SUMMARY: Faces of the five victims led the front page of the Capital Gazette, a day after mayhem broke out in the Maryland newspaper's offices. The accused gunman has a long-held grudge against the paper after a 2011 column about his guilty plea to criminal harassment. Amna Nawaz talks with Terence Smith, contributing columnist for the Capital Gazette and longtime NewsHour contributor.
SUMMARY: A gunman opened fire Wednesday in Alexandria, Va., during a morning practice for the Congressional Baseball Game. The gunman, who died from his injuries sustained during the attack, shot Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, the House Majority Whip, and four others. Lisa Desjardins joins Judy Woodruff for an update on the reaction from Capitol Hill.
SUMMARY: Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was on high alert today after a deadly shooting that killed three law enforcement officers this morning. The city has been tense ever since police officers shot and killed Alton Sterling, prompting protests throughout the country. Reporter Charlie Whinham, from our affiliate Louisiana Public Broadcasting, joins us for more.
SUMMARY: Another city is mourning the fatal shootings of its police officers — this time three in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which exploded in protest earlier this month when white cops killed Alton Sterling, a black man, outside a convenience store. The gunman, an ex-Marine, had expressed anger on social media. Jeffrey Brown reports talks to Col. Michael Edmonson, superintendent of the Louisiana State Police.
SUMMARY: Rubana Khan of Orlando, in heartfelt verse, sends apologies from her Islamic family to the families of the victims of Sunday’s mass shooting. In doing so, she lays bare the pain the killer, Omar Mateen, has caused her and other Muslims, who consider their religion one of peace, not of violence or hatred.
SUMMARY: Pres. Barack Obama said Sunday that he stands in support with the LGBT community after a gunman killed 50 people at a popular gay nightclub in Orlando. Carlos Smith of Equality Rights, a group that advocates for LGBT rights, joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss what the attack means to the community.
HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour): President Obama noted that today's mass shooting is especially painful for gay and lesbian Americans as a club where they socialized in solidarity was the target. To discuss what the Orlando mass shooting means for the LGBT community, I am joined by Carlos Smith from Equality Florida, a group that fights for LGBT rights. Tell us a bit about the community that was affected today.
CARLOS SMITH, EQUALITY FLORIDA: Sure. Well, our entire community is devastated, and Equality Florida sends its thoughts and prayers to all of those who were affected by this tragedy. This tragedy happened at a popular nightclub, Pulse Orlando, a gay nightclub. It happened during LGBTQ Pride Month. It happened at a time when the club was at maximum capacity. So it's clear that the shooter had every intent of inflicting the maximum amount of violence and damage.
And I think what's really important to understand is that the LGBTQ community has gone to gay nightclubs like Pulse Orlando and places around the country for decades, since the days of Stonewall, as a place where people can be safe, as a place where people can with who they are and have a sense of community.
So we're devastated to see this type of violence. But I think it's also important that people understand that the central Florida LGBTQ community is standing in solidarity also with the Muslim and Islamic community. Both of our communities have been targets of violence, of hate and of discrimination.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Is there a history of disproportionate discrimination or just any discrimination against the LGBT community in Florida, in central Florida?
CARLOS SMITH: Well, what we've seen unfortunately in the last couple of years is there has been a rash of violence, particularly against transgender women of color. There was a hate crime murder incident that happened actually recently in Florida that was devastating to the community that targeted a transgender black woman.
And what we're seeing now is that even in the year 2016, hate and bigotry still exists. And we're doing what we can in our communities, at the local level, at the state level, at the national level, to eradicate all forms of hate and discrimination, and to make sure that we fight against all phobias. Not just homophobia, not just transphobia, but also against Islamophobia.
SUMMARY: The attack that killed 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando was a devastating blow to the local community. Managing Editor of the Orlando Sentinel joins Hari Sreenivasan via Skype to discuss the latest developments.
SUMMARY: When a terror attack occurs in the U.S. -- often it can provoke a change in policy which may or may not be in the country's best interest. Stephen Biddle of the Council of Foreign Affairs and Policy joins Hari Sreenivasan for some analysis on what policymakers can do to respond to these attacks.
SUMMARY: "Chi-Raq," the latest film from Spike Lee, uses satire to explore the problem of gun violence in America. The movie is set in Chicago, a city that's been wracked by tensions with police as well as a very high number of murders. The director sits down with Jeffrey Brown.
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): The urgency behind Spike Lee’s new film is announced right at the top.
MAN: Homicides in Chicago, Illinois, have surpassed the death toll of American special forces in Iraq.
JEFFREY BROWN: It’s called “Chi-Raq.”
MAN: Welcome to Chi-Raq.
JEFFREY BROWN: The title mixes Chicago and Iraq. The film mixes social satire and deadly serious issues of gang violence.
In a Washington, D.C., movie theater recently, Lee told me why he felt compelled to make the film.
SPIKE LEE, Director, “Chi-Raq”: We, as Americans, shouldn’t be OK with our young people being shot down in the street.
The South Side of Chicago is a mass murder capital of the United States of America. Chicago is the canary in the coal mine.
JEFFREY BROWN: The emergency Lee sees, guns in America used by black men to kill other black men, while the gap grows between rich and poor communities even within the same city.
SUMMARY: How does one recover from the trauma of being caught in the middle of a terrorist attack? Psychotherapist Mark Colclough, who was in one of the Paris cafés when it was attacked by gunmen two weeks ago, offers some special insight on tools and strategies he has been using to heal. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports.
MALCOLM BRABANT (NewsHour): Back home after witnessing four people being murdered, psychotherapist Mark Colclough is deploying all his professional skills to minimize the anguish.
Two weeks on, how traumatized do you think you are?
MARK COLCLOUGH, Psychotherapist: I can’t scale that really on a one-to-10 scale. I still have signs of trauma and shock. And post-traumatic stress is very much still there.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Can you describe the sort of things that are troubling you still?
MARK COLCLOUGH: Sure, flashbacks of the gunmen, very clear.
There's been a dream that’s recurred several times about me being in the hallway of my house and looking down to the sitting room, and I can see shadows on the wall, and I’m with my travel friend who was with me in Paris.
And I turn around to say to him, look, look, like there’s a break-in. There are thieves in the sitting room. I turn around to look at him, so I know he’s behind me. In the dream, I look back and he's not there. And I look forward again to look into the living room, and the gunman is right in front of me shooting at me this time. And that’s where I wake up.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Do you think you are going to be permanently damaged?
MARK COLCLOUGH: Oh, no. No. I don’t think that at all.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Is that because you personally and professionally have the tools that enable you to deal with this?
MARK COLCLOUGH: Yes. I think I have been in and out of therapy since I was 19. It’s been — always been in my interest has been psychotherapy and psychology. So I'm aware that I have tools and I have quite a robust sense of self.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): The first half of this year has been a more violent and tragic one in many cities, leading police, community leaders, families and friends of victims to ask, what’s happening?
Across the country, scenes like these are playing out, at an escalating pace. The Major Cities Police Chiefs Association reports homicides have spiked this year after hitting 50-year lows in 2013. Members of the group voiced alarm at a Washington meeting on Monday.
J. THOMAS MANGER, President, Major Cities Chiefs Association: What we focused on was the fact that we’re going to shooting scenes now where you have got more and more victims being shot, you have got more spent rounds being collected as evidence, and we’re finding more and more high-capacity magazines involved in these shootings.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The association reports homicides are up an average of 19 percent in 35 big cities. Chicago has the dubious distinction of leading the list, with 252 killings, up 20 percent. But Saint Louis and Milwaukee have seen increases of 64 to 88 percent. The city of Baltimore had 45 homicides in July alone, the most since 1972.
That followed the death of Freddie Gray in police custody last April, and the resulting riots. Yesterday, Baltimore leaders announced federal agencies will embed special agents with city detectives.
Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings:
REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), Maryland: The only people who are getting — making — doing pretty good now are the morticians. They’re the only ones. And I say that we are a city that is better than that. And so to all of our — all those folks who think that you have got to — you get your power from carrying a gun and shooting somebody and hurting somebody, I’m begging you, put your guns down.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Meanwhile, police chiefs say they are still trying to fully understand what’s behind the surge in killings.
SUMMARY: Why has there been a dramatic spike in homicides this year? Judy Woodruff speaks to Col. Sam Dotson, chief of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, and Edward Flynn, chief of the Milwaukee Police Department, two cities that have seen a substantial rise in murders, about the wide availability of guns, scrutiny of the criminal justice system, an increase in heroin use and systemic poverty.
SUMMARY: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week's news, including the recent wave of mass shootings, selling the Iran nuclear deal to Congress, and whether Hillary Clinton needs to worry about the latest round of email allegations.
SUMMARY: Officials are describing their case on the shooting rampage by Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez on members of the U.S. military as a terror investigation. Hari Sreenivasan speaks to Michael Leiter, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, about what we know about the shooter and whether he may have been influenced by groups like the Islamic State, which has called for lone wolf attacks.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Now we take a deeper look at what we know about the attack in Chattanooga and the current threats against Americans.
Hari Sreenivasan picks up the story.
HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour): Investigators are combing through clues to find out why Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez went on a shooting rampage yesterday in Chattanooga.
Officials describe the case that targeted members of the U.S. military, taking the lives of four Marines, as a terror investigation.
For more, we turn to Michael Leiter, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
So, Michael, on the one hand, we have federal authorities saying we do not have a direct link yet to ISIS. On the other hand, this is exactly the type of attack that ISIS and al-Qaida are trying to inspire around the world.
MICHAEL LEITER, Former Director, National Counterterrorism Center: That’s exactly right.
And I think federal officials are being appropriately cautious. It is only 24 hours after the event and much evidence that will be uncovered is not yet open or public. All that being said, it’s quite clear, I think by all of the indications, that there was some inspiration from al-Qaida or ISIS ideology.
Exactly what those links are back to those organizations, that’s what we still have to figure out.
SUMMARY: The mass shooting in Charleston isn’t just an isolated event, but can be seen as part of a troubled history of racial hatred and violence in the United States. What makes someone embrace racist ideology and what can be done to stop it? Gwen Ifill talks with Richard Cohen of the Southern Poverty Law Center, former FBI special agent Gregg McCrary and Paul Butler of Georgetown University Law Center.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): While lawmakers moved to quell the Confederate Flag controversy, a debate continued about the roots of the Charleston attacks. Were they motivated by racial animus or individual alienation?
In an unusually blunt contribution to the discussion, President Obama weighed in Friday during a podcast that was posted online today. In the interview with comedian Marc Maron, he was asked to comment on the roots of racism and, in making his point, employed a racial epithet.
We are not editing that portion of the president’s remarks.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: It is incontrovertible that race relations have improved significantly during my lifetime and yours, and that opportunities have opened up, and that attitudes have changed.
MARC MARON, Podcast Host: Yeah.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: That is a fact.
What is also true is that the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination, in almost every institution of our lives, you know, that casts a long shadow. And that’s still part of our DNA that’s — that’s passed on. Uh, it, we’re not cured of it.
MARC MARON: Racism.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Racism, we are not cured of.
MARC MARON: Clearly.
And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public. That’s not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It’s not just a matter of overt discrimination. We have — societies don’t overnight completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior.
GWEN IFILL: The President’s comments spurred a lively online debate that ranged from cause to effect.
Among the questions being asked: Was this attack a form of domestic terrorism?
For our discussion, I’m joined by Gregg McCrary, a former FBI profiler who has specialized in tracking and understanding violent predators, Paul Butler, a professor of law at Georgetown University who teaches about race relations, and Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
SUMMARY: Reuters reporter Luciana Lopez has been in South Carolina covering the fallout of the tragic shooting in Charleston on Wednesday, where nine people were killed at Emanuel AME Church. What do we know about the motives of Dylann Roof, who has been charged with nine counts of murder? Lopez joins Hari Sreenivasan from Mt. Pleasant, S.C. for more.
HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour): Reuters reporter Luciana Lopez has been in South Carolina covering the story. She joins me now from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
So, what more do we know today about Dylann Roof and his motivations?
LUCIANA LOPEZ, Reuters: Well, one interesting thing that surfaced is that what appears to be a white supremacist manifesto has surfaced, and we’re trying to verify that — this does, indeed, come from Dylann Roof. But it lays out a little bit about how he was radicalized, looking up information about Trayvon Martin, and it lays out some of his feelings about other racial groups as well.
Again, we’re trying to verify that this is, indeed, his. But this goes a little bit deeper into his ideology.
HARI SREENIVASAN: And what’s in there? What does he think of and why — was there an explanation for why he did this?
LUCIANA LOPEZ: There is an explanation of sorts. Again, he talks about how he was radicalized and looking up information about different racial and ethnic groups in the United States, and then he says he’s picked Charleston, in fact, because of its significance, and because of its historical significance. And he says that he felt like he really needed to make a statement and that this was really the place to do it.
And he also implies that there wasn’t anyone else to do this, and so, he felt like this was something that he had some sort of mission to go out there to do.
SUMMARY: An estimated 260,000 suspected hate crimes happen in the U.S. every year. More than 50 out of every 1 million black citizens was the victim of a racially motivated hate crime in 2012, the highest of any group, according to FBI data. Washington Post reporter Christopher Ingraham joins Hari Sreenivasan from Baltimore to put this week’s attack in perspective.
SUMMARY: From a racial hate crime that rocked the nation, to the Pope’s call for action on climate change, there has been no shortage of issues to spark national debate and discussion this week. Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks discuss these topics and more.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): So, another terrible race-related story to talk about, this horrible shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, David, where a young white man killed nine black churchgoers.
How — what are we left with? I mean, is this an isolated — should we think of this as an isolated incident, a racist young man, or do we — or does the whole country need to do some soul-searching?
DAVID BROOKS, New York Times: Yes.
First, we should mention that the uplifting part of this story, of this terrible story is what happened today in the courtroom, the families forgiving the young man in such a heartfelt and heartrending way. Mark and I were talking before that is living the faith, that is walking the walk.
And we have a society and certainly a politics filled with people who aren’t forgiving each other, filled with vengeance. Well, that speech should be seared in our minds. And so that was an uplifting moment today…
JUDY WOODRUFF: It was.
DAVID BROOKS: … which wasn’t all negative.
The horror is the horror. I confess, I’m a little confused about how much to generalize. We have a race problem in this country. That is so obvious. But we also have an angry solitary young man problem. And I’m not sure a lot of the angry solitary young men are directly connected.
They are obviously loosely connected to the history of race in this country. But they are angry solitary young men looking for hateful and vicious ideologies. Some of them turn into neo-Nazi skinheads. I don’t think we have a Nazi problem in this country. They are solitary and they’re hate-mongers. And the guy sits with the Bible study group for an hour and then starts shooting them. That’s beyond — beyond imagination.
And so I — it’s obviously connected, but I’m a little wary of the too pat causations that are linked between our general race problem and this specific, completely bizarre, and completely evil incident.
JUDY WOODRUFF: How are you seeing this?
MARK SHIELDS, Syndicated columnist: I just want to underscore what David said about those people in the courtroom today and them saying, may God have mercy on you, and I forgive you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: It was extraordinary.
MARK SHIELDS: It is. These are people of faith. These are people who do practice their faith. And it’s a lot more than preaching.
What hit me, Judy, was President Obama, who some of his greatest and most eloquent moments have been at times of crisis and tragedy and sort of putting things in perspective, how yesterday almost seemed — making the announcement, dispirited and a sense of resignation.
And there was a little feeling, I think. For example, after the Birmingham church in 1963, when the four little girls were blown up in Sunday school, there was a moment in the country. You could feel it, an inflection moment, where we moved on civil rights. The passage of the 1964 act was almost assured by that terrible, terrible, inhuman act.
But that was — so there was a sense that we were moving in a direction. After Newtown and after the slaughter of the innocents there and the teachers, where 90 percent of Americans endorsed a background check, three-quarters of NRA members, according to polls, endorsed universal background checks, and nothing happened.
JUDY WOODRUFF: On guns.
MARK SHIELDS: On guns. And nothing happened.
There’s a sense of, how many more, the enormity of it, what’s it going to take? And so I just think there was a — there was really just sort of a sadness that permeated everything. And for him to sit — for this alleged killer to sit there for an hour while these people welcome him into their church and the Bible study, and then to do it, I mean, it’s beyond comprehension.
SUMMARY: Last December, Brandon Tate-Brown was killed by Philadelphia police after being pulled over for driving with his headlights off. His family is not alone in their pain -- there have been 394 shootings involving the police in Philadelphia since 2007. Despite efforts to review and reform police training and transparency, the changes are far from reality at this point. Hari Sreenivasan reports.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): The death of a 25-year-old black man, Freddie Gray, in Baltimore is the most recent in a string of stories spotlighting use of force by police.
Many cities across the country are trying to improve relations between police and the citizens they protect. In Philadelphia, a recent Justice Department report found nearly once a week over the past eight years Philadelphia police opened fire on suspects, who are almost always African-American.
Hari Sreenivasan has more.
TANYA BROWN-DICKERSON, Mother of Brandon Tate-Brown: On December 15, 2014, I was going to work. I got to work a little late. I got there, I want to say 6:26. And I was getting ready to cut my car off. And I heard a black male, on the radio, a black male, 26 years old, gunned down by police at the 6600 block of Frankford Avenue, driving a white Dodge Charger.
So when I heard that, unfortunately, I knew that it was my son.
HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour): Last December, Tanya Brown’s son Brandon Tate-Brown had been killed, shot by Philadelphia polices, after being pulled over for driving with his headlights off.
TANYA BROWN-DICKERSON: To know that my son suffered like that and that I wasn’t there to protect him or lay my body on him, and them probably kill me too, it breaks my heart. I’m his mother. And I couldn’t do nothing to help him.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Tanya Brown is not alone in her pain. There have been 394 shootings involving the Philadelphia police since 2007. In many years, the department saw more police shootings than New York City, a city that is five times its size.
SUMMARY: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson join Judy Woodruff to discuss this week’s news, including the state of race relations in America in the wake of continuing protests and the killing of two New York police officers, what the hacking of Sony Pictures means for cyber-security in the future and the balance of power between Congress and the President.
SUMMARY: Tensions are high in New York after a fatal shooting of two cops over the weekend. The attack sparked accusations by the police union against Mayor Bill de Blasio, leaving him on the defensive. Gwen Ifill reports.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): New York City was on edge today, after the fatal shootings of a pair of police officers. The weekend attack sparked police union accusations against the mayor and left him on the defensive.
New Yorkers stopped all day to place flowers at the site in Brooklyn where two policemen were killed on Saturday. And the murders dominated the day for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, including at a luncheon for the city’s Police Athletic League.
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, New York: It was an attack on our democracy, it was an attack on our values, it was an attack on every single New Yorker, and we have to see it as such. I think it’s time for everyone to put aside political debates, put aside protests, put aside all of the things that we will talk about in due time.
GWEN IFILL: The two officers, Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, were shot as they sat in their cruiser on Saturday. Their killer, 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who had a history of violence and apparent mental instability, shot his girlfriend Shaneka Thompson in Baltimore, before traveling to New York, shooting the officers, and then taking his own life.
Earlier, he posted social media references to the police killings of Eric Garner on Staten Island and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. On Instagram, he wrote: “They take one of ours. Let’s take two of theirs.”
Over the weekend, leaders of protests over the Garner and Brown cases, as well as their family members, condemned the killings of Ramos and Liu.
SUMMARY: The murder of two New York City police officers has ignited a volley of blame and exposes the deep rifts dividing a city in mourning. Gwen Ifill gets two perspectives from Patrick Colligan of the New Jersey State Policemen's Benevolent Association and Mark Levine of the New York City Council.
WILLIAM BRANGHAM (NewsHour): Mourners gathered today at the scene of last night’s killing of the two New York City police officers. And residents last night expressed shock and anger.
WOMAN: At the end of the day, two families is missing somebody for the holidays, and its wrong!
MAN: What are we? We living in Dodge City or something like that? It doesn’t happen like this. Who does this?
WILLIAM BRANGHAM [narration]: Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were shot at point blank range, sitting in their patrol car Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn.
NEW YORK CITY MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO: Today is a sad day…
WILLIAM BRANGHAM [narration]: The suspect — 28 year old Ismaaiyl Brinsley — fled to a nearby subway station and shot himself fatally in the head. Earlier yesterday, Brinsley — who had a long criminal history — shot and wounded his girlfriend in this housing complex outside Baltimore before traveling to New York. He then posted a photo on Instagram of the gun he would later use to kill the officers, indicating the shooting would be revenge for the killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown — two black men killed by white police officers this year. He wrote “They Take 1 of Ours… We Take 2 of Theirs. Shoot the police”
The killing of Brown and Garner — and the decisions by grand juries not to indict the officers involved — led to nationwide demonstrations, and in New York — led to a public fallout between New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio and the police union. After the Garner grand jury decision earlier this month, De Blasio said he’d been warning his mixed race son Dontae to be wary of the quote “dangers” he might face in interactions with police.
ROBERT MCCULLOCH, St. Louis County Prosecutor: …Mr. Brown’s movements.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): That’s Robert McCulloch, the prosecutor in St. Louis County, Missouri, reporting that what he describes as an accurate and tragic story but that ends in no probable cause being found in order to — to indict Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot, in August, Michael Brown, the unarmed teenager. It’s created, as you can see, lots of unrest in Ferguson for months.
He told us that there were 25 days of grand jury meetings, 70 hours of testimony, 60 witnesses, including three different medical examiners, hundreds of photos and that they basically concluded that a lot of the things that we had heard, a lot of the eyewitnesses did not — were not consistent with the stories that they found, the evidence they say they have now found, that the physical evidence basically refuted a lot of the eyewitness evidence, and that, as a result tonight, there will be no indictment for that Ferguson police officer, as you can also have been able to see, there had already been some, at least so far, peaceful protests.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): That’s right. I think it’s fair to say, Gwen, what we’re listening to now is the prosecutor recount what different witnesses said. But he — what you just summed up is — is what was important tonight. There is no indictment of Officer Darren Wilson.
They are saying there’s no probable cause. He was trying to explain it was an exhaustive process. He talked about wit — eyewitnesses, but in the end, he said, it’s the evidence that — that mattered the most.
We do have three guests we want to bring in to talk about what we’ve just heard.
They are Roger Goldman. He’s a professor at Saint Louis University School of Law. Gil Alba, he’s a former New York Police Department detective. He currently runs a private investigation firm. And Rev. Willis Johnson. He’s a pastor at Wellspring Church in Ferguson.
SUMMARY: The decision that Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson would not be charged by a grand jury for the shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown sparked riots and protests in Ferguson and major cities last night. Gwen Ifill reports on the reactions by protesters and law enforcement after the decision was announced.
SUMMARY: Just a day after the grand jury announced not to indict police officer Darren Wilson, the city of Ferguson remains tense. Gwen Ifill speaks with Christina Swarns, Litigation Director for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Susan McGraw of St. Louis University, on the grand jury’s role in the legal system and what’s next for the city of Ferguson.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): Campbell Clark is chief political writer for The Globe and Mail newspaper.
I spoke to him a short time ago about the surprising attack in Canada’s capital.
[missing audio]
CAMPBELL CLARK, The Globe and Mail: Half-hour, hour, we have been hearing reports about who the shooter may have been. At least, there has been a name reported, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau. But we don’t know too much about him yet.
In fact, a lot of it is speculation. There is now though some suspicion that this is somebody who was probably inspired by sort of Islamist ideology and ISIL. That’s not confirmed, and the police certainly haven’t confirmed the identity yet.
GWEN IFILL: Well, let’s get back to what we do know about what happened today. There is a definite connection as far as we know between what happened at the war memorial and what happened at the Parliament; is that correct?
CAMPBELL CLARK: That’s correct, yes.
Now, there was somebody who was shot and killed at the war memorial, and then just a few minutes away at the Parliament buildings, there were shootings a few minutes later. It’s not clear if there was one shooter, two shooters, three shooters, but it appears that the person who did the shooting at the war memorial then ran towards the Parliament buildings.
There was a shooter. The person who was shot and killed was shot dead in the Parliament buildings, right in the main Hall of Honor, they call it in the Parliament buildings. So, you walk in the front door of the Parliament of Canada, and just down that hall, that is where…
Despite federal and state attempts to intervene during the two months since 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed, the Ferguson Police Department continued — and even accelerated — efforts to suppress peaceful protests using arbitrary and inconsistently applied arrest policies, according to Justice Department officials who are investigating the department and county police officials who have since taken over for the city.
A Washington Post review of county and state arrest records, and interviews with Justice Department officials, Ferguson and St. Louis County police chiefs, dozens of protesters and several civil rights officials reveal that:
Hundreds of protesters have been arrested since August for violating unwritten rules and committing minor offenses, such as failure to disperse or unlawful assembly, and for violating a noise ordinance. Many have been taken to jail without being told what charges they may face and are often released without any paperwork. For weeks, officers employed a “five-second rule” under which any protester who stopped walking was subject to arrest — a policy ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge this week.
A least one officer patrolling protests wore a wristband that said “I am Darren Wilson,” referencing the officer whom protesters want to see jailed and prosecuted for the Aug. 9 shooting of Brown. County Police Chief Jon Belmar confirmed that an officer policing the protests wore one of the wristbands and said he understood why protesters felt taunted.
And, in recent weeks, protesters have complained that bail amounts are rising, jail time has increased and that their organizers were being singled out and routinely plucked from crowds of 100 to 300 people and arrested.
The controversial practices continued into October until Belmar stepped in — stripping jurisdiction for policing the protests from the thinly stretched Ferguson station. In an interview with The Post, Belmar said that, under the Ferguson Police Department’s command, laws and policies were being enforced arbitrarily.
“We have a real issue when we start taking away people’s ability to express their opinions,” Belmar said.
Belmar’s team takes over as the black residents of greater St. Louis remain intensely skeptical of officers. Tensions again flared Wednesday night when residents got word of another police shooting. Dozens of protesters surfaced in St. Louis where an 18-year-old black man was shot and killed after allegedly fleeing and shooting at an off-duty officer. The man’s family members and protesters insist he was unarmed. Police say they’ve recovered a weapon.
And there is potential for more tension this weekend when hundreds of out-of-town protesters are expected to flood Ferguson and the St. Louis metro area for a series of organized demonstrations against police mistreatment.
Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson has consistently defended his department and continued to do so even after their authority over the protests was taken by county officers.
“Even if it’s a small group, there’s a very effective group of violent individuals who are looking for confrontation and the best way to avoid that confrontation is to bring in assistance from other agencies,” Jackson said. “So although it doesn’t feel good to need to have assistance, I am deeply grateful to those who have come to help us, and I’ll never be able to fully express my gratitude or make it up to them.”
The breaking point for Belmar came last week, when arrests that were captured on video by a CNN freelance journalist showed a loud but otherwise peaceful group of protesters demonstrating outside the Ferguson police station. The protesters were ordered to move from the street to the sidewalk, and as the group raced back, an officer in a brown uniform was recorded saying, “Get them.”
Belmar said he watched the video at home and decided that night that his department would take over the crowd-control efforts. He said the incident illustrated problems he hopes to “shore up,” where protesters are arrested based on an arbitrary application of rules and laws, a frustration also held in the halls of the Justice Department.
“They were arrested for violating a noise ordinance. I hadn’t noticed us enforcing that,” he said. “So I wondered why, all of a sudden, why are we doing this now?”
Two months ago, Belmar’s team would have seemed an unlikely solution to burning tension between protesters and police.
Ferguson Police Chief Jackson immediately handed control over to Belmar after the shooting, and it was Belmar’s officers who rolled into Ferguson in armored trucks, wearing helmets and camouflage, carrying automatic rifles during the protests that immediately followed Brown’s death.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International all sent legal teams to document the response and criticized the department for inciting rather than quelling violence.
Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency in the days that followed, giving the Missouri Highway Patrol command of the protests for two weeks.
On Sept. 3, Nixon lifted it, shifting control for the first time to the Ferguson Police Department.
Things quickly deteriorated, according to records and interviews with federal and St. Louis law enforcement. Ferguson’s force of 54 people was spread too thin.
During the weeks that protests were policed by the Ferguson department, arresting officers sometimes weren’t wearing name tags, prompting repeated reprimands from the Justice Department. Meanwhile, protesters say their organizers were being singled out and targeted for arrest. On nights when crowds of more than 100 people stood chanting “We’re Young. We’re Strong. We’re marching all night long” and “Indict Darren Wilson. If we don’t get it, shut it down,” there would be just a handful of arrests — almost always of the protest organizers.
Even though they were in charge, just three or four Ferguson police officers were able to staff nightly protests, Belmar said. “They couldn’t provide the majority of resources down there,” he said.
Members of the community who have been regulars at the protests said the problems with Ferguson officers went beyond staffing.
Protesters described being taken from demonstrations in handcuffs by officers who couldn’t decide what to charge them with — a problem that Belmar investigated and confirmed was an issue.
“They were asking each other, ‘What is the charge?’ They couldn’t figure it out. I’m being taken away in handcuffs, and they don’t even know why,” said Gwen Cogshell, 57, of Ferguson, who was arrested and charged with “unlawful assembly” at a Sept. 10 protest where demonstrators tried to shut down Interstate 70. “They really are not trained to do anything but give tickets.”
It’s difficult to know precisely how many people have been arrested in Ferguson protests and on what charges. An assortment of law enforcement agencies have been conducting arrests, with detained protesters sometimes being held in the Ferguson Police Department’s jail and other times being sent to a county facility.
A Post analysis of arrest records from county police and Missouri Highway Patrol shows 258 people have been arrested — 95 percent of them booked on either a charge of refusal to disperse or unlawful assembly. Less than a dozen were for more serious charges, such as disorderly conduct. No one was booked on charges of assault against an officer.
Ferguson Police Department, which has carried out a number of arrests during the protests, has not released such records.
Cogshell was also one of more than a dozen people, interviewed by The Post, who said they left jail with no paperwork, still not knowing what charges they might face.
Anthony Rothert, ACLU’s legal director in Missouri, described it as a “catch and release program,” adding that his organization has “never seen mass arrests where people are released without any paperwork and then told charges may come later.”
Although some of the complaints have to do with the competency of police, most focused on targeted efforts by Ferguson police to quash dissent.
On nights when dozens of protesters — and sometimes more than 100 — locked arms and joined in chants, only a handful of people have been arrested. And that handful, protest organizers allege, is disproportionately made up of protest leaders.
“This is a logical extension of the militarized response, part of what we’re seeing is kind of par for the course, it’s how the state deals with dissent,” said the Rev. Osagyefo Sekou, a Boston minister with St. Louis ties who has been active in the protests, who was the first protester arrested on a recent night.
And, protesters allege, the targeting extends beyond arrests and influences how protesters are treated once they are taken into custody. Sekou said that after his arrest he was placed in the back of a police van where the walls had blood smeared on them.
On some nights, Ferguson Police officers bartered with protesters — offering to release those arrested sooner if the remaining protesters would disperse.
“It’s a hostage negotiation, plain and simple,” said Umar Lee, an independent journalist and Muslim activist who has been arrested twice while documenting the Ferguson protests. “Any time you randomly arrest people and tell people ‘we’ll let them out if you go home’ that’s a hostage situation.”
Belmar said the incident was “not appropriate” and that protesters should never be used as “a bargaining chip” to end demonstrations.
In the days since taking over for the Ferguson Police Department, county police have maintained what appears to be a less-hostile relationship with protesters — making not a single arrest during the first four nights that they were in charge of crowd control.
But on Friday, Belmar and his officers are expected to start dealing with some of the largest demonstrations since the Brown shooting, with a series of protests scheduled Friday through Sunday called “Ferguson October: A Weekend of Resistance.” Crowds could match the size and furor seen last during the days immediately after Brown’s shooting.
Even with massive protests looming, Belmar vows that efforts to stop peaceful protests are a thing of the past and said the “five-second rule” and other arbitrary efforts to move protesters around and keep them from organizing and communicating will not be tolerated under his command.
“If you want to protest and you are on a public sidewalk or easement, there are not issues, period,” he said. “We want to take a relaxed attitude.”
