From the center Ted This is Democracy Now. The minute we. Started fighting for our freedom in this country we've been called terrorists and I think what you'll see from Angela Davis what the problem. What they've seen from the current freedom fighters of this black liberation struggle is the need for the United States government and local law enforcement labor us as terrorists it is the way. Our work and it's a way to really try to dismantle the work that we're trying to do when they go. For a black matter memoir to day Patrice concolor one of the co-founders of the black crime smatter movement about growing up there's a black girl in a poor neighborhood of Los Angeles and his rant that police violence next to one of the richest neighborhoods in the world we'll also be joined by her co-author journalist and activist abundantly. The importance of Patrice's story. Is they call you a terrorist is that. Of the drug war or the war on gangs of the president does trail. These sort of stats and facts and figures the policy choices have destroyed real lives and poetry shows us how all that and more coming out. Welcome to Democracy Now Democracy Now dot org The War and Peace Report I mean we could man the New York Times is reporting the Pentagon's quietly prepared. Going for a potential war with North Korea with the u.s. Military launching a series of war games and exercises from Fort Bragg North Carolina to the skies above Nevada to a planned deployment of even more special operations troops to the Korean Peninsula during the Winter Olympics in South Korea next month the planning for a potential nuclear war comes as President Trump has repeatedly threatened to launch a nuclear strike against North Korea meanwhile the Wall Street Journal is reporting the Pentagon is also planning to develop 2 new c. Base nuclear weapons the reports based on a new Pentagon nuclear strategy review which says the proposed new nuclear weapons would be to counter Russia and China last week the Guardian reported the trumpet ministration is planning to loosen the restrictions on the use of nuclear weapons and develop a nuclear warhead for u.s. Triton missiles this all comes this Trump has proposed building up the United States nuclear article arsenal and has reportedly asked about nuclear weapons if we have them why can't we use them Meanwhile residents of Hawaii experience panic on Saturday morning when an emergency management worker mistakenly sent out a false alarm warning residents about an incoming ballistic missile the Amber Alert which residents received on their cell phones read emergency alert ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii seek immediate shelter this is not a drill it took 38 minutes for Hawaii to then inform residents that the alert was in fact a mistake this is the Hawaii governor. Most of us will never forget. A day when many of our communities our worst nightmare might actually be dealt with on. A day when many frankly. Right to think of all the things that we would do you propose think we're going to hold on to that so why Governor David EEG a meanwhile on Tuesday Japanese residents also received a false alert about an incoming ballistic missile this alert was sent today as a news alert by the national broadcaster n h k before they retracted it the u.s. Ambassador to Panama has resigned amidst international outrage over President Trump's racist comment in which trump reportedly called African nations hell Salva door and Haiti s whole countries but used the full 4 letters 1st word ass hole countries in his resignation letter the u.s. Ambassador to Panama John Feeley said he feels he can no longer serve the president faithfully his resignation takes effect March 9th the news of the resignation comes after Trump sparked this international firestorm by reportedly saying during a meeting with lawmakers at the White House last weight quote Why do we want all these people from Africa here there s. Whole countries we should have more people from Norway it's now being claimed by some lawmakers who were present at the meeting that Trump used the word s. House well the full word not asshole in response to the comments the government of boats want to wrote in a statement quote The boats want to government has also inquired from the us government through the ambassador to clarify if boats want to is regarded as an asshole country unquote This all comes as President Trump has denied being a racist. During an interview with reporters on Sunday. Meanwhile on Saturday night activists projected on to the Trump International Hotel and Washington d.c. The words quote need a place to stay try this asshole spelling out the whole word but they too like the president use that 4 letter swear before whole the Wall Street Journal has reported President Trump's lawyers reportedly paid $130000.00 to a former porn star to keep her from going public about her sexual encounter with Donald Trump in 2006 the money was reportedly paid to Stephanie Clifford known as Stormy Daniels and October of 2016 only a month before the general election the sexual encounter allegedly occurred shortly after President Trump married his wife Melania and while she was pregnant with their son Barron Meanwhile a former Playboy model named Karen McDougal say she also had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006 she reportedly sold the exclusive rights to the story to The National Enquirer 415-0000 dollars shortly before the presidential election the Enquirer never ran the story the c.e.o. Of the newspaper's parent company is a close friend of President Trump a former u.s. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning is running for u.s. Senate in Maryland this is a clip of her new campaign ad which features images of the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville Virginia last year. We live in a time. Suppression . Sure. We need to stop expecting that our systems will somehow the cars themselves we need to actually take the reins of power from them you're damn right we got this that's Chelsea Manning speaking in her new campaign ad announcing her run for u.s. Senate in Maryland she'll face Democratic incumbent Senator Benjamin Cardin in the Democratic primary later this year the Pentagon is planning to escalate the u.s. War in Afghanistan by sending in additional $1000.00 new so-called combat advisors as well as sending additional armed and surveillance drones the u.s. War in Afghanistan is the longest war in u.s. History it's escalation comes as the Pentagon has also indicated it plans to recruit and train thousands of u.s. Backed Kurdish fighters in Syria to form a Border Security Force in northern Syria along the border with Turkey u.s. Backed Syrian Kurdish fighters already control a large swaths of northern Syria on Monday Turkish president Richard Barrett One slammed the United States for the proposal and accused the Syrian Kurds of being terrorists. In Iraq at least 27 people were killed in a double suicide bombing in the center of the capital Baghdad during rush hour Monday morning the majority of the attacks victims were street vendors and day laborers who had gathered in the market looking for work no group has claimed responsibility so far Monday's bombing was the 1st major attack in Baghdad since the Iraqi government declared victory over ISIS in Libya at least 20 people were killed in that's clashes in the capital Tripoli the fighting shut down the main airport the government says the clashes began when a militant group tried to free imprison members from a nearby person Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas slammed President Trump in the United States in a speech Sunday saying Trump's decision to move the u.s. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is a slap in the face. Well we'll go through the political negotiations should be under international mediation and not solely American mediation so they make it clear we do not accept America as a mediator between us and Israel we said no to Trump and others No we will not accept his project we told him the deal of the century was a slap of the century and we will retaliate on Monday and Palestinian leaders voted to call on the Palestine Liberation Organization to suspend its recognition of Israel until Israel recognizes the state of Palestine and stops the construction of Jewish only settlements in the Israeli occupied territories Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu face protests when he arrived in New Delhi on Sunday as part of a 6 day visit to India protesters demanded India cut ties with Israel over its treatment of Palestinians in Mexico longtime journalist Carlos Dominguez Rodrigues was murdered in the border town of the level of radio on Saturday in the 1st murder of a media worker in Mexico this year he was an independent journalist who and one of his final columnist for the online outlet arrested wrote about the growing political violence ahead of Mexico's presidential election sencha lie Reporters Without Borders says Domingo's was dragged from his car by masked men and stabbed to death in broad daylight last year Mexico was among the deadliest countries in the world for journalists. In Honduras protests continue against the reelection of the incumbent u.s. Backed president for London and is on Friday protesters took to the streets to denounce alleged widespread election fraud and what many are calling an electoral coup the military attacked the protesters with tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets among those attacked was opposition candidate Salvador and former president Manuel Zelaya who was ousted in a u.s. Backed coup in 2009 this is one of the protesters Mario Trey how. We have come out to accompany the president elect Salvador and us we've come out as a united people for the world to tell them that the government robbed the elections in Honduras and I think there's a serious problem in Orlando Hernandez wants to stay but he has all the media on the Baldor weapons to show that he wore it to the world see that is why he needs to go from us he needs to give up our credit he got no in Greece teachers judges doctors nurses and transportation workers launched a strike Monday to protest the Greek Parliament's passage of a new round of austerity measures imposed by international banks Monday strike came on the heels of a massive national strike on Friday also protesting austerity measures and the government's efforts to restrict workers' ability to go on strike this is one protester speaking during the walkouts Monday. When we the older generation spilled blood to acquire the right to strike for us the workers the people to have a voice we will not sit on the couch with our arms crossed there is no way we will ruin the government's plans for back in the United States in California thousands of people gathered Sunday night to commemorate the 20 people who have died in the deadly mudslides in Mt to see don't near Santa Barbara at least 3 people remain missing including a 2 year old girl the deadly mudslide. Lines come after Southern California was ravaged by historic and deadly wildfires both wildfires and torrential downpours which triggered the mudslides have been linked to climate change in Tennessee a member of the white supremacist gang the area Nations was arrested for the alleged shooting and wounding of a police officer last Thursday Meanwhile the f.b.i. Has charged a white supremacist with terrorism after he allegedly attempted to work Duran an Amtrak train the man Taylor Wilson had traveled with other neo nazis to Charlottesville Virginia for the deadly white supremacist rally last year and the former Klansman Edgar Ray Killen who was convicted for orchestrating the murders of 3 civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964 and died in prison on Thursday night . In a democracy now exclusive in Washington State undocumented activists Mara Mara the pound though says Immigration and Customs Enforcement ice has placed her in deportation proceedings and a move she calls retaliate for her political activism morrow is a nationally known immigrant rights activist who leads the organization Northwest Detention Center resistance she's engaged in multiple acts of civil disobedience to protest deportations and immigrant detentions she says only days before Christmas she received a notice to appear she writes quote with a letter delivered to my house ice has officially made the leap from a law enforcement agency to a political repression agency crossing a line that should concern us all unquote We'll have more on her case later in the week here in New York City hundreds gathered to oppose the detention and possible deportation of prominent immigrant rights activists Ravi Ragbir and Montrevel Ravi Ragbir was detained on Thursday and is scheduled check in with ice agents He's executive director of the new sanctuary movement of New York City just a week prior montra Phil another leader with the organization was detained outside of his home and could be deported as early as today to Haiti on Monday 100 circled Washington Square Park in a Jericho walk then gathered at Judson Memorial Church this is Ravi Ragbir as friend and lawyer Alina Das reading a letter written by Ravi entitled letter from an immigrant jail it was a wild and crazy. Every moment was uncertain except the certainty that they wanted me gone I'm still here because of all of you thank you. I miss everyone. I feel very heartbroken to see how many of you are suffering for me how many people were abused during this process I feel heartbroken that care for someone evokes violence I want everyone to stand strong at this moment we need to speak about changing the system so that no one has to face this type of harm not just for me but for all the families who face being torn apart. Until we get reform we need to repeal the act that criminalizes immigrants that makes us less than human because of a document. That Celina Das reading a letter written by Ravi rugby or while in detention in Florida we'll have more on Ravi and Jones cases tomorrow on Democracy Now we'll be speaking with both of their wives in Florida prisoners launched a state wide prison strike Monday Martin Luther King Day the prisoners say they launched the strike to protest being used as unpaid labor during the cleanup from the massive hurricane Erma last year and communities in congregations across the country marked Luther King Day Martin Luther King Day Monday many pastors and civil rights leaders denounce President Trump including Martin Luther King Jr's daughter Reverend Bernice King. Come back to voice in this hour. Bus Oh ways be louder than the voice of why my home base sometimes representing these United States holds why sometimes do not reflect that make a sea of my father we cannot allow the nations of the world. To him Brice the worse that come from our president. As a reflection of the true spirit of America that was Martin Luther King Jr as youngest child Reverend Bernice King speaking at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Monday and a correction to our earlier headline that was really a true that speaking on Monday about. His lawyer in New York City and those are some of the headlines This is Democracy Now democracy now or of the war and peace report I mean when. One goes all is welcome to all of our listeners and viewers around the country and around the world we turn now to a powerful new book released today that tells the story of one woman as she fights back against the impacts of social and racial injustice in America on her family and that woman is Patrice common cold and co-founder of Black laws matter the book titled one they call you a terrorist a black clubs matter memoir is both an account of survival strength and resilience and a call to action to change the culture but the Claire's innocent black life expendible the trees the story follows her childhood in Los Angeles in the late 1990 s. And early 2000 their work 3 jobs struggling to earn a living wage and it puts a human face on the way mass incarceration on the war on drugs hurts young black men including her relatives and friends Patrice's father was a victim of the drug war he died at the age of $58.00 her brother spent years in prison for nonviolent crimes stemming from his battles against mental illness he was once even charged with terrorism after being involved in a car accident the police would target Patrice to raiding her house without just cause in 2013 after George Zimmerman was acquitted for the killing of 17 year old Trayvon Martin betrays co-founded black lives matter along with Elisir Garza and opal to Mattie. The movement began on line but soon spread across the country black lives matter became the rallying cry protester crying the police killings of Michael Brown and Ferguson Tamir rice and Cleveland Eric Garner in Staten Island and many others including Sandra bland who died in a Texas jail after a traffic stop Patrice Kahn colors joins us in the studio today and the day of the publication of her new book When they call you a terrorist a black lives matter a memoir she wrote the book with the award winning journalist band alley who also joins us is the author of 5 bucks including the bestseller The prisoners wife she's a senior director at the Drug Policy Alliance Patrice Kahn colors and deli will join us after this break to talk about Patrice's remarkable life story but trace concolor is a survivor Stay with us. 2 support from Redwood community radio comes from humble paintball community the paint ball center located in Samoa provides an extreme sport experience in a safe secure and interactive environment they provide full rentals of paint ball gear including markers hoppers tanks masks and paint balls humble pinball is open every weekend from 11 to 5 pm reach them at 707494835 humble paintball community dot com. The. Music recorded last spring Judson Memorial Church at a gathering for Ravi Rod beer ahead of one of his check ins with ice last week he was detained and he is now in deportation proceedings Senate jail in Florida this is democracy now Democracy Now dot org The War and Peace Report I mean the good men with Juan Gonzales our guest star Patrice Kahn colors talking about her new book released today when they call you a terrorist a black lives matter memoir written with the award winning journalist Ben Dally. Patrice congratulations this is an astounding book this weekend I flew to Colorado and then came back yesterday through Chicago snowstorm and everyone on the plane knew I had misplaced my book because I said I was finished reading this book until kindly sent me the manuscript. And then I said Ok it's a we can now go and I go to Los. Angeles. But this story you have told of growing up against all the odds tell us where you were born and place us in Los Angeles and your community one next to one of the richest and whitest in the United States I was born in Van Nuys California which is not known but it's a suburb outside of Los Angeles and their city and it was literally in between multiple white neighborhoods including Sherman Oaks Studio City Northridge and I witnessed consistent policing in militarized policing I witnessed the impact amassed. Incarceration had on my family members and the most early memories for me were my home being raided by l.a.p.d. And l.a.p.d. Lighting up my siblings and their friends at 1113 years old stopping and frisking them and this became our normal in our neighborhood even though I knew it was not a normal time you know because I could feel the humiliation and every stop and every moment l.a.p.d. Was around I could feel the impact it had on my mother I could feel it in our community and I knew that we shouldn't be living this way I knew that there was more for us and then I end up going to a mostly white school and I got to see the very real difference between how they were treated and never actually witnessing police in their neighborhoods and then how my family and my community was treated I don't want to ask about that you're right so eloquently about the differences just as it was in the middle school that you went there and the talk about some of the examples of the difference in treatment between that mostly upper middle class white community so close to yours and the way your own neighborhood was being dealt with I mean it was just in the school itself it was not policed there were no cops on campus compared to the middle school that I went to for summer school which is the 1st time I was arrested at 12 years old Milliken middle school was in Sherman Oaks which was the upper middle class middle school with mostly white folks. That eyes middle school was mostly working class poor immigrant communities and black folks and it was just literal I mean one looks like a prison and one looks like a university. One it want to had metal detectors and and could you talk about the experience the one time you were arrested in the UK in the. Summer school yes I was arrested because I was had since spoken we did about 3 and at Millikan you could do that and no one was checking for you worried about you even the white school at Milliken the white school at Sherman Oaks Yes It just sounds like what's called milk. And I and lots of girls did it yeah I mean all the white girls that that's actually who introduced to me was white girls. And. Guys middle school. Was mostly like I said working class communities of color and I was a cop came into my classroom it was my science class and when I saw one I was as a younger person when I saw law enforcement I feared that there was already sort of that emotional response I saw the classic kind of tight and the silence you know the cop whispered in the science teachers here and the science teacher called me up to a class he handcuffed me and front of my classroom and then walking down a hallway 12 years old I was 12 years old and all I can think about because when you're 12 I was thinking about the political you know analysis of the moment I was thinking about what is my mother going to what am I going to tell my mother which I live for the right team but it wasn't until I got older that I realize the impact of that moment and the impact that would have on me for the rest of my life you also describe your brothers and the places you all had to hang out there are limited you didn't have the playgrounds of Sherman Oaks rec centers or programs and the police moving in on them when they were kids you were right nearby you were like what 9. 9 years old I was 9 years old yeah. Once again when you're a child you just pick the places that are most convenient and that was alleyways that was the front of our building. Sometimes it was in our homes it was you know in a child you're playing you want to play outside and because of the war on gangs because of gang injunctions the boys specifically in my neighborhood were labeled as gang members and. My brother will tell the story which is they'd never consider themselves a gang until the police called them again that that's not how they related to themselves they were a bunch of boys hanging out and those and 9 years old very in witness to that type of humiliation has an impact on you. And. Then what made you decide that you thought this was an important story to tell you could talk about that as well and how you 1st came together so Patrice and I had known each other for a good number of years both organizers and I thought it was monumentally important to go behind the statistics and the real world story of the impact of the drug war mass incarceration on people's lives it's sort of what I've dedicated my life to is you know someone who had family members in prison minutes somebody who has seen the human cost of mass incarceration I wanted Patrice to tell her story in a full complete way and I was especially enraged that black lives matter in the leaders of black lives matter had been called terrorists when I knew that these were people dedicated deeply to peace in our communities peace for our children I knew the impact Patrice had on my own daughter of love and of peace and I wanted people to see that I don't think that. You get to misname people and I think that the history of who we are needs to be told and needs to be documented and that's my dedication as a writer and as an organizer Patrice I want people to meet your family the way you introduce them to last because that's really the point of this book is people speaking for themselves your unique experiences and the difference and how you grow up in this country from other communities can you introduce us to your mothers your fathers your brothers your sister Yes Sharif's Foley who is my mother brilliant woman who literally raised 4 children on her own and the middle of the eighty's and ninety's. She is powerful I mean she's literally powerful Montse colors who. Was my 1st best friend who was criminalized very early on in months his 1st time in juvenile hall was 13 years old and he would spend from 13 till 36 in and out of juvenile hall prisons and lockdown facilities simply because of his mental illness and the war on drugs my brother Paul colors who was apparent to us as my mother worked 3 sometimes 4 jobs and also has become my security he's a security guard so he does my security in Los Angeles he's pretty pretty much my 1st protector. My sister Jasmine colors who. In a lot of ways we kind of kept her from so much of what we witnessed and experienced we protected her and my 2 fathers my biological father Gabriel Birkbeck who I met when I was 11 years old that I detail in the story and always kind of knew someone else was out there always ask questions of my mother but got to meet his brilliance Leben and learned so much about myself because of him and my family and Alex and colors the father who raised me who is used to work at the g.m. That nice plant and was shut down and was forced into taking jobs that were not so meaningful and now owns of a chemical shop in Las Vegas. If you can talk about Monti and your experience Well 1st after he's arrested before he's diagnosed with this saw means and then this unbelievable moment where you decide to call in the police after he's back from jail. Months he didn't we didn't know Monte was suffering from mental illness unfortunate reality is many communities of color working class poor. Communities will have people coming in and educating us about the crisis of mental health and so we just thought we didn't know what was wrong and we didn't and one month he was arrested for a robbery and when he was 18 years old broke someone's window he said The voices told him to do it and ended up going to prison for 3 years in his stay in prison he was tortured by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department brutally beaten and your mother 1st seeing him she couldn't even find where she was and he disappeared and this is actually was a common practice of the l.a. County Sheriff's Department it's disappearing prisoners and when she finally saw him 2 months later he was emaciated my brother's 6 to almost 300 pounds they had completely overmedicated him and we would learn later on years later just what he endured in that jail cell when he was released when he was 23 years old it was one of the most exciting days of my life I get to see my brother hadn't seen him and years we didn't know that we could visit people you know they don't give you sort of what are the steps when your loved one is incarcerated we didn't realize that we could go visit him so we didn't see him for 4 years we just wrote a lot of letters and. The 1st thing that I noticed when I picked him up for the bus stop is they let him out in flip flops and undershirt and boxers. And I just I was. I was so disturbed I couldn't he was at the bus station in boxers and boxer shorts and a white t. Shirt and and flip flops which shower shoes essentially and. I should have been in the car and he was acting very different it was not the brother about it that went inside and then I knew and the minute he got into the house my mother said this was Something's wrong with my son and you know as every child that it's like Mom Be quiet you just got out of prison like just give him some time and over a week he slowly deteriorate quickly deteriorated and I didn't know who to call and eventually I called the ambulance and base and I made the fortunate choice to tell them that my brother had just been released from jail they said well that's not our problem you have to call the police and I said I can't call the police so my brother you have no you know this is before Black lives matter before we've seen you know black you will be killed that they have the law enforcement especially black people with mental illness but I just knew that that was not the right choice but I didn't have any better still call and I did call the police and I talked them through and I left a note was happening and the 1st thing they said to me I said What happens if my brother happens to get violent and they said all just taser him just like flats it's to the young cop to young rookie cops clearly scared out of their minds and I said you cannot taser him that's not that's not acceptable. They walked into my house and the minute they walked in my brother just. Put his hands up and went on his knees and just started begging them you know just like he just started begging them anyway I just knew I made them a mistake I just knew I made a mistake and I I you know help my brother said It's Ok and I told them to leave and it was in that moment that I realized that we're on our own that we are literally on our own and there is no infrastructure for black families when dealing with mental illness there's just none and we had to piece the infrastructure together. And he talked about the jurors. Yeah it was in those years that he was in an off and on his medication and he was in a fender bender and he was in the middle of a manic episode. And he might have cursed at the woman might have not we don't know we weren't there but the woman claimed that she that he had cursed at her and. Because my brother was a 2nd striker then because they said that the cursing was threatening they explain what you mean by 2nd striker he has had. 2 strikes on his record which is part of the 3 strikes law and California and could end up getting if he were to receive his 3rd strike end up in jail for life and even if that 3rd strike as stealing a candy bar stealing a candy bar and giving it a fender bender. So we went to court when we when we finally found where my brother was we went to that 1st court date and the lawyer said you know your brother is being charged with terrorist threats and that is a felony and they will probably be putting him away for the rest of his life and he was 2424 years old and I said that's not not on my watch. And you're a kid you're a kid through all of us yes. You describe a scene where you are in the white school and so you're making strong white girlfriends. Who you really cared about and you describe going to one of their homes and the lovely unbelievable scene that unfolds at dinner and the way they respected you describe what happened describe the dad of the family and how he treated you yes this is was what on my closest friends growing up in middle school and you become friends with the people that are that are in proximity to you so it was significantly white program significantly white school those are my friends and I went back to this friend's house and what looked like a mansion to be it's probably not that big of a house but there were neighborhood inside the apartment this house looked like a mansion and we were all at dinner and the father's jolly I mean honestly like Probably he looked like the original static class like big jolly white man with the bearded super sweet and smile on his face all the time we're talking you know and I'm never that in a scenario like this where you sit around and have dinner and we'll pass the exam and ask questions of you and he's you know and we get to a point in the conversation where he I don't know how maybe he asked me because oftentimes you know middle class parents ask your family does it talking about my mother and he says you know repeats my mother's name where do you live and I tell him my address he says oh oh those apartments. And my heart dropped because it was that apartment that I lived in that we didn't have refrigerator for a year and that sometimes appliances didn't work that we. I realized very quickly that that was our slumlord and the contradiction in that moment. It was hard to settle and the tension in the one because he was the 1st person who said to Patrice before you learned she was your slumlord What do you want to do with your life what are your plans how are you going to execute Exactly exactly and. Yeah what do you do with those moments when the person who's clearly house and vested in you doesn't actually have investment in your entire family and for structure that your family is living in. It's hard to manage you also describe out of a point in inviting a friend from that old world to your house and him coming into your house in the the ambulance in the background that you just took for granted he suddenly remarks oh I didn't know you live like this like that but that's exactly what happened and you know I think what's interesting about growing up black and poor is you don't actually realize how bad it is until you see what else what else is and my mother was very particular about who we let over and they begged her begged her to let my friend over he was my best friend you know I didn't think there'd be any judgment I didn't assume they would be any judgment and there definitely was and he walked in my home and I remember that Dave so vividly because there was the ambulance at the back and I was like why does it it's up to be here today why the sirens today and I was nervous about him coming in and he walked into my living room and I was sitting on the couch and he said I looked around he's like I don't know you live like this. And I got that I got a lot from other middle class children because they only know their world and they don't have to actually enter the world of communities of color and poor communities in particular and you also described above it was a. Racially mixed neighborhood a large Mexican American there were Korean Americans there were even though a few white folks who lived in the neighborhood talk about that experience as well yeah I grew up mostly around Latinos and in my community experience with both law enforcement and witnessing what was then I in this. Emigration national security was really prominent And I think it was a you know to grow up in such and multi racial environment many of us our family members were getting you know social welfare many of our family members were getting food stamps when they actually look like stamps look at it. And we grew up in this environment and we really raised each other and really really took care of each other and colored I think it really colors how I am in this movement we have to take care of each other and we didn't have local government taking care of us. We're going to break and we come back what it meant to come out and your community with your family with your friends. Your response to Trayvon Martin's death then George Zimmerman being acquitted how you came up with that hash tag black lives matter and we want to talk with about how this story shows us the stories about the effects of drug policy and mass incarceration today is the day that a remarkable book has just come out when they call you a terrorist a black lives matter memoir it's by our guest today Patrice concolor Zen badly This is Democracy Now back with them in a moment. But. This is like. Deprogramming is underwritten in part by Weathertop nursery in Laytonville on Harmon drive they have all the gardens need inside and out including a wide variety of perennials trees and house plants Weathertop nursery is open Monday through Saturday from 9 to 5 pm more information 9846385 or put their top nursery dot com. Here it came out we love the news we ask our listeners to call if they hear or see anything pertinent to our community you can reach the news room anytime at 707232605 we looked. Forward to hearing from you. Every day and yeah I want to. Give them there by Lauren Hill our guests today are Patrice Kohn colors co-founder of Black lives matter and then Delhi together they have written the book the memoir of Patrice life it's called when they call you a terrorists a black lives matter memoir I mean the Goodman with Juan Gonzalez Patrice Why don't you just read from your book aside from the astonishing story you tell it is so beautifully written. A Chapter 11 black lives matter. This was a teenager disc was a teenager just trying to get home Sabrina Fulton It was July 13th 2013 and I've stepped away from monitoring events at the trial the man who killed Trayvon Martin 17 a year and a half before I had learned about Trayvon One day while I was at the Strategy Center in 2012 and going through Facebook I came across a small article from a local paper was it Sanford's I read that a white man that's how the killer was identified and self identified until we raise the issue of race had killed a black boy and was not going to be charged I start cursing I am outraged and what does this make sense I put a call out how people heard about 17 year old Trayvon Martin I have love so many young men who look just like this boy I feel immediate grief as my friends begin to respond they to our grief stick it stricken we meet at my home we circle a multi-racial group of roughly 15 people dedicated to ending white supremacy and creating a world in which all of our friends can thrive we process we talk about what we've seen and experienced in our lives we cry. That's Patrice Khan colors reading from her book or at least today when they call you a terrorist of black lives matter a memoir. I'm wondering Patricia Were you surprised by the enormous reaction as you began to develop to the black lives matter. And also talk about the strategy you mentioned you had come out of the strategy center What was the strategy. I'm a trained organizer and so I think sometimes people think that because black lives matter is the biggest thing that's the 1st thing I ever did and it's not. Going to train knocking on doors you know getting on buses and passing out flyers and getting people to join organizations the labor community Strategy Center is my 1st political home it's where I would be a part of what it's famous for which is the bus riders Union started by an old friend of mine. That's my mentor. And that has black lives matter explain how it came to your relationship at least to Garza and how the 3 of you I mean I remember when we had you on our show the 3 of you with these towers of strength Patrice Kahn colors and. Opal to Nettie right when you were just going into a major conference that we can but this was before you know how did it come to you why were you talking to Elise you did you know her before I did I did know at least here for at least 6 years by the time we started Black lives matter and George Zimmerman had just been acquitted of murder and I was furious and I was stricken and I went on to social media as many of folks in our generation do to go commiserate with the people that I love and know and I found at least Garza's posts and she wrote a love note to black folks and she closed that post off with black white as matter and I put a hash tag on it and I said we got to make this go viral that those are the 3 words I literally. With in the next 24 hours her and I would be talking about a project that we wanted to create and we were going to call it Black lives better . Ople to Mattie called Elisia a few days later saying I want in I want to be a part of this I want to help develop it I want to build out the communications infrastructure so that it can go viral and that's the very beginning of black lives matter and it would become a phrase into a hash tag evolve into a political platform and evolve into what's now a global Network an organization with over 40 chapters worldwide and before this coming out coming out because so much of the power is this it's the personal story you tell and then of course there are the global political implications but it starts with a kid and it starts to treat the trees that I was I was very weird. Self-proclaimed weirdo. Just super excited about life you know I was I'm an artist and so I've been to a lot of our schools and performance schools and at 14 years old my cousin actually came out 1st and she was the brave one choose trailblazer and she got. She got a lot of backlash from her family her mother in particular so much so that they got in a physical fight on our high school campus and she your mother her mother came just sir and beat her yes mother came to school and physically fought her and then pulled her out of the school that was so nurturing to her and where really all her family was and put her in a totally different program but it was that it was my cousin's courage that really shaped me being clear about why I needed to come out and I would come out the very next year and. And and your family's reaction. It was very hard for my mother. She we never talked about it. But she was atrocious when she she is a Jehovah's Witness the whole family on my mother's side is your hope as a witness but I knew that it was a sin and we. By that last year of high school my senior year of high school many of us had come out and we were houseless we roamed to people's homes we we went to the families who were accepting of us we stayed in cars you lived with the teachers which saved you helped to save your legs are so many Yes Donna Hill she the day I graduated I moved in with her and I propositioned her you know early on I said I'd like to live with can't legally have you live with me or student but she said The moment you graduate you're welcome to come live with me and myself and my close friend Carla good Silas is still one of my best friends moved in with her and lived with her for a couple years while we got ourselves on our feet and Atia I'd like to ask you you've been active in the in the movement against. American drug policy can you talk about that that involvement and how that shaped your decision to get involved in writing this book. Well. First in terms of doing the book it is. To support Patrice in telling her story and I think that as a journalist and being trained to sort of deeply listen it was clear that what Patrice was actually telling was the story of someone who grew up at the epicenter of the drug war in southern California and I thought that was a particularly important to unpack because even many of us who oppose mass incarceration don't feel comfortable challenging drug policies drugs. You know we understand them u.s. Drug policy has been we've used it against ourselves we've been embarrassed ashamed black people haven't stood up we you know we can say Killer Mike can embrace Killer Mike as a great rapper but we would never do that with crackhead Mike right and so we've participated in a stigma that was to regularly created at a moment when black people at the top of the moral mounds in the civil rights movement and you but you could no longer use race as a reason to exclude people from society Nixon's administration uses drugs as a proxy for race and goes after them we know that now we know when John Ehrlichman has said they know they were lying he says of course they knew they were lying about black people and drug involvement but they have so demonized there that we don't even want to talk about it and the whole communities meanwhile are targeted under the guise of keeping children safe and they're actually making children less safe it's been the reason for in any case you look at in Trayvon Martin's case right the 1st thing the lawyer said was oh he had marijuana in his system as though that were some justification they said the same thing about Sondra bland era Garner is selling loose cigarettes they claim they're the family disputes that by the way but they claim he's selling Lou cigarettes so all of these drug products are used as justification to kill people to roll tanks into Ferguson that comes from drug war dollars and. Then when it does it well they don't but they talk about are people dying of drug use but was actually more harmful is the drug war. It is clear in this book that nothing in Patrice's life would indicate who she would become. And saying she but she is right here. Your life now I mean you wrote in a remarkable book The prisoner's wife about your husband who was imprisoned then deported to Guyana and 2000 and stead of coming out and being able to live in this country and then you meet Patrice who does life story so intertwined with the drug war yet if people were to look at Patricia story they wouldn't necessarily know that how it's us policy that is shaping this young woman's life right and I think that's true for many of us we see the immediate action in front of us right the immediate police officer as a girl in your face but we don't think about how is that police officer empowered to do this and how can we disempower them we don't think about the fact that monies are set aside in every police department for us to be able to sue them when they do harm us I wonder if all the money police departments pay out to people who are harmed by law enforcement came out of their pension funds how much we might reduce police violence don't think about what it means to have civil asset forfeiture it takes away primarily poor people's homes and says Right that disrupts incomes and makes people homeless and then they take that money and buy tanks and buy other kinds of militarized equipment to harm our communities so there's a direct line and I want people to see that and no longer feel the shame and stigma of drug use drug involvement or or oppression because oppression is embarrassing It shames us as humiliates us to say this happened to me rather than I was the arbiter of my own destiny it's interesting you mention. Specially the racial parent from the war on drugs because we're now also with a new drug epidemic in America the opioid epidemic but no one is calling for a crackdown on the rule communities I'm locking them up and and going to keep away for the victims of the opioid act but then i like they did over the crack epidemic were they did over the heroin epidemic in the sixty's or whatever The whole different approach now. Standing in his mental health help you know if it isn't it isn't right so we have this very public face with Chris Christie on the east coast saying a lot of things about it but in truth if we look at the cocaine use in the eighty's and ninety's 1st of all white people used and soles more crack and use more powder cocaine their pharmaceutical the same drug right so they they used it more than we did in the response to them was employee assistance programs it was we're going to take care of you was Betty Ford said it was any number of things to ensure their communities didn't fall apart and the response to our communities was a car situation demonisation in very many ways that's the same thing that's happening is just more public so white people embrace and black people 80 to 90 percent of those now going to prison for heroin involvement we just have 30 seconds Patrice Kahn colors this is the story of your life you. Coined the term with 2 of your sisters black lives matter black lives matter and your trump your comment. I think we are living under really grave and administration that is really challenging our moral compass in America I think black lives matter is and a moment where we get to stand up to trump but also the white nationalist that he's empowered and it's in this moment that black lives matter gets to forge a new path for this country where we can honestly see and live in a democratic America I want to thank you both for being with us and recommend everyone. Your next book should be this one Patrice Kahn colors co-founder of Black lives matter and deli award winning journalist and author have written a new book it's out today when they call you a terrorist a black lives matter memoir that does it for a show special thanks to Mike Burke Renee Feldstein that goes to the well as Lord that has been your semi truck and I mean to get that one that's all.