Transcripts For ALJAZAM America Tonight 20240621

Going places every night doing this doing that maybe i can understand. But he wasnt doing none of that, man. Tonight a look at the faces of bloodshed. A young man we first met cleaning up after the riots loses a close friend. Thanks for joining us, im adam may sitting in for joie chen tonight. Its the middle of summer and the temperature is not only thing on the rise. Many cities around america are seeing spikes in Violent Crime but nowhere worse than baltimore maryland. Taking a look at the dangerous streets of a city in crisis. His name was kevin jones, 22 years old, number 123 on blowers growing murder list for this year. Another statistic, another homicide, another fathers son. Reginald jones carries no pictures of his only boy. Just a high school diploma. Why are you carrying this around . Its the only thing i got right knopf now. Its the only thing i got right now. Just before dawn on the morning of the preakness stakes kevin was walking to his job across atthe pimlico race track. He was killed in the parking lot. I was incarcerated. He came to see me when i was first in prison. He couldnt even walk. Yes, Reginald Jones was largely absence from his sons childhood. Even with his father locked up and his mother out of the picture, kevin jones found way to beat the odds. He graduated high school, worked full time for two years and applied to community college. He talked about being an engineer, a lot of stuff electronics. To hear your son say he wanted to be an engineer, what was it like to hear that . For me, it was positive. You know when he said that i looked at him. I said man thats for something, thats whats up. He said, hell yeah its been a terrible year. May saw 42 killings in baltimore, the deadliest month in decades. In april there were riots protesting the death of freddy gray. It was during those riots that we met peter heyman, a young man armed with a broom cleaning up the city he loves. Lot of police right there lets clean up our community. Let everybody see that instead of us turning it down. Whats up man not standing up for ourselves, nobody will. Now we meet up with peter again, kevin jones was his best friend. They both worked security at the race track where kevin was killed. But unlike the riots, theres nothing peter can do now. Can you clean up after a riot but you cant clean up and undo a murder. No, you cant undo that. What do we do to stop that in this city . What do we do . Thats a question mark a lot of people got ask, theres got to be an answer. What can we do. It takes the smart things last time, the Little Things. But its time to take the Little Things and make it bigger because right now people is getting murder, its like my friend his father that was his only son. Hes grieving right now. I have two kids of my own, i cant imagine losing one of them. Baltimore has long struggled with violence. Murders peaked at nearly 300 in the 1990s. When the police got aggressive implementing a no tolerance policy is the the murder rate dropped. The best way to get rid of Police Brutality and Police Trauma is for the zones stop traumatizing each other. Me as a black officer, you as a white officer, if you cant see what people are doing in the community what the bleep are they going to do . Leon taylor knows that all too well. He recently retired from the force. Everybody talks about freddy gray, every last person whos coming in from out of town. No matter what organization they were with, you know, they came to say that they were here. Not to do a god damn thing. Beyonce, jayz they are all people, now what, prince come in have a concert now what . The problem is, you got a cancer patient and we only got bandaid solutions. Taylor says the murder rate in baltimore is skyrocketing because criminals dont fear being arrested and many officers have stopped risking their lives or careers to get illegal weapons off the streets. I think the fact that you had aggressive policing, the fact that officers would aggressively conduct traffic stops, aggressively approach people on the street corners that appeared to not have any business there that might be planning a criminal activity or involved in drug sales or whatever, i think when you take that away in an effort to soothe the jangled nerves of the community you take away an effective Crime Fighting tool. When you take that away, you open up a pandoras box of evil. Is that pandoras box already open . Wide open. Wide open. Absolutely. In this atmosphere finding kevin jones killer may prove difficult. Finding meaning in his death may be harder still. Why was kevin an unlikely victim in this city . He was different. He knew what was around him but he wasnt trying to take part in it and that made him stronger for that because its so easy to get caught up. What you see right in front of you even though you know its bad but when you see when you know its bad and stand firm on what you believe in and this be a living example, its hard to see somebody get lost because of the chaos thats going on around them. And if we had more people like kevin that thought the same way maybe there would be less chaos. Do you think youll ever make sense of it . No. You aint going to make sense of that because they shot him multiple times. If he was out in the street going places every night doing this, doing that, maybe i can understand, and learn about how he is and how he like to hang out in the street but he wasnt doing none of that. He stay in the house man watch the animal channel and bleep this wasnt for him man. And joining us now is jeffrey ian ross, curriculum nomination at the university of baltimore. Good to see you again. A lot of cities are seeing a spike of violence but the baltimore situation does seem unique. What do you think is behind this . A lot of violence that take place in the city of baltimore are people who know each other. Gang violence, a deal that went wrong, there is competition and somebody wants to eliminate that individual. Those kind of things spur homicide. We dont have all the facts in the case, there is no evidence of, that, but there is evidence of drugs hitting the streets, rioting, basing that on the spur in violence. The increase in oxy con oxycontin, there are other dynamics that are happening there, that kind of drug would chill people out more than anything else i would believe. Thats the big question, if the Police Commissioner is blaming this if thats a scapegoat what are the root causes, is it that mistrust of the police ton community, and therefore could a change in Police Tactics actually result in a rising homicide result like this . There is a belief that Police Officers can through some techniques like zero tolerance or stopandfrisk, they can alast the guns in the communities. But whats going to happen is they remove one gun from an offender, a perpetrator, whats going to happen is they will find some other way to kill their competition, somebody who theyve threatened, somebody they have a beef with, somebody who has disrespected. Getting guns off the street important but not only solution. Theres numerous alternatives. The former Police Commissioner used to say bad guys with guns. Aggressive in getting handguns off the street. If you have Police Officers who are not being proactive could that actually lead you to the root cause of there . Should police do more to get guns off the streets of baltimore . Obvious they should, but theres other problems too, to reduce the amount of guns from the street, david kennedys program that the boston gun baltimore. This is Second Time Around and if you have been reading the news youll understand, lack of cooperation from the Police Department and also from the private sector. And what we need really is a march. Master plan. We need stakeholders from baltimore to come together does this sound like a master plan . I dont see a master plan at all and i find had disconcerting. Thank you very much. My pleasure. Up next going deep into the world we dont know. The amazing creatures of the sea and the unforgettable guide to meeting them. And next week on america tonight. Chicago pds darkest chapter. These men supposed to be protectors of the law, knowing they didnt do it is willing to see the city die for this . That doesnt make it any better for the man robbing and killing, murder. America tonights Lisa Fletcher. Inside the Police Station known once as the house of screams. Tuesday on america tonight. The Hanford Nuclear reactor once stood tall as the nuclear bomb that ended world war ii. Now decommissioned, lan ford sits hanford sitsin its own waste. One of the nations most contaminated sites. Lori jane gliha traveled to washington state, to hear the words of one environmental bl specialist, who says she was fired for voicing her concerns. Tom carpenter through the freedom of information act found Hazardous Substance he have been been seen at hanford many times. Mdna, 13 times the oel. They found this chemical was emitting 13,000 times what it should be in order to be safe for a human . Exactly. Page after page of these kind of things where there are 3,000 times, 3700 times permissible limit. 2778 times, the department of energy itself has done several assessments in the last four years, of the Safety Culture at the hanford site and has given them a failing grade. Carpenter says those who talk out about Safety Standards are punished. They dont get caught talking out of school. He points to shelley vos, coming forward to point out violations of federal and state rules. If we are not following those rules we are falling down we are not keeping the workers and the environment safe. Voss said they reportedly failed to report violations. Three would not are reporting that to the state agencies as required. Thats required at part of your permit, your license. Doss says regulators blamed her and then took away a her work and fired her. It is a horrible feeling to know that youre being laid off for doing your job and doing it right. And it hurt, it was humiliating. 3 years my entire career shot. They just destroyed it in one fell swoop. Reporter the company claimed doss was let go as part of a layoff not fired but the federal department of labor agreed with doss calling the be companys claims not credible. The Labor Department ordered wrps to reinstate her immediately restore her back pay. Every ruling was in my favor. They even found that they black listed me. But the decision wasnt enforced. And fast forward to a victory for shelley doss who was granted a settlement in the case she brought forward against wrps although the terms of the settlement has not been disclosed her lawyers say she is happy to be moving on. Coming up later, an unforgettable destination and a legendary name as a guide. America tonights Lisa Fletcher meets a new cousteau, discover the new mysteries of the deep and what has him furious. What is hot on america tonights website now, damaged babies, is the Indiana Health system endangering babies for profit . Find out at aljazeera. Com americatonight. After six weeks of fighting you must make youre voice be heard. Struggling its very scary. Dreaming were actually working on that as we speak. Where are they now . Nothing was given too us, we had to earn everything. See how it all ends. All of the other families they give us hope. I know that keeps me going. We just have to keep doing what we have to do. An honest look at the american dream. This definitely gave me an opportunity to grow up. You just dont give up. Hard earned reunion only on Al Jazeera America d surprise us. Wow. These are amazing techknow where Technology Meets humanity. Only on Al Jazeera America. Family it would definitely be the cousteaus. Remember back in the 1950s, the films of Jacques Cousteau and later his tv series who made him a family standard. Now his son. Something else was on his mind. Jean michel, how bad whats troubling Jean Michel Cousteau is Santa Barbaras Worst Oil Spill in 50 years. A pipeline ruptured and dumped oil oant beaches. What on the beaches. What is the residual . Its long long term ultimately its affecting all marine lives crab, shrimp lobster, fish its not going to be over in decades. Like the gulf of mexico, were finding shrimp that have no eyes, crabs that have no claws. You are dealing with animals like dolphin that the have given birth into the oil. So the idea of a cleanup is really a misnomer. There is no cleanup. You have to do it but that means its a solution. The problem doesnt go away . Handily. It doesnt go away. Its affecting life, plants and animals. Nonetheless cousteau believes in crisis lies opportunity. Every time things like this happen, its a chance to change minds inside the big oil companies. Faced with the prospect of paying more and more settlements for sliernl damage, he believes they can be convinced in investing in renewable and safe forms of energy. That money could be used for new technology for a way for these companies to switch to Renewable Energy whether its the sun whether its the wind whether its the currents. The all new technologies that are being put together by pioneers. I want to believe that about youbut you know, were sitting in santa barbara, it just experienced the Worst Oil Spill its suffered if 50 years. And in light of the gulf be horizon. How do you penetrate that . We need change, we will sit down with these people, they have families, they care. Were not there to point fingers or to blame them. Were there to come up with solutions. The urge to seek common ground, not confront, thats a trait jean michel learned growing up cousteau. I proudly calls himself a deployment for the environment. Traveling the globe, meeting with 9 u. S. President s and the first person in 2002 to represent the environment in the Opening Ceremony of the olympic games. This grouper who became my friend like his father he has become an accomplished film maker. Essentially to raising awareness about the importance of protecting the environment. Im a lucky kid. When i see this. My father said all the time people protect what they love. And i kept saying, how can you protect what you dont understand . Is. His latest film is called Jean Michel Cousteaus secret ocean. Filmed in superslow motion. Often for hours at a time at the bottom of the sea. He believes this new technology could revolutionize our understanding of the ocean. Whats amazing is normally we swim right by and we dont necessarily see anything. But we start to see something, arrow crabs are amazing Little Creatures and you see him hes going to jump. Am orous crabs . Why not. Be it never gets old does it . I can see it 20 times and never see the same thing. Be who might not make the connection. Plankton is the foundation of our life. Ithout the plankton, there would be no life on the planet. There are bigger creatures that are eating plankton. A lot of creatures that are eating plankton. Secret ocean is unbe veiling secrets. Cousteaus first underwater dive was at the tender age of 7. Nearly 70 years ago. Its said he has logged more time underwater than any other person on earth. To this day, he exudes a boyest enthusiasm. He gets great joy when working with children. To come to my show, kids. Ive never seen 40 kids silent for 40 minutes. And they are totally taken by the emotions the beauty the excitement of making discoveries, and then i open it for q a. And i could spend an hour, two hours, three hours. They have questions nonstop those are the decisionmakers of tomorrow. And theyre going to make many many better much, much better decisions than we have made. What does 70yearold jean michel say to sevenyearold jean michel . That what . You would never get to school, you could would get to the ocean and stay. I was getting in trouble. One of the things i would do is catch octopus. I would sell them. And my biggest client because the chief of police. He loved octopus and he was buying all my octopus because i needed money to go and buy marbles to play with my friends. So youre still diving all the time. Youre 77. Oh yes, dive dive dive. How many dives have you done in your life . Thousands and thousands. 10,000 . Maybe. How many others are there in the future of Jean Michel Cousteau . Many, until i get switched off. I he was electroshocked and tortured. Decades of corruption abuse, and torture, by chicago police. You think people make a distinction between cia, black ops sites, verses torturing a thirteen year old kid from the southside . People realize that torture is torture. Lisa fletcher brings you an in depth report chicago torture only on Al Jazeera America experts call the mers outbreak in south korea large and complex and more case hes are more than likely. Hello, im martine dennis, this is al jazeera live from doha. Targeted intelligence and military personnel. Plus. Im