Working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools, and tackle the difffficult issue of Mental Health. Amy the Florida Shooting comes a year after President Trump repealed an obamaera regulation , making it harder for people with severe mental disabilities to p purchase firearms. We will get response and also look at t the florida gunmanans history of threatening women and possible extremist political beliefs. Then to south africa. I do believe when one is elected in this type of position, he basically become a servant of the people of south africa. And i will take that task with utility, faithfulness, and with dignity as well. L. Amy Cyril Rampaphosa has been sworn in as south africans new president following the resignation of jacob zuma. We will go to south africa. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The u. S. Senate has wrapped up four days of o open debate witht advancing a sisingle measure on immigration. In four separate votes thursday, senators failed to reach the 60 votes needed to move forward on a bill that would have protected 1. 8 mimillion young undocumented immigrants known as dreamers, while further militarizing the u. S. Mexico border. The failed votes came after President Trump blasted a bipartisanan bill as a total catastrophe and threatened a veto. This is Senate Minority leader, Democrat Chuck schumer of new york. Theres only one reason while the senate will be able to reach a bipartisan solution to daca President Trump. President trump created this problem by terminating me daca program last august. Since up decision, President Trump has stood in every single way a proposal that could become law. Amy one measure supported by President Trump goththe let number of tetes, jt 3939 o of 100. It wld h havsharplply curtailed u. S. Immigration quotaanand papandedororder litatarization nding g 25 bilon, while proving a leththy pa too citizenship fodrdreame. Unle c congrs papass an immigration llll, huredsds o thoundnds ofreamamercould d e their daca status begin expiring as early as march 5, although, two federal courts have ruled the Trump Administration cannot end the program. Meanwhwhile, Daca Recipients and their supporters have launched a 250mile, 15day march from new york city to washington, d. C. , where they plan a mass protest ahead of dacas march 5 expiration date. This is daca recipient li adorno, speaking at the start of the march in lower manhattan. I feel like my parents and peopople around the country who are undocumented have sacrificed so much. To this day, therere criminalizd every night on the evening news. We feel like that is not fair. We are asking for dignity and respect for everyone, not just the dreamers. A lot of politicians are promising as reforms to fix it, but nothing ever happens. This walk is not necessarily for changing the politicians minind, but the community. Y. Amy in parkland, florida, students and Family Members gathered for a candlelight vigil thursday night to mourn the 17 people who were killed on wednesday in one of the Deadliest School shootings in u. S. History. The massacre at the Stoneman Douglas high school in broward county, florida, was the 18th School Shooting this year. At least 15 other people were wounded in the attack by a 19yearold former student named nikolas cruz, who used a semiautomatic ar15 rifle and multiple magazines. On thursday, the mother of 14yearold shooting victim alyssa spoke on cnn. Folks the gunman, the crazy person, just walks right into the window oft on my child store, and starts shooting. Shooting her. And killing her. President trump, you say, what can you do . You can stop the guns from getting into these childrens hands. On thursday, nikolas cruz confessed to carrying out the mass shooting, according to a police report. Cruz was a a former member off jujunior rotc who was obsessed with guns and had been expelled from the high school. Cnn reports that broward sheriffs deputies were called to the cruz family home 39 times since 2010 for reports of domestic disturbances. Despite those calls and other warnings cruz was able to , purchase his ar15 semiautomatic Assault Rifle legally at the sunrise tactical supply gun store in coral springs, florida. At the white hououse, President Trump gave a speech thursday in which he made no mention of guns, but instead spoke about Mental Health. Pres. Trump our administration is working closely with local authorities to investigate the shooting and learn everything we can. We are committed to workiking wh state and local leaders to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of Mental Health. Amy President Trumpmps commens sparked outrage from gun safety advocates, who pointed out that, last february, President Trump repealed an obamaera regulation that made it hararder for some people with h severe mental disabilities to purchase firearms. According to the center for responsive politics, the nra spent over 52 million in political advertisements in the 2016 election, with more than 11 million spent in support of Trumps Campaign alone. Well have more on the Florida Shooting and the United States epidemic of gun violence after headlines. Aican National Congress leader Cyril Ramaphosa has been confirmeded s the new president after the former leader, president jacob zuma, resigned from office abruptly on wednesday night amid a series of corruption scandals. This is president ramaphosa speaking today. The issue you have raced from issues that have to do with corruption, issues of how we can straighten out our state owned enterprises, and how we deal is issues thatre aree on our radar screen. Those are issues that are going to be addressed. Amy Cyril Ramaphosa once led the National Union of mineworkers under apartheid in the 1980s and later became one of africas richest men, as he built a Business Empire that included mining interests. Later in the broadcast, well go to johannesburg, south africa, to speak with activist Koketso Moeti about south africas change in leadership. Ethiopias prime mininister said thursdsday he will step down frm office after a massive wave of protests undermined his partys grip on power. The surprise resignation of Hailemariam Desalegn came just days after ethiopia released senior oromo Opposition Leader bekele gerba from prison, and just weeks after ethiopias government said it would release Political Prisoners and close an infamous prison in the capital, addis ababa. In el salvador, a court has releasased a woman who was sentenced to 30 years in prison after she gave birth to a stillborn baby. In 2008, teodora del Carmen Vasquez was convicted on aggravated homicide after she went into labor while at work, tried unsuccessfully to summon an ambulance, and passed out on the floor of a bathroom after miscarrying. This is Teodora Vasquez speaking just after her release thursday. I know my effort has been worth it, and now im happy to go back to my family again. For 10eparated for them years, seven months. And now were back together again. Amy international welcomed the a representative with Amnesty International welcomed the ruling, but said at least 27 other women remain behind bars in el salvador due to obstetric consultations. Back i in the United States, a federal Appeals Court ruled thursday that President Trumps latest ban on travelers from six majoritymuslim countries unconstitutionally discriminates against people because of their religious beliefs. Writing for a 94 majority at the fourth u. S. Circuit court of appeals, judge Roger Gregory wrote that trumps travel ban was unconstitutionally tainted with animus toward islam, adding on a fundamental level, the proclamation secondguesses our nations dedication to religious freedom and tolerance. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case in april and has ruled that t trumps travel ban can n be fully enfororced untilt renders its s decision. The new yorker magazine reports donald trump went to Great Lengths to cover up Extramarital Affairs in the years before he becacame president. The journalist reports trump used his close ties to American Media inc. , the publisher of the national enquirer, to quash a story about a consensual sexual affair with karen mcdougal, former playmate of the year. According to farrell, the inquirer paid mcdougal 150,000 for the exclusive rights to her story, then buried the peace just before the election. The tablet also reportedly paid and google to write a fitnesss column in an attempt to further by her silence. In new york city, new york Police Sargent hugh barry was acquitted thursday on murder charges in the Fatal Shooting of africanamerican woman Deborah Danner in october of 2016. Danner had Mental Health issues, including schizophrenia. Police say she was shot and killed in her own home in the bronx after a neighbor called 911. When police arrived, they found danner naked in her bedroom holding a pair of scissors. Sergeant hugh barry fatally shot her twice in the chest, saying he feared for his life after the 66yearold woman picked up a baseball bat. Barry has been sued twice in recent years for brutality. He was acquitted by judge robert neary in a bench trial after he waived h his right to trialal ba bronx jury. Austin has become the first city in texas and the first in the south to make paid sick leave a mandatory requirement for nongovernment employees. Austins city Council Voted 92 early this morning for t the measure, which will require employers to provide up to 64 hours of paid sick leave. To see full coverage of the fight for sick leave in austin and around the country, you can go to our website at democracynow. Org. And inin texas, supporters of 23yearold Asylum Seeker Laura Monterrosa say she was put in solitary confinement for 60 hours at the T Don Hutto Detention Center outside austin, in order to pressure her to recant her allegations that she was sexually assaulted by a guard. Ice says monterrosa was under medical observation. But she later made a strange call to her lawyer from an unusual phone number. Grassroots leadership shared a recording with democraracy now i wanted to call you because i wanted to tell you that everything ive said was false. And a was forced to tell you that because if not, they were going to lock me again in that room and i did not want to be locked again in that room. Ass on amy this comes the fbi is conducting a civil rights investigation into the alleged abuse. After her call, dozens of supporters went to visit monterrosa, who tried to commit suicide in january. She fled el salvador to escape sexual persecution as a lesbian, and has been detained 8 months. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In parkland, florida, students , parents, families gathered for a candlelight vigil on thursday night to mourn the 17 people who who were killed at the marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in broward county, florida, in one of the Deadliest School shootings in u. S. History. Least 15 other people were wounded after a 19yearold former student named nikolas cruz arrived at the high school in an uber at 2 19 p. M. , armed with a semiautomatic a ar15 rie and a black duffel bag and backpack fililled with loaoaded magagazines. Magazinenes of ammunition. On thursday, cruz confessed to carrying out the mass shooting, according to a police report. Cruz was a former member of junior rotc who was obsessed with guns and had been expelled from the high school. On thursday, President Trump gave a speech at the white house in whichch he made no mention of guns. Our administration is working closely with local authorities to investigate the shooting and learn everything we can. Were committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure ourur schools and tackle the difficultt issue of meMental Health. Amy also early thursday morning, President Trump tweeted so many signs that the Florida Shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again trumps speech and tweets sparked outragage from gun safey adadvocates and famililies of te whwho were killed in parkland, o pointed out that last february, President Trump repealed an obamaera regulation that made it harder for some people with severe mental disabilities to purchase firearms. Some Mental Health advocates, meanwhile, warned President Trumps comments perpetuated stigma against people with Mental Illness. For more, were joioid by two guests. C, lindsaygton, d nichols is with us, the federal policy director for Giffords Law Center to prevent gun violence. And in nashville, tennessee, Jonathan Metzl is a professor of psychiatry and the director of the center for medicine, health, anansociety atat vanderbilt university. Hes the lead aututhor of a vanderbilt study entitled Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the politics of f american firearms, which found that fewer than 5 of Fatal Shootings in the United States are committed by people diagnosed with Mental Illness. He writes frequently about gun violence in america, including a recent politico piece entitled im a psychiatrist. Making gun violence about Mental Health is a crazy idea. We welcome you both to democracy now dr. Jonathan metzl, why is it a crazy idea . Blew me say first of all in the aftermath of Mass Shootings, it is understandable to me why the question of Mental Illness comes up because these shootings are so terrorizing, so spectacular that we asked a very important question, which is, what would cause somebody to go over the edge when there are some and responsible citizens and gun owners in the world . In that sense, i think we do leararn a lot from the Mental Health histories of mass shooters. Policy levelas a as the height of your response ability to do a President Trump did yesterday, which is to make the discourse about Mental Health. On the statistical level, people with Mental Illness, first of all, are far less likely than sane people to commit gun crimes. Even in the case of Mass Shootings, what we see is even though we jump to this question of Mental Illness right away, many other factors are probably more explanatory, everything race, thel networks, access of firearms. And that sense, these are collocated policy questions. I feel like what President Trump is doing when he shifts the conversation just to Mental Health, is to cynically shut down a real conversation about what we can really do as a society to stop Mass Shootings and just to stop gun crime more broadly. Amy lindsay nichols, as this has played out in parkland, this horror, i want to go back to the quote of the mother who lost her 14yearold daughter, who rocks the country yesterday as she spoke directly into the camera addressing president t trump. President trump, you say, what can you do . You can stop the guns from getting into these childrens hands. Amamy lindsayay nichols, stope guns from getting into childrens hands. Her, but not just students are being interviewed. These are high school students, unlike sandy hook five years ago, that are able to articulate their views on guns and over and over again they are saying the same thing. Lindsay nichols, your thoughts today . Absolutely. This is a horrible tragedy and were working carefully a developing policy solutions that will address it. I think the real question is is about vetting people who have access to guns. In this circumstance, we have a very young person with a history that many members of the community knew about, but there was clearly no way to get that information into the gun producer background check system under florida law. There are a couple of states that do have systems now in place that would allow that information to get into the background check system. California, oregon, and washington specifically have now adopted laws that allow a Family Member or a Law Enforcement officer to seek a court order. That court order means the person goes into the background check system and if that person already has guns, they can be temporarily removed. It is a temporary prohibition when a person is in crisis. It is really based on evidence that there is some danger here, threats of violence, threats of suicide. That is really what the country needs right now. I think that policymakers really need to start looking carefully at that in every state across the country and of the federal level. Amy there were reports the homee went to cruzs Something Like, i think cnn was saying 39 times in the last eight years. To deaeal with Domestic Violence and a mentally ill person. He was still able to legally buy and ar15 last year. Right. Is that shows that something horribly wrong. We know that Domestic Violence abusers are at a very high risk of committing violence in the future. The federal laws have big loopholes here the giant loopholes. We can say there are some laws, and that is great, but we have to figure out a way to extend those laws to cover individuals like this. The procedure that states are adopting allows the person to be temporarily prohibited from possessing guns without other rights being infringed or without a Domestic Violence restraining order. The real issue is access to guns , and that is what we need as a society to address. Stalkers in this instance, there was some evidence that this person was also guilty of stalking. Another high risk category. We have to find a way to prevent access to guns. All we reallye have it this time as a background check system that only usually, it works in three minutes. It does not allow for an extensive evaluation of a person. If the evaluation is not done within three days, three business days, the person gets the gun. So we have to make sure those records are complete and we have to find a way to include records of people like this shooter who had a long history of violent behavior. Amy last february, President Trump signing legislation well, President Trump, in one of his first acts in office, revealing the obamaera rule ,bout people mentally ill decreasing their access to guns. Explain what it was. Then i want to get dr. Jonathan metzls response as well. This goes back to 2007 after the Virginia Tech shooting. There was a bipartisan effort in a compromise bill that was enacted and signed by president that was meant to strengthen the records in the background check system. One of the provisions required federal agencies, like the Social Security administration, to create a process to get records into the system and then also allow people to get their records removed if they were not actually a danger if they had a gun. The Social Security ministration issued a rule to implement that law a couple of years ago, and then Congress Soon as President Trump came into office, Congress Passed and a lotned a rule revoking that rule. So those people could not be put in the background system and that procedure w was not in pla. Amy Jonathan Metzl, can you respond to that and talk about the relationship between the National Rifle association and the idea that it is Mental Health that is to blame for Mass Shootings . First in response to lindsay is exactly writer, the issue for the action of President Trump did right when he took office was to allow gun rights for probably the most severely mentally ill persons in this country. I would say on a daytoday level, it probably had relatively little practical impact. These are people who are already under they are ready have, basically, assistance living their daily lives in that way. Most of these people probably in not out Walking Around that regard, but it did seem to have a lot of symbolic effect. The symbolic effect was to basically say, there is the regulation whatsoever on gun rights and pretty much anybody, even people who we have already deemed to be high risk of even those people are going to have unfettered access to guns. Symbolically, and at times like this, i think that is an important point to come back to. In relation to Mental Illness, this is been a canard that has really been part of the nra platform for a while. This idea that guns and bullets do not kill people, the mentally ill do. It is been part of the nra platform for a while, this idea that we dont need a registry of gun buyers or owners, but a registry of mentally ill persons. ,s a psychiatrist, i can say first of all, stigmatizing, but i think to my mind, it wont do anything at all to stem the tide of gun violence e and gugun dean this country orr of mass shooootings. I y y that for a a couple of reasons. First of all, theres the psychiatric diagnosis whose symptom is shooting somebody or harming somebody. For that reason, what we see across the board when we look at studies is that persons with Mental Illness are, first of all, less l likely than sanee people to attack or shoot other people. They are far more likely to be the victims of violence. We see that with the police case you are talking about in the news heaeadlines. Where people sit people symptoms are misinterpreted. Their 50 or likely in some ststudies to be victims of violence. The other factor as to why i thinink people in the Mental Health community are so upset about this is that there are five other other predictive factors that we can look at. We have already heard a few of them. Male gender, history of domestic abuse, history of stalking, history of violence, past history of violence, social networks, factors like that. When we just say this is a Mental Health problem is, we are closing the door on all of these broader issues also Substance Use and abuse, factors like this. The takehome point of all of this is that mentatal health isn important piece of this puzzle, bubut Mental Health is part of a question of prevention rather than prediction. In other words, i think the main point is, how can we as a society create safety laws almost like we do with drivers license to make sure that people who are operating this machinery are safe, rather than picking a needle out of a haystack about which one person is going to go on and commit a violent act . The health and Human Services secretary speaking on thursday. President said this morning about the commitment is a ministration has to addressing the challenges a serious Mental Illness in america. With mentalmericans illness are not violent, and fact, theyre more likely to be victims of crimes themselves, we know that untreated serious Mental Illness can be associated with acts of violence like we saw yesterday. The department of health and Human Services will be laser focused on this issue in the days to weeks, and months to come. And it has already been our priority under our ministration. Amy dr. Jonathan metzl me your response . Complete abdication of responsibility in that regard. I think just focusing on Mental Illness really decontextualized as the issue of gun violence in this country. It is a questionon of gun access as much as anything else. As i was just mentioning, and i invite readers to look at my politico article that details the research about this, there is no predictive tests in a way. In that regard, i feel like this is nothing but redefining stigma and displacing of where the focus should be. I hope is that i am somebody who studies gun policy. I go around the country doing focus s groups and interviews. I feel like theres a lot of centrist movement on this. I say this because maybe at one time, people would have said, oh, this is a progun or antigun. But no one is saying that anymore. Were not saying we want to take away anyones guns. How can we respect the Second Amendment and that legal gun owners live their lives. At the same time, have policies and our society that keep everybody safe. If you look at the victims, republicans or democrats are being shot and killed. Republican and democrat chairman are being shot and killed. In a way, i feel like theres a centrist movement and are government. When i hear just blaming people with Mental Illness, first of all, i dont think people will buy it because it is so clearly false. People wantedk commononsense solution to this. Amy lindsay nichols, you work for the Giffords Law Center to prevent gun violence. That is get a giffords, the converse woman from tucson, arizona, who was gunned down in a parking lot of a a bullet to r brain and yet a amazingly, enen, she survived. She has been fighting along with her husband, the astronaut, to bring gun control to this country. What do you think are the most important acts now, now in the media im not even talking fox, but the other networks, they will merely say, well, and automatic weapons ban is ofoff e table, already e excepting the terms of the debate have been so far. But what are you demanding now . T would make people say safer in this country . We are working to strengthen the background check system, and that means focusing on things like record reporting, focusing things on like getting a process for getting people into the background check system. These are really our focus is because we want to make sure the proper vetting occurs that Law Enforcement has the opportunity to provide input into that into whether a person should have access to a gun or not. That is very important. Those are because of things weve been focusing on because and we are getting some hope here. We are seeing you are seeing lawmakers start to question the gun lobby. And that is happening very slowly, but it is happening. I think we have to push because every day we know 70 more people are killed in this country and homicides and suicides. I am starting to see some courage on the part of politicians. I am starting to see them really think through the impact of the policies they support. And i think there is some reason for hope here. Amy and this statistic put out by every town for gun safety schchoolthe 18th shooting this year, which means there is been a School Shooting on average every 60 hours so far this year. Your final comment. And for dr. Methyl, i would like you, if you could write one thing in the study guide the people should have as they watch the media for what to watch out for, as you see republicans down the line keep repeating their mantra, Mental Health, and democrats, some of them, talk about that control. It lists thahat with you, lindny nichols. On average, one shooting at a school every 60 houours since te beginning of the year . Right. It is absolutely outrageous, but we have to think of it in terms of the larger gun violence problem here. Children are also at risk, in concerts, movie theaters, and often at home. We have enough endemic of murdersuicides in this country byt are often preceded Domestic Violence. We need to look at that and that larger context and remember that schools are actually, overall, relatively safe places for children to be when you talk about the e larger impact on children and on all members of our society. We do know there are just too many families that have lost loved ones, and we need to start looking as a country at that. Amy Jonathan Metzl, i had my questions to you, how should nikolas cruz have been dealt with . He has posted online endlessly threats to kill people. But 39 police visits to his home to do with Domestic Violence or a mentally ill individual, the school kicking him out because he would bring ammunition to school, among other things, stalkd girls, etc. What y you think went wrong here what do people need understand as they watch what happens over the firstew days . In response to the question you just ask, i think lindsay was right at the top of the show here that theres something called the gun violence restraining order that is basically a lot of times when you see people in the emergency room or police contacts, it is just a quick snapshot. Families, classmates, people like that i think really know a lot about what is going on will stop so there are temporary measures that are very effective in other states. Certainly, i think that is to become National Policy because a lot of times, it is the domestic partners, the families who can see somebody escalate at a time like this. So it is not like there is no policy solution, but it is not a Mental Illness solution. It is a family social Network Solution posted in terms of what i think psychiatry Mental Health can do, i dont know if this were going to a study guide, but the question that really is asked to times like this is, why do we need some new guns in the first place . What kind of society do we live in and want to live in . I think these broader questions are ones of the Mental Health expertise can be useful and having conversations because i think what happens in the aftermath of this, people start to mistrust each other. All of a sudden, we need more armed guards, more metal detectors. In a way, what happens to society is a question that we rarely ask because this mistrust becomes so pervasive. Really, i think that is where Mental Health expertise is useful, to ask the broader questions of that. Amy i want to thank you, dr. Jonathan metzl professor of , psychiatry and the director of the center for medicine, health, and society at vanderbilt university. We willing to his s recent politico piece, im a psychiatririst. Making gun violence about Mental Health is a crazy idea. And thank you to lindsay nichols, the federeral policy director, Giffords Law Center to prevent gun viololence. When we come back, we look at two issues, the postings online whene gunman, his threats he would post on n youtube, talk about the people he would kill, say y he would become a professional school shooter. When people missed even reported this . And we will talk about his stocking up and harassing of women, so often linked a precursor to Mass Shootings. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Orgrg, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. On thursday, the confirmed it had received a tip about someone who went by the name nikolas cruz online. An unusual spelling. The fbi was notified by a youtube user after cruz left a threatening comment t on a vide. This is fbi i special agent robt lasky. In 2017, the fbi received information about a comment made on the youtube channel. The, simply said im going to be a professional school shooter. Information was included with the comet, which would indicate a time, location, or the true identity of the person who made the comment. The fbi conducted database reviews, checks, but was unable to further identify the person who actually made the comment. Amy meanwhile, more evidence has emerged showing that nikolas cruz shared a common trait with many other men who have carried Mass Shootings. He had a record of abusing and threatening women. One student told the New York Times nikolas cruz was abusive towards his exgirlfriend and was expelled after getting in a fight withth her new boyfriend, another student told the titim he had b been close frfriends sh cruz butut cut h him off after e started gogoing after and threatenening a female fririendf his. And cruzs former math teacher told the times he was taken withth another student to the popoint of stalking her. Fellow students also said cruz was known for holding extreme political views as well. On White Nationalist hate group thursday, a called the republic of florida militia claimed the gunman was a member who had trained with the militia, but the groups leader later walked back the claim. But former classmates of cruz did described him as politically extreme. A 17yearold junior named Ocean Parodie told the daily beast cruz for example, he would degrade islamic people as terrorists and bombers. Ive seen him wear a trump hat. Cruz once posted a photograph on instagram wearing a mask and a red make America Great again hat. Cnn also aired footage of a shirtless cruz wearing the same hat, shooting a gun in his backyard that was taken by a nextdoor neighbor. A 16yearold junior, josh charo, who was in jrotc with cruz said cruz often expressed racistst beliefs. Charo told the daily beast he would always talk about how he felt whites were a bit higher than everyone. Hed be like, my people are over here industrializing the world and starting new things, while your people are just taking up space. in a comment you posted to a comment posted to youtube video, nikolas cruz also singled out antifascist protesters to threaten mass murder. His, read im going to watch those sheep fall. F antifa. Im going to kill as many as i can. We are joined now by tow guests. George ciccariellomaher visiting scholar at the , a Hemispheric Institute at New York University and the author of decolonizing dialectics. Trevor aaronson is the executive director and cofounder of the Florida Center for investigative reporting, a nonprofit Journalism Organization. Also a conservative writer to the intercepept. Trevor, what needs to be understood right now about what took place in florida . That we would be having much more uptodate of Nikolas Cruzs name was mohammed, what with bbs the eyes intelligence fill your in the seattle if you consider the public outcry following the shooting in orlando, the large question was, how do we miss this . I think what youre seeing is the fbi has the mechanisms through processes called right assessments to conduct wideranging investigations for people who may pose a threat to people or public safety. Case,at in omar mateens we saw two of those conducted for the basis being someone had mentioioned to the fbi tt omomar mateen knew the Boston Marathon bombers and a justified in investigation where the fbi interviewed mateen and look through his records. By contrast in Nikolas Cruzs case, he publics he made training statements on youtube. Given the unusual spelling and he used his real name on the social media comments, it is a little bit hard to believe that the fbi did not have an opportunity to dig up some information and records, including gun purchase records that would have been able to at least give them some reason to continue that investigation. I think what were seeing here is a question, what do the fbi know and whether they should have pursue this more aggressively. What we know from previous investigations, if they believe that nikolas cruz was involved ideologies involving islam, such as ices or al qaeda, we wouldve seen a much more vigorous investigation of what we have seen so far based on what the fbi has come forward with on its investigation of nikolas cruz. Amy nikolas cruz reportedly commented on youtube im going to be a professional school shooter. Again, with this name, with the spelling of his name. 2010 and now, the local police visited him, according to cnn, 39 times, his family, for Domestic Violence or mentally ill individual at his house. His neighbors talk about how the police were always coming there. There is a serious yet the fbi said, we cant t begin to fd Something Like this. I think it is important to remember that post 9 11, the government created a number of entities or beefed up a number of entities that wouldve allowed for the greater sharing of information and intelligence from Police Agencies to federal Law Enforcement. A big part of that is the creation of joint Terrorism Task force around the country. One of the largest of those in the nation is in south florida, and that facilitates the sharing of information intelligence from local police to federal Law Enforcement. And the way the system is supposed to work this system was designed in large part to find the next 9 11 attackers, so to speak. It also design of people like nikolas cruz who pose a significant threat to public safety. The way the system is supposed to work is that by identifying threats such as the Youtube Comment he made in his own name, not using an alias and seemingly ip using a vpn to shield his address, that type of tip should of been processed through Something Like that may have unearthed the police visits in his home in broward county. It is important to recognize, obviously, it is easy to play monday morning quarterback and say come here is what the fbi missed. It is also important to point out this is the fbis job. Post 9 11, its p primary purpose has s been to find threats befoe they happen. That doesnt just involve people who are inspired by isis and al qaeda, it also involves people inspired by other radical ideologies or, frankly, is donald trump pointed out, mentally ill. The goal is to matterer what the ideology or the purpose, that if someone poses a significant threat, these information sharing processes are supposed to be able to help the fbi identify the person before they commit their crime. Amy i want to turn for a moment to a guest we had on recently. Shortly after the pulse that could shooting in orlando in june 2016, not so far away from where the park and shooting has just happened democracacy n , spoke to soraya chemaly. I asked her about this oftenoverlooked connection between Domestic Violence and Mass Shootings. Repeatedly in these cases of Mass Violence, particularly where four or more people are killed, the perpetrator had a history of attacking an intimate partner, a parent. It happened in the boston massacre. It happened in sandy hook. And so for many of us, you kind of just wait for this information to come to the surface. We wonder why is it that this seen asbehavior isnt an essential element to understanding the felitti public violence. If you have a person living in your community that is violently abusive towards his family, that is a concern for the broader community. In this case in orlando, which is often the case, there seems to be no report made to the police. Which means we are inhibited as a society from taking further action. So he, for example, was completely able to go and legally get guns. We have a federal law that should have prohibited that come if, for example, he at a restraining order. Many states do not have a lot to support that. Amy y just toto reiterate, one stududent told the New York Times nikolas cruz was abusive towards his exgirlfriend and was expelled after getting in a fight with her new boyfriend. Another student told the times he had been Close Friends with cruz, but cut him off after he started going after and threatening a female friend of his. A math teacher said he was bothering another female student to the point of stalking her. George ciccariellomaher, respond to this. This shooter was apparently a white supremacist is also and has also been violent toward women in his life. This is something we have known. This is not a surprise. These things go handinhand because White Supremacy and patriarchy are violent structures of power. That when frustrated, lead to violent conclusions. Yet when we say this over and over in the media, it is treated as if it is the first time anyone has heard it and all the data and the information we have out there has ever thing to tell us that this is actually accurate. This is what was said after the Las Vegas Shooting when it came out to the shooter had been in public violently aggressive toward his own partner. It happens repeatedly in cases like this. It is really frustrating to have to say over and over again that this correlation exists, though violence towards women and towards animals and howard aggression in this persons life has to do with feelings of dominance that is also expressed in n whats from a c ideology as well. The issue of his connection to White Supremacy, let me go back to trevor then to george, trevor aaronson, this issue of the link of a person from afford a White Supremacist Group saying that nikolas cruz trade with them, but now walking in fact . Walking in fact . Initially we had a number of reports that link nikolas cruz to a group based in tallahassee call the republic of florida, which is a White Nationalist group that it says it is tried to bring about a white only state of florida. With the leader of that group said, jacob jared, nikolas cruz had trained with them and was a member of their group. In fact, in a subsequent interview with the daily beast, jacob jared said that axa purchased a weapon for him and had trained with him until has he as well. On a twitterlike social media platform that was set up to provide a home for what supremacists who have been kicked off twitter for the odious views, jacob jared, the leader, walks that back and said, oh, were a number of people named nicholas and i got confused. It is hard to know it jacob jared was using this tragedy is a way of getting his organizations name out there. If that is the case, it certainly worked. It is also possible that nikolas cruz did have some white supremacist views. The sourcing on that is a little bit shaky right now and it is hard to know. Based on some of the comment he made against ant aggressively there was some politicalifa ideology on the right, but at the same time, is a little unclear whether he was indeed a part of a was a prim sister group are identified with a premises to ideology. Amy and you have his friends a islamaphobic, he was saying whitetes or supuperio blacks and latinos. And then continuing on this issue of the connection between this kind of racism and his misogyny. Yeah. Getting back to the point i was making earlier about how the fbi threat assessment system is designed to establish these kinds of warning signs and piece them together and put together a profile of who might be dangerous, and then allocate resources accordingly, whether that is dropping by Nikolas Cruzs house to interview him and scare him straight or to build a case to put together a file that might give you reason to suspect you could be dangerous in the future. But certainly, the comments he made on youtube and certainly the can of racist comments that he had made or, you know, a threat assessment, for example, could involve the interviewing of students, friends, and that is the type of process that would uneartrth the things that the media has since unearthed, which is that nikolas cruz seem to have some rightwing bullies believes that may have bordered on violence. This asfbi investigated you have seen them investigate a possible islamic extremism, i think it is a fair argument to make that what the fbi would have known about nikolas cruz would have been much more significant than what it did when the shootings happened which was basically that the fbi admitted to knowing very little, if anything, about nikolas cruz at the time of the attack. Amy the issue of nikolas cruz ,eing involved with jrotc george ciccariellomaher, if you could talk abut your concerns about thisis. Alalso, one of the young woman o was killed was also a member of jrotc. I think we should be very attentive to all of these factors. It is difficult to draw out his involvement in what is a very widespread military training program. We should be aware that these are military Training Programs for the u. S. Government that is involved in Mass Violence abroad. We should not always be surprised to see that violence brought home. I think we should focus very sharply in this case, though, on white supremacist organizing. There are a lot of details going back and forth about it. I would not be surprised the founder of this White Nationalist organization walking it back out of fear of this group me he is going to receive. I understand was also confirmed by abc by several classmates given involved in this group. I think we need to be aware of the fact the last year has in it dramatic uptick in open was a premises, White Nationalist violence. White supremacist, White Nationalists violence. E have seen it at the same time were told these are just ideas in the great marketplace of ideas to be debated and discussed. But we need to realize that you dont discuss what supremacy, you do not debate it, you destroy it. That is something we need to do on a much broader level. While we are china grapple with what is going on in this instance. We see people being radicalized. If there were a muslim, the question of where were they radicalized has become a bit of a meme, yet we dont ask these questions when it comes to radicalized white youth h who ae in discussion groups, involved in this post of if this is true about his white supremacist ties, this is the second all right School Shooting in two months. The last one in new mexico by someone who is actively involved in the daily stormer, one of the most valid websites on the far right. This association is direct and yet we had trump eliminating on most all oversight of scrutiny toward what surprises groups. We know the government has no interest in prosecuting and undermining was from assist organizations and organizations on the ground are going to did to do that themselves. Amy we will leave it there. I wouldve thank you both for being with us, Trevor Anderson from joining us for joining , executiverida director and cofounder of the Florida Center for investigative reporting, a nonprofit Journalism Organization. And george ciccariellomaher is a visiting scholar at the Hemispheric Institute at new New York University. And when we come back, what happened to jacob zuma. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now we end todays show in south africa. African National Congress leader Cyril Ramaphosa has been confirmed as the new president of south africa, sworn in after the former leader, president jacob zuma, resigned from office abruptly this week amid a series of corruption scandals. For more week go to johannesburg, south africa, to speak with Koketso Moeti founder of amandla mobi, a Community Advocacy organization. Her recent piece for news24 is headlined the rich cant steal, right . Can you talk about what has happened today, action, what has happened this week . And welcome to democracy now zuma stepping down and Cyril Ramaphosa becoming president. Yes. Thank you for some president jacob zuma stepped down after pressure coming from within the party and the country at large. Negotiations between the newly elected leadership of the african National Congress after which was expected to step down. He is seen in the early days, he seemed to be a bit defiant. But the following day, he stepped down when it was known that the motion passed noconfidence, which was fofollowed by an oppppositionn y througugparliamentnt. Amy the new president Cyril Ramaphosa once led the National Union of mineworkers during apartheid in the 1980s, famous apartheid leader. He would later built a Business Empire that included mining inteterests, includiding the marikana platinum mine, where Police Killed 34 workers during a strike in 2012. Now ramaphosa is one of africas wealthiest men, with a net worth nearly half 1 billion. Can you talk about who he is . Yeah. Cyril ramaphosa, part of the antiapartheid movement, graham leader in the anc [indiscernible] politics in the early 1990s also since then, he has been involved in the corporate sector. During his time in the credit sector, there were a series of scandals that happened. It is interesting pattern of behavior. What we have is in 2012, he was on the board of directors also during this time, an explosive that found that few could have effect ordered living wage for the mining workers if they had not been [indiscernible] then a Journalism Organization did in investigation in 2016 where they found through the years, Cyril Ramaphosa was the chairperson of the board, [indiscernible] that a more recently company which Cyril Ramaphosa founded in 2001 john amy we just have 10 seconds. Shipping profits around the country. So there is a a pattern of behavior. Amy are you concerned about what this means for south africa in our last five seconds . Completely. I think we should be deeply concerned and be as diligent as we were in the time of jacob zuma, if not more so. The moment that zuma step down should not john amy Koketso Moeti, thank you for being with us, founder of announcer big cities explores Bold Solutions for urban challenges. 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