coming up have you ever wonder what constitutes a citizen's arrest i was present for one last week of net roots nation and learned a lot of former federal prosecutor will tell us just in case you haven't run into rumsfeld or the chain of local bar after the break. drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to didn't break through that sort of people have made who can you trust no one who is human view with the global machinery see where we had a state controlled capitalism is called sasha's when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more.

welcome back to the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour during their routine obama bashing this weekend republicans got their feathers ruffled when the tables were turned on them by their own hired media see what republican reaction to jokes about their own candidates may be very telling and in tonight's daily take i'll tell you how a six foot. wall is the only thing standing in the we have nuclear disaster right here right now in the united states.

over the weekend i turn to the progressive net roots nation conference in minneapolis minnesota and thanks to lucy in fact for filling in for me while i was gone just down the street from net roots another about was being held the conservative right on line conference so needless to say with progress is in right wingers commingling there was potential for some explosive confrontations and that's exactly what happened when a group of muslim women were in his jobs flash mob to the right on line conference the women showed up to protest an incident that had happened the previous evening outside a local bar the place right happened to be at the time when a group of muslim women in traditional dress were harassed by a group of men with ties to the right on line conference. here's how one of the women described the incident. my camera to them and harass them for even listening constantly wearing the dots and then they said don't go back to your country how

i'm going to go back to my country i was born here and my marriage was but the interesting part of the stories of these men who were arrested the women were arrested it was a citizen's arrest onlookers kept the men detained in the restaurant until police showed up to make the arrest which had me wondering how exactly does one go about making a citizen's arrest or more a want to citizens arrest actually means and how you can do it i'm joined by kendall coffey former federal prosecutor chair of the southern district conference of the florida federal judicial nominating commission and the welcome to the program a thon thanks for inviting me fascinating topic can be sure i think so i was astounded we were sitting in the bar and you know with a group of people and over on the other side of the bar and there was this kind of . and then police showed up and then the police went around it be asking everybody the bar questions like you know they were for it because the three guys who were the i don't want to say victims of citizen's arrest where the rest these let's say

refused to talk and so the police then had to find some witnesses to validate or corroborate what the people doing the citizens arrest were saying and eventually they did it took a while and they hauled these three guys off in a police car so if i see something like you know these guys were you know harassing these women what do i do how does a citizen do in a rest. well the first thing you've got to know is it's no place for amateurs and you usually do bore things wrong and do things right in trying to make a citizen's arrest it does exist on the laws of different states are different what the basic thing that it protects is briggs ample if you see a felony being committed you're right here you see committed if you have knowledge after the fact of a felony would miss demeanors with a lesser kind of crimes most states make it something that has to be a breach of peace in other words if you can arrest somebody as a citizen for

a misdemeanor a lesser form of crime it better be something that's really disrupt is something that somebody really needs to intervene on because the law isn't exactly crazy about the idea of citizens pretending that they're police officers sometimes it's necessary sometimes it's good for society but most of the time it's a lot better to have professionals doing the arrests then amateurs so should if you witness something that you believe is a crime and you know beyond and i'm not talking about somebody walking up and shooting somebody that is something like what we saw in minneapolis on thursday night if you see something like that instead of walking up and saying i'm making a citizen's arrest and asking a couple of people to help you. you know detain the guys until the police show up after you dial nine one one is it better to simply down nine one one call the police and say i saw a crime. well sure it is but sometimes there are situations that you think are very disruptive and you see something escalating right in front of you you see conduct

maybe push a lot changes of ng what you do well first of all if you're going to make a citizen's arrest you've got to know that citizens don't have the same protection from civil liability lawsuits that police officers do that makes sense right so there's more risk if you get it wrong but if you get it right and there's for example a breach of peace which is acknowledged in most states you announce first of all that you're making an arrest and that you were arresting them for a particular crime because if you don't do that then you're just a private person trying to restrain somebody trying to detain somebody and if a private person with out any legal right to do it tries to detain somebody that could be a crime in itself if you're detaining for example somebody is a home invader to point a gun you could be protected into that you could make a citizen's arrest to keep them there and even keep the gun on him but if you have a guest in your house you put it in and you're not making good citizens arrest you just don't want to leave because you're argue with them that's

a crime in most states of kidnapping so point number one is announce your authority have out authorities say i'm making a citizen's arrest say what it's for and then where goes from there is is very uncertain because what can you do what kind of forced can you use if the person says the heck with you you're concerned salesman you're a lawyer i don't have to listen to you i'm out here and what can you do. well you can use some force to detain a person in fact you can physically block them in terms of liberty. in most states i mean everything i say tom has to be you know how much you love lawyers hearing telling you and compare and you can look at the wall but different states do have different rules in another state there's not a law and while there's not a federal citizen's arrest statute these changes hawaii's yeah for example why is going to very broad citizen's arrest power any crime in wyoming you can do it for cattle rustling but i mean different states have different rules florida florida

and most states have what they call merchants privilege for shoplifting offenses a security officer for example sees you trying to steal something in a store can walk over and detain you and insist that you do not leave but using force is a wild card if somebody is properly arrested and they walk out on you that could be a crime in itself in many states that is to say they're they're fleeing problem on the rest but most of the time you could you should use the minimum force necessary to be almost never want to go anywhere near firearms although it can be done in dangerous situations the burglar this breaking into your house that could be a situation to use a gun but in the in the bar room scene we talk about well what i would say is if you're going to make an arrest announce it's a citizen's arrest announce what it's for you can try to block them try to get the police on the phone right away so you get somebody there and try to basically without calling seeing anybody call the local authorities tom and i'm sorry i

interrupted you identify yourself to the police when they arrive you gave us some of these points before and it seems like this is what it absolutely because you know you don't want the police thinking you're the troublemaker that you're out of line so you didn't a fight yourself as a citizen who's made what you consider to be a lawful arrest turn it over to police of course and then provide one hundred percent cooperation for anything down the line and you may have to show up in court for an appearance if it's requested after the after the after the arrest. yeah you have made yourself part and parcel of the of the charge so you're certainly a witness but i want to come back to sometimes there's a fine line between acting responsibly in making a lawful citizen's arrest and being a vigilante in effect and going across the line so if there's any doubt about whether what you're doing is is proper stand back grab your cell phone call nine one one and get the police there as quickly as possible you go kind of thank you so much for the information hey tom thanks for inviting me it's

a pleasure i really appreciate knowing this now that we know what it takes to make a citizen's arrest useful information if you ever run across. i can't help easily and no one minister here. now when you hear i am one part i have to do it this is arrest the citizen to press for treason. i can hope can't i. just. it's the good of the very very poor sickly oddly first the good buddy roemer buddy roemer the former republican governor of louisiana turned some heads at the at the republican leadership conference over the weekend chock full of republican presidential hopefuls like michele bachmann conference was mostly a parade of right wing talking points that was until roemer

a little known republican candidate for president took the stage and the rail of republican politics he went after the banks troops. on a banking says he'll bitch travel the world. are cheap enough for seal. to let them out. i know when we're taking advantage. and i know that our own corporate giants have never been more profitable than they are right now because they keep sending these. american jobs overseas. wall street near how term unemployment at nine and i are nine point one the last three banks are just greedy is there no one is going to change. we need more politicians on both sides of the aisle talking like that or is there one of the rower finds themselves and unknown in the republican presidential field is really

no room for truth tellers in that party any longer. the bad i don't know republicans state senator john mcgee i did state senator mcgee spent his weekend try getting wasted on a golf course stealing a tractor trailer jackknifing the tractor trailer and then wandering the streets in a drunken stupor and police found senator mcgee he said he was in search of the promised land it's unclear if he will resign from his post but as long as he did tweet photos of his drunken self it's unlikely that the republicans last step down . and the very very ugly jack kimble and hampshire republican party chairman attended a picnic last week in honor of flag day but instead of bringing people together to honor our nation's flag kimball was more interested in bashing president obama and laying out the dire consequences facing us all if the president is reelected referring to all of the soldiers who have been wounded fighting for our war in our many wars in the middle east kimball's. look at who we put the white house if they

go about that and we realize the profound responsibility we have this time in my view if we realize the span all that all the people thought and died for is completely in vain. yikes let me guess is that because president obama won't just take the oil with the iraqis oh us whatever it is it's a very very. bad for the great details of how republicans rigged our commander in chief over the weekend the critics keep repeating themselves. that's. true. and yet though.

into and we're going to do the work to bring justice and. i have the right to know what my government you want to know why i pay taxes. i would characterize them as the charismatic. of american exceptionalism. the republican leadership conference was held in new orleans over the weekend and that's the best way to make a room full of conservative politicians laugh racist jokes directed at the president of course brown a guy who's made a living impersonating president obama most and fox news spoke at the event and wasn't president all about commenting on the president's race to what. my favorite

month is you were black history month this is michelle she celebrates the full month and you know celebrate. the republicans proved they could dish it out of the bashing president obama's skin color but as soon as reggie brown turned his jokes. and started poking fun at republicans the crowd probably couldn't take it and he was kicked off stage. it's unfortunate that some plenty could make it here. but cut him some slack he's having his butt surgically removed from his mouth i don't know what luckily for him it's covered under obamacare i so yeah that a lot along with spinal transplants i get. the much. john king served to not call it softer than barney frank's backside

i. because it can people are asking me when am i going to explain the details of my health care plan and i've got three works for you so am i. doing. think you notice that the end there they even cut his mike so just how much racism is too much racism for republican leadership conference and why the thin skin when it comes to self appreciating humor here to offer some more insight into this issue is tommy christopher media correspondent white house reporter at media eight dot com tony welcome and some thanks for having me do you think that the people in the room you know i watched the whole thing i'm assuming you did too and this is those little clips i don't think it actually represented all that well the first part seemed actually kind of funny in a general way and then the last part when he started picking on the republicans all

of sudden regret quieter and quieter and it was strange the way the tide turned it was that it was weird but do you think that the racial jokes at the beginning were perceived as racist by the crowd you know that when i first saw this there are a lot of liberals getting upset about it you know i watched the clip and i thought well the guy's jokes i didn't think was in there only his jokes i could see the discomfort with the way the crowd was reacting but you know i don't know how unfair that is either in iraq i can see how some of them are four of you would think well you know these are people who have tremendous animosity for president obama and the now if you will and there i forgot him and he's a racial jokes that arriving at his skin color so i understand it's comfort it seems to me that the you know some of that was just. a guy making a joke about a guy who was the same race and it wasn't about race it was about i don't like this but i thought that when he pulled out the sanford and son or the or whatever it was clip you know the old kid that that that was but but in

a look let's try to talk about the larger political context here you know historically you go back like you know four hundred years ago five hundred six seven hundred years ago in the history of the kings of europe the one person who could speak the truth to the king was the court jester by law i mean it was that the court jester could not be beheaded could not be imprisoned the court jester would and kings actually wanted to court jester to speak the truth because that was the little keyhole through which they were able to see what was really going on in the world what has and i think that you know for example jon stewart plays this role so brilliantly with comedy central he speaks truth that you know in ways that other people can't even say it and not just not just him but comedians in general why why are the republicans so thin skinned when it when it comes to talking about their own folks well you know i think in that in that case it just seems to have caught them off guard you know i've noticed that i've attended a lot of these. species packs now up a liberal conferences and there's a lot of this preaching to the choir and you don't get

a lot of you know i think they were just surprised and really taken aback by i thought as material is funny and one of the ones i saw the jokes make rather republicans i found with this guy he's the you know he's not here to trash obama he's just an entertainer and. so yeah it was a was kind of strike i thought was strange the way that right when they showed the picture of barbara bush one hundred washington has a defense the whole thing just turned and you know i don't we don't pick on the bushes yeah it's like you know a republican governors don't pick on the bushes and that unless one of them said some bad about sarah palin and. quickly they are through barbara in the most not well you know he went off on john boehner as crying and that didn't get a laugh he said his new slogan is i killed obama and everybody was like you're right that's going to be the president's new slogan. i mean it was like there was a bunch of uncomfortable truths that he laid out there and i'm wondering and then you know the polygamy jokes about romney actually i cringe a little bit that was that over the top i thought so so where if you were advising

the republicans you know humor for their conference would you say stay away from self depreciating humor or not i guess liberals for their own you know for a liberal conference i would say have a sense of humor and i'm going to laugh at yourself but the audience then didn't isn't going to yeah and i was i was a little bit surprised by that. because i you know the conservatives i've met at places like the fact you know more than one great people great sense of humor. they really did surprise me thinking about you know i've done my show from seabeck for five years in a row now i think and there you know i think on both sides it we're all people here you know but i was really struck by the last week fox news is eric bolling made some racially change comments about president obama as well take a look at us. he's going to be looking to mr obama shares laughing what about africa's joke rats the first time he said. so what's with all of hoods in a his e a month after the white house hosted the rapper common who glorifies violence on

cops the president opened his doors to want to africa's most evil dictators so he was he also so the president was chugging forty's i mean yeah you know what's what's the deal you know what you know what i wrote columns about both those incidents the forty ounce thing and then who's in the hazy and you know at first i thought yeah this is this guy is trying to appeal to you know he's whistling to a certain segment of the audience. but i had a discussion with him on twitter and you know. i think he may have a genuine misunderstanding of why it is people were offended by that i try to explain to him and he did apologize for it and i'm hoping that the conversation we had sort of because that you know some people just don't understand how you know that the context that you say something and changes that you know where you know if you have a white guy says one thing and i says the same thing if they capture you for meetings if it's about every one of these past me i want to especially my race one

of the things that he brought up was that was bill maher and jon stewart that they do the same thing and it's ok because they're liberals and you know i think you're a grain of good point there that i think but there's a marine jesters right but i think this goes we're going to be a news guy some well yeah well you know he doesn't play. that part i don't really have a problem with but i think the point he had is that i think liberals sometimes get away with things because they're liberals but going to should i don't think that means that we should also then let eric bolling get away with something that's taking the offensive illegal he would build more he said this thing about president obama being a black ninja gangster president and other times that i was expecting him to lift up a shirt shows get like two or more i think she's funny maybe that he's governing the president of the. but it's the same thing they're both marginalizing him as a stereotype except that bill maher is a comedian and that's going to have our nominees are i mean we're going to try to get i know you're ok with our real time i disagree with you just saw they were at

it thanks for being here with us i sure haven't spent a lot of food for thought there are also when republicans can't laugh at jokes about their own candidates doesn't reveal an underlying truth about just how weak they may really be. after the fukushima nuclear catastrophe in japan a lot of people wondered out loud just what the hell the japanese were doing building nuclear power plants along the coast of an area prone to earthquakes and tsunamis it's as though they were just asking for this to happen who have been so stupid surely here in the united states were a lot more careful with where we build our nuclear power plants right. now this is the fort calhoun nuclear plant just outside of risk just outside.

and in the press and no it's not supposed to be completely surrounded by water. but i suppose that's what happens when you build a nuclear plant right in the middle of the floodplain of the missouri river floodwaters from the rising missouri river have settled at a foot and a half above where the plant sits and the only thing stopping fort calhoun from flooding just like focus shima flooded is a six foot high rubber wall surrounding the plant that's not the only nuclear power plant danger just down the river in southeastern brassica but cooper nuclear plant is also on the verge of flooding out that plant sits at nine hundred three feet above sea level but on sunday floodwaters from the missouri river peaked at nine hundred and a half feet meaning just two and a half feet stood between nebraska and a fukushima like disaster so yeah we almost lost the brask over the weekend and yet

no one seems to know about it back on june seventh when the floodwaters first started threatening the fort calhoun plant the nuclear regulatory commission received a notification of an unusual event the lowest level warning on the n.r.c. is for stage disaster classification system no big deal as he would know droids in this car but it does seem a little odd that since june sixth the f.a.a. has been enforcing a no fly zone above the crippled plant when asked about the no fly zone the f.a.a. responded by saying it was put in place for security reasons that we can't reveal just like the no fly zone over the b.p. oil spill which successfully stopped both news reports and scientific analysis of the water over the spill you know whatever's going on in nebraska this is a warning that fukushima could happen here in the united states with three little

warning. not only do we operate nuclear plants in flood basins and brassica but we also have plants built on fault lines in california and in the path of tornadoes in the american midwest and for those who are more superstitious there's the diablo canyon power plant in california it's not only named after the devil but it also sits on top of an indian burial ground so is it really that our nation's nuclear plants are more secure than japan are we just so far really really lucky frankly i think it's time to stop rolling the dice with nuclear power in the last decade germany built the equivalent of ten nuclear power plants by putting solar panels on the roofs of hundreds of thousands of homes and with that renewable power germany has announced that they will completely close down every single nuclear plant in their nation just last week voters in italy took to the polls to reject

a ninety five percent to five percent margin a plan to build nuclear power plants in that nation and in denmark a country that as far back as one nine hundred eighty eight banned the construction of nuclear power after chernobyl more than twenty percent of their literacy is generated through wind power and within a decade that will be a half fifty percent japan has just announced that they're ditching nuclear power fairly obvious reasons the swiss of announced no new no more new nukes even china has suspended the construction of all new nuclear power plants there but here in the united states we're building rubber walls around our submerged nuclear plants and just praying that the waters don't keep rising and in an environment that's growing increasingly volatile with more flooding and more tornadoes thanks to global climate change its strategy is almost certainly destined for failure. it's time to ditch your power here in the united states of what's going on in nebraska right this very minute and let's hope we're not too late. i see big picture for the

night for more information on the stories we covered visit our website. r.t. dot com also check out our youtube pages at youtube dot com slash the big picture r.t. and youtube dot com slash marks and this entire show is available as a free podcast on i tunes and don't forget democracy begins when you show up when you participate tag your it says.

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