i want to bring in ari melber and faith jenkins.t said the police department itself and the city leaders now must come together to create policy that would change and sort of improve the use of force. but i think what might be troubling for people is that the only constraint that a population has on the government, meaning the police's use of potentially deadly force against it, against members of the people, in theory, is the law. the law that fellow citizens sit on grand juries, sit on juries and apply the law and an objective standard and what seems like a reasonable standard in the minds of civilians. if the law does not actually constrain police because there is evidence now that the law does not constrain police, is it troubling the only constraint would be the police department itself and potentially the mayor? >> yes. i think that's very troubling. we are here looking at breaking news you're reporting this hour, joy, that tells us that a grand jury, according to nbc sources, looked at a video of this homicide. that the new y

i'm ari melber. joy reid is on assignment.e and investigation. led by dianne feinstein, the senate release aid detailed 500-page excerpt of this report finding that the cia's torture after 9/11 was ineffective. that the cia misled congress and used inaccurate information to defend this program. the report also finds it was poorly managed and that the techniques were more brutal than the cia had said. senator feinstein also addressed the critics who were against releasing all this new information. >> history will judge us by our commitment to a just society governed by law and the willingness to face an ugly truth and say never again. >> what can you tell us? >> well, ari, this report as you were sayg

that's a question a lot of people are asking the right question whether we want to continue that. >> ari melbero the debate over war. senator rand paul one of several lawmakers that want congress to vote on the war with isis before the holiday break, even though president obama says he doesn't need congressional approval senator paul went on "hardball" and said lawmakers have to get a say. >> it is probably the most important responsibility that any legislator should ever have to send a young man or woman into harm's way. our founding fathers were clear on this. james madison wrote the executive branch is the branch most prone to war, therefore we have vested the power of war in the legislature. george washington was adamant about this jefferson was adamant about this. this is not a function that the president can unilaterally weigh in on. >> here to frame the debate jimmy williams executive editor of blue nation review and msnbc contributor, and chris wilson conservative polster and political analyst. jimmy, start with you. why not let congress weigh in now until waiting to next year? >> we're

i'm ari melber. joy reid is on assignment. there's a new report out on cia torture and investigation. led by dianne feinstein, the senate release aid detailed 500-page excerpt of this report finding that the cia's torture after 9/11 was ineffective. that the cia misled congress and used inaccurate information to defend this program. the report also finds it was poorly managed and that the techniques were more brutal than the cia had said. senator feinstein also addressed the critics who were against releasing all this new information. >> history will judge us by our commitment to a just society governed by law and the willingness to face an ugly truth and say never again. >> what can you tell us? >> well, ari, this report as you were saying was broken up into a few different categories. among the issues it addressed and looked into was the attempted, if you will, notification of the president at the time, president bush, to see whether or not the cia attempted to brief the president about the enhanced interrogation techniques

. >> i'm ari melber. the hacking worked. after threats of violence over a movie they didn't like because of its treatment of north korea, tonight they know they got exactly what they wanted. sony announced it is paying the ransom. as the work day ended here on the west coast, sony made it official that it's canceling the release of "the interview." the comedy imagines a plot to assassinate real life leader kim jong un and has escalated tensions between that country and the u.s. sony's statement is something else. sony pictures has been the victim of an unprecedented criminal assault against our employees, our customers and our business. those who attacked us stole our intellectual property, private e-mails and sensitive and proprietary material and sought to destroy our spirit and our morale, all apparently to thwart the release of a movie they did not like. we're deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie, and in the process do damage to our company, our employees and the american public.

i'm ari melber in for chris hayes. president obama got right to the point when addressing the sony hack for the first time today. telling americans he believes sony pictures made a mistake in pulling the theatrical release of its film "the interview "which depicts that plot to assassinate north korean leader kim jong-un. in self-ken sureship after the company was hacked, and began releasing it in order to damage and intimidate sony. there were also terror threats made against any theater that wanted to show the film. it was an unusual day in washington and l.a. to say the least. we'll have more on president obama's year-end press conference in a minute. the other big news in this sony sto story is a new -- what appears to be the hackers' response to sony capitulation. we have not verified the authenticity of this message but the authors praised sony's decision to pull the movie as very wise and doubled down on ransom threats telling sony they have even more sensitive information they can release if "the interview" is h

i'm ari melber.rnoon, fallout from the cia report on torture and interrogation still coming from multiple angles. it's happening on the senate floor. >> torture just didn't happen, after all. contrary to the president's recent statement, we didn't torture some folks. real, actual people engaged in torture. some of these people are still employed by the cia and the u.s. government. they are right now people serving in high-level positions at the agency who approved, directed or committed acts related to the cia's detention and interrogation program. >> reaction also pouring in on the world's largest stage,

i'm joined by ari melber. first of all, what do we know about the appeals court? the last-minute stay that was issued a few hours ago? >> yeah, brand new within the hour. it is basically a two-line ruling from the fifth circuit to federal appeals court that oversees texas saying, stop, you cannot execute him as planned and not giving any reasons beyond that other than they want to address and have more time to look at these complex legal issues that relate to his sanity. >> what's different about this case versus other cases involving mental illness in the state of texas? because had he been executed tonight, he would not have been the first, or even the first 12 people executed in texas who had some sort of mental illness. >> clearly not, craig. the first thing is his name, he's on the supreme court case from 2007. that actually established this standard that basically how insane, how mentally incompetent do you have to be? the supreme court says if you do not understand why you're being executed, you don't get the punishment, you are so far gone you don't even r

reluctant to prosecute officers and shouldn't officers have to prove -- >> what if you had to prosecute ari melber. you're laughing. but could you do it? that's what they're asking to you do. they're asking you to prosecute the stage manager here. you can't do that. i also want to point out that with eric gaerner, that the onl charges presented were criminally negligent homicide and manslaughter. >> no reckless endangerment. >> i also want to point out gang assault in the second degree or gang assault in the first degree would have also been appropriate charges. this is from the new york penal assault, a person is guilty of gang assault in second degree with intent to cause physical injury, two people are present, then they cause that injury to a third person. why wasn't gang assault charged? if is appropriate -- from what i read to you, that sounds correct, right? >> absolutely. >> so, there's -- one degree is with physical injury. the other is serious physical injury. both instances are relevant to eric garner. >> right. so, then why wouldn't -- >> and also strangulation. >> why wouldn't reckles

i'm ari melber. as we come on the air this afternoon, fallout from the cia report on torture and interrogation still coming from multiple angles. it's happening on the senate floor. >> torture just didn't happen, after all. contrary to the president's recent statement, we didn't torture some folks. real, actual people engaged in torture. some of these people are still employed by the cia and the u.s. government. they are right now people serving in high-level positions at the agency who approved, directed or committed acts related to the cia's detention and interrogation program. >> reaction also pouring in on the world's largest stage, the united nations now joining with human rights groups to call for the prosecution of any u.s. officials responsible for torture. they say there should be no statute of limitations. the white house now finding itself in the uncomfortable position of both condemning torture, while at the same time, urging closure, as we heard from the president on "the rundown" this m

mikey kay standing in for ari melber. i spent 20 years in the military and we were very much told to respect the rank of an individual rather than the individual itself. is there an argument to say here that given what we saw about the nypd turning their backs on de blasio, is this a real good opportunity for the nypd to take the moral high ground and look more towards the office of the mayor than what seems to be a devisice approach from de blasio? >> i think there's an opportunity there. this is nothing new in the sense police have had tensions with mayors. david dinkens had tension as well. you might look at how the police in new york, teachers in new york, another big constituency there is, we should raise concerns, we have them, we don't agree with the way de blasio has spoke in the last few weeks. i respect their right to speak out that they disagree with the mayor. >> eugene, we were saying the emotion right now is still so very raw. one of the sons of the police officer who was killed, jayden ramos sent out a face

. >> ari melber. was reading something earlier today. 33% of all passengers worldwide now fly in this region of the world. a growth in airline travel and the region has been just enormous. and unfortunately, we have had these catastrophic accidents in this region. two this year malaysian air and this one. >> tremendous growth. and with these accidents the fatality rate for airplane crashes will be the highest since 2005. so it is not only that these are big stories obviously generating attention. there is something here that may not, as you have educated us in other programs may not be as broad a trend line in terms of airport safety. when we look at what's new, including what mike was talking to katie about, these reports of these bodies these corpses here in the sea, and what you were telling us about the fuselage breaking apart, what does that tell us about the accuracy of this initial statement we heard that was somewhat controversial for folks following the story that, well oh the whole plane is