tv News Nation MSNBC December 4, 2014 8:00am-9:01am PST
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good morning, everyone. i am tamron hall. this is news nation. more demonstrations are planned today after a massive show of peaceful protests in new york city and cities across this country overnight. following the grand jury decision not to indict the officer who put eric garner in a choke hold leading to his death. thousands of protesters gathered in locations across manhattan, including the west side highway where traffic was at a virtual stand still at one point. this was the scene at grand central station at the height of rush hour where demonstrators silently staged a die in where they laid motionless on the ground for several minutes. a crowd up to 300 protesters gathered at times square yesterday evening and marched towards rockefeller center where police barricades blocked them from reaching the tree lighting ceremony. and in staten island, a large crowd gathered in the spot where
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eric garner died. in all, police made about 83 arrests. appearing on the "today" show this morning, eric garner's widow described how she felt when she heard the news there would be no indictment. >> i started crying because it is not fair. it is not fair. what do they not see? how could they possibly not indict? i felt hopeless. i felt like there was not another corner to teurn, nothin left to fight for. from the beginning, i had no faith in staten island prosecuting anybody from staten island. you know, i just didn't have any type of encouragement, you know, i felt no remorse. i felt no compassion, no anything from staten island. >> msnbc trymaine lee joins me from the site where eric garner died in staten island, new york.
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thank you for joining me. fast forward to what's planned today. there are on-going protests, including #thisstopsnowtoday, expected at one of the sites in the city. what can you tell us about that? >> reporter: organizers are developing plans of action, how to respond to nonindictment of the officer that killed eric garner. there's a big protest in foley square, under the banner this stops today. harkening back to words he said before he was killed, this stops today. they have a list of demands. full accountability for officers that killed eric garner. they want the police department to eliminate broken windows policing. they want changes to the way the police investigate themselves when these situations happen. and just about an hour ago, eric garner's mother was here, she was thankful for the people across the city and country who are coming out and supporting not just her son but all of the other young black men killed across the country this summer.
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people are still reeling from the shock of the nonindictment, organizers are busy, protesters are busy. it should be an eventful afternoon and evening. >> let me play a little of what the mayor said yesterday. i bring his comments up, some of the scene in ferguson where there were peaceful protests, the more peaceful protests got less attention than looting and arson. last night in new york, there was virtually no violence, didn't see an outbreak in violence and see cars burning. many people give credit to de blasio in showing different tone than city leaders of ferguson showed following the lack of indictment in the case there with mike brown. let me play what de blasio said. >> it is put in stark perspective the relationship between police and the community. the issues have come to the foreagain, we have to address them and address them with all
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our might. we had to talk to donte for years about the dangers he may face. good young man, law abiding young man, never would think to do anything wrong. yet because a history hangs over us, the dangers he may face, we had to literally train him as families have all over this city for decades in how to take special care in any encounter he has with police officers who are there to protect him. so many places people of all backgrounds utter the same basic phrase. they've said black lives matter. and they said it because it had to be said. >> we know that ref recommended al sharpton, national action network and the urban league and cornell brooks with naacp are all meeting today to look at what happens beyond today regarding peaceful protests. this certainly is not a runoff,
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won't end with last night or what we see today later. >> reporter: it doesn't seem or feel like one off. they're planning what folks believe will be a march for justice december 13th in washington, d.c. to piggy back on de blasio's statement, i asked eric garner's mother how she felt about de blasio's statement. she said it was comforting to feel that the mayor had her family's back, at least support for justice. there are key differences between what's happening in new york city and in ferguson. in ferguson it was so apparent that big gap between the city leadership and the people, seemed to take every opportunity to fumble and mishandle opportunities to heal the wounds. here in new york city, that tone that mayor de blasio struck is completely different. but these communities are also very different. there was low expectation of violence here in the first place. certainly tone from city leadership goes a long way in cooling tensions. >> thank you very much, trymaine
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lee. i want to bring in criminal defense and civil rights attorney john burress, he handled the rodney king suit against the city of los angeles. joining us la tish a james as well. let me start with john. let's look at the case. we know cause of death was homicide, there was a ban on the choke hold. we also know the officer involved was using what he testified before the grand jury a wrestling move. the choke hold is a wrestling move. john, how do you believe the grand jury came to the conclusion of no indictment with those facts? >> i think the grand jury basically took the position that he was trying to get mr. garner under control and that mr. garner had resisted and that he was using what he viewed as reasonable force. he is a big man, therefore he tried to do a take down on him. and i think in his own mind's eye, he was trying to get him down. he put his arm in the wrong place. a bar hold is not legal, and should not have been done.
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i think what the grand jury said it was all one contemporaneous event. doesn't appear him to be stepping back or anything to suggest his mental state was to bring about death or hurt him in a serious way, he was trying to get control of him. that's probably how they see it. doesn't mean they couldn't come back with involuntary, criminal negligence indictment, particularly when you can hear the man saying he can't breathe, he should have let go immediately, he did not. those are the kind of things that the grand jury was looking at. but i don't think they considered everything they could have. >> let's look at the lesser charges, to your point. officer pantaleo testified when he put hits hands on mr. garner, he was employing the move taught to him at the police academy, hooking an arm around one of his arms while wrapping the other around his torso. and then we see the struggle. he goes on to say that he did not realize or because mr. garner was able to still
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talk and utter the words i can't breathe, he did not believe he was preventing him from getting air there, but when you look at the other charges that were available, john, what do you see as the logical breakdown if this was not intentional case of homicide? >> it clearly to me would have been criminal negligence and or involuntary manslaughter, each of which are a reckless conduct, failure to exercise due care. a breach of the duty that you have to be reasonable. so what happens here is once you start engaging this conduct, putting your arm around his neck in the manner it was, that's unreasonable. maybe that was trying to get him under control. clearly was placing in a position to bring about crushing of a trachea. to me, that's a breach of due care, that's involuntary manslaughter or criminal negligence, pretty simple to me they could have found that way. >> let me bring you in. the first reaction a lot of people had outside of outrage
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from the protesters we saw by the thousands was here is an example of an event caught on video, caught in real time, with audio, at close range. if this does not result indictment, how could a body camera, which i know you talked a lot about, president obama is ready to provide millions of dollars for body cameras, that it is useless. >> let me just say that body cameras obviously are a useful tool. we would not be in this position now but for that videotape. we know that there are flaws in the criminal justice system. the criminal justice system obviously has to change. need a special prosecutor, someone impartial, not with a cozy relationship with police and cooperate with police officers. we need individuals who are objective to determine the evidence, such as preliminary hearings where judges determine the outcome of evidence that's before them. the reality is that body cameras
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go a long way, and it is not just the end all or be all. body cameras are part of a long agenda of progressive change we're trying to make here in new york city with regards to policing. we also go on to say that choke holds have no place in american policing, and choke holds should be banned. the video speaks for itself. our eyes do not lie. unfortunately the grand jury was framed by the district attorney. he set the narrative, he set the tone, he submitted the evidence, and that's why there needs to be some release of transcript of grand jury proceedings to determine what charges were presented, whether or not witnesses were examined, and whether or not again justice was kruptd in this situation. >> i want you both to comment on this further. you have, for example, john someone we know well, analyst lisa bloom, and the relationship
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that prosecutors have with police officers. lisa pointed out, it is clear that prosecutors forget how to prosecute when a police officer is a target of the investigation, and that is putting it as she says mildly, john. >> i agree with that. i have been involved in many cases i tried to get the d.a. to prosecute unsuccessfully. being a former prosecutor myself rngs i know about the relationship between the police and d.a., how difficult it can be. rarely if ever you get the local d.a. to prosecute a police officer. unless the most remote circumstances. there should be lawyers that specialize in prosecuting police officers or a team to do that. otherwise, local police departments and local d.a. are close. we did have a prosecution in alameda county in the grant case, the d.a. did a good job. even that case looked like a murder case, the best the jury came back with was involuntary
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manslaughter, almost a negligence type conduct. it is difficult to prosecute, more difficult to get the d.a. to do it. and i agree with everyone else when they say look, you don't know what really happened here. the d.a. is very difficult, in a difficult position to put it together, because their heart is not in it. >> let me get your last comment on this. there was so much focus after the mike brown case and no indictment for darren wilson about body cameras, many felt more confident with the eric garner case because it was on video. now today we're discussing yet again the procedures involving grand juries and prosecutors who seem to have a vote of no confidence from everyday citizens on the street, particularly in minority neighborhoods. >> there's a question with regards to the impartiality, there's inherent conflict when prosecutors prosecute police officers. they rely on police officers in
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their cases. >> what does it mean for new york, as public advocate, what are you proposing? >> we call on the governor to appoint a special prosecutor when there are police shootings and egregious police misconduct. it is critically important to have a prosecutor that's independent, objective with no allegiance or alliance with officers and don't rely on officers for re-election. that's what we are asking for in the state of new york. last but not least, body cameras just part of an agenda that we are moving forward with respect to aggressive policing in the city of new york. it is really critically important we all come together and recognize we will seek justice in the garner case, not only on the federal level but also on the state level, and with some other changes in the city of new york, including body cameras. >> thank you both for your time. greatly appreciate you joining us this day. coming up, as protesters enter a second day of marches tonight, i get new reaction from
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head of the nypd sergeant union who says people should not be having this conversation if garner didn't resist arrest, we wouldn't be at this point. vowing action, attorney general eric holder continues meetings across the country about building trust between police and minority committees as the justice department goes forward with an investigation into death. pete williams joins us on what happens next at the federal level. in the news today, disturbing details emerge about the cleveland officer that killed a 12-year-old. why officials deemed that officer unfit for duty previously. find my team at news nation. i am on facebook, twitter and instagram. [ kinda ] we are the saunders. and we're new to the pacific northwest. the rain, the mud -- babam! it's there. the outside comes in.
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as news of the grand jury decision spread, president obama was speaking for a tribal nation's conference at the white house and pivoted back to an issue he had to address a lot lately, the relationship between law enforcement and communities of color. >> some of you may have heard there was decision that came out today by grand jury not to indict police officers who had interacted with an individual named eric garner in new york city, all of which was caught on videotape, and speaks to the larger issues that we have been talking about for the last week, the last month, the last year, and sadly for decades, and that is the concern on the part of
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too many communities that law enforcement is not working with them and dealing with them in a fairway. >> joining me, gregory meeks. you want the attorney general to look what happened in that jury room. we know they needed 12 votes for decision. we don't know what the instructions were and the evidence has not been disclosed at this point. what are you looking for as relates to answers that can come from department of justice? >> i'm still stunned because when you look at the videotape itself, when you look at the fact there's no question he violated police procedures by utilizing a choke hold, when you look at the fact that the medical examiner said that it was a homicide, to me that alone
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is enough to give ne prosecutor the wherewithal to get a grand jury indictment. so i'm baffled. and the only thing i can think of is i would like to hear the charges that the prosecutor, or instructions he gave the jury to make the determination. i know that you can instruct the jury in such manner that you can't return indictment, so that needs to be looked at. i want to see what took place. any time you have a defendant testify before the grand jury, that person should be cross-examined by the people's attorney, which would be the prosecutor. was he? you had enough from what i heard of his testimony to contradict what he said by looking at the tape. so it is preposterous to me how you have this scenario. i hope the attorney general's office looks at what took place
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in the grand jury room because there's got to be a problem therein. >> you made the point that the grand jury, their role or job is not to determine guilty or not guilty, it is probable cause here, and this is also of great concern to you, something you and i discussed on the show as related to the darren wilson case in ferguson. what's the role of the grand jury and are prosecutors failing the system and failing the american people by not carrying out their role properly in both these cases, not allowing a jury to make the final decision here, and using the grand jury as a trial jury. >> that's absolutely correct because you don't have to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt in a grand jury. and in fact you don't present the entire case, the prosecutor generally presents his case in the grand jury. if anybody else wants to get in
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there, they can only do that with the prosecutor's permission, and generally when they waive any protection they may have. so this is just unreal. then i look at this case, we were talking about this on the house floor, when you think about the fact that this d.a. had no problem, the only person that was indicted in this matter was the person that took the video of the incident, he was the one that we didn't have any problem indicting that individual, so something is systematically wrong with what took place with this d.a. and in that grand jury room. >> as it has been noted, unlike in the case with mike brown, you've seen if you monitor social media traffic a number of conservatives and republicans who are outraged, equally outraged as you and democrats and liberals are. there is one individual that stuck out in the minds of many. new york republican congressman peter king. here is what he said yesterday on cnn regarding this case. >> you have 350 pound person who
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is resisting arrest, the police are trying to bring him down as quickly as possible. if he had not had asthma and a heart condition, and was so obese, most definitely he would not have died from this. the police had no reason to know he was in serious condition. people are saying he said 11 times or 7 times i can't breathe. fact is if you can't breathe, you can't talk. >> your response to that, congressman meeks? >> peter king was dead wrong. there has been medical testimony showing that when you talk, when you're being strangled, you can speak out, it is hard to get air back in, that's number one. he is dead wrong. you know what, what i would like to focus on are those individuals that were in the street last night in new york, they were black, they were white, they were hispanic, from all parts of the world who stood together. i was proud of the new york delegation when joe crowley and eliot engel spoke out. it is all of us coming together.
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peter's statements completely were wrong and i think out of order. >> thank you so much, congressman meeks for your time. we will be speak wug soon, sir, thank you. >> thank you. let me bring in "the washington post" columnist eugene robinson has a piece tight he did the eric garner case sickening outcome. the director of african-american studies at university of connecticut, gentlemen, thank you for joining me. i want to pick up on what congressman meeks said. you look at the image out of new york, whether it was grand central station, the group at times square, it was not exclusive to black outrage, and i think a lot of people associated ferguson with a black outrage, maybe because of the diversity of new york, availability of mass transportation, you saw asian, latino, black, white, with their hands up in equal number, and in some cases i went to grand central and i saw more white people protesting than african americans at that site when i
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was there. >> one correction about ferguson is that there were a number of white people who participated in those protests as well. >> absolutely. >> some were local ferguson residents. a lot of people thought the people came from outside the immediate vicinity, and it was outside agitators, so to speak. but a lot of people in ferguson were white residents of the community who thought there was something seriously wrong there, too. fundamentally, good to see. if there's anything that is heartening about this, good to see there are people of goodwill and conscience across racial lines that recognize that this poses a danger and a problem and kind of abrogation of democracy. >> i raise the point, not to attempt to make a divide, because you're right, people of all colors and races and backgrounds in ferguson, but i believe the story line, the narrative was black people are against police officers, think all black people are criminals on the other side. if you look at the twitter traffic, for example, i felt
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like people were quick to race bait quite honestly, portray blacks as anti-police and white as pro-police. and i think this image from what we saw last night, i really hope anyway that this is an image that says be damned with all of the stereotypes. >> true. but the problem i think is that we will look at this and say that these are isolated incidents, and i think what happens is that it gets more and more difficult as these things p -- on the heels of what happened with tamir rice in cleveland, at what point is it a pattern or a series of unfortunate incidents. i think the only thing people can do is continue to agitate and protest and organ so on, hopefully those things remain nonviolent, but if they don't, it is not entirely surprising to me either. >> absolutely. eugene, i'll bring you in on
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this, you're from the south as i am, there's always a stereotype of the south that these things happen down south, can't get justice in a place like missouri where it is predominantly white police officers, white mayor. here we are in the diversity hub of america and you have people who say this is supposed to be 1965 selma, not 2014 new york city where folks feel they can't get justice. >> yeah. if you actually look at american history, tamron, it has never been totally north, south split. in fact, there was slavery in the north, there was discrimination in the north. if it wasn't classic jim crow, there were covenants that kept black people from living in certain neighborhoods and there were understandings about how black communities were policed, and so there is a continuum
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here. this didn't just start. and as to the question of whether or not it is a pattern, i think that was settled awhile ago. there is a pattern, if you look at it from a statistical standpoint, anecdotallanecdotals a pattern here. this is really, really troubling. it has to stop. >> but you have individuals that will say listen, i'm looking at social media traffic that asked the question this would have been avoided if eric garner had not resisted arrest, if mike brown had simply listened to the police officer, we would not be here. what is your response to that, eugene? >> talk about the eric garner case, first of all, there's a legitimate question as to was that resisting arrest. he was standing there selling loose cigarettes. they seemed to want to arrest him for what is universally
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understood to be a piddly offense. you really crackdown on minor offenses as a way of stalling, foreclosing serious offenses, that you don't let these things slip past. i think there's merit to that theo theory, but i think frankly it has been taken way, way, way too far in many communities in this country, with the results the police are serving a role that's more like rulers of the community level rather than servants of the community. >> you tweeted out, you said as a matter of record, is there anything that law enforcement can do to a black person that qualifies as a crime? one of these hash tags trending since mike brown, criming while
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white. eugene's point, police protect in serve, but in minority neighborhoods it is to police and arrest and provide a police state to protect everyone else from you leaving your neighborhood. >> that's exactly the point. the idea that these are outcomes that are somehow aberrant. this is not how the police have functioned and functioned historically in black communities, it is absurd. to eugene's point about how this incident transpired, mr. garner had broken up a fight prior to the encounter with the police, had a record of selling loose cigarettes in the past, but the initial incident he was not at fault. so you never see him acting aggressively toward the police officers, but you see them swarming around him and bringing him down to the ground violently. would this be acceptable in other communities? unlikely. certainly would not be acceptable in the numbers in which we see it happening to african americans. >> and just quickly, eugene,
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going to the politics of it, we will talk more about it, we heard remarks from president obama right after ferguson, it was an op-ed from rand paul who said he was a kid walking down the street and was told to get out of the street by an officer, he smarted off, but wouldn't expect to be killed. the politics, waiting to hear from individuals we know will run from president, eluded, put out white doves that they might, seems like we're not hearing from both sides. >> we're not. i really wish we were. not just from democrats but from republicans and conservatives for whom there should be anathema. what overusing force of power is there than taking a citizen's life, that is a power we give to the state very sparingly and every instance in which it is exercised should be examined, and in these cases the state went too far. conservatives should be up in arms over this.
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>> thank you so much. finally able to get you on the show, sad it is under these circumstances. a pleasure to speak with two strong, brilliant men. greatly appreciate it. >> thanks, tamron. just ahead, new reaction in the eric garner case from the head of an nypd union and the brooklyn borough president. also in the news today, the former boss of the cleveland police officer who killed a 12-year-old boy, holding a toy gun, described that officer's gun skills as, quote, dismal. so why was he on the police force is the question that some are asking today.
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much of the anger centers around the fact that this incident, unlike the shooting death of michael brown in ferguson was caught on video. footage of the arrest showed the officer with his arm around garner's neck as garner repeatedly said i can't breathe. an autopsy by the city medical examiner found that the death was a homicide. joining me, ed mullins, president of the sergeant's benevolent association, a union representing police officers. thank you so much for joining me, sergeant. >> happy to be here. how are you? >> i'm doing well. obviously on this day it is a very difficult day for police officers and citizens who depend on the police to protect them. i want to read from "the new york times" here. it says what is clear is this was a vicious policing, and an innocent man is dead. another conclusion is obvious. officer pantaleo was stripped of his gun and badge, he needs to be stripped of his job. any police department that tolerates such conduct and whose officers are unable and unwilling to diffuse such confrontations without killing people needs to be reformed.
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do you believe that officer pantaleo has a place on the new york city police department? >> i do, unfortunately that's not a popular opinion with people right now, and i'm sure a lot of people are going to disagree, but what's not being discussed anywhere across the board is the totality of what's involved in policing. we are looking at a video, pretty much captured everything. and now hear across the nation how the police should be wearing video. the end result is this particular case was captured on video, was presented to a grand jury, and the outcome is now not popular with quite a few people. there are a lot of people that do understand the outcome, but understand that this outcome is in accordance to law. this problem is much deeper than what we're seeing now on the video, and this involves a lot of work on behalf of everyone. this is not just the ferguson, missouri problem or new york city police problem, this is a
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nationwide problem that involves education and trying to improve quality of life of people of all colors in all communities. and this is a bigger issue that needs to be addressed, not just in policing. >> and to that point, looking at officer pantaleo's past history, outside the garner incident, in 2012 he was sued for allegedly falsely arresting and strip searching a group of men in staten island, according to "new york daily news," nypd settled that suit for $30,000 at the time without any admission of wrongdoing, and pantaleo remained on the force. this is a matter of education and training on both sides, did the police department fail its citizens by allowing this officer back on the street if he was not properly trained after that incident, which was settled for $30,000? >> well, you're bringing up an excellent point. i'm glad you did. in new york city, and i am sure in other cities, there's a
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history of people filing complaints and suing the police department. deep pocket for a lot of people. in new york city traditionally the corporation counsel settle the cases in order to avoid going onto long trials, so why you have no admission of guilt is there probably was no guilt, and this was a payout. now, the police department has recently published research on all the lawsuits effecting new york city, and what you will find is that the same lawyers are basically bottom feeding into the deep pockets of the city of new york on police issues. many took place with the internal affairs bureau are consistent drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes that are out there on an everyday basis, riding the system, making allegations against the police. that's not to say that all
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complaints are bogus. >> so what is being done about those that have merit? in this case, we bring you back to mr. garner, the bottom line question is if the officer should be held accountable if they choke a person and the person dies when the choke hold is banned in the new york police department. that happened on that tape. so who then is accountable, sergeant? >> i can guarantee there will be accountability. new york city police department treats its own more than any organization. >> who should be held accountable. you should there would be accountability. who should be accountable if the officer that administered that choke hold, even if it is involuntary manslaughter or negligence issue of charges, if he is not held accountable on lesser charges, who will be held accountable? >> the department itself has to be held accountable.
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no one is talking about, number one, we're saying it is a choke hold, but in new york state, a choke hold is not illegal. go to the department where they are to avoid any neck contact. it is on paper. no doubt that's on paper. in the middle of an officer battling with anyone, i am okay to -- that happens if there's a fight. in this case -- >> do you believe this was a fight for his life? do you believe the officer was fighting for his life in that video? >> no, you didn't let me finish. in this particular case, i think what you'll agree, it is not a life threatening fight occurring here. i see plenty of video where there is. i think what took place here, you talk about the medical examiner's office saying it is a homicide, homicide is only a list of cause of death. it doesn't mean an actual crime was committed. if you and i have a gunbattle and i shoot you, then that's
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homicide. justifiable homicide. you have to look at everything in totality. unfortunately this is a conversation you and i were having, it is covering a lot of ground. and a lot of the media is not educating everyone as to what the duties of the police officers are, and unfortunately this led to a death of eric garner. not to put any blame on any one individual, but in accordance with law, he was given a lawful order that he didn't comply with. i think in the very big picture, when you look at eric garner's mom, you have to have sympathy for a mother who loses their son, regardless how it happens. so this whole issue goes to a much larger picture. it goes to education. and what we need is cooler minds and brilliant minds from both
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sides of the aisle to come to some type of conclusion that will help make this nation a better place for all people. i think we are missing the point and the opportunity to capitalize on that now. >> sergeant ed mullins, thank you for your time. i greatly appreciate you joining me today. thank you again, sir. >> thank you, have a good day. >> we will be right back. to hd some holiday cheer. before earning 1% cash back everywhere, every time; and 2% back at the grocery store. thank you! even before they got 3% back on gas, all with no hoops to jump through, a couple was inspired to use their bankamericard cash rewards credit card to throw the ultimate ugly sweater party of the season. that's the spirit of rewarding connections. apply online or at a bank of america near you. ♪ ♪
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ring ring! ...progresso! you soup people have my kids loving vegetables. well vegetables... shh! taste better in our savory broth. vegetables!? no...soup! oh! soup! loaded with vegetables. packed with taste. we are following reaction to the grachbd jury decision not to indict the officer that put eric garner in a choke hold that led to his death. reverend al sharpton and mark marry he will issued a call for reform to the criminal justice system. >> we need to centralize and make clear that we want the justice department and the federal government to deal with the fact that the grand jury systems at a state level are
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broken and seem to lack the capacity to deal with police when you are dealing with questions of criminality and killers. >> we met today because of the urgency of the moment. the urgency of the moment is a reawakening about the cause of justice in this nation. >> civil rights leaders plan a march in washington next saturday in the wake of that decision and the case in ferguson. we will be right back. into my own hands
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where it belongs. olay regenerist instantly changes the look of skin. it regenerates surface cells new skin is revealed in only 5 days without drastic measures. stunningly youthful, award-winning skin. never settle for anything less. the regenerist collection, from the world's number 1 olay, your best beautiful we continue to follow reaction to the grand jury decision not to indict the officer placing eric garner eegarner. both sides are expressing shock and disappointment at the grand jury's decision. elijah cummings said this. our justice system is plagued by police forces disconnected from
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the communities they serve. the result is entire portions of the population that feel threaten by the very law enforced by officials and charged with their safety. republican congressman justin amish said clearly excessive force against #ericgarner. i pray that peace and justice will prevail. here in new york, eric adams tweeted out, we need a special prosecutor to deal with these police cases. and as an african-american and a former nypd police officer mr. adams has a unique perspective and is joining me here. let's start out with this call for a special prosecutor. prior to this decision from this grand jury, were you concerned? >> yes, i was. it was clear to me that they were not going to come back with the true bill, which is an indictment and i knew that based on the fact patterns of what i saw and historical reluckitancy of coming back with coming back with an indictment for police officers in cases like this, i
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knew this is what to expect. >> you have an op-ed in the "new york daily news" with what do we do next? >> part of what is happening is there is a lot of conversation all over the nation and part of that is coming from a place of pain and anger and we allow people to do that. those of us who understand police practices and need of having good law enforcement we need to take a step back and how we prevent these things from taking place. >> talk with sergeant mulleins from the police department, his point is, mr. garner, resisted arrest. he did not follow what was being told to him. you have been on both sides of this. how do you answer that or reply to that? >> one of the things i do from the time i was a sergeant in the police department we held courses throughout the city of telling young people what to do when stopped by the police. you must have formal training of the aspect of the lives of many young people are going to have encounters with police officers. how do you respond to that? then police officers must
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understand that you can't have do system of enforcement. you can't go from zero to 100 when you are in communities of color, but, yet, you take a very reflective and slow response when you're in other communities. that is the major problem across our nation on how policing is impacting those communities. >> i wish i had more time for you, but i hope to have you back on with your insight. you have seen this from both sides of the story. greatly appreciate you joining us. we follow a lot of breaking news and, of course, it will continue here on msnbc. my colleague, andrea mitchell, will pick up the coverage after a quick break. [ male announcer ] are you so stuffed up, you feel like you're underwater?
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built for business. we leave you with images from protests yesterday throughout new york city. protests that are planned today, as well. we will continue to follow the latest developments. andrea mitchell is up next. it's time for the your business entrepreneur of the week. he wanted funding for wash cycle laundry. his bike laundry pickup and
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delovery service but he had a tough time getting investors to take the philadelphia company seriously. he made some money and soon enough cleaned up. for more, watch your business sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc. avorite man. but here's the thing: about half of men over 40 have some degree of erectile dysfunction. well, viagra helps guys with ed get and keep an erection. and remember, you only take it when you need it. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach and abnormal vision. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. ask your doctor about viagra.
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don't shoot. >> hands up. don't shoot. right now on "andrea mitchell reports" fury over the chokehold case. after a staten island grand jury decides not to charge a new york city police officer in the death of eric garner killed on tape. his death already ruled a homicide. his wife reacts. >> it's not fair. what do they not see? how could they possibly not indict? you know, i felt hopeless. >> frustration, rage and helplessness throughout the five boroughs of the city and the rest of the country. no laughing matter for anyone, including jon stewart taping his late-night show after the surprising afternoon announcement. >> none of the ambiguities exist in the staten island case. and yet the outcome is exactly the same. no crime, no trial, all harm, no foul. and two middle east mysteries and unrest in abu dhabi lead
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