Its no joke why the nuns say their protest is a matter of faith. Soledad im Soledad Obrien. Welcome to matter of fact. Three years ago on july 17, 2014, eric garner died after he was restrained by new York City Police officers on staten island. Suspected of selling lucies or single cigarettes, Police Arrested him, and placed him in a banned chokehold. Garner protested over and over that he couldnt breathe. Within an hour, the 43yearold was dead. Garners death was one in a series of incidents that focused National Attention on poli violence against black americans. A new book called chokehold claims the widespread idea that black men are more prone to violence is one the Justice System has perpetrated for decades. Paul butler is a former federal prosecutor and author of chokehold. Also, a professor of law at georgetown university. Thank you for being with us. Paul butler its great to be soledad your book is amazing and also kind of overwhelmingly tough to read as well. Why did you call it chokehold . Paul butler the chokehold is a twostep process. It is about how black men are perceived. We often are viewed as thugs. There is a lot of anxiety, a lot of fear around us. So step one, the construction of the thug. Step two is all this law and social practices to deal with ikely to shoot us. Next to black comply, but you soledad sos put on peopga that ie you saw a human killed on television. You saw the entire process. Paul Butler Police in america kill about 1000 people a year. And in 10 years, there were fewer than 50 prosecutions of those officers and only about 11 were convicted. So why is that . In chokehold, i suggest the system is actually worki way it is supposed to. The police have super powers, so, often when they kill African Americans, it is perfectly legal. What the court has done is empowered the police. And by court, i mean the Supreme Court has empowered the police with the ability to make arrests for anything. I talk about a case the Supreme Court heard in texas where they arrested a woman for drivi without a seat belt. Ocked her up and took her to the crazy thing was if you are guilty of that crime, you don go to jail. It is a 50 fine. Supreme court said it didnt. You can still be arrested, even if you cant be locked up if y are guilty. For using deadly force, for racial profiling, for making arrests for any little old cr those powers against black men. Soledad there is a philosophy that would say it is not that the entire system is corrupt, that you have some bad actors, bad apples in the barrel if you will. Paul butler i dont think Police Officers are any more racist or have any more baggage around race than law professors, than artists, than anyone else in our society. Again, the problem isnt with them. The problem is that the way they enforce their law is all about violence. Unfortunately, it is all about using criminal law to treat issues that are much more about public health, about ways to keep families whole. If we look at whos locked up, soledad, 80 of people who are in prison are either addicts or mentally ill. So, how can we ask the police to deal with problems like that . Unfortunately, as a society, thats our investment. Our investment is in Law Enforcement rather than treatment, rather than public health, rather than Great Schools and job training. And if you are a society that has a lot of fear and anxiety around African American men, then your solution is going to be incarceration, locking them up, trying to control them. Soledad the book is called chokehold. Paul butler, thank you for joining me. Paul butler t having me. Announcer next on matter of fact. 50 years ago, some of americas cities went up in flames. Pres. Johnson we have endured a week such as no nation should live through. Announcer this senator was asked e cause. Sen. Fred harris the core of the report was, our nation is moving toward two societies separate and unequal. Announcer so where are we now . And later, turning a mountaintop coal mine into a solar farm. Can a company retrain miners for energy jobs of the future . Lets talk about haribo goldbears. The red one is more gooder to me cos it tastes like berries. Theyre really squishy. And then im gonna fly it in to my mouth. Kids and grown ups love it o the happy world of Haribo Soledad the summer of 1 brought riots, some called them uprisings, to the streets and neighborhoods of american cities. The worst came during a twoweek period in july, starting on july 12th. First in newark, and t detroit. 50 years ago, five days into the detroit riots, president Lyndon Johnson established a commission and directed it to answer three basic questions. What happened . Why did it happen . And what could be done to prevent the riots from happening again . The Kerner Commission, named after its chair, illinois governor otto kerner, jr. , visited the affected cities, heard witness testimony, and gathered information about the underlying causes of the violence. Their conclusion . Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white separate and unequal. Next week, well look back with eyewitnesses, journalists, and talk about detroits future as we sit down with the last surviving member of the commission. Senator fred har who says we havent learned from our past. Fred harris thats the sad thing. We made progress on almost every aspect of race and poverty for about 10 years after the kerner backward. About 10 yearsr we began to give tax cuts to the rich people. And we began again to cut programs for training and education and safety net programs and so forth. And then in recent years, that gotten even worse. Soledad do you think theres been a cost of ignoring the recommendations of the Kerner Commission . Fred harris yes, there certainly has. Soledad a big cost . Fred harris we ought to be investing like crazy in education, particularly Early Childhood education. We ought to be seeing that people have jobs. Health care for example, looked like for awhile wed made some Real Progress for health care for people, and now we may be moving backward. But i think what weve got to is help people to see that these problems are with us, in some ways theyre worse, and wev got to take actions because its in our own interest to do so. Soledad what was the reaction when the report was released . Fred harris well, take for example, the president s repor somebody leaked a copy of that and got it to him. He never read it i dont thin but a member of Congress Told him, this thing is going to ruin you. It hasnt a good word to say about you and what youve done about civil rights and poverty which was absolutely false and it condones and encourages riots. So, the president refused to meet with us. We were going to meet with him formally and give him the report and so forth, and we were also going to ask for six months of life more so that we could lobby for our recommendations. Soledad if the president didnt even bother to read the report and wouldnt meet with you, ds that make the report a failure ultimately . Fred harris well, no, i think it was good for black people, among other things. We said right out loud, racism. That was, you know, what caused people to gasp i think. But it sort of reinforced, it sort of reinforced what a lot of black people maybe knew. Its i am being discriminated against, and heres a group thats mostly white thats saying so. And i think it really, for the time being and the future, it really outlined what needed to you know, i grew up in a little town, walters, oklahoma, about no black people lived there at all. What id said was, if a person like me can come to see these things, anybody can if we could just let them see it through our eyes. Announcer next on matter of putting coal miners back to work in clean energy. Creating opportunities for displaced coal miners truly is a once in a lifetime opportunity,. Announcer is solar power the solution for displaced workers and later, teen drivers and traffic stops. Why some states are passing laws to teach teens how to talk to the cops. Soledad progress to report on a story we told you about a few months ago. A Kentucky Coal company, Berkeley Energy group, is moving forward with engineering, geological, and feasibility studies, and the permitting process, to build a solar farm on the site of a former coal strip mine. Two mountaintop sites near pikesville, kentucky, are under consideration. Oal is to finish the studies by yearend. Edre initial investment in the project that would be the states largest solar farm. The company has promised to hire as many former coal miners as plant and train them for future openings. Given all thats happening, we thought it would be a good time to revisit our conversation with adam edelen, the man overseeing the project. Soledad nice to talk to you. Your company is small but the partnership you are creating is what makes it large, correct . Adam edelen that is right. Bring together big players in Renewable Energy and coal to build a Solar Project on a mountaintop removal site, creating opportunities for displaced coal miners, is truly a once in a lifetime opporty. And i appreciate your interest. Soledad why would a massive coal company want to be a pa dealing with clean energy . We, maybe those of us who are not in the industry, always think of that as competing, not necessarily grounds for a partnership. Adam just as we are trying to diversify the economic portfolio of this very important coal company, it is even more important we diversify the Economic Opportunities so we can make sure the people in fppalachia and Eastern Kentucky their families and live where they want to live. Soledad how many jobs do you need to fill . How many coal miners today are actually looking for work in kentucky . Adam edelen we have several thousand coal miners who have lost their jobs in the downturn of the coal economy, so any proj opportunity for them, particularly the opportunity to learn next generation sort of skills, is really important. We have an economy that focused almost completely on coal for about 100 years in appalachia. Being able to make the transition, being able to create new Economic Opportunity is really important. Soledad do you worry that the embrace of these kinds of solar farms actually helps hasten the demise of coal mining jobs . Adam edelen well, i think what we know is that this is not a competition between solar and coal. The leading partner is a coal company, and they intend to but i think it is clear that coal burning is not the direction the Energy Market is going in globally. So, recognizing that is important. I think this is more competition between jobs for the future and no jobs. I do believe the pol environment is trailing the people who live in appalachia. What they are craving and really dying for is the opportunity to get back to work. I think they would love to have an opportunity to work in an industry that will be around in the future. And that is the opportunity i think renewables offer in particular. Soledad mr. Edelen, nice to have you. Thanks for talking we look forward to visiting that project in the future. Adam edelen cant wait to ho you. Announcer coming up next, police stops turned deadly. The controversy over laws requiring teen drivers to take classes on interacting with cops. And later, a pennsylvania cornfield becomes the site of an openair chapel built by nuns. Now, a Pipeline Company needs a courts blessing to tear it down. Whose prayers will be answered . And, you commented on our interview last week with the charlottesville, virginia, mayor, mike signer, about the confederate statues. See an extended version on matteroffact. Tv. Soledad a handful of st leading an effort to t drivers, especially those from communities of color, how to handle a police stop. Virginia, illinois, north caroli, and louisiana have enacted laws to incorporate how to respond to police stops in teen driversed training after the highprofile wave of policerelated shootings of African Americans over the past few years. The virginia law went into effect july 1. It was sponsored by state delegate jeion ward, an African American grandmother, who says she was moved to action to protect her grandson. Correspondent Nikole Killion has our report. Nikole it happens every day. Drivers stopped by police as part of a routine traffic stop. In fact, its the most common way people interact with police. And it can turn deadly. Like this stop in minnesota. Philando castile shot in his car while his girlfriend streamed it live. He just shot his arm off. Nikole and with black drivers stopped more frequently than latinos or whites, its long been a topic of conversation between some parents and their teenage children. Jeion ward is a delegate in the Virginia State legislature. Del. Jeion ward, d virginia i have three adult sons, and we had that kind of conversation. And when i heard them trying to have the same conversation with my grandson, i just wanted to make sure we got this right for him. Nikole she sponsored a expand drivers education classes, adding training on appropriate interactions with Law Enforcement. Del. Ward keep those Young Drivers calm. If they know whats coming, if they know whats acceptable, then it shouldnt escalate into something more serious. Nikole the Virginia Department of education developed the guidance with input from state police. According to the new curriculum which will be implemented this fall, teen drivers will be advised to pull over to a safe location, leave their hands in plain view, and not make any moves that could be misinterpreted by police. But critics, like sara mokuria, cofounder of the texasbased mothers against police brutality, say laws li the virginia one are a sad statement on where we are as a nation. Sarah mokuria when youre in drivers ed, you should be learning to follow the driving safety rules. But you should not have to be trained on how to deal with a Police Officer who doesnt kn how to control his or her aggression or fears you because of the color of your skin. Nikole delegate ward says critics have a point, but confronting racism in policing could take time and cost young lives. Del. Ward if there needs to be more training for Law Enforcement, that will come next. But right now, lets make sure our young driver children know what they are supposed to do. Nikole important steps in preventing routine traffic stops from becoming tragedies. In washington, for matter of fact, im Nikole Killion. Announcer when we come back what do an order of nuns, a Pipeline Company, and a pennsylvania cornfield have in common . Well unearth the answer after the break. Soledad an order of nuns, based out of st. Louis, called the adorers of the blood of christ, owns a strip of land in columbia, pennsylvania. That strip happens to be along a proposed route of a pipeline. The atlantic Sunrise Pipeline expansion, 180 miles long, would cut across 10 counties in the state. The federal Energy Regulatory Commission Approved the natural gas pipeline earlier this year and ruled that the developer has the right to construct, maintain, and operate the pipeline on the private land. Hoping to stall construction, the nuns built an openair chapel on their land, forcing the developer to go to court for an emergency order to seize the property. They could have built any kind of a structure to trigger a delay. As a bit of a p. R. Move, the nuns themselves say the chapel makes the better statement as a place for prayer and reflection about st and holy uses of land. The chapel was dedicated last weekend. The company, meantime, is waiting for the courts blessi to move forward and knock down the chapel. Im Soledad Obrien for matte of fact. Well see you next week. [captioning performed by the nationwhich is responsible for s captiora from studio 20 at kofytv, its the show that makes you sweat to the beat of the 80s. Its dance party. Im your dj, dj katie, and now the man who brings the party right into your living room, its our host, morris knight. Whats up, people . Whats up, yall . Welcome to the show. Thats how we doin it. Kofytv dance party, the semifinals. Oh my gosh, are you guys ready and what could a party be without the fabulous dj, dj katie . We might as well get things underway here. So hey, its a party, its the one that we bring to your very own living room, its kofytv dance party, and things are kicking off right now with michael jackson. Dj katies got it for you
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