three. revolting video for your media drug free media. they say a picture is worth a thousand words so how many words is this one video of police miley pepper spraying peaceful student protesters at u.c. davis so what's next now will these students become the new face of the movement. and look at the journalists and protesters and the only ones feeling the burn of police power spray and occupy wall street rallies one ounce or another journalists are being arrested and maced for simply doing their jobs so in a country that prides itself on freedom of the press why are so many journalists

being silenced. plus shortly after president obama tried to eat up china's credibility at the apec summit it looks like the u.s. is hungry once again for economic fear mongering so why are americans so eager to create a new bread and are there fears justified. it's monday november twenty first eight pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for watching archie. well let's begin this evening with one of the many ways in which the occupy wall street movement continues to evolve and change though not necessarily a good thing for those who have been following it closely reading articles about it watching reports about events unfolding there because some of the very people trying to get the story to report on it are being kept far away from it in some cases being arrested by police even though many of them are wearing police issued

press credentials r t correspondent ana stasia churkin a looks deeper into the question of whether the first amendment to the constitution could be taking a beating. freedom of the press worse as the press suppressed a new reality for journalists reporting in the u.s. . arrested and blocked from coverage exactly i think that the goal and i think now we see happening and i predict right now i'm reading the first is that he's a morning twenty one year old and only chris miller was tear gassed by police case and free to discuss saying it really hurts your eyes and another journalist kristin when handcuffed while text messaging then held for several hours i was arrested on iraq last october. then there's the brutal detention of the flu she caught on tape by a colleague and one clock literally came up behind a router working with. an estimated twenty six journalists have so far been

arrested covering occupy wall street protests the majority are members of alternative media the media is there to be a watchdog to report the news not to give you gentle sound bites that don't hurt your millionaire ears not hurting millionaire ears or the corporate media often covering the action from behind the barricades strikes but in the crowd many journalists have been blocked regardless of their press passes or ethical choices or be just too much of the first passes and were even threatened to have their media credentials taken away. taken cross press passes this unprecedented behavior it's shocking to me you know it's just that our liberties as individuals and as journalists are getting rolled back billy not long ago we're journalists in america used to be respected but now being a journalist you have absolutely no credential that will keep you from getting

arrested and you're just as much at risk of getting arrested as everyone else times are different and some rights simply gone out the window the united states has changed. twenty years ago when i got into this job if you had press credentials you could go anywhere and it really was a free pass a police brutality of occupy wall street protests to speak recently and some officials have even attempted to keep it under wraps right. there that they can they can feel like what. excuses for blocking the press given by authorities have buried but many are just not buying it and media journalists don't have the right to videotape police activities. it almost sounds a lot like when bush invaded iraq and he said well you're not allowed to see the things because that hurts our freedom or you are for the weak. in press freedom it has tried my ground for my lecturing other countries occupy wall street protests

and will in all sorts of skeletons in america's kwanzaa the concept could be one on its way to becoming a thing of the past because this intrusion of our team new york so the of the events of the last few weeks keeping the us free press that way arresting some putting other members of the press in chokeholds all of these incidents have led some to ask is freedom of the press a thing of the past is the police attempt to keep the peace violating the u.s. constitution i want to show you a photo this is a member of the press as you can clearly see by her credentials but what you also see is that her wrists are in handcuffs i want to talk to the woman in that photo and if any journalist susie cagle hey there susie. what were you doing at the time of this arrest at the time this photo was taken. i just find that when i was taken i really being loaded into paddy wagon but what was going through this and what was the reason least gave you for arresting you i'm i was told that i didn't disperse

and so i was arrested i have i was not really given any reason and i am beyond that i didn't follow the order that was given to the protesters which is actually not not in line with i outlined department control standards they're supposed to you allow press to be present and even during arrests and and they didn't back me i know you've been covering occupy wall street for most of the two months but it's been going on i guess i want to know what has surprised you most about what you've seen in terms of police i've actually been covering i think specifically and in oakland residents is very local story and so and i'm familiar with issues around these departments so i think lee which has a long and troubled history i am around excessive brutality arm and specially in

terms of political protests so i guess unfortunately this wasn't terribly surprising for me interesting and what other run ins have you had other than the this photo that we just saw one of the run ins have you had it with police why you've been covering occupy oakland i'm definitely you know i've got a big base fellow teargassed and i asked raising rubber bullets. like most people at it are certainly have and i i've been held back from my. showing there has actually just three to three hours ago i got my. press pass for the first time and we'll see how much beyond that does mean going forward. that's what i was going to say i mean certainly what we saw in new york when the journalists were arrested at least five of those journalists had. you know and my

p.d. issued press credentials i know the mayor spokes person bragged that it was only five of those arrested have those press credentials but what's the what's the use of them if they don't allow people who have these credentials to be front and center where the action is happening oh absolutely i mean then then what are they really for so my whole press presidential process. apartment seems to. be a bridge to local media so i first i was thinking of it as an independent. split but i really think that it's a local national and international way national media comes in where there's a national story and national story and there was department is not used to having those outside. if not just arrests though as we know i mean certainly you were arrested it's tear gas but it's also keeping journalists far away from the

scene telling journalists i'm sorry you can't go past this point talk a little bit about that and how that has affected the coverage in terms of people being able to show what's actually happening. sure i mean i've been this last week in oakland there in several raids on several different camps with varying levels force and each of those instances i'm taking photos from many many yards away where i can't really see anything that's going on and i'm surrounded by other yet we're all being helped back. and and you know those are the local news cameras too it's incredibly frustrating and i know there are some who would actually disagree with you susie we had a comment on one of the stories that we're around r t someone said you know i don't hear any of the embedded journalists in the war saying stop the shooting i can get hurt people complain that you know journalists should have to play by the same

rules that protesters do that they shouldn't get special privileges wondering what you'd say to people who say that. i i guess you know i i i i agree to a certain extent that i being a journalist in that situation is like inventing in the war you are going to get shot at there's going to be tear gas. i will cave with that if i can still i get the photo and i can still get into you and i can still actually report on what's happening i'm fine with. personal risks to my own safety but i've got the state telling me what i can it can observe and witness in public space so the i want to have for our viewers we have the names and affiliations of several of the journalists who were arrested i want to put those up on screen and while i'm doing that i guess my last question for you i just kind of want to talk to you about what

you see as happening next i think it's really interesting that you said you were not surprised to see what you saw in terms of police brutality in oakland and around the country regarding the first amendment regarding the freedom of the press and the press being allowed to cover the story to witness firsthand what's actually happening what do you think is next. what i hope is next is that. he's a high profile arrests in high wall street will change things a little bit certainly no one from the city has made any sort of public comments about my arrest i but city people compelled through to help comment about those arrests and i think they even though they're they're public comment was ridiculous they had ologist that something happens and so i can only hope and think that there will be this has reached a critical mass that it will sturdy enough to the public that police presence will

not be able to get away with this anymore you know right independent journalists to susie cagle. well it is the video seen around the world and tells an important chapter of the occupy wall street story that even when protesters are peaceful the police don't necessarily care and you may have seen this video over the weekend but i really want to show it again this is video from the university of california at davis. was. the. take a look at just how close these police officers are standing and spraying these students some of whom were trying to cover their faces with their clothing but apparently police officers actually forced open some of their mouths and pepper sprayed them down their throats students and professors and davis are now calling for the chancellor and its haiti to step down especially as these pictures continue to draw criticism and skepticism of the way it was handled and we know baker is one

of the people in that video he's a graduate of u.c. davis and spoke to me a little earlier today about his experience there take a listen i want to first before we talk to put up some photos that we have of you and your interactions with police we have this photo here of you on the ground being arrested by police i think that was on friday and another photo as well this is you and a holding cell with a couple of other fellows there. through that day friday afternoon what was the mood like after seeing some of these things happen up close and have it happened to you. well to be honest i was on the front line. protesters who were leaking arms. it had been very weak for me the riot police approached us. grabbed me very quickly. into the. cops on me and then threw me to do so i was probably in

a jail cell already when the prescription sort of. so i didn't get to release a lot of it first. it was i got to see a long. pause. you know it seems to me that during occupy wall street police have sort of been rewriting the rules here i mean we do know that two of the officers that we saw in the video have been placed on administrative leave paid administrative leave actually but apparently you know if this happened in a california prison if a prison guard used pepper spray on a seated prisoner and that prison guard would be disciplined for using excessive force do you think that is peaceful protesters are being treated more harshly than prisoners. i mean i think it's absolutely disgusting and it's a symptom of a greater problem. our universities it's a privatized sort of thing ok. so you were on the front

line and you were one of the first people arrested what did your friends say you said when you got out of. being detained you spoke to some of your friends and other people who were pepper sprayed. tell me what the mood is like and what everyone how everyone is reacting to what happened at your school. i mean it's an interesting dichotomy there. i mean there were very. few of my friends were hospitalized some of them but you're standing just. thrown on the ground. some of them still have to bring. up the spray. on the other. student galvanised that's been. you know trying to. escape thought for a while no as we speak there's a general assembly taking place you want to get away with over five thousand people

participating in the census process it's beautiful and you know i for those who don't know i'm from california also and u.c. davis is a beautiful school i know you guys have a lot of good agriculture programs a great that's an area program u.c. davis is in a very rural part of california this is not downtown oakland this is not new york city were you surprised about just how police officers there were trained and some of the tax explains given the location of your school. ok. you know i wasn't so surprised i know that a lot of the police departments throughout the season even in cities in california contingency plans and they use the same protocol also chancellor linda katehi. she police units. are trying to follow.

in trying to keep people off in the same manner similar to and as i mentioned just a little earlier it's not just unfair or several professors that you see davis that are calling for the chancellor to step down what do you know from what i understand there's going to be a rally on monday i don't know if that's the rally is taking place right now or if there's another one next week but a lot of people are putting are blaming the chancellor for what happened and. yeah well she. lol we were occupying space and she's only simply to talk about the problems that are taking place in university we received several letters directly from chancellor. and she is the chancellor so job to manage affairs in the university so she has. own up to chipper faults she did i should mention the general assembly and spoke about an hour ago

apologized for. mistakes but did not concede to resignation and that was using davis graduate in her. so because of this video we were just talking about the u.c. campus u.c. davis campus police chief along with those two officers has been placed on administrative leave as i mentioned before paid leave and students and faculty adds a vis are calling for the chancellor who was just talking about lindsay to tell you to step down but one of those faculty members is nathan brown assistant professor in the english department he wrote a letter an open letter to the chancellor describing in detail some of the effects the pepper spray had on the students he also called for the chancellor to step down and i want to read just a little part of that letter he said you are responsible for it because this is what happens when you see chancers order police on to our campuses to disperse peaceful protesters through the use of force students get hurt faculty get hurt one

of the most inspiring things inspiring for those of us who care about students who assert their rights to free speech and free assembly and in the last hour i spoke to the author of that letter nathan brown about why he wrote it. well i wrote a letter because i argued a lot and i think that over the past few years during student interview you see police brutality has been a school that's been systematically used by a senior administrator is to terrorize students and faculty who protest ongoing situation increases and to suppress free speech and political stunts our campuses i know this is one of the major issues personally young people in all the different occupy movement is the cost of feed and also the funding that's being taken away from. the education system here. you put yourself at rest me then back by writing a letter like that what has been the response the response has been really

incredible and inspiring tremendous amount of sports within my apartment's from the faculty you know received from the board because stocks he associates and from faculty and students throughout the university of california and since i've been in distributed a letter i've received thousands of e-mails from people around the world expressing their support and i know your letter where i think was the first i read at least i found the things were actually coughing up blood forty five minutes after they were sprayed what one of the students tell you. well just today we've had a rally on campus at u.c. davis attended by you know what i would us today as a crowd of around five thousand people and at the beginning of that really students spoke and testimony about what happened. testimony that was harrowing included descriptions of announced that i won't mention in the letter. but they also you know express the fact that there's

a sense of how long and psychologically and emotionally they speak about not being able to sleep at night the students have spoken about being followed around campus by university police since friday. and this is something you know often follows police brutality trauma and serious emotional distress in now i want to you i'm glad you brought up the rally because i know that chancellor also attended the rally what actually spelled what but she didn't think to mention you know any response and terms of the idea of resigning or stepping down what did she say or did she say anything rather there that made you feel better. no she certainly didn't say anything that made me feel better i think the chancellor starts to this incident has been predictable all through and through it's basically followed a script which is almost always followed whenever there is an incident of police

brutality in this country basically which he. has the policing about officers on unpaid leave you get the foundation of committees to investigate the incident and basically these are simply tactics of for all the displacement of criticism it's just really not only good for us or slim expensive it's grammar and rhetoric and what i know about chancellor spoken about this event is her persistent use of the passive voice so the chancellor says for example we i am very sorry about what happened on friday but the chancellor does not say the students under sorry about what i did on friday and many of the students are not this is the nature and the constituent of difference and that was easy there was professor smith and brown. well it is now official the super committee the team of six democrats and six republicans charged with cutting one point two trillion dollars from the budget is a super failure president obama announces just

a little while ago that the committee did not reach an agreement and he said he will veto any attempts to eliminate those automatic spending cuts that go into effect now that they have failed to come up with a solution this comes just a few days after the president returned from a trip to australia where he vowed to reassert u.s. presence in the asia pacific sending a clear message to china there's growing influence seems to have some world leaders a little worried meanwhile china's began global credit rating agency has threatened it may downgrade the u.s. credit rating rating because of what happened with the supercommittee or actually what didn't happen i want to talk about regarding china so help me i write in political economist and writer for the revolution newspaper at raymond the liar i started off by asking him to give me his take on all these recent events between china and the u.s. here's what he had to say. essentially what's playing out is intensifying geoeconomic rivalry between the united states and china the subtext of obama's trip

to east asia has been the fact that china's economic and military strength is growing and there are major shifts in power in the world economy the us share of world production has declined the role of the dollar as an international key currency has eroded and china's growth has been very very stupendous over the last fifteen years it's now the second largest capitalist economy in the world it's the second largest manufacturing exporter and just this year it will pass the united states as the leading trade partner with the major asian economies so this is the backdrop for what is taking place and part of that backdrop is also the global economic crisis so you see this flux in the world economy and obama has done over the last ten days has moved along three

axes it's kind of a three pronged attempt to compensate for declining u.s. economic strength in the world through you know its superior military dominance so you have on the one hand that basing agreement that was signed with australia and it's very significant this is the first and the most significant expansion of long term expansion of u.s. military presence in asia since the war in vietnam so that's the first the second was the launching at the association of southeast asian nations summit of the launching of what has been called the trans pacific to act and this is a trade block that the u.s. is trying to forge in asia that conspicuously exclude. right or so you have that and then thirdly the us has been the us imperialists have been insinuating themselves into the territorial disputes in the south china sea these claims by

different countries try to of course they're over these critical sea lanes were vital trieb routes for trade is growing and all marco us is which are also ritchie and potentially rich resources and the u.s. is also using this is a pretext to increase its military presence surveillance and naval warships in the region and raylan to get in here and talk i mean certainly a lot that you just laid out there i think you laid it out really really well. if you think about president obama in the position that he then leading this country that certainly. is not growing nearly as fast as the second place team china and just to watch what's happening there probably a little frustrating but there seems to be a lot of trying to retaliate and also a lot of on trying to get in there and talk to china's leaders i know over the weekend president obama met with china's premier on trying to get them to you know

i tend to try to get china to raise the value of its currency if you want china them think they care what these other countries want when you have president obama when you have the leaders trying to get in and talk about this talk to me a little bit about this. well i think that you know what's going on is as i said these intensifying escalating tensions between the united states and china over you know the over the asia pacific region the u.s. has long been the dominant ahead ramoni power there economically and militarily and now you see china's very rapid rise and the us as i said is seeking to pressure china and actually to forge a strategic encircled one of trying to diplomatically economically and militarily you know indicated some of the dimensions of that and i think it's important to understand that this is not in the interest of the people of the world in the

united states or blows the u.s. is the most dominant imperialist power in china is a capitalist power in transition to becoming an imperialist power this is not in the interest of the people worldwide you know it was immediately as not any interest of the people of the world the growing tensions between the two countries . well the u.s. is reasserting its dominance in that region and what i'm saying is that will a potentially lead to conflict and b. the battle between the united states and china is a battle over the right to exploit to create exploitation zones you know is interesting. one of the agreements that was reached it wasn't really an agreement in the negotiations of the last two days that obama has been with the leaders of china there was this whole question of intellectual property rights which has been a vehicle through which the u.s. has maintained you know its technological edge but the u.s. has insisted that china legalized software and is upset about the private pirating of software but you take the i pad you take something like apple computer those i

pads are produced in horrendous conditions of employment in china in factories where people are working sixty hours a week where people are subjected to a lethal chemicals where last year there was a rash of suicides by workers protesting these conditions so here you have china offering up its labor force to trans national capital and the u.s. in turn you know seeking to press its technological advantage through these intellectual property rights so this is another illustration of my point that what's going on between them is not in the interest of the people of the world certainly a lot to keep our eyes on there talks about it you know i think it's important to remember that a lot of the things that we use every day are electronics that i don't know that we own are actually on maybe there and i know and i phone four s. comes out its beliefs and i think this week ali learned a lot from you.