okay. reporter: now awaiting sentencing, tonight both parents face up to 20 years in prison miguel almaguer, nbc news the justice department said tonight it will not pursue civil rights charges against the police officer who shot jacob blake in kenosha, wisconsin. the shooting in august 2020 left blake paralyzed from the waist down and sparked days of violent unrest the justice department said there was not evidence to prove that the officer intentionally violated federal criminal civil rights laws. the major showdown tonight over executive privilege between president biden and former president trump who is fighting to withhold records from congress about the january 6th riot kelly o donnell is at the white house tonight. kelly, what did the biden administration decide on this? reporter: lester, president biden denied a request from former president trump
but i in pain right now. and it s not because of my race. i am looking at children dying in this country and with violence, so state legislators will certainly take a look at laws but we must be vigilant because these laws that allow a unarmed teenager to die, and i ll call him a perpetrator, but he was instructed to stay in his car, zimmerman. why are we allowing somebody to disregard instructions by our law enforcement? this is very serious. you mention the stand your ground laws seem to be gaining ground in the virginia legislature. i m curious. in florida the big story was the american council, it s a national group. it s like a cookie cutter thing. is that what s behind the movement in virginia? i mean, it could be
chris and he made this point and it s a poignant point and worth restating. we see black people killed who are innocent all the time. i mean, so the idea there s something unfortunately and wrongly, that there s something new here and, therefore, there s going to be eruption by virtue of the fact of the acquittal alone, ignores that this is a norm for our community. this is why i say, do we live in one america? because i think the answer is no. we live in two different americas. because the reality for people who are black in this country, and this is why the jury pool mattered, is very different than the reality for people who are white. we ve been talking about changing the laws. it s not just about stand your ground. since this show started we decided we need to change stand your ground, we need to change the six-juror number in florida if it s want a capital case.
enforcement officer. two, acted like a law enforcement officer. three, pursued like a law enforcement officer trayvon martin. these are not things a reasonable citizen would do. the charges you were outlining, is that what you re asking the department of justice we re asking the department of justice to conduct a thorough investigation as to whether any federal laws were violated by george zimmerman in connection with the death of trayvon martin. and we have certainly will make a form request. i think the naacp will hold a press conference. the naacp, national urban league, black women s, all four of us and many others will join collectively in asking the justice department. now, they started at the very beginning with an investigation. they put it on hold. this is standard procedure by them. to allow the local authorities to pursue their investigation, their prosecution to a conclusion. now it s appropriate for the justice department to pick this up and to proceed.
science tells us is, these things are happening at nano seconds at subliminal levels, not conscious levels. civil rights laws were written at a time when in this country racism happened at a conscious level. so, we don t even understand our brains on race now. we have made so much progress in this country on whether it is appropriate or okay or legal to be overtly, racially discriminatory. we have not dealt with the fact that most people are still carrying unconscious bias, that is racially motivated but not at a conscious level. and so when the department of justice has to look at a hates crime case, it has to find evidence of that conscious level of racial racism. this is an area where they tell us science is different and