kristen clark. [ applause ] >> good morning. my name is kristen clark. i'm the president and executive director of the lawyers' committee for civil rights under law, and today is a good day. i'm here today to sound the alarm on the urgency of passing the george floyd justice in policing act which the lawyers' committee is proud to endorse, and to thank speaker pelosi, representative bass, leader hoyer, representative jackson lee, representative nadler, and representative cleaver for moving with deliberate speed to bring this bill to a floor vote today. the killing of mr. floyd a month ago resounded with millions of people across the country and across the globe who have united under one banner and under one simple and unbridled truth, black lives matter. now, we are at -- [ applause ] -- a turning point as a nation where people across the country are urging our government to take bold and transformative steps to fundamentally change the broken relationship between law enforcement and people of color across our country. the george floyd justice in policin

host: kristen clarke, the house democrats and senate democrats have proposed several reforms in act.ustice and policing prohibiting racial and religious profiling, amending federal criminal statute to prosecute police misconduct, improve misconduct on a federal level, registry,ationwide banned chokehold and knock warrantand no knock warrants. what are your thoughts? guest: we have needed this for decades. we are at a turning point, a crossroads, and the reasons we are seeing people marching every single day in this country right now is because communities are saying enough is enough. we have sat back and dealt with the tragic killings of unarmed african americans for decades and rarely are officers held to

kristen clarke, your response? guest: i think about sandra bland, who would be alive today would be alive today if she simply got a ticket for the traffic stop and was left alone and not forced out of her car, which led to a slew of events and ultimately the end of her life, the loss of her life. we do need better training in our country. when you measure the united the united states up against other modern democracies, we do not invest the time that you really need to have a professional professionally trained law enforcement. there are no chokeholds, no neck holes. one in which there is a uniform standard governing when you use force. you use force. we need to invest in training. there is another related issue here that i want to make sure we include in this conversation, and that is the need to address the ways in which police unions are often acting and functioning as a barrier to reform. many police union contracts, for example, make it difficult to put in place new policy reforms, make it difficult to impleme

kristen clarke o othe lawyers' committee for civivil rights unr law described itit as anem. >>>> this order was incredibly anemic in that it does not deael with racial prorofiling andnd ds not impose a a ban on chokokehos and a cold and does not and qualifieied immunity f for offi, nonot strengtgthen the tools the need to holold officers accouountable andnd make it pose to prosecucute officers who use deadly o or excessssive force without basis. amy: proteststs against police brututality and racicism are continuing across the country. in bridgeport, connecticut, dozens of protesters have entered their fifth day camped outside e bridgeport police department. members of the g group justice r jaysyson are calling on n the pe chief to fire police o officer james boululay, who shot dead 15-year-old jayson negron three years ago. jayson's sister jazmarie melendez is helping to organize the occupation. >> we are in a statef

let me bring in kristen clark, president and executive director of the lawyers committee for civil rights. i want to start specifically -- welcome, by the way. i want to start specifically with the louisville situation and breonna taylor. why do -- i mean you hate to say it this way, kristin clark, but it feels like we are a little late to be getting some justice here for breonna taylor, some attention for what happened here. would we be here without the attention that was given to ahmaud arbery or george floyd? >> i don't think so. we wouldn't be here if it weren't for the videos that have opened up this gaping wound of police violence that has been playing out across our country for far too long. people are saying, enough is enough and it is time that we confront these crimes, it is time that officers stop killing people with impunity. it is time that we hold these people accountable when they

kristen clarke is the president of the national lawyers' committee and joins me now from washington. i know you spent years prosecuting for the department ofjustice. what do you make of the changes in the charges? prosecutors seem to be trying to manage expectations but it is possible, isn't it, with the different levels of proven evidence and the tightness of police contracts, the new judges may make it harder to get convictions? —— new charges? the development about todayis charges? the development about today is the offending officer has been charged with a higher offence but will come with a longer sentence if he is indeed prosecuted at the end of the day. but three officers who we re day. but three officers who were present during the time of this killing have also been charged with aiding and abetting second—degree murder. they face a sentence of up to 12 years in prison. right now people are demonstrating and protesting because they want accountability. i am pleased that state attorney general

jujuan: k kristen clarke,e, you mementioned the 1962 oxford mimississippi. ththere was also inn 195958, prpresident e eisenhower sentnt fedederal troops into litittle , arkansas,, also to enforce desegregation orders in n the public schools there. but inxfxford, mississippi, ththere were armed whites that actually attacked federal marsrshals? a dozen n deral marsrshals were injured?d? but also under another democratic preresident, lyndon johnsoson, federalal troops were sent in to washington, d.c. after the assassination of martin luther king g and rioting in d.c., they werere sent to detroit and seveveral other cits in 1967. so what is the dififference between, as you are sayining, wt president is claiming to do now versus some of thesese prior instances of not just national guard, but actually federal troops beieing sent into states? >> there is s deep hypocrisysy . you bring up e examples of white hostility and racism throughout our history that h has torn apat communitieies and divideded our nanation. in those m moments werere momens where we needed fede

kristen clarke, thanks so much for talking to us. thank you for having me.go into quarantine for two weeks. but the new plans have been heavily criticised by mps on all sides. almost everyone will now have to to self—isolate when they come to the uk. tom burridge reports. the experience for people arriving into the uk is about to change. from monday, almost everyone will be expected to self—isolate for two weeks. so what does it mean for holidays this summer? should anyone be booking a holiday anywhere in europe right now? what's your assessment? are holidays abroad this summer going to happen? you know what the foreign 0ffice guidance is — the guidance is that everybody at the moment should avoid non—essential travel. everybody should avoid non—essential travel. we have to knock this virus on the head. so how will the quarantine work? when you book your ticket for a plane, train orferry abroad, you'll have to provide a uk address when you will self—isolate when you return. when home, you will have to spend two weeks at that address. government officials wil

kristen clarke, she's president of the national lawyers' committee for civil rights under law. make it harder to get convictions. well, the very good development todayis well, the very good development today is that the offending officer has been charged with a higher sentence. the other three officers have been charged with aiding and abetting. iam pleased been charged with aiding and abetting. i am pleased that state attorney general keith ellison has made the decision to elevate the charges in this case. it is most appropriate here, given the gravity of the offence, given the fact his actions, that the officer is' actions, that the officer is' actions resulted in the loss of life. the state of minnesota has two show the officer used force in a way that intended to kill while committing another felony. what we are hearing is underlining these protests is a desire for reform and accountability of officers in the united states who too often kill with impunity. it is possible, though, isn't it, that there may not be convictions? 0fficers that there may not be convictions? office

with me now is kristen clark.esident and executive director of the lawyers committee for civil rights. kristen clark, thanks for coming in, so i want to start with what do you make of the -- of these charges? is it -- are they -- is it more than you expected? >> yeah, absolutely. and the continued rage and frustration and anger that we're seeing playing out in atlanta and in communities across the country is understandable, because while charges have been announced today, there's still been loss of life, loss of a black life, loss of an innocent life. and so, the frustration that is out there is understandable, but the announcement of charges today is attributable in no small part to the continued press and demand from the public for accountability. it is exceedingly rare that we see a prosecutor move this swiftly to announce charges in a case like this days after the fatal shooting of rayshard brooks. we saw the fulton county district attorney today announce 11 charges, that 11 charges would be brought against th

kristen clarke, your response?k about sandra bland, who would be alive today would be alive today if she simply got a ticket for the traffic stop and was left alone and not forced out of her car, which led to a slew of events and ultimately the end of her life, the loss of her life. we do need better training in our country. when you measure the united the united states up against other modern democracies, we do not invest the time that you really need to have a professional professionally trained law enforcement. there are no chokeholds, no neck holes. one in which there is a uniform standard governing when you use force. you use force. we need to invest in training. there is another related issue here that i want to make sure we include in this conversation, and that is the need to address the ways in which police unions are often acting and functioning as a barrier to reform. many police union contracts, for example, make it difficult to put in place new policy reforms, make it difficult to implement better trai

joining me now is kristen clark. thanks for joining us today, kristen.we keep talking about how surprising it is to have justice gorsuch not only rule in the majority but write the majority opinion. i guess his response would be that he is a textualist and he was going by the letter of the law in the 1964 civil rights case. >> it's a remarkable ruling, and historic moment for those who have been fighting for lbgtq rights in our country. this recognizes the dignity of lbgtq people and the central role they play in our economy. it recognizes that we're becoming an increasingly diverse nation and that all people are entitled to full protections under our civil rights laws. title 7 of the civil rights act of 1964 is a bedrock civil rights statute that plainly prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. and in the historic ruling, authored by justice gorsuch today, he agrees that when employers terminate somebody's job because they are transgender or because of their lbgtq status, they're doing so because of sex. so it's an important ruling that provides pr

director of the center from the study of race and democracy at the university of texas, austin and kristen clark. professor joseph, let me begin with you because i want us to consider with president kennedy on the very day in 1963 in what turned out to be the last year of his life addressing the issues that are before us today that the president of the united states failed to address in your state of texas today. it is an indication of how long we have been at this and how much ground we have not covered and the progress we wish we made. >> absolutely, lawrence. it is a great comparison between what happened on june 11th, 1963 and today. i have written before that is president kennedy's finest moment and as time proceeds he will get more credit for that speech. but the revolution that he talked about in 1963 was similar to what we experienced in the last two weeks. i would say that has more white involvement. but that day on june 11th was the midway point between a ten-week period where 15,000 americans were arrested for participating in civil rights demonstrations. you showed one great clip the

kristen clarke, thank you. we did not have time to talk about the absolute disaster that was voting in georgia and south carolina yesterday. "andrea mitchell reports" starts right now. >>> good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington where new democratic proposals to reform policing after george floyd's death are now being examined by the house judiciary committee today on capitol hill. this morning, one of george floyd's brothers, fill philonis floyd, gave powerful testimony. >> maybe by speak with you today, i can make sure his death will not be in vain. to make sure that he is more than another face on a t-sht,

earlier i spoke to kristen clarke, president of the national lawyers' committee for civil rights underhat the new charges will make it harder to get convictions. it's hard to predict what will happen. but one issue in these cases is, is there be a prosecutor who is fair and independent? is there a prosecutor on hand who will not be biased by a close working relationship with the police officer who is the subject of the case? the state attorney general is the most appropriate person to be prosecuting this case. they are distanced from the facts and from the officers, someone who will carry out the case with integrity. but as a former prosecutor of these kinds of cases, they are incredibly hard and difficult. what you want is a prosecutor, again, who will be fair and independent and leave no stone unturned in uncovering the facts, and someone who will ably carry out theirjob of presenting those facts to a jury or a judge at the end of the day. the family here and the community is crying out for justice. i wonder if you have a few on this from your long experience. clearly policing is a v

kristen clarke, thank you. we did not have time to talk about the absolute disaster that was voting in georgia and south carolina yesterday. "andrea mitchell reports" starts right now. >>> good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington where new democratic proposals to reform policing after george floyd's death are now being examined by the house judiciary committee today on capitol hill. this morning, one of george floyd's brothers, fill philonis floyd, gave powerful testimony. >> maybe by speak with you today, i can make sure his death will not be in vain. to make sure that he is more than another face on a t-shirt, more than another name on the list that won't stop growing. the man who took his life, who suffocated him for eight minutes and 46 seconds, he still called him sir as he bagghe begged for life. i can't tell you the kind of pain you feel when you watch something like that. when you watch your big brother that you looked up to your entire life die begging for his mom? i'm tired. i'm tired of pain. geor

kristen clark, executive director of the lawyers committee for civil rights. and jonathan kay part. is this a genuine inflection point, and how important is it that this is a broad multiracial coalition from around the world lead thing charge? >> it's very important, stephanie. thank you for having me. you know, we are at an unprecedented moment in this country, where we are finally starting to look honestly and critically at the role of policing in our communities. and also at the decades long project of defunding black and brown and poor communities across this country. unfortunately, we came to this point because we have had murders in this country of people like george floyd, people like tony mcdade, people like breonna taylor. and we should just know in this moment, even though it is an inflection point, it will take a lot of courage and political will to start to change the rules that are shaping our lives right now. frankly, i'm very heartened by the conversations that are happening across the country. i'm heartened by a lot of the activity that's happening, the multiracial c

chairwoman, ranking member ,nd members of the subcommittee my name is kristen clark and i serve as the president and executive director of the lawyers committee for civil rights under law. thank you for the opportunity to testify today on how we can ensure states hold safe and fair elections during the covid-19 pandemic. the lawyers committee for civil rights under law in the organization i lead is at the forefront of the battle for equal rights since it was created in 1963 at the request of president kennedy. provides resources in combating racial discrimination. simply put khmer mission is to secure equal justice under law. we have been a leader in many of the most important voting rights cases in our nation and we also lead election protection which is the largest and longest running nonpartisan voter protection program in the country. i am here today to sound the alarm on what we have seen in recent primaries including two days ago when voters went to the polls in georgia, south carolina, nevada, north dakota and west virginia. many states and local counties are simply unprepared t

and kristen clark, president and executive director of the lawyers committee on efforts to end racialustice. watch c-span's "washington journal" live at 7:00 a.m. eastern this morning. be sure to join the discussion calls, comments and tweets. ♪ ♪ unfilteredas coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court and public policy events. you can watch all of c-span's public affairs programming on television, online or listen on our free radio app. be part of the national conversation through c-span's daily "washington journal" program or our social media feet. c-span, created by america's cable television companies as a public service and brought to you today by your television provider. ♪ susan: steve inskeep, your book -- your third book is titled, "imperfect union: how john and jesse fremont helped cause the civil war. invented celebrity and helped cause the civil war. why did you believe the story of a 19th-century power couple would have resonance today? steve: there are so many ways it did.