Transcripts For KCSM Democracy Now 20150227

Commissions votes to preserve an open internet. We will speak with professor tim wu, credited with coining the phrase Net Neutrality. Then to the cultural destruction of iraq. The proper orders to get rid of statues and relics, companions to the same. A new video posted by the Islamic State shows men some using sledgehammers and drills destroying ancient artifacts at a museum in mosul. We will speak to an art and archaeology professor who has spent years trying to preserve iraqs Cultural Heritage. We will also hear why Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott walker has compared isis to the unions of wisconsin. If i could take on 100,000 protesters, i can do the same around the world. And we will go to pasco washington, to look at the Police Killing of Antonio Zambranomontes. Cell phone video shows zambrano, who was unarmed, turning to face police and raising his hands before he was shot. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The federal Communications Commission has voted in favor of historic rules to preserve a free and open internet. After a record four million Public Comments the fcc approved , rules to prevent corporate Internet Service providers from blocking access to websites, slowing down content or providing paid fast lanes for Internet Service. This is fcc chair tom wheeler. This is no more a plan to regulate the internet than the First Amendment is a plan to regulate free speech. They both stand for the same concept. Openness expression, and an absence of gatekeepers telling people what they can do, where they can go, and what they can think. The action that we take today is about the protection of internet openness. We will speak with professor tim wu who coined the term Net Neutrality, after the headlines. Congress appears set to avert a partial shutdown of the department of Homeland Security just hours before the agency runs out of money. Republicans have repeatedly sought to tie the funding to a reversal of obamas executive actions on immigration. But House Republicans appear poised to back a clean stopgap measure to fund the department for three more weeks, postponing the battle. More information has emerged about the british man nicknamed jihadi john who was appeared has appeared in Islamic State beheading videos. Mohammed emwazi is a 26yearold born in kuwait who moved to the gush to britain as a child and studied Computer Science at the university of westministe. The british Advocacy Group cage said he faced at least four years of harassment, detention deportations, threats, and attempts to recruit him by security agencies, which prevented him from leading a normal life. Emwazi approached cage in 2009 after he was detained and interrogated by mi5 on what he said was supposed to be a safari vacation in tanzania. In 2010, after he was barred from returning to kuwait, emwazi wrote, i had a job waiting for me and marriage to get started. But now i feel like a prisoner only not in a cage, in london. In 2013, one week after he was barred from kuwait for a third time, emwazi left his parents home. Edit news conference, Cage Research director Asim Quereshi spoke about emwazi and compared his case to another man who hacked a soldier to death in london in 2013, michael abe debolajo. It is hard. Didnt expect he was such a beautiful young man, really. It is hard to imagine the trajectory, but it is not unfamiliar for us. You see Michael Adebolajo came to me looking for help, looking to change things in the system. When are we going to finally learn that when we treat people as if they are outsiders, they will inevitably feel like outsiders and they will look for belonging elsewhere. That is Cage Research director speaking in london. The United Nations has reported credible and reliable accounts of torture at u. S. Military facilities in afghanistan which took place in 2013. The torture was reported by prisoners at two u. S. Facilities north and west of the capital kabul. The u. N. Also detailed the ongoing torture of prisoners by the u. S. Backed afghan government. Theres a new development in the case of a u. S. Soldier who went awol in 2007 and sought asylum in germany because he opposed the war in iraq. The luxembourgbased European Court of justice ruled thursday that to obtain asylum andre , shepherd would need to show he would have been involved in war crimes if he had followed orders to deploy to iraq. Shepherd spoke on thursday. What happens when you have a soldier such as myself who isnt a content his objector from the aspect of want to reject every war. You have to defend yourself, of course. Iraq wasnt one of those. They did not help the iraqi people at all, certain he did not help the American People at all. All we have is senseless death and destruction and the rise of isis. So why would i want to take part in that . The final decision in shepherds case will be made by a german court. In the u. S. , wisconsin governor has compared religions from the selfproclaimed Islamic State to prounion labor protesters. Thousands of protesters have flooded the capitol over an antiunion righttowork bill, passed by the state senate this week. Well have more on wisconsin later in the broadcast. In argentina, a judge has rejected a late prosecutors allegations argentine president Cristina Fernandez de kirchner helped cover up irans role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish Center that killed 85 people. The prosecutor, Alberto Nisman was found dead in january just one day before he was due to testify on his findings. But judge Daniel Rafecas ruled there was no evidence to support nismans claims. The Obama Administration is sending two top diplomats to the annual gathering of the powerful proisrael group aipac. The conference opens sunday just two days before israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address congress in a bid to undermine attempts at a nuclear deal with iran. White House National security advisor susan rice, who has called netanyahus visit destructive, will address the aipac summit, along with u. S. Ambassador to the u. N. Samantha power. A group of 30 aid agencies has condemned the lack of progress rebuilding gaza after the summers israeli assault. The group says reconstruction tens of thousands of destroyed homes, schools, hospitals has been woefully slow with 100,000 palestinians still displaced. The agency is called on israel to lift its blockade, which has barred needed Construction Materials from entering. I asked them says it will take over 100 years to rebuild gaza if the israeli blockade remains. And those are some of the headlines, this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. Advocates of a free and open internet are celebrating a vote thursday by the federal Communications Commission to approve strong Net Neutrality rules. The move bans paid prioritization by Internet Service providers who seek to charge extra fees from content producers, as well as blocking and throttling of lawful content. The new rules will also apply to mobile access. The vote is seen as a major victory for grassroots Advocacy Groups. They have spent years campaigning to preserve an open internet. This is fcc chair tom wheeler. While some other countries try to control the internet, the action that we take today is in your refutable reflection of the principal that no one whether government or corporate, should control free and open access to the internet. [applause] the internet the internet is the most powerful and pervasive platform on the planet. It is simply too important to be left without rules and without a referee on the field. After nearly two hours of discussion thursday, wheeler joined democratic commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn in a three to two vote along party lines. So let me close where i began , with a shout out to 4 million americans who took their time to share with us their views. Today, history is being made by a majority of this commission as we vote for a fast, fair, and open internet. And what that, i will call for the yeas and mayes. Nayes. The ayes have it. [applause] president obama welcomed the fccs vote with a thank you letter posted online to users of reddit. Their outreach along with groups like free press helped lead to an outpouring of an unprecedented 4 million comments to the fcc in favor of Net Neutrality. But others, like former fcc chair Michael Powell, complained the vote is a setback. Powell is now president of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association which is the most powerful agency representing the cable industry. He said consumers would surely will bear the burden of new taxes and increased costs, and they will likely wait longer for faster and more Innovative Networks since investment will slow in the face of bureaucratic oversight. Well, for more, we go to washington, d. C. , where we are joined by tim wu. Policy advocate and Columbia University law professor who is known for coining the term Net Neutrality back in 2003. 2002. He has previously served as a Senior Advisor to the federal trade commission. Hes also the author of, who controls the internet and the master switch the rise and fall of information empires. He writes regularly for the new yorker, where his latest piece in reaction to thursdays vote is headlined, why everyone was wrong about Net Neutrality. Tim wu, welcome back to democracy now it is great to have you with us. You are usually in new york, but you went down to washington to celebrate last night. Talk about the significance of the fcc decision. This is simply a historic decision. It was a long time in the making. Some of us have been working on this me personally, for 13 years. I think it said it on a different half. It says their need to be basic rules of the road for the internet, and we are not going to trust cable and Telephone Companies to respect freedom of speech or respect new innovators because of their poor tract records. I think it is a major step forward, huge legacy of achievement for the Obama Administration and this chairman tom wheeler. Theres a sense of jubilation here in washington. Tim, the decision of verizon for example, to blast this with morse code, as it referring back to her previous commit occasion europe, i was struck by the fact i dont think verizon sees the irony of its actions. The old telegraph because of lack of government regulation, become a largely Western Union monopoly and out of the reach of ordinary americans. Was only used by the wealthy. Theyre actually using the old morse code telegraph analogy to buttress anclearly bankrupted in terms of the failure of the modern Communications Companies to be able to allow to maintain public access. I think they knew need new talking points. There are still relying on arguments where they say, hands off the internet. They say the same thing. Theres going to be 5, 10 competitors in the market. Everyone has watch the broadband market, which used to have hundreds of competitors in the early 1990s, go to more and more consolidation. They keep saying competition and random things. They dont even connect with anyone. Right or left. They have kind of lost touch. That is why they were so defeated in his latest round. They kept saying the same things, but no one was listening. Therefore, the commission, to its credit, really did what the people wanted. Most people say, how do you feel about cable or the phone companies putting up slow lanes slowing down some traffic and speeding up people say, we dont like that. This not just the democrat side. Nobody likes that. I think they really havent done a good job if there is a case to be made on their side, they havent done it. Talks can you explain exactly what title ii is and how exactly the internet will be regulated . Sure. In 1934 this is an allusion that verizon is making the new Deal Congress david a Broad Authority to regulate everything by wire. Document occasions by wire. Their idea back then was to control the monopoly power that was manifest in the earlier version of for rise in named at t verizon named at t. Basically at its centerpiece Net Neutrality nondiscrimination role. Frankly, keeps the internet the way it is now and just makes it very clear to the phone and Cable Companies that you cant block anything. You may not like the website to you cant block it. You cant degrade service. You cant set up slow lanes. That is to say, you cant go around and say, hey, if you dont want to be slowed down you need to pay us more money. Those dont seem very outrageous to most americans. Frankly, they are not, which has been challenging for the telecom lobby. Though seem straightforward. Frankly, they are the way the internet is. We had some kind of Net Neutrality rules for very long time. The reason were here is because verizon sued to strike them down. They have gotten themselves title ii responders refers to a stronger with supporting the law. And the importance of the fcc extending this not just broadband cable, but also to mobile devices . This is a major victory which goes way beyond what the First Administration the first Obama Administration did. The chairman recognized, and i think a lot of people have been saying for a long time, a lot of broadband is moving to wireless. To say, you can do whatever you want on wireless but on broadband, doesnt make sense. They extended the principle Net Neutrality to wireless. I think it is a big step forward as well. Tim wu you have an interesting history, how you came to be involved with the internet and quantum the term Net Neutrality. Coined the term Net Neutrality. You ran for Lieutenant Governor here in new york. But way before that, you clerk for supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and talk about even before that, how you came to be involved with the internet. Give us a brief background. Back in the early days, i was in Silicon Valley in the early 2000s right when the big center of the boom. I worked for Telecom Company who made the stuff that was going to attack or destroy Net Neutrality. We were trying to sell it to the Chinese Government to sort of sensor stuff and trying to sell it to american Cable Companies. I was a fairly loyal employee. After a while i said, this is going to make internet terrible. Even earlier than that, i had been a computer programmer, a good oldfashioned computer geek. I saw this as a threat. When i conducted deem you to the first thing i said was, we need this principle called Net Neutrality. Nobody paid attention. It caught on somehow and 13 years later, i guess. Starting with that innate sense the idea the internet would become like cable television, it is kind of this crappy sorry. Just whatever makes money is feeling thing that survives. I thought, this is a terrible it was from a personal place. 13 years later, i guess it was worth it. For a time, you are having a Good Relationship with Michael Powell, the former fcc chair under george w. Bush. Now you are, clearly, on opposite sides with him on this issue. To get Michael Powell a little credit, to some degree he got the Net Neutrality thing started. No person is completely good or completely bad in what they do. He recognized there was a threat to the internet, too, from the phone companies and Cable Companies. When he was the chairman, he was the first to do a Net Neutrality order actually under title ii where there was a company a phone company that was blocking voice over internet. He said, you cant do that and he fined them. He was stopped. As the head of the cable trade association, he is had a different tune. He actually was an enforcer. He gets a little credit, even though he might not want to take it. It is interesting that Michael Powell, the son of colin powell, who was head of the fcc comes to had the cable lobbying association that the current chairman tom wheeler came from. How do tom wheeler get religion . As he talked to you about this epiphany . We have the images of the protesters in front of his home not letting him go to work. Saying if this is our youre going to work, we dont need to go to work. The in cam and outside the fcc that went on for many days. It is important never to typecast people entirely and be like this guys a lobbyist or does a lot of people were worried, in the Progressive Movement particularly, a former lobbyist would just show up at the fcc and his masters business. Bidding. He is not looking for another job. He became a net utility advocate. I think when you get a new job you see the wisdom of this position. It is even a whole soul universal thought. I think grant shall he, and then he saw the i think gradually then he saw the comments. When youre in the job Michael Powell is another example. You see what could happen to the internet anything, that is no good. I think anyone who directly experiences this has that feeling. By the way, it is a textbook case of grassroots organizing. There was no one with any money or any power on the side of Net Neutrality. Our academics, a group like free press and fight for the future activist groups, but the message was strong. Finally, the 4 million americans who wrote the agency really made a difference. And the president himself getting involved. So tom wheeler really changed his tune on this and it just shows you, you really shouldnt typecast anyone. This is not a new fight. Clearly, those youre familiar with some of the history of mass communications, no ever since the computer the personal computer was created, there has been a constant debate of the relationship between the personal computer and the communications lines. Originally, the old phone lines and now broadband. This has been an ongoing battle on how the American People will get their information. This is the latest stage of this, isnt it . Absolutely. It goes back to the telegraph the 19th century, the telegraph had so much control over the wire news, they would use their power to try to throw elections to the republican party. The tension between the people who own the wires and the stuff on top of the wires has been with us since the wires existed. I dont think it goes away. At some level, there always needs to be governed oversight. Theres too much power in private hands when someone owns the master switch. We have seen this before. We saw it with at t. We have seen it over the radio waves, with broadcast networks. Everyone knows this, but the revolutionaries take over the radio stations and now they take over the internet sites. First, because there is enormous amount of power and unchecked private power is the dangerous thing. Last year comedian john oliver dedicated nearly 15 minutes of his hbo program to explain why Net Neutrality is so important, and ended the show with by calling on his viewers to write to the fcc to encourage them to adopt the new rules. The enormous response broke the commissions website. This is a clip from last week tonight. For once in your life, we need you to channel that anger that you normally reserve for unforgivable attacks on actresses or politicians you disagree with our photos of your exgirlfriends wedding on with their lives, or nonwhite actors being cast as fictional characters. I am talking to you and you. We need you to get out there and for once in your lives, focus your indiscriminate rage and useful direction. Caesar moment sees your moment. That is john oliver on his program pushing for Net Neutrality. Finally, tim wu, on this day, your thoughts about if and schwartz, the young internet activist who unfortunately took his life a few years ago what his feelings would be today as he dedicated his life to Net Neutrality . Yesterday, weird having a celebration in d. C. , someone said, this is a moment for hugs. Everyone was so jubilant. It is top when you work on progressive causes it is tough when you are working on progressive causes. People burn out because it takes so much energy. Aaron schwartz was the kind of guy the day indicated his life to these causes. You should have been there. A of people should have been there. At least one great moment for those who have patiently been sticking it out. I salute all of the people who work tirelessly for low amounts of money now for over a decade to try and fight for an open internet. That was his fight and that was our fight in yesterday was a day of triumph. Tim wu, they could for being with us. Tim wu is a policy advocate and Columbia University law professor who is known for coining the term Net Neutrality back in 2002. When we come back, isis destroys the museum in mosul. We will speak with an art historian who is try to preserve the Cultural Heritage of iraq. Stay with us. [music break] this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. We turn now to iraq where video has surfaced showing militants from the Islamic State destroying ancient artifacts at a museum in the iraqi city of mosul. Men are seen toppling statues and using sledgehammers and drills to destroy the artifacts. The guardian reports one of the statues destroyed was a wingedbull assyrian protective deity that dates back to the 9th century b. C. On thurday unesco, the cultural arm of the United Nations, called call for the u. N. Security council to hold an emergency meeting on protecting iraqs Cultural Heritage. Unesco directorgeneral irina bokova said i condemn this as a deliberate attack against iraqs millennial history and culture, and as an inflammatory incitement to violence and hatred. Unesco has also warned about the selfproclaimed Islamic State generating income from the looting and smuggling of Cultural Heritage items. Earlier this month, the u. N. Security council banned all trade in antiquities from wartorn syria and reaffirmed a ban on iraqi artifact sales from about a decade ago. Joining us here in new york is zainab bahrani, a professor of near eastern and east mediterranean art and archeology at Columbia University. She has worked in extensively iraq including periods as Senior Advisor to iraqs ministry of culture and a unesco consultant. We welcome you professor to democracy now talk about what is happening the significance lets start with the mosul museum. The mosul bz and is one of the largest museums in the area and has a remarkable collection of fines that date back and continue into the islamic period , so covering thousands of years going back to about 8000 bc. What was your reaction when we saw the video yesterday. I think all of us in the field are completely horrified. We expected Something Like this might happen ever since isis took over the area, took over mosul but to see it actually happened was devastating. What is the russian now russian now or reasons for doing this . The ra, from what theyret seeing on thei video, that these are idolsonal and thereforee, they are. It should be destroyed. To me, this doesnt make that much sense ands, of course, a lot of this Cultural Heritage in these antiquities have been visible since the seventh century a. D. , and they have been there unharmed. It is not really clear why now this should happen. On one hand, the rationale of it being heretical, the false idols, and on the other hand, it is believed i cant confirm this myself independently, that the militants have sold the ancient artifacts on the black market . It seems to be theres a great deal of selling of antiquities by isil. This has been confirmed by certain people who are watching the trade in antiquities. So they are selling antiquities. One of the arguments is that the objects they destroyed yesterday with a larger pieces that could not be moved out and sold. So they were more likely to be able to destroy them. I think a great deal of the discussion here in the west and perhaps throughout the world has focused on the looting rather than the issue of cultural cleansing. The destruction of monuments on site is also something to be concerned about. The looting for the antiquities market, which is an illicit international market, is very important to consider because this is very destructive, but the blowing up of shrines and monuments on site is really horrendous. This is a form of cultural cleansing, certainly, but also ethnic cleansing. Explained. It is a form of ethnic cleansing because this is a region of the world aspartame you is always been a multi ethnic and multireligious and multilinguist part of the country. What is happening now is that diversity is being wiped out. So when you wipe out peoples monuments and heritage, beauty race any record of their ever having been there. It is a way of creating a kind of an empty land that you can conquer and then claim that there was nothing there before. It is a general erasure and rewriting of history of mesopotamia. Unescos directorgeneral expressed outrage following the Islamic States attack on the mosul museum. Irina bokova said this attack is far more than a cultural tragedy this is also a security issue as it fuels sectarianism, violent extremism and conflict in iraq. The systematic destruction of iconic components of iraqs rich and diverse heritage that we have been witnessing over the past months is intolerable and it must stop immediately. Of course, iraq went through similar problems not at this scale in the aftermath of the u. S. Invasion on the disorder that followed when it was also some destruction and looting that occurred. I think that is right. I think too many people have forgotten that all of this actually began a long time ago. Of course, the scale now as far greater in the slaughter that is taking place of human beings is truly horrendous, but the rewriting of iraqs history and the erasure action is started with the 2003 war, if not with the earlier one. So there has been a great deal of destruction of heritage sites. And the attempt to say that this is ingrained in the culture i think one large problem is that pundits in the west often say well, these acts are grounded, are based in the historical reality of iraq, of mesopotamia. This is a kind of internal fight between shia and sunni people and that we should just mind our own business and leave it alone. But it seems to me, and this is completely misguided because what we are saying is this is based in history. Were trying to set the pundits are trying to say this is based in a historical reality when it isnt. It is a complete rewriting of what was the historical reality. Lets take, for example, the idea of the resurrection of a medieval Islamic State. Of course, everybody says, well, they are truly barbaric, they are medieval. But everyone who has read history knows and that empire, the caliphs valued scholarship translated greek classical text, loved the arts and promoted arts and architecture. So it is actually quite false to say in the middle ages, they were opposed to these things. I want to ask you, professor, going back to 2003 the day after baghdad fell, that famous scene of the looters coming from the iraqi museum and the criticism of the u. S. For not protecting the museum. Way back to that time, declaring that freedom is untidy, defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the looting in iraq was the result of pentup feelings of oppression, that it would subside as iraq is adjusted to life without saddam hussein. He said, freedoms untidy and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. Theyre also free to live their lives and do wonderful things, and that is what is going to happen here. Looting, he said, was not uncommon for countries that experienced social of people. Rumsfeld said, stuff happens. I remember his statements well and also remember he was quite taken aback that there was more than one vase in the entire country. He seemed to have not realized that iraq is the cradle of the world civilization and how he did not know that, im really not sure. He was clearly very mistaken. Can you talk about the historical legacy of muslims protecting antiquities knowledge, philosophy, science . Absolutely. It is not my specific area of expertise because i am a specialist in preislam, but i know enough to know this heritage has always been there. That islamic geographers and travelers and historians have written about places like babylon and nineveh in the middle ages for stuckey caliphs especially the caliphs specially, supported the scholarship of the ancient greek classical text in philosophy and sciences and away that is truly unparalleled not just in the history of iraq him a but i would say in a great part of the world. It is one of the high points of the worlds history of scholarly knowledge. What has been the reaction and the rest of the middle east governments and other Civil Society organizations that have heard about this . I think most of the news i have heard from all over the middle east is that people are horrified. That everybody is taken aback. Nobody was expecting this extent of just senseless destruction. Of course, this is a very small thing to consider after the mass slaughter, the kidnapping, rapes, torture, the daily murdering. So this is really very much just a kind of a blaster on top of a last straw on top of a terrible annihilation of people. What i want to stress, the destruction of the sculpture of the heritage sites and ancient assyrian sculpture that we saw destroyed in the video, that this is not just about the palace. This is about destruction and erasure of the history of the people of iraq as a way to say that they never belonged here. We want to thank you so much for being with us, zainab bahrani. Professor of near eastern and east mediterranean art and archaeology at Columbia University. Her most recent book is called the infinite image art, time and the aesthetic dimension in antiquity. When we come back, were going to pasco, washington. It was there that Police Killed Antonio Zambrano montes. Cell phone video shows and putting up his hands. He was unarmed. Stay with us. [music break] this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. After our next segment, we will talk about Governor Scott walker comparing unions to the so proclaimed Islamic State. First, this. For the second time in about two weeks the Mexican Government , has expressed outrage over Police Shootings of unarmed immigrants by Police Officers in the United States. Mexican Authorities Say police in grapevine, texas violated a decadesold treaty by waiting four days to inform them of the killing of ruben garcia villalpando. Police say they shot garcia Early Saturday Morning during a traffic stop after he defied orders to halt, and walked toward a patrol car with his hands in the air. Garcias attorney and a local activist described their account of the shooting to news station kdfw. When the officers said, dont move mother f he stayed there. Or one reason or another, rubin begins to walk toward the Police Officer and that one second and the officer fired twice. Pop, pop. When this video was released, you will show there is a man who is no prior criminal record, a wife and four children who puts his hands on his heads and he shot twice because he asked the officer to treat him with respect and not to be called mother f. The shooting in texas comes just ten days after the Police Killing of Antonio Zambranomontes in pasco washington. Zambrano was reportedly throwing rocks at Police Officers when he was killed. The incident happened at a busy intersection. Several eye witnesses recorded cell phone video that shows zambrano turning to face police and raising his hands before he is shot. On thursday, authorities confirmed how many times they fired at zambrano. This is Sergeant Ken Lattin of the kennewick county Police Department. Ultimately, weve determined they fired their weapons 17 times. 17 rounds were fired. Of those five or six rounds struck mr. Zambrano. We say five or six rounds, because there have been two autopsies. One by the medical examiner brought in by the coroner and as testify last week, the body was released to the family and they brought in their own independent pathologist to do an autopsy. So those results of both autopsies are not yet complete. Without going into any gruesome details, it is not easy to determine you look at entry wounds and exit ones, for sure, how many rounds. The police also said zambrano was not shot in the back contradicting an independent autopsy by the victims family that found two entry wounds on the back of his body one on the back his right arm and another in his buttocks. Zambranos family has now hired the attorney for Michael Browns family in ferguson, missouri benjamin crump, who visited pasco to meet with them this week. Pasco is about 3. 5 hours southeast of seattle. All of this comes as the Mexican Government reports 75 mexicans have been killed by law officers in the United States since 2006. Well, for more, we go to pasco washington, where we are joined by felix vargas, chairman of consejo latino, a group of local businessmen in pasco who are working with zambranos family and helping to call for justice in his shooting death. Vargas is a retired u. S. Diplomat and army colonel. And we are joined in seattle by Jennifer Shaw, Deputy Director of the American Civil Liberties union of washington state, and a member of the Community Police commission in seattle. She wrote a letter urging the Justice Department to launch an investigation into the Fatal Police Shooting of Antonio Zambranomontes in pasco, saying the local police probe was needlessly focusing on his activities prior to the incident. Welcome both of you to democracy now but go directly to pasco. Felix vargas, explain what happened and the fact there so much a video of this. It was during rush hour . Yes, it was and crowded intersection in downtown pasco. A gentleman is seen throwing rocks at cars. Police are called. Theres a minor scuffle. Then you see the gentleman running across the street away from the police. Police draw their weapons and fire shots at him. It appears they hit him. He gets to the other side of the street heads west and police are in pursuit. Three or four yards behind him. He is wounded. He turns around, appears to raise his arms up. He does not have a knife or gun in his hand. He is effectively executed by the second volley of shots. In all, 17 shots were fired. The initial autopsy shows five to six rounds made impact. We have a second autopsy, which was performed by the family plus forensic examiner and that shows seven to eight impacts on the body. That is what happened. It is really disturbed this community as never before. Mr. Vargas, what has so far been the reaction of local authorities in terms of the Police Officers involved . The authorities have promised to withhold judgment until a Police Investigation of the Police Shooting takes place. Theres a special Investigative Unit which is set up, excluding the participation by the pasco police, that particular unit is talking to witnesses and doing their own investigation. They do emphasize this will be an impartial, objective investigation. After which the Franklin County prosecutor will determine if theres sufficient grounds to levy charges against the three Police Shooters and in the case will go to trial. Theres also a call for a coroners inquest after this particular investigation. It is sibling not acquittal investigation. It is simply not a credible investigation. Why not . Because it involves a group of Police Officers who are brothers in uniform of the perpetrators of the shooting. It is not credible because in the last six month, weve had quarter incidents four incidents. And their three previous ones, the police were exonerated. The young man suffered from Mental Illness and also Substance Abuse similar circumstance with Antonio Zambrano. Shot with or by excessive use of force by the police. It is a conflict of interest whenever you have a Police Organization investigating its own. We need a higher level investigation, and economic come from the department of justice so the community can have some reasonable grounds to believe it will be independent. It is important we have this. In terms of the general state of relations in your part of the state. Theres been a growing population of mexican especially mexican population, as a result of the large agriculture there in the area. Can you talk about the state of relations in washington . Well, the federal it is quite good. We have a city of 68 thousand. 60 are hispanic. They are drawn here primarily because of our vibrant agriculture. We really havent had any incidents. There is some i knees with the police because they dont have enough sort of certified language speakers. It is police made up primarily of anglo policeman. The relations are cordial. I would not say they are warm. We have tried to improve that relationship as an organization and build confidence within the committee toward the police force. Withhin the community for the police force. We met with the police chief. We received assurances for the training, protocols were all in place to avoid this kind of situation. We are greatly in the leadership of the police chief because we simply do not know if he knows what goes on within his police force. You are a member of the community, a businessman, former military. Are you calling for the police chief to step down . Not at this point. There are things that have happened which causes us to believe that he is not in control of his police force. It is premature to do that. I think we need to let certain investigatory practices proceed. We would like to see active engagement by the department of justice in this regard. While the police chief has some, i think, some lack in credibility, we are not prepared to call for him to step down at this point. We may do so later on. Were also joined by Jennifer Shaw, Deputy Director of the American Civil Liberties union of washington state, and a member of the Community Police commission in seattle. She wrote a letter urging the Justice Department to launch an investigation into the Fatal Police Shooting of Antonio Zambranomontes in pasco, saying the local police probe was needlessly focusing on his activities prior to the incident. Could you, jennifer, could you summarize your concerns for us . Well, sure. And thank you for reaching out to us. We are seeing across the country a real need for culture change within our Police Departments. As mr. Vargas points out, it is concerning to have Police Investigating their own particularly, the notion of trying to find something wrong with the person that was shot as a justification for the shooting. We saw the same thing with trayvon martin. There were comets about he smoked pot. Other comments about Michael Brown that he had engaged in other criminal activity at a time when the officer wasnt even aware of it. It is really not relevant that the victim of the shooting was doing two weeks ago or two weeks prior to the shooting, and have that be what appears to be the primary focus is really concerning. It is also concerning the Police Officers involved in the shooting have still not been interviewed by the investigators. What needs to happen right now, Jennifer Shaw . Certainly, their knees to be a full and impartial investigation of this incident but also there needs to be a review of the current policies and practices and training within the pasco Police Department. What were seeing in washington and across the country is that Police Departments have been using outdated use of force policies, their training is focused more on how to use force instead of how to avoid force. Tragically, we keep seeing these kinds of incidents is. I want to go back to the can county Police Department Sergeant Ken Lattin of the kennewick county Police Department answering questions during thursdays press conference. Had interviewed the three officers . Good question. We have to have all the information before the sit down with those they have to get the transcriptions done so the lead investigator will sit down and interview with the officers has all the information. Were not to that point yet. It is still being set up. So all the other witnesses you want to talk to would be interviewed first and all the material transcribed and these three officers would be the last . Correct. Jennifer shaw, your comment on this, the witnesses will be interviewed first and the officers last . In any other investigation of the shooting by an individual, of another individual with witnesses around, imagine that the police would wait 10 days, two weeks before interviewing the person who was doing the shooting . It seems unreasonable. It seems kind of dangerous from Public Safety purposes, to wait that long for the officers to sit down and kind of read through everything and come up with a story. The idea of an investigation is to find out what happened from everybody that was involved. It seems like these officers are being given special consideration because they are Police Officers. Jennifer shaw, thank you for joining us from the washington aclu and felix vargas from pasco, washington. This is democracy now democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. On thursday, wisconsin Governor Scott walker of possible president ial candidate made headlines when he compared the Islamic State to unions in wisconsin. He made the comment at cpac, the conservative Political Action conference. Would like to know, should you become commanderinchief, how would you deal with threats such as isis . We will have someone who leads and ultimately will send a message not only that we will protect american soil, but do not take this up on freedom loving people anywhere us in the world. We need a leader with a cut of confidence. If i can take on 100,000 protesters, i can do the same around the world. Wisconsin Governor Scott walker speaking at cpac on thursday. Meanwhile, walker has announced plans to sign an antiunion righttowork bill that would eliminate the requirement that workers must pay union fees. Joining us in new york is john nichols. He is a madisonbased Political Writer for the nation and the author of, uprising how wisconsin renewed the politics of protest, from madison to wall street. The significance of Governor Walker comparing isil to the unions of wisconsin . Im afraid it is not the first time he suggested striking down these protests back in 2011 and continuing to try to prevent protests in the capital, try to force protesters out, has somehow prepared him to deal with the world. The tragedy of this is so profound on so many levels first off, he is overestimating his own skills. Second, he is underestimating the challenges and the complexity of the threats from around the world. But most of all, he is deeply deeply mischaracterizing those who rose up to challenge and question his policies. These are School Teachers and snowplow drivers and nurses and parents of children with autism and other challenges, seniors who are concerned about their care. This was not just a union protests in wisconsin, but an antiausterity protests. It was incredibly diverse and ods the word beautiful. You were there, amy. I think to try to suggest that disrespecting peaceful protests that does literally went out of his way to stop at stop lights, it is so wrong. It raises profound questions. You can get angry about all of this, but i think it raises profound questions about whether Governor Walker really begins to understand what he is talking about in regard to Global Threats but also understand how a president should look at the people he would serve. Will he have 10 seconds. After the first story fcc, the major decision around Net Neutrality, you said you debated ti wu that Net Neutrality could be the one used a decade ago. Tim did not blow his horn hard enough. We have been involved with the long time with free press. Tim was a person who argued for using the term Net Neutrality so we understood net, the internet and it had to be neutral. He was a profound figure in this. Frankly, you could not have picked a better guest to start the show. Thank you, john nichols. Female announcer essential pepin is made possible by female announcer kitchenaid for the way its made. Proudly celebrating ten years of cook for the cure to support the fight against breast cancer. Female announcer and by c. Donatiello winery, producing pinot noir and chardonnay from sonomas Russian River valley. C. Donatiello winery is a proud supporter of jacques pepin. And by male announcer oxo good grips. Oxo tools you hold on to. You know a great steak is still a very special treat for me. I love steak, and the meat is so great in america. This is my friend david shalleck. Hes a chef. Hes an author. And more than all, he had a steakhouse, so you know about steak. Oh, yeah, wonderful. This is a beautiful steak, jacques. How did you get these grill marks so perfect . Well, i was taught this way