Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20141205

Orders a retraining of the citys police force, we will speak to a former new York City Police to take to Graham Weatherspoon. When a Police Officer gets to the point where he is crossing from the actions of a Police Officer to the actions of the criminal, something has to be done. The grand jury decision was announced in Staten Island, a fruit roll was were wrapping up in cleveland for tamir rice, a 12yearold africanamerican boy who was shot dead by police while holding a toy gun at a park. Wherel go to cleveland the Justice Department just wrapped up a probe of the city police force. We have determined there was thatnable cause to believe the police force engages in a pattern of using Excessive Force. We will speak to ohio senator nina carter. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Thousands of protesters have swarmed the streets of new york city for a second night to protest the grand jury decision not to indict the white Police Officer who killed eric garner. Garner, an africanamerican father of six, died after police placed him in a chokehold, and pinned him to the ground while them saying at least 11 times, i cant breathe. That phrase has become the rallying cry for protesters who shut down very as bridges in new york. Police arrested nearly 200 people, many near times square. The decision came on the heels of another grand jury decision not to indict the officer that killed Michael Brown. Reverend al sharpton has called for a march on washington a day to demand action from the federal government. We need to be centralized and focused. The federal government must do in the 20 First Century what it did in the mid20th century. Federal intervention had to come into the south to protect peoples civil rights and voting rights. Federal intervention must come now and protect people from state grand juries that keep exonerating any seeking redress on police matters. That is why the 13th is about. Them in the nationwide uproar, another case has come to light in phoenix, arizona where a white Police Officer killed an unarmed black man. Phoenix police say the officer theng that he feared that man had a gun, which turned out to be a pill bottle. Protesters say brisbon was delivering dinner to his children. He is the father of four. Marci kratter is an attorney for the brisbon family. Need to take a deeper dive into white Police Officers are feeling compelled to shoot and kill, as opposed to apprehend and detain, arrest, and jail. A Justice Department investigation has found a pattern of unreasonable and unnecessary force by Police Officers in cleveland ohio. The report reveals a history of ,buse across hundreds of cases characterizing Police Behavior as chaotic and dangerous. Police cases, cleveland opened fire on people running away and cause no threat. Police officer punched a handcuffed 13yearold boy in the face repeatedly. The investigation was launched last year but comes on the heels of the Fatal Police Shooting of 12yearold africanamerican tamir rice, who was killed while holding a toy gun in a park. We will go to ohio to speak with democratic senator nina turner later in the broadcast. Fast food and other lowwage workers have walked off the job in nearly 200 cities across the country. The wave of action on thursday may be the largest in history of the fast food industry. The workers were joined by other employees across other Industries Including Health Care Aides and airline employees. Federal contractors who work in sites like the capitol and pentagon were also expected to take part in the strike for a 15 an hour wage and a union. Kerrysy of state john pledged to continue investment in afghanistan. Speaking in london, he praised the government of afghan president ashraf gandhi. We have a government in kabul. Hat merits our support never before has the prospect of a more fully independent and sustainable afghanistan been more clear than it is at this moment as we assemble. The Afghan People should be very proud of this progress. Forwardcontinue to move , they can be confident of the support of the international community. His remarks come as a new report in Rolling Stone has revealed that afghanistan has become a narco state and has opium supplyf the for the year. 20 people were killed in the city of grozny in chechnya after militants attacked the police. Identified as are those that want to have an independent russia. Legislation for genetically would ban them even if regulators approve them. Environmentalists looking to curb gmos have voiced concern the measure could leave countries that ban gmos vulnerable to legal retaliation from multinationals like monsanto. The latest disclosures from nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden have revealed the National Security agency has spied on communications among employees of major Cellphone Network operators in order to exploit vulnerabilities in networks. To the intercept, documents reveal a covert operation called auroragold which involved monitoring more than 1200 email accounts associated with the cell firms. In one case before the intervention in libya, the nsa helped an Intelligence Unit hack into libya and Cellphone Networks using information obtained by spying on company employees. Israel has experienced one of its worst environmental disasters after a ruptured oil pipeline sent millions of gallons of crude gushing into a key nature preserve. The spill heavily damaged the reserve near the jordanian border. Or than 80 people in jordan were hospitalized with breathing problems. In nigeria, the niger delta has suffered one of the worst oil spills in years after nearly 4000 barrels of crude poured from a shell pipeline. Shell has blamed the spill on oil thieves. Environmentalists say the devastation stretches for miles with dead fish and crabs washing up on the shoreline. Germany has unveiled a plan to reduce Carbon Emissions that are warming the planet. The plan aims to help germany meet a goal of reducing emissions by 40 by the year 2020 but environmentalists say the proposed steps to not go far enough to reduce the country use of coalfired power plants. U. N. Secretarygeneral ban kimoon touted efforts by germany and other countries before traveling to participate in the Climate Summit in lima, peru next week. We are determined to sustain the momentum generated by the recent important announcement by the united states, china, european union, and yesterday germany, on a mission reductions. Next year is an opportunity to take a big steps, transformative steps in the right direction. We must do all it takes to provide hope for people and the planet. Headed tocy now is lima, peru where we will broadcast all next week from the human Climate Summit. State Department Spokesperson been to psaki has been caught on a hot microphone criticizing the u. S. Talking points on an Egyptian Court decision to drop charges against hosni mubarak. A News Conference after mubarak was cleared of ordering the killings of hundreds of protesters during the uprising against his regime in 2011. Togenerally we continue believe upholding impartial standards of accountability will advance the political consensus on which egypt longterm stability and Economic Growth depends but beyond that i would refer you to the Egyptian Government or any further comment. At the end of the conference, the microphone captured heard telling a reporter that the egypt line is ridiculous. She later said in an email that it is just the latest Scientific Evidence of global warming. Now we have to worry about hot microphones. But as secretary kerry reminded me, im in good company in this administration. The navy has revoked the honor that it gave to bill cosby amid report that he drugged and assaulted women for decades. More than 20 women have accused him of assaulting them. The navy said in a statement herman badillo, a trailblazing politician who became the first Puerto Rican Born member of congress, who has died at the age of 85. He served as a powerful voice in new york City Politics for decades and went on to hold a range of city posts and held four terms in congress. He championed the rights of the latino and the poor. Those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. I am Juan Gonzalez. Everythingidst of that is happening, you did your column on herman badillo. He died actually wednesday morning. All of the press attention obviously went to the eric garner case. Take aole story have to second place to all of the big news occurring. Herman badillo, was, for 50 years, the most influential figure of the Latin American Community in new york city, had an amazing career. While he started out as a very important liberal civil rights advocate in his later years, he turned somewhat more conservative in his views, but nonetheless, was always considered the key figure in latino politics in new york city. I have known him for 40 of his 50 years in public life, and often sought counsel and debated him on a number of issues and and theespected him energy and passion he brought to fighting for equality for all people in new york city. You are speaking at his funeral on sunday . Will alsody giuliani be there, Many Political leaders of new york city of the past halfcentury will attend. We will link to your column in the new york daily news. Now to the ongoing protest of the Police Killing of eric garner in new york. Peace. Ustice, no black lives matter. If we dont get it, shut it down. I cant breathe. For a second night, thousands of protesters swarmed the streets to protest the decision not to indict the officer that killed eric garner after placing him in a chokehold. Garners last words were i cant breathe. The Police Reported making more than 200 arrest, including many near times square. This is supposed to be 80s will protest. Bill de blasio said we could be out here as long as we were not causing trouble, but they are pushing and hitting people, throwing them on the floor and arresting them for no reason at all. Protesters held symbolic dieins across cities. They marked the time that medics on therner untreated ground unresponsive. Another one lasted 11 minutes, one minute for each time garner was heard telling officers quote i cant breathe. Outside the Barclays Center in brooklyn, protesters carried coffins while singing protest songs. Similar protests were hurt across the country in washington, d. C. Hundreds staged a die in near the washington monument. We are peacefully protesting that our lives matter and everyone should care. Police brutality is not ok against anybody. In boston, protesters shut down the turnpike 93 as well as the city subway system. Chicago, demonstrators blocked the lakeshore drive. In san francisco, marchers shut down market street. Hundreds also marched in oakland. Blasiosday, bill de announced a major retraining of 22,000 patrol officers and supervisors. Know thatneed to black lines and brown lives matter as much as white lies lives. Just a problem in new york city, its an american problem, and american challenge. Its an issue that goes back to the founding of this republic that we still have not solved. Our generation has to resolve it. The leaders you see around me, we are all responsible now. The weight of history cannot be our excuse. Issuesthat i feel these very, very personally. Case against new york Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who placed eric garner in a chokehold, is far from over. Garners family is thought to be lawsuit. Civil death newer or to show pantaleo was the subject of two civil rights lawsuits in 2013 over false arrests and abuse. In one incident, he ordered two black men to strip naked on the street for a search. The charges against the men were dismissed. Today we are joined by three guests here in new york and well also go to ohio. Harry siegel is with us, a columnist and editorial writer for the new york daily news. His latest piece is the lonesome death of eric garner when men are treated like pieces of meat by cops and medics, trust erodes. Graham weatherspoon is with us, retired direct detective with the new york Police Department, and then sell michael smith. His latest piece is the system that failed eric garner and Michael Brown cannot be reformed. He was at last night protest, as so many were. We want to start with harry siegel. A part of the video that has not been seen as much. We have seen over and over again the horror of eric garner being taken down in that chokehold by the Police Department and piled on by these officers in Staten Island on the sidewalk. But as you write about in your column on wednesday, it is the second video that made me cry. Not the one where officer pantaleo chokes him for 15 seconds before smashing his head into the sidewalk as others held him down come in lowering it ignoring his pleas. It is the video shot minutes later as garner men and women in uniform, who do not give half a day and, which broke me down. He goes on to describe the second video that shows garner laying unresponsive on the sidewalk after he was put in a chokehold, as police and medics do nothing to help him. Eventually they lift his body onto a stretcher and then he describes this scene in the video where onlookers question the officers. Listen closely. Why is nobody doing cpr . He is breathing. In this second part of the video and it goes on to show thehe emt workers in video we are showing, the camera turns to officer pantaleo who is in the distance. He notices the video is being taken and shows him waving at the person filming. Part of thehis video the entire scene, including the emergency workers. This man is on the ground, unresponsive, on his stomach, which is not procedure when somebody has been arrested. That is the way you stop someone from being able to breed, especially a larger guy. Officers there, two of them are holding him but are more or less holding it ignoring him. The emp shows up and finds a pulse. The cop says that we are here to help, in response to the unconscious guy on the ground. As you heard, ordinary citizens are saying, he cannot breathe. It is not that hard to figure out. He is ignored. Eventually the emts and medics come back and a bunch of cops lift garner, and plop him onto a gurney. What was the comment as they were going to pick him up . Something like it will take six men actually they said five. When they do pick about they give a ugh and then drop him from about six inches up. It looks like he is about to fall off. This human isr just palpable. And there is no attempt by someone to resuscitate him, not even the emt. We are reporting in the news today, in a significant case that has gotten less attention, whoofficer, it looks like accidentally shot him in this other case, the reason there was a long delay is because they called their union rep before they called 911. All the attention is on eric garner. Gurley has not gotten all the attention. This, midst of all of actually before the ferguson decision of the grand jury came down, explain what happened in new york. Two Police Officers are doing a vertical patrol. When youre in a Public Housing building, you go to the roof to make sure nothing that is happening, you go into the stairwells. These are considered dangerous assignments. They go into a stairwell, its dark, the light is off. One of them takes out his gun, which is a matter of officer discretion by new york policy, which is its own problem. They open the door and a young man with i believe his girlfriend opens the door. Somehow the officers gun goes off and he ends up dead. He does not realize he is shot. Police officers run back upstairs. Now maybe they are scared of what they have done, maybe they did not understand what happened. But they do not try to resuscitate the man or find out what happened. The news today is reporting that the first thing they do is call their union reps, and one help arrives, only because one of the neighbors called 911. After these officers without any ill intent just the kind of sloppiness where you have your gun out and you shoot and you think you may have hit someone and your concern is what have i done with my life . Run upstairs and call your union. Not 911 or try to help the man. Now there were also indications that they were not supposed to be on vertical patrol, that they were told not to be. I cannot even wrap my around my mind around that. This has to go with the fact that the elevators were not working in the Public Housing, which is why they had to use the stairwell, and the fact that the cops went into this dark stairwell and ended up shooting. If there is a light out and they have not dealt with and by the time the staff has left keep in mind, people are in buildings where the elevators do not always work, and suddenly just going up or down is a tremendous danger. The Police Officers are there and the younger ones are scared of ordinary people. Sort ofrecipe for this disaster to happen. Unfortunately, it has. This man did nothing wrong. He just opened the door and he is dead. Afterward,contempt this moment of violence and then you have officers who are not responding, like another human being has been hurt, is heartbreaking. All ofline that connects this, he going to Michael Brown, after he is shot, is left for hours and hours on the streets, in front of not only his , butives and neighbors disregard for basic humanity of a person. Garner, these of police are shouting at the onlookers saying, give him space. One of the women standing next u foundy orta, the man it, saying, now you are saying give him space when you are the ones that took him down . Where are the emergency workers . Cpr, thatyou give him is what she was saying. They are trying to control the perimeter. But they are not doing anything to help this man agreed order terminated he needs the help. They are just letting him live there. He does not die on the ground. They put him in an ambulance and he has a heart attack there and then he dies. After this chokehold, after that, there is a decent chance that his life couldve been saved if he had been thought of as a human being. We are going to talk about this after the break. ,arry siegel, Juan Gonzalez mychal denzel smith, Graham Weatherspoon, all will be right back. Now is democracy back in a minute. [ ] democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Are harry siegel, mychal denzel smith, and Graham Weatherspoon, retired director detective with the new York City Police department. I want to ask you about the video that we had been talking about in the previous segment. You look at the video, the last moments of eric garners life. A group of us met with the Inspector General of the nypd a couple of months ago, and the newly appointed commissioner of the department of investigations. In that video, as eric garner is laying on the gurney, you do not see his chest rising or falling. There is no apparent movement in his body whatsoever. He is a large guy. If he were taking a breath, or if he had difficulty breathing, it would be quite obvious. His body lays there motionless. The emts arrived. First of all, the police attempt to give some type of first aid to him. Allegedly there is a pulse, they say, but you do not see this mans body moving at all in the video. They make no attempt to open an airway. She just talked to him casually. This is another problem. Any of the officers and emt work together. Law thata state requires medical personnel to report the abuse of a prisoner. It was done in the case of another individual where a nurse reported the abuse. The haitian immigrant who was sodomized by police. When he came to the hospital and was bleeding, it was the nurse that reported it. Many times people want up in the hospital. Medical personnel are required to report the abuse of a andoner and do not report so they too are complicit in the system. Criminal just the justice system, it is the entire system. Physicians, there is a plethora of incestuous relationships here where everybody is covering for everybody else. I will be at the funeral tonight for that young man, burley. Trainedolice officer is to walk on patrol with a gun in his hand. That is as reckless as giving a drug a gun and telling him to go down the street. You do not move around with a weapon in your hand. There is no emergency condition. You do not walk or run with a gun in your hand. For that simple reason and they were never trained to do it, it is not a discretionary move on the officers part. If you are afraid, stay home. This is not a job that you can just jump into. If you are not prepared to do it and i have spoken with rookies in the past. I said it is ok if you feel you are afraid. If you are afraid, you need to seek other work. This is not a casual job. You will wind up hurting somebody or yourself. Here it is, it is called a tragedy. It is recklessness. You talk about all of people responsible but what about all of those cops . We now know about Daniel Pantaleo. It is astounding that he is being talked about as a model have among other things the lawsuit and settlement from 2013, the image of him with that chokehold, but the other officers, some were granted immunity. I dont know if they will be fired in this investigation that begins today by the Police Commissioner. It is acting in concert. You will find for instance, in ferguson, they showed the video of Michael Brown going in and stealing some cigars and hands them to his friends and he puts them back on the counter and they leave. That went from larceny to robbery. Taking him in man tried to retrieve it, brown question, and the two went out the door. The other fella that was with brown could be charged with acting in concert because he came with Michael Brown, the crime was committed, he did not do anything to stop michael, and he left with michael. Here are Police Officers acting in concert in taking down a large man who was not in distress because of his weight or diabetes. He only fell into distress when they jumped on him. At some point, one of the hold on. Said now you are going from a lawful act to a criminal act. When a person is begging for your air and you showed indifference to human life, that is a crime. Representative keating said recently if not a crime to choke. It is a felony crime to choke a person in a state of new york. He has a law degree and is speaking errantly. Choke, felony crime to to cut off their or blood to the brain and render an individual unconscious. , you wrote a piece recently that said the system cannot be reformed. We are dancing around it but the reason that eric garner laying there and no one helped him is because he is a large black man. The reason Michael Brown relayed in the street for or ours is because he is a big black man. The Reason Police show up on the scene and shoot tamir rice when he is holding a toy gun is because he is a black boy. We are talking about the fact that you have a racist and unjust system, racist and unjust laws. Law enforcement that has no choice but to be racist. It is built into the fabric of what the police do. If we are actually if we are not talking about accountability afterthefact, if we are talking about preventing these debts from the beginning it is not about training the Police Officers not to carry their grandma they are patrolling inside of Public Housing, it is about why theyre inside a Public Housing building in the first place. It is about this perceived threat of blackness. It is about undoing all of that and asking ourselves why we have become so reliant on police in the first place to respond to things that are so minor. The police are harassing eric garner for untaxed cigarettes. It has been argued that he was not even selling what they allege. In fact, he had just broken up a fight. The police had come to mediate that, they did not see him doing anything. If you talk to anyone from that part of Staten Island, that is not where he was. These cops recognized him. There had been pressure on that exact thing. Y said, this is a not doubt it for a second, especially housing in Staten Island. Crime has been a serious thing there. If you go to people there, they will talk about that policing but they also say that they want good policing, they want the lights to work, and they want to feel safe. We permit the social decay and then we tell the police to fix it. This is the problem. We are over blind on the police. I understand the sentiment of People Living inside the housing projects. I have talked to kid to have watch their friends die. The police are not doing anything and it feels like they are leaving it up to us to get street justice, so that leads to more retaliation. It would be nice if the police were solving these homicides in the black communities, but if we are directing so much energy to patrolling, Little Things like loitering, public drunkenness, quality of life things, and we are directing resources away from those very serious things that people actually have complaints about and trying to fix real social ills with the Police Rather than investment in communities. The amazing thing about all of this is it is not a new story. Thetodays New York Times former Police Captain in the bronx, tells an amazing story when he was a teenager and was picked up by the police and beaten mercilessly by a group of cops in a precinct. When he was 15 years old. I was struck in the head when i was about eight years old, by a cop in the 75th precinct come a going to see a show with danny k, who grew up around the corner. The knot is still on my head. I took the job because i did not want somebody like that to hit somebody like me. When i was applying for the job in 1974, a physician examined me, and as he checked me, he said, im sorry, you have a heart murmur. I was a competitive athlete. If i had a heart murmur, i would have been dead. So i asked him some medical terms. He said, how do you know about that . I said, i went to school and you went to school. Then he said, dont worry about that, go get your ears checked. They tell black men they have heart murmurs, they will have a cop come in while you are doing or paperwork, will agitate you, to run your pressure up, and until you have high blood pressure. Africanamerican women will come in and they are told they have scoliosis because we know that black women have a different structure. Telling an is like asian person if something is wrong with their eyes. It is a paradigm of racism here. Even down to stop and frisk, which was to criminalize young black men to prevent them from getting a decent job in the community and the city where they live. This is what ray kelly and Mike Bloomberg did for 12 years and this pattern of racist and selective law enforcement. We have to look at racism and understand it. If we dont, we will remain confused. I want to make clear that Graham Weatherspoon is a retired Police Officer and retired new York City Police detective. It might surprise you as he described the situation. I want to go back to Daniel Pantaleo and really go into his record. He has been sued twice in the past for engaging in racially motivated misconduct while on the job. In 2012, two africanamerican men accused him of subjecting them to an illegal strip search in daylight and said that pantaleo tapped each other testicles during the search on the supposedly to discover any contraband. That suit was settled in january. Another man accused officers, including pantaleo, of arresting him despite the fact that he was committing no crime at the time and was not acting in a suspicious manner. The man said the officers used misleading data in their report to justify the arrest. His charges were later dismissed. On the streets last night, describe your experience as the people who were there, who were dying in, the thousands that came out. It only seems to be building. This emotion and anger is boiling over. It has been building since the ferguson decision announcement. There are already going to be people in the streets because the solidarity actions across the country have done nothing but grow and become more targeted and bigger. But to have this come on the heels of that, and for it to be more egregious in a way because you are watching eric garner and i. We are not even talking about whether or not they could find Daniel Pantaleo guilty of any criminal charges. I could not find probable cause by watching the man die, watching pantaleo put this chokehold on him, could not find probable cause. People are just fed up and screaming black lives matter, and it feels futile at this point, but the energy that is growing around this movement feels like something it is something i have never seen before. The solution being proposed now by al sharpton and others, that we have to go to the federal level to get these jury prosecutions, grand investigations of Police Killings come out of the hands of the local district attorneys who have so many ties to the police. Do you think there is any possibility of a change for that . We have been calling for that for a decade and it goes nowhere. This is why people definitely need to be voting and electing people that are thinking the way that they are. We can no longer vote for a mayor and not inquire, who are you planning to give bring in , theur Police Commissioner wh board of education . People need to vote and be represented adequately and truly , by people who are there to serve the people. We need to understand, the Police Officers theoretically our public servants, but thats not what is happening here. We need an independent examiner of these cases who is not related to anybody in new york city in any way, they come in, they pull together all of the facts of the case, and i should not say the fax the truth regarding the case. Facts and truths are two different things. There are Police Officers who are parent. I have sent Police Officers to prison during my tenure. I had no problem doing it because they were criminals in uniform. We have seen it too many times in the bronx. Da johnson, i dont have a problem from naming him. They failed to cross examine expert witnesses on ballistics. Agoohn bell died 15 years eight years ago this past thanksgiving. Describe what happened. It was the morning of his wedding. He was having his bachelor party. Walks outside and there was 18 supposedly checking out they were at this club in jamaica to find out about drug sales. They found nothing. As a matter of fact, the officer who initiated the shots, was trying to solicit one of the dancers for sex as the club was closing. She was being harassed by the police. She had to leave her home and hide out prior to the grand jury because they were pressuring her and threatening her. The officer i cannot remember his name he is the one that initiated the shots being fired. Because of a hand gesture. Gunwalk up to a car with a and you are the undercover. The undercover never engages. Iran decoy teams. They never get involved in the takedown. Ran decoy teams. Of course, somebody is going to try to get away. Them with aoaching weapon. And then we blame the victim. We have to break but we will come back to this discussion. It is the day after the second night of protests in new york. These protests are happening all over the country in the aftermath of this grand jury decision in new york around eric garner, which occurred in the aftermath of the grand jury decision in ferguson, missouri, in the wake of the death of Michael Brown. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Back in a minute. [ ] this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Than 100 people packed a church in cleveland, ohio on wednesday for the Memorial Service of tamir rice, a 12yearold africanamerican boy shot dead by police last month. Rice, who was in sixth grade, was killed after a caller reported seeing the boy with what turned out to be a pellet gun, which the caller repeatedly said seemed fake. Video shows Police Officer Timothy Loehman fatally shooting rice immediately after leaving his cruiser from a distance of about 10 feet. Emerged thats have the officer responsible for rices and death and was deemed unfit for Police Service two years ago when he worked in the suburbs of independence, ohio. Superiorfrom a criticizes his performance in firearms training, saying a day after the funeral, attorney general eric holder announced the Justice Department found a pattern or practice of unreasonable or unnecessary use of force by the Police Department. We have determined there is reasonable cause to believe the Cleveland Division of Public Police engages in a pattern and practice of using excessive result of as a systemic deficiencies including insufficient accountability, inadequate training, ineffective policies, and inadequate engagement with the community. Fortunately today i can announce that the department of justice and the city of cleveland have come together to set in motion a process that will remedy these issues in a conference it and in a Court Enforceable manner. For more we go to ohio where we are joined with democratic ohio senator nina turner. Welcome to the moxie now democracy now talk about your relationship with the tamir rice case and how this happened, when even the caller to 911 said this kid has a toy gun . Within seconds of the Police Coming up in their cruiser seconds they shot him dead. Did, and this is beyond what we can put into words. Certainly, our hearts go out to tamirs family. It is gut wrenching like Something Like that could happen. Less than two seconds from when the Police Arrived on the scene, a 12yearold boy on a not a black male, not a young man, a little boy, was shot and killed. He did not have a chance. This is tragic any way you cut it. All of americas hard should cry out for reform so we can make sure that our communities are protected and served. Those are not contradictory, we can have both. You are right, i am a native of cleveland, born and raised. Son,e an africanamerican an africanamerican husband, africanamerican brother, father. Every black male in my family has been racially profiled at some point in time. I say that because not necessarily in this case of racial profiling but the larger picture of your guests talking about, which is what is it about saying black male that causes a frenzy where people decide they will shoot first and ask questions later. I heard one of your guests talk about humanity. That is what we have to get back to. More than being a public servant. As a mother, my heart aches. My husband and i both gave our sons lessons. To hear mayor deblasio courageously talk about what he and his wife had to do. My husband and i had to do the same. The irony is that my son is currently a Police Officer, so i understand how h is, but we can have both. We need to have a deep conversation and moves us to action in this country about how africanamerican males and latino males, people of color, are seen in this country. This is bigger than the Police Department. America, athe dna of centuriesold problem, that africanamerican males are seen as more criminal. Nowhere in america should a 12yearold boy begun down in the way he was. In terms of the 911 call, the dispatcher, it appears, listen to the tape, the dispatcher that took the call from the person who said this is possibly a juvenile, this is a toy gun that same message was not given to the police. That does not justify the tactics they used, but i want to make it clear. The Police Officer did not get that message that it may be a juvenile and maybe a toy gun. That is unfortunate and we have to do a better job in terms of training and make sure the police have all the information they need. But lets not forget that ohio is an open carry state. What the officers did on that day, with tamir rice, is totally unacceptable, no matter how you cut it. Your reaction to the announcement by attorney general holder of the Justice Departments investigation . What has been the situation with the cleveland Police Department over the past two years . I agree with what the attorney general said. I want to remind you that mayor jackson asked for them to come in to do an investigation. You may recall would have been too Timothy Russo and melissa williams. Their car. Nto they had no weapons or were they charged. They were gunned down. That caused a stir, rightfully so. In america, nothing like that should have been. The attorney general was right. Any to be a change in the city of cleveland in the way Police Operations are happening. I am glad to hear the word partnership. We have to have the courage to confront and to be confronted. Just because we are talking about these instances it burns me to say that just because we are bringing to light these things that need to be changed that we are somehow antipolice. Nothing could be further from the truth. And thea great Job Department of justice identified that in the report, but there is and however. In instances where things are not going right and where there is perhaps a culture inside some of these departments that are not there to protect and serve, we have a moral obligation to address that. The city of cleveland, the residence of cleveland are calling for systemic change and we need that. I am glad to see that our city will be doing just that. I look forward to lending my support anyway i can because that is my home. I love the city of cleveland. The citizens of that city love the city of cleveland. To the problem with officer loehman, who killed tamir rice within two seconds of getting out of his car, the cop driving the car, frank garmback, the officer driving the police troubledalso has a history. Cleveland reportedly paid out 100,000 to a City Resident named tamela even to settle an Excessive Force lawsuit brought against him. It stemmed from a confrontation in 2010 in which eaton said garmback rushed her and later in a chokehold, tackled her to the ground, and began hitting her body. As we are wrapping up, as we come back to new york i want to do as kerry, in terms of this issue, the Editorial Board at the daily writing about the situation. Your sense about the possibility of federal intervention in terms of changing the grand jury process in Police Killings . I am skeptical. It is very hard to do. It comes down to state law. Governor andrew cuomo is now mumbling about all sorts of reforms. Had the opportunity to appoint a special prosecutor. Father, used a special prosecutor to deal with a previous case, was under pressure to have a special prosecutor for racial criminal cases, which he did not do. Now he is outraged of where we are at. What is so important about these demonstrations and how diverse they have been racially, by age just a lot of different people out. It is a real popular signal to these politicians that there is a demand for a better system. If these outrages keep happening, there will be real political pressure. It has to happen at the local level and it needs to demand real political pressure. If we keep not having them, people will keep being out there, and they will be very upset. This is a huge city. The taurus are thinking, are the protesters coming . This is a healthy sort of disruption forgetting something to happen. , when you mychal are hearing from the people on the streets as this builds . The conversation needs not to be about trust or about whether communities of color trust the police, it is about what is the police job description, what are they out there on the streets and doing . If the job is tough, give them less to do, decriminalize drugs, sex work coming get rid of the broken windows theory. Make them responsible for doing less. Tshirt, native son by richard wright. I am a native son. We have to leave it there. Thank you for being with us. Mychal denzel smith, harry turner, this conversation will continue. We are in lima next week covering the human Climate Summit. There is a lot going on. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to mail them to dundon ireland is an ancient land, steeped in traditions that stretch far back into the distant past. For 10,000 years, humans have lived on this island located off the western edge of europe, once at the edge of the known world and now a stepping stone to the new. We were building these vast temples in stone a thousand years before the egyptians built the pyramids. Our next parish is new york or boston, across the wild and deep atlantic ocean. Ireland is a land of contrasts, defined by beautiful, rolling countryside and rugged, savage cliffs. Its a country that has a profound respect for the land. Farming started here 6,000 years ago, and weve never looked back. Now i want to bring all these ingredients together and celebrate our amazing natural resources