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UPDATE: After four days of proceedings and more than five hours of jury deliberation, Antonio Buehler was found not guilty the evening of Oct. 29, 2014.
A jury in Austin, Texas, is set to issue its decision today in a case that centers on a person’s right to film police officers. Antonio Buehler says he was at a gas station in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day in 2012 when he used his phone to take pictures of a woman being arrested and crying out for help. Ultimately, Buehler’s attempt to document what he felt was 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 two 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 has 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. Buehler is an an Iraq War veteran and graduate of West Point and Stanford University with no prior arrests. Just moments before a jury is set to issue a verdict, he joins us from Austin.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We go now to Austin, Texas, where a jury is set to issue a 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 Year’s 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 Buehler call out to the officer.
FEMALE PASSENGER: Don’t touch me. You’re on video.
POLICE OFFICER: That’s good. Come on. You’re done.
FEMALE PASSENGER: I’m on video.
POLICE OFFICER: That’s it. Get out of the car.
ANTONIO BUEHLER: Why are you pulling her out of the car?
POLICE OFFICER: Hey, don’t worry about it.
FEMALE PASSENGER: Help me, please!
POLICE OFFICER: Worry about yourself. Worry about yourself!
FEMALE PASSENGER: They’re pulling me out of the car!
ANTONIO BUEHLER: What are you doing that to a female for? What is she doing to you? She’s not a risk to you.
FEMALE PASSENGER: I haven’t done nothing for it.
POLICE OFFICER: Sit up.
ANTONIO BUEHLER: She’s not doing [bleep] to you guys.
FEMALE PASSENGER: Take video of this, please.
ANTONIO BUEHLER: What’s wrong with you guys?
FEMALE PASSENGER: Please, take video of this.
POLICE OFFICER: Stand up!
ANTONIO BUEHLER: [inaudible] taking video of this.
FEMALE PASSENGER: Take video of this. Yeah, seriously, take video of this [bleep]. [inaudible]
POLICE OFFICER: Stand up.
ANTONIO BUEHLER: There was absolutely no reason to pull her out of the car like that. That’s [bleep] up!
POLICE OFFICER: How many times do we got to tell you not to interrupt [bleep]?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: This is the first time that footage has been broadcast. Ultimately, Antonio Buehler’s attempt to document apparent police abuse ended with his own arrest, when the officer said he felt Buehler was spitting on him. He faced a felony charge of harassment of a public servant and possible sentence of two 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.
AMY GOODMAN: Since then, Antonio Buehler co-founded the group Peaceful Streets Project, whose members record police and post the videos online, train others to do the same thing. 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, Antonio 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 Buehler is an an Iraq War vet, graduate of West Point and Stanford. He had no prior arrest record. Just about an hour before a jury is set to issue their decision, he joins us now from Austin.
Antonio, welcome to Democracy Now! The significance of this trial and why you are on trial? This is a misdemeanor that faces a $500 fine, and yet you have been in court now for days.
ANTONIO BUEHLER: Yeah, and I think that 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.
AMY GOODMAN: Who said that you were a domestic terrorist threat?
ANTONIO BUEHLER: That came from the Austin Police Department, one of the officers who arrested me for filming. His name is Justin Berry. He created a PowerPoint presentation, presented it to the regional fusion center. And in it, they said that I was a domestic terrorist threat, as was the Peaceful Streets Project, because we go out and film cops. They said that we were a threat to all police officers and we’ve encouraged violence against police officers, which is just not true.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Antonio Buehler, the response to your Peaceful Streets Project in Austin? As a West Point grad and as a war veteran, what has been the marshaling of support for you?
ANTONIO BUEHLER: The people tend to really support us. The problem is, is that the city doesn’t support us. And so, the police officers have documented us, they’ve followed us, they’ve surveilled us, they’ve arrested us numerous times. And the prosecutors have been colluding with them to drum up charges against us. They’ve tried to bring four felony charges against me since that day three years ago.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain exactly what happened on that day? 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?
ANTONIO BUEHLER: Nothing. I was just a designated driver, pulled over to the gas station to fill up with gas, and we watched what we thought was a pretty benign DWI stop. The woman in the passenger seat of a car, she didn’t commit any crimes. She wasn’t aggressive. She was just on her phone trying to organize a ride in case her driver got arrested. And then, as we were leaving, the police officer just didn’t like the way that she wasn’t bowing down to him, and he ripped her out of the car. And as you saw in the video, I started calling out, asking why they were doing it. She begged for help. And then when I started filming, that just enraged the one police officer, and he ended up coming over to me, getting in my face, pushing and shoving me. And then, I guess, in the aftermath of it, they needed to find a way to cover up the assault of the police officer, so they charged me with the felony of spitting in the cop’s face.
AMY GOODMAN: In a statement, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said, quote, "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.
WAYNE VINCENT: We fully are afraid that this thing is going to turn violent before it’s over, because Buehler keeps escalating the harassment. So, our officers are out there with absolutely no relief from this kind of harassment, and it’s not going to end well.
AMY GOODMAN: Antonio Buehler, the police 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’ve just quoted?
ANTONIO BUEHLER: Right. There’s been at least six police officers in the courtroom, uniform and in plainclothes. We think that 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. And when he notified his supervisor that he was subpoenaed and that he was going to testify, they then notified him the very next day that he was being terminated as of October 31st. So, this case has been a lot about threats and bullying and intimidation and retaliation from the Austin Police Department and the city prosecutors.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Antonio Buehler, this kind of videotaping and community patrols, taping police activities, have been spreading across the country. We’re seeing videos almost on a daily basis of police interactions with citizens that call real—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?
ANTONIO BUEHLER: Well, I think it’s vitally important. One is, police officers, even when they do record, we don’t get the videos. So, that dashcam that you showed, it took two years and nine months for us to get that video. And we’re defending ourselves in a criminal trial. When we have a dashcam of a cop killing someone, it typically malfunctions or disappears. So, we can’t trust the police officers to monitor those videos for us, so we need to do it ourselves. But secondly, as we’ve seen in Ferguson and in other places, when people come together to record the police, they build community, and they start to understand their responsibility to look after and take care of one another. And I think that that’s the most important part, building communities and realizing that we don’t have to defer to people who tend to violate our civil rights to keep the peace. We can do it ourselves.
AMY GOODMAN: Antonio, what do you hope comes out of your case right now? You’ve got this trial today, a verdict expected, and then you’ve got your own civil rights suit.
ANTONIO BUEHLER: Yeah, I actually hope that—I’m a very lucky person. I’m a West Point, Stanford and Harvard grad. I have a lot of privilege. I have a lot of friends with money, and I’ve had a lot of people rally behind me. But what I hope that people see is if the Austin Police Department and the prosecutors are willing to expend such tremendous resources—they had eight prosecutors in the courtroom over the past couple days—if they’re willing to expend this much to try to ruin my life and to try to get me for a petty misdemeanor, I just 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 cops really do bad things, such as killing or raping. I think that this can be a way hopefully to get a lot of people sort of from my world—you know, Harvard, West Point, Stanford—to sort of recognize what millions of Americans face every day.
AMY GOODMAN: Antonio Buehler, we want to thank you for being with us, founder of Peaceful Streets Project. Trial over whether he disobeyed a lawful order when he refused to stop filming police, it’s set to wrap up shortly after our show. Go to our website, and we’ll let you know the latest in his case. And thank you so much for being with us.
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In a new cover story for Mother Jones magazine, "The Making of the Warrior Cop," senior reporter Shane Bauer goes inside the corporations and government departments involved in enabling police departments to acquire anything from bayonets to semi-automatic rifles and drones. Reporting from the exposition called "Urban Shield" — which organizers call 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 has provided some $41 billion in funding to local police departments to buy the equipment from various corporations, on top of more than $5 billion from the Pentagon since 1997.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: 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 to drones. 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, quote, "pales in comparison to the amount of gear purchased from private companies."
AMY GOODMAN: The Department of Homeland Security provides funding to local police departments to buy equipment from various corporations. Shane Bauer writes, quote, "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 minute, starts by asking Urban Shield spokesperson, Sergeant JD Nelson, a question.
SHANE BAUER: Do you think there’s any validity to the criticism that the United States is kind of increasingly becoming a police state?
SGT. JD NELSON: I think there is some validity to that.
SHANE BAUER: We’re at Urban Shield in Oakland, California. It’s a cop convention where this weekend SWAT teams from around the Bay Area and around the world are going to be competing around the Bay.
AMY GOODMAN: That is Mother Jones journalist Shane Bauer, who joins us now from University of California, Berkeley, studios, the award-winning investigative journalist, senior reporter at Mother Jones magazine. His cover story is headlined "The Making of the Warrior Cop." Shane is also the journalist who was imprisoned for two years in Iran.
Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Shane. So, take us through this expo, and these astounding figures. I mean, we’ve heard a lot about the weapons coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon recycling them in towns, cities, hamlets, in their police departments. But the fact that that amount of equipment is dwarfed by direct grants to these communities to buy money—to buy weapons from weapons manufacturers?
SHANE BAUER: Yeah, thanks for having me on, Amy. So, you know, Ferguson is, I think, a good example of this. In Ferguson, a lot of the kind of gear that we saw on television that the police had, you know, throughout the crisis there was not actually military gear. It was stuff, very similar equipment, bought from private companies. And what we’re seeing now is, you know, some towns, some counties are actually giving back the equipment or trying to give back the military equipment, but they also have, you know, very similar stuff that 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 he put on display all of his kind of military stuff he had, and then he showed the much kind of newer, more up-to-date stuff that he’s buying from companies. And this industry has really, you know, sprung up post-9/11, when Homeland Security start giving grants to local communities for counterterrorism. A lot of the companies I saw at Urban Shield were actually started after 9/11. So they give this stuff for counterterrorism, but, of course, they can use it for anything they want, and most of what it’s used for is drug raids.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what does this mean in terms of these manufacturers or suppliers, in terms of their actually going around lobbying these local governments to buy their material?
SHANE BAUER: Well, I think one example that I saw at Urban Shield was a company called the Armored Group. They were selling the kind of big APC-style armored vehicles. And if you go on their website, you see that they 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 that they use forfeiture money. This is money that is taken in criminal investigations, money or property that police departments take in criminal investigations, even when the defendants are not actually prosecuted in the cases. That money can also be used to buy similar—the same equipment from these companies.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to another clip from your report for Mother Jones. In this video, you’re speaking to Jeremy Johnson of the Armored Group.
JEREMY JOHNSON: Like you, I’ve been all over the world. I’ve seen a lot of the stuff. And I see a lot of the differences. You know, this is not a—they’re not going in to just take care of business. They’re there to, hopefully, handle a situation that could get out of hand, right?
SHANE BAUER: Yeah, yeah.
JEREMY JOHNSON: But you never hear about the ones they handle. I think that’s where it gets a little disconnect from what they want. But you’re right. Some of these trucks do look intimidating—for a reason, though. They should. You know, you don’t want to pull up a Chevy Chevette in front of a house and say, "Here, we’re going to get you." You’re not going to get the effect you want.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, I want to turn to another clip from your report, one that features something unbelievable—a university, the University of California, Berkeley, having a SWAT team. After they staged a hostage rescue simulation, you spoke to Eric Tejada of UC Berkeley’s Special Operations.
LT. ERIC TEJADA: It was actually around ’92, ’94, there was an attack on the chancellor of the—
SHANE BAUER: OK.
LT. ERIC TEJADA: —at his residence, which is on campus.
SHANE BAUER: OK, uh-huh.
LT. ERIC TEJADA: And we realized at the time that we didn’t have any resources to deal with that kind of threat when it took place.
SHANE BAUER: Yeah, OK.
LT. ERIC TEJADA: So, and I think about 15 years before, they had some kind of semblance of a SWAT team.
SHANE BAUER: OK.
LT. ERIC TEJADA: So they regenerated the idea of—
SHANE BAUER: Oh, I see.
LT. ERIC TEJADA: —activating a SWAT team.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: That was Eric Tejada of UC Berkeley’s Special Operations. Most people might be surprised to hear the University of California, Berkeley, has a SWAT team. Shane Bauer, could you tell us what kind of operations the team has physically carried out?
SHANE BAUER: Yeah, well, I mean, this is interesting, because this scenario, they were doing a kind of high-stakes hostage rescue. They would later go on a boat in the bay to kind of dismantle a terrorist IED. They would go into a church, where, you know, a kind of pretend militant atheist group is holding church members hostage. But when I asked them what they do day to day, most of what they respond to are muggings of students—you know, the kind of normal police work that police departments do. They’re kind of going in, you know, fully armed, geared up in this kind of military-style gear, busting into houses.
You know, I think another aspect that is interesting about this whole situation with the Homeland Security money is that there’s incentive for kind of new equipment. One thing that I saw was a device that attaches to a gun, and it sends out radiation waves that temporarily blind the person it’s pointed at for 10 minutes by—what the vendor told me was, by scrambling their ocular fluid. And that’s something that’s going to be hitting the market early next year.
AMY GOODMAN: So, this is both an expo that you went to, Urban Shield, but also there was a lot of role playing.
SHANE BAUER: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, you had your press credentials revoked, is that right?
SHANE BAUER: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Your press credentials were revoked on the last day of the conference. I want to go to a clip, the third day of the conference, and you filmed a police officer asking you to leave the premises.
SHANE BAUER: They told us that we were OK here. Said, "Take their media badges"?
POLICE OFFICER: Yeah, and said, "Hold onto"—
SHANE BAUER: Did he explain why?
POLICE OFFICER: He just said because they were in violation of the rules for filming inside of one of the sites; they were advised to film inside the site.
SHANE BAUER: What site?
POLICE OFFICER: I don’t know.
SHANE BAUER: They didn’t even say what site.
POLICE OFFICER: I assume it’s mine. I assume it’s this site.
AMY GOODMAN: Before you were removed from the conference, Shane, there were numerous instances in which your work was shut down at Urban Shield. So, explain—
SHANE BAUER: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: Just give us the global picture of what’s happening, the expo and these other role plays that you were trying to cover that happened outside, like in San Francisco and the bridge.
SHANE BAUER: Yeah, so there was—basically, it was a four-day event. The first two days was an expo. There was an expo hall where all kinds of companies were showing their equipment—guns, trucks, drones, you know, robots that can be printed with 3D printers—trying to sell them to the local police departments. The next two days was a 48-hour straight exercise, where SWAT teams were actually competing with each other, going through around 35 scenarios. And each one, they’re kind of getting points. These were a lot of kind of Bay Area SWAT teams. There were some international SWAT teams from Singapore, South Korea. The U.S. Marines was a team. There was, you know, teams like UC Berkeley, a prison SWAT team. And I had gone to some of these events, and on the morning of the second day, they took our press credentials.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Shane, drones obviously have gotten a lot of attention in recent years. Did you get any sense that that was a hot item among these different law enforcement agencies this time around?
SHANE BAUER: Oh, yeah. There were a ton of drones. Actually, when I got kicked out, there was a vendor. Each of these kind of sites where they were doing these scenarios had a particular vendor. And at that site, there was a drone vendor who we had interviewed. And he was hoping to use their drones, his company’s drones, in the exercise on the Bay Bridge, but because of FAA regulations, they were not allowed to use them. You know, the county in—Alameda County hasn’t gotten approval yet to use them. But you saw, you know, a big thing right now is the 3D-printable drones. So, police departments can print out a drone, attach the wiring and, you know, set it out.
AMY GOODMAN: There’s been a lot of protest in Oakland around urging the Oakland mayor, Jean Quan, to cancel the Urban Shield conference next year. Can you talk about these protests and the significance of this happening in Oakland in this post-Ferguson period?
SHANE BAUER: Yeah, well, Urban Shield has been happening for years. It’s been going on since the mid-2000s. And in recent years, there’s been regular protest of it. And this year, in particular, Jean Quan said that Urban Shield will not be allowed to come back to Oakland. Now, the county has said, "Yes, they will." So there’s kind of a battle between the city and the county right now.
You know, when I was at Urban Shield, the protests, something I noticed was that the protests were referencing Ferguson quite a bit. And that was something that just wasn’t really talked about on the inside; inside Urban Shield, there wasn’t any discussion of Ferguson. But at the same time, you know, I was seeing T-shirts for sale that—where, you know, you see kind of an image of a gun sight, and says, "This is my peace sign." You see, you know, kind of this Spartan imagery, very militaristic kind of imagery, that in many ways, you know, is kind of—
AMY GOODMAN: What is "This is my peace sign"? What is it actually showing?
SHANE BAUER: That’s a sight of an AR-15, looking kind of down the scope of an AR-15 sight.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Shane, the—
SHANE BAUER: And, you know, I think this—
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I’m sorry. Go ahead.
SHANE BAUER: Oh, you know, I think something that—something that really was interesting to me about being there was this kind of overlap with the military. You know, some of these companies that I seen and vendors that I spoke to were from the military. Their companies were actually set up to distribute to the military, and they’ve since kind of come over to also bringing in police. You know, the Marines were a team competing there. I talked to the Marines after one of their scenarios, and they said that they actually learn from the police. The spokesperson of Urban Shield told me, you know, "We should be talking not about militarization of the police, but policization of the military." There’s this kind of interesting dynamic now where the Marines are actually learning from the kind of urban SWAT team tactics, to bring back and kind of train their people.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Shane, I wanted to ask you about the Pentagon’s 1033 program. It’s transferred more than $5.1 billion in military equipment to local agencies since 1991. That includes some 600 mine-resistant armor-protected vehicles, or MRAPs.
SHANE BAUER: Yeah.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Last month, during a Senate hearing on police militarization, Brian Kamoie of the Department of Homeland Security defended the program. He said equipment helped locate the surviving suspect after the Boston Marathon bombing last year.
BRIAN KAMOIE: The response to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing demonstrated how preparedness grant investments have improved capabilities. Grant-funded equipment, such as the forward-looking infrared camera on a Massachusetts State Police helicopter, enabled the apprehension of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, while enhancing the personal safety of law enforcement officers and protecting public safety.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: That was Brian Kamoie of the Department of Homeland Security. So, isn’t—some people would say that’s a justification for all of this hardware.
SHANE BAUER: Right. I mean, you know, there’s no doubt that people in a kind of 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. And most of it is used for drug raids. It’s the kind of situations where there has been—there’s not an active shooter, there’s not a hostage scenario—the kind of stuff that police often talk about in why they need this equipment. It’s used to raid people’s houses, you know, often in no-knock raids to try to find drugs. And these SWAT teams are mostly used—about 71 percent of the time they’re used to target people of color, even though the people that are the most likely to be, you know, the active shooters, the hostage takers, are white. In North Carolina in one town, African Americans were targeted 47 times the amount of white people by SWAT teams.
AMY GOODMAN: Shane, as we wrap up, I wanted to switch gears. As we talk to you and you’re talking about the amount of money that’s going into the militarization of police at home, we’re seeing the U.S. attack Syria and Iraq, dealing with the Islamic State. You were held in Iran with Josh Fattal and Sarah Shourd for—well, you and Josh for two years by the Iranian authorities; you were imprisoned. And I wanted to know your reaction to when you see, for example, the video of James Foley, the horrid video of 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 been held?
SHANE BAUER: I mean, it’s terrible, I mean, all the way around. My heart goes out to the Foley family, to the families of all of the people who are held hostage in Syria, including, you know, Syrians. Most of the people that are missing right now are Syrians. And, you know—
AMY GOODMAN: In fact, before you were arrested, you and Sarah worked in Syria. You were teaching English in Syria.
SHANE BAUER: Right. Yeah, I was actually working as a journalist in Syria. Sarah was teaching. And, you know, it’s still hard for me to really get my head around what is happening there. It’s just such a different place. And I do, you know, wish that our government did more, that people weren’t—people like Foley’s mom didn’t face punishment for trying to raise money to get her son out of prison. I mean, it’s not a simple situation. You know, giving money to the Islamic State is not the answer, either. But we need to have kind of a more active way of dealing with this, I think.
AMY GOODMAN: Shane, thanks so much for being with us. Shane Bauer, award-winning investigative journalist, senior reporter at Mother Jones magazine, his cover story headlined "The Making of the Warrior Cop." And we’ll link to it at democracynow.org.
When we come back, we go to Austin, Texas. We’ll be speaking with a Texas man on trial—for filming the police? Well, we’ll find out what’s happening. Stay with us.
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There are conflicting reports out of Ferguson, Missouri, over 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 an officer’s killing of unarmed black teen Michael Brown in August. But Chief Jackson and the city’s mayor say the reports are false. This comes as a grand jury weighs whether the officer, Darren Wilson, should face charges in the killing of Brown. The investigation has sprung a number of leaks, with unidentified sources divulging information that seems to corroborate Wilson’s account of what happened that day. The Justice Department has condemned the leaks as "irresponsible and highly troubling," adding, "there seems to be an inappropriate effort to influence public opinion about this case." 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 Wilson. Meanwhile, the St. Louis County Police Department has reportedly stocked up on tear gas, grenades, pepper balls and plastic handcuffs in anticipation of massive protests when the grand jury reaches its decision in November. We are joined by Antonio French, St. Louis alderman of the 21st Ward, longtime community advocate and founder of the new organization Heal STL.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We begin today’s show in Ferguson, Missouri, where there are reports that 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 an effort to reform the Police Department following the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager shot dead in August by a white police officer. Chief Jackson and the city’s mayor have denied CNN’s report.
This comes as a grand jury is weighing whether the officer, Darren Wilson, should face charges in the killing of Brown. 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 leaks, Brown apparently struggled with Wilson in his patrol car, and Wilson’s gun was discharged before a brief foot chase. The New York Times reported that investigators discovered Brown’s blood on Wilson’s gun and on Wilson’s uniform. Ballistics 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.
AMY GOODMAN: Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice condemned the leaks as, quote, "irresponsible and highly troubling," adding, quote, "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 he was, quote, "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 tear gas, grenades, pepper balls, 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 after Brown was killed. The human rights group said the Ferguson Police Department should review its standards, practices and training to ensure that they, quote, "conform fully to international standards."
Well, for more, we go directly 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 #HealSTL.
Antonio French, welcome back to Democracy Now! Well, let’s start with this latest news. CNN reported, based on 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 this?
ANTONIO FRENCH: Yeah, 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, him keeping that position actually becomes an impediment to the community moving forward. And so, I welcome news that there is also talk in Washington of having—to help facilitate that. But as you said, as of last night, the chief said that that was not the case, and he hadn’t been consulted on it.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Antonio French, what do you make of the continued leaks as the grand jury investigation proceeds at a snail’s pace in trying to reach some kind of a decision on whether to indict the officer involved in this case?
ANTONIO FRENCH: Yeah, the leaks worry me. The leaks, I think, really undercut and undermine the entire investigation. It makes people who have already he believed that it was very difficult for Michael Brown or any young black man to get justice or a fair shake here in St. Louis County, it reinforces that belief that the fix is in and that 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 get a fair shake and that we will see real justice. I think the exact opposite—the worst possible scenario is if 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 that we have to do in our city.
AMY GOODMAN: Former St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch has said in interviews the grand jury leaks can be beneficial because, quote, "it’s not a surprise to people" when a decision is announced. I want to turn to Fitch speaking on KMOX NewsRadio.
TIM FITCH: 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 kind of let people down slowly. I think they recognize that it’s probably very unlikely there’s going to be charges.
AMY GOODMAN: The Brown family’s attorney, Benjamin Crump, dismissed the leaks and renewed calls for the appointment of a special prosecutor to the case.
BENJAMIN CRUMP: I think everybody’s taken an "anonymous" leaked information to say, "Oh, this supports the officer’s version." Michael Brown’s family has always said they don’t trust any of the local St. Louis authorities. They have been asking for a special prosecutor from day one and asking for federal intervention, because they don’t believe the local officials in St. Louis are going to give equal justice to their child.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Brown family attorney Benjamin Crump speaking on CBS. Antonio French, your response to both?
ANTONIO FRENCH: Well, I agree, that those of us who had called for special prosecutor many, many weeks ago did so for two reasons. One is that this specific county prosecutor’s relationship with the African-American community really makes it impossible for the African-American community to ever believe they’re actually going to get justice. And if the grand jury ultimately decided not to indict, coming from this county prosecutor, it actually makes it much worse.
The second thing is that, again, this has to be done in recognizing that there are two crises going on right now—one short-term, one long-term. And in the short term, we have this specific case to deal with. But in the long term, we have a greater community that has a lot of people, especially young African Americans, who feel like the justice system is actually against them. And so, we have to do this in a way that actually heals those wounds and actually convinces people that this system does work. And I think we’ve dropped that ball. We’ve missed that opportunity. And in fact, in some ways, things have become worse.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Antonio French, those of us who have followed these kinds of police killings over the years know that the selective leak tactic is a pretty common one. During the Amadou Diallo case here in New York, for instance, there were constant leaks before there was a grand jury decision on that case. The effort, obviously, from the police point of view was to try to prevent any outbreaks or violence if an indictment is not reached. My best bet is that you’re going to 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, as the Police Department itself is preparing?
ANTONIO FRENCH: Yeah, I mean, there are preparations being made on both sides. So, obviously, as you reported earlier, the police are preparing. They are buying equipment. They are undergoing training. But on the civilian side, you have organizations that are organizing and trying to get people together. We’re bringing in some folks who are actually counselors and healers to help deal with some of the anger that will undoubtedly result if that does come back, as you suggest.
But there will be some who will take to the streets. We saw that some weeks ago. There are some that there’s 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. Now, the message is that 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 isn’t going to help make St. Louis a better community. And so, we are in a bit of a crisis here in St. Louis, and a lot of us are very worried about the future.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Antonio, 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 now? What are you prevented from doing? What is moving forward on the ground? The elections are coming up. When we were speaking to a group of young people, one of the issues they were raising is, you know, this is an overwhelmingly African-American community that doesn’t vote, and so the school board, the city council, these are overwhelmingly white, from a throwback from the old days.
ANTONIO FRENCH: Yeah, what you’re looking at is, systemic reform is needed. And so, in Ferguson, specific, you have a 67 percent African-American population and an almost all-white government, all-white police force. That has led to a situation that we see today that is just unbearable, and it is just bound to spill over. But in the larger community, North St. Louis County, you have a lot of these municipalities that mirror that, where you have large African-American populations with almost no political power. And so, in March, a lot of those local elections are coming up. What Heal STL is doing is actually registering voters and trying to get that 67 percent majority to actually become a voting majority. So, these things, though, take time, and they won’t come within the next few weeks. But hopefully something has changed in both communities, the African-American community and the white community, so that we both recognize that there is 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.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Antonio French, I want to ask about the new Amnesty International report. That organization is calling for an investigation of potential human rights abuses in the police crackdown on protesters in Ferguson. Amnesty says police committed violations in the weeks that followed the killing of Michael Brown, and its researcher, Justin Mazzola, said the militarized crackdown raises major concerns.
JUSTIN MAZZOLA: They came out in a presence that only served to intimidate. They used tactics such as the use of tear gas, rubber bullets, oftentimes when it probably was not justified, considering 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 imposition of a five-second rule, people had to continue to keep walking, designated assembly areas where there’s like a free speech zone within Ferguson, but anywhere else you have to keep walking. And these all go to show that basically there needs to be a national review both of use-of-force policies as well as policies in policing protests.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: That was Amnesty researcher Justin Mazzola. And 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 it compiled more than 50 cases of press freedom violations that have culminated in the arrest of 21 journalists. Antonio French, your response to both of these reports?
ANTONIO FRENCH: I welcome both the reports, having been out there from day one, having experienced the tear gas and the heavy-handed, military-style response from police. There were times I couldn’t recognize this as America. And in fact, you know, we should not have such a breakdown in government where there is no empathy towards the population, there is no responsible response, and instead you have a military-style crackdown to suppress people exercising their constitutional rights. That shouldn’t happen in America or anywhere else. And so, I welcome especially the Amnesty report, because it really puts it in perspective. Very often we think about these kind of violations occurring in other places, but as we saw last month and the month prior, it can happen at home, as well.
AMY GOODMAN: Antonio French, thanks so much for being with us, St. Louis aldermen of the 21st Ward, longtime community advocate, recently helped found the new organization #HealSTL, out on the streets from day one after the killing of Mike Brown.
This is Democracy Now! When we come back, the arming of a warrior cop, warrior cops around the country, including Ferguson. Where is the money coming from? Where is it going to? We’ll speak with Mother Jones reporter Shane Bauer. Stay with us.
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Ebola-Free Nurse Rejects Home Quarantine
The nurse freed from a mandatory quarantine in New Jersey says she will not 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.
2nd Dallas Nurse Released After Beating Ebola Infection; Obama to Meet with Medical Workers
In his first comments on new state quarantine rules, President Obama said medical workers traveling to West Africa deserve support.
President Obama: "We can make sure that when they come back, they are being monitored in a prudent fashion. But we want to make sure that we understand that they are doing God’s work over there, and they’re doing that to keep us safe. And 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. Obama will meet with Ebola medical workers at the White House today.
Iraqi Kurds Arrive in Turkey to Join Syria Fight
Iraqi Kurdish forces have arrived in Turkey on their way to fight Islamic State militants in neighboring Syria. The Turkish government is opening its border to the Iraqi Pershmerga to help break the ISIS siege of the town of Kobani.
U.N. Seeks Greater Aid for Syrian Refugees
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 fleeing to Turkey and Jordan. At a conference in Berlin, U.N. refugee chief António Guterres said the plight of Syrian refugees is a global responsibility.
António Guterres: "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. This is not only a responsibility of the countries of the region; this is a responsibility of the whole of the international community."
White House Official: Netanyahu a "Chickens—t"; Row Centers on Iran, Settlements
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 "chickens—t," 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 U.N. 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.
Ferguson Police Chief Denies Report of Plan to Resign
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 are false.
Friend of Boston Marathon Bomber Convicted of Lying to Investigators
A friend of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been convicted of lying to investigators about attempts to dispose of Tsarnaev’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, defense attorneys vowed to appeal the verdict.
Derege Demissie: "We will be filing post-conviction motions to vacate the guilty finding. We believe there are serious legal issues relative to the materiality of just being there, not having to do anything with the backpack or fireworks."
Susan Church: "I don’t believe that Robel Phillipos has ever been more angry at a person than he is angry at Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. When Robel found out that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev did what he did in this case, he was absolutely mortified. It was an unbelievable feeling of shock and betrayal that somebody that he knew could commit such atrocious, horrible acts."
FBI Ruses to Nab Suspects Draw Criticism, Court Challenge
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 investigation. 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 separate 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 and then posed as repair technicians to collect evidence. The agents carried out the ruse against the recommendation of a prosecutor who said it could amount to an unreasonable search.
Woman Sues DEA for Creating Fake Facebook Profile in Her Name
The cases follow a New York woman suing the Drug Enforcement Administration for setting up a fake Facebook profile with 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 of interest to investigators. The Justice Department says it is reviewing the case.
Texas Carries Out Execution; Supreme Court Issues Stay in Missouri
Texas has carried out a new execution while another has been halted in Missouri. Miguel Paredes was killed in Texas based on a 2000 conviction for a triple murder. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily halted the execution of Mark Christeson in order to hear his appeal. Christeson was convicted of killing a mother and her two children in 1998. Both he and Paredes were convicted as teenagers. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the United States is set for 35 executions this year, its lowest number since 31 took place 20 years ago.
U.N. Criticizes Iran for Execution of Woman in Killing Alleged Rapist
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.
Rupert Colville: "The Iranian authorities apparently did make attempts to prevent the execution, which was stayed at least twice, in April and in September, in order to enable the two families to reach a settlement. However, it’s the government’s responsibility to prevent execution, especially when there is so much uncertainty about the events surrounding the killing and concerns over due process."
Immigration Rights Protester Interrupts Obama Speech
President Obama faces continued protests over his recent decision to delay executive action on immigration reform. Obama had promised a broad overhaul by the end of summer, including a potential new reprieve to slow his record-breaking deportations. But last month, he delayed any moves until after the upcoming midterm elections. While campaigning for Democrats in Wisconsin on Tuesday, President Obama faced a disruption from the crowd.
President Obama: "Hold on a second, young lady. Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. Hold on a second. It’s alright. The young lady is expressing her concern about immigration and the fact that we don’t have a comprehensive immigration bill. The problem is, she should be protesting the Republicans who are blocking it in Congress. That’s what you should be doing. That’s what she should be doing, because I’m for it."
NASA Rocket Operated by Private Firm Explodes on Takeoff
The massive explosion of an unmanned rocket in Virginia has raised fresh concerns about NASA’s reliance on private contractors. The rocket, which used a Soviet-era 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, NASA has relied on private companies to supply the space station. Another Orbital rocket engine reportedly suffered an explosion in Mississippi in May. The executive vice president of the company, Frank Culbertson, has warned the public that the rocket which exploded on Tuesday "had a lot of hazardous equipment, hazardous materials on board."
Flood Wall Street Activists Seek Trial to Mount "Necessity Defense" for Global Warming Protest
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 rejected a prosecution offer 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.
John Tarleton: "Twelve of us have plead not guilty to these charges of disorderly conduct. 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. And 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.
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