weighing whether to indict officer darren wilson for shooting michael brown dead. then to the making of the warrior cop. >> do you think there's any validity to the criticism that the united states is increasingly becoming a police state? >> i think there is some validity to that. >>. oakland, california. the convention were swat teams from around the bay area and around the world are going to be competing around the bay. >> mother jones reporter shane bauer goes inside the urban shield trade show where local police departments flushed with department of homeland security cash can buy armored vehicles, sniper rifles, drones and more. shane is the journalist who was held for almost two years in iran. then to a texas man on trial for filming the police. we will go to austin to speak to antonio buehler of the peaceful streets project who was arrested after filming the police. a jury will decide this week if he committed a crime or not. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the nurse freed from a mandatory quarantine in new jersey says she won't obey a new confinement order in maine. kaci hickox had been forced to live inside a tent at a newark hospital after returning from west africa, despite testing negative for ebola. on monday, hickox was released to her home in maine, where she now faces a 21-day home confinement rule. hickox's attorney says she will follow the federal guidelines requiring constant self-monitoring and a checkup with a local health authority. she remains asymptomatic as she has been from the beginning. in his first comments on the state quarantine rules, president obama said medical workers traveling to west africa deserve support. >> we can make sure when that come back, there being monitored in a prudent fashion, but we want to make sure that we understand that they are doing gods work over there, and they're doing that to keep us .afe i want to make sure that every policy we put in place is supportive of their efforts. because if they are successful, then we're not going to have to worry about ebola here at home. >> also tuesday, the second nurse who contracted ebola at a dallas hospital earlier this month has been released from hospital. amber vinson had been declared virus-free on friday after being hospitalized two weeks ago. president obama will meet with health care workers who have returned from west africa at the white house today. iraqi kurdish forces have arrived in turkey on their way to fight islamic state fighters in neighboring syria. the turkish government decided to open its border to the iraqi pershmerga earlier this month to help break the isis siege on the town of kobani. the united nations has issued a new appeal for countries to take in refugees from syria's three-year civil war. the conflict has displaced nearly 3.5 million people, most of them to turkey and jordan. at a conference in berlin, u.n. refugee chief antonio guterres said the plight of syrian refugees is a global responsibility. >> we ask the neighboring countries to keep their borders open, but we ask all countries in the world to keep their borders open to syrian refugees. it is not only responsibility of the countries of the region, but the responsibility of the whole of the international community. >> a new report says relations between president obama and israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu are at an all-time low. speaking to the atlantic magazine, anonymous white house officials say they have "red-hot anger" at netanyahu for continuing to expand west bank settlements and seeking to undermine an iran nuclear deal. netanyahu is reportedly preparing to bypass obama and appeal directly to congress if an iranian nuclear deal is reached. one "senior administration official" called netanyahu a "chicken" followed by an expletive, saying -- "he won't do anything to reach an accommodation with the palestinians or with the sunni arab states. the only thing he's interested in is protecting himself from political defeat." despite the heated rhetoric, the obama administration has repeatedly backed the israeli government, supporting the assault on gaza, opposing a palestinian statehood bid, and vetoing a security council resolution declaring israeli settlements illegal. the report suggests that diplomatic cover could vanish when the palestinian authority seeks full recognition for palestine at the united nations next year. there are conflicting reports out of ferguson, missouri on the fate of embattled police chief, thomas jackson. unnamed government officials told cnn that jackson is expected to step down as part of efforts to reform the police department following the killing of unarmed black teen michael brown in august. but chief jackson and the city's mayor say the reports aren't true. we'll have more from ferguson after headlines. a friend of boston marathon bomber dzhokhar tsarnaev has been convicted of lying to investigators about attempts to dispose of the suspect's belongings. on tuesday, a jury found robel phillipos guilty of making false statements about his visit to tsarnaev's dorm room three days after the attack. phillipos has maintained he was too intoxicated on marijuana to have a clear memory of the encounter. outside the courtroom, a defense attorney vowed to appeal the verdict. >> we will be fighting to vacate the guilty finding. we believe there are serious thel issues relative to materiality of just being there, not having anything to do with the backpack or fireworks. robelon't believe phillipos has ever been more angry at a person than he is angry at dzhokhar tsarnaev. when he found out that dzhokhar tsarnaev did what he did in this case, he was absolutely mortified. it was not believable feeling of shock and betrayal that somebody he knew could commit such atrocious, horrible acts. >> the seattle times newspaper is criticizing the fbi for creating a fake page under the paper's name in order to monitor a suspect accused of making bomb threats. the electronic frontier foundation has revealed the fbi sent the suspect a link to a fabricated "seattle times" news story during an investigtion. once the suspect clicked on the link, authorities were able to monitor his computer. the fbi says the technique helped subvert a potential threat on a local school, leading to the suspect's arrest. but "seattle times" editor kathy best said -- "the fbi's actions, taken without our knowledge, traded on our reputation and put it at peril." in a related case involving the fbi, lawyers for a group of defendants accused of illegal online gambling have asked a court to dismiss evidence collected by fbi agents. the fbi apparently shut off internet access at a las vegas hotel, then posed as repair technicians to collect evidence. the agents carried out the roos against the recommendation of a prosecutor who said it could amount to an unreasonable search. the case comes after a new york woman has sued the drug enforcement administration for setting up a fake facebook profile using her identity. sondra arquiett was arrested in 2010 on charges of involvement in drug trafficking. arquiett says a dea agent used images from her confiscated phone to set up a facebook profile in her name without her consent. the agent then used the profile to contact other people involved in the investigation. the justice department says it's reviewing the case. texas has carried out a new execution while another has been halted in missouri. mcgill prayed us was killed in texas based on the 2000 for triple murder. mark critz and's execution was temporary halted in order to hear his appeal. he was convicted of killing a mother and her two children in 1998. as weree and pried convicted as teenagers. the u.s. is set for 35 executions this year am at its lowest number since 31 executions 20 years ago. the united nations meanwhile has criticized iran for the execution of a woman convicted of killing a man she had accused of rape. reyhaneh jabbari had claimed self-defense in her killing of an intelligence official who she said had raped her years earlier when she was a teenager. the case drew global attention and the attempted intervention of iranian president hassan rouhani. but u.n. human rights agency spokesperson rupert colville said iranian officials ultimately bear responsibility for failing to stop the killing. >> the iranian authorities apparently did make attempts to prevent the execution, which was stayed at least twice in april and september, in order to enable the two families to reach a settlement. government'ss the responsibility to prevent execution, specially when they're so much uncertainty about the events surrounding the killings and concern over due process. >> president obama faces continue protest over his recent decision to delay executive action on immigration. obama had promised a broad overhaul by the end of summer, including a potential the reprieve to slow his record-breaking deportations. last month, he delayed any moves until after the upcoming midterm elections. democratsaigning for in wisconsin tuesday, president obama faced a disruption from the crowd. >> hold on a second. young lady, let me tell you something. let me tell you something. hold on a second. that's all right. that's all right. [chanting] see, the young lady is expressing her concern about immigration and the fact that we don't have a conference of immigration bill. the problem is, she should be protesting republicans who are blocking it in congress. [cheers] >> president obama in wisconsin yesterday. the massive explosion of an unmanned rocket in virginia has raised fresh concerns about nasa's reliance on private contractors. the rocket, which uses soviet your engine, was made by orbital sciences which has a $1.9 billion contract with nasa to make deliveries to the international space station. since retiring its shuttle fleet in 2011 with every light on nasa supply this faced a. the executive vice president of the company has warned the public that the rocket, which exploded tuesday "had a lot of hazardous equipment, hazardous materials" on board. protesters arrested in last month's demonstration in the heart of wall street have appeared in court to a demand a trial. more than 100 people were detained as part of the "flood wall street" action targeting the financial sector's role in the extractive industries fueling global warming. as the cases were brought to court this week, a group among those arrested dismissed a prosecution officer to dismiss the charges after six months. instead, the protesters said they want their case to go to trial so they can mount a "necessity defense" -- arguing that their actions were justified by how the financial industry worsens the climate change that threatens the planet. flood wall street defendant john tarleton explained the rationale on tuesday. courts 12 of us have pled not guilty. we want to take the case to trial and argue a necessity defense that the harm being caused by wall street in financing all sorts of extreme energy projects in this country and around the world is so much greater than any harm that was done by a traffic jam on broadway. we feel that we have to continue to push this point that wall street and capitalism in general cannot solve the climate crisis because they are central to the problem. >> the "necessity defense" had been the plan of two climate activists set to go on trial in massachusetts last month for blocking a coal shipment. but the case was resolved after the prosecutor all but adopted their reasoning and dropped the charges. he then joined them in the people's climate march. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. >> welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. we begin today's show in ferguson, missouri where there are reports the city's police chief, thomas jackson, will soon resign. unnamed government officials told cnn that jackson is expected to step down as part of the effort by city officials to reform the police department following the death of michael brown, the unarmed black teenager shot dead in august. chief jackson and the city's mayor say the reports aren't true. this comes as a grand jury is weighing whether a white police officer, darren wilson, should face charges in the killing of michael brown, three months ago. the investigation has sprung a number of leaks -- with unidentified sources divulging information that seems to corroborate officer wilson's account of what happened that day. according to the selective leaks, brown apparently struggled with wilson in his patrol car and wilson's gun was discharged before a brief foot chase ensued. the new york times reported that investigators discovered brown's blood on wilson's gun as well as wilson's uniform. ballistic tests confirm two shots were fired inside the car, one of them hitting brown's arm. it's unclear why wilson then fired the fatal shots at brown after he emerged from his vehicle. witness accounts say brown had his hands up and was trying to surrender when he was shot dead. according to federal officials, there is not enough evidence to indict wilson on civil rights charges in the justice department's probe of the shooting. >> earlier this month, the u.s. department of justice condemned the leaks as "irresponsible and highly troubling," adding "there seems to be an inappropriate effort to influence public opinion about this case." attorney general eric holder reportedly told justice department lawyers last week that he was exasperated at the "selective flow of information coming out of missouri." the recent disclosures have heightened tensions between the protesters and police, with protesters saying the leaks are part of a broader strategy to prematurely diffuse public discontent ahead of any decision not to indict officer wilson. meanwhile, the st. louis county police department has reportedly stocked up on teargas, grenades, pepper balls and plastic handcuffs in anticipation of massive protests when the grand jury reaches its decision in november. the police department has apparently spent over $172,600 since august on gear for dealing with protesters. this comes on the heels of a new report by amnesty international calling for an investigation of potential human rights abuses in earlier police crackdowns on protesters in ferguson. the human rights group said the ferguson police department should review its standards, practices and training to ensure that they "conform fully to international standards." well, for more, we go now to st. louis, missouri where we're joined by antonio french. he's the st. louis alderman of the 21st ward, and longtime community advocate. he recently helped found the new organization "hashtag heal stl" antonio french, welcome to democracy now! let's start with this latest , based onreported anonymous federal sources, that tom jackson, the police chief of ferguson, is stepping down. jackson and the mayor have both denied that he is. what do you make of all of this? >> the talk of the resignation of the ferguson police chief has been building for a while. in fact, many of us have called for his resignation several weeks ago. in fact, in keeping a position actually becomes an impediment to the community moving forward. so i welcome news that there's also talk in washington of helping to facilitate that. but as you said, as of last night, the chief said that was not the case and he is not been consulted on it. >> antonio french, what do you make of the continued leaks as the grand jury investigation proceeds at a snail space in trying to reach some kind of a decision on whether to indict the officer involved in this case? >> the leaks worry me. the leaks i think really thercut and undermine entire investigation. it makes people who art he believed it was very difficult for michael brown or any young black man to get justice for fair shake here in st. louis county, it reinforces the believe that the fix is in. a lot of people in high authority are in on it, somehow. i think it was really necessary for us to conduct this investigation in a way that actually restored people's faith in the process. to make people believe that there is a way for both sides to we a fair shake, and that will see real justice. i think the exact opposite. the exact worst possible scenario is such a vital and important case is decided, ultimately, behind closed doors in a secret grand jury process. i think that does not bode well for the future and really for the healing we have to do in our city. >> former st. louis county police chief tim fitch has said in interviews the grand jury leaks can be beneficial because "it's not a surprise to people" when a decision is announced. i want to turn to fitch speaking on kmox newsradio. >> i think what you're seeing them do is coordinate leaks to the media and to start getting some of the facts out there to let people down slowly. i think they recognize that it is probably unlikely there will be charges. >> the brown family's attorney, benjamin crump, dismissed the leaks and renewed calls for the appointment of a special prosecutor to the case. >> i think everybody has taken anonymously confirm a to say, oh, this supports officers version. michael brown's family has said they do not trust any of the local authorities. they are asking for special one and theyom day don't leave the local officials of st. louis are going to give equal justice to their child. , youronio french response? >> i agree. those of us who have called for special prosecutor many, many weeks ago did so for two reasons. relationshipcific with the afghan american community makes it impossible for african-american community to ever believe they're going to get justice. and if the grand jury ultimately coming not to indict from this county prosecutor, it actually makes it much worse. the second thing is, this has to in recognizing there are two crises going on right now. one short-term, and one long-term. in the short-term, we have this specific case to deal with. in the long term, we have a community that has a lot of people who feel like the justice system is against them. we have to do this in a way that actually heals those wounds and convinces people that the system does work. i think we dropped that ball and missed that opportunity. in some ways, things have become worse. , those of usench who followed these police killings over the years know the selective leaks tactic is a pretty common one. during a case in new york, the request at leaks before there's a grand jury decision on that case. the effort from police point of view was to try to prevent any outbreaks or violence is an indictment is not reached. my best bet is you will get a decision on a sunday night into monday, in the coldest day of november, on this decision. your sense of how the community leaders are preparing for any protest that may arise as a result is the police department is preparing? >> there are preparations being made on both sides. as reported earlier, the police are preparing, buying equipment, undergoing training. but on the very inside, you organizing -- organizations that are organizing and trying to get people together. ringing in some folks who are actually counselors and healers to help deal with some of the anger that will undoubtedly result of that comes back, as you suggest. but there will be some who will take to the streets. we saw that some weeks ago. there are some there is no talking to. and there is so much anger and frustration built up over so many years, that we do expect for there to be some violence. the messages, that does not get us to our long-term goal. that violence is not going to get justice for michael brown and his family. and violence is not going to help make st. louis a better community. so we're in a bit of a crisis here in st. louis, and a lot of us are worried about the future. >> what do you think needs to be done? when you talk about the healing of the community, when the justice department is investigating the police department, what is the groundwork that needs to be laid? what are you prevented from doing? the elections are coming up. when we were speaking to a group of young people, one of their issues they raised was, this is an overwhelmingly african-american community that doesn't vote. the school board, the city council, these are overwhelmingly white from a throwback from the old days. >> what you're looking at is systemic reform is needed. in ferguson, specific, if a 67% african-american population and in almost all white government and police force. that has led to a situation that we see today that is just unbearable and bound to spill over. but in the larger community, north st. louis county, you have a lot of disabilities that mayor that were you have large african-american top relations with him was no political power. in march, a lot of those local elections are coming up. what we're doing is registering voters and trying to get a 67% majority to become a voting majority. these things take time and they won't come within the next few weeks. hopefully, something has changed in both communities, african-american community and white community, so we both recognize there's a problem and we have to fix it. we have to roll up our sleeves and begin that hard work. unfortunately, we can't really do that until we get through this crisis. next i want to ask about the new amnesty international report. the organization is calling for an investigation of potential human rights abuses in the police crackdown on protests in ferguson, missouri. amnesty says police committed violations in the weeks that followed the killing of unarmed teenager michael brown by officer darren wilson. amnesty researcher justin mazzola said the militarized crackdown raises major concerns. in a presence that only served to intimidate. they used tactics such as the use of rubber bullets, tear gas, oftentimes when it was not justified concerning what was happening on the ground at that point in time. then you had local officials imposing policies restricting people's rights to actually go out and protest, whether it was the imposition of a curfew, the position of a five second rule -- people had to continue to keep walking, designated a simile areas, but anywhere else yet if you walking. these all go to show that basically, there needs to be a national review both of the use of force policy as well as police and protests. >> that was just a mazzola. in a separate report out earlier this week, the advocacy group pen american center is calling on the justice department to investigate a police crackdown on journalists covering the ferguson protests. pen says its compiled more than 50 cases of press freedom violations, culminating in the arrest of 21 journalists. antonio french am at your response to both of these reports? >> i welcome both the reports. gasng experienced the tear and the heavy-handed military style response from police, there were times i could not recognize this as america. in fact, we should not have such a breakdown in government where there is no empathy toward the population, there is no responsible response. instead, you have a military-style crackdown to suppress people exercising their constitutional rights. that should not happen in america or any worlds. i welcome, especially the amnesty report, because it puts it in perspective. very often we think about these violations occurring in other places. as we saw last month in the month prior, it can happen at home as well. >> antonio french, thank you for being with us, stateless aldermen of the 21st ward, long-term -- long-term committed he advocate. out on the streets from day one after the killing of michael brown. back, the arming of the warrior cop. warrior cops around the country, including ferguson. where is the money coming from? where is it going to? we will speak with mother jones reporter shane bauer. stay with us. ♪ [music break] >> "the game - don't shoot," a michael brown tribute featuring diddy, rick ross, 2 chainz, fabolous, yo gotti, and wale. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. >> we continue our conversation about policing communities by looking at who is involved in the increasing militarization of police departments across the country. shane bauer's cover story for mother jones magazine headlined, "the making of the warrior cop," gives us a tour through the corporations and government departments involved in enabling police departments to acquire anything from bayonets to semi-automatic rifles and reporting from the exposition called "urban shield" which, according to organizers, is the largest first-responder training in the world, bauer says that the equipment police departments have received from the military "pales in comparison to the amount of gear purchased from private companies." >> the department of homeland security provides funding to local police departments to buy the equipment from various corporations. bauer explains -- "the department of defense has given $5.1 billion worth of equipment to state and local police departments since 1997, with even rural counties acquiring things like grenade launchers and armored personnel carriers. but homeland security has handed out grants worth eight times as much -- $41 billion since 2002." let's go to a clip from the mother jones piece. shane bauer, who will join us in a moment, starts by asking urban shield spokesperson, sgt. jd nelson, a question. >> do you think there is any validity to the criticism that the united states is increasingly becoming a police state? >> i think there is some validity to that. >> we're at urban shield in oakland, california. this weekend, swat teams from around the bay area and around the world are going to be competing around the bay. >> that is mother jones journalist shane bauer and he joins us now. the award-winning investigative journalist, senior reporter at mother jones magazine. his cover story's headline, "the making of the warrior cop." shane is also the journalist who was imprisoned for two years in iran. welcome back to democracy now! take us through this expo in these astounding figures. we have heard a lot about the weapons coming back from iraq and afghanistan, the pentagon recycling them in towns, cities, hamlets, and the police departments. but the fact that amount of equipment is dwarfed by direct grants to these communities to buy money -- to buy weapons from weapons manufacturers? >> thank you for having me on, amy. ferguson is a good example of this. ferguson -- in ferguson, a lot of the gear we saw on television the police had throughout the crisis there was not actually military gear. it was stuffed similar equipment bought from private companies. what we're seeing now, some towns, some counties are actually giving back the equipment or trying to get back to military equipment, but they also have very similar stuff they're buying from private companies. an example is in arizona, sheriff joe arpaio kind of made a show of giving some of his gear back and put on display all of his the terry stop he had, then he showed the much newer, much more up-to-date stuff he is buying from companies. this industry is really sprung up post on 11 one homeland security started giving grants to local communities for counterterrorism. and a lot of the companies i side urban shield were started after 9/11. they give them the stop for counterterrorism, but of course, they can use it for anything and most use of her drug rates. walks what does this mean in terms of manufacturers, suppliers, terms of their actually going around lobbying his local governments to buy the materials? >> one example that i saw at urban shield was, company called the armored group. they were selling the big armored vehicles. if you go on their website, you tell local police departments that if you want to buy our vehicle, we actually have a grant writer that will write the grant for you for homeland security so you can get the funding. they also suggest the use forfeiture money. this is money that is taken in criminal investigations, money or property, the police department's take and criminal investigations, even when the defendants are not actually prosecuted in the cases. that money can also be used to buy similar -- this am a quit from these companies. >> i want to turn to another clip from your report for mother jones. in this video, you speak to jeremy johnson of the armored group. >> i've been around the world and i've seen a lot of the stuff, a lot of the differences. they're not going into just take care of business, they're there to, hopefully, handler situation that could get out of hand. you never hear about that. i think that his work is a disconnect from what they want. -- for ahese trucks reason. they should. chevyn't want to put up a chevette in front of a house and say, were going to get you. >> i want to turn to another clip from your report for mother jones. this one features the university of california berkeley swat team. they have their own swat team. after they staged a hostage rescue simulation, you spoke to eric tejada of uc-berkeley's special operations. 1992, 1994,ound there was an attack on the chancellor's residence which is on campus. we realized at the time we did not have the resources to deal with that when it took place. i think about 15 years before, they had some kind of us and wants of us want to. the regenerated the idea of having a swat team. >> that was eric tejada of uc-berkeley's special operations. most people might be surprised to hear that the university of california-berkeley has a swat team. shane bauer, could you tell us what kinds of operations the berkeley swat teams typically carries out? this is interesting, because this scenario there were doing a high-stakes hostage rescue. they would later go on a boat in the bay to kind of dismantle the terrorist ied. they would go into a church where they would kind of pretend militant atheist group is holding church members hostage. when i asked what they do day to day, most of what they respond to our muggings of students. thatormal police work police departments do. kind of going in fully armed, geared up in this military-style gear, busting in the houses. i think another aspect that is interesting about this whole situation with the homeland security money is, there is incentive for new equipment. one thing i saw was a device that attaches to a gun. it sends out radiation waves that temporarily blind the person is pointed at for 10 minutes. what the vendor told me was met by scrambling their ocular fluid . that is something that is going to be eating the market early next year. this is both next ou went to, urban shield, but also there was a lot of role-playing. you had your press credentials revoked, is that right? your press credentials were revoked on the last day of the conference. i want to go to a clip, the third of the conference and you filmed a police officer asking you to leave the premises. >> they told us we were ok here. said they were in violations of the rules for filming inside of one of the sites they were advised to not come in sight. >> what site? >> i don't know. i assume it is this one. >> before you were removed from the conference, there were numerous instances in which your work was shut down at urban shield. could you explain what happened? give us the global picture of what is happening, the expos in these other role-plays or trying to cover that happen outside like in san francisco and the bridge. a foure was basically day event. the first two days was an expo, an expo hall where all kinds of companies were showing their equipment -- guns, trucks, printers,bots, 3-d trying to sell them to the local police departments. the next two days was a 48 hours straight exercise where swat teams rackley competing with each other, going around 35 scenarios. in each one, they're getting points. various swatlot of teams. there were some international swat teams from singapore, south korea, the u.s. marines was a team. there were teams like uc berkeley, prison swat team. thesegone to some of events. on the morning of the second day, they took our press credentials. >> shane, drones have gotten a lot of attention in recent years. did you get any sense that was a hot item among these different law enforcement agencies this time around? >> oh, yeah. there were a ton of drones. when i get kicked out, there were as a vendor at each one of the sites doing the scenarios that had a particular vendor and at that site, there was a drone vendor who we interviewed. he was hoping to use their drones, his companies drones, in the exercise on the bay bridge, but because of faa regulations, they were not allowed to use them. the alameda county had not gotten approval yet to use them. the 3-ding right now is printable drones. police department's can print ,ut a drone, attach the wiring and set it out. >> there is been a lot of protest in oakland around urging the oakland mayor to cancel the urban shield conference next year. can you talk about these protests the significance of this happening in oakland in the post-ferguson period? >> urban shield has been happening for years. it has been going on since the mid-2000's. in recent year, there has been regular protests of it. this year your particular, jean quan said the urban shield will not be allowed to come back to oakland. the county has said, yes, they will. so there is kind of a battle between the city and the county right now. when i was at urban shield, the protests, something i noticed is the protests were referenced to ferguson quite a bit. that is something that just really wasn't talked about inside urban shield. there wasn't any discussion of ferguson. but at the same time, i was seeing t-shirts for sale where you see an image of a gunsight and said, this is my peace sign. you see the spartan imagery, very militaristic type of imagery, that in many ways -- >> what is it showing? it is a site of an ar-15, looking kind of down the scope of an ar-15. shane -- something that really was interesting to me about being there was it overlapped the military. some of these companies that i seen and vendors i spoke to were from the military. their companies were actually set up to distribute to the military, and there since kind of come over and also bring in police. the marines were a team competing there. i talked to the marines after one of their scenarios, and they said they actually learned from the police. the spokesperson of urban shield tony, we should be talking not about militarization of the the marines learning from the police. learning to bring back and train their people. >> shane, i want to ask about the pentagon's 1033 program has transferred more than $5.1 billion in military equipment to local agencies since 1991, including some 600 mine-resistant armor-protected vehicles, or mraps. last month, during a senate hearing on police militarization, brian kamoie of the department of homeland security defended the program. he said military equipment helped locate the surviving suspect after the boston marathon bombing last year. >> the response to the 2013 boston marathon bombing demonstrated how preparedness grant investments have improved capabilities. grant funded increment such as the forward-looking infrared camera in a massachusetts state police helicopter enable the apprehension of dzhokhar tsarnaev while enhancing the personal safety of law enforcement officers in protecting public safety. some people would say that as a justification for all of this hardware. >> right. i mean, there is no doubt the people in this kind of an extreme situation are going to want to have some kind of response. the issue is that a lot of this hardware is going to small towns . i mean, everybody is getting this stuff. most of it is used for drug raids. this account of situations where there has been -- there's not an active shooter or hostage scenario, the kind of stuff that police often talk about in why they need this equipment. it is used to rate people's houses, often in no knock raids to try to find drugs. used swat teams are mostly -- about 71% of the time they are used to target people of color. even though the people that are most likely to be the active shooters, the hostage takers, are quite. --. in north carolina, african-americans were targeted 47 times the amount of white : town, bythe north swat teams. >> i want to switch gears. as were talking to you and in the amount of money going into the militarization of police at home, we are seeing the u.s. attack syria and iraq yelling with the islamic state. you are held in iran with josh was a tall and sarah short -- welcome you and josh i wanted to know your reaction to when you see, for example, the video of ofes foley, the court video his beheading and then his mother coming out and saying she was threatened that if she dared try to raise any kind of ransom, she herself would be prosecuted. your thoughts on this issue as journalists like yourself have een held? >> it is terrible. it is to all the way around. my heart goes out to the foley family, to of the people who were held hostage in syria, including syrians. most of the people missing now are syrians. >> before you were arrested, you and sarah were teaching english in syria. >> i was actually working as a journalist in syria and sarah was teaching. it is still hard for me to really get my head around what is happening there. governmenthat our did not, that people face punishment for trying to raise money to get their child out of prison. it is not simple situation. giving money to the islamic state is not the answer, either, but we need to have more active way of dealing with this. >> shame, thank you for being with us, shane bauer, award-winning investigative journalist, senior reporter of mothers magazine for his cover story headlined, "the making of the warrior cop." when we come back, we go to austin, texas, speaking with a texas man on trial for filming the police? well, we will find out what is happening. stay with us. ♪ [music break] >> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. >> we go now to austin, texas, where a jury is set to issue their decision today in a case that centers on an activist's right to film police. antonio buehler says he was at a gas station in the early morning hours of new years day in 2012, when he used his phone to take pictures of a woman being arrested and crying out for help. in this video clip from the dashboard camera of a police car at the scene, officer patrick oborski pulls the female passenger out of a car that had been stopped for having its lights off. as she cries for help, you can hear antonio butler call out to the officer. , to theo buehler officer. >> don't touch me. you're on video. >> that's good. get up. >> i'm on video. >> get out of the car. >> wire you put in her out of the car? >> don't worry about it. >> help me, please. >> what is she doing to you? p] to you doing [blee guys. >> take video of this, please. please, video this. >> stand up. [bleep] up. >> ultimately, antonio buehler's attempt to document apparent police abuse ended with his own arrest when the officer said he felt buehler spit on him. he faced a felony charge of harassment of a public servant and possible 2 to 10 years in prison. last year, a grand jury cleared buehler of the felony, but in an usual twist, it came back with a charge of "failure to obey a lawful order," a class c misdemeanor punishable by a $500 fine. the order was for buehler to put his hands behind his back as he tried to take pictures. >> since then buehler co-founded , the group peaceful streets project, whose members record police and post the videos online, and train others to do the same. he has been arrested several more times while videotaping officers, and has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the austin police department. and, nearly three years after his first arrest, buehler returned to court last thursday to challenge his misdemeanor charge. such minor cases often take about half a day, but this one is about to enter its fourth day, and has featured a large police presence in the courtroom. antonio bhueler is an an iraq war veteran and graduate of west point and stanford. he had no prior arrest recored. -- record. just about an hour before a jury is set to issue their decision, he joins us now from austin. welcome to democracy now! the significance of this trial and why you are on trial -- this is a misdemeanor that faces $500 fine, and yet you have been in court now for days. >> and i think it all revolves around the fact that police officers don't like to be held accountable and prosecutors tend to cover for corrupt police officers. were a domestic terrorist threat? >> that came from the austin police department, one of the officers arrested me for filming whose name is justin berry. he created a powerpoint presentation, presented it to the regional fusion center and enter they said i was a domestic terror threat as was the peaceful streets project because we go out and film cops. they said we were a threat to all police officers and we encourage violence against police officers -- which is just not true. >> antonio buehler, the response , as ar project in austin west point grad and a war theran, what has been marshaling of support for you? >> the people tend to really support us. the problem is, the city doesn't support us. haveolice officers documented us, followed us, surveilled us, arrested us numerous times. and the prosecutors have been colluding with them to drum up charges against us. they tried to bring four felony charges against me since that date three years ago. >> to explain what happened that they? we saw this exclusive video just now. what happened on the morning of new year's when this woman was taken out of her car? >> nothing. i was a designated driver, pulled over to the gas station to fill up with gas. we watched what we thought was a pretty benign bwi stop. the woman did not commit any crimes. she was not aggressive. she was on her phone try to organize a writing case her driver got arrested. as we were leaving, the police officer did not like the way she wasn't bowing down to him, and he ripped her out of the car. as you saw in the video, i started calling out asking whether were doing it. she begged for help. when i started filming, that enraged the one police officer in the ended up coming over to me, getting in my face, pushing and shoving me. in the aftermath, they needed to find a way to cover up the assault of the police officer, so they charged me with a felony of spitting in the cops face. >> in a statement, austin police chief art acevedo said -- "the austin police department wants to once again reiterate the fact that simply filming police actions are generally lawful. however, interfering or obstructing a lawful police action, failure to obey a lawful order, and/or resisting arrest is a violation of the law." and this is austin police association president wayne vincent speaking to fox 7. thats we fully are afraid this thing is going to turn violent before it is over keepse antonio buehler escalating the harassment. so our officers are out there with absolutely no relief from this kind of harassment, and it is not going to end well. policenio buehler, the have packed the courtroom of your misdemeanor trial, but one police officer has crossed the line to testify for you. can you talk about both situations and what the police are saying here that we are just quoted? >> there is been at least six police officers in the courtroom, uniform and in plainclothes. we think they're there to intimidate the jury. there is one that crossed the thin blue line. he said that he stepped forward out of concern for my civil rights. when he notified his supervisor that he was subpoenaed and he was going to testify, they didn't notified him the very next day that he was being terminated as of october 31. this case has been a lot about threats and bullying and intimidation and retaliation from the austin police department and the city prosecutors. >> antonio buehler, this kind of videotaping and community patrols, taping police activities, has been spreading across the country. we are seeing videos almost on a daily basis of police interactions with citizens that call into question the kinds of brutality that is occurring. your sense of the importance of these kinds of projects spreading even more throughout the country? >> i think it is vitally important. police officer's, even when they do record, we don't get the videos. it took two years and nine months for us to get that dash cam video. we're defending ourselves in a criminal trial. when we have a dash cam video of a cop killing someone, it typically the functions or disappears. we cannot trust the police officers to monitor those videos for us. we need to do it ourselves. as we have seen in ferguson and other places, when people come together to record the police, they build the community and's understand responsibility to take up one another. i think that is the most important part, building communities and realizing we don't have to do for the people who tend to violate our silver rights, that we can do it ourselves. ofks what you hope comes out your case right now? you have this trial today, a verdict expected, and then euros civil rights suit. >> i actually hope -- i am a very lucky person. and stanfordint harvard grad. i have a lot of privilege and friends with money. i've had a lot of people rally behind me. i hope people see it the austin police and prosecutors are willing to spend -- they've had eight prosecutors in the past four days. if they are willing to spend this much to try to ruin my life and get me for a petty misdemeanor, imagine what they're doing to people of color, to the homeless, to the mentally ill and what they're doing to cover up when koch really do bad things such as killing or raping. i think this can be a way to hopefully get a lot of people from my world to sort of recognize what millions of americans face every day. >> antonio buehler, thank you , cofounder of us the group peaceful streets project. his trial is set to wrap up shortly after our show. go to our website and we will let you know the latest in his case. thank you so much for being with us. that does it for the broadcast. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the c >> hello, i'm holly knox with commissioner honda along with the legacy of women voters of san francisco i'm here to talk about measure a on tuesday november 4th pursue measure a is an ordinance that is will allow the city to borrow up to 5 hundred thousand discolors for bonds this decide that use this for the improvements identified by the transportation at the desk the city could use the

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