tv The Ed Show MSNBC November 25, 2014 2:00pm-3:01pm PST
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>> michael brown, jr. who is crying out from the grave. >> michael brown was shot and killed by police officer darren wilson. >> we object to this prosecutor. >> i've never seen a prosecutor hold a press conference to discredit the victim. >> the grand jury considered whether wilson was the initial aggressor. >> we strenuously object to this prosecutor. and this process. his solution is let's announce it at night after dark. >> hands up. >> don't shoot. >> no justice. >> no peace. >> we determined no probable cause exists to file any charge against wilson. >> the legacy to michael brown, jr. should be instead of striving to make a lot of noise, we strive to make a difference. good to have you with us
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tonight folks. thanks for watching. question mark, just how complicated is this story legally? we have been talking about the story yesterday about to indict or not to indict. now we're talking about acts of violence. instead of addressing what was the officer in question thinking when he shot an unarmed man. let's get back to what really this is all about. we'll break it down for you tonight on "the ed show." less than 24 hours has passed since the grand jury decision and darren wilson is already talking to the immediate why. >> i talked with darren wilson in a secret location. he was the officer who shot and killed michael brown. yesterday grand jury decided not to bring charges against wilson. we went over every question dealing with those 90 second when he encountered michael brown. he said he didn't shoot toward
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michael brown's back directly. he said michael brown reached in his car and grabbed for his gun and then he fear ford his life. he said he charged towards officer wilson and that's why officer wilson said he had to shoot michael brown on that day. he did say he was sorry for the loss of life, the loss of michael brown's life. he said he would not do anything different that day, that he did what he was trained to do, he was simply doing his job, and i also pressed him, i said would this have gone down any differently if michael brown were white. he said absolutely not. he has a clean conscience for his actions even though he is sorry and understands the grief off michael brown's parents. >> we now know how darren wilson felt the day of the shooting, testifying brown punched him saying this.
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>> wilson made clear he was afraid for his life. wilson told the grand jury, this. >> you can judge by that comment alone that it is some what disjointed testimony, not really collecting his thoughts in delivering it clearly. these photographs of darren wilson shortly after killing michael brown, the right side of his face looks irritated and red but to say snoerj another punch could have been fatal is something many would question by looking at these photographs.
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wilson struggled for the firearm, after gaining control of the gun and aiming it at brown, wilson testified the gun misfired and eventually got a shot off that went through his car door. wilson said brown stepped back and then became aggressive and said this wilson said brown hit him again. the officer testified he then fired two shots at brown from inside the car. brown fled and wilson pursued until he stopped near a light pole. this is when the officer said that brown charged him and that's when he fired the fatal sholt. shot. wilson testified he was carrying a baton and mace the day he killed michael brown. wilson's defense is simp. he was scared.
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he repeatedly referred to brown's size in the testimony. called him a demon, that was his characterization, that's what he looked like, saying he compared him to hulk hogan. saying another punch might have been fatal. people are outraged by what seemed to be a one-sided bias grand jury decision. so the way i see it -- it is unfortunate the riots are taking place and businesses damaged. thank god nobody else has been killed. the fact is, to shoot or not to shoot. what brown wilson to the point where he thought it was important for him to pursue a man he already knew was unarmed and then shoot him from how far of a difference. when he said to george that he did what he was trained to do, that in testimony he said yes, i was carrying a baton and mace.
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my question if i'm on that grand jury j didn't you use any other methods other than a firearm but those questions weren't asked. do you think officer darren wilson should have been indicted, a for yes, text b for no and we'll bring you cults later in the show. so much to unpack on this story. let's bring in brown family attorney and ring of fire radio host. gentleman, good to have you with us tonight. let's talk about the conversation unfolding right now if we can. we are now having officials in this country talk about acts of violence. and i think that this is a lot to do with the timing of when this was announced last night. i think that there was a real calculation on the part of authorities that they knew how people were going to respond to this and that all of the videotape and pictures and media
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coverage has to have some influence on public pin rigopin fligrite which would take us away from the real question, why did this officer shoot this unarmed teenager. i don't care if he is hulk hogan. if this is his training and people in this country want train, you know how you have change, you stop shooting unarmed teenagers, that's how you have change, somehow we got to get to that point. now we have a conversation talking about acts of violence and how bad they are, we know all that. but what brought us to where we are now. we have a grand jury that has accepted the fact had because this guy was big and because this officer was scared, he didn't know what to do, so he had to fire. in testimony he doesn't know how many times he did fire. but we've been told twelve. daryl, your reaction to wilson's demon defense.
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described the victim as he looked like a demon. how could this sell to the grand jury in your opinion? >> well, the problem we have here is in process. without question when we asked that this prosecutor be removed that a special prosecutor be appointed we knew this was not the right guy for this case. we are aware of a close relationship between officer wilson and this prosecutor's office. that alone gives indication of clear bias that exists. so the results that came forth when the process was flawed some expected it a long time ago. we took it to another level. we wrote governor jay nixon back in october. i told my team let's put it in writing to the governor so we wrote the governor october 6th, said, it's been brought to our attention that this particular prosecutor's office has already
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poultry every case on hold that it has with this officer. >> okay. >> they put them on hold for a reason. >> i got all that but now that you know what darren wilson said to the grand jury, where they rendered a decision not to indict even on the least of charges, what's your reaction to that? >> well, i mean, we are devastated by that news, this grand jury didn't see it. but also too, they weren't given the proper evidence. he easily could have not confused them, he could have gave them just enough evidence to get probable cause. think of it like this, in most criminal cases you have beyond a reasonable doubt. in civil cases we have prepond rans of evidence and probable cause is even less than that, it is a very low standard to get probable cause.
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what happened is you dump all this information on them. number two you come into a situation where he doesn't advocate any charges. why would you do it? >> okay. mike, how did this guy -- how did the grand jury buy this guy's story? >> well you heard the saying that you can't always get what you want, ed, but that doesn't hold true for prosecutor in front of a grand jury. in front of a grand jury, prosecutor gets exactly what he wants, that's why they bought this story. this prosecutor right out of the box in his speech showed he wanted to indict news roreporte, social media, critics, but no intention from day one to indict wilson in this case. doesn't take years of experience
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to a a. kplish that it's textbook. dump as much complex data in front of a jury as you can and then without drawing any inferences and what it means that's what this guy did, it's called a data dump. we see it all the time in complex trials, overwhelm the lay member of the jury with disjointed complex information, that's what he did here. next picked the very best expert witnesses to provide a dog and pony show about issues like blood spatter or gun powder rest due. rest id ooh. i don't know why the the public is so unwilling to call this what it is. the real trick if you want to figure this whole thing out, is to have a trained trial cross examiner in it will asking questions.
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and to get to what this guy wanted to do is you avoid that. you don't talk about the dozens of critical flaws that surface with political experts. that is the forensic witness and this guy dropped the ball and he knew what he was doing, ed. >> so mike, does it matter what darren wilson said to the grand jury? the fix was in on this? you know his defense was he was scared. the guy was big. he looked like a demon. instead of using his baton or mace he used his firearm and worked him over until it is over with. >> right. wilson set the tone for all of this. he was very well prepared. his lawyered had him ready for
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this. he set the tone without any cross examinations whatsoever. if you really want to seal the deal and make it look like the prosecutor is doing the job and being objective is that you let these untrained layman take that forensic evidence and you add to it. >> all right. >> the real home run is if he testified comes out looking like a dahsaint as the other guy loo like a drug-crazed hulk. that's what happened here. >> the physical evidence shows there was a struggle in the car. do we really know what happened after that? are you confident that we know what happened after that? >> well, ed for sure. one thing was true. there was an altercation in the
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car and it was serious. however clearly they both led, at that point michael brown left the car and ran away from the officer. the officer then had to open the door and get out the car, that's two separate events. the other part once they leave the car the officer takes aim and fires at michael brown as he is running away. for whatever reason michael brown stops, turns around and attempts to surrender. the officer continued to shoot at him. the officer knew he was unarmed and there was a good possibility that michael had been hit by some of the previous gunfire. so clearly this officer went above and beyond and acted unreasonable given the situation he was faced with there. >> mike, you know -- go ahead finish. >> officer darren wilson is 6'4" and michael brown is 6'4". there's a bit of weight
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difference but it is not like the officer is a short man of stature. he's a tall man. i don't buy into that he is scared. i'm bigger than michael brown. does that mean officer should use deadly force if i come towards him, no it doesn't mean that. >> if you're a law enforcement official and afraid of someone who is unarmed, maybe you shouldn't be in law enforcement. i mean, i think the training of law enforcement is far more sophisticated than to resort to, i'm going to fire on this guy multiple times. i don't buy that prnl personally. i do not. another legal question. where does this go from here? the federal investigation still goes on. is darren wilson legally out of the woods? >> i don't think he is. he is very guarded when he talks
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about race. he but he's not out of the woods because he has attorneys like daryl parks who understand that the trial is going to take place, by at the very least a 1983 action, and the public is going to hear the story. they're going to see real cross examination by real lawyers and when a forensic expert gets up there and pines about what a blood spatter means or what forensic evidence means, he's going to be cross-examined. this guy is far from out of the woods. this police department is far from out of the woot of woods. they're going to cross-examine in and get to the truth and the truth is going to show this whole thing should have led to an indictment and this prosecutor made certain it did not. >> all right. >> i think when we look at all the testimony that's what's going to show here. >> thanks gentleman for your
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time tonight on "the ed show." i appreciate it. remember to answer tonight's question on the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts on twitter and facebook. we always want to know what you think. coming up reaction from the brown family. how this conversation splits open the talk about race in america. there should be a truck leaving now. i got it. now jump off the bridge. s v
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s. we didn't expect to get justice here. the system doesn't provide justice for anyone in our opinion, especially not black males. >> we continue our coverage on what has unfolded in ferguson, missouri. the ferguson community is reacting strongly in the wake of grand jury decision not to indict police officer who killed
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michael brown. under scores the racial tension in the community. state senator says the reaction stems from decades of systemic racism. >> not only has this movement revealed the true intentions of people in police departments across the state but there has been systematic racism in state governments for decades including my own state party. so what we're looking at right now is a symptom of racism that has been swept under the rug for decades. >> the state senator went on to say these protests go beyond the reaction of michael brown's story. >> we didn't have a race war like other cities throughout the country. this is our race war and people
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have to be open and honest and earnest. and they have not been earnest for decades. >> governor jay nixon of missouri says tonight there will be 2200 national guardsmen on the street in ferguson. i'm joined on the television by missouri state senator on the phone and michael mcbride, director of live free campaign, who joins us from ferguson. state senator, you first. you refer to a race war, do you regret those comments? and i would like a little bit more of an explanation when you said on the last word with lawrence o donel. >> absolutely. let me tell you. at the turn of every century we have a big something that happens. in the 19th century. in the 20th century, there was a race war. if you look at big cities like
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kansas city or atlanta. there were race riots but st. louis never had that. the closest thing we had to a race riot or race war was in 1964 when we had african-american elected officials who were jailed for months at a time but after that point institutional racism was really swept under the rug. and in my own experience unelected and elected, i have experienced it myself which is the reason why i understand why young people right now are so angered because of the treatments. they are treated differently because of what they look like. they could be walking down the street and they're stopped by a police officer or some other kind of authority. so yes when we're talk being inequality and we're talking about being targeted just because of what you look like, we are in a racial war. i want to make sure that every
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single constituent i serve has the same equal, if not is superior education, as the person who lives in a nice suppo suburbanian area. so yes we are in a war right now. >> senator, have you gotten a lot of reaction to what you said? >> absolutely. all of the trolls on twitter, a whole bunch of them. the trolls are just out and about as they always have been. but when i talk to my constituents they understand exactly what i'm talking about. they know what inequality looks like. >> okay. reverend are you hearing a similar sentiment on the ground in ferguson? >> the sentiment i'm hearing not only in ferguson but all across the country is that there is indeed a war, but it is about do black lives really matter in
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this country. and i think we're continuing to see not only here but all across the country a rev rendum on the political leadership and law enforcement leadership and structures across this country that are answering this question with a resounding no. and i think there's a moment in time when you have an officer who has killed an unarmed teenager and we have witnesses it will and prosecutors all across the country tell us you can indict a ham sandwich but you cannot indict officer darren wilson, it makes me believe that a ham sandwich must have much more value than black lives. it is an indictment on the whole system. that is what i believe we're hearing all across the country and the ways in which we have failures of leadership at every level and then try to assert
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leadership to call for calm. to call for calm among the people is different for people in ivory tower positions who do not know the pain of our communities, and not matched our outrage by passing laws and make sure black livers matter. it is important for us to look in the mirror and answer that. that's what i'm hearing on the ground. >> well, reverend what changes all this. we have a police officer who shot an unarmed teenager. i don't care how big he is, he was unarmed. and it was, as i see it, a serious error in judgment. there's so many other ways this police officer could have handled this. people want change, how about this for change, stop shooting unarmed black kids. that would be a pretty good start.
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so how do we get to that point? >> let me take it a step even before the shooting. how about stop defining our kids as demons. stop calling them animals. stop using profannity. stop dehumanizing us before you have encounters with us. these are rogue police officers and i believe they are reaching a tipping point in many communities across the country. they are rogue police officers abusing their force. the way we begin to address this is change the culture of pleasing so rogue police officers can't runrs can't run any police department across the country and we do that by putting meaningful accountability into place. we're hearing those reforms now. >> what do you think of the 22,000 on the streets of ferguson, missouri what are your
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expectations. >> the weapons of my fight are mighty through god through peace and justice. i believe we will keep doing what the young people are doing the past hundred days, non-vial e -- non-violent, peaceful protest, we have not seen justice. we have not felt justice. people are crying and outraged so we will be in the streets with the community one nor time. not just ferguson, dozens of cities across the country are doing the same thing. the flames of our country are being engulfed in racialism. let's open our hearts and ears and listen or we will perish at our own peril. >> all right.
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reverend and senator thanks for joining us on "the ed show." coming up we're waiting for president obama's remarks on ferguson. next taking your questions. [ fishing rod casting line, marching band playing ] [ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it in your heart. [ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. [ m'm... ] great taste. [ tapping ] sounds good. campbell's healthy request. m'm! m'm! good.®
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welcome back to "the ed show." appreciate your questions in our ask ed live segment tonight. first question, do you believe the ferguson district attorney acted like a prosecutor during the grand jury proceedings. good question but the fact is he didn't present and he admitted that. he let his under links do it which i think is a problem. our next question. can our police officers be trained better without shooting to kill? yes. bottom line. they can. the man's unarmed in this
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situation. the 18-year-old teenager was unarmed. in testimony wilson said that he had mace and he had a baton. baton is a night stick, a billy club, i've seen cops use a night stick and billy club when i was in in junior high and the vietnam war was going on and there was protest, billy clubs are pretty damn effective. i'm surprised that the officer didn't have enough confidence or judgment to pull out a billy club and disarm this big guy that was in front of him. i've seen billy clubs take down big people. stick around.
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welcome back to "the ed show." we are showing you a live picture right now from chicago. we are waiting for president obama to speak about ferguson at this event. when the president comes out we'll bring you his remarks live here on msnbc. last night the family of michael brown released this statement.
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>> michael brown's mother broke down in tears last night outside the ferguson police department after the announcement. her husband expressed his anger calling for those to burn this explicitive down. drew quite a bit of criticism. neither of them made the statement they were scheduled to speak. instead reverend spoke on their behalf. >> michael brown's initial erm
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reresponse was out of desperation after watching the killer of her unarmed child won't be brought to justice. >> michael brown, sr. doesn't want to misspeak because of such emotions that are going through him that will later be held against him. >> joining me now national reporter and also national reporter for u.s.a. today. you were there with michael brown's mother when she first got the news. describe what you saw. >> i saw a mother who was absolutely distraut and heartbroken by this decision. leslie mcfadden instantly burst into tears and said what do you
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mean no indictment and she started shaking in ai very grief-stricken way. she jumped up and ran to out of the hotel room, i think that's when she went to the ferguson police department. her reaction was of extreme grief to this decision. >> do you know why neither of the parents or step father spoke at that press conference today? >> i can only imagine that this family is so grief-stricken that they couldn't find words today. when i talked to leslie yesterday she was so overwhelmed by this decision. we're seeing the parents holding back and trying to process this grief that they are going through. this is new grief for this family. they obviously lost their son in august but this is a new, extreme setback that they just were shocked by.
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>> tremaine lee, the comments made by michael brown's step father that reverb rated through the crowd, what is your analysis of how all that unfolded and did he regret saying it? >> when you look at the lead up to this announcement and that crowd was so tall with all the anxiety and pressure building up and a lot of folks were waiting for some sort of reaction, a lot of people were frustrating waiting for that moment. when you seen him say that so loudly with all that emotion it clearly rippled through the crowd. it is their humanity, they are grief-sticken at the moment. you should allow them to have that and not indict their
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humanity. a hundred or so days later here they are again. and that feeling rippled throughout the entire community and you got what we saw last night. >> disbelief turned to anger last night. what happens on night two? what's the mood on the ground from what you can sense from what you're reporting. >> i can tell you two things, one, the mood from police is that this is not going to happen again, we're going to get 2200 national guardsmen. they will be on the streets tonight. they will be stationed at key locations not just in the back ground but will be on the streets, that's what the governor said. i think protesters said they are scared this will be repeated because people's anger has not really subsided because this decision is so deep in this
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community. people are so shocked that we may see some what of a repeat as yesterday but we have way more police presence so maybe we'll see less violence tonight. >> tremaine it has been reported that at least a dozen businesses have been burned out. the story i read there were some twelve businesses now out of business because of what happened last night. is there an attempt on the part of law enforcement to find out who did this or was this just a night of violence they will have to chalk up and move on from here. how will it be handled. >> local law enforcement are treating each of the burnings as individual crime scenes. you know we weren't allowed to get into the compound because
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they are investigating the locations. not sure if they are conducting a thorough investigation or will be chalking it up. but right now this chilly environment, there is always a calm before the storm. so whether we will see a repeat or not, who knows. one thing's for certain. every time we're down here and there's no police lining the walls, there's looting. last night the national guard was supposed to come in and protest businesses and property. you didn't see that. it was a very hands off approach. then they changed tactics and later lined the streets. so now they are promising more. we'll see how it works tonight. >> and finally, do the people of ferguson, are they mad at the media? obviously it's a danger zone down there, no question about
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that, we saw that in a number of live shots last night. but are the people mad at the journalist covering it. >> i can only speak about my personal experience. they are not mad at the journalist to covering it. a lot of them understand the importance of having media here and making this a national issue. but i think it was dangerous for anybody who was on the street last night. people got hit by rocks not just because they were reporters but because they were on the streets in the middle of a violence situation. but nobody has been angry at me. that's my experience. >> all right great to have you both with us tonight. thank you for your reporting. appreciate it. coming up elected officials react to the grand jury decision and the conversation of race in the america. next. stay with us, we're right back. you can get out of the c-max hybrid.
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welcome back to "the ed show." we are waiting for president obama to address the country. his in chicago. in the city of ferguson. when the president comes out, we will bring you his remarks live. stay tuned. we're back on "the ed show." loa ♪ there should be a truck leaving now. i got it. now jump off the bridge. what? in 3...2...1... are you kidding me? go. right on time. right now, over 20,000 trains are running reliably. we call that predictable. thrillingly predictable.
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bring all of it to you live here on msnbc. in the face of the crisis in ferguson, politicians are calling for calm. people are reacting to the decision not to indict darren wilson in the shooting death of michael brown. just a short time ago -- >> i want to convey to business owners and residents of ferguson, we will continue to work with the national guard and local authorities and we work hard to build a more diverse and stronger communities. >> governor jay nixon said there will be more national guard supporting law enforcement in the st. louis area tonight. >> altogether there will be more than 2,200 national guardsmen in the region. >> additional calls for peace are coming from lawmakers all over the country. congressman john lewis who was known for his role in the civil rights movement took to twitter after robert mcculloch made the announcement. he wrote, i know this is hard. i know this is difficult.
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do not succumb to the temptations of violence. there's a more powerful way. earlier today, counsel representing the brown family held a news conference. reverend al sharpton says the outrage is warranted. he called out the prosecutor's handling of the case. >> this is not our first rodeo, mcculloch, we will deal with this in the way civil rights leaders have. >> marcia fudge released a statement saying, this decision seems to underscore an unwritten rule that black lives hold no value. that you may kill black men in this country without consequences or repercussions. this is a frightening narrative for every parent or guardian of black and brown children and another setback for race relations in america. as we said, president obama is in chicago right now, about to speak. many people around the country are calling on the president to
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go to ferguson. he's just 300 miles from ferguson, where he is tonight. congressman gregory meeks of new york joins us tonight, who is a former prosecutor. congressman, good to have you with us tonight. your reaction to the news that has unfolded in the last 24 hours. i certainly want to get that, but i want to ask you up front, as we're getting ready to hear the president speak, do you think president obama should inject himself into this further? >> i think that the president has been clear that the attorney general is still conducting an investigation and so the president can't inject himself while his attorney general is conducting an investigation into this matter. >> as a former prosecutor -- as a former prosecutor, what's troubling to you about mcculloch's actions? >> you know, it seems to me, to be very clear that he did not want an indictment from the very beginning. so he should have recused himself and not gone on with the
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investigation. because when you present a case to the grand jury, you're presenting a case to show that there's probable cause to believe a crime was committed and that that person committed the crime. you don't go on for as long as he did, and generally, you don't even present all of the evidence. it's just a one-man show, and you ask at the end of the presentation of the evidence to the grand jury, for an indictment. in this case, he did not ask for an indictment at the end. he never believed in all of the -- any of the evidence. and clearly, you know, from his statement last night, he decided, because he said there was contradictory testimony and there always is. but he clearly seemed to decide on one side as opposed to the other. so this prosecutor had already made up his mind and utilize the grand jury as a scapegoat for him to rationalize a decision that i believe he had already made before he completed the
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investigation. >> congressman, drawing on your experience as a former prosecutor, why is it so hard to indict a police officer? >> you know, police officers have a difficult job. but there's certain situations, as this one, i believe, where you have an individual who's unarmed and you have witnesses that will testify that his hand was up, et cetera, that it should not be that difficult to do that. and i think that's the problem, that individuals, especially african americans, but i would hope that people of all races throughout this country would say, has to stop. police officers and everyone else must be held accountable for their actions. so it should not be where one abuse their authority, a difficult thing for individuals to be indicted. >> do you think the verdict is a result of pervasive racism in america? nine white jurors and three
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african americans. your response? >> my response is this. have we come a long way on race relations in america? the answer is absolutely yes. do we still have a long way to go? the answer is absolutely yes. some people thought that when president obama was elected that we were then in a post-racial america. no, we are not. racism is alive and well in the united states of america. now, i'm not saying, because i do not know what the vote count was in the grand jury in ferguson, but we still have race issues in america that have to be addressed. and that is something that we must continue to work on and not make a presumption simply because we elected a president who happens to be black, that race is no longer an issue in the united states. >> congressman gregory meeks in new york, good to have you with us tonight on "the ed show."
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appreciate your time. of course we're waiting to hear from president obama. he should speak momentarily. scheduled to speak momentarily here in chicago. that's "the ed show." "politicsnation" with reverend al sharpton starts right now. good evening, rev. >> good evening, ed. and thanks to you for tuning in. i'm live tonight in st. louis, and we begin with breaking news in ferguson, and a city bracing for nightfall. after the chaos and destruction in the streets last night, governor jay nixon today announcing hundreds of additional national guardsmen will be deployed tonight. >> altogether, there will be more than 2,200 national guardsmen in the region. lives and property must be protected. this community deserves to have peace. >> and it comes after a night of violen
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