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"A Badge to Kill": Grief & Outrage as Chicago Police Shoot Dead 2 More Unarmed African Americans
Protests continue in Chicago after police shot dead two more unarmed African Americans—Bettie Jones, a 55-year-old mother of five, and 19-year-old college student Quintonio LeGrier. The shooting comes amid outrage over the more than year-old police killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald and a potential police cover-up. Could these killings force Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign? We are joined by Aislinn Sol of Black Lives Matter Chicago.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: A police shooting in Chicago has killed another two unarmed African Americans, sparking grief, outrage and new calls for change at a police department already under heavy scrutiny. The killings happened early Saturday morning when officers responded to a domestic disturbance call. The father of a 19-year-old college student named Quintonio LeGrier had called police to report his son was behaving oddly and carrying a metal bat. The father also called the downstairs tenant, 55-year-old Bettie Jones, to alert her that police would need to enter through her door. When the police arrived, Quintonio LeGrier allegedly confronted them in the foyer. Both LeGrier and Bettie Jones were killed when police opened fire. On Sunday, family, friends and community members gathered outside the home to remember the victims and demand justice from the police. Quintonio LeGrier’s mother, Janet Cooksey, was among those to speak out.
JANET COOKSEY: Something just needs to be done. I used to watch the news daily, and I would grieve for other mothers, other family members. And now, today, I’m grieving myself. When do it come to an end? I mean, when do we get answers? I mean, like she said, what happened to Tasers? Seven times my son was shot. No mother should have to bury her child, and especially under these circumstances. You call for help, the police are supposed to serve us and protect us, and yet they take the lives. What’s wrong with that picture? It’s a badge to kill? I mean, where do we get our help?
AMY GOODMAN: Janet Cooksey, mother of Quintonio LeGrier. He reportedly had suffered mental health issues in recent months. The other victim, Bettie Jones, was the mother of five grown children, with whom she had just celebrated Christmas hours before. She was also involved in community activism. Police have acknowledged they shot her by accident. Jacqueline Walker, who grew up with Bettie Jones, remembered her friend.
JACQUELINE WALKER: I knew Bettie as a kid. We grew up on Congress, in the 4,400 block of Congress. And we played together every day. And for me to just look at the news and see that she was shot down—a beautiful woman, a beautiful woman—it hurts my heart to see that. It hurts me all over just to know that the family is going through this tragic danger thing that’s going on—police shooting without asking. Why you got to shoot first and ask questions later?
AMY GOODMAN: Full details have not been released, but family members say Bettie Jones was shot four times and Quintonio LeGrier seven times.
Saturday’s shooting comes amidst continued protests in Chicago over the more than year-old police killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald and a potential police cover-up. McDonald was African-American. He was shot 16 times by white police officer Jason Van Dyke. Dash cam video, only recently released by court order, clearly contradicts police claims about the shooting. Laquan McDonald posed no threat and was walking away from the officers at a distance as Van Dyke jumped out of his police car and opened fire.
The controversy has ousted the Chicago police chief and the head of the city’s Independent Review Authority—Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates police shootings. It’s also sparked calls for Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s resignation. The mayor says the Police Review Authority is probing Saturday’s killings. Since 2007, the authority has found wrongdoing in only two of out of more than 400 police shootings.
Meanwhile, a year-end report from the Mapping Police Violence research project says police killed at least 1,152 people in the United States in 2015. In 14 cities, every single police victim was African-American.
For more, we’re joined by Aislinn Sol, chapter coordinator for Black Lives Matter in Chicago, which has organized a series of protests over the killing of Laquan McDonald.
We welcome you to Democracy Now! Why don’t you start off by explaining to us what you understood happened this weekend, Aislinn?
AISLINN SOL: Well, the day after Christmas at 4:00 in the morning, after both families celebrated the holiday with loved ones, the police were called by the father of Quintonio in order to respond to a mental health, domestic violence situation—as what the media has been calling it. The police then, from—based on the evidence, based on the reports that we have now, we believe that the police shot through the door, killing Bettie Jones, who was a member of Action Now, which is a grassroots organization here in Chicago, a 55-year-old mother of five, and shot her in the neck, killing her on the way to the hospital. And then they shot and killed 19-year-old Quintonio, and they shot him seven times. He was not holding a gun. He was not pointing a gun at them, which is usually the excuse that’s given for these types of murders. And, you know, unfortunately, now we have two people who have been taken away from us too soon by this corrupt system.
AMY GOODMAN: There have been calls for the resignation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel since the Chicago Police Department released the video of the shooting of Laquan McDonald after holding it for more than 400 days. Evelyn Glover, who is the cousin of Bettie Jones who was killed by the Chicago police officer on Saturday, echoed the calls for his ouster.
EVELYN GLOVER JENNINGS: You meet me at City Hall. I want my cousin’s death avenged. You killed her in cold blood. Emanuel—
UNIDENTIFIED: Step down.
EVELYN GLOVER JENNINGS: Emanuel, call your boys. Chicago police belong to you. Now you vigilante, you’ve been sending the Chicago police out to kill, to do nothing but kill. Get "serve and protect" off of them cars and write, "We kill," 'cause that's your mission, you lying demon.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Evelyn Glover, the cousin of Bettie Jones who was killed by Chicago police early on Saturday morning. Aislinn Sol, what about this demand?
AISLINN SOL: He should resign. And not only should he resign, Anita Alvarez should resign, and the entire City Council should resign. And charges of obstruction of justice should be brought forth, where applicable, with all parties involved in the cover-up of Laquan McDonald’s video, as well as the cover-up of Ronald Johnson’s dash cam video. Ronald Johnson was killed eight days prior to Laquan McDonald by Officer George Hernandez, and that video was hidden for over 400 days. And after a FOIA lawsuit filed by Ronald Johnson’s mother, it was finally released. There are multiple guilty parties here, and all of them need to be held accountable, including criminal charges of obstruction.
AMY GOODMAN: Earlier this month, Chicago Mayor Emanuel apologized for the killing of Laquan McDonald. This is what he said.
MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL: I am the mayor. As I said the other day, I own it. I take responsibility for what happened, because it happened on my watch. And if we’re going to fix it, I want you to understand it’s my responsibility with you. But if we’re also going to begin the healing process, the first step in that journey is my step, and I’m sorry.
AMY GOODMAN: Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced it will launch a wide-ranging investigation into the Chicago Police Department. This is Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
ATTORNEY GENERAL LORETTA LYNCH: Today, I’m here to announce that the Department of Justice has opened an investigation into whether the Chicago Police Department has engaged in a pattern or practice of violations of the Constitution or federal law. Specifically, we will examine a number of issues related to the Chicago Police Department’s use of force, including its use of deadly force; racial, ethnic and other disparities in its use of force; and its accountability mechanisms, such as its disciplinary actions and its handling of allegations of misconduct.
AMY GOODMAN: The announcement came after the protests over the police killing of Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times. The officer, Jason Van Dyke, was indicted for first-degree murder—only after, on the same day, hours after dash cam video was released that clearly contradicted police claims about the shooting. And the video was released only because it was ordered by a judge to be released. Aislinn, your response to how Mayor Emanuel is dealing with this? Now, he’s on holiday in Cuba, is that right?
AISLINN SOL: Yeah, he is, which is incredibly ironic, given the U.S. embargo against Cuba. However, his response is completely inadequate. Rahm Emanuel has—he’s unable and incapable of solving this problem, which he is partially responsible for. This problem of police terrorism in our communities has existed for many, many decades, leading way back to the assassination of Chairman Fred Hampton Sr. And, you know, what we know with Fred Hampton Sr.'s murder; with the torture that had gone on through the former police commander, Jon Burge, of over 119 black and Latino men; to Homan Square's operating today; to what happened with Rekia Boyd, to Ronnie Johnson, to Laquan McDonald—all of this indicates that there’s a deep, embedded structural pattern and practice of terrorism and murder that has been—that has gone on for decades with complicit participation by many levels of government in Chicago. His apology means nothing.
AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned Fred Hampton, who, together with Mark Clark—they were leaders of the Black Panther Party in Chicago—were killed by police December 4th—was it?—1969, killed by Chicago police. You are wearing a T-shirt that says "Emmett & Amadou, Sean"—and that’s as far as I could see right now.
AISLINN SOL: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: But Emmett, the first name we see, is Emmett Till, who was also from Chicago. And that was back in the summer of 1955, killed in Mississippi. And, of course, his case, this 14-year-old boy killed by a white mob, has shaped Chicago politics, or had a tremendous influence, I should say, for many decades.
AISLINN SOL: Yeah, and, you know, we work closely with the Emmett Till family. They just, you know, celebrated the 60th anniversary of remembering his life, which just occurred this past year. And they have been at the forefront of fighting against terrorism against black people. You know, of course, historically, we can reference his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, who really helped lead the creation of the black power movement and civil rights movement by her steadfast refusal to remain silent. And we see other mothers duplicating that today, like Dorothy Holmes, the mother of Ronald Johnson, and the mother of Quintonio, who both are steadfast and refusing to remain silent and are demanding justice.
AMY GOODMAN: Chicago has long had this long history of police torture. Earlier the year—you mentioned the notorious Chicago police commander—Jon Burge was released from a halfway house after he served four-and-a-half years for lying under oath. Now, he was accused of leading a torture ring that interrogated more than a hundred African-American men in Chicago in the '70s and ’80s. Routinely, electric shock, suffocation with plastic bags and typewriter covers were used, among other methods, to extract confessions from men who were later shown to be innocent. The Chicago Torture Justice Memorials Project documented some of the men's stories. This is Shadeed Mu’min.
SHADEED MU’MIN: He handcuffed me real tight, know what I’m saying? He cut my circulation off. He went out of the room and stayed, I guess, for about an hour, and then came back and tried to talk to me. What could I tell him, you know, about the robbery? I told him, "I couldn’t tell you anything about no robbery. I know nothing about what you’re talking about." And he said then that, "Oh, you’re going to play tough." Said, "You will tell us, before you leave here, what we want to know." Said, "I’ve been known to get out of peoples what I want." He got real upset and said, "You will talk, you black mother [bleep]." He said, "I’ll make you talk, or kill you as I want." So, I still don’t understand. So he—in anger, he rushed to the typewriter and grabbed the plastic cover off there and just crammed it down over my head. And it’s like he was a madman. And several officers were helping him. But I was trying to get my arms out from behind the chair, but I couldn’t do anything. And I passed out. And like I say, he gave me a breath of air. And I came to, conscious. And he—"You ready to talk?" And I said, "I don’t have anything to tell you still." So he do it again. The third time, out of the third time, that’s when I told him, I said, "I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, man. Just don’t do this no more."
AMY GOODMAN: So, that is talking about what happened under Jon Burge’s reign in the Chicago Police Department. Aislinn, what you’re demanding now, in this last week of 2015?
AISLINN SOL: We’re demanding that Homan Square be closed, because although we have the name of Jon Burge and we know that the torture of over 119 black and Latino men occurred, torture continues to happen today under Rahm Emanuel’s watch at Homan Square and other black sites. We’re demanding that Homan Square immediately be closed and that all parties responsible for its operation be investigated and charged with criminal acts. We’re demanding that the Chicago police immediately become disinvested by the city government. The city government’s budget accounts for 40—40 percent of the operating budget goes toward CPD. Meanwhile, we have schools that have closed. Chicago conducted the largest U.S. mass school closing in history. And we need all of those schools reopened. Rahm Emanuel closed half of the city’s mental health centers. We need all of those reopened. We need a jobs program. We need free and affordable housing for the homeless. We need an intense disinvestment in this police system, and we need a complete political uprising and reorientation of how the government is run in Chicago.
AMY GOODMAN: Aislinn Sol, I want to thank you for being with us, chapter coordinator for Black Lives Matter Chicago.
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Mapping Police Violence: New Study Shows Cops Have Killed At Least 1,152 in 2015
Amid grief and outrage over the killings of two unarmed African Americans in Chicago, a year-end report from the Mapping Police Violence research project says police nationwide killed at least 1,152 people in 2015. In 14 cities, every single police victim was African-American. And across the country, police killings had little correlation with crime rates and population size. We discuss the findings with Sam Sinyangwe, a statistician who worked on the Mapping Police Violence project.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to San Francisco. A year-end report from the Mapping Police Violence research project says police killed at least 1,152 people in the United States in 2015. In 14 cities, every single police victim was African-American. Sam Sinyangwe is a policy analyst and data scientist with Campaign Zero and Mapping Police Violence.
Can you talk about these findings? Because there’s been a lot of demand for there even to be data collected in this country around police killings and the racial breakdown of those killings. How did you do this?
SAM SINYANGWE: So, as you mentioned, the federal government, including the FBI, Bureau of Justice Statistics and the CDC, do not collect comprehensive data on police killings nationwide. Fortunately, crowd-sourced efforts, such as KilledByPolice.net, FatalEncounters.org, have actually been able to collect the type of comprehensive data needed to do this type of analysis. What we did was merge those data sets, fill in the gaps, identify folks by race, whether they were armed or unarmed, and then make sense of all the data—understand which places were sort of hotspots of police violence and what some of the racial disparities in the data could tell us about how police violence impacts different communities.
AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about this number, both the over 1,115 people killed by police in the last year and also this issue of 14 cities, and explain which are these 14 cities, where the only people that police killed were African-American.
SAM SINYANGWE: Absolutely. So, what we found was that 1,190 people to date have been killed by police in the United States this year. That includes a number of folks, about a quarter of which were in America’s 60 largest cities. And so, as you mentioned, 14 of those cities, the police departments actually killed black folks exclusively. And so, some of these cities include places like Baltimore, St. Louis and other places where we’ve seen significant unrest over some of these practices that seem to target African-American communities. To give you a sense of what that means, nationwide, black folks are three times more likely to be killed by police and twice as likely to be unarmed when they’re killed by police. And so, clearly, these protests, what we’re seeing in Chicago and other places, is rooted in an experience of discriminatory policing that needs to end.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain how the FBI operates in terms of reporting police killings.
SAM SINYANGWE: So the FBI relies on a voluntary reporting mechanism. So, they basically depend on police departments to report accurate information on police killings. And as we’ve seen in entire states, and sometimes in individual jurisdictions, police departments have not stepped up and provided that data. And so, actually, the best data on police killings nationwide comes from local media reports. So when somebody is killed by police, usually—or, actually, almost all the time, it is mentioned in the media. And so, by culling those reports, aggregating them and then coding them by various characteristics of the incidents, we’re able to come up with these numbers.
AMY GOODMAN: What correlation is there, Sam, between high crime rates and high police killing rates?
SAM SINYANGWE: So, it’s an interesting question. What we’ve heard, particularly from the right, is—and from police folks—is that there is a connection between violent crime in communities and police violence, that—as they say, that communities with a lot crime have more police, and police get in more situations where they use force. However, what we found with the data is that that actually is not true, that there are communities with a lot of crime, places like Newark and Detroit, some of the most high crime cities in the country, that have comparatively fewer police killings than places that actually have much lower crime, places like Bakersfield. And so, actually, when you map this across, one of the things that we’ve done with the 60 largest cities at MappingPoliceViolence.org is we actually show the correlation, that in fact there is no correlation between the level of crime in a city, violent crime, and the rate of police killings in that city.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about this last two killings of African Americans this weekend in Chicago?
SAM SINYANGWE: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: What does this say? How does this fit into the data you’ve found around Chicago?
SAM SINYANGWE: So, you know, the killing of Bettie Jones and Quintonio actually shows us that it’s part of a broader pattern and practice of discriminatory policing, policing that targets African Americans. So, for example, since 2013—so, 2013, '14 and ’15—Chicago police have killed 46 people. Seventy-two percent of those people have been black. Over 95 percent have been people of color. And so, when we look at the disparities in the data, it's clear that police in Chicago are applying a different standard to African Americans, in particular, than they are to other communities. And I think that is what is undergirding and is a context for a lot of the unrest that we see.
AMY GOODMAN: What are the cities with the highest rates of police killings, Sam?
SAM SINYANGWE: So, a couple of cities. One, Oklahoma City, consistently—this year, has been the second-highest rate of police killings; last year, it was number one. Bakersfield, California, is another city, St. Louis, another city, that have among the highest rates of police killings in the nation. To give you a sense for how high we’re talking, black men were actually killed by police at a rate higher than the U.S. murder rate in St. Louis last year. That is true for 17 of the 100 largest cities in America.
AMY GOODMAN: Based on the data that you have reviewed, what are you calling for?
SAM SINYANGWE: So, really, we’re calling for transformation in the way that policing operates in this country. We have launched a platform, Campaign Zero, at JoinCampaignZero.org, which articulates a 10-point plan for ending police violence in America. It includes things like empowered civilian oversight; ensuring that there is video evidence, so protecting the right of citizens to film the police and having body cameras; independent investigations and prosecutions; limits on the use of force, the policies that govern the use of force; as well as things like fair police union contracts, so making sure that police union contracts do not have provisions that, for example, delete officers’ records of past misconduct. So, in Chicago, for example, the police union contract actually mandates that officers’ disciplinary records be deleted and destroyed after five years. So there are many officers that actually may have a history of violence that we actually do not know about, because the union contract mandates that information be removed.
AMY GOODMAN: Sam Sinyangwe, I want to thank you for being with us, policy analyst and data scientist, member of the planning team of Campaign Zero and Mapping Police Violence, speaking to us from San Francisco.
This is Democracy Now! When we come back, we remember the filmmaker Haskell Wexler. Stay with us.
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Haskell Wexler Dead at 93: Legendary Cinematographer, Activist Captured the Struggles of Our Times
The legendary cinematographer and director Haskell Wexler has died at the age of 93. Wexler is perhaps best known for his 1969 film, "Medium Cool," which captures the upheaval surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He won two Academy Awards for cinematography in "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Bound for Glory," about folk singer Woody Guthrie. His documentaries tackled political issues including the Southern Freedom Riders of the 1960s, the U.S. government’s destabilization of Nicaragua, U.S. atrocities in Vietnam, and torture under the U.S.-backed junta in Brazil. We remember Haskell Wexler with Pamela Yates, director of "Rebel Citizen," a documentary about his life.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Voices from the March on Washington in 1963, from Haskell Wexler’s 1965 film, The Bus, based on one of those buses that took people to the march. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, as we turn now to remembering the legendary filmmaker Haskell Wexler, who died this weekend at the age of 93. One of the nation’s most revered cinematographers, Wexler was perhaps best known for his 1969 film, Medium Cool, which captures the upheaval surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Wexler won two Academy Awards for cinematography in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Bound for Glory, about folk singer Woody Guthrie. Over his six decades of filmmaking, he also received five Oscar nominations and an Emmy.
His documentaries tackled political issues including the Southern Freedom Riders of the '60s, U.S. government's destabilization of Nicaragua by supporting the Contras, U.S. atrocities in Vietnam, torture under the U.S.-backed junta in Brazil. In 2012, Wexler returned to Chicago to make Four Days in Chicago, about anti-NATO protests there. He ended up collaborating with James Foley, the American journalist who would later be executed by the Islamic State in Syria. Haskell Wexler has the rare distinction of receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a cinematographer.
In October, he visited the Democracy Now! studios, and I asked him about the making of his film in 1968 at the Chicago Democratic National Convention, Medium Cool.
HASKELL WEXLER: Then I went home to Chicago, and I realized, from people I know in the progressive movement, that if the Democratic Party didn’t take some stand on the war, there was going to be theater. There would be demonstrations. There was going to be, you know, the kind of thing that would get the attention of the media. And so I wrote a script with Studs Terkel, who reintroduced me to my town, to the Appalachian community, to blacks and so forth, so that when I wrote this script—I went back to shoot the film—I didn’t realize that the—and also, I knew that they were planning—the authorities were planning to suppress whatever demonstration there was. And, in fact, that scene is in Medium Cool, where they act like hippies, you know?
AMY GOODMAN: The legendary filmmaker Haskell Wexler, speaking in October on Democracy Now! I also asked him about his advice for young filmmakers.
HASKELL WEXLER: I shot a film in L.A. called Bus Rider’s Union. And on and off for four years, I rode with people on buses, and I got to know what’s important in their life. I realized that there’s a whole world right there in my own city that was going on. And fortunately, the film was very well received, the Bus Rider’s Union, not in a conventional meaning. But I can’t give any advice to young people, except just don’t arbitrarily take the system to be—to realize that if you want to be an artist, you have to—you have to learn, you have to be in touch. You can’t be—you can’t measure success on just how much money you make or how famous you are.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now by Pamela Yates, director of Rebel Citizen, a documentary about Haskell Wexler’s life, co-founder of Skylight Pictures, currently the creative director of Skylight, a company dedicated to creating documentary films that advance awareness of human rights and the quest for justice.
Pamela, this film you did, Rebel Citizen, goes through Haskell’s life. Can you talk about this 60-year body of work?
PAMELA YATES: Absolutely. You know, Haskell is so well known as a brilliant cinematographer. He had this incredible body of work that was lesser-known. And because one of the favorite things that we would do together was talk about politics, argue about politics, debate politics, I wanted to continue the conversation that we had had over 30 years and make it into a feature-length film called Rebel Citizen that would highlight his incredible body of work as a politically engaged documentary filmmaker. And, you know, it’s funny, because he’s such a force of nature, we never thought he would actually die. He was superhuman to so many of his colleagues and friends and those of us that he mentored. And yet, now we really must celebrate a life well lived, a life of struggle, and so much of his political activity and struggle was carried out through his creation of this body of work as a documentary film director.
AMY GOODMAN: So talk about what was so unusual about Haskell Wexler—for example, how he filmed Medium Cool about the protests outside the DNC. It was both fiction and documentary all combined.
PAMELA YATES: Yeah, he really opened the door to this kind of hybrid filmmaking, which has now gained so much traction and is one of the most interesting spaces that documentary filmmakers are working in. But I think what was really extraordinary was that he was a consummate artist. So he was able to have one foot in the world of Hollywood, and understand how to create and evolve and influence the artistry of filmmaking, as well as to have one foot in the world of activist politics and bring his artistry into that world, to activate that world, to tell compelling stories, to help people be out into the street. I know this is one of the most interesting moments for him in American history right now, when there’s an electoral season going on—he was very involved in electoral politics—and where people in the streets are in the streets, especially around the Black Lives Matter movement. He was very active up until the day he died.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to a clip of Medium Cool from ’69.
CHICAGO ACTIVIST: When you come in here and you say you’ve come to do something of human interest, it makes a person wonder whether you’re going to do something of interest to other humans or whether you consider the person human in whom you’re interested. And you have to understand that, too. You can’t just walk in out of your arrogance and expect things to be like they are, because when you walked in, you brought LaSalle Street with you, City Hall, and all the mass communications media. And you are the exploiters. You’re the ones who distort and ridicule and emasculate us. And that ain’t cool.
AMY GOODMAN: Pamela Yates, that was a clip from Medium Cool. Your final comment? And then we’ll do a post-show, and we’ll post it online.
PAMELA YATES: OK. Well, you know, that’s something that someone could be saying right now, here and today, about how the mainstream media covers movements that are happening all around us and in the street. Haskell was a fierce critic of the mainstream media. And so many of his documentary films are skeptical of what is the political line that we’re being taught through mainstream media, and he wanted to have an alternative to that.
AMY GOODMAN: Pamela Yates, we’re going to continue this conversation and post it at democracynow.org. Pam Yates is the director of the documentary Rebel Citizen, about the life of renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler.
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At End of Hottest Year Ever, Massive U.S. Storm Kills At Least 43 with More Extreme Weather to Come
At least 43 people died over the Christmas holiday weekend in a series of storms that hit the South, Southwest and Midwest United States. Tornadoes were reported in 10 states, including Michigan, which recorded its first-ever tornado in December. The deadliest storms were in Texas, where at least 11 people died when tornadoes hit areas near Dallas. As many as 1,000 homes were damaged. Now a major snowstorm is heading toward the region. Flash floods also killed at least 13 people in Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas, where as much as nine inches of rain fell on some areas. Meanwhile, heat records were broken on Christmas Day across the East Coast from Maine to Georgia. This weekend of extreme weather comes as climatologists predict 2015 will be the warmest year ever recorded, smashing last year’s record. We are joined by leading climate scientist James Elsner, professor at Florida State University and co-author of "The Increasing Efficiency of Tornado Days in the United States," a paper recently published in the journal Climate Dynamics.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: At least 43 people died over the Christmas holiday weekend in a series of storms that hit the South, Southwest and Midwest United States. Missouri and New Mexico declared states of emergency. Tornadoes were reported in 10 states, including Michigan, which recorded its first-ever tornado in December. The deadliest storms were in Texas, where at least 11 people died when tornadoes hit areas near Dallas. As many as a thousand homes were damaged. Now a major snowstorm is heading toward the region. The storm has already resulted in blizzard-like conditions in New Mexico, Oklahoma and western Texas. The snowstorm even disrupted the college football Sun Bowl being played in El Paso on the Mexico border. Another 10 people died in tornadoes in Mississippi, six more in Tennessee. Flash floods also killed at least 13 people in Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas, where as much as nine inches of rain fell on some areas.
Meanwhile, heat records were broken Christmas Day across the East Coast from Maine to Georgia. On Christmas Eve, the thermometer topped a record-breaking 70 degrees Fahrenheit in New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. This weekend of extreme weather comes as climatologists predict 2015 will be the warmest year ever recorded, smashing last year’s record. So far in 2015, nine out of the 11 months have set a new monthly temperature record. Meanwhile, in South America, as many as 160,000 people have been evacuated due to heavy storms in Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil.
We go now to Tallahassee, Florida, to James Elsner, professor at Florida State University, co-author of the paper, "The Increasing Efficiency of Tornado Days in the United States," recently published by the journal Climate Dynamics.
Professor, welcome to Democracy Now! Can you start off by talking about the weather we’ve seen, especially the tornadoes? Is there a link to climate change?
JAMES ELSNER: Well, first of all, Amy, it’s really important to note that the link between climate change and tornadoes is still in its infancy. Nothing is conclusive. What we do see, though, is that tornadoes seem to be coming in bigger bunches. So, in the past, we might see a day with five or six tornadoes; now we’re seeing days with 10 to 15 tornadoes.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, talk about those links, the links to, well, both the numbers and also the intensity.
JAMES ELSNER: Yes, so there are actually two things that we see. Not only are we seeing tornadoes come in bigger bunches, we’re also seeing them last longer. Once they hit the ground, they seem to be lasting longer. They’re staying on the ground longer. They’re doing more damage because of that. And they’re often reaching stronger intensities because of that. And the link here, we believe, although it’s not conclusive, is due to the amount of water in the air. So as the temperatures go up, as we get more heat in the atmosphere, we have more water also in the atmosphere. This is what makes you feel uncomfortable on a hot, sunny day, is this water in the air, water vapor or humidity. And we’re seeing the humidity go up as the temperatures go up. And this humidity is the fuel to keep these tornadoes going and getting stronger.
AMY GOODMAN: The number of deaths just over the weekend: 43 deaths. Can you also talk about the flooding that we’re seeing?
JAMES ELSNER: Yes, well, again, with the extra water in the atmosphere, the rains seem to come in greater downpours. So as the storm system organizes and the rain starts to fall, it comes down heavier and harder, creating flooding situations.
AMY GOODMAN: You know, there is a lot of coverage of weather in the United States, but rarely are the two words "extreme weather" connected to another two words—"climate change" or "global warming." Can you talk about whether you feel this would be critical in dealing with this issue?
JAMES ELSNER: I think it is. I think the key here is to understand how the atmosphere responds to not only the increasing temperature, the increasing heat, but the increasing water in the atmosphere. It’s this water, this water vapor, that condenses into clouds and produces the rain and the snow and the tornadoes that we’re seeing.
AMY GOODMAN: And in the last few days, InsideClimate News, the Pulitzer Prize-winning news organization, came out with a report that said not only ExxonMobil, a story they exposed weeks ago, but they suggest that nearly every major U.S. and multinational oil, gas company was aware of fossil fuels’ impact on climate change as early as the late 1970s. The earlier exposés by InsideClimate News and the Los Angeles Times revealed Exxon scientists knew about climate change as early as 1977, and for decades Exxon concealed its own findings that the burning of fossil fuels caused global warming, altered the climate and melts the Arctic ice. Can you talk about your response to this latest revelation that the entire oil and gas industry knew this?
JAMES ELSNER: Well, that’s really not my area of expertise. I do—that seems consistent with what the scientists knew at the time. Especially by the mid-1980s, the scientists were pretty much in agreement that greenhouse gases were warming the planet. And to have these companies not respond to that—and in fact hide the evidence—is, in my opinion, not surprising.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, you have made a report card of the presidential candidates’ record on climate change, their statements. Can you talk about where they stand, Republican and Democrat?
JAMES ELSNER: Well, it appears that the Republicans don’t get a very high grade. This was done over a series of weeks when they were debating and tweeting their comments about climate change. And a number of the climate scientists got together and graded these candidates. And by and large, the Republicans got poor grades. The Democrats did a little better, but not—Bernie Sanders probably did the best, but again, there were a lot of variations in those responses.
AMY GOODMAN: Former Governor Jeb Bush scored the highest, the former governor of your state, of Florida, among the Republicans, 64. He was the only Republican candidate who got a passing grade on climate in the exercise. Below Clinton’s 94—that’s Hillary Clinton, of course—were Governor O’Malley with 91; Sanders with 87; Christie with 54; Ohio Governor John Kasich, 47; Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, 38; Carly Fiorina, 28; your senator, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, 21; Donald Trump, 15; and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, 13; finally, Ted Cruz with six. I wanted to look at this issue of the GOP debate on climate change. This is Ohio Governor John Kasich, who held the distinction of being the only candidate to even say the word "climate"—but it wasn’t to address it—in the last debate.
GOV. JOHN KASICH: First and foremost, we need to go and destroy ISIS, and we need to do this with our Arab friends and our friends in Europe. And when I see they have a climate conference over in Paris, they should have been talking about destroying ISIS, because they are involved in virtually every country, you know, across this world.
AMY GOODMAN: Professor James Elsner, your response?
JAMES ELSNER: Well, clearly, there are lots of problems in the world, but climate change is an important problem that needs to be addressed now because of the consequences. And I think as the science becomes clearer and clearer, the extreme events that we’ve seen, not only in this country, but around the world, indicate that this is a serious problem going forward.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you for being with us. Professor James Elsner teaches at Florida State University, co-author of the paper, "The Increasing Efficiency of Tornado Days in the United States." We’ll link to it at the journal Climate Dynamics. And you can go to democracynow.org to see our two weeks of comprehensive coverage of the U.N. climate summit that took place in Paris.
This is Democracy Now! When we come back, we’re headed to Chicago. Police killed another two African Americans—a 19-year-old college student and a 55-year-old mother. The demands for Mayor Emanuel’s resignation are increasing. He’s on vacation in Cuba. Stay with us.
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Chicago Police Kill 2 African Americans, Reigniting Calls for Mayor to Resign
A police shooting in Chicago has killed two unarmed African Americans, sparking new calls for change at a police department already under heavy scrutiny. Early Saturday morning, the father of a 19-year-old college student, Quintonio LeGrier, called police to report his son was behaving oddly and carrying a metal bat. The father also called the downstairs tenant, 55-year-old Bettie Jones, to alert her that police would need to enter through her door. When police arrived, Quintonio LeGrier allegedly confronted them in the foyer. Both LeGrier and Bettie Jones were killed when police opened fire. On Sunday, LeGrier’s mother, Janet Cooksey, spoke as family and friends gathered outside the home.
Janet Cooksey: "No mother should have to bury her child, and especially under these circumstances. You call for help, the police are supposed to serve us and protect us, and yet they take the lives. What’s wrong with that picture? It’s a badge to kill? I mean, where do we get our help?"
The other victim, Bettie Jones, was the mother of five grown children, with whom she had celebrated Christmas just hours before. Police have acknowledged they shot her by accident. The killings have renewed calls for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign. Evelyn Glover, the cousin of Bettie Jones, spoke out with a message for the mayor.
Evelyn Glover Jennings: "You meet me at City Hall. I want my cousin’s death avenged. You killed her in cold blood. Emanuel, Emanuel, call your boys. Chicago police belong to you. Now you vigilante, you’ve been sending the Chicago police out to kill, to do nothing but kill. Get 'serve and protect' off of them cars and write, 'We kill,' 'cause that's your mission, you lying demon."
Mayor Emanuel was already under pressure to resign over the more than year-old police killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald and a potential police cover-up. McDonald, who was African-American, was shot 16 times by white police officer Jason Van Dyke. Dash cam video, only recently released by court order, clearly contradicts police claims about the shooting. We’ll go to Chicago for more on this story later in the broadcast.
Storms Kill At Least 43 Across U.S. over Christmas Weekend
At least 43 people died over the Christmas holiday weekend in a series of storms that hit the South, Southwest and Midwest United States. Missouri and New Mexico have declared a state of emergency. Tornadoes were reported in 10 states, including Michigan, which recorded its first-ever tornado in December. The deadliest storms were in Texas, where at least 11 people died when tornadoes hit areas near Dallas. Now a historic snowstorm is heading toward Dallas after causing blizzard-like conditions in New Mexico, Oklahoma and western Texas. Another 10 people died in tornadoes in Mississippi, six more in Tennessee. Flash floods also killed at least 13 people in Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas, where as much as nine inches of rain fell on some areas. A Birmingham, Alabama, resident described the destruction after a tornado touched down.
Loretta Scott: "I feel grateful. I’m just thankful to be alive. I’m just thankful to be alive. It was so horrible. It was like clawing at the roof, and the windows just broke through, and the rain was so thick, and it was just like—it was a nightmare. And when the people said take cover, if I had not moved one inch back into taking cover, the whole glass would have been on my bed where I was laying. It blew out the windows."
Christmas Heat Shatters Records Across East Coast
Meanwhile, heat records were broken on Christmas Day across the East Coast from Maine to Florida. On Christmas Eve, the thermometer topped a record-breaking 70 degrees in New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
More Than 100,000 Evacuated amid Floods in South AmericaExtreme weather also continues around the world. More than 100,000 people have had to evacuate their homes in areas of Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina amid severe flooding.
England: 500 Soldiers Sent to Address "Unprecedented" Flooding
British Prime Minister David Cameron has deployed 500 soldiers to address "unprecedented" flooding in northern England. Scores of flood warnings have been issued across England, Wales and Scotland. We’ll have more on the links between record-breaking heat, tornadoes and climate change after headlines with a leading climate scientist.
Mosques in Texas, California Hit by Arson Attacks over Christmas Weekend
Two U.S. mosques have been attacked in separate incidents over the Christmas weekend. On Christmas Day, just after hundreds of people finished Friday prayers, a two-alarm fire erupted at the Islamic Society of Greater Houston in Texas. Authorities say it was intentionally set. Meanwhile, officials in California’s Central Valley are investigating a Molotov cocktail attack on the Tracy Islamic Center as a possible hate crime. A study earlier this month found hate crimes against Muslim Americans and U.S. mosques have tripled since the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has reported more incidents targeting mosques this year than in any other year on record.
Report: White House Mulling Plan to Keep At Least 1 Base in Afghanistan
The White House is reportedly considering a Pentagon plan to maintain at least one base in Afghanistan, despite President Obama’s initial pledge to withdraw most U.S. troops by the time he leaves office. In October, Obama reversed that plan, saying 5,500 troops would remain in Afghanistan through the end of his term. As the Obama administration expands its use of Special Operations forces around the world, The New York Times reports a proposal now under consideration would use a base in Afghanistan as a hub for Special Operations troops and intelligence operatives throughout Central and South Asia.
Iraqi Military Says It Has "Liberated" RamadiThe Iraqi military says it has "liberated" the city of Ramadi from the self-proclaimed Islamic State. ISIS seized Ramadi in May, marking a humiliating defeat for the Iraqi army. For weeks, Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes have sought to retake Ramadi.
Nigeria: At Least 29 Killed in Boko Haram AttacksIn Nigeria, the militant group Boko Haram has attacked the northeastern city of Maiduguri, killing at least 15 people amid fears the toll may be much higher. It’s the second assault in days after Boko Haram invaded a village on Christmas, killing at least 14 people. The attack came just after Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said Nigeria has "technically won the war" against Boko Haram.
Israel: Video Shows Jewish Extremists Celebrating Death of Palestinian Toddler
Israeli authorities say they are investigating newly released video which appears to show Jewish extremists celebrating the death of a Palestinian toddler in an arson attack last summer. The footage, which aired on Israel’s Channel 10 news, was filmed at a wedding. It shows two men apparently stabbing pictures of 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh, who was killed in an arson attack, allegedly by Jewish settlers. The fire also killed his parents.
Israeli Ministers Back Bill to Crack Down on Human Rights GroupsIsraeli government ministers have backed a bill to crack down on human rights groups by requiring them to disclose details about funding they receive from foreign governments. Critics say the bill unfairly targets groups critical of the Israeli military, like Breaking the Silence, which receives more than half its funding from European governments, while shielding right-wing groups that rely on private donors, who are exempt. European officials have reportedly slammed the proposal, calling it "reminiscent of totalitarian regimes."
Japan, South Korea Reach Deal on "Comfort Women" Enslaved During WWIIJapan and South Korea have reached a deal aimed at addressing the demands of so-called comfort women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II. The deal includes an apology from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a more than $8 million fund for survivors. In exchange, South Korea has agreed not to criticize Japan publicly over the issue. Survivors have said the deal falls far short of their call for Japan to admit legal responsibility and pay formal reparations.
Okinawa Officials Sue Japanese Gov't to Block U.S. Military BaseIn other news from Japan, officials on the island of Okinawa have sued the Japanese government in the latest bid to block construction of a new U.S. military base. Okinawa authorities say the Japanese government illegally overrode Governor Takeshi Onaga’s order halting construction earlier this year. Okinawa is home to more than half of the 50,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan. For decades, residents have demanded the expulsion of U.S. troops, citing environmental concerns and sexual assaults.
Bernie Sanders Says He Can Win Over Trump Supporters
On the U.S. campaign trail, Democratic presidential contender and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders says he thinks he can win over the supporters of Republican front-runner Donald Trump. Speaking on CBS’s Face the Nation, Sanders said Trump is misdirecting anger over income inequality and stagnant wages.
Sen. Bernie Sanders: "Many of Trump’s supporters are working-class people, and they’re angry. And they’re angry because they’re working longer hours for lower wages. They’re angry because their jobs have left this country and gone to China or other low-wage countries. They’re angry because they can’t afford to send their kids to college, so they can’t retire with dignity. What Trump has done, with some success, is taken that anger, taken those fears, which are legitimate, and converted them to be—into anger against Mexicans, anger against Muslims. And in my view, that is not the way we’re going to address the major problems facing our country."
Report: U.S. Arms Sales Increased 35% Last Year
A new report finds the United States increased its sale of weapons around the world by about 35 percent last year, even as the overall arms market stayed relatively flat. The congressional study found U.S. weapons sales increased to more than $36 billion, nearly $10 billion higher than the previous year. The surge was fueled by massive U.S. arms deals with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.
Legendary Cinematographer, Director Haskell Wexler Dies at 93
And the legendary cinematographer and director Haskell Wexler has died at the age of 93. Perhaps best known for his 1969 film, "Medium Cool," which captures the upheaval surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Wexler won two Academy Awards for cinematography in "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Bound for Glory," about folk singer Woody Guthrie. His documentaries tackled political issues including the Southern Freedom Riders of the 1960s, the U.S. government’s destabilization of Nicaragua, U.S. atrocities in Vietnam, and torture under the U.S.-backed junta in Brazil. In October, Haskell Wexler visited the Democracy Now! studio, and I asked him about his advice for young filmmakers.
Haskell Wexler: "I shot a film in L.A. called 'Bus Rider's Union.’ And on and off for four years, I rode with people on buses, and I got to know what’s important in their life. I realized that there’s a whole world right there in my own city that was going on. And fortunately, the film was very well received, the 'Bus Rider's Union,’ not in a conventional meaning. But I can’t give any advice to young people, except just don’t arbitrarily take the system to be—to realize that if you want to be an artist, you to learn, you have to be in touch. You can’t measure success on just how much money you make or how famous you are."
Haskell Wexler died on Sunday at the age of 93. We’ll have more on Haskell Wexler’s legacy later in the broadcast.
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