Transcripts For LINKTV Democracy Now 20170411

Latest. Then we look at how Jeff Sessions speaking seeking to limit oversight over troubled police departmtment a and escsce the e war on drugsgs. In recent y years, Law Enforcement as a whole, i thihi, has been unfaiairly maligned and deeds of aacceptable few bad actors. Amy plus, as the Trump Administration an Aircraft Carrier in several warships for the korean peninsula, and issues new warnings to syria, we will look at who profits when the u. S. Goes to war. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson is heading to russia today, where hes meeting with foreign minister Sergey Lavrov amid increasing tensions between the u. S. And russia over the ongoing war in syria. Russian president Vladimir Putin will not meet with tillerson a move that points to increasing conflict between the two countries following the u. S. Decision to launch 59 mimissiles at a Syrian Government air base last w wee the u. S. Says that strike was in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack allegedly carried out by the Syrian Government, which killed 86 civilians, including dozens of children. On monday, sean spicer signaled the u. S. May take further military action in syria, not only in retaliation for chchemil weapons attack, but also to attacks like errol bombs. Barrel bombs. I think the president has been clear that there were a number of lines that were crossed. Not just syria, but with the world saw is a president that is going to act decisively and proportionally and with justification when it comes to actions like that. I will tell you, the answer is that if you gas a baby, if you put a barrel bomb to innocent people, i think you will see a response from this president. Amy Rex Tillerson spent monday in italy for the g7 meeting where the Foreign Ministers discussed the ongoing syrian war. Outside the meeting, demonstrators protesting the g7 were attacked by italian police. This is one of the protesters. The people in europe and the middle east need to wake up and find a way to make their real enemies paid a price for what is being done. Our real enemies are the governments come the banks come the big multinational arms manufacturers who make profit with the blood of each one of us. This is the only solution there is. We think the only solution is not to expect anything more from these governments. Amy we will have more on syria including on how President Trump from they profited bombing of the airbase. Meanwhile, u. S. Led Coalition Airstrikes targeting isis militants in syrias raqqa governorate continue to kill civilians. The journalistic Monitoring Group airwars says that on friday, a u. U. S. Led coaoalition airstrike on a house reportedly killed at least five civilians, while another strike that same day on an internet cafe reportedly killed at least nine civilians, including three children. The following day, a u. S. Led Coalition Airstrike reportedly killed a at least seven civilia, including sisix chilildren, whee strike hit a boat on Euphrates River the family was traveling on. And on sunday, a u. S. Strike on a market reportedly killed three civilians a married couple anand their son. North korea is warning the United States its ready for war following the pentagons decision to send an Aircraft Carrier, known as the carl vinson, and three guidedmissile destroyers and cruisers to the korean peninsula. A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman told the staterun news agency we will hold the u. S. Wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its outrageous actions. North korea is ready to react to any mode of war desired by the u. U. S. In San Bernardino, california, residents gathered monday night for a vigil to mourn the deaths of 8yearold Jonathan Martinez and Elementary School teacher karen elaine smith, who were murdered monday morning when smitiths estrtrangehuhusband wd into her special education classroom at north park Elementary School and d began shootingng at his wife with a highcaliber r revolver. The man, cedric anderson, had a history of Domestic Violence and karen elaine smiths mother says she was planning to divorce him at the time of the shooting. Anderson shot and killed himself in thehe classroom after murderg his wife, fatally wounding 8yearold martinez, and injuring a 9yearold student. This is San Bernardino police chief jarrod burguan. Cedric into the classroom in what we understand was without saying anything come armed with a large caliber revolver, opoped fire on his wife. She was killed in that exchange. There werere two students in the classroom behind the teacher that were struck by gunfire. One of those children is identified as Jonathan Martinez. He is eight years old. He was taken to the Medical Center via helicopter, airlifted out almomost immediately as s sn as we could get resources there. Tragically, he has passed away. Amy a new investigation by Global Witness has revealed that Oil Giant Shell knowingly participated in a massive bribery scheme that ended up robbing nigerians of more than a billion dollars. In 2011, shell and Italian Oil Company eni paid a combined 1. 1 billion for access to a massive offshore oil block. Newly revealed internal emails show shell executives knew the money would be stolen by nigerias former oil minister, a convicted money launderer, who used the stolen money to bribe government officials and to buy a private jet, armored cars, and firearms. Shell has long denied knowing anything about the corruption involved in the deal. In charleston, south carolina, convicted murderer and white supremacist dylann r roof pleadd guilty to nine counts of murder in state court on monday. Roof has already been convicted and sesentenced to death on federal charges of murdering nine black worshipers, including pastor clementa pinckney, at the historic Emanuel Ame Church in charleston in june 2015. A Houston District Court judge has ruled that texas 2011 voter written with the specific intent to suppress the votes of African American and latino residents. This is now the fifth time a judge has ruled that texas voter id law is discriminatory. The law created a list of ids required to vote that skewed heavily toward ids carried by whwhites, such as concealed cary permits, while excluding ids ids often carried by peoeope of color, such as Government Employee ids and Public University ids. The ruling comes after the Justice Department dropped part of its legal objection to texas strict voter id law in february, saying it would no longer argue the law had a discriminatory intent. Alabama Governor Robert Bentley resign as he faced the first day monday of impeachment hearings over accusations he was having an affair with his senior political adviser, and then used public money and resources to try to cover up the relationship. Bentley will be succeeded by lt. Governor kay ivey, the second female governor of alabama in history. Meanwhile, seattle mayor ed murray is facing multiple accusations he molested and had sex with underaged boys in the 1980s. Two wells fargo executives are being forced by the companys board to pay back 75 million in compensation over a massive scandal in which wells fargo workers created 2 million fake accounts in order to meet grueling sales targets. Wells fargo former ceo john stumpf, and the former head of Community Banking Carrie Tolstedt are forced to return a combined 75 million in pay, making it the largest clawback in u. S. Banking history. Wells fargo has fired a staggeringng 5300 lolowlevel workers over the creation of the fake accounts. People nationwide also continue to protest wells fargo over its role in funding the 3. 8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. United airlines is facing widespread criticism after video surfaced of a doctor being forcibly dragged off a plane by Security Officers on after united overbooked the sunday flight and then demanded some passengers disembark. When no one volunteered, they chose four people to get off the flight. The 69yeaearoldan was selelecd to be forcrced off the plane. He protesteted, saying he was a dodoctor whoho needed to b be ae hospital in kentucucky the following morning. The Washington Post reportsts fellow passengers that he said more or less, im being selected because i am chinese. Multiple Chicago Department of aviation Security Officers then began dragging him through the aisle as fellow passengers screamed. I havave to go home. I have t to go home. I i have to go home. E. I i have to go h home. Aftfter being r removed, ththe man who wawas bloodied by the fifirst remomoval, a attempted n back onto the plplane. He w was then foforcibly removea second time. United airlines ceo has apologized for having to reaccommodate these customers. Some people in china have begun calling for a boycott of United Airlines. The Pulitzer Prizes have been announced. The New York Daily News and propublica w won the top Public Service Journalism Award for a joint investigation into new York Police Departments use of eviction rules to force people of color out of their homes. The Washington Post David Fahrenthold won for his investigation into how President Trump lied during the campaign about donating millions of dollars to charities to help veterans. The International Consortium of investigative journalists, mcclatchy, and the miami herald also won for the reporting on the massive Panama Papers leak that revealed how the panama base law firm set up a Global Network of Shell Companies for heads of state another ealys to store money offshore to avoid taxes and oversight. Art cullen of the tiny, familyrun newspaper the storm lake iowa times won for his editorials that challenged the corporate agricultural industry, including the koch brothers, cargill and monsanto. Cullen is not only the papers editorial writer, but also the papers editor and parttime reporter. His brother, john, is the papers publisher. The Pulitzer Prize for biography went to hisham matar for the return fathers, sons and the land in between, which chronicles the authors return to libya, where his father had been imprisoned by Muammar Gaddafi two decades earlier. And the Pulitzer Prize for history went to Heather Ann Thompson for blood in the water the attttica prison uprising of 1971 and its legacy. This is thompson speaking on democracy now about her investigation into the decadeslong coverup about how armed state troopers raided the prison t to break the standofff, firing more thanan 2000 roroundf ammunition, killlling including9 prisoners and 10 guards. For 45 years, the majority of the records for attica remain sealed by the state Attorney Generals Office or at least very difficult to get. And the reason is that for all of the deaths at attica, no member of law enforcemement was ever held responsible. So the book was the journey to figure out who had created so much trauma, what had happened in the Governors Office to lead to this retaking, who were the members of law enfnforcement tht not only shot their weapons, but indeed the highest levels of the state police who worked very hard to tamper with evidence, to conceal evidence, and to protect their own. And that was a key journey for finding out also to see our full theseiew with journalists, you can go to democracynow. Org. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan and im juan gonzalez. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. Funerals have begun in egypt for victims of two bomb attacks targeting coptic Christian Churches on sunday. At least 49 people were killed and over 100 people were injured. Isis has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which targeted the st. Georges Coptic Church in the Northern City of tanta, and the st. Marks cathedral in the Northern City of alexandria where Coptic Pope Tawadros was celebrating palm mass. Sunday the pope was uninjured in the attack. Amy one of the coptic parishioners who survived the attack in tanta described what happened. It was a little after 9 00 a. M. The prayers s were b being heldd eveveryone wasas sitting in ther places, but the pews were e not full yet. I was sitting the front and all of a sudden, everything went dark. I passed out and someone pushed me off my seat. If you minutes later, i got up and saw bodies. And g got out using a side door. I heard screams of peoeople sayg get out. Amy egyptian president Abdel Fattah Alsisi responded by declaring a threemonth state of emergency. Several steps are to be taken. The first of which will do the declaration of state of emergency after the necessary legal and constitutional procedures are complete, for threemonth in egypt. We are announcing this state of emergency only to protect our country and secure it and prevent any interference with it. Juan the state of emergency gives alsisis government even further power to continue its crackdown against human rights activists and journalists. It allows the government and its Security Forces to surveil all communications, confiscate property, arrest anyone suspected of violating the state of emergency laws, and shut down media outlets. On monday, egyptian authorities blocked distribution of the newspaper al bawaba because it included an article blaming the interior ministry for security lapses i in the churchch bombin. Amy to talk more about the situation, we go to cairo, egypt, to speak with democracyy now w correspspondent sharif fl kouddous. Can you talk about what happened and the state of emergency in response . Be, as, this seems to you mentioned, a security failure in egypt. The Islamic State group back in december had to signaled its intention to escalate the attacks on the christian minority in egypt with a bombing in a church in cairo,o, issued a video in january saying it was going to attack k christians. Huhundreds of christstians weree foforced to fleeee tir homeses following a campaign of assassination and intitimidation against them. Then on this palm sunday, one of the most important religious celebrations for Coptic Christians, we have this coordinated wave of attacks. It speaks to the failure of the governments highly powerful intelligence agencies for not anticipating these kinds of attacks. Less than two weeks ago, there was a bomb found in the very one church that was bombed palm sunday. It was disarmed. Clearly, this church was the target. And despite that, the bomber managed to evade security measures, get by a metal detectctor, walk into the church and blow himself up right near the alaltar. Were celebrating palm sunday. So this really sent shockwaves through egypt. It was the deadliest day of violence that egyptian christians have seen in many decades. Egypts 90 million people, about 10 are christians. Generally speaking, are the Coptic Christians seen as supportive of the sisi regime or not . Certainly, the leadership was. The pope sat next to sisi in 2013 when he ousted mohamed morsi. Coptic members of parliament and prominent figurures have all ben very supportive of it. There was a real threat that the Coptic Community saw from the Muslim Brotherhood, which to its discredit, engaged in a lot of sectarian language to cater to its far right elements and its constituency. They saw the military coming in as saving them from that. I think it is important to note there is widespread and everyday discrimination against Coptic Christians in egypt, both legal and social. For example, when there is religious crashes or coptic homes are burned down in upper egypt, authorities will hold a traditional gathering instead of taking the perpetrators to court to shield them from prosecution. When churches have been attacked for years under the pretext that they are built illegally. We have years of debate. Finally, parliament passed a law last year about churches that still is far more restrictive than the regulations allowing mosques to be built. There is also failurere to knowledge this kind of determination. Officials usually say it is exaggerated or nonexistent. This creates Fertile Ground for those who seek to incite violence against christians like the Islamic State. Juan i want to ask you, have there been any efforts by or at least successful attempts by the secular prodemocracy movement in egypt, which is obviously now under intense attack by the alsisi gogovernment come asas l as supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood to attempt to build some kind of alliance . Really, sisi is consolidating further and further his dictatorship. Im wondering what the top and the efforts to build a united front against him, if theres any real effort occurring . Groups are many under such fears attack right now. There is organizing and Movement Building that is difficult at the moment. So many people have been imprisoned. So many people have gone into exile because of the repression in egypt. Civil society is under in unprecedented attack will stop it is very hard for people to get together and also very dangerous to try and organize in a real way. I think we are seeing although you do see pockets of resistance that rise up, there was a case about two islands that egypt gave to saudi arabia sovereignty over, and there was a massive protest about that in a Favorable Court ruling that was recently overturned. Doctors came out in full force after some members of their syndicates were attacked by police. That had an effect in the court as well. You do see these moments of uprising. It in terms of cohesive Movement Building, i think we are still a long way off. Amy following sundays attack, President Trump took to twitter to express his faith in sisi tweeting so sad to hear of the terrorist attack in egypt. U. S. Strongly condemns. I have great confidence that president al sisi will handle situation properly. Can you talk about the special relationship between sisi he was the first foreign leader to call and congratulate donald trump. He just was received by donald trump at the white house. And also the history of the security crackdown, emergency rule under mubarak that lasted for what, over three decades . Egypt lived under a state of emergency for all 30 years of mubaraks role. The lifting was one of the main demands of the 2011 uprising. It was finally lifted in 2012, reinstated recently for a month following the massacre in 2013 what the state of emergency that sisi ordered on sunday does, it grants exceptional powers, for example, to use state security emergency courts to try suspects. These are courts were the verdicts cannot be appealed by any other court. Where the president can appoint Army Officers to sit on the judicial panel. It also gives them the rights to impose curfews, impose censorship, gives Broader Authority to the army to have jurisdiction that is usually reserved for Law Enforcement so they can arrest people on the streets. He also announced yesterdays men of a new powerful new body called the Supreme Council to combat terrorism and extremism that will regulate the media and religious discourse and so on. We have yet to see what it will be. Having said that, it is difficult to know exactly what will change on the ground. Security forces in egypt act with complete impunity and with no restrictions governed by the law. Forced disappearances are rampant. Arbitrary detention is rampant. Orple are held for weeks month or years without ever going to trial. It is hard to know how much more how much worse it can get, although, it can always get worse. Finally, the state of emergency, there has been a state of emergency in northern sinai on a near continuous basis for the past three years. Despite that, there is a surgeon see that is raining insurgency that is raging. I doubt these measures will really have an effect on this increasing militant violence we are seeing in egypt. Amy any special relationship . Havell, trump and sisi fermented a close relationship, devoid of any kind of criticism of each other. In one way it can be dangerous that it furtrther boldens sisi to crack down even further without even the muted criticism thatat we heard from previous of ministrations. But we have to also remember u. S. Policy has changed very little for the past four decades, which is a complete support for successive egyptian regime, complete military funding and backing and diplomatic support for the government that continued from reagan through bush through obama. It is continuing under trump come although, the rhetoric is very different. He went almost b beyond diplomac protocol yesterday, not only voicing concern or condolences for the victims, but expressing how sisi has has all caps at its that sisi will win this war on terror. Sisi, his intro promise of coming t to power was too crush terrorism and to restore security. These attacks really undermine his credibility. We are ready solitary his speech were he announced the state of emergency, he criticized local media further coverage of the attacks. We saw after the speech finished, all footage of the victims of the attacks was disappeared from local tv channels. As you mentioned, we also saw authorities pulled from the printiting presses n newspaper t is run by y a staunch prprosisi toppporter that pointed security failure is the reason behind the attacks. They are very much concerned his image as being strong on National Security group be damaged by these attacks. Amy sharif, thank you f for beg with us. Be safe. Sharif Abdel Kouddous is democracy now s correspondent in cairo and a Nation Institute fellow. We will be back in a minute. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan we turn now to look at how attornrney general jeff sesessis is attempting to shake up policing in the country by limiting federal oversight of troubled Police Departments with the history of civil Rights Violations while calling for an escalation of the war on drugs. Last week, sessions ordered a wideranging review of the federal Consent Decrees with local lawenforcement agencies that have been accused of brutality and violating civil rights laws. The review signals the Justice Department intends to shift away from monitoring and forcing changes within Police Departments such as the Police Department of ferguson, missouri, where systematic Racial Discrimination by the police and the Police Killing of unararmed 18yearold African American Michael Brown sparked an uprising in 2014. Amy this comes after attorney Jeff Sessions openly expressed concererns about effortsts apole reformrm in a recent speech. In rerecent years, Law Enforcement as a whole, i think, has been unfnfairly maligned and blamed for unacceptable deeds of a few bad actors. You have some 80800,000 state ad local law officers and federal officers in america. Imagine a city of 800,000. Are you not going to have people make mistakes . S . People whoho commit crimes out f that group . So w we are not perfect. We all know ththat. The department t of justicece is goining to fulfill its rolole to ensure that Law Enforcementt offificers are not outut of con. And if they violate the law, they will be punished. But we have to be careful about what were doing. We cannonot malign entire dedepartments. Totoo many of ourur officers, dedeputies, and troopers believe the Political Leadership in this country has abandoned t them. I lilike that linene from haaref conveyance, pirates of penzance. It is no fun to go out and hammmmers 70 and see them go t o jail. Nobody likes to do that. But it is our duty. It is our lot. During the same speech in richmond, virgiginia, Jeff Sessions called d for what m may see as a a new warn drdrugs. We need to say as nancy reagan said, just sayay no. Dont do it. Our nation is to sayay clearly once again that t using drdrugss bad, it wiwill destroy yourur l. In the 1980s and 1990s,s, we w campaignss stressing prevention. We can do ththis again. Educating peoplele and telling themem the terriblble truth abot ugs s and addiciction will resut in better choicices by more people. We canan reduce e the use of dr, save lives, and turned back the surge e in crime that inevitably follows in the wake of increased drug use. Amy for more we are joined by , two guests. Sherrilyn ifill is president and directorcounsel of the naacp Legal Defense fund. And norm stamper is the former chief of the seattle Police Department and the author of the book, to protect and to serve how to fix americas police. We welcome you both to democracy now is this a new war on drugs . And cacan you talk about the judges decision . What we see with attorney general Jeff Sessions is an effort to take us back in time. You heard in the clip that you just posted, i mean, he talks about nancy reagan. This is a person who stuck in the 1980s and in some cases, stuck in the 1950s. It is not just about the war on drugs. It is a richer view of Law Enforcement and policing in which you are attempting to wipe out the last 30 years of progress in this country to the extent it has been made. The last four years in particular will be focusing on Police Reform and you talk about ferguson in the uprising, this intent look at unconstitutional policing. This is what Jeff Sessions does not want to deal with. He talks about a few bad apples, not looking at systemic problems in the Police Department. The statute that governs these investigations and Consent Decrees like in baltimore is called the Law Enforcement misconduct statute. 14141. It was a result of the rising rodney king assault. That is a statute that authorizes the attorney general to investigate unconstitutional policing to engage in these dissent degrees. Lost is willing to completely ignore. In baltimore, what he is attempted to do is essentially undermine a Consent Decree that had been entered in january, negotiated over six months by the city of baltimore and by the department of justice. As soon as he commit office, Jeff Sessions began to try to slow walking approval of dissent decrees. Even up to last week the day before the was to be a public hearing when the community was to come before the federal judge and explain to him what they wanted to see in the decree, he filed a motion asking for a 90 day extension for the judge to review the decree. The judge approved the decree. Even then, jeff sesessions released a statement essentially criticizing it saying he things it will make e people in baltime less safe. Theried to intervene in case because we believe the department of justice under sessions has no intent a fully forcing the decree. The judge basically said it was too early, that he assumes the department of justice will enforce the decree. I hope he is right. I think we have an of reasonably that Jeff Sessions has no intention of actually enforcing the Consent Decree that really will bring about transformative policing a baltimore city. People 11 waiting for this for years. Juan i dont think ive ever seen, certainly not in my memory or the memory of most people, a complete about face of a federal institution versus the policy in december and november of last year to what it is now. The impact on so many of these cities that already have these decrees in terms of the fact the Justice Department has a responsibility to enforce them. Im wondering what your thinking is going to happen . It is astonishing. He ordered the review of 14 dissent degrees. Country inover the which Police Departments themselves have gotten on board with the idea of transformation. When i met with Jeff Sessions, and i did meet with him, i said, do you actually talk to local police . The chief of police and baltimore will tell you he wants the dissent degree. Even the head of the fop said at the las vegas summit, consent degrees bring resources to Police Departments. ,f you talk to Police Chiefs they know this is a moment when reform has to happen, that there has to be 21st Century Policing post of a question Jeff Sessions. I asked d him, do you talk t to policece . The man who was just confirmed as his deputy, rod was in steam, former u. S. Attorney from baltimore, just a week before i met with attorney general sessions had indicted seven Baltimore Police officers for racketeering from the elite gun unit. I told this to Jeff Sessions. He has his own worldview. He came in with that view and no fact is going to shake that view. Amy what did he respond . Besides calling me articulate, he essentially said, well, maybe baltimore has some problems. But as you can see, it had no affect on him because he has come forward with an effort to try to scuttle the degree. Juan i want to ask norm stamper , you are the head of the seattle Police Department. It had enormous progress for the citys policing. Can you talk about that . Chamitas progress. Lastly, the federally appointed monitor of the Consent Decree in seattle wrote essentially a love letter to the city, officials, the police chief, and named the rankandfile and said this is the department undergoing major transformation. Not thers ago that was case. Five years ago, the allegations of Excessive Force and bias policing were well established. So what has happened . There is been a 60 reduction in use of force by Seattle Police officers. There has been a dramatic decrease in the use of firearms, tasers, and batons. And Police Officers themselves through the president of the Police Officers guild are saying the train has left the station. We are grateful that we are at this stage juan in the crime rate continues to go down . Down. Continues to go officer injuries are either flat or dropping. There has been known socalled ferguson affect. To last monthback in richmond, virginia. Many of you who are law enenforcement t leaders have t s that in thisis age of viral vids and targeted killings of police, something has changed in polilicing. Sosome Law Enforcement personnel aree more reluctant t to get ouf their sqsquad carars and do o te proactive,e, up close e police t builds trust and prevents Violent Crimes s and saves lives ofof innocent people. In some cities, arrest have fallen as murder rates have surged. Amy that is attorney general Jeff Sessions, former Seattle Police chief, norm stamper, your responsese . Our responses, he is clearly in lockstep with his boss, the president. He is clearly an apologist for the worst kind of policing in this country. He is pandering to police unions. He is saying things that he thinks thehey want to hear. He needs to visit baltimore and seattle and Pay Attention instead of mouthing slogans. He needs to sit down and listen to the officers themselves. Want toerrilyn ifill, i ask about his emphasis on drugs. Clearly, not only is that out of step, but out of step of reality of how drugs are spreading into the country today. The drug problem in America Today is inrural areas. It is not as much in the inner city as it used to be. Is he going to now oversee the breaking down of doors and a huge increase in Law Enforcement activities in the rura areasl of amererica against white people o are now on drugs . Im going to guess no. Im one to say thihis is about being in that time machine. This is really the tragic consequence of this policy. The policy that Jeff Sessions is advancing, as you say, has nothing to do with the way in which the drug problem manifests itself today. What you suggesting as a solution will not meet the problem. And so even as while the president was campaigning, he talked about a drug addiction and talked about the need to do with drug addiction. The policy that Jeff Sessions is suggesting actually wont read the ash reach the opioid epidemic. That only because it focuses on lawenforcement rather than treatment, but it also thinks the simplistic just say no, you heard him refer to nancy reagan everyone now knows that t the way in which we dealt with the drug problem was very much racially biased, did not reach problem, did not deal with education or treatment or the issue of the underlying conditions in communities that create and make people vulnerable to the drug problem. What Jeff Sessions is suggesting something that will not meet the problem. What he is hoping to do is change the narrative in this country. We desperately train has left the station in terms we just heard the train is left the station in terms of Law Enforcement, it applies to drug addiction. He is trying to shift the narrative back. I think most people in the country recognize we cannot go backwards in policing or go backwards in those drug policies. The question is, will we allow Jeff Sessions, particularly Police Departments, if you offer some funds and money and resources, allow themselves to be sucked into something they know does not work echo when you look at the problem in baltimore and chicago, part of it has to do with the lack of trust of the community because of unconstitutional policing. Peoplele are not calling the police to tell them information about crimes. They are not standing with the police as a community. They know part of the way you reduce crime, you build trust between the relationship and police. The way you do that is Police Officers have to begin by ending unconstitutional policing, showing respect for the community, engaging and sound on enforcement policy. Amy i want to turn to a facebook video posted by the lake county, florida Sheriffs Department. In the video, sheriff Peyton Grinnell stands by four masked men wearing Sheriffs Department uniforms and kevlar vests. T to the deaealers that a are pushshing this poison, i i havea messssage for you. U. We are comining for you. U. As a matter of fact, our undercover agents have already bought heroin from many of you. We are simply awaiting the arrest warrants to be finalized. So to the dealers, i say, enjoy looking over your shoulder, constantly wondering if today is the day. We come for you. Enjoy trying to sleep tonight, wondering if tonight is the night our swat team blows your front door off the hinges. We are comining for you. U. Is our agentnts can show the nes poison you the pusher of in the first met overdoses and dies, we will charge youou with murdrder. We are coming for you. Run. Amy part of a a video posted by the lake county Sheriffs Department in florida on facebook most of the video has now been viewed over one million times. People have compared the image of the sheriff with the men behind him with their heads covered to isis will stop Sherrilyn Ifill . I cant imagine how you ththk thatat might be effective. First of all, that he thinks people dealing drugs are watching facebook videos of him. This was not meant for those involved in the illegal drug trade, but for members of the lawabiding community to reassure them, to make them feel theres this Massive Force that will protect them. We see in that video is a setup for unconstitutional policing. Were going to blow the hinges off your doors. We have looked at the cases where swat teams have blown the hinges off the wrongdoers and resulted in the deaths of children and others as they enter peoples homes. Amy we are seeing that with ice as well. This is part of what attorney general sessions wants. He was to be able to deputize local Police Departments to increase legally participate in increasingly participate in ice raids. This is what we have to be paying attention to and there has to be movement and monitoring on the ground in local communities of what their Police Department are trying to do. Juan what about the issuef New York Times did a story about Swat Team Raids around the country. Your sense of the militarization of the police in this approach to policing, the impact it has on communities . We e a scene a heightening of we have seen a heightening of the militaristic mentality of Law Enforcement. It is fueled by the drug war, which has been a colossal failure on every front. In the aftermath of 9 11, this interest in Homeland Security has been manifested by the federal government providing , automaticrplus weapons and semi automatic weapons and so forth, to Law Enforcement. , some have those tools call them bullies with toys if you have those tools, you want to use them. They manufacture reasons to conduct those predawn raids in which so many innocent people have been shot and killed. Police officers have been caught in the line of fire as well. What i just saw in that video was an embarrassment to Law Enforcement. Amy you have the story in chicago, march 28, of ice, an agent with ice shooting and injuring 53yearold felix torres after the agents burst into the familys house. His daughter, and said the family was sleeping when agents burst through the door. She said, they came a point of pistols in our faces, dragged as out. We did not even have time to dress or grab note for the baby. Felix was hospitalized in series condition and ice said, oh, we went to the wrong house. This is what i think attorney general sessions will unleash on this country if we are not vigilant and we are not seriously resistant to this. His there he there are a few bad apples in Police Department is an interesting one. Even if you were right that there are a few bad apples in a system of problems, he is giving license to the bad apples. He is saying, the cowboys and do whatever you want to do. There are going to be lots of people hurt by this. Amy we have to get both of your comments to what happened on United Airlines. It is so astounding. For policing that are extending drug the Different Police forces. People may have seen this on tv, United Airlines facing widespread criticism after video surfaced of aa doctor being forcrcibly dragged off an airple by Security Officers on sunday after united overbooked the flight. They said, would anyone volunteer to be revoked . No one did. What they clclaimed is they randomly chosese quadrant t peo. The flight wawas leaving from chicago o oharere international airprport headeded to l louisvi. Whenen no one volunteteered to t off the flightht, the 69yearod man, the doctor, was selected to be forceced off the plane. He said, no, it was a doctor who needed to see his patience the following morning in the hospital. It is reported a fellow passenger said, more or less, im being selectiveve because im chinese. Multiple chicago deparartment of aviation Security Officers dragged h him through the aisles fellow passengers screamed. [screaming] hey, hey, come on. Come on. Know, oh, my y god. Look what you did dam. , my god. Removeded, theg doctor, who o was bloodidied bye first reremoval, attempted to rn back onto the plane. He was then forcibly removed a second time. Now the United Airline ceo has apologized for having to reaccommodate these customers. This is an astounding story. They were asked the asking four people to live, then dragged this doctor all. To replace them with four United Airlines employees. , you are thetamper former police chief of seattle. This is a Different Department that is in charge of the airlines. Were looooking at Airline Security people. One can reasonably question what kind of temperament, what kind of training, what kind of policies guide their work. Needless to say, this is a Public Relations disaster for a major corporation. But it also raises the question of how we deal with people under difficult circumstances. When there is tension, when there is conflict. I will go back to the seattle Consent Decree. The Police Officers themselves are saying, ive never had better training referring to deescalation training, crisis intervention training in my entire career. Helping them on the homefront deal with their own families, their children, their spouse, that sort of thing. Here we have people who are probably not well trained in what they have been asked to do. And theyre doing a very doing it very, very badly. Amy i think airlines you Something Like forcible debo arding. Is the idea that all United Airlines customers i was on a plane yesterday when they say, would anyone volunteer everyone is going to raise her hand because they do not want to be bloodied and perhaps knocked unconscious . This is the cononvergence of two issues. We have been working on the ,ssue of removals of passengers nonviolent removals, but removals of passengers because other passengers think they looked suspicious or for some other we been looking at the issue of racial profiling and the issue of removal. Now we are seeing we go to this kind of very violent removal. What worries me about this is even if we want to talk about the training of those Police Officers, the response of United Airlines is so bizarre, in my view, that it suggests there is a wider and deeper systemic problem. M. I worry as americans increasingly are being subjected to seeing things like people violently dragged by Police Officers next to them a as they haveve out cell phone videos this is almomost like the Police Killingsgs. Were being h honest in order to this violence we are seeing. Everery p place we go. This is in an n airplane. People are witnessining this. This is becoming part of americican life. That is why i say we dont get areas and turn against this, we will find this becomes a regularized around us. For a while, people were shocked by the celell phone videos of Police Killings and shooting people in the back. This is why we have to stand against this attempt to return to this kind of ultraviolet policing in this country. Amy before we go, i wanted to offer our condolences on the death of your cousin and share her words, the awardwinning journalist, legendary news anchor gwen eiffel. She died of cancer in november at the age of 61. This is gwen speaking in 2015 at the aspen ideas festival about the issue of american identity. I was born of immigrants who came to this country from the west indies. Incredible appreciation for people who thought it was who did the bold act of uprooting themselves from what they knew to make a better life for their children. Craziest patriots on the block. And never occurred to us we were not american. We had chosen to become americans, which seems like a very empowering thing. But in my current role, as i report day after day after daya, all of our shortcomings in amamerica, our shortcomings ass not with, i struggle my patriotism or my love of the country, but to figure out how can we get over the humps. Not thehe conversations, not the roundtables, but how do we see each other . How do we begin to see ourselves and then see each other . It is so hard. Amy that was g gwen eiffel. Your remarkable cousin. Ive never seen that clip. That is her. Thank you. Amy thank you for sharing her with all of us. Sherrilyn ifill is president and directorcounsel of the naacp Legal Defense fund. Norm stamper is the former chief of the seattle Police Department. Thank you for joining us. When we come back, does President Trump personally profit off of airstrikes like the one in syria, the tomahawk cruise missles . What is his connection . Stayay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman with juan gonzalez. Juan on friday, the stock price of the military contractor raytheon briefly surged after the u. S. Attack on a syrian airbase which used 59 of the companys tomahawk missiles, estimated to cost 1. 4 million a piece. While the stock surge was brief, he called attention to the fact that President Trump himself has held personally has been personally invested in raytheon in the past. 2015 federal Election Committee disclosure filed when trump launched his president ial bid shows he held raytheon stocks worth to 15,000 in value. 1000amy while the amount is relatively low given trumps estimated net worth, it has raised additional questions about the lack of transparency in trumps Financial Holdings and the fact that he could potentially benefit from almost any military decision he makes as president. Overall, defense contractor stocks have increased since trumps election, further fueled by his promise of a historic 10 tens of billions of dollars in increase of u. S. Spending. Well, for more, were j joined now by william hartung. He is the director of the arms and security project at the center for international policy. His latest book is prophets of war Lockheed Martin and the making of the militaryindustrial complex. William hartung, welcome to democracy now tell us, as those tomahawk cruise missles were pummeling this base, though not enough to take it out it was immediately in use again how did President Trump profit personally . As far as we know, he may still have shares in raytheon, as reported in his financial disclosure. As with all things trump, theres a black box because he is not reporting tax returns. Virtually anything you does, not just in the military sphere am a could benefit him, his family, his inner circle financially. Tilde went to deal with that is to release the tax r returnsns t people havee demanded and never true blind trust not run by his family. No question it is an outrage to have the commanderinchief profiting from a military conflict contract in a military conflict. It insclosing it makes some ways worse. Juan i want to talk with emphasis emerging in the first few weeks of the Trump Administration. Ou wrote a piece could you talk about that . There is this notion that the mad atn the room are mcmaster, military people, will be cap all, know the cost of war. It there among the most hawkish generals. Mamadison wanted to attack iran. Mattis, on selfdescribed. Yes. In the middle of that war, left the at administration because he wanted to attack them at the same time, negotiate a ransom nuclear options. They have stepped up i in yemen with more special forces, still owning arming the saudis. They see that as a strike against iran. Iran is not the problem. Their worldview says it is. Now the stuff of in syria, and ran with assad, so another kind of potential strike at irani and concerns. The question is, will they go further . Iran would have many ways to respond. It is not a small country. Look likeran iraq war a walk in the park. How are these military people going to address this . Theres a danger of some military action. Theyre not going to telegraph it. Trump apparently decided this on rather short notice, if were to believe what we saw on tv. Amy you have the advertisements on television, and then the news being an advertisemement as well for these weapons contractors. Lets turn to msnbc plus Brian Williams the night of the tomahawk cruise missles attack. , weo into greater detail see these beautiful pictures at night from the decks of these two u. S. Navy vessels in the eastern mediterranean. I am tempted to quote leonard cohen, im data by the beauty of our weapons. They are beautiful pictures of your some armaments making what is for them a brief flight over this airfield. What did they hit . Leonardi daresay linda cohn going would be rolling over in his grave. Webpage,theon class that the same kind of pictures. We have them on msnbc and cnn, all of the publicity money could buy and more. This is happened before in wartime and even in the firstst persian gulf war where these kinds of displays have up to the images of these companies and honest maybe weapons seem to nine. The talk about how accurate they are in wont hit civilians, which has been disproved almost uniformly in history of u. S. Intervention in the middle east. It is also a question of how it will affect trumps push for his military buildup because they will posture is the wartime prpresident. Saying, he is now the president , proved he is the president because he can launch a military strike. Which to me is not with this country should stand for. Director of the arms and amy bill hartung, thank you for being with usdirector of the arms and security project at the , center for international policy. That does it for our broadcast. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now ] have you ever felt like just giving up the hustle and bustle of the corporate world . Well, one man did. Formerly the Vice President of a big oil refinery, joni fred gorrell, gave all of that up one day for something a little more down to earth, ballooning. Well show you how he did itit