williams also developed a real remarkable range as a performer which is part of the reason he'll be remembered for as long as he is going to be remembered. he used his talent to do somethings other -- to do things other than make you laugh.

his voices and his comedic ability carried the movie "good morning vietnam" in 1987 about a military disk jockey during the war. that was not a comedic movie, right? you weren't just laughing at that performance. not even just at him. two years later he took a more dramatic acting turn as a prep school teacher in "dead poet society," a performance for which he was nominated for an academy award. oh, we had a problem with the audio there. don't worry, i'll ablgt ct it o. later. no, i won't. that was a performance that earned him an oscar nomination. after "dead poet society" he found huge commercial success in "mrs. doubtfire,". in 1997 he won an oscar as his

role as a psychologist to matt damon's troubled unknown genius in the movie "good will hunting." think about the range. incredible that an actor who had made such a wide and indelible impression for his outrageous over the top 100 mile an hour hilarity, he could ge all the way from that to the most considered, most controlled, most mature character play and make you believe that he was that guy, too. it was reported just last month even as he continued to work in movies and on tv and on broadway that robin williams had checked himself into a drug rehab program. his publicist issued this statement tonight. "robin williams passed away this morning. he has been battling severe depression of late. this is a tragic and sudden loss. the family respectfully asks for their privacy as they grieve during this difficult time." joining us, senior editorial director at "the wall street journal" where he oversees the newspaper's speak easy culture blog. thanks for coming in. i appreciate it. >> thanks for having me.

appreciate it. >> he always -- robin williams always seemed like, like when johnny carson said, did you come from a home? he always seemed like he was a person where you could not imagine he came from somewhere. it didn't seem like there was anybody before him who was ever like him. how should we understand him in terms of a continuum of performers? >> that's a great point. a lot of people that try to follow in the footsteps of comics like jerry seinfeld, someone like richard pryor who spawned a lot of imitators, not always successful. someone like robin williams, he really was someone who was so unique that people would like to have his kind of success, but no one has been able to follow in his exact footsteps as a comic. he's someone who really is someone who's a brand unto himself. he had wild success. $5 billion worldwide. $3 billion in the u.s. made a lot of money. people would like to be like him no one has really managed to be exactly like him. >> did he -- did he -- both his

comedic style and acting kpa ii capacity, did he change over time or just expand? because it seems to me that even in his later work, there was still the recognizable manic energy in that bit to bit to bit speed that you saw in him in the late '70s. >> he did manage to stretch himself continually throughout his career. i remember early on one of the first big features i ever did was a story on awakenings. i spent a lot of times with the neurologist at the center of the movie who williams portrays. he's a low key kind of guy, not a manic humorist. he's a neurologist. how is robin williams going to play this guy? of course, he did, to great effect and to great acclaim because he had that other gear. and only two years before that, he'd appeared on broadway in "waiting for goodoe" playing in a great role. this is a guy who could always

find another gear. yes, he was a comic but laid the groundwork for other comics to stretch themselves, not just to be funny men but also be taken seriously as akeing a actors. not a lot have been able to do that pbut he set a standard for an acker wing actor who could seriously and be funny as well. >> made comics seen as more whole performers than before. christopher farley, senior editorial editor at the "wall street journal." thanks for helping us out tonight. i appreciate it. joining us by home is the actor/director, henry winkler who was there playing fonzie on "happy days" when robin williams' career exploded on screen in 1978 in that amazing debut. henry winkler, thank you so much for taking time with us on this tough night. i really appreciate you calling in. >> thanks, rachel. first of all, can i just say -- >> please. >> -- that the entire winkler family, all of our thoughts are with the williams family.

>> can i ask you about how you first met him and your first impressions when you first encountered him as then a not at all famous performer? >> we had a script about an alien, mork from ork. gary marshall, i believe that his son, his young son said, hey, dad, wouldn't to be funny if fonzie met an alien? so they wrote this script and couldn't find the right actor to play him. now, we rehearsed monday from 10:00 in the morning until friday 4:00 in the afternoon and then we shot the show friday night 7:00. wednesday, we still didn't have an actor. >> wow. >> wednesday afternoon bobby hoffman who was the casting director brought a young actor, first time, usually did standup to the set to start rehearsal.

i'm telling you, rachel, no hyperbole. you knew you were in the presence of somebody very special. of some, of greatness. and, you know, somebody said earlier in the show that he had chutzpa. and it was not chutzpa. it was not nerve. he needed -- it was his soul. it was the way he was put on the earth. you said something to him. he sucked it in and he blew it out and it came out so with originality and so powerfully and so funny that your jaw dropped. >> what was he like privately? i mean, was that -- in terms of that, you're saying that's sort of part of his soul, sort of who he was as a person, not just as a character? >> yes. >> what was it like interacting

with him when the cameras were off? >> it was just robin the being. >> yeah. >> and how he was off the set he was boundlessly energy. filled with energy. he never stopped working. he would go to the clubs at night and do his act and work on his acts. he would act all day and do the show with us, or eventually his own show. and then he -- we saw that he was limitless. that he could do great drama. he could do drama with kme come. he could do comedy. it was -- he was a miracle. and i'm not kidding. i mean, it took your breath away. and how was he when he was just talking to you? he was as quiet and as gentle as

the breeze. you -- no matter when you saw him, no matter how long it was in between the times you saw him, you were first met with a hug. he'd talk to you like you were the only human being in the world at the moment. >> henry winkler, actor and director, longtime friend of robin williams. i know this is a very tough night for everybody who was friends with him. thank you for talking to us about it. i really appreciate it, henry. >> thanks for asking. >> thank you. robin williams, again, the shocking news today, dead of an apparent suicide, according to the sheriffs office in marin county in his home in northern california at the age of 63. there's a lot of other big news tonight. stay with us. if a photo could that shelf you've always wanted? or fix a leaky faucet? or even give you your saturday back? the new snapfix app revolutionizes local service.

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nobody. while he's governor. but then lurid turn. turns out secretly he's in argentina with his mistress. that's one of these stories. or that time the governor of new jersey was not just having his own affair, he was having an affair with the israeli guy who he picked for the job of homeland security chief in the state of new jersey. or there was that time the bush administration randomly gave a white house press pass to the bald hooker guy. the guy from militarystud.com. yeah, see, there are not all that many types of these stories, but when they happen, they do tend to be memorable. even years later. and in my short but happy working life in the media so far, the singlemost memorable one of these stories, the most memorable of all of them, was the late george w. bush administration scandal in the department of the interior that led to headlines like this. "sex, lies, oil, gas and a toaster oven."

this one, "snorting speed off of toaster ovens." or this one, "sex, drug use, and graft." or this one, "oil, sex and money. federal agency accused of sleazy ant antics." "houston chronicle," september 10th, 2008. "a program director allegedly snorts crystal meth off a toaster oven, a marking supervisor sells sex toys to her employees. senior executives allegedly rig contract bids for a pal. the inspector says she found at the minerals management service, the federal agency responsible for handling billions of dollars a year in revenue from offshore oil and gas leases." so as the fall of 2008, the inspector general at the department of the interior released three reports all at once about some astonishing behavior at a few offices at that federal agency. over one four-year period during the george w. bush administration. nearly a third in one of the

agency's offices reportedly took an array of gifts from the oil companies that they were supposedly regulating. a third of all the employees in the office. this was the same office with the federal official reportedly snorting crystal meth off toaster oven. multiple employees having one-night stands with oil industry employees. and according to the inspector general, one program director telling a subordinate that if she could score him some coke during a performance appraisal period, he would increase her performance award. it's very simple. good job. you got your boss some coke. that's an excellent performance. part of the reason the 2008 meth off the toaster oven scandal is so memorable is that it was so freaking lurid, right? and it wasn't that it was just person, it was apparently way that whole office worked during the bush administration and they did it for years. it was just amazing. but the other reason that that thing, the toaster oven meth thing has become a hall of fame lurid government scandal is because of where it happened. it happened in the department of

the interior. the world's most benign sounding major government agency. it's like the committee of committees budget agency. it means that the department of the internterior, in the united states the department of interior is responsible for managing natural resources, managing federal lands. issues related to alaska, native hawaiians and indians and responsible for management of u.s. territories overseas. the department of the interior is about as low profile as agencies get in the united states. there are never any headlines about the department of the interior. the current secretary of the interior, for example, is this fer person. can you put a name in the face? you are not alone. that's no offense to our nation's sbheinterior secretary sally jewel. the department of the interior is almost inherently a low-profile thing. interestingly, that is anomalous for us among nations.

that is anomalous when you compare us to the rest of the world, because in the rest of the world when there is an interior minister or interior secretary, that job in other countries tends to actually be the most high-profile position in government other than whoever is the head of the government. in countries like france and italy, the minister of the interior is responsible for basically every major administrative thing that happens in the sbor your of the country's borders. that's what interior means in that context. it means the department of here. they're in charge of running the country's elections, in charge of homeland security, in charge of policing, add mministering t government. the minister of the interior in most countries is like our secretary of homeland security, attorney general, head of the immigration services and secretary of state who runs elections in every state in the country all rolled up into one person. britain, the position is called the home secretary. and it means roughly that you're in charge of home. you're in charge of britain.

and that job tends, in britain and around the world, to be the highest profile politician in the country other than the country's president or prime minister. well, in the great nation of iraq, this is the man who is minister of the interior. and if you looks familiar, that is because he also, for the last eight years, has been the prime minister of iraq. once he was prime minister, he decided he would make himself interior minister, too. so he's in charge of the overall government but also declared he was in charge of the myriad responsibilities of the interior minister. he also declared himself at one point to be the defense minister and declared himself to be the head of the iraqi armed forces which is equivalent to our chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. the iraqi government and the u.s. government are obviously very different things, but there the division of labor has become shall we say simpler. right? while nuri al maliki has been

prime minister for these past eight years, it's been very simple as to who's in charge of pretty much everything in the country. but that apparently ended today because today the iraqi president picked another shiite leader from nuri al maliki's same party to replace nuri al maliki as prime minister. they're ousting him. this happened after much haggling among the iraqi parliament and missed deadlines. the announce was made today. new prime minister has support of the ruling coalition in government. he was their choice. he's accepted the job. technically that means nuri al maliki, prime minister, interior minister, defense minister, head of the armed forces, nuri al maliki has been replaced. over the next 30 days he's supposed to prepare to hand over power to his successor. that is how it is supposed to go. but last night, in this eerie late night tv broadcast, mr. maliki stood silent and

glowering while a couple dozen remaining supporters in parliament announced actually nuri al maliki would not be stepping down as prime minister. what was explained in that broadcast, which happened in the middle of the night local time, was that mr. al maliki was going to fight to stay in power. he was not going to fight to give up power. the way he was going to fight was to bring a lawsuit. fight this out in the iraqi courts. at daybreak, it became apparent that mr. maliki wasn't just filing a lawsuit. he had also directed tanks and armored personnel carriers and iraqi special forces units to fan out across the green zone in baghdad, what used to be called the green zone where the government buildings and ministries are and also to checkpoints across the capital city. apparently because they're not just planning on fighting it out in the courts. they also may be planning on fighting it out in the streets. and there are real questions as to what parts of the iraqi military and how much of the iraqi military and how many of the iraqi establishment as a whole is loyal enough to nuri al

maliki that he might reasonably be able to mount some sort of military coup if that's how he wants to try to hold on to power. if the militant group, isis, wants to overthrow the government of iraq, or wants to destabilize the government of iraq, there have been moments in the last 24 hours with armored personnel carriers and tanks fanning out across the capital city, there have been moments in the last 24 hours where it sort of feels like if somebody's goal is to undermine or destabilize this government, that might be a moot point. they're doing a pretty good job of that, themselves. a year ago last august, a year ago last august, president obama gave a statement in the rose garden about wanting to use american military force in one of the countries that borders iraq. this time last year, last august, president obama said, decided that the u.s. should make a military intervention in syria. >> after careful deliberation, i have decided that the united states should take military action against syrian regime

targets. our military has positioned assets in the region. the chairman of the joint cheats has informed me we are prepared to strike whenever we choose. but having made my decision as commander in chief based on what i am convinced is our national security interests, i'm also mindful i'm the president of the world's oldest constitutional democracy. i've long believed our power is rooted not just in our military might but in our example, as a government of the people, for the people. that's why i've made a second decision. i will seek authorization for the use of force from the american people's representatives in congress. >> a year ago, this past august, president obama said that he had made a decision that we should intervene militarily in syria. laid out the case about why we should intervene, for what the u.s. military should do in terms of that intervention what he

thought that intervention would achieve. then he said, this was important, he said, actually, this is what i want to do but i want congress to authorize it. so pay congress. let's go. congress, clambering for an american response to the syrian civil war, when congress was actually asked to vote on the matter, to authorize this thing they have been clambering for, all of a sudden they found they had much less to say on the matter. and so when president obama said i'd like to it, you guys authorize it, congress never voted to authorize that force and the united states did not bomb sere wra. we did lead an international effort to get syria to give up its chemical weapons. that worked and thank god it did. but after the president said i'm ready to bomb, congress, are you with me? congress was not with him. we did not bomb. now, the sunni militant group, isis, or isil which operates in

syria and iraq and says the whole region is a big islamic caliphate under that control, that group now controls geographically 1/3 of the nation of iraq and military advances and terrorizing of operations with an increasing international media effort. making their case that they are an islamic caliphate and their leader is ruler of all muslims on earth. also they're trying to explain their strategy and what it is they are hoping to elicit in terms of a response from the rest of the world to what they are doing in iraq and syria. if you're familiar with the concept of an internet troll, somebody who says things that are designed to be the most inflammatory thing possible, to try to get a rise out of you, targeting you to try to make you respond to upset you the most so they can see you at your worst when you're most upset, you mad, bro? familiar with the concept of an internet troll? that is how isis is using international media to taunt and provoke the united states into please getting involved in some

sort of american direct war against them. they want that more than anything. this is some remarkable footage shot by vice media. which embedded one of their correspondents with the isis rebels inside syria. >> footage from vice news.

god willing send troops to fight us. god willing. that is what they want more than anything. as of two months ago, roughly the united states has now sent several hundred troops to iraq. not to fight isis militants directly but to increase the capacity of iraqi forces to fight them more effectively. as of late last week, u.s. pilots and remote piloted aircraft, aka, drones, are directly launching american air strikes against isis. against this rebel group. starting at 1:10 p.m. eastern time today, in quick secession, we got this announcement that's scrolling here. these announcements of four separate u.s. air strikes against isis check points and vehicles including armored personnel carriers and armed trucks and what some call a high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle which is something everybody else in the world calls a humvee. all today's air strikes took place at or near sinjar mountain, site where tens of thousands of iraqi civilians

have been trapped and murdered by the militants. sinjar mountain is also not incidentally very near to iraq's border with syria. that is not an accident. this militant group controls a third of iraq, but they also control significant territory inside syria. they have effectively opened the border to themselves in that whole region for what they consider to be their own state. so here's the question. if the united states is conducting a sustained bombing campaign now against this militant group, designed to destroy this group or damage its ability to keep doing what it's doing, can that be achieved by bombing at all? however happy you feel about that objective, can bombing achieve it? can that be achieved? can that objective get there from the air? if it can be achieved from the air, if it can be achieved by bombing, can it be achieved by bombing them on only one side of a border that the group does not acknowledge exists? where the group exists fluidly between the two sides of that border? so how long an operation is this going to be? how much damage does isis have

to sustain before the u.s. will consider our military objectives to have been met? is it feasible to imagine that those objectives will be met by bombing and if the united states is bombing in iraq but not over the border in syria, because remember, we decided not to bomb sere wyria syria. congress was handed that hot potato a year ago by the president. president obama made remarks supporting iraq forming its new government, ousting nuri al maliki. in theory, if not, iraq does as of today have a new government. today was the fourth day of u.s. air strikes in iraq. a campaign that the president warned this weekend would not be a short campaign, but from the perspective of the u.s. government, and the american people, what is the point of the bombing? what is the strategic point of the bombing? when will the united states consider the objectives of these bombings to have been achieved? if the point is to target and degrade isis in iraq, can that be done without also bombing in

syria? and if so, in fact, whether or not it involves syria, doesn't the president believe he needs congressional authorization in order to do this? when he wanted to bomb syria, alone, he said i can't do this without congress. now we're bombing into iraq and not over the border in sere wra. what is the point here, and who decides it and when do we hear from congress on this? joining us now, marie harf, depp city spokesperson for the u.s. state department and never has to respond to an introduction that long. thank you very much for being here and for your patience. >> happy to be here, rachel. thanks for having me. >> what is the overall strategy behind bombing isis? i understand completely the case against isis, why they are terrible, why it is in the american people's interest that they be stopped. how will these bombing campaigns stop them? >> well, rachel, as the president said, this bombing campaign has some very limited objectives. the first is to improve the

humanitarian situation on sinjar mountain. some of those strikes you showed from today, in fact, were around sinjar mountain to help protect the people trapped on that mounta mountain. they've, as you know, been coupled with humanitarian aid drops. also to protect our people in irbil and protect the strategically important city of irbil. we really wanted to prevent isil's very rapid move on irbil. it happened really over the past several days and that's why you saw the president take very quick action because there was an imminent threat to irbil. where we have a number of people today. he did speak with congressional leaders. we've talked to congress quite a bit about this. they understood the need to move very quickly to protect our people there. and unlike syria, the iraqi government invited us in. they asked us all different leaders in iraq, religious leaders, government leaders, tribal leaders, asked us to help in this case. that's why you've really seen where we could act for very urgent humanitarian crisis. tens of thousands of people, as

you mentioned, potentially about to starve to death on this mountain, when we can bring resources to bear quickly, unlike anyone else can, you saw the president say we absolutely have to do so in. >> terms of that strategic and in some ways illegal decision about the iraqi government inviting the u.s. in you say as opposed to syria, obviously when the president was talking about military intervention in syria last year, he was talking about moving against the government forces of bashar al assad there. i mean, what's the strategic al collati collati calculation, if you squeeze them hard enough in iraq, you're squeezing them further into syria because they can cross that border at will. they control that border. >> well, right. and strategically, as i mentioned, there are very limited objectives to our current military action. longer herm to fight isil, there's no american military solution here. we can help the iraqis and what we need to do now, what we've said we're doing, is giving them some time and space to regroup. to reequip.

we're helping them do that. and to get back on their feet. long term, there's no american military solution to this challenge. the iraqi force need to be able to do this themselves. in terms of the syria comparison, in syria we were talking about limited strikes against the assad regime after its use of chemical weapons, you mentioned we were able to resolve diplomatically instead which, of course, has been what we consider to be a fairly good success in that regard. so they're just very different. we're continuing to arm the moderate opposition in syria who is fighting isil, not just fighting the regime. so it's a very different situation in syria versus iraq and we have different tools we use in each of those countries. >> i have to ask you about the issue about arming the kurdish forces. and i realize that's somewhat sensitive in terms of what parts of the u.s. government may be doing that and how much can be described. to the extent the u.s. has moved

to defend irbil and help the northern iraqi regional government maintain its integrity, defend itself, including reportedly the pretty direct provision of weapons. is there a risk that the u.s. is ultimately contributing to the breakup of iraq essentially by reinforcing a regional government that would very ha y happily be separate from the entire, the rest of the iraqi nation, if they had the wherewithal to do so? >> well, you know, one thing i think that's been interesting over these past few days, and in fact, heartening, is that the iraqi security forces have been assisting the kurdish security forces. the peshmerga. in a way that's truly unpress deb dented. the iraqi security forces have been doing things like providing air support, providing ammo, providing weapons from their own stockpiles to the kurds. i think many people would have thought this was fairly unbelievable if you said that even just a few weeks ago. we also have existing stockpiles of weapons. we are working now to expedite

shiplemements to the kurds. basically all of us are working together. it's a team effort here. we know they need more weapons on the ground. not just the kurds but the iraqi security forces. we know this is an urgent challenge and want to get them the tools they need because, again, as i said, there's no long term american military solution to this hchallenge in iraq. what we can do is help them. that's what we're doing. they have to stand up and step up and put a strategy in place under this new government that really can address this threat long term. >> marie harf, depp ciuty spokesperson for the state department. i appreciate you being here tonight especially this late at night. >> thanks, rachel. ahead, we've got the very latest on the investigation into the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old by a policeman that triggered riots in the st. louis area. there's new news on that tonight. stay with us. kid: hey dad, who was that man?

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a helicopter ultimately joined in. finally officers cornered his car and the result was captured on amateur vid joe. that incident, that video, that beating became one of the most famous pieces of police footage in u.s. history. >> the full tape shows the man attempting to escape, but does not show him offering any resistance. after the incident, king was hospitalized and is now in jail. his condition unknown. there was immediate criticism of the police. >> los angeles police tee apartment members acted sunday morning as though they were members of a gang. it's the kind of activity that we will not toll rate in this city. >> los angeles mayor tom bradley said he was shocked and outraged. the police commission wants a full accounting and police chief darryl gates said a full and complete investigation is under way. >> i think even if we determine that the officers were indeed out of line, in this case, it is

an aberration. >> some critics say police brutality, particularly against minorities in southern california is so prevalent a congressional investigation is needed. the fbi has entered this case to determine if king's civil rights were violated. dan oliver, nbc news, los angeles. >> two days after that meeting, the fbi launched an investigation into the rodney king incident. the following week, then-u.s. attorney general under then-president george h.w. bush, he announced the justice department would review every police brutality complaint to the federal government over the previous six years. previously, the justice department had always handled police brutality cases on an individual basis, looked at cases at standalone instances. if there were patterns of brutality within a department of specific region. that was 23 years ago.

this past weekend, on saturday, around noontime, an 18-year-old unarmed teenager named michael brown was fatally shot multiple times in ferguson, missouri, by a police officer. we do not know much yet about what exactly transpired. police say there may have been some sort of physical altercati altercation, perhaps a struggle over the officer's service weapon. ultimately, 18-year-old mike brown was shot multiple times in the street several dozen feet from the officer's patrol car. broad daylight. witnesses say that young mr. brown's body lay in the street for hours after he was killed. there were multiple witnesses to the aftermath of the shooting. reportedly were several people who saw the whole incident occur. the same day of the shooting, protesters in ferguson took to the streets protesting the use of force saying the killing of an unarmed teenager is representative of deeper tensions between black residents in ferguson and the predomina predominantly white police force in that town. the protesters have been met by a strong police presence in riot

gear. there's been armed response at times. and while many, most of the protests have been peaceful, some protests have turned violent. there was looting. smashed car smashed car windows in shops. protests still going on today in ferguson, missouri. this afternoon, attorney general eric holder released a statement announcing that the fbi is launching an investigation into this shooting. alongside local authorities and the justice civil rights division to look into exactly what happened in ferguson, missouri, this past weekend and what federal civil rights implications there may be. over the past two decades, since the rodney king beating, the federal government has shown a pattern of getting more involved in investigations of this sort. they have taken a more active role. does it help? more than 20 years later, how much have things really changed since the 1990s? and what has the federal government done to try to address this problem in a systemic way?

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the violence needs to stop. the support is all needed. all needed. but not the violence. >> that was the mother of michael brown thanking the public for their support but also pleading for a stop to the looting and the violence that also has happened during protests against her son's killing this weekend just outside st. louis. joining us now is gloria brown marshall, associate professor of

constitutional law at john jay college. professor brown marshall, thank you for being here. the announcement today the fbi and justice department civil rights division would be getting involved in this case, sort of alongside the local investigation, is that something that the u.s. government has been more willing to do over the past few years and has it helped? >> because of the obama administration pushing eric holder, u.s. attorney general, into certain priorities that include, will include intermediate-type police departments and police actions, there is more of a federal presence when it comes to these types of the issues. it all depends on the administration and their priorities. >> does it help overall for there to be that kind of government pressure and the attendant public attention to these things when they happen? >> it helps. it helps greatly because it shows the importance of not just a killing but a killing with a government hand. it also shows that it's more than just a local matter, it's a federal matter. when the federal government intervenes it sends a message to the whole country as well as all

the police departments that there has to be a change. if not, then it just gets pushed under the rug and the next thing you know there's another incident. and they're isolated as opposed to having a general stance, pattern and practice that could be changed by police policies nationwide. >> so we'll be watching over the course of this investigation to see if policy recommendations as well as the individual investigation. >> and forcing the police departments to actually follow through and not just have another commission and then have it all go under the rug. this way they have to have some type of oversight by the federal government to make sure that there is a change in place. >> gloria browne marshall, associate professor of constitutional law at john jay college, i hope you come back and talk to us as this unfolds. we obviously have only the initial basics here but i hope you'll come and talk with us about it again. good family. so we gave her purina cat chow complete.

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suspected suicide of iconic comedian and actor robin williams. robin williams died today at his home in tiburon, california. the sheriff's department making the announcement tonight. that's it for our show but coverage continues with laurent o'donnell on "the last word." >> i'm in los angeles doing the show from our studio at universal studios. talking to all my friends in l.a. today, the ones who knew robin williams, just a devastating day here in this town. >> absolutely. i understand completely. thanks, lawrence. >> thank you, rachel. within hours of robin williams' death today, president obama said this. robin williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a professor, a bang-a-rang peter pan and everything in between but he was one of a kind. he arrived in our lives as an alien but he ended up touching every element of thean