democracynow.org
Stories:
Does Free Speech Have a Palestine Exception? Dismissed Professor Steven Salaita Speaks Out
A new report by the Center for Constitutional Rights and Palestine Legal has documented hundreds of cases of Palestinian rights activists in the United States being harassed, disciplined, fired, sued, censored or threatened for their advocacy around Palestine. Eighty-five percent of these cases targeted students or scholars. We look at the case of Steven Salaita. Last year, his job offer for a tenured position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was withdrawn after he posted tweets harshly critical of the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza. The school had come under pressure from donors, students, parents and alumni critical of Salaita’s views, with some threatening to withdraw financial support. His case caused a firestorm, with thousands of academics signing petitions calling for Salaita’s reinstatement, several lecturers canceling appearances and the American Association of University Professors calling the school’s actions "inimical to academic freedom and due process." In August, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Phyllis Wise resigned after she was implicated in a scandal that involved attempting to hide emails detailing Salaita’s ouster. We speak with Steven Salaita and attorney Maria LaHood, who is representing Salaita in his ongoing lawsuit against the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We end today’s show with professor and author Steven Salaita. Last year, his job offer for a tenured position for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was withdrawn after he posted tweets harshly critical of the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza. The school had come under pressure from donors, from students, parents and alumni critical of Salaita’s views, with some threatening to withdraw financial support. The move was criticized both in and outside of the school, with administrators accused of political censorship.
AMY GOODMAN: Thousands of academics signed petitions calling for Professor Salaita’s reinstatement, and several lecturers canceled appearances at the school in protest. The American Association of University Professors called the school’s actions "inimical to academic freedom and due process." In August, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Phyllis Wise resigned after she was implicated in a scandal that involved attempting to hide emails detailing Salaita’s ouster. Also in August, a federal judge allowed for a lawsuit filed by Professor Salaita against the university to proceed.
We’re joined now by Steven Salaita, the Edward Said chair of American studies at the American University of Beirut. His book, Uncivil Rites: Palestine and the Limits of Academic Freedom, has just been published. Also with us, his attorney, Maria LaHood, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Professor Salaita, talk about these latest developments. What has taken place around your case?
STEVEN SALAITA: So, over the summer, there was an entire sort of Freedom of Information Act dump of emails that led to, I guess, an intensification of the scandalization of the situation. It led to the resignation of Chancellor Wise and then the—her second-in-command, the provost. And what we—
AMY GOODMAN: And explain what happened.
STEVEN SALAITA: The emails that were released sort of pointed to a wide range of interests sort of converging around the issue of my Twitter feed, which I find both amusing and mortifying simultaneously. And there was donor pressure, and there was a conscious effort to circumvent the open records laws, but also a conscious effort to undermine all of the normal processes of faculty governance.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: There were allegations that the chancellor and others at the school were using private email accounts to avoid having their conversations about you and the reaction to you accessible through public information requests?
AMY GOODMAN: Hmmm, this is sounding presidential.
STEVEN SALAITA: Yes, exactly. And then they actually said, in writing, you know, "I’m deleting the emails as I send them."
AMY GOODMAN: And so, the chancellor was forced to resign. And explain who else. The board also changed?
STEVEN SALAITA: No, nobody from the board has resigned. The former chairman of the Board of Trustees, Christopher Kennedy, he rotated off.
AMY GOODMAN: Christopher Kennedy, Robert Kennedy son?
STEVEN SALAITA: That’s correct, yes. He was the chairman of the board that presided over, I guess, my termination last August, but he has rotated off. So, the chancellor is gone, and the provost is gone, but the board remains intact.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Maria LaHood, the status of the lawsuit and the grounds upon which you are pursuing legal action against the university?
MARIA LAHOOD: Professor Salaita’s case against the university is for his breach of contract as well as violations of his First Amendment rights and his due process rights. And the university attempted to dismiss it, claiming there was no contract, claiming he had—you know, his tweets weren’t protected. And the court rejected that, saying, "Of course there was a contract. If there wasn’t, the academic hiring process as we know it would fail to—would cease to exist." And, of course, his tweets are protected by the First Amendment. They implicate every central concern. They, you know, are in the public interest. They were in a public forum. And, you know, the university acknowledges that it was the tweets, were the reason for his termination.
AMY GOODMAN: So, are you hoping to come back to the United States and teach at the University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign?
STEVEN SALAITA: Sure. That’s the primary concern of the lawsuit.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain what happened, for those who haven’t followed your case—
STEVEN SALAITA: OK.
AMY GOODMAN: —where you were working, and then the job offer, etc.
STEVEN SALAITA: OK, OK. I was at Virginia Tech as a tenured English professor. I was offered the job at the University of Illinois. I subsequently signed a contract at the University of Illinois, then countersigned, and everything was set up for me to move and begin my position. Within around a week of my physical move from Virginia to Illinois, I received a termination letter, out of nowhere, from the chancellor, which sort of threw my life into disarray. I all of a sudden didn’t have an income and health insurance or a place to live. We had to cancel the contract on—
AMY GOODMAN: Your whole family was moving.
STEVEN SALAITA: Yeah, my whole family was moving. And so we ended up living with my parents. And then, you know, after around a year of sort of going to different places around the country and speaking about the situation, I was offered a one-year visiting professorship at the American University of Beirut. And that’s where I am now.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to ask you about the firestorm this has created in academic circles. The American Association of University Professors obviously has come out in support of you. But there was a particular professor at University of Illinois, Cary Nelson, who was a former leader of the AUP, who has—who basically has supported the university, even though he himself in the past had supported Ward Churchill after Ward Churchill was fired by the University of Colorado, has supported Norman Finkelstein when Norman has been gone after, in terms of tenure situations by other universities. Your response to Professor Nelson’s stance?
STEVEN SALAITA: I think it’s a fantastic example of what a blind ideological commitment to Israel will lead one into. And so, he made a choice between the preservation of academic freedom and the preservation of Israel’s reputation, and he chose the latter. It’s no more complicated than that.
AMY GOODMAN: Were you surprised by the level of the response in support of you being allowed to teach at the University of Illinois, both at the student level, university associations? Explain all the levels that came to your defense. And what most surprised you?
STEVEN SALAITA: What most surprised me was the revelations of how many people were working behind the scenes on the university’s side to prevent this hire from happening, to prevent me from actually arriving on campus. That, to me, was most surprising. But I wasn’t expecting this intensity of response. As I write in the book, you know, I expected kind of academic trade publications to be interested in it, you know, people in the fields of American Indian studies, people interested in Palestine. But it sort of took off. And I think it signals the fact that there has long been a profound frustration with the moves towards corporatization that are happening in universities, and a lot of people see this as a very explicit point around which they can rally.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Maria LaHood, the demand, ultimately, of this lawsuit and where it goes from here? And has there been a precedent for someone who has been hired, fired from a university, then going back to teach there?
MARIA LAHOOD: I mean, first of all, Professor Salaita’s case is unprecedented. I mean, the fact that he was summarily dismissed because of his tweets is unprecedented. So we’re dealing with a situation that hasn’t happened before. But, you know, the lawsuit seeks his reinstatement. It seeks compensation for all of his losses, and punitive damages, because, you know, as we’ve seen with the emails coming out, the university knew exactly what it was doing. You know, Chancellor Wise, even before she sent Professor Salaita the termination letter, said, "Well, whoever sends it, I’m going to be deposed." She knew. She knew that, you know, they knew what they were doing. And I don’t want to put all of the blame on her. It wasn’t just her who was responsible. The board was also responsible.
AMY GOODMAN: I mean, didn’t the chancellor say she was carrying the water of, what, the board chair, of Mr. Kennedy?
MARIA LAHOOD: In emails, yeah, she did. She said that, you know, she supposed to put forth a united front, but that was—you know, she was doing what the board wanted. And, you know, the board has sort of skated free, and Kennedy himself got an award of courage by the Simon Wiesenthal Center for leading the charge in firing Professor Salaita. So, she’s not the only one responsible at the university.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And do you think that the revelations of the emails and, of course, of the firing of the chancellor now, whether that’s going to strengthen your case, if it ever comes to trial?
MARIA LAHOOD: Well, I think the fact that, you know, all of this—all of these emails have come out—and they should continue to come out. We haven’t—you know, we’re in the middle of discovery now, so we’re expecting more documents, more records. You know, we’ll have depositions. Who knows what more we’ll find out? So I think, hopefully, the university is in a position where they don’t want to just have resignations, but they also want to do justice and actually reinstate Professor Salaita.
AMY GOODMAN: A new report by the nonprofit Palestine Legal and the Center for Constitutional Rights has documented hundreds of cases of Palestinian rights activists in the United States being harassed, disciplined, fired, sued, censored or threatened for their advocacy around Palestine. Eighty-five percent of these cases targeted students or scholars. Professor Salaita, can you talk about this and your own case?
STEVEN SALAITA: It’s a stunning report, although its findings aren’t necessarily surprising for those of us who have been involved in the issues of Palestine advocacy on campus. We know that there’s long been forms of repression. In some cases, there’s been criminalization. You know, people lose jobs. They don’t get tenured. You know, Students for Justice in Palestine get their chapter shut down sometimes. So, you know, it’s fantastic and groundbreaking to have a singular document that chronicles some of these incidents. And it finds nearly 300 incidents in less than two years, which is a pretty stunning number.
AMY GOODMAN: Did the chancellor resign, or was she fired, by the way?
MARIA LAHOOD: She resigned. But, you know, she resigned under a deal in which she was supposed to receive what was allegedly the remainder of her contract amount, but the board rejected that—$400,000. So, but she still gets to—you know, she’ll on a paid sabbatical for a year, and she’ll get to return to her $300,000 faculty position, unlike Professor Salaita.
AMY GOODMAN: And the timetable of this lawsuit? When would you expect to be back at the University of Illinois, or teaching there for the first time?
MARIA LAHOOD: We’re still—you know, we’re still engaged in discovery. We don’t—you know, litigation is unfortunately slow.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we want to thank both of you for being with us. Professor Steven Salaita is now Edward Said chair of American studies at the American University of Beirut. Last year, his job offer from the University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign was withdrawn after he posted tweets critical of the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza. His book, Uncivil Rites: Palestine and the Limits of Academic Freedom. And thank you so much to Maria LaHood.
Father of Journalist Shot Dead On-Air in Virginia Speaks Out to End U.S. Gun Violence Epidemic
On August 26 in Roanoke, Virginia, two journalists were fatally shot on live television during a morning broadcast of the local news station WDBJ. Twenty-four-year-old broadcast journalist Alison Parker and 27-year-old cameraman Adam Ward died after Vester Flanagan approached the set and began shooting. Flanagan was a former journalist at the station who had been fired two years ago. Flanagan later shot himself. It was the 246th mass shooting in the United States this year. Just over a month later, a gunman named Chris Harper-Mercer opened fire at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, killing nine people before taking his own life. Later that same day in northern Florida, a gunman killed two people and injured another before taking his own life. Then on Friday, one person died and four others were injured in a shooting in Baltimore—bringing the year’s total of mass shootings to at least 296. We speak with Andy Parker, the father of Alison Parker. Since her death in August, Parker has called for the passage of stronger gun laws. He says he’ll dedicate his life to this fight.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: On August 26th in Roanoke, Virginia, two journalists were fatally shot on live television during a morning broadcast of the local news station WDBJ. Twenty-four-year-old broadcast journalist Alison Parker and 27-year-old cameraman Adam Ward died after Vester Flanagan approached the set and began shooting. Flanagan was a former journalist at the station who had been fired two years earlier. Flanagan later shot himself. It was the 246th mass shooting in the United States this year. Just over a month later, a gunman named Chris Harper-Mercer opened fire at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. He shot nine people dead before taking his own life. That was the 294th mass shooting of 2015.
AMY GOODMAN: In a blog post written before the shooting, the Oregon gunman, Chris Harper-Mercer, wrote about Vester Flanagan, the Roanoke shooter. He wrote, quote, "I have noticed that so many people like [Flanagan] are alone and unknown, yet when they spill a little blood, the whole world knows who they are. A man who was known by no one, is now known by everyone. His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person on the planet, all in the course of one day. Seems like the more people you kill, the more you’re in the limelight," he wrote. Speaking after the shooting in Oregon, President Obama addressed the nation.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here at this podium ends up being routine, the conversation in the aftermath of it. We’ve become numb to this. We talked about this after Columbine and Blacksburg, after Tucson, after Newtown, after Aurora, after Charleston. It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Two more mass shootings have been reported since the one on Thursday in Oregon. Later that same day in northern Florida, a gunman killed two people and injured another before taking his own life. Then on Friday, one person died and four others were injured in a shooting in Baltimore, bringing the year’s total of mass shootings to at least 296.
AMY GOODMAN: Today we spend much of the hour looking at the country’s gun violence epidemic. We begin with Andy Parker, the father of Alison Parker, the journalist shot dead in August while on the air in Roanoke, Virginia. Since her death, her dad, Andy Parker, has vowed to do whatever it takes to end gun violence. He’s joining us from his home in Collinsville, Virginia.
Andy Parker, welcome to Democracy Now! Of course, our condolences on the death of your daughter. Can you talk about—
ANDY PARKER: Thank you, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about Alison today?
ANDY PARKER: Oh, of course. I can talk about Alison any day. She was—what people saw on television was who she was. She was bubbly, she was bright, she would light up a room. She made everyone feel comfortable. And she was accomplished at just about—well, not just about, everything she did, everything she picked up, she was terrific at it. And she packed in probably more of a life in 24 years than most people do in a lifetime. She was—I call her a force of nature, and she really was. And she—I think she’s become an iconic figure in this struggle that we are undertaking.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And that day that you heard the news of the shooting?
AMY GOODMAN: Where were you, Andy Parker?
ANDY PARKER: Well, we were—you know, Alison would normally go on way before we—her hits were on from 5:00 to 7:00 in the morning. And typically we would catch up with what she did online. So we really—we didn’t see anything live that day. And we’ve not seen it. We won’t see it. But we were alerted by her boyfriend, Chris, who called and said there had been shots fired at her location. And that’s where we were. And I knew something was terribly wrong, because I spoke to Alison every single day, every day, and I knew that when she didn’t call or—because the first thing she would have done is to call dad or mom and say, "Look, I’m OK, everything’s OK," and when I didn’t hear, I knew something was terribly wrong.
AMY GOODMAN: And Chris is the anchor on WDBJ?
ANDY PARKER: Right, right. And Chris was the love of her life, and she, the love of his. And, you know, he’s been going through some tough times, as have we. But we learned, I guess about an hour later, that she had been—she and Adam had been killed.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And could you talk about why, so soon after her death, you have decided to be so outspoken on the issue of gun violence, the process that you went through to make that decision?
ANDY PARKER: Well, you know, I guess people grieve differently. And we felt like, obviously, this was a kick in the stomach. And listen, I cry every day. My wife cries every day. But rather than sit here and go into a shell, we felt like we have to do something and channel our grief into a way that perhaps we can make a change and make a difference, because this is what Alison would have wanted us to do. And we realized—I realized that day. The governor, Terry McAuliffe, called me probably four hours after this happened, and at that point I had made up my mind that I was going to do whatever it takes to try and stop this. And he said, "Andy," he said, "I got your back." He said, "You go for it. I’m right there with you."
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Governor McAuliffe of Virginia. So, what are you doing? Can you talk about who you are taking on? What lobbies, what congressmembers? You’re naming names.
ANDY PARKER: Absolutely. You know, the people that are—well, one, in particular, Bob Goodlatte, who is the—he is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, that’s got over a hundred bills related to gun legislation that have been sitting on his desk. He’s the gatekeeper and will not hold hearings on this. He, ironically, is the congressman where—that covers the area where Alison lived. And I’ve met with this guy. And, you know, his comment to me and Chris—Chris and I both met with him, and his comment to me was: "Well, we really need to enforce the laws that we have on the books," which—and I said, "Really, Congressman? So the laws on the books are working?" And he said, "Oh, well, you know, we have all these laws on the books, and we can’t prosecute." And yet, the irony of it is—and he has an ATF, a former ATF agent on his staff. The irony is that he’s cut back—he and his colleagues have helped cut back funding for the ATF. They have the same staff that they had 40 years ago. They have less enforcement officers than the D.C. police do. And he’s telling me that we need to enforce these laws, and meanwhile he cuts funding for the ATF. It’s hypocrisy. It’s duplicity. And frankly, he has blood on his hands. He takes money from the NRA.
It’s the same with Mike McCaul, who is supposed to be protecting us as the House chairman for homeland security. And I watched him last week right after the Oregon shootings. I was on CNN doing an interview, and I watched him after mine. And the news correspondent that was interviewing him was trying to pin him down on "What can you do? Do you want to close these loopholes? Is there something that you would do?" And he tap-danced around the issue. Their whole fallback is: "It’s mental health. It’s not a gun problem. It’s a mental health problem." Well, sure, it’s a mental health problem, but, you know, here’s—we can do things in this country. We can close gun loopholes. We can do universal background checks. Is it going to be a cure-all? Of course not. But you have to start and do something. And I said in my next interview after that, listening to this guy, he made me want to throw up. I mean, here’s a guy that Homeland Security, the FBI has a thousand people on its no-fly list, and McCaul and Goodlatte help the NRA block efforts to keep these people from getting firearms. Now, you know, go figure. They can’t fly, but they can get a weapon. I mean, it’s insane. It is hypocrisy. And like I said, these guys are gutless cowards that have blood on their hands.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Andy Parker, you mentioned the NRA several times. The ability of the NRA and the gunman manufacturers who back them to basically subvert the will of the majority of the American people who do support tougher gun controls, why do you think—
ANDY PARKER: Of course.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: —they’ve been able to be so successful?
ANDY PARKER: You know, they’ve done—you got to give the devil his due, and I say that literally and figuratively, but mostly literally. They have had a 30-year jump on folks like Everytown, which I have joined. It’s a recently new organization that Mayor Bloomberg has started. But the NRA, through the gun lobby—and, you know, by the way, the NRA only has a few members. I don’t even think they have 100,000 members in this country. But where they get the millions and millions of dollars that they funnel into these campaigns comes from the gun manufacturers. And every time one of the shootings happens, their gun sales go through the roof. So they love this stuff. And so they’re going to continue to fund, through the NRA—NRA is really nothing more than a lobby. Wayne LaPierre makes a million bucks, and he is nothing more than a lobbyist that funds money to members of Congress. And they intimidate them, and they’re just afraid to lose the money. But guys like Terry McAuliffe ran against the NRA in a red state, got an F rating from the NRA, and won as governor, so it can be done. But the people that are in the pockets of the NRA and the gun lobby, they do have blood on their hands, and they are cowards.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to get your reaction to another father, to the father of the Oregon gunman who killed the nine people last week at Umpqua Community College, who has also criticized U.S. gun policies, which he says allows his son to amass an arsenal of weapons. Ian Mercer, father of Chris Harper-Mercer, made the comments in an interview with CNN.
IAN MERCER: The question that I would like to ask is: How on Earth could he compile 13 guns? How can that happen? You know, they talk about gun laws, they talk about gun control. Every time something like this happens, they talk about it, and nothing is done. I’m not trying to say that that’s to blame for what happened, but if Chris had not been able to get a hold of 13 guns, it wouldn’t have happened.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Ian Mercer, the father of Chris Harper-Mercer. Andy Parker, if you could respond to that and also the fact that Chris Harper-Mercer had cited the man who killed your daughter, Alison, as an example that he was a nobody who then was on the lips of the world because of the people he killed?
ANDY PARKER: Well, Amy, you know, part of the problem is we have a lot of bad parenting out there. And unfortunately, you can’t legislate bad parenting. You can’t do anything about it. But you can do things like universal background checks and closing gun loopholes to at least help prevent these things, to mitigate some of this bad parenting. I want to know—you know, certainly, he gets it, but—and from what I understand, he and his son—he never saw his son much. They didn’t—they lived apart.
But I want to know what his mother was doing, and as we read these revelations that she was—you know, she had an arsenal herself and was clearly involved in this young man’s life. Frankly, she should be an accessory to murder. I mean, that—I listened—I read that account of her having all the weapons and bragging about it. She had to know something was up. I mean, listen, my son has Asperger’s, and he’s scared to death of—you know, most kids that have Asperger’s are—you know, they’re quiet, they’re shy kids. They’re usually bullied, which my son was, and they just shy away from these kind of things. But we also were involved in his life and made sure that he became a good citizen. Obviously, this woman, this mother, was worthless. And as I say, somebody should charge her as being an accessory to murder.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I was wondering also your reaction to the obvious frustration that President Obama has been showing in his recent statements about some of the recent mass shootings.
ANDY PARKER: Well, I’m glad that he’s finally addressed it in the way he did. I think he must have been listening to some of the earlier interviews that I’ve done, because it sounds like he took it right from my playbook. And that is, we don’t have the world’s market cornered on mental illness, but somehow we have the world’s market cornered on mental illness and people that are mentally ill and other criminals that can evade background checks and can have access to weapons. And this has just got to stop. And I think that as long as he keeps this up, I think that between the president using the bully pulpit to not let this go away, I think that the press, because Alison was one of you guys—I mean, she was a member of the fraternity, and the press has been so kind and so generous with their time with this effort. They understand that, look, it could have been one of you guys. It could have been this cameraman that’s here with me today. It could be—it could have been one of you. And so, I think that—I think it’s different this time. I really do. And I think we’re going to—we’re putting a dent in it. And I think these congressmen that we’re calling out, that I’m calling out, it’s having an effect.
AMY GOODMAN: Andy Parker, we’re going to ask you to stay with us. We’re going to go to a break, then come back to you in Collinsville, Virginia, where you live. We’ll also be joined by a gun control expert, a senior vice president at the Center for American Progress. And I want to ask you about some of the comments of the presidential candidates and what they mean to you. We’re talking to Andy Parker. He is the father of Alison Parker, who was killed on air in Roanoke, Virginia—she worked for WDBJ—along with her cameraman, Adam Ward, when they were broadcasting live, by a former anchor on that network, or a former reporter on WDBJ. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back in a minute.
"Einstein's Definition of Insanity": Father of Slain Reporter on GOP Candidates' Gun Control Remarks
As the United States experiences more than one mass shooting per day, the issue of gun regulation is emerging as a hot topic on the 2016 presidential campaign trail. As Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has vowed to curb gun violence, Republican presidential candidates have refused calls for gun control in the wake of last week’s massacre at Umpqua Community College. Donald Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press that mass shooters are "geniuses in a certain way. They are going to be able to break the system." John Kasich told the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, "I don’t think gun control would solve this problem. The deeper issue is alienation. The deeper issue is loneliness." Ben Carson implied that the Oregon shooting victims didn’t do enough to save themselves, saying, "I would not just stand there and let him shoot me." And Jeb Bush seemed to shrug off last week’s mass shooting, saying on Friday afternoon, "stuff happens." We’re joined by Andy Parker, the father of 24-year-old broadcast journalist Alison Parker, who was shot dead on live television in August, and by Arkadi Gerney, senior vice president at the Center for American Progress who formerly worked with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the national coalition, Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: The issue of gun regulation is emerging as a hot topic in the presidential—on the presidential campaign trail. On Monday, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton vowed to curb gun violence.
HILLARY CLINTON: It’s the leading cause of death for young African-American men, the second leading cause for young Hispanic men, the fourth leading cause for young white men. This epidemic of gun violence knows no boundaries, knows no limits of any kind. And when this happens, people are quick to say that they offer their thoughts and prayers. That’s not enough. How many people have to die before we actually act, before we come together as a nation? I mean, ideally, what I would love to see is gun owners, responsible gun owners, hunters, form a different organization and take back the Second Amendment from these extremists.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidates have avoided any discussion of gun control in the wake of last week’s massacre at Umpqua Community College. Donald Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press that mass shooters are, quote, "geniuses in a certain way. They are going to be able to break the system." Meanwhile, John Kasich told the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, quote, "I don’t think gun control would solve this problem. The deeper issue is alienation. The deeper issue is loneliness." And Ben Carson implied that the Oregon shooting victims didn’t do enough to save themselves, and suggested he would have been more aggressive in confronting the attacker. And Jeb Bush seemed to shrug off last week’s mass shooting, saying on Friday afternoon, quote, "stuff happens."
JEB BUSH: We’re in a difficult time in our country, and I don’t think more government is necessarily the answer to this. I think we need to reconnect ourselves with everybody else. It’s just—it’s very sad to see. But I resist the notion, and I did—I had this challenge as governor, because we had—look, stuff happens. There’s always a crisis, and the impulse is always to do something, and it’s not necessarily the right thing to do.
AMY GOODMAN: Fellow Republican presidential contender Donald Trump also argued against gun control in the wake of the Oregon shooting, saying the shooting highlights the need to address mental illness issues. And again, this was Ben Carson in his own words on Fox.
BEN CARSON: Not only would I probably not cooperate with him, I would not just stand there and let him shoot me. I would say, "Hey, guys, everybody attack him. He may shoot me, but he can’t get us all."
AMY GOODMAN: Still with us from Collinsville, Virginia, is Andy Parker, whose daughter, the journalist Alison Parker, was shot dead on the air in August along with her cameraman, Adam Ward.
Your response to what Ben Carson said, to what Donald Trump has said, to what Hillary Clinton has said, and what you understand Bernie Sanders thinks?
ANDY PARKER: Well, you know, let’s start with Ben Carson. You know, that’s so easy for him to say that. I guarantee you he would be running like the coward that he is. I mean, to make a comment like that—"I would do this, and I would do that"—it’s an affront, and it is an insult. The other Republican candidates, I’ll move—you know, the second one is Jeb Bush, who shrugged it off, as you said, and said, "stuff happens." I mean, really? The whole Republican ticket, each one of these candidates, their reaction is, "Well, let’s do nothing," which is, of course, Einstein’s definition of insanity, which is what we have now.
Certainly mental health is the issue here, but there’s got to be a way—and there is a way—to wrap these things together. I mean, we can relax some of the HIPAA laws, some of the FERPA laws, so that mental health professionals can talk to law enforcement and say, "Look, this guy is a ticking time bomb," employers that can say, "Look, don’t hire this guy, because he was escorted out the door by police," which is the case with Alison’s shooter. So, there are issues there that it’s like cancer. You don’t treat cancer with one therapy. But the easiest—you go the path of least resistance first, and that is universal background checks, closing the gun loopholes. And then you address these other mental health issues and employment issues. But to sit there and say, "Oh, you know, to suggest that we do anything, nothing is going to work," that just doesn’t fly anymore.
I am so glad that Secretary Clinton stood up and has taken the lead on this. I just hope that she doesn’t backtrack. Bernie Sanders has had a very dubious record in terms of his votes on gun control, so I’m not sure where he stands now. But I know Ms. Clinton is the one that is at least standing up and making herself a clear—she’s made a clear choice for voters in the upcoming election between her and the other Republicans who are—they deny this thing. And they’re—again, guess what. They’re getting money from the NRA. They have blood on their hands.
AMY GOODMAN: Sanders cited several measures he can support, including a strengthened system of instant background checks, closure of the gun show loophole, a ban on semi-automatic assault weapons, quote, "designed strictly for killing human beings," and far greater investments in mental health. Apparently, he says he will be releasing a more comprehensive package that could join people across different opinions. Andy Parker?
ANDY PARKER: Well, I look forward to seeing that from him, because, again, he protected a lot of the gun manufacturers with his votes several years ago that were very, very dubious. So, I’m glad to hear that he’s perhaps coming around on this.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And your sense, Andy Parker, of Martin O’Malley also, who used to be in your neighboring state of Maryland, his positions? He has called for stricter background checks and tougher laws, as well. Your sense of his track record?
ANDY PARKER: You know, I honestly don’t know enough about Governor O’Malley to comment on that, but I think, generally speaking, this is—while the issue is—it shouldn’t be a partisan issue. The reality is, is that 90 percent of Republicans don’t support any kind of gun legislation, and, just the reverse, 90 percent of the Democrats do. I know Peter King, John McCain, you know, they support commonsense gun legislation.
And let me also make something clear, that this is an argument that the gun lobby, whenever you try and advance or suggest any kind of reasonable, commonsense legislation, their immediate knee-jerk reaction is: "They’re coming to take away our guns. It’s an assault on the Second Amendment." You know, the Second Amendment, Chief Justice Warren Burger suggested 30 years ago that—and I think most people realize that—the intent was not to arm every man, woman and child. It was for militias. It was to keep—you know, that was back when they were using muskets, and they were used to make sure that if the British invaded again, that there were militias there to help defend the country. That was its intent. And that’s what these guys, every time you say—suggest meaningful solutions to end gun violence, "Oh, you’re coming to take away our guns. This is an assault on the Second Amendment."
AMY GOODMAN: Andy—
ANDY PARKER: And that’s—it’s a false narrative.
AMY GOODMAN: Andy Parker, we’re also joined by Arkadi Gerney, who is senior vice president of the Center for American Progress. He previously worked as special adviser and first deputy criminal justice coordinator to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and managed Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a national coalition that Mayor Bloomberg co-chairs. Arkadi Gerney, talk about what you think most needs to happen right now. The conversation on television mainly these days is, you’re talking about mentally ill people or criminals, they’re going to get around the laws, so whatever regulations you put in place, law-abiding people will abide by them, and they won’t be armed, and then the criminals and the mentally ill will be armed, and they’ll just gun them down.
ARKADI GERNEY: Well, thanks, Amy. First, I just want to offer my condolences to Andy Parker. He has just shown incredible courage in making his voice heard under, of course, extremely difficult circumstances. So thank you for that.
But, you know, I think, as to the question, if you look at the United States and compare it to other countries, we have normal levels of crime, violent crime, compared to other advanced countries. We have mental health disorders at normal rates compared to other advanced countries. But we have levels of murder and gun murders that are way out of line with other highly developed countries. If you look within the United States, you see that the states with the strongest gun laws have lower rates of gun homicides and gun suicides, significantly lower rates, than the states with the weakest gun laws. And study after study has shown that. So, the idea that there is nothing that we can do about it is just false.
And if you look at other challenges that we’ve faced in our country, for example, car accidents, we’ve been able to make cars in the last 60 years five times safer. For every mile that a person drives in the United States today, they are five times less likely to die than they would have been 55 or 60 years ago. And that wasn’t one intervention, it was a whole bunch of measures, from seat belts to airbags to drunk driving laws to culture change to better road signage. But we found a way to both preserve our car culture, but make it much, much safer. And that’s what we need to do with guns.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Arkadi Gerney, you’ve talked about that it’s not just the mass shootings that occur—obviously, they get all the attention in the media—but it’s the day-in, day-out gun violence that occurs in America and that rarely gets much coverage at all outside the local area in which it happens. Could you talk about that?
ARKADI GERNEY: Yes. I mean, I think what—you know, happened to Alison Parker was absolutely terrible, but had it not been broadcast on TV, two people getting killed is not national news in the United States, and it happens every day. In fact, 33 people are murdered with guns every single day in the United States. That’s a Virginia Tech-scale mass shooting. Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 was the most deadly mass shooting in U.S. history, but it’s happening across the country every single day. It’s very hard for our politicians and for the national media to pay attention to it, to bring life to these stories. And we tend to only pay attention to these spectacular shootings, these mass shootings, that are, of course, really awful, but underlying that is the everyday gun violence, which is just taking an incredible toll—adds up to 11,000 or 12,000 gun murders a year, and another 20,000, 21,000 gun suicides and accidents. Put it all together, that’s 33,000 Americans every year we are losing to gun violence. It’s just an incredible number. And the idea that we can’t do something about it is wrong. All the evidence suggests that we can do something about it. And we’re not going to get that number to zero, but if we can reduce it by 1 percent, that’s saving 330 lives. If we can reduce it by 10 percent, that’s saving 3,300 lives a year. That’s as many people as died on 9/11.
AMY GOODMAN: Arkadi Gerney, you have your own story about why you are interested, so interested, in this issue.
ARKADI GERNEY: Well, yeah. I mean, my father died when I was young. My mother was planning to get remarried, and the person she was going to get remarried to was shot, murdered in a random act of violence. And, you know, I think that the remarkable thing in the U.S. is that it is just simply not uncommon for Americans to know someone who has been shot and killed. It happens so frequently that so many people are touched by it. The toll of gun violence disproportionately affects some parts of our country, some demographics within the country. It is a—disproportionately impacts young people. It disproportionately impacts communities of color. But if you look at it all, it affects all kinds of people—young, old, black, white. And there’s something we can do about it. And, you know, I think we want to try to spare more people from the experience that Andy Parker is going through, and so many people have gone through, of seeing a loved one lost to this.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And could you talk about the grassroots movement that you became a part of with former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, when the mayors of cities across the country, faced with the failure of Congress to act, began banding together to try to do something about gun violence?
ARKADI GERNEY: Well, I think the politics of guns is in the process of changing, and the movement for stronger gun laws is growing much, much stronger and has been growing stronger over several years. But when I started working on this issue in 2006, there was barely any support, even among Democrats in Washington, to do anything. And, you know, really among elected officials, the only stakeholders who were ready to sort of put their political capital and themselves on the line tended to be mayors, because mayors are held accountable for crime. They saw what it was doing to their cities. And so, Mayor Bloomberg and Tom Menino, the mayor of Boston, built this coalition. It’s grown to more than a thousand mayors. But what we see is that now the movement for stronger gun laws is very diverse. It’s mayors, it’s moms, it’s all kinds of people coming out of the woodwork. And we are seeing, at the state level, progress in many states, not just blue states, but purple states like Colorado, which strengthened its gun laws after Newtown. We’ve seen ballot initiatives, like in Washington state last year, where 60 percent of voters voted for universal background checks.
AMY GOODMAN: Arkadi Gerney, we’re going to lose Andy Parker, the satellite to him at his home in Collinsville, Virginia, in just a second. I wanted to ask, are you thinking of running for public office? I think of Carolyn McCarthy in Long Island whose husband was killed in the Long Island Rail Road massacre many years ago. She went to her congressman. He said he’s not for gun control. And she said, "Then I’m going to replace you," and she did. Are you thinking about this? Andy Parker?
ANDY PARKER: Are you asking me? I’m sorry.
AMY GOODMAN: Yes.
ANDY PARKER: Oh, oh, oh, yeah, am I—I’m sorry. Am I thinking about running?
AMY GOODMAN: Yes.
ANDY PARKER: Or—no, I am not. I feel like that I’m better served as an advocate and an activist. You never say never, but that’s—I feel like my role at this point is to find the people to replace these people that are not going to come to our way of thinking on this issue. So, that’s—you know, I’ve got no plans at this point.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we’ll continue the conversation. I want to thank you. And again, our condolences. Andy Parker, the father of Alison Parker, who, along with her cameraman, Adam Ward, were gunned down as they were broadcasting live on television at her television station, WDBJ. They were outside interviewing the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce when they were killed. Arkadi Gerney, senior vice president at the Center for American Progress, thank you, as well. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. Back in a minute.
Headlines:
U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Changes Story on Kunduz Bombing Again
The U.S. commander in Afghanistan has altered the U.S. account of the bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, for the fourth time in as many days, acknowledging U.S. Special Operations Forces, not Afghan allies, called in the attack. The bombing killed 10 patients and 12 medical staff members. General John Campbell said while Afghans requested air cover, enabling an airstrike requires "a rigorous U.S. procedure."
Gen. John Campbell: "To be clear, the decision to provide aerial fires was a U.S. decision made within the U.S. chain of command. A hospital was mistakenly struck. We would never intentionally target a protected medical facility."
The New York Times reports General Campbell has privately said U.S. troops likely violated their own rules when they called in the airstrike.
Doctor Margaret Flowers Arrested at Senate Hearing on Kunduz
Ahead of Tuesday’s Senate hearing, Dr. Margaret Flowers was arrested for denouncing the bombing, holding a sign which read "Bombing Hospitals=War Crime." She joined other members of CodePink who wore doctor’s garbs covered in fake blood.
Doctors Without Borders: Location of Bombed Hospital was Well Known
Doctors Without Borders has said U.S. forces knew the coordinates of the hospital and continued the attack for half an hour after being informed a hospital had been hit. Doctors Without Borders President Meinie Nicolai said the hospital’s location was well known.
Meinie Nicolai: "The location of this hospital was well known, was well communicated to all parties, like we do in a conflict—the opposition forces, including in the coalition forces and the Afghan forces. We’ve given the coordinates. This hospital exists for four years. It’s a relatively big hospital that is clearly visible and known to everybody. So a precise attack on this big hospital, if not proven differently, leads us to a war crime."
Doctors Without Borders has called for an independent investigation under the Geneva Conventions. This comes as the Taliban reportedly remains in control of at least half of Kunduz, despite General John Campbell’s statements to the Senate Tuesday that Afghan security forces had retaken the city.
Iraqi Officials Ask Russia to Launch Airstrikes Against ISIL in Iraq
Iraqi politicians are calling on Russia to launch airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq. This comes following the announcement Russia had reached a new intelligence-sharing pact with Iraq, Iran and Syria two weeks ago.
Russia, Syria Said to Launch Coordinated Strikes on Opposition
Meanwhile, in Syria, activists are reporting Russia and the Syrian government have launched coordinated strikes against opposition forces. Tensions are rising between Russia and the United States over the two countries’ divergent strategies in the region. The United States is demanding the departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Russia is backing Assad, arguing his departure would create a power vacuum that could strengthen ISIL.
Israeli Troops Attack Palestinians After Funeral for Teen Shot by IDF
Israeli soldiers fired live ammunition, stun grenades and tear gas at Palestinians in Bethlehem Tuesday following the funeral for a 13-year-old Palestinian boy shot dead by Israeli soldiers a day before.
NYC: Dozens Protest Recent IDF Killings of Palestinian Teens
Meanwhile, in New York, dozens of people rallied outside the Israeli Consulate to protest the recent killings of Palestinian teenagers by Israeli forces.
Lamis Deek: "My name is Lamis Deek. I am an attorney and an activist with Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition. And I’m one of the organizers of today’s rally. We’re here today to stand in solidarity with our people in Palestine, who have called for a Day of Rage and international support and street actions in support of their struggle, and to publicize to the people across the world, but specifically here in New York, the conditions under which Palestinians are suffering."
Sanders Campaign Apologizes to Pro-Palestinian Activists Ousted from Rally
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ campaign has apologized to a group of Students for Justice in Palestine activists who were asked to leave a Sanders rally in Boston unless they took down their sign. The sign read "Will Ya Feel the Bern for Palestine?" Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver told Boston.com the decision was made by a "low-level volunteer" and "100 percent" should not have happened.
Justice Department to Release 6,000 Prisoners
The Justice Department is reportedly poised to release about 6,000 prisoners beginning at the end of the month, marking the largest-ever one-time release of federal prisoners. The move comes as part of the Obama administration’s bid to reduce prison overcrowding and ease harsh sentences for people convicted of drug crimes.
Mother of Umpqua College Shooter Kept Multiple Guns at Home
Newly disclosed online postings show the mother of the gunman who killed nine people at Umpqua Community College in Oregon last week kept multiple guns in her home and shared her son’s passion for firearms. In the posts, Laurel Harper criticizes "lame states" which restrict loaded guns in the home, and boasts her son has "much knowledge in this field." In one three-year-old posting, Harper writes about having "two full [magazines] in my Glock case. And the ARs & AKs all have loaded mags."
Carson on Oregon: "I Would Not Just Stand There and Let Him Shoot Me"
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has become the latest Republican presidential candidate to draw criticism for his comments on guns in the wake of the Oregon massacre. Speaking Tuesday on Fox News, Carson said he would have fought the shooter off.
Ben Carson: "Not only would I probably not cooperate with him, I would not just stand there and let him shoot me. I would say, 'Hey, guys, everybody attack him. He may shoot me, but he can't get us all.’"
A day earlier, Carson wrote in a Facebook Q&A, "I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away." Carson is rising in the polls, challenging front-runner Donald Trump.
Tennessee: 11-Year-Old Charged in Fatal Shooting of 8-Year-Old
In other news on gun violence, an 11-year-old boy in Tennessee has been charged with first-degree murder after allegedly shooting and killing his eight-year-old neighbor. Authorities say the boy shot MaKayla Dyer with his father’s shogun after she refused to show him her puppy.
Kiesha Jenkins Becomes 20th Transgender Woman Murdered This Year
An African-American transgender woman has been beaten and shot to death in Philadelphia, marking at least the 20th murder of a transgender woman in the United States this year. The death of Kiesha Jenkins is part of what advocates have described as an "epidemic" of violence against trans people.
Montana Judge Blocks Use of Execution Drug Pentobarbital; Texas Executes Man Using Same Drug
In Montana, a judge has blocked the use of the execution drug pentobarbital, saying it does not comply with a state law requiring an "ultra-fast acting barbiturate" before a prisoner receives a second, lethal drug. The move effectively halts executions in Montana unless the state changes the law or finds a substitute drug. Meanwhile, Texas executed Juan Martin Garcia Tuesday using the same drug; Garcia was pronounced dead 12 minutes after the dose of pentobarbital began.
Woman Sues Bill Cosby, Saying He Sexually Assaulted Her in 2008
And one of the more than 50 women who say they were sexually assaulted by comedian Bill Cosby has filed a lawsuit against him in California. Chloe Goins says Cosby drugged and attacked her at the Playboy Mansion in 2008. Cosby is accused of drugging and raping women over a period of decades. In many cases, the statute of limitations has expired. Goins addressed Cosby’s other victims.
Chloe Goins: "I recognize that I have taken legal action that many of the other victims of Bill Cosby will never be able to take. For that reason, I offer this message to those brave women: Your experience was just like mine, and mine just like yours. We are not alone. We did not ask for these attacks, and these attacks are not our fault. This has gone on long enough. It’s time Bill Cosby was held accountable for his crimes."
In addition to the lawsuit, Cosby could potentially face criminal charges in Chloe Goins’ case.
Donate today:Follow:
SPEAKING EVENTS
VIDEO: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Harlem: "Put People Before Profits & Capital"
207 West 25th Street, 11th Floor
New York, New York 10001 United States
____________________________
____________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment