SUMMARY:As the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin went into a third week of testimony Monday, a police killing of a motorist in a neighboring community has once again left the region reeling. Amna Nawaz speaks with Lisa Clemons of A Mother's Love Initiative and Campaign Zero's Sam Sinyangwe about the community's reaction.
SUMMARY: The death of George Floyd and the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin has kept the state of Minnesota in the national spotlight. Now the death of Daunte Wright near Minneapolis has led to new protests and opened long-standing wounds over policing and race. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports.
SUMMARY:In the Derek Chauvin trial Monday, prosecutors wrapped up their case, with jurors hearing testimony from George Floyd's brother about Floyd's character, and his role as a "leader" in the family. Special correspondent Fred De Sam Lazaro reports.
SUMMARY:The killings of Daunte Wright and George Floyd continue to reverberate, not only in Minnesota but around the U.S., on policing, use of force and race. Philonise Floyd, George Floyd's younger brother who took the stand Monday in former police officer Derek Chauvin's trial, and Ben Crump, an attorney representing the Floyd family and Daunte Wright's mother, join Yamiche Alcindor to discuss.
SUMMARY: The defense team for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has been making the case that George Floyd died for other reasons, and that Chauvin's kneeling on Floyd's neck was not the crucial factor. Today, the defense focused on that question with its own expert testimony stating that instead of "homicide," Floyd's manner of death was "undetermined." Yamiche Alcindor has our report.
SUMMARY: The trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who is charged with murder in the death of George Floyd last May, is nearing its conclusion. The trial is being watched closely all around the country and internationally. The defense finished calling its witnesses Thursday, and Chauvin opted not to testify. Special correspondent Fred De Sam Lazaro has our latest update on the case.
CLOSING COMMENT:Our entire justice system is on trail here. The question being, is law enforcement allowed to harm, even kill, citizens without being held to account. Is any person's (especially LEOs) allowed to use deadly force just because they 'fear for their lives' without documented evidence that there was actual danger (i.e. can an unarmed person be a threat). This is specially true when in involves non-white citizens (as historical evidence testifies) are always seen as a threat even while just walking down a street.
SUMMARY:The death of Breonna Taylor one year ago drew increased attention to the use of “no-knock” warrants and police raids. Three states have since adopted “Breonna’s law,” banning the practice, and major police departments and cities have also prohibited its use. But Kentucky, Breonna’s home, has not yet banned no-knock warrants statewide.State Rep. Attica Scott joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss.
SUMMARY:Weeks before George Floyd's death fueled national protests over racism and police violence, the killing of Breonna Taylor sparked outrage in Louisville, Kentucky. Her case has now become a national touch point for protesters, who often chant, “say her name.” As John Yang reports, the city of Louisville’s response to the incident, in which police shot Taylor to death, is a flashpoint all its own.
President Trump began mulling a visit to St. John’s Episcopal Church on Monday morning, after spending the night devouring cable news coverage of protests across the country, including in front of the White House.
The historic church had been damaged by fire, and Trump was eager to show that the nation’s capital — and especially his own downtown swath of it — was under control.
There was just one problem: the throngs of protesters, who on Monday had again assembled peacefully in Lafayette Square across from the White House to protest the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis.
And so — shortly before the President addressed the nation from the Rose Garden at 6:43 p.m. Monday and roughly a half-hour before the District’s 7 p.m. curfew went into effect — authorities fired flash-bang shells, gas and rubber bullets into the crowd, clearing a path for Trump to visit the church immediately after his remarks.
The split screen as Trump began speaking was dark and foreboding — an angry leader proclaiming himself “an ally of all peaceful protesters” alongside smoke-filled mayhem and pandemonium as protesters raced for safety.
Before Trump vows to end ‘lawlessness,’ federal officers confront protesters outside White House.
The evening’s events were the product of a President who favors brute strength and fears looking weak, yet finds himself reeling from a duo of crises — a deadly pandemic that has left more than 100,000 Americans dead and racial unrest that has led to protests and riots across the nation.
He has also been consumed by his faltering poll numbers against former vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for President.
When Trump had returned safely to the White House less than an hour later, the verdict seemed clear: The President had staged an elaborate photo op, using a Bible awkwardly held aloft as a prop and a historic church that has long welcomed Presidents and their families as a backdrop.
In the process, protesters had been tear gassed and attacked, and Trump had taken a raging conflagration and doused it with accelerant.
“We long ago lost sight of normal, but this was a singularly immoral act,” said Brendan Buck, a longtime former Hill aide who is now a Republican operative. “The President used force against American citizens, not to protect property, but to soothe his own insecurities. We will all move on to the next outrage, but this was a true abuse of power and should not be forgotten.”
Trump’s decision to speak to the nation from the Rose Garden and to visit the church came together earlier in the day, said one senior White House official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The President was upset about news coverage of him briefly retreating to the White House bunker Friday evening amid protests, and he repeatedly wondered why anyone would have disclosed those details to the news media, two officials said.
He was also frustrated by coverage this weekend of his call with the Floyd family, which he believed was positive — Trump called it “a very good call,” an official said — but was portrayed negatively.
Finally, Trump was angry at cable news footage from Sunday evening, showing protests and riots near the White House, a White House official said. He spent much of Monday discussing with his team how to demonstrate the streets in Washington were under control and that there would not be riotous scenes in the coming days, the official said.
Inside the West Wing, aides were torn on the proposed spectacle. One official argued it was necessary, allowing Trump to demonstrate that he was not hunkered down and was out of the White House, as well as standing with evangelical voters by visiting the church. But two others worried it could backfire.
“It was just to win the news cycle,” one Trump adviser said. “I’m not sure that things are any better for us tomorrow.”
Jason Miller, a former senior adviser on Trump’s 2016 Presidential campaign, defended the President’s decision. He said Trump was elected in part on law-and-order themes, which he needs to continue to hammer, while simultaneously talking to black supporters about some of his initiatives, such as criminal justice reform.
“You’re going to have to go and knock some of the bad guys around a little bit,” Miller said. “Once they get tear gassed or pepper sprayed, they don't want it to happen again.”
He added that Trump had been reminded by allies that he was elected as a “get-things-done President.”
“He’s not the hand-holder or consoler in chief,” Miller said. “He was elected to take bold dramatic action and that’s what he did.”
The action began less than an hour before the District’s curfew, and in the moments before Trump was set to speak. Just after 6 p.m., hundreds of protesters were gathered on H Street NW, facing Lafayette Square. Though members of the National Guard — wielding shields that said “Military Police” — were lined up behind barricades, along with Secret Service and other law enforcement officers, the protesters remained peaceful. Several played music, and one painted on an easel.
But shortly thereafter, Attorney General William P. Barr visited the scene, and, about 6:30 p.m., the National Guard moved just yards from the protesters, prompting some screams. Some protesters threw water bottles, but many simply stood with their arms raised.
Then, the chaos began.
Members of the National Guard knelt briefly to put on gas masks, before suddenly charging eastward down H street, pushing protesters down toward 17th Street. Authorities shoved protesters down with their shields, fired rubber bullets directly at them, released tear gas and set off flash-bang shells in the middle of the crowd.
Protesters began running, many still with their hands up, shouting, “Don’t shoot.” Others were vomiting, coughing and crying.
As Trump began to speak, some protesters took a knee several blocks from the White House, again yelling, “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” But they were never able to stay kneeling for more than a couple of minutes, because authorities kept pushing them forward, as a thick, yellow cloud of smoke hung over the crowd.
About midway through his remarks, and roughly 10 minutes before the city’s curfew was set to go into effect, the President offered a stark warning: “Our 7 o’clock curfew will be strictly enforced. Those who threaten innocent life and property will be arrested, detained, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Trump concluded by promising that the nation’s “greatest days lie ahead,” and then said, cryptically, “And now I’m going to pay my respects to a very, very special place. Thank you very much.”
Accompanied by a small cadre of top advisers — including his daughter Ivanka Trump, clad in dark coronavirus mask — the President then made his way over to the church.
One White house official noted the lack of any black aides. Vice President Pence, a leading administration official to Christian voters, was also conspicuously absent from the event at the church.
Trump seemed to take in the scene and paused in front of St. John’s, turning to the cameras and holding up a black Bible in his right hand.
Asked if it was a family Bible, he said, simply, “It’s a Bible.”
Soon after the church event, the President’s top law enforcement and military officials, including the secretary of defense, attorney general and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, walked across parts of downtown Washington in an unusual show of force.
Some local officials were livid. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser upbraided Trump on Twitter: “I imposed a curfew at 7pm. A full 25 minutes before the curfew & w/o provocation, federal police used munitions on peaceful protesters in front of the White House, an act that will make the job of @DCPoliceDept officers more difficult. Shameful! DC residents — Go home. Be safe.”
“I am outraged,” she said, with pauses emphasizing her anger as her voice slightly trembled. “I am the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and was not given even a courtesy call that they would be clearing with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop, holding a Bible, one that declares that God is love and when everything he has said and done is to inflame violence.”
But Trump’s campaign team viewed the visit as a success. By late Monday, campaign officials were already tweeting a black-and-white photo of him walking to the church with a coterie of aides in his wake. Tim Murtaugh, the campaign’s top spokesman, posted the picture without a caption.
As the curfew descended upon the nation’s capital, the scene had calmed down significantly. Trump returned to the White House, and the groups of hundreds of protesters began dispersing.
Helicopters could be heard overhead all over the city Monday night, and officials said the streets were far emptier than usual.
There are may posts about what the Floyd Family Preliminary Autopsy found.
What is important is the 'official' autopsy was compromised because, in my opinion, by 'institutional prejudice,' that is they did it as they always have done in the past.I don't believe this was because of racial prejudice, the official autopsy was done without malice.
Institutional Prejudice
As I've sad, doing anything the same way without questioning if procedures should be changed. The 'we always do it this way' excuse.
Not empathizing that this was a Preliminary Autopsyand making sure the public knows why. In this case the tests for preexisting conditions were not complete. Know one knows if George Floyd had any preexisting conditions. The authorities are aware of this, but made no real effort to emphasize this.
Not having the actual person who performed the official examination of George Floyd on had for the official presentation, who could respond to media questions. Which does seem to be that current standard for most MEs.
These factors did cause more anger than it should. Not that people would not be angry, but many just did not realize the Full Autopsy is yet to come.
SUMMARY:Eric Garner’s 2014 death at the hands of New York City police sparked national outrage and helped fuel the Black Lives Matter movement. The police officer at the center of the case is now facing an administrative hearing, although it is not expected to call for significant penalties. Amna Nawaz reports and talks to Jim Dwyer of The New York Times, who has been following the story and the hearing.
IMHO: A person moving away (even if they have a knife) from anyone with a gun (LEO or not) is NOT a threat to anyone.
Excerpt
SUMMARY: Defense attorneys began presenting their case Monday in the trial of a white police officer accused of shooting Laquan McDonald in 2014. Jason Van Dyke has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and other charges, after firing on the black teenager 16 times. Amna Nawaz talks with Jennifer White, host of the WBEZ podcast "16 Shots."
SUMMARY:Ricky Boyd, 20, was shot outside his grandmother's home three months ago Monday. Law enforcement in Georgia went to arrest Boyd, claiming he was a murder suspect, but shot him. They claimed he had a firearm, which turned out to be a BB gun found 45 feet away. Boyd's mother, Jameillah Smiley, talks with Amna Nawaz in her first national broadcast interview, with her attorney, Will Claiborne.
IMHO: Because juries and investigators are prejudiced to believing 'I was in fear for my life' arguments. This is especially apparent when the victim is a child or unarmed.
Police need to be trained to NEVER put their hands on their gun when confronting children OR unarmed citizens. They also need to be taught to use non-lethal force FIRST, guns last.
SUMMARY: Why do so few trials of police officers charged in on-duty shootings end in convictions? Most recently, the officers who shot and killed Philando Castile and Sylville Smith were acquitted by juries who saw video of the fatal encounters. John Yang discusses issues of race and deadly force with David Klinger of the University of Missouri-St.Louis, and Brittany Packnett co-founder of Campaign Zero.
In a recently released study of this national blind spot, Claremont Graduate University researchers Roger Chin, Jean Schroedel and Lily Rowen agree, writing that the minimal coverage of the issue indicates that Native people are ignored and their issues devalued.
As Black Lives Matter, Idle No More and other social justice movements have proliferated, “Native Lives Matter” has been taken up as a rallying cry by Natives grieving the loss of loved ones to police violence, as well as those calling attention to numerous other injustices—such as the routing of the Dakota Access Pipeline so as to imperil the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation's water source, which the tribe opposes.
In These Times spoke with five advocates who devote their time and energy to promoting the concept that Native Lives Matter.
Troy Amlee, or Akicita Sunka-Wakan Ska (White Horse Soldier), a hip-hop and dubstep musician from the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes, and JR Bobick, a French Canadian descendant from St. Paul, Minn.—both activists with 'Idle No More Twin Cities'—were outraged by the December 2013 police-shooting death of Cheyenne-Arapaho teen Mah-hi-vist Goodblanket. Together, they posted on 'Idle No More's' pages, then created the Native Lives Matter Facebook page in 2014 to document and bring awareness to the deaths.
Attorney Chase Iron Eyes helped raise the movement's profile by hosting a Native Lives Matter rally in Rapid City, S.D., in December 2014 and penning a report on the subject for the Lakota People's Law Project in 2015. A member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Iron Eyes is running for Congress as a Democrat from North Dakota.
In early 2015, Marlee Kanosh, of the Paiute Tribe of Utah, began administering the Facebook page Native Lives Taken By Police. The loss of her brother Corey in a 2012 police shooting drew her to the online community of people suffering similar tragedies, and what she describes as “a whole world of people going through the same thing for a very long time.”
How do you define Native Lives Matter?
Chase: It's a movement for reclaiming our inherent spiritual dignity. Native Lives Matter is a healing and a way to move beyond what has been imposed on us for 500 years—since the arrival of Europeans.
Black Lives Matter brought attention to police brutality and institutional racism, and we were very aware of that when we coined our version of the term. We want Native Lives Matter understood as expansive—including improvement in many quality-of-life issues that affect our communities, in addition to police shootings specifically. As such, it's a comprehensive call to action for social justice reform.
JR: The mainstream media doesn't follow Native issues, so we base the content of our Facebook page, Native Lives Matter, on what our community wants, not on what we want as organizers. As a result of listening to the people, we have covered many subjects in addition to police brutality. The issues relate to each other. This approach has brought the page nearly 100,000 “Likes” so far.
Troy: We have also tried to make our page a reliable source for news about the Dakota Access Pipeline, a big concern for Native people these days. As a group, we support positive issues and projects. We advocate for healthy eating and living, encourage planting of backyard gardens and hold clothing drives. We are showing up for the people.
Marlee: As administrator for the Facebook page Native Lives Taken By Police, I focus on police brutality. My posts are also very personal. In addition to research, I talk to the families, find out who the victims really were and get permission to use their photographs and other material. I have met some of the families, including Daniel Covarrubias's mother and sister at Rise Up October in New York City in 2015. [As reported in In These Times, Lakewood, Wash., police shot and killed Covarrubias earlier that year.]
What moment brought you to this issue?
Marlee: My brother Corey was shot and killed [by police] in 2012 in Millard County, Utah. There are so many questions about his death. It doesn't add up. The medical examiner said no major organs or veins were hit, so the shots weren't immediately fatal. It seems that he was just allowed to die. [Kanosh reportedly did not receive care after he was shot, but rather lay face-down in the dirt until morning, when his mother was notified he was dead.] Why was Corey not given medical aid? Isn't there a law requiring this? We are citizens of this country, and we have rights. We feel lied to and betrayed. I didn't know how to deal with this other than to use my feelings, my pain and my hurt, to be helpful—to share others' stories. I know how the families feel when this happens.
Chase: In December 2014, friends and I organized a rally in Rapid City to make clear the contrast between what Natives contribute to the local economy and what we suffer. We were attending the Lakota Invitational Basketball Tournament, which brings a significant amount of money to Rapid City. In addition, the nearby Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations have few businesses, so money from local Native residents and people living on the reservations flows directly to Rapid City business owners throughout the year. And you know the statistics—just about every quality-of-life indicator for Native people is very bad. We suffer disproportionate incarceration, and our children are taken from their families and placed in foster care far more often than non-Native children.
[A local man named] Allen Locke, who is Lakota, happened to attend the rally. The next day was the championship game. I went to buy Christmas gifts, and when I returned to the tournament, everyone's Facebook timelines were going crazy with the information that cops had shot someone in a development called Lakota Homes.
Some of us went over and learned it was Allen. His family asked us for help dealing with the police and the media. We said, “Yeah, absolutely,” and hung out to make sure they had what they needed. After that, we went to the Lakota People's Law Project office in Rapid City, which became the base camp where we held press conferences, produced literature and got information out. I wanted to document what was occurring and wrote the report “Native Lives Matter.”
Troy: Five years ago, a lot of tokala warriors [members of a traditional warrior society] attended the funeral of my uncle Beau Little Sky, who was in AIM, the American Indian Movement. I was 19 at the time and observed that they had a consciousness about them. So I was curious. I joined AIM and did homeless feeds and cop-watch patrols, which involved going around Minneapolis/St. Paul with a police scanner and listening for minority-related calls. Through cop-watching, I got involved with Occupy Minnesota and 'Idle No More Twin Cities.' The Native Lives Matter page JR and I put together now has nine admins in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Colorado.
Darleen: Today is the one-year anniversary of the day my baby's father was murdered by police. Marking that anniversary is an Ojibwe tradition, which we did at Indian Mounds, an ancient burial mound in St. Paul. There was a lot of support. Families of other victims, such as Marcus Golden, also killed in 2015, joined us. His dad is indigenous, and his mom is African American. Family members of Jamar Clark, an African-American man shot last fall, were there as well.
I got involved in this grassroots Native Lives Matter group because I wanted to be part of listening to and protecting the people. Native people nationwide are being murdered at a higher rate than other people. We have been living a silent, comfortable genocide. Everyone is cool with it—us dying and our cultures being taken away.
How has the idea spread?
Chase: Everywhere there are reservation bordertowns or large Indian populations, there is tension—from Oklahoma and states surrounding the Navajo Nation to rural areas of Montana and Minnesota. As the Native Lives Matter idea has grown, it has also come to include cities like L.A. and Denver. Natives everywhere have taken it over in ways that let them get out their own message.
Marlee: Without the Internet and social media, each of us would be talking to small communities. With online connections, we can talk to the larger community.
Chase:Indians are tribal people. There are few degrees of separation between any of us. We're also highly involved Internet users, with the ability to go viral even though we're a small percentage of the U.S. population. Tweets about opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline were trending high on Twitter long before there was any mainstream media coverage, long before elected officials were talking about it. They live in a world that doesn't exist anymore, a world where you had to get a [TV] network to cover you. That's old school.
How does your work affect you?
Marlee: I have so many dreams. Every night after I do a story for the page, I dream about it. Today, opening up the page and seeing all the stories there overwhelmed me. I have done about 80 and have a couple of additional names to get to as well. I know there are even more. Being helpful makes me feel better, though. I also do a lot of praying and meditating.
Any more thoughts?
JR: Our Native Lives Matter page is about helping build a community.
Marlee: Through Native Lives Taken By Police, I want to help people keep their family member's story alive. It has been important for my own family to do this, so I am doing what I can for others.
Chase:It is painfully clear that some people can't expect justice. We want to stop being ignored. In our eyes, Allen Locke gave his life for that.
IMHO: The debate is for Hillary Clinton to loose. All Trump has to do is keep his silver-foot out of his mouth, and be calm and Presidential.
Excerpt
SUMMARY: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week's news, including police shootings in Charlotte and Tulsa, the newly released video showing the fatal shooting of Keith Scott, the candidates' views on police violence and recent protests and what we should expect from the first Presidential debate.
SUMMARY: Protests boiled over in Charlotte, North Carolina, within hours of the fatal shooting of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott. His sister said he was unarmed, but the officers say he did have a gun. William Brangham reports on the ensuing turmoil.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): It's an all-too- familiar story, in a new setting. This time, the city of Charlotte is on edge, awaiting a second night of protests over the police killing of a black man.
The drama began with a Tuesday confrontation that sparked a night of trouble.
William Brangham begins our coverage.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM (NewsHour): Within hours of the fatal shooting, protests boiled over in North Carolina's largest city. The victim was 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott.
And his sister, who didn't give her name, said he was unarmed.
WOMAN:They said, hands up, he got a gun, he got a gun. Pow, pow, pow, pow. That's it. He had no gun.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM:Another woman, claiming to be Scott's daughter, went on Facebook, saying he'd had a book, not a gun, and also had an unspecified disability.
In short order, a crowd blocked traffic on Interstate 85, throwing rocks, and destroying police cars. Some looted a tractor-trailer and set it on fire. Others broke into a nearby Wal-Mart. Police eventually used tear gas to quell the violence, but 16 officers were injured.
This morning, police chief Kerr Putney urged people to step back and be calm.
KERR PUTNEY, Charlotte Police Chief: It's time to change the narrative, because I can tell you from the facts that the story is a little bit different as to how it's been portrayed so far, especially through social media.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM:As Putney told it, officers had been at an apartment complex, searching for a suspect, when they saw Scott get out of a car. They say he did have a gun, and refused to put it down.
KERR PUTNEY: In spite of the verbal commands, Mr. Scott, as I said, exited his vehicle armed with a handgun, as the officers continued to yell at him to drop it. He stepped out, posing a threat to the officers, and officer Brentley Vinson subsequently fired his weapon, striking the subject.
SUMMARY: The city of Charlotte, North Carolina, is on edge in the wake of a police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott and the violent protests that followed overnight. Judy Woodruff speaks with Mayor Jennifer Roberts about unrest in the community and getting facts about the deadly confrontation.
SUMMARY: Charlotte, North Carolina, has been reeling from the shooting death of Keith Scott by police. The governor called a state of emergency after a peaceful protest turned violent. A black protester was critically wounded, for which many are blaming the police. Judy Woodruff talks to Trevor Fuller of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners.
SUMMARY: Cellphone footage of police officers fatally shooting Keith Scott, taken by the victim’s wife, was released Friday. The video comes as Charlotte city officials face mounting pressure to release the police body cam and dash cam videos. Judy Woodruff talks to The New York Times' Yamiche Alcindor for more.
SUMMARY: NewsHour's Hari Sreenivasan sits down with the President of the Black Police Association of Greater Dallas for a deeper look at police misconduct, the code of silence, and what it is like to be both a police officer and an African American in 2016.
HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour): How long do you think until this community heals itself from this?
LIEUTENANT THOMAS GLOVER, President of the Black Police Association: I'd like to say we're on our way to healing now but all it takes is the next bad actor to upset that…
HARI SREENIVASAN: We went to see Lieutenant Thomas Glover in Dallas two days after the police shootings. He's the President of the area's Black Police Association and has the perspective on what it's like to be a police officer and an African American. I started by asking him if it's possible to want criminal justice reform while at the same time valuing the life of every police officer.
LIEUTENANT THOMAS GLOVER:I think it is, as an individual I'm that way, as an African American man, in America with over 35 years on the police department, I am that way. The majority of the police officers that I know, we all want to see behavior that is improperly exhibited by a police officer criminalized. You have to do your job as a police officer and then, on the other hand, when you remove your uniform and badge and you go home many of us spend our times in the black community. The social organizations we tend to become members of are black, the fraternities, sororities, alumni associations so we go from being police officers who work in a process where its our duty to do what we were sworn to do and that's uphold the laws but then you have some very heinous things that happen. I will not compromise my convictions, as an African American male for the convenience of being a police officer, just can't do it. I have reported misconduct. I have reported what I believe was to be excessive force and I have vigorously tried to call out people who openly practice what I would say were discriminatory acts or racist acts of treatment of people of color. And so that crossroads is very evident as an African American police officer because first of all you are a part of the community. There's nothing I will ever be able to do that will dissolve my black skin, nothing.
SUMMARY: Forty-nine years ago this week, Newark, in New Jersey burned in rebellion against police brutality and racial injustice. Today, activists and authorities continue to grapple with many of the same issues. In this segment, hear perspectives from protesters and police at a Newark rally in the wake of the shootings in Dallas, St. Paul and Baton Rouge.
SUMMARY: Last week, news broke on social media on the shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, and of police officers in Dallas. Platforms like Facebook Live provided audiences with a front row seat to violent and graphic imagery that sparked national debate about police brutality and race relations in America. At the same time, social media provided a platform for messages of support and pleas for unity. Hari Sreenivasan reports.
SUMMARY: Newshour Weekend special correspondent Chris Bury reports on new efforts in the Twin Cities of Minnesota to change how and when police interact with residents. In almost an opposite theory to what's been called “Broken Windows” policing, there is an organized move to eliminate many low-level offenses. This approach raises the question: Would many of the police shootings of young men of color happen, if they were never pulled over or stopped in the first place?
SUMMARY: Monifa Bandele, the senior campaign director of MomsRising.Org; Journalist Ian Tuttle, a fellow at the National Review; and retired NY police detective Marquez Claxton, director of the Black Law Enforcement Alliance, discuss their thoughts on how to find common ground on policing, protest and race.
SUMMARY: President Barack Obama will be in Dallas Tuesday for an interfaith service to mourn the five police officers cut down in last week's sniper ambush. The killings have done little to muffle growing national protests against police violence as rallies, marches and human roadblocks spread from cities like New York and Baton Rouge to St. Paul and Memphis. Gwen Ifill reports.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):The nation is still grappling tonight with a series of tragedies, recent police killings of black men, and the sniper attack in Dallas.
It follows a long weekend of crowds confronting police and of mass arrests. Protesters are taking to the streets across the country. But in Dallas, the anger is tempered by grief for the five officers killed Thursday night.
Police Chief David Brown said today he is running on fumes.
DAVID BROWN, Chief, Dallas Police Department: My brain is fried. The memorization it takes to run a major city police department just on a normal process day with all things that happen is overwhelming. So this transpiring along with the normal things that are continuing to happen in the city is difficult at best.
GWEN IFILL: Doctors who tried to save Thursday's victims grew emotional at a hospital news conference today.
DR. BRIAN WILLIAMS, Parkland Memorial Hospital:This killing, it has to stop, black men dying and being forgotten, people retaliating against the people that are sworn to defend us. We have to come together and end all this.
GWEN IFILL: Meanwhile, detectives are reviewing more than 170 hours of body camera video, plus 300 witness and officer statements. They're searching for more background on Micah Johnson, the gunman who opened fire during an otherwise peaceful protest.
His parents told TheBlaze Web site today that his time in the Army Reserve wasn't what he thought it would be. They say he changed from a fun-loving extrovert into a hermit. Johnson died after a lengthy standoff with police.
Chief Brown said today he has no regrets about the decision to kill him with a robot-delivered bomb.
DAVID BROWN: We knew through negotiations this was the suspect, because he was asking, how many did he get? And he was telling us how many more he wanted to kill. This wasn't an ethical dilemma for me. I would do it again.
GWEN IFILL: In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, authorities arrested nearly 200 protesters demonstrating over the killing of Alton Sterling, captured on video last week, apparently by two officers.
Among those arrested, prominent Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson, who was released Sunday.
DERAY MCKESSON, Black Lives Matter Activist:The only people that were violent last Saturday night were the Baton Rouge Police Department. The protesters remain peaceful both here and across the country. Again, I remain deeply disappointed in the Baton Rouge Police Department.
GWEN IFILL: Last night, Baton Rouge officers in riot gear kept protesters from entering Interstate 110 with what activists described as heavy-handed tactics. Hundreds also marched over the weekend in St. Paul, Minnesota, where picture was shot to death during a traffic stop; 21 officers were injured Saturday night.
Today, city leaders said they were caught off guard.
MAYOR CHRIS COLEMAN, St. Paul, Minnesota: The folks that were out there will all tell you that the restraint that our officers showed was second to none, but at some point when our officers are being bombarded by concrete and rebar, to the point where they are being injured, we need to respond.
SUMMARY: These are especially difficult times for black law enforcement officers who, painfully sometimes, see that the complaints that some of their fellow cops are racist are real. Hari Sreenivasan holds a frank discussion with Lieutenant Thomas Glover, the president of the Black Police Association Of Greater Dallas, who makes a special plea for President Barack Obama to make a difference.
SUMMARY: The image was stark as President Barack Obama tried to comfort a country still reeling from days of bloodshed, protest and racial tension. Five chairs, holding flags and police caps, to represent the five officers killed by a sniper's bullets. In eulogizing the fallen, Obama also made the case that racism, institutional and otherwise, is real — and cannot be dismissed. Judy Woodruff reports.
SUMMARY: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss what they both agree was a bad week for America. They see little chance for an end to the increasing polarization. Both also had unkind words for presidential candidates — Hillary Clinton for dodging on the email scandal and Donald Trump for his failure to unify Republicans.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Now to the analysis of Shields and Brooks. That's syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.
Welcome to you both, although the show, the program tonight, Mark and David, consumed with these killings of two black men by police in Minnesota and Louisiana, and then, last night, this terrible attack on the police in Dallas.
What do you make of all this, David?
DAVID BROOKS, The New York Times:Well, it's been a crappy week.
We have had the killings. We have had, frankly, both our presidential candidates behaving reprehensibly. And so I think we're sort of at a moment where, on the one hand, a lot of harsh truths are being exposed, a lot of people who have been silent are speaking out.
And some of that is about violence, as we have seen, against African-Americans. Frankly, some of the Trump movement, it's members of the white working class speaking out. And that's all to the good.
The question, to me, is, are we going to speak out in a way that is actual dialogue and conversation, or are we going to drift into tribal thinking? There's been a lot of rancid over-generalizations in our society, that all African men behind the wheel are dangerous; that all Muslims are somehow involved in terrorism, that all cops are somehow at war with communities.
And if we can speak in a way that's not tribalistic, that's not making these generalizations, then we may make something out of the current moment. But I'm not always hopeful after a bad week like this one.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Mark, what do you make out of all this?
MARK SHIELDS, Syndicated Columnist:Judy, I think that we all — or at least I — speaking for myself, I was overconfident, over-optimistic in 2008.
I thought the original sin of America, racism, that it was a time to celebrate, that we had done something really rather remarkable in electing an African — and we did — electing an African-American President, and that, somehow, with — this terrible chapter was behind us.
The constant in every one of these killings and tragedies this week is race. And I get the feeling, almost like 1968, that events are in the saddle. It's not Vietnam. There aren't 548 Americans dying every week. And we haven't had a James Earl Ray or a Sirhan Sirhan yet to assassinate our leaders; but just a sense, whether it's Zika, whether it's Istanbul, whether it's Orlando, that events are in the saddle and that things are not going to get better.
Pulitzer Prize Categories: National Reporting, and General Nonfiction ("Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS” by Erin Patrick O'Connor/The Washington Post)
Excerpt
SUMMARY: The Washington Post picked up two Pulitzer Prizes on Monday, including one for national reporting on police shootings of civilians. According to an innovative new database compiled by the Post, 990 civilians were fatally shot by police last year. For more on the groundbreaking report, Judy Woodruff talks to Wesley Lowery of The Washington Post.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): And speaking of awards, let's look at some investigative reporting honored by this year's Pulitzer Prizes.
The Washington Post won two Pulitzers yesterday, including one for national reporting for a series on police shootings of civilians. There had been little national data about those kind of shootings.
The Post created its own database that included these findings: 990 people were fatally shot by police last year. One in six officers had been involved in a prior shooting. In three-quarters of the cases, police were under attack or defending someone who was.
Wesley Lowery was one of The Washington Post's lead reporters on this. He's part of a team of more than 60. And he joins me now.
Congratulations, Wesley Lowery.
WESLEY LOWERY, The Washington Post: Thank you so much.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Let's see. How many years have you been reporting?
WESLEY LOWERY: A few, but — a few, a handful. So, I'm 25. I have been at The Post for two years.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And what was your reaction?
WESLEY LOWERY: I was really excited.
This was a project that really was a newsroom-wide effort that involved a lot of different staffs, our investigative staff, our national desk, which I work for, our graphics and data development staffs as well. It was just a really great team win.
JUDY WOODRUFF: How did the idea for this come about?
WESLEY LOWERY:So, this idea, this project was born in a lot of ways out of Ferguson, Missouri.
And I was one of our lead reporters on the ground in Missouri, as well as then in Baltimore, when there was the unrest there. And in Ferguson, they were having this conversation where you had the police unions and the police chiefs saying at the time, this is a one-off anecdote. We almost never shoot anybody. Most officers never fire their guns.
And you had the civil rights groups and many of the activists and protesters saying, young black men are being executed in the streets every day. This is an outrage. We're being killed.
And so smart editors asked an obvious question, which is true. We should know, right? We should be able to provide some clarity to this debate. And it turned out that we couldn't because no one was keeping track at the national level and also even at state levels. No one knew exactly how many people were being killed by the police.
I am Retired U.S. Navy (22yrs) and a Vietnam Veteran. After my Navy retirement I was in the computer related industry, now retired. In 2000 I was a registered Republican and voted for George W. Bush. Six months of having Bush in the Whitehouse forced me to re-evaluate my political stance. I had always thought of myself as a Moderate Republican, but was a Republican by "default" NOT because of close examination of the GOP. Due to what has happened in America since 2000, I now consider myself a progressive, and registered as a Non-Affiliated voter.
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