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From Pacifica, this is Democracy Now!

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You know, it’s something
we saw for the first time today,

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you know, all of us.

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And it changed things, of course.

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You know,
it made things a little bit different.

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NFL indefinitely suspends star
running back Ray Rice after a new video

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emerges showing him knocking
out his then-fiancée, now-wife,

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with a punch
inside a hotel elevator in February.

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Why did it take the NFL so long to act?

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What did the league know,
and when did it know it?

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We’ll speak
with sportswriter Dave Zirin.

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Then, to the lobster boat blockade.

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Climate change is one
of the gravest crises

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our planet has ever faced.

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In my humble opinion,

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the political leadership
on this issue has been gravely lacking.

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I am heartened
that we were able to forge an agreement

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that both parties were pleased with
and that appeared to satisfy the police

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and those here in sympathy
with the individuals who were charged.

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In a surprise move,
a district attorney in Massachusetts

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drops criminal charges
against two climate activists

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who used a lobster boat

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to block a shipment
of 40,000 tons of coal.

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We’ll go to Boston
to speak with the two activists,

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and we’ll look at one
of the nation’s biggest academic

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freedom controversies in recent memory.

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Protesters scheduled at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign today

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over the school’s withdrawal
of a job offer

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to professor Steven Salaita
after he posted a series

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of tweets harshly critical
of Israel’s assault on Gaza.

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All that and more, coming up.

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Welcome to Democracy Now!,
democracynow.org,

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The War and Peace Report.

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I’m Amy Goodman.

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The United Nations says levels
of greenhouse gases

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responsible for global warming
have reached a record high.

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According to the United Nations’ World
Meteorological Organization,

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the concentration
of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

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rose by nearly three parts
per million from 2012

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to 2013,
the largest single-year increase

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since detailed records
began three decades ago.

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Last year,
concentrations of carbon dioxide

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reached nearly 400 parts per million,

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the highest level
in at least 800,000 years.

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As oceans absorb the increased carbon,

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ocean acidification has reached a rate

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that is "unprecedented at least
over the last 300 million years."

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In a press release,
WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud

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called the data a "scientific base"
for global action on climate change.

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"We are running out of time," he said.

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The report comes ahead
of the U.N. climate summit

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and the People’s Climate March
in New York City later this month.

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A study on climate change has warned
the southwestern United States

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is at an increased risk
of devastating drought.

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Cornell University professor Toby Ault
discussed the results on Monday.

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Toby Ault: "The risk of a decade-long
drought is normally about 50 percent,

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but with climate change
it goes up to about 80 or 90 percent,

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according to our results.

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And for a multiple-decade-long drought,

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a megadrought, the risk is normally
in the order of 5 to 15 percent,

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but with climate change it goes up
to between 20 and 50 percent

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for a lot of the Southwest."

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California is in the midst

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of an epic three-year drought
with more than 58 percent of the state

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deemed to be in "exceptional drought,

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" the most severe category possible.

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Iraqi lawmakers have approved
a new government.

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Shiite Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi

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will share power
with two deputy prime ministers —

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one Sunni and one Kurdish.

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The key posts of defense minister

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and interior minister
have not yet been filled.

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Speaking on Monday,
Secretary of State John Kerry

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hailed the new parliament
as a necessary step in the fight

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against militants
with the Islamic State, or ISIS.

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Secretary of State John Kerry:

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"Tonight,

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Iraq has a unity government.

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Tomorrow, I will travel
to the Middle East

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to continue to build
the broadest possible coalition

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of partners around the globe

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to confront, degrade
and ultimately defeat ISIL.

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On Wednesday, President Obama
will lay out in even greater detail

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our coordinated global strategy
against ISIL."

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On Monday, the U.S. military

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said its latest round of airstrikes
in Iraq near the Haditha Dam

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killed 50 to 70 Islamic State fighters.

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The European Union has agreed
to expand sanctions on Russia

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over its role in eastern Ukraine .

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But the EU said it would hold off
on imposing the sanctions

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right away amidst a ceasefire

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between pro-Russian rebels
and Ukrainian troops,

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which has been disrupted
by periodic clashes.

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A U.N. human rights official
says the number

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of people killed
in the Ukraine crisis has topped 3,000

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and could be "significantly higher."

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The number includes the 298 people

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on board Malaysia Airflines Flight 17.

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A new report
by the Dutch Safety Board out today

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finds the plane was hit
by multiple "high-energy objects"

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and broke apart in the air

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over eastern Ukraine.

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The report does not assign blame.

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Yemeni police have opened fire
on Shiite protesters marching

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on the prime minister’s office
in the capital Sana’a.

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A rebel leader
told AFP seven protesters were killed.

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The Houthi rebels
have been protesting for weeks

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to call for the resignation
of the government

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and the reinstatement of fuel subsidies.

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In Chile, a bomb has exploded
in a subway station,

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injuring seven people
in the capital Santiago.

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Chilean President Michelle Bachelet
called it a terrorist attack.

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Chilean President Michelle Bachelet: "We
think that this is an abominable act

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and therefore we will use
the full weight of the law,

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including invoking anti-terrorism law,

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because those responsible for these acts
will need to be held accountable,

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and we’re going to take all measures

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to ensure that people
can continue to live their lives

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in peace and tranquility."

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President Obama has extended

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the more than 50-year-old embargo
on trade to Cuba for another year.

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In a statement, Obama said the embargo
is "in the national interest

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of the United States."

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Each year for more than two decades,

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the United Nations General Assembly

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has voted overwhelmingly to condemn
the U.S. embargo against Cuba.

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The most recent vote was 188 to 2,

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with only the United States
and Israel supporting the embargo.

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In Peru, an anti-logging activist

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and three other leaders
of the Ashaninka native community

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have been murdered in a remote area
near the Brazilian border.

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Edwin Chota was a prominent opponent
of illegal logging,

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which is devastating the Amazon region.

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He had received death threats
from the loggers,

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who local authorities say are suspected
of carrying out the killings.

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A new report by Human Rights Watch

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finds Israel has unlawfully coerced
nearly 7,000 Eritrean

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and Sudanese migrants

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into returning to their home countries,

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where they may face torture
and other abuses.

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After fleeing human rights crises
at home, the migrants

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have faced indefinite detention,

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restrictions
on healthcare access and the rejection

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of 99.9 percent
of asylum claims in Israel.

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The U.S. Senate has voted
to advance a constitutional amendment

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that would overturn
the Supreme Court’s 2010 landmark ruling

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in Citizens United .

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The ruling cleared the way

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for corporations
and other special interest groups

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to spend unlimited amounts
of money on elections.

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On Monday, 20 Republicans joined
Democrats as the Senate voted 79 to 18

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to open debate on the amendment
proposed by Senator Tom Udall,

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which would restore Congress’ ability
to limit campaign spending.

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It would still need approval
by a two-third majority in the Senate

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before moving to the House.

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Documents from Edward Snowden

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have revealed details
about the U.S. government’s secret plans

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to conduct economic espionage

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for the benefit of U.S. corporations.

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The Obama administration has
acknowledged conducting economic spying,

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but denies it does so
to help U.S. companies.

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However, a 2009 report
from the Office of the Director

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of National Intelligence
published by The Intercept news site

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reveals concern
about potential challenges

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to U.S. corporations
from foreign multinationals.

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It suggests using "cyber operations

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" against "research
facilities" in foreign countries

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and then assessing "whether

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and how [the] findings
would be useful to U.S. industry."

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A former portfolio manager

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for SAC Capital has been sentenced
to nine years in prison

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for what the government

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has called the largest insider
trading case in history.

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Mathew Martoma was charged
with conducting illegal trades

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based on inside information
about the development

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of an Alzheimer’s drug,

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netting $276 million in profits

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and averted losses for SAC Capital.

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He was the eighth employee of the firm
to be convicted of insider trading.

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Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice
has been cut by his football team

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and indefinitely suspended
by the National Football League

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after a video showed him punching
his then-fiancée into unconsciousness.

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(A warning to our TV viewers
the video is graphic.

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) The footage, from February,

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was released Monday
by the tabloid website TMZ.

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The details of the case
have been known for months

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after a previous video
from a different angle

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showed Rice dragging
the unconscious woman out of an elevator

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and dropping her face-first
on the ground.

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The Baltimore Ravens had defended Rice,

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while the NFL’s first response in July
was to suspend him for just two games.

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A massive public outcry
led NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell

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to apologize and change
the league’s domestic violence policy.

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We’ll have more on the case
with sportswriter Dave Zirin

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after headlines.

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The city of Ferguson, Missouri,

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is set to implement new reforms
following mass protests

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over the police killing of 18-year-old
African American Michael Brown .

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At a meeting later today,

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the City Council
is expected to vote on reforms

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that have stemmed from activist demands,

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including a citizen review board
for police,

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a cap on how much of city revenue
can come from fines,

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and a one-month recall program
for warrants.

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Municipal court fines currently make up

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Ferguson’s second-highest source
of revenue,

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and the city issued warrants at a rate
of three per household last year.

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The meeting comes exactly a month

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after Brown was shot dead
by a white police officer.

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An eyewitness who saw
the police shooting of Michael Brown

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has largely confirmed the accounts
of earlier witnesses

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who said Brown was fleeing
from police officer Darren Wilson.

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The witness is a worker
who did not know Brown

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and had no ties to Ferguson.

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He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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he saw Wilson chase Brown and fire
at him while his back was turned,

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before Brown stumbled and put his hands
up in the air

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in an apparent gesture of surrender.

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The New York City Police Department

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is facing new accusations
of police brutality

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after a man said he was punched,

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kicked, beaten with nightsticks
and hit with pepper spray in the Bronx.

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Surveillance video

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shows about half a dozen officers piling
onto 23-year-old Santiago Hernandez

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and pummeling him.

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Hernandez said he had been waiting
for a friend outside a building

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when he was stopped and frisked

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by officers who said they
were investigating a noise complaint.

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When the search turned up nothing,

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Hernandez said he asked
why he had been frisked,

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at which point the officer
put handcuffs on him.

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After he asked
why he was being arrested,

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several other officers
arrived and surrounded him.

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Hernandez told local news station
ABC 7 what happened next.

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Santiago Hernandez: "They was taking
turns on me.

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One kicks me, he steps back.

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Another one comes,
he punches me, he steps back.

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And another one comes, he grabs my arm,
hits me like 10 times with the baton.

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Another one comes, pepper sprays me.

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They was taking turns on me,

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like it was like a gang."

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Hernandez was arrested

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and charged with disorderly conduct
and resisting arrest,

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but the Bronx district attorney has
reportedly declined to prosecute him.

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The NYPD says it is conducting
an internal investigation.

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The incident took place August 18

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while the NYPD was already facing
protests over the death of Eric Garner.

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Garner died after police
in Staten Island

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00:12:48.350 --> 00:12:50.970
wrestled him to the ground
in a banned chokehold

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00:12:50.970 --> 00:12:52.640
and then pinned him down,

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while he pleaded
that he could not breathe.

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He had been accused
of selling loose cigarettes.

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An Oklahoma City police officer

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00:13:01.020 --> 00:13:04.120
accused of sexually assaulting
eight African-American women

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00:13:04.120 --> 00:13:06.950
while on duty
has been released from jail.

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00:13:06.950 --> 00:13:13.510
Daniel Holtzclaw was released on Friday
after posting $500,000 bond.

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00:13:13.510 --> 00:13:16.150
He is accused of carrying out
the alleged assaults

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00:13:16.150 --> 00:13:18.030
after threatening victims with arrest

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00:13:18.030 --> 00:13:21.810
if they did not comply
with his sexual demands.

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00:13:22.730 --> 00:13:27.910
A single mother in Pennsylvania has been
sentenced to 12 to 18 months in prison

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00:13:27.910 --> 00:13:29.970
for ordering medication online

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00:13:29.970 --> 00:13:33.270
to help her teenage daughter
induce an abortion .

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00:13:33.270 --> 00:13:37.290
Jennifer Ann Whalen
pleaded guilty to breaking a state law

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00:13:37.290 --> 00:13:41.260
that prevents anyone other than a doctor
from providing abortions.

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00:13:41.260 --> 00:13:43.270
Her daughter suffered abdominal pain

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and went to the hospital
where a doctor called the police.

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Whalen said she bought the pills online

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because her daughter
did not have health insurance

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and she could not find a local clinic
near their rural community.

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And those are some of the headlines
this is Democracy Now,

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Democracynow.org,
the War and Peace Report.

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00:14:00.740 --> 00:14:01.990
I’m Amy Goodman.

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00:14:06.660 --> 00:14:09.500
AARON MATÉ: We turn now to the sporting
news that has put a new spotlight

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00:14:09.500 --> 00:14:10.750
on domestic violence

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00:14:10.750 --> 00:14:14.300
and its lax treatment
by the country’s most popular sport.

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00:14:14.300 --> 00:14:15.390
The National Football League

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00:14:15.390 --> 00:14:18.480
has indefinitely suspended
star running back Ray Rice

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00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:21.890
over a video showing him punching
his then-fiancée, Janay Palmer,

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00:14:21.890 --> 00:14:23.630
leaving her unconscious.

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00:14:23.630 --> 00:14:25.250
The video, from February,

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00:14:25.250 --> 00:14:28.590
was released Monday
by the tabloid website TMZ.

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00:14:28.590 --> 00:14:30.850
And a warning as we show it
to our television audience,

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00:14:30.850 --> 00:14:32.230
it is graphic.

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00:14:32.230 --> 00:14:34.370
On the tape, Rice and Janay Palmer

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00:14:34.370 --> 00:14:37.910
are seen arguing
in the elevator of a casino.

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00:14:37.910 --> 00:14:41.010
As Palmer lunges toward Rice,
he strikes her in the face,

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00:14:41.010 --> 00:14:44.730
and she falls back and slams her head
against the elevator wall.

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00:14:44.730 --> 00:14:48.140
Rice then drags her from the elevator
as she lays motionless.

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00:14:48.140 --> 00:14:50.550
In addition to his league suspension,

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00:14:50.550 --> 00:14:54.050
Rice has also been cut by his football
team, the Baltimore Ravens.

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00:14:54.050 --> 00:14:56.080
That’s a reversal from just weeks ago,

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00:14:56.080 --> 00:14:58.510
when head coach [John] Harbaugh
stood by Rice

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00:14:58.510 --> 00:15:00.660
and praised his handling of the fallout.

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00:15:00.660 --> 00:15:01.730
On Monday,

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00:15:01.730 --> 00:15:05.200
Harbaugh said the new video changed
the team’s perception of the incident.

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00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:11.580
JOHN HARBAUGH: You know, it’s something
we saw for the first time today,

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00:15:11.580 --> 00:15:13.000
you know, all of us.

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00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:16.190
And it changed things, of course.

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00:15:16.190 --> 00:15:17.620
You know,
it made things a little bit different.

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00:15:20.290 --> 00:15:23.630
AMY GOODMAN: But Harbaugh’s explanation
may not satisfy critics,

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00:15:23.630 --> 00:15:27.280
who say the Ravens and the league
mishandled Rice’s assault

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00:15:27.280 --> 00:15:28.870
from the start.

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00:15:28.870 --> 00:15:31.940
The details in this case
have been known for months.

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00:15:31.940 --> 00:15:34.520
Video from a different camera angle

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00:15:34.520 --> 00:15:39.980
had previously been released of Rice
dragging Palmer out of the elevator

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00:15:39.980 --> 00:15:44.630
and dropping her face-first
onto the ground, unconscious.

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00:15:44.630 --> 00:15:48.320
The tape released Monday
was previously known to exist,

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00:15:48.320 --> 00:15:53.620
but the NFL’s first response in July
was to suspend Rice for just two games.

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00:15:53.620 --> 00:15:58.750
That sparked a massive public outcry
that led NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell

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00:15:58.750 --> 00:16:03.160
to apologize and change
the league’s domestic violence policy.

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00:16:03.160 --> 00:16:05.860
The Ravens now say
they’ve suspended Rice

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00:16:05.860 --> 00:16:08.540
because he was dishonest with them
about the incident.

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00:16:08.540 --> 00:16:10.620
And despite reports to the contrary,

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00:16:10.620 --> 00:16:13.540
the NFL
now claims it never saw the new video,

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00:16:13.540 --> 00:16:16.670
saying law enforcement
did not make it available.

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00:16:16.670 --> 00:16:20.170
That in turn raises questions
for New Jersey prosecutors.

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00:16:20.170 --> 00:16:23.870
Although Janay Palmer,
now Rice—she married Ray Rice—

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00:16:23.870 --> 00:16:26.380
refused to testify against her husband,

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00:16:26.380 --> 00:16:31.000
prosecutors apparently had this video
in their possession.

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00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:34.940
But Rice was able to avoid
his aggravated assault charge

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00:16:34.940 --> 00:16:38.320
by entering
into a pretrial diversionary program.

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00:16:38.840 --> 00:16:40.480
For more, we go to Dave Zirin,

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00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:41.770
author of a number of books,

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00:16:41.770 --> 00:16:43.670
sports columnist
for The Nation magazine,

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00:16:43.670 --> 00:16:45.910
host of Edge
of Sports Radio on SiriusXM.

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00:16:45.910 --> 00:16:51.670
His latest article is for The Nation
is "The Revictimizing of Janay Rice."

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00:16:52.240 --> 00:16:54.450
Dave, just start from the beginning

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00:16:54.450 --> 00:16:57.310
and talk about your response
to what has happened.

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00:16:58.130 --> 00:16:59.160
DAVE ZIRIN: Absolutely.

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00:16:59.160 --> 00:17:01.350
Howard Zinn once said
that the first thing

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00:17:01.350 --> 00:17:03.800
we should know about governments
is that governments lie.

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00:17:03.800 --> 00:17:07.130
The first thing people should know
about the NFL is that the NFL lies.

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00:17:07.690 --> 00:17:11.310
This is a league built
on hypocrisy and brain damage,

334
00:17:11.310 --> 00:17:15.600
and they want us to believe that they
are surprised, absolutely shocked,

335
00:17:15.600 --> 00:17:16.730
that some of that violence

336
00:17:16.730 --> 00:17:19.430
spilled over into the personal lives
of their players.

337
00:17:19.430 --> 00:17:23.780
The NFL treats domestic violence
as if it is a public relations issue,

338
00:17:23.780 --> 00:17:26.800
and their message
in this entire story seems to be:

339
00:17:26.800 --> 00:17:28.840
If you are going
to commit domestic violence,

340
00:17:28.840 --> 00:17:31.240
do not get caught on videotape.

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00:17:31.240 --> 00:17:33.560
It is a profoundly cynical message.

342
00:17:33.560 --> 00:17:37.780
And I don’t—I understand why everybody
is showing the videotape.

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00:17:37.780 --> 00:17:41.150
I understand that,
because the news value of the videotape

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00:17:41.150 --> 00:17:42.700
shows that, first of all,

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00:17:42.700 --> 00:17:44.800
the New Jersey prosecutors
who, by the way,

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00:17:44.800 --> 00:17:47.590
arrested Ray Rice and Janay Palmer

347
00:17:47.590 --> 00:17:48.730
when this incident took place,

348
00:17:48.730 --> 00:17:50.180
saying both were at fault,

349
00:17:50.180 --> 00:17:52.160
the NFL and the Baltimore Ravens,

350
00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:55.290
which advanced the narrative
that both were at fault,

351
00:17:55.290 --> 00:17:58.630
the video gives lie to that,

352
00:17:58.630 --> 00:18:00.160
and that is important for people to see.

353
00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:01.630
Although, that being said,

354
00:18:01.630 --> 00:18:04.120
I think one of the reasons
why the videotape is so powerful

355
00:18:04.120 --> 00:18:06.310
is that we are conditioned
in this society,

356
00:18:06.310 --> 00:18:09.060
because of the incredible sexism
in this society,

357
00:18:09.060 --> 00:18:11.590
to think that in cases
of domestic violence,

358
00:18:11.590 --> 00:18:13.870
the woman must have done something.

359
00:18:13.870 --> 00:18:16.360
And the videotape
shows that to be a lie.

360
00:18:16.360 --> 00:18:19.330
I still don’t understand
why so-called progressive sites

361
00:18:19.330 --> 00:18:20.550
like The Huffington Post

362
00:18:20.550 --> 00:18:26.800
are showing the video while also talking
about women’s beach bodies on the side.

363
00:18:26.800 --> 00:18:30.840
I don’t understand why Chris Matthews
on Hardball showed the video on a loop

364
00:18:30.840 --> 00:18:32.690
while they were talking about it.

365
00:18:32.690 --> 00:18:34.120
And that’s why I wrote the article

366
00:18:34.120 --> 00:18:37.240
about how this video also
revictimizes Janay Rice,

367
00:18:37.240 --> 00:18:38.990
because domestic violence counselors

368
00:18:38.990 --> 00:18:42.450
talk about how every time
it is shown without her consent,

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00:18:42.450 --> 00:18:45.810
it actually serves the purpose
of hurting her.

370
00:18:45.810 --> 00:18:50.450
But the one thing that it does do is
that it exposes profoundly the hypocrisy

371
00:18:50.450 --> 00:18:54.150
of the National Football League in terms
of how it deals with domestic violence.

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00:18:54.150 --> 00:18:55.640
AARON MATÉ: Dave,
what do you make of the NFL’s claim

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00:18:55.640 --> 00:18:58.740
that they didn’t see the video
until it was released by TMZ?

374
00:18:59.710 --> 00:19:02.740
DAVE ZIRIN: People should understand
that the National Football League

375
00:19:02.740 --> 00:19:04.640
has an entire security operation

376
00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:05.950
that’s populated by people

377
00:19:05.950 --> 00:19:09.040
who used to work for the Secret Service
of the United States.

378
00:19:09.040 --> 00:19:11.350
So, that’s considered the plum job

379
00:19:11.350 --> 00:19:13.260
when you’re done
with the Secret Service.

380
00:19:13.260 --> 00:19:15.400
So then you have to ask
yourself a question.

381
00:19:15.400 --> 00:19:18.200
Either the former Secret Service
officers

382
00:19:18.200 --> 00:19:20.090
who work
for the National Football League

383
00:19:20.090 --> 00:19:23.220
decided that they were not going
to pursue this videotape,

384
00:19:23.220 --> 00:19:26.850
so the NFL has plausible—
had plausible deniability

385
00:19:26.850 --> 00:19:29.450
and they could sweep this case
under the rug like they always

386
00:19:29.450 --> 00:19:31.430
do with issues of domestic violence,

387
00:19:31.430 --> 00:19:35.010
or the NFL saw it and they’re lying.

388
00:19:35.010 --> 00:19:37.840
And I would actually bend
towards the latter.

389
00:19:37.840 --> 00:19:39.830
I find that it’s strains credulity

390
00:19:39.830 --> 00:19:42.850
to think that the NFL
did not see the videotape.

391
00:19:42.850 --> 00:19:47.170
But either way, the NFL has handled
this horribly from the very beginning.

392
00:19:47.170 --> 00:19:50.040
The first time
Roger Goodell met with Janay Rice,

393
00:19:50.040 --> 00:19:52.340
he met with her right next to Ray Rice.

394
00:19:52.340 --> 00:19:54.440
They came together to his office

395
00:19:54.440 --> 00:19:57.360
to plead for his job
and to speak about what happened.

396
00:19:57.360 --> 00:19:58.670
Think about that for a second.

397
00:19:58.670 --> 00:20:01.730
That goes
against every possible practice

398
00:20:01.730 --> 00:20:03.900
that people who deal
with domestic violence talk about.

399
00:20:03.900 --> 00:20:06.130
The idea that the perpetrator
and the person

400
00:20:06.130 --> 00:20:10.350
who is victimized sit side by side
and beg for their economic life

401
00:20:10.350 --> 00:20:13.340
in front of a boss figure
or an authority figure, I mean,

402
00:20:13.340 --> 00:20:14.900
it’s absolutely repellent.

403
00:20:14.900 --> 00:20:17.130
And it says something about how the NFL—

404
00:20:17.130 --> 00:20:18.390
how they think about women

405
00:20:18.390 --> 00:20:20.910
and how they think about the issue
of domestic violence.

406
00:20:20.910 --> 00:20:24.760
AMY GOODMAN: The Baltimore Ravens
tweeted in May, quote, "Janay Rice

407
00:20:24.760 --> 00:20:27.090
says she deeply regrets the role

408
00:20:27.090 --> 00:20:30.110
that she played the night
of the incident."

409
00:20:30.110 --> 00:20:32.850
That tweet has since been deleted?

410
00:20:34.490 --> 00:20:38.130
DAVE ZIRIN: Yes, that tweet
was deleted, Amy, yesterday.

411
00:20:38.130 --> 00:20:39.270
That’s when it was deleted.

412
00:20:39.270 --> 00:20:42.460
They kept that up on their website
for this entire period.

413
00:20:42.460 --> 00:20:45.220
The Ravens also
staged a press conference

414
00:20:45.220 --> 00:20:48.220
where Janay Rice and Ray Rice
sat next to each other,

415
00:20:48.220 --> 00:20:50.260
so Janay Rice could take, quote-unquote,

416
00:20:50.260 --> 00:20:53.100
"her responsibility" for
what took place.

417
00:20:53.100 --> 00:20:56.910
I mean, so much of this was
stage-managed by the Baltimore Ravens

418
00:20:56.910 --> 00:20:59.550
to make Ray Rice look
as good as possible

419
00:20:59.550 --> 00:21:03.280
and to make the team
look as supportive of him as possible.

420
00:21:03.280 --> 00:21:06.630
Once again, though, this is not
the Baltimore Ravens in a vacuum.

421
00:21:06.630 --> 00:21:10.210
This is how the NFL, league-wide,
deals with domestic violence.

422
00:21:10.210 --> 00:21:14.170
A player for the San Francisco 49ers
named Ray McDonald

423
00:21:14.170 --> 00:21:18.910
was arrested after his pregnant fiancée
was found with bruises on her body

424
00:21:18.910 --> 00:21:20.860
after a party and she called the police.

425
00:21:20.860 --> 00:21:23.570
Ray McDonald still
played this past weekend

426
00:21:23.570 --> 00:21:25.850
despite those charges against him.

427
00:21:25.850 --> 00:21:26.970
Why did he play?

428
00:21:26.970 --> 00:21:29.070
Because he was not caught on videotape.

429
00:21:29.070 --> 00:21:31.560
If he was,
he probably would not have been playing.

430
00:21:31.560 --> 00:21:34.340
So, once again,
this is about a National Football League

431
00:21:34.340 --> 00:21:38.660
that treats violence against women
as a public relations crisis,

432
00:21:38.660 --> 00:21:42.730
not as a crisis about the ways
in which the violence of the game

433
00:21:42.730 --> 00:21:45.420
spills over into people’s families.

434
00:21:45.420 --> 00:21:47.140
AARON MATÉ: Dave, this is NFL insider

435
00:21:47.140 --> 00:21:49.810
Adam Schefter
speaking to ESPN Monday night,

436
00:21:49.810 --> 00:21:53.300
reacting to the video showing
Ray Rice knock his wife unconscious.

437
00:21:54.670 --> 00:21:59.050
ADAM SCHEFTER: This is arguably
the biggest black eye

438
00:21:59.050 --> 00:22:01.830
the league has ever had.

439
00:22:01.830 --> 00:22:06.520
We heard Pete Rozelle talk in the days
after and the years after JFK

440
00:22:06.520 --> 00:22:10.910
was assassinated that his biggest regret
was playing games the Sunday

441
00:22:10.910 --> 00:22:14.160
after the president
of the United States was assassinated.

442
00:22:14.160 --> 00:22:17.780
Roger Goodell will look back on his time
as the commissioner in the NFL

443
00:22:17.780 --> 00:22:20.420
and say
this is easily the biggest regret.

444
00:22:22.060 --> 00:22:25.940
AARON MATÉ: That’s Adam Schefter
speaking Monday, Adam Scefter of ESPN.

445
00:22:25.940 --> 00:22:30.290
I have to point out that after Ray Rice
was suspended for two games initially,

446
00:22:30.290 --> 00:22:32.030
Schefter said on the air,

447
00:22:32.030 --> 00:22:33.300
"It’s a suspension that will [generate]

448
00:22:33.300 --> 00:22:34.320
a lot of discussion.

449
00:22:34.320 --> 00:22:36.570
Was the commissioner lenient enough?

450
00:22:36.570 --> 00:22:38.280
" Dave Zirin?

451
00:22:38.280 --> 00:22:42.170
DAVE ZIRIN: Look, I think that is
a shameful phrase by Adam Schefter.

452
00:22:42.170 --> 00:22:43.910
I don’t know if Democracy Now!

453
00:22:43.910 --> 00:22:48.740
listeners may realize that Adam Schefter
is considered the ultimate NFL insider,

454
00:22:48.740 --> 00:22:50.170
incredibly high-profile.

455
00:22:50.170 --> 00:22:53.990
He’s clearly very upset
that he was lied to about the NFL

456
00:22:53.990 --> 00:22:57.220
throughout this whole process about
what they knew and when they knew it.

457
00:22:57.220 --> 00:22:59.960
And he’s responding,
sounding more like Keith Olbermann

458
00:22:59.960 --> 00:23:01.180
than Adam Schefter.

459
00:23:01.180 --> 00:23:02.620
But that being said, to call this,

460
00:23:02.620 --> 00:23:05.890
quote-unquote, "the biggest black eye"
in NFL history,

461
00:23:05.890 --> 00:23:09.330
unfortunate phrasing
aside for a domestic violence incident,

462
00:23:09.330 --> 00:23:11.760
it’s really shameful
for him to say that,

463
00:23:11.760 --> 00:23:13.760
because the NFL has a history

464
00:23:13.760 --> 00:23:17.110
of horrific moments
of violence against women,

465
00:23:17.110 --> 00:23:20.130
cases of serial rape, cases of murder.

466
00:23:20.130 --> 00:23:21.560
I mean, just two years ago,

467
00:23:21.560 --> 00:23:24.050
a player for the Kansas City Chiefs
killed the mother

468
00:23:24.050 --> 00:23:27.130
of his child, Kasandra Perkins,
and then took his own life

469
00:23:27.130 --> 00:23:30.870
in front of his coach
in the parking lot of the stadium.

470
00:23:30.870 --> 00:23:33.430
Yet that’s not the biggest black eye
in NFL history?

471
00:23:33.430 --> 00:23:36.790
So what makes this,
in Adam Schefter’s eye, so much worse?

472
00:23:36.790 --> 00:23:38.890
It’s because it was caught on videotape,

473
00:23:38.890 --> 00:23:42.960
and it is a public relations crisis
for the National Football League.

474
00:23:42.960 --> 00:23:46.780
As long as we look at this
through the lens of public relations,

475
00:23:46.780 --> 00:23:49.780
we’re never going to get
to the bottom of this issue,

476
00:23:49.780 --> 00:23:51.720
which is, how do you deal with the fact

477
00:23:51.720 --> 00:23:55.240
that you have an incredibly violent game
that causes head injuries,

478
00:23:55.240 --> 00:23:58.090
that causes all kinds
of financial pressure on families

479
00:23:58.090 --> 00:23:59.730
that tend to come from poverty,

480
00:23:59.730 --> 00:24:02.020
and then how do you deal with it
when that violence

481
00:24:02.020 --> 00:24:06.040
spills over into the personal lives
and families of players?

482
00:24:06.040 --> 00:24:07.220
The NFL, for decades,

483
00:24:07.220 --> 00:24:10.300
has treated it as something
that you push under the rug,

484
00:24:10.300 --> 00:24:12.720
yet in an era
where everybody has phones,

485
00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:13.830
everything is digital,

486
00:24:13.830 --> 00:24:18.850
video cameras everywhere, that is much,
much more difficult to do.

487
00:24:18.850 --> 00:24:22.890
AMY GOODMAN: Dave, San Francisco 49ers
defensive tackle Ray McDonald

488
00:24:22.890 --> 00:24:28.570
was arrested August 31st on felony
domestic violence charges in San Jose.

489
00:24:28.570 --> 00:24:30.200
Despite the arrest,

490
00:24:30.200 --> 00:24:33.790
he started in the 49ers opening game
on Sunday.

491
00:24:33.790 --> 00:24:36.780
The team is coached
by Jim Harbaugh,

492
00:24:36.780 --> 00:24:40.260
the brother
of Ravens coach John Harbaugh.

493
00:24:40.260 --> 00:24:42.120
Can you talk about this—

494
00:24:42.120 --> 00:24:50.240
the two brothers, the Ravens, the 49ers,
the two Rays, Ray McDonald and Ray Rice?

495
00:24:50.240 --> 00:24:52.800
DAVE ZIRIN: Yeah.
I mean, a lot of symmetry at work there.

496
00:24:53.350 --> 00:24:55.450
Jim Harbaugh, interestingly enough,

497
00:24:55.450 --> 00:24:57.900
is somebody who for a long time has had—

498
00:24:57.900 --> 00:24:59.810
I’ve talked to people

499
00:24:59.810 --> 00:25:01.260
who are involved in that organization—

500
00:25:01.260 --> 00:25:02.670
who has said to players

501
00:25:02.670 --> 00:25:04.780
that violence against women
is the one thing

502
00:25:04.780 --> 00:25:06.670
that he will never
tolerate on this team.

503
00:25:06.670 --> 00:25:08.730
He has said that to players
in closed-door meetings.

504
00:25:08.730 --> 00:25:11.630
It’s something that he apparently
believes very strongly.

505
00:25:11.630 --> 00:25:13.170
Although if people know Jim Harbaugh,

506
00:25:13.170 --> 00:25:15.980
you’ll know that he phrases those kinds
of declarations

507
00:25:15.980 --> 00:25:18.020
with the same kind of masculinist,

508
00:25:18.020 --> 00:25:22.820
patriarchal verve
that unfortunately so too often colors

509
00:25:22.820 --> 00:25:24.770
how people respond to domestic violence,

510
00:25:24.770 --> 00:25:26.280
as if you have to have, you know,

511
00:25:26.280 --> 00:25:28.130
a much more manly approach to it

512
00:25:28.130 --> 00:25:30.940
and that’s the only way
you’re going to actually squelch it.

513
00:25:30.940 --> 00:25:32.780
And that’s how Jim Harbaugh
has approached it.

514
00:25:32.780 --> 00:25:33.800
Yet, unfortunately,

515
00:25:33.800 --> 00:25:37.010
even though Jim Harbaugh
has had that rhetoric for so long,

516
00:25:37.010 --> 00:25:40.590
there was Ray McDonald on the field
of play in San Francisco.

517
00:25:40.590 --> 00:25:43.120
And once again,
I said this earlier, Amy,

518
00:25:43.120 --> 00:25:48.020
but it really does expose how videotape
has played a role in this,

519
00:25:48.020 --> 00:25:51.600
and because people
don’t believe victims in this country.

520
00:25:51.600 --> 00:25:54.690
I mean, it’s the same thing
that we’re talking about with Ferguson.

521
00:25:54.690 --> 00:25:58.550
I mean, the assumption
among the majority of the United States

522
00:25:58.550 --> 00:26:01.610
that somehow Michael Brown
must have been at fault,

523
00:26:01.610 --> 00:26:03.430
even though he’s the one
who ended up dead,

524
00:26:03.430 --> 00:26:06.250
is so similar to the rhetoric
around Janay Rice,

525
00:26:06.250 --> 00:26:09.190
to the rhetoric
around Ray McDonald in San Francisco.

526
00:26:09.190 --> 00:26:12.560
Somehow, the woman
must have been at fault,

527
00:26:12.560 --> 00:26:14.200
because people don’t want to believe,

528
00:26:14.200 --> 00:26:16.670
whether it’s the police
or their NFL heroes,

529
00:26:16.670 --> 00:26:18.110
that maybe, just maybe,

530
00:26:18.110 --> 00:26:19.950
in these very violent jobs,

531
00:26:19.950 --> 00:26:23.400
that violence leads to acts
of power and injustice.

532
00:26:23.400 --> 00:26:27.290
AMY GOODMAN: Dave, I have to say,
we, too, ran that video, this new video

533
00:26:27.290 --> 00:26:30.090
that shows what happened inside,
as you were talking.

534
00:26:30.090 --> 00:26:33.330
And you have said you think it’s wrong
to run this video.

535
00:26:33.330 --> 00:26:36.370
I know there is a controversy
around this,

536
00:26:36.370 --> 00:26:39.740
and I’d like to get listeners’,
viewers’, readers’ responses.

537
00:26:39.740 --> 00:26:42.640
You could email us,
go to tweet, Facebook,

538
00:26:42.640 --> 00:26:43.940
whatever you’d like, to know—

539
00:26:43.940 --> 00:26:45.430
to let us know what you think.

540
00:26:45.430 --> 00:26:50.170
But that video
has certainly changed everything here.

541
00:26:50.170 --> 00:26:51.460
Yet I do wonder—
DAVE ZIRIN: Yes.

542
00:26:51.460 --> 00:26:55.280
AMY GOODMAN: —what did people think
actually happened in that elevator?

543
00:26:55.280 --> 00:26:59.060
The first video that we all played

544
00:26:59.060 --> 00:27:04.350
was that video of Rice dragging
his unconscious then-fiancée, now-wife,

545
00:27:04.350 --> 00:27:06.170
out of the elevator.

546
00:27:06.890 --> 00:27:11.390
He admitted he assaulted her
in the elevator,

547
00:27:11.390 --> 00:27:13.960
and that’s exactly what the video shows.

548
00:27:14.640 --> 00:27:16.980
DAVE ZIRIN: I mean,
what it exposes, first of all,

549
00:27:16.980 --> 00:27:21.040
is the degree of complicity
among the prosecutor’s office,

550
00:27:21.040 --> 00:27:23.140
who originally charged both Ray Rice

551
00:27:23.140 --> 00:27:24.430
and Janay Rice;

552
00:27:24.430 --> 00:27:25.970
the National Football League,

553
00:27:25.970 --> 00:27:28.210
which when Roger Goodell,
the commissioner,

554
00:27:28.210 --> 00:27:31.410
said both Rices take responsibility
for what took place;

555
00:27:31.410 --> 00:27:33.050
and the Baltimore Ravens,

556
00:27:33.050 --> 00:27:34.430
who staged that press conference

557
00:27:34.430 --> 00:27:35.730
where Janay Rice, quote-unquote,

558
00:27:35.730 --> 00:27:37.630
"took responsibility" for what happened—

559
00:27:37.630 --> 00:27:40.260
is that they all advanced this narrative

560
00:27:40.260 --> 00:27:42.880
that said, "Well, we don’t know
what happened in that elevator."

561
00:27:42.880 --> 00:27:46.350
But this idea that somehow she
provoked Ray Rice punching her,

562
00:27:46.350 --> 00:27:48.380
the video shows that to be a lie.

563
00:27:48.380 --> 00:27:50.890
What’s so tragic
about the United States,

564
00:27:50.890 --> 00:27:53.900
what’s so tragic about how we
view violence against women,

565
00:27:53.900 --> 00:27:56.500
is that we assume
that that is what happened.

566
00:27:56.500 --> 00:27:59.460
The assumption is not with the person
who was knocked unconscious;

567
00:27:59.460 --> 00:28:03.840
the assumption is that she must have
done something to deserve it.

568
00:28:03.840 --> 00:28:06.480
And that’s the thing
that really makes me shake my head.

569
00:28:06.480 --> 00:28:09.020
And that’s—I think
we have to get beyond this idea

570
00:28:09.020 --> 00:28:10.730
that the oppressed

571
00:28:10.730 --> 00:28:13.860
are somehow only vindicated
if we see it with our own eyes.

572
00:28:13.860 --> 00:28:15.840
They never get the benefit of the doubt.

573
00:28:16.550 --> 00:28:18.420
AARON MATÉ: Dave, if TMZ had this video,

574
00:28:18.420 --> 00:28:21.310
then obviously the prosecution
likely had it, too.

575
00:28:21.310 --> 00:28:25.120
So does this raise questions
about how prosecutors handled this case?

576
00:28:25.120 --> 00:28:29.180
They had a video
of their suspect punching the victim.

577
00:28:30.100 --> 00:28:31.290
DAVE ZIRIN: There’s no question
about it.

578
00:28:31.290 --> 00:28:33.010
And just so people understand,

579
00:28:33.010 --> 00:28:37.160
that videotape, the importance
of it from a prosecutorial standpoint

580
00:28:37.160 --> 00:28:41.750
is that they did not need
Janay Rice’s consent

581
00:28:41.750 --> 00:28:44.810
to go forward with the prosecution,
because Janay Rice,

582
00:28:44.810 --> 00:28:47.340
she did not want
to cooperate with the prosecution.

583
00:28:47.340 --> 00:28:48.400
She made that choice.

584
00:28:48.400 --> 00:28:51.950
And in some states, if the person
who is assaulted does not cooperate,

585
00:28:51.950 --> 00:28:54.660
it’s pretty standard for the prosecutor
to then drop the case.

586
00:28:54.660 --> 00:28:55.790
But if you have videotape,

587
00:28:55.790 --> 00:28:57.760
all of that goes out the window,
obviously,

588
00:28:57.760 --> 00:29:00.350
because you have objective proof
of what took case.

589
00:29:00.350 --> 00:29:03.180
Yet the prosecutors
still decided not to go forward.

590
00:29:03.180 --> 00:29:05.180
Every legal expert
who I’ve both heard

591
00:29:05.180 --> 00:29:10.000
and spoken to over the last 24 hours
say that this is profoundly unusual

592
00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.050
and that it certainly does look
like that Ray Rice’s fame, his money,

593
00:29:14.050 --> 00:29:16.330
his connections
to the National Football League

594
00:29:16.330 --> 00:29:17.600
are all things that—

595
00:29:17.600 --> 00:29:19.300
there’s no other explanation—

596
00:29:19.300 --> 00:29:23.220
played a role in the fact that they went
for a pretrial diversion program

597
00:29:23.220 --> 00:29:26.120
and not for actually prosecuting him
for the assault itself.

598
00:29:26.120 --> 00:29:27.300
AMY GOODMAN: Wasn’t Ray Rice also

599
00:29:27.300 --> 00:29:30.210
applauded when he came back
after his two suspensions?

600
00:29:30.860 --> 00:29:33.590
DAVE ZIRIN: Yes, he was. He was
applauded by the Baltimore faithful

601
00:29:33.590 --> 00:29:35.190
when he came out onto the field.

602
00:29:35.190 --> 00:29:37.070
I mean,
that reflects a couple of things.

603
00:29:37.070 --> 00:29:40.640
It reflects our attitude
nationally about domestic violence,

604
00:29:40.640 --> 00:29:44.180
but it also reflects the narrative
that the National Football League

605
00:29:44.180 --> 00:29:48.100
and the Baltimore Ravens put forward
through these last several months.

606
00:29:48.100 --> 00:29:50.750
And that’s the thing
that they’re going to have to live down.

607
00:29:50.750 --> 00:29:51.780
You know, Amy, the slogan

608
00:29:51.780 --> 00:29:54.300
for the National Football League
for all of these crises

609
00:29:54.300 --> 00:29:56.080
has always been "hate the player,

610
00:29:56.080 --> 00:29:57.310
don’t hate the game."

611
00:29:57.310 --> 00:29:59.000
In other words, all of the criticism

612
00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:01.270
should go on the miscreant player,

613
00:30:01.270 --> 00:30:02.850
and the game itself must—

614
00:30:02.850 --> 00:30:04.900
is protected at all costs.

615
00:30:04.900 --> 00:30:07.820
This is the first time
in my reporting lifetime, Amy,

616
00:30:07.820 --> 00:30:10.620
that it feels like the scandal
of the individual player

617
00:30:10.620 --> 00:30:13.530
is having a massive blowback effect
on the league itself,

618
00:30:13.530 --> 00:30:16.710
and that makes this very newsworthy
and very different.

619
00:30:16.710 --> 00:30:19.140
AARON MATÉ: Dave, the new policy
on domestic violence,

620
00:30:19.140 --> 00:30:21.930
that was announced
after the Ray Rice suspension

621
00:30:21.930 --> 00:30:24.460
generated so much outrage

622
00:30:24.460 --> 00:30:26.200
when he was just given two games,

623
00:30:26.200 --> 00:30:28.290
a two-game suspension,

624
00:30:28.290 --> 00:30:31.960
was that now the players
will get six-games suspension.

625
00:30:31.960 --> 00:30:34.880
How does this compare
to how the league handles drug offenses?

626
00:30:35.700 --> 00:30:38.240
DAVE ZIRIN: Well, it’s interesting,
because the drug offenses

627
00:30:38.240 --> 00:30:41.480
is carefully planned out
in the collective bargaining agreement

628
00:30:41.480 --> 00:30:43.410
with the NFL Players Association.

629
00:30:43.410 --> 00:30:45.500
First offense,
you get X amount of games;

630
00:30:45.500 --> 00:30:47.520
second offense,
you get X amount of games.

631
00:30:47.520 --> 00:30:50.080
There are all sorts of programs
that you can go into.

632
00:30:50.080 --> 00:30:52.390
There’s different penalties
for different drugs.

633
00:30:52.390 --> 00:30:54.320
So it’s very clearly spelled out.

634
00:30:54.320 --> 00:30:58.170
Domestic violence has been a blank slate
in the NFL for decades.

635
00:30:58.170 --> 00:30:59.940
And in a lot of ways, frankly,

636
00:30:59.940 --> 00:31:02.240
until Roger Goodell
said, "First offense, six games;

637
00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:04.240
second offense, lifetime ban,

638
00:31:04.240 --> 00:31:05.800
" it was still a blank slate.

639
00:31:05.800 --> 00:31:08.430
I mean, this idea
that somehow Roger Goodell

640
00:31:08.430 --> 00:31:11.740
was only bound to give
Ray Rice two games is an absolute joke,

641
00:31:11.740 --> 00:31:14.510
because there were no guidelines
around domestic violence,

642
00:31:14.510 --> 00:31:17.070
so the two games only
spoke to how seriously the NFL

643
00:31:17.070 --> 00:31:18.700
takes domestic violence.

644
00:31:18.700 --> 00:31:19.870
That being said,

645
00:31:19.870 --> 00:31:21.340
I have a great deal of problems,

646
00:31:21.340 --> 00:31:24.500
having spoken to advocates
who work with violence against women,

647
00:31:24.500 --> 00:31:26.450
who work in domestic violence shelters,

648
00:31:26.450 --> 00:31:29.600
about the whole six-game
and then lifetime suspension,

649
00:31:29.600 --> 00:31:31.290
the sort of big hammer approach

650
00:31:31.290 --> 00:31:33.250
that the NFL
is clearly going to adopt now,

651
00:31:33.250 --> 00:31:34.270
going forward,

652
00:31:34.270 --> 00:31:36.350
because one of the things
that does creates,

653
00:31:36.350 --> 00:31:38.220
according to people
who work on this for a living,

654
00:31:38.220 --> 00:31:41.630
is that it creates a disincentive
for women to come forward

655
00:31:41.630 --> 00:31:43.680
and speak about situations of abuse,

656
00:31:43.680 --> 00:31:46.940
especially if the entire
economic security of their family

657
00:31:46.940 --> 00:31:49.070
is at stake in a career and in a league

658
00:31:49.070 --> 00:31:53.410
where the average career lifespan
is only three-and-a-half years.

659
00:31:53.410 --> 00:31:57.270
And so, any time the NFL creates
something to deal with domestic violence

660
00:31:57.270 --> 00:32:00.760
that disincentivizes women
coming forward,

661
00:32:00.760 --> 00:32:03.370
that’s something that needs to be
looked at very carefully.

662
00:32:03.370 --> 00:32:06.480
AMY GOODMAN: Dave, in July,
Pro Bowl defensive end Greg Hardy

663
00:32:06.480 --> 00:32:09.740
of the Carolina Panthers
was convicted by a district judge

664
00:32:09.740 --> 00:32:12.910
in North Carolina
of assaulting his ex-girlfriend.

665
00:32:12.910 --> 00:32:15.310
Hardy exercised his right
to a jury trial,

666
00:32:15.310 --> 00:32:17.010
likely to take place after the season.

667
00:32:17.010 --> 00:32:18.750
He also played on Sunday.

668
00:32:18.750 --> 00:32:22.780
According to ESPN, Hardy
faces a six-game suspension by the NFL

669
00:32:22.780 --> 00:32:26.580
if his guilty verdict for domestic
violence is not overturned on appeal.

670
00:32:27.510 --> 00:32:31.010
DAVE ZIRIN: Yeah, and he was not caught
on videotape, so he plays,

671
00:32:31.010 --> 00:32:32.550
just like Ray McDonald.

672
00:32:32.550 --> 00:32:34.970
There are players
in the NFL Hall of Fame

673
00:32:34.970 --> 00:32:38.470
who have been convicted and arrested
on domestic violence issues.

674
00:32:38.470 --> 00:32:42.330
One wonders if they would be there
if they had been caught on videotape.

675
00:32:42.330 --> 00:32:45.760
The video aspect
of it is so troubling in this case,

676
00:32:45.760 --> 00:32:49.170
because I still stand
by what I wrote in The Nation,

677
00:32:49.170 --> 00:32:53.380
that the showing and reshowing
of the videotape revictimizes Janay Rice

678
00:32:53.380 --> 00:32:56.120
because it is being shown
without her consent.

679
00:32:56.120 --> 00:32:58.930
If it was a sexual assault,
we would not be showing it.

680
00:32:58.930 --> 00:33:01.680
There’s a reason why we
have rape shield laws in this country.

681
00:33:01.680 --> 00:33:03.250
But that being said, the videotape

682
00:33:03.250 --> 00:33:07.400
is also the only thing
that’s making people believe Janay Rice.

683
00:33:07.400 --> 00:33:09.830
I mean, this is why people
want police officers

684
00:33:09.830 --> 00:33:12.280
to have video cameras
now on their lapels,

685
00:33:12.280 --> 00:33:15.780
because this idea that nobody
really trusts the processes

686
00:33:15.780 --> 00:33:18.260
that happen unless they can see them
with their own eyes.

687
00:33:18.260 --> 00:33:21.030
And the NFL clearly has a problem,

688
00:33:21.030 --> 00:33:24.170
going back decades,
when it deals with domestic violence.

689
00:33:24.170 --> 00:33:26.050
And this is certainly a wake-up call,

690
00:33:26.050 --> 00:33:29.050
if for no other reason
than that when people are seeing

691
00:33:29.050 --> 00:33:31.070
how the NFL actually deals with things,

692
00:33:31.070 --> 00:33:33.410
how the sausages are in fact made

693
00:33:33.410 --> 00:33:35.710
to get us our three hours
of commodified violence

694
00:33:35.710 --> 00:33:38.240
every Sunday, I mean,
people are recoiling.

695
00:33:38.240 --> 00:33:39.400
AMY GOODMAN: Should Goodell resign?

696
00:33:40.140 --> 00:33:42.220
DAVE ZIRIN: Yes, absolutely,
Roger Goodell should resign,

697
00:33:42.220 --> 00:33:43.400
not only for this,

698
00:33:43.400 --> 00:33:45.080
but he should resign because of the way

699
00:33:45.080 --> 00:33:47.940
he has handled concussions
and head injuries on the job.

700
00:33:47.940 --> 00:33:51.730
He should resign for the way
he has handled the Washington slur name

701
00:33:51.730 --> 00:33:53.230
here in the nation’s capital,

702
00:33:53.230 --> 00:33:54.910
defending its use.

703
00:33:54.910 --> 00:33:57.700
And he should resign
for all the myriad ways

704
00:33:57.700 --> 00:34:00.380
that he has put the interests
of the league ahead of the interests

705
00:34:00.380 --> 00:34:02.790
of players, fans
and the general culture.

706
00:34:02.790 --> 00:34:05.660
AMY GOODMAN: Very quickly,
college football, you know,

707
00:34:05.660 --> 00:34:07.270
not just the NFL,

708
00:34:07.270 --> 00:34:10.190
people like Derrick Washington
of University of Missouri,

709
00:34:10.190 --> 00:34:13.080
Jameis Winston of Florida State,
can you talk about them?

710
00:34:13.690 --> 00:34:15.820
DAVE ZIRIN: Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, people should read the work

711
00:34:15.820 --> 00:34:17.040
of Jessica Luther,

712
00:34:17.040 --> 00:34:20.470
who writes extensively about college
football and domestic violence

713
00:34:20.470 --> 00:34:21.730
and sexual assault.

714
00:34:21.730 --> 00:34:23.080
I mean, the connective tissue

715
00:34:23.080 --> 00:34:26.460
is so particularly egregious
on the collegiate level

716
00:34:26.460 --> 00:34:28.290
because, of course, the players are,

717
00:34:28.290 --> 00:34:30.490
quote-unquote, "student
athletes" and not workers.

718
00:34:30.490 --> 00:34:33.100
So what’s created instead
is this gutter economy

719
00:34:33.630 --> 00:34:37.300
where women are basically held up
as the perks of playing,

720
00:34:37.300 --> 00:34:40.700
the perks of supplying your college
with millions of dollars in revenue,

721
00:34:40.700 --> 00:34:44.410
and all you get for it is an education
that you don’t have time to attend

722
00:34:44.410 --> 00:34:48.390
or classes that you may not even
be educationally prepared to attend.

723
00:34:48.390 --> 00:34:50.900
And so, this is the problem in the NCAA,

724
00:34:50.900 --> 00:34:54.530
and this is why this problem
keeps replicating itself in the NCAA,

725
00:34:54.530 --> 00:34:57.160
that very dangerous connective tissue

726
00:34:57.160 --> 00:35:00.010
between football,
particularly amateur football,

727
00:35:00.010 --> 00:35:01.390
and sexual violence.

728
00:35:02.700 --> 00:35:04.100
AMY GOODMAN: Well,
we want to thank you very much,

729
00:35:04.100 --> 00:35:05.550
Dave Zirin, for being with us.

730
00:35:05.550 --> 00:35:07.640
Dave is sports columnist
for The Nation magazine,

731
00:35:07.640 --> 00:35:09.820
host of Edge
of Sports Radio on SiriusXM.

732
00:35:09.820 --> 00:35:13.110
His latest piece, "The Revictimizing
of Janay Rice,"

733
00:35:13.110 --> 00:35:14.420
we’ll link to it online.

734
00:35:14.420 --> 00:35:17.850
Dave is also author of many books,
among them, his latest,

735
00:35:17.850 --> 00:35:36.560
Brazil’s Dance with the Devil:

736
00:35:39.270 --> 00:36:02.650
The World Cup, the Olympics,

737
00:36:02.650 --> 00:36:24.310
and the Fight for Democracy.

738
00:36:24.310 --> 00:36:41.350
This is Democracy Now! Back in a minute.

739
00:36:41.350 --> 00:37:07.490
AARON MATÉ: As the fall school term
begins,

740
00:37:07.490 --> 00:37:11.320
an Illinois college campus is embroiled
in one of the nation’s biggest academic

741
00:37:11.320 --> 00:37:13.550
freedom controversies in recent memory.

742
00:37:13.550 --> 00:37:16.240
The University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign

743
00:37:16.240 --> 00:37:19.100
has sparked an outcry
over its withdrawal of a job offer

744
00:37:19.100 --> 00:37:21.620
to a professor critical
of the Israeli government.

745
00:37:21.620 --> 00:37:24.630
Steven Salaita was due to start
work at Urbana-Champaign

746
00:37:24.630 --> 00:37:28.290
as a tenured professor
in the American Indian Studies Program.

747
00:37:28.290 --> 00:37:29.480
But after posting a series

748
00:37:29.480 --> 00:37:32.590
of tweets harshly critical
of the summer’s assault on Gaza,

749
00:37:33.310 --> 00:37:35.530
Salaita was told
the offer was withdrawn.

750
00:37:35.530 --> 00:37:38.940
Urbana-Champaign has come
under pressure from donors, students,

751
00:37:38.940 --> 00:37:41.880
parents and alumni
critical of Salaita’s views,

752
00:37:41.880 --> 00:37:44.630
with some threatening
to withdraw financial support.

753
00:37:44.630 --> 00:37:47.940
The move has been criticized
both in and outside of the school,

754
00:37:47.940 --> 00:37:50.480
with administrators accused
of political censorship.

755
00:37:50.480 --> 00:37:51.830
Thousands of academics

756
00:37:51.830 --> 00:37:54.540
have signed petitions
calling for Salaita’s reinstatement,

757
00:37:54.540 --> 00:37:58.010
and several lecturers
have canceled appearances in protest.

758
00:37:58.010 --> 00:38:01.140
The American Association
of University Professors has called

759
00:38:01.140 --> 00:38:04.730
the school’s actions "inimical
to academic freedom and due process."

760
00:38:04.730 --> 00:38:06.130
A number of school departments

761
00:38:06.130 --> 00:38:09.600
have passed votes of no-confidence
in the chancellor, Phyllis Wise.

762
00:38:09.600 --> 00:38:12.560
And today, students
will be holding a campus walkout

763
00:38:12.560 --> 00:38:15.350
and a day of silence
in support of Salaita.

764
00:38:15.350 --> 00:38:17.250
A news conference is being held,

765
00:38:17.250 --> 00:38:20.580
where Salaita is expected
to make his first public comments

766
00:38:20.580 --> 00:38:22.520
since his unhiring last month.

767
00:38:22.520 --> 00:38:25.620
AMY GOODMAN: In a public statement,
Chancellor Phyllis Wise

768
00:38:25.620 --> 00:38:29.940
said her decision to unhire
Salaita "was not influenced in any way

769
00:38:29.940 --> 00:38:32.160
by his positions
on the conflict in the Middle East

770
00:38:32.160 --> 00:38:33.910
nor his criticism of Israel."

771
00:38:33.910 --> 00:38:35.060
She goes on to write,

772
00:38:35.060 --> 00:38:39.430
quote, "What we cannot and will not
tolerate at the University of Illinois

773
00:38:39.430 --> 00:38:41.960
are personal and disrespectful words

774
00:38:41.960 --> 00:38:44.520
or actions that demean and abuse

775
00:38:44.520 --> 00:38:48.680
either viewpoints themselves
or those who express them," unquote.

776
00:38:48.680 --> 00:38:51.160
The school has now
reportedly offered Salaita

777
00:38:51.160 --> 00:38:53.730
a financial settlement for his troubles.

778
00:38:53.730 --> 00:38:57.280
The school’s Board of Trustees
is expected to take up the controversy

779
00:38:57.280 --> 00:38:58.660
at a meeting on Thursday.

780
00:38:58.660 --> 00:39:00.700
For more, we’re joined by two guests.

781
00:39:00.700 --> 00:39:02.050
Kristofer Petersen-Overton

782
00:39:02.050 --> 00:39:05.530
is an adjunct lecturer
of political science at Lehman College.

783
00:39:05.530 --> 00:39:11.520
In 2011, Brooklyn College initially
decided not to hire Petersen-Overton

784
00:39:11.520 --> 00:39:15.430
as an adjunct professor
for a seminar on Middle East politics.

785
00:39:15.430 --> 00:39:17.410
But the school reversed its decision

786
00:39:17.410 --> 00:39:21.340
after criticism that the decision
was politically motivated.

787
00:39:21.340 --> 00:39:22.970
And Katherine Franke joins us.

788
00:39:22.970 --> 00:39:25.710
She’s a professor of law
at Columbia University

789
00:39:25.710 --> 00:39:29.280
and the director of the Center
for Gender and Sexuality Law.

790
00:39:29.280 --> 00:39:32.810
She recently canceled a lecture series
at the University of Illinois

791
00:39:32.810 --> 00:39:36.890
at Urbana-Champaign in protest
of Steven Salaita’s unhiring.

792
00:39:36.890 --> 00:39:39.050
Professor Franke, let’s begin with you.

793
00:39:39.050 --> 00:39:44.120
Talk about the facts of this case
and how you got involved.

794
00:39:44.750 --> 00:39:46.350
KATHERINE FRANKE: Well,
Professor Salaita

795
00:39:46.350 --> 00:39:50.930
was previously a professor
at Virginia Tech University,

796
00:39:50.930 --> 00:39:54.890
and he had a well-known dossier
of books and articles

797
00:39:54.890 --> 00:39:58.160
thinking critically about
the relationship between indigeneity,

798
00:39:58.160 --> 00:39:59.760
meaning native people,

799
00:39:59.760 --> 00:40:01.420
and the political environments

800
00:40:01.420 --> 00:40:02.670
in which they live—

801
00:40:02.670 --> 00:40:04.920
hard questions about dispossession,

802
00:40:04.920 --> 00:40:07.910
belonging, state violence and identity.

803
00:40:07.910 --> 00:40:11.790
And because of that important scholarly
record, the University of Illinois

804
00:40:11.790 --> 00:40:13.480
went after him—

805
00:40:13.480 --> 00:40:16.000
in a friendly way,
unlike what they’re doing now.

806
00:40:16.860 --> 00:40:22.410
And he was hired by an overwhelming vote
by the American Indian Studies Program

807
00:40:22.410 --> 00:40:26.660
there in the normal way
that we hire faculty in universities.

808
00:40:26.660 --> 00:40:28.400
An offer letter was issued to him.

809
00:40:28.400 --> 00:40:29.830
He accepted it.

810
00:40:29.830 --> 00:40:31.600
They paid for his moving expenses.

811
00:40:31.600 --> 00:40:34.380
He quit his job,
a tenured position in Virginia.

812
00:40:34.940 --> 00:40:38.820
And he has a small child
and a family and a wife,

813
00:40:38.820 --> 00:40:40.310
and was ready to move.

814
00:40:40.850 --> 00:40:42.370
His course books had been ordered.

815
00:40:42.370 --> 00:40:45.650
He had been invited by the university
to the faculty welcome luncheon.

816
00:40:46.360 --> 00:40:47.810
And then, on August 1st,

817
00:40:47.810 --> 00:40:50.400
he got a letter from the chancellor
saying, "We’re sorry,

818
00:40:50.400 --> 00:40:52.980
we’re not going
to be able to employ you here,

819
00:40:54.090 --> 00:40:55.820
because I haven’t taken the last step,

820
00:40:55.820 --> 00:40:58.020
which I had not informed
you about before,

821
00:40:58.020 --> 00:41:00.580
of taking your candidacy
to the Board of Trustees."

822
00:41:01.650 --> 00:41:04.290
He had assumed
he had an accepted job offer.

823
00:41:04.290 --> 00:41:08.180
He had relied
on that offer—and at his peril.

824
00:41:08.180 --> 00:41:09.450
He now doesn’t have a home,

825
00:41:09.450 --> 00:41:11.080
doesn’t have a job
and doesn’t have an income.

826
00:41:11.930 --> 00:41:14.370
So what we now have learned,
through a FOIA request

827
00:41:14.370 --> 00:41:16.710
and the disclosure of emails
at the university,

828
00:41:16.710 --> 00:41:20.010
is that there was enormous pressure
put on the chancellor

829
00:41:20.010 --> 00:41:24.020
and the Board of Trustees
by large donors of the university,

830
00:41:24.020 --> 00:41:26.620
who said, "I’ll
take my six-figure donations

831
00:41:26.620 --> 00:41:28.260
away if you hire this guy."

832
00:41:28.260 --> 00:41:30.540
And this is as a result of some tweets

833
00:41:30.540 --> 00:41:33.150
that Professor Salaita
made over the summer

834
00:41:33.150 --> 00:41:34.730
during the heat of the Gaza—

835
00:41:34.730 --> 00:41:36.480
the Israeli assault on Gaza.

836
00:41:37.020 --> 00:41:38.690
He was very upset about it.

837
00:41:38.690 --> 00:41:40.780
He himself is Palestinian.

838
00:41:40.780 --> 00:41:45.220
He was watching children die
and the destruction of Gazan villages

839
00:41:45.220 --> 00:41:46.380
that we all watched.

840
00:41:46.380 --> 00:41:49.140
And like many of us,
he was quite impassioned

841
00:41:49.140 --> 00:41:53.100
and used colorful language on Twitter
to express his views,

842
00:41:53.100 --> 00:41:54.240
and that those tweets

843
00:41:54.240 --> 00:41:56.970
somehow made their way to donors
at the University of Illinois.

844
00:41:56.970 --> 00:41:57.970
And so, the job,

845
00:41:58.600 --> 00:42:01.090
as been described
even here in the setup,

846
00:42:01.090 --> 00:42:07.190
is either withdrawn or somehow not—

847
00:42:07.190 --> 00:42:09.040
well, what has happened
is he’s just been fired.

848
00:42:09.820 --> 00:42:14.840
And so he’s now organizing,
along with the rest of us,

849
00:42:14.840 --> 00:42:19.700
a response
to what is a deliberate campaign

850
00:42:19.700 --> 00:42:21.850
by a number of political operatives

851
00:42:21.850 --> 00:42:24.950
who put pressure on universities
like the University of Illinois

852
00:42:24.950 --> 00:42:29.350
to censor critical scholarship,
critical comments,

853
00:42:29.920 --> 00:42:33.930
critical research
about Israeli state policy.

854
00:42:34.450 --> 00:42:35.880
AARON MATÉ: And just to say
some of those tweets,

855
00:42:36.770 --> 00:42:40.400
after the three teens in the West Bank
went missing and were kidnapped

856
00:42:40.400 --> 00:42:41.770
and later killed, he said,

857
00:42:41.770 --> 00:42:42.880
"I wish all the [bleeping]

858
00:42:42.880 --> 00:42:45.150
West Bank settlers would go missing."

859
00:42:45.750 --> 00:42:47.970
He also said, "Zionists:

860
00:42:47.970 --> 00:42:50.950
transforming 'anti-Semitism'
from something horrible

861
00:42:50.950 --> 00:42:53.670
into something honorable since 1948."

862
00:42:53.670 --> 00:42:55.730
He was saying that it’s Israel itself

863
00:42:55.730 --> 00:42:59.090
that conflates Judaism
with Zionism, hence they’re the ones

864
00:42:59.090 --> 00:43:00.930
that are perverting anti-Semitism—

865
00:43:00.930 --> 00:43:02.100
a nuance

866
00:43:02.100 --> 00:43:03.530
that can’t be captured quite in a tweet.

867
00:43:03.530 --> 00:43:06.580
But so, what did you do
after this controversy broke out?

868
00:43:06.580 --> 00:43:09.520
KATHERINE FRANKE: Well, I’d been working
on this issue in my own scholarship

869
00:43:09.520 --> 00:43:11.070
on the politics of the region

870
00:43:11.070 --> 00:43:15.170
and on the complex legal questions
at stake in Israel-Palestine.

871
00:43:15.170 --> 00:43:16.650
I’m a human rights lawyer myself,

872
00:43:16.650 --> 00:43:18.380
and I also have done some work having

873
00:43:18.380 --> 00:43:20.540
to do with what we call "pinkwashing"
in that area,

874
00:43:20.540 --> 00:43:22.990
of how the Israeli government
has touted,

875
00:43:22.990 --> 00:43:25.060
as a sort of rebranding campaign,

876
00:43:25.060 --> 00:43:26.630
its pro-gay laws

877
00:43:26.630 --> 00:43:31.770
as a way to tarnish the Palestinians
for being anti-gay, which I think

878
00:43:31.770 --> 00:43:34.120
is a questionable proposition itself,
but more importantly,

879
00:43:34.120 --> 00:43:35.520
to distract attention

880
00:43:35.520 --> 00:43:39.010
from what the Israelis have been doing
in terms of human rights violations.

881
00:43:39.010 --> 00:43:43.270
So, I’ve been working in this region
for some time in my own scholarship,

882
00:43:44.070 --> 00:43:47.430
and then recently received funding
from the Sabah Foundation to think hard

883
00:43:47.430 --> 00:43:51.630
about how we might generate
complicated questions on campuses,

884
00:43:51.630 --> 00:43:53.210
in an academic context,

885
00:43:53.210 --> 00:43:54.460
around the issues

886
00:43:55.020 --> 00:43:59.750
that are trying to be censored
by various political outsiders

887
00:43:59.750 --> 00:44:01.020
to the university.

888
00:44:01.020 --> 00:44:02.960
There’s a kind of political correctness

889
00:44:02.960 --> 00:44:05.540
and almost a witch hunt
that’s going on on universities

890
00:44:05.540 --> 00:44:07.650
to stop these hard conversations,

891
00:44:07.650 --> 00:44:09.850
for which there are not
obvious right answers.

892
00:44:09.850 --> 00:44:11.610
There are complex answers.

893
00:44:11.610 --> 00:44:14.070
And if we can’t talk about them
in the university setting,

894
00:44:14.070 --> 00:44:15.920
where can we talk about them?

895
00:44:15.920 --> 00:44:18.020
So that’s why I’m interested
in this issue,

896
00:44:18.020 --> 00:44:20.110
not because I have a particular ideology

897
00:44:20.110 --> 00:44:21.490
that I think I want to impose,

898
00:44:21.490 --> 00:44:24.810
in place of whatever these outside
operatives are interested in,

899
00:44:24.810 --> 00:44:27.290
but because I’m interested
in the region and the ideas

900
00:44:27.290 --> 00:44:29.290
and the complexity of rights
and belonging

901
00:44:29.290 --> 00:44:32.040
and dispossession in Israel-Palestine,

902
00:44:32.040 --> 00:44:33.250
which if we can’t do it,

903
00:44:33.250 --> 00:44:35.120
as I said,
in the university, where can we?

904
00:44:35.120 --> 00:44:38.690
AMY GOODMAN: So, talk
about what you decided to do,

905
00:44:38.690 --> 00:44:41.230
your invitation
to the University of Illinois

906
00:44:41.230 --> 00:44:42.270
and what you’re doing about it.

907
00:44:42.270 --> 00:44:44.320
KATHERINE FRANKE: Well, as soon
as we all learned in early August

908
00:44:44.320 --> 00:44:46.020
of the termination

909
00:44:46.020 --> 00:44:48.840
of Professor Salaita from his employment
at the University of Illinois,

910
00:44:48.840 --> 00:44:52.290
there was a call
that went out from the faculty there

911
00:44:52.290 --> 00:44:55.980
and from those who supported
Professor Salaita that we not agree

912
00:44:55.980 --> 00:44:58.700
to visit the University
of Illinois outside faculty

913
00:44:58.700 --> 00:45:01.940
to give talks or lectures
until this problem was resolved.

914
00:45:01.940 --> 00:45:04.810
I had just coincidentally been
invited in June

915
00:45:04.810 --> 00:45:08.270
to go to Urbana-Champaign
later this semester

916
00:45:08.270 --> 00:45:10.600
and give a series of lectures,
which I was happy to do.

917
00:45:10.600 --> 00:45:13.470
I’m from Illinois,
it’s nice to return to the state,

918
00:45:13.470 --> 00:45:15.600
and I have wonderful colleagues there

919
00:45:15.600 --> 00:45:17.430
who I really look forward
to working with.

920
00:45:19.050 --> 00:45:21.790
Incidentally, the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

921
00:45:21.790 --> 00:45:24.730
is a world-class university,
wonderful faculty there,

922
00:45:24.730 --> 00:45:27.290
so we’re missing something
by not being able to participate

923
00:45:27.290 --> 00:45:29.770
and work with them and think
about these hard problems.

924
00:45:29.770 --> 00:45:31.580
So what I decided is I wouldn’t go,

925
00:45:32.420 --> 00:45:35.200
I certainly wouldn’t go
on the University of Illinois’s nickel,

926
00:45:35.850 --> 00:45:39.700
that I would honor the call for
a boycott of participation in lectures

927
00:45:39.700 --> 00:45:42.830
and speaking at the University
of Illinois, but I would do more.

928
00:45:42.830 --> 00:45:46.040
And I think all of us
who think about boycotting injustice

929
00:45:46.040 --> 00:45:48.890
in the world need
to think about doing boycotts, but more.

930
00:45:48.890 --> 00:45:52.880
How will you engage affirmatively
the injustice that generated the boycott

931
00:45:52.880 --> 00:45:54.170
in the first place?

932
00:45:54.170 --> 00:45:56.490
So I’m going next week
to the university,

933
00:45:56.490 --> 00:45:58.650
to Urbana-Champaign, on my own nickel,

934
00:45:59.490 --> 00:46:00.620
at my own expense,

935
00:46:00.620 --> 00:46:02.150
to hold a teach-in—

936
00:46:02.150 --> 00:46:03.570
although students now are saying

937
00:46:03.570 --> 00:46:05.280
that "teach-in" is a term
that’s from the '60s

938
00:46:05.280 --> 00:46:06.350
and we should find a better one,

939
00:46:06.350 --> 00:46:08.300
so if you can help me generate

940
00:46:08.300 --> 00:46:10.880
a more with-it term
for these sorts of events,

941
00:46:10.880 --> 00:46:11.950
that would be great.

942
00:46:11.950 --> 00:46:14.760
But I'm going next week
to meet with students,

943
00:46:14.760 --> 00:46:16.420
faculty and other members
of the community

944
00:46:16.420 --> 00:46:19.140
to think about and talk
about the academic freedom issues

945
00:46:19.140 --> 00:46:20.450
that are at stake here,

946
00:46:20.450 --> 00:46:23.680
but also the underlying issues
that these tweets gestured at,

947
00:46:23.680 --> 00:46:26.280
although in a very colorful
and blunt way.

948
00:46:26.280 --> 00:46:30.380
But instead of talking about
the hard issues of Palestinian rights,

949
00:46:30.380 --> 00:46:31.540
Palestinian sovereignty

950
00:46:31.540 --> 00:46:33.200
and the violence of the Gaza war,

951
00:46:33.200 --> 00:46:34.830
we’re talking about these tweets.

952
00:46:35.470 --> 00:46:38.480
And they are such an inartful way
to really say anything.

953
00:46:38.480 --> 00:46:40.350
AMY GOODMAN: And what was
the university’s response

954
00:46:40.350 --> 00:46:43.200
to how you’ve chosen to come back
to Illinois and to the university?

955
00:46:43.200 --> 00:46:46.350
KATHERINE FRANKE: The university has not
responded to any of us who have said—

956
00:46:46.350 --> 00:46:48.320
sent many, many letters.

957
00:46:48.320 --> 00:46:51.300
It’s not just a few of us who have said
we will boycott the university;

958
00:46:51.300 --> 00:46:53.860
it’s hundreds, hundreds
and hundreds of us.

959
00:46:54.390 --> 00:46:56.240
So, I have not heard anything
from the university,

960
00:46:56.240 --> 00:46:58.240
but the faculty is thrilled, I hope,

961
00:46:58.240 --> 00:47:01.570
and they’re co-sponsoring this event
off campus.

962
00:47:02.070 --> 00:47:04.540
AARON MATÉ: We’re also joined here
by Kristofer Petersen-Overton.

963
00:47:04.540 --> 00:47:06.430
You’ve spoken out on the Middle East.

964
00:47:06.430 --> 00:47:08.280
You’re a scholar yourself.

965
00:47:08.280 --> 00:47:10.230
You went through something similar
at Brooklyn College.

966
00:47:10.230 --> 00:47:12.270
Can you tell us your story?
KRISTOFER PETERSEN-OVERTON: Yeah, well,

967
00:47:12.270 --> 00:47:13.750
I mean,
I think there are important points

968
00:47:13.750 --> 00:47:15.510
of contact between my experience
at Brooklyn College

969
00:47:15.510 --> 00:47:16.890
and Professor Salaita’s case.

970
00:47:16.890 --> 00:47:20.630
I mean, I was hired back in 2011
as an adjunct lecturer,

971
00:47:20.630 --> 00:47:21.890
so that’s a significant difference.

972
00:47:21.890 --> 00:47:23.110
I’m not a tenured professor.

973
00:47:23.110 --> 00:47:25.420
I’m a doctoral student, actually,
at the CUNY Graduate Center.

974
00:47:25.420 --> 00:47:28.330
But many of us also teach courses
in order to support our education.

975
00:47:28.330 --> 00:47:31.890
So I was hired to teach a one-semester
course on Middle East politics.

976
00:47:31.890 --> 00:47:34.960
But before I was able
to actually arrive in the classroom,

977
00:47:34.960 --> 00:47:38.320
a student complained to the department
that she had googled me online

978
00:47:38.320 --> 00:47:40.870
and found some of my views
apparently she took issue

979
00:47:40.870 --> 00:47:44.610
with and complained that I would be
slanted and unfair towards Israel.

980
00:47:44.610 --> 00:47:45.980
The department asked her to hold off,

981
00:47:45.980 --> 00:47:50.040
and she turned around instead and went
to a New York state assemblyperson,

982
00:47:50.040 --> 00:47:52.150
who then issued a press release
calling me a, quote,

983
00:47:52.150 --> 00:47:53.800
"overt supporter of terrorism."

984
00:47:53.800 --> 00:47:56.700
And this turned
into an enormous controversy,

985
00:47:56.700 --> 00:47:57.730
which I didn’t expect,

986
00:47:57.730 --> 00:47:59.710
not knowing the political culture
of Brooklyn College,

987
00:47:59.710 --> 00:48:02.650
not knowing the politics and background
of this issue there.

988
00:48:02.650 --> 00:48:06.580
And unfortunately,
the political science department,

989
00:48:06.580 --> 00:48:09.550
while supporting me,
was routed by the administration,

990
00:48:09.550 --> 00:48:11.570
who intervened
and canceled my appointment.

991
00:48:11.570 --> 00:48:14.690
And were it not for a large mobilization

992
00:48:14.690 --> 00:48:16.750
of students, faculty, activists
and all sorts

993
00:48:16.750 --> 00:48:19.140
of independent organizations
around the country and world,

994
00:48:19.140 --> 00:48:22.080
I wouldn’t have gotten my job
back five days later.

995
00:48:22.080 --> 00:48:23.330
AARON MATÉ: What did they do,

996
00:48:23.330 --> 00:48:25.100
this mobilization
for your reinstatement?

997
00:48:25.720 --> 00:48:29.400
KRISTOFER PETERSEN-OVERTON: They
put a spotlight on the injustice

998
00:48:29.400 --> 00:48:30.950
of canceling my appointment,

999
00:48:30.950 --> 00:48:34.240
not only because of the controversy of,
you know, the taboo,

1000
00:48:34.240 --> 00:48:37.100
the general taboo placed
on criticizing Israel’s occupation,

1001
00:48:37.100 --> 00:48:40.100
but also issues that are related
to really adjunct labor rights

1002
00:48:40.100 --> 00:48:41.520
and the sort of two-tier system

1003
00:48:41.520 --> 00:48:43.260
that you have at universities
across the country,

1004
00:48:44.040 --> 00:48:45.710
which is a major point of contact

1005
00:48:45.710 --> 00:48:48.090
I see between my case
and Professor Salaita’s.

1006
00:48:48.090 --> 00:48:49.710
AARON MATÉ: Were there protests?
They wrote letters?

1007
00:48:49.710 --> 00:48:51.070
There was a campaign?

1008
00:48:51.070 --> 00:48:52.050
KRISTOFER PETERSEN-OVERTON: Yeah,
there were letters.

1009
00:48:52.050 --> 00:48:56.820
A number of very well-known scholars
wrote letters on my behalf,

1010
00:48:56.820 --> 00:48:57.920
similar to what we’ve seen here,

1011
00:48:57.920 --> 00:49:00.630
although, of course, Professor Salaita
is much higher-profile than I am.

1012
00:49:00.630 --> 00:49:02.100
I’m just a lowly graduate student.

1013
00:49:03.050 --> 00:49:04.430
AMY GOODMAN: I want to read an excerpt

1014
00:49:04.430 --> 00:49:07.510
from the letter by the chancellor
of the University of Illinois

1015
00:49:07.510 --> 00:49:09.660
at Urbana-Champaign, Phyllis Wise,

1016
00:49:09.660 --> 00:49:13.440
explaining the university’s position
on Steven Salaita.

1017
00:49:13.440 --> 00:49:15.810
After saying that the decision, quote,

1018
00:49:15.810 --> 00:49:17.250
"was not influenced in any way

1019
00:49:17.250 --> 00:49:19.170
by his positions
on the conflict in the Middle East

1020
00:49:19.170 --> 00:49:20.730
nor his criticism of Israel,

1021
00:49:20.730 --> 00:49:23.910
" Chancellor Wise goes on to write,
quote, "What we cannot

1022
00:49:23.910 --> 00:49:26.120
and will not tolerate
at the University of Illinois

1023
00:49:26.120 --> 00:49:29.290
are personal and disrespectful words
or actions that demean and abuse

1024
00:49:29.290 --> 00:49:32.260
either viewpoints
themselves or those who express them.

1025
00:49:32.260 --> 00:49:34.440
... As chancellor,
it is my responsibility

1026
00:49:34.440 --> 00:49:37.490
to ensure
that all perspectives are welcome

1027
00:49:37.490 --> 00:49:39.110
and that our discourse,

1028
00:49:39.110 --> 00:49:41.930
regardless of subject matter
or viewpoint,

1029
00:49:41.930 --> 00:49:44.800
allows new concepts
and differing points of view

1030
00:49:44.800 --> 00:49:47.450
to be discussed
in and outside the classroom

1031
00:49:47.450 --> 00:49:50.690
in a scholarly,
civil and productive manner."

1032
00:49:50.690 --> 00:49:52.780
Professor Franke, your response?

1033
00:49:52.780 --> 00:49:54.370
KATHERINE FRANKE: Well,
what we see in that letter

1034
00:49:54.370 --> 00:49:57.840
is basically a page from the playbook
of the David Project.

1035
00:49:57.840 --> 00:50:03.510
The David Project is a Boston-based
pro-Zionist, pro-Israeli project

1036
00:50:03.510 --> 00:50:06.120
dedicated to shaping the way
in which Israel

1037
00:50:06.120 --> 00:50:07.980
and Israeli state policy is discussed—

1038
00:50:07.980 --> 00:50:10.130
are discussed on college campuses,

1039
00:50:10.130 --> 00:50:13.650
in a way that is friendly
towards Israel and Israeli state policy.

1040
00:50:14.370 --> 00:50:17.400
They’ve recently issued a report
where they said, "Our technique

1041
00:50:17.400 --> 00:50:22.090
now will be in approaching
the critics of Israel on campus

1042
00:50:22.090 --> 00:50:24.940
to describe what they say as uncivil."

1043
00:50:24.940 --> 00:50:26.780
And if you read the chancellor’s letter

1044
00:50:26.780 --> 00:50:28.900
and you read this strategy memo,

1045
00:50:28.900 --> 00:50:30.580
you see that her letter—

1046
00:50:30.580 --> 00:50:32.730
I don’t know if it’s actually been
informed by that memo,

1047
00:50:32.730 --> 00:50:35.170
but it certainly reflects it
and was influenced by it.

1048
00:50:36.000 --> 00:50:38.170
Civility is not an academic norm.

1049
00:50:39.270 --> 00:50:43.210
It actually runs contrary
to what we do in an academic setting.

1050
00:50:43.210 --> 00:50:45.000
In my teaching, in my writing,

1051
00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:47.500
I try to unsettle people’s comfortable—

1052
00:50:47.500 --> 00:50:49.330
my students’ comfortable notions

1053
00:50:49.330 --> 00:50:51.960
about what rights can do,
what law can do.

1054
00:50:51.960 --> 00:50:55.960
Sometimes law is part of the problem
as much as it’s part of the solution.

1055
00:50:55.960 --> 00:50:59.540
Other parts of my work
make us think hard about sexual identity

1056
00:50:59.540 --> 00:51:02.070
and sexual orientation-based identity.

1057
00:51:02.070 --> 00:51:04.010
I’m one of the biggest critics
in the country

1058
00:51:04.010 --> 00:51:06.900
of the gay rights movement’s investment
in the marriage campaign,

1059
00:51:06.900 --> 00:51:08.270
the marriage equality campaign.

1060
00:51:08.830 --> 00:51:10.670
That doesn’t make me very popular

1061
00:51:10.670 --> 00:51:12.490
with some parts
of the gay rights movement,

1062
00:51:12.490 --> 00:51:15.530
and it unsettles the ideas
of many of my students.

1063
00:51:15.530 --> 00:51:17.770
Some might say what I do is uncivil.

1064
00:51:17.770 --> 00:51:20.300
So, a civility norm
isn’t really the right norm

1065
00:51:20.300 --> 00:51:22.950
to appeal to in the academic context,

1066
00:51:22.950 --> 00:51:27.010
because it really undermines
what it is we do as academics,

1067
00:51:27.010 --> 00:51:30.500
which is think hard
and often think in uncomfortable ways

1068
00:51:30.500 --> 00:51:32.090
about our settled ideas

1069
00:51:32.090 --> 00:51:34.490
and our settled senses
of what we know in the world.

1070
00:51:35.080 --> 00:51:36.400
AARON MATÉ: In you letter
to Chancellor Wise,

1071
00:51:36.400 --> 00:51:39.550
you talk about how Israel-Palestine
is addressed on campus,

1072
00:51:39.550 --> 00:51:43.170
and you mention that you were once told
not to use the word "Palestine"

1073
00:51:43.170 --> 00:51:44.200
in one of your courses.

1074
00:51:45.080 --> 00:51:47.080
KATHERINE FRANKE: It wasn’t
that I shouldn’t use the word

1075
00:51:47.080 --> 00:51:48.260
"Palestine" in my courses.

1076
00:51:48.260 --> 00:51:49.760
I’ve done work in Ramallah

1077
00:51:49.760 --> 00:51:51.560
and in Palestine
with women lawyers there.

1078
00:51:51.560 --> 00:51:54.220
I’ve been working to try to build a bar,

1079
00:51:54.220 --> 00:51:57.060
a legal community, within Palestine.

1080
00:51:57.060 --> 00:52:00.570
Any society needs a strong civil society
as it’s rebuilding itself.

1081
00:52:00.570 --> 00:52:02.430
And so, I’ve been
working with women lawyers

1082
00:52:02.430 --> 00:52:05.140
to be important parts
of the Palestinian bar.

1083
00:52:05.960 --> 00:52:07.840
And so, I came back
from one of my trips there,

1084
00:52:07.840 --> 00:52:12.630
and I wanted to do a talk at Columbia
about Palestinian women lawyers.

1085
00:52:12.630 --> 00:52:16.800
And we have this little administrative
thing we have to do at Columbia,

1086
00:52:16.800 --> 00:52:20.390
is put our posters
through the dean’s office for approval.

1087
00:52:20.390 --> 00:52:24.150
And I was told I couldn’t have an event
where the word "Palestine"

1088
00:52:24.150 --> 00:52:25.950
appeared in the title of the event,

1089
00:52:25.950 --> 00:52:28.140
because there is no such thing
as Palestine.

1090
00:52:28.830 --> 00:52:31.150
Well, I ignored them;
I went ahead and did it anyway.

1091
00:52:31.150 --> 00:52:33.480
But we can think about a lot
of places in the world, Tibet,

1092
00:52:33.480 --> 00:52:34.960
for instance, where you could say,

1093
00:52:34.960 --> 00:52:36.650
"There’s no such place as Tibet."

1094
00:52:36.650 --> 00:52:38.340
So, to censor the idea

1095
00:52:38.340 --> 00:52:42.360
of even the conjuring the idea
of Palestine in an academic setting

1096
00:52:43.330 --> 00:52:46.830
is something that’s happening
across campuses all over the country.

1097
00:52:46.830 --> 00:52:49.900
What’s happened to me is so mild
compared to what’s happening

1098
00:52:49.900 --> 00:52:53.440
to Professor Salaita
or that happened to Kris,

1099
00:52:53.440 --> 00:52:56.270
but they’re all part
of an organized campaign.

1100
00:52:56.270 --> 00:52:58.850
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about what you’ve
called the "corporate university"

1101
00:52:58.850 --> 00:53:00.670
and how you think that ties in.

1102
00:53:00.670 --> 00:53:02.310
KATHERINE FRANKE: Well,
Kris made comments about this

1103
00:53:02.310 --> 00:53:03.570
in his experience, as well.

1104
00:53:03.570 --> 00:53:06.460
And what we’re seeing in this incident—

1105
00:53:06.460 --> 00:53:08.320
and I’ll call it a catastrophe, really,

1106
00:53:08.320 --> 00:53:09.980
at the University of Illinois—

1107
00:53:09.980 --> 00:53:12.940
is evidence of the corporatization
of the university,

1108
00:53:12.940 --> 00:53:14.350
where the executive—

1109
00:53:14.350 --> 00:53:15.860
in this case, the chancellor—

1110
00:53:15.860 --> 00:53:19.100
sees herself as responsible
to investors or donors

1111
00:53:19.100 --> 00:53:23.690
more than she does to the constituency
on campus, the academics and students.

1112
00:53:23.690 --> 00:53:26.800
A university is not just a business,

1113
00:53:26.800 --> 00:53:28.900
where you have to have a bottom line

1114
00:53:28.900 --> 00:53:34.380
that satisfies your board of directors
every year like other businesses.

1115
00:53:34.380 --> 00:53:36.760
We have a particular mission
in the university,

1116
00:53:37.340 --> 00:53:39.500
perhaps to do things that are unpopular,

1117
00:53:40.240 --> 00:53:42.810
that challenge
what your donors think is the right way

1118
00:53:42.810 --> 00:53:44.850
in which you should be thinking
about particular problems.

1119
00:53:44.850 --> 00:53:48.250
If we’re not doing that,
then we’re not running a university,

1120
00:53:48.250 --> 00:53:50.620
we’re running some other kind
of ideological machine.

1121
00:53:51.540 --> 00:53:53.010
Columbia has the same problem.

1122
00:53:53.010 --> 00:53:56.330
I’m not going to single out
the University of Illinois,

1123
00:53:56.330 --> 00:54:00.660
but it’s a really bare example
of an executive of a university

1124
00:54:00.660 --> 00:54:03.020
seeing herself
as accountable to her donors,

1125
00:54:03.020 --> 00:54:05.740
not to an intellectual
and scholarly mission.

1126
00:54:05.740 --> 00:54:08.570
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we will certainly
continue to follow this issue.

1127
00:54:08.570 --> 00:54:11.100
Katherine Franke,
we want to thank you for being with us,

1128
00:54:11.100 --> 00:54:13.340
a professor of law
at Columbia Law School

1129
00:54:13.340 --> 00:54:16.240
and director
of the Open University Project.

1130
00:54:16.240 --> 00:54:18.830
Kristofer Petersen-Overton,
thank you for joining us,

1131
00:54:18.830 --> 00:54:23.040
adjunct lecturer on political science
at Lehman College,

1132
00:54:23.040 --> 00:54:25.630
doctoral student
at the CUNY Graduate Center.

1133
00:54:25.630 --> 00:54:27.800
This is Democracy Now! Stay with us.

1134
00:55:08.200 --> 00:55:23.940
AARON MATÉ: We end today’s show
in Massachusetts

1135
00:55:23.940 --> 00:55:26.860
looking at a case known
as the lobster boat blockade.

1136
00:55:26.860 --> 00:55:29.660
Two climate activists were set
to go on trial Monday

1137
00:55:29.660 --> 00:55:32.320
for blocking a shipment
of 40,000 tons of coal.

1138
00:55:32.320 --> 00:55:35.140
Ken Ward and Jay O’Hara
used their lobster boat

1139
00:55:35.140 --> 00:55:38.400
to block a delivery of the coal
to the Brayton Point Power Station

1140
00:55:38.400 --> 00:55:40.090
in Somerset, Massachusetts.

1141
00:55:40.090 --> 00:55:43.650
Ward and O’Hara faced charges stemming
from their act of civil disobedience.

1142
00:55:43.650 --> 00:55:46.280
But in a surprise move,
the Bristol district attorney,

1143
00:55:46.280 --> 00:55:49.780
Sam Sutter, announced he had instead
dropped the criminal charges

1144
00:55:49.780 --> 00:55:52.690
and reduced three other charges
to civil offenses.

1145
00:55:52.690 --> 00:55:55.030
This is Sutter speaking
just outside the courthouse.

1146
00:55:55.710 --> 00:55:58.730
DISTRICT ATTORNEY SAM SUTTER: The
decision that Robert Kidd and I—

1147
00:55:58.730 --> 00:56:01.550
that’s the assistant district attorney
who handled this case—

1148
00:56:02.090 --> 00:56:06.030
reached today was a decision
that certainly took into consideration

1149
00:56:06.540 --> 00:56:09.040
the cost to the taxpayers in Somerset,

1150
00:56:10.460 --> 00:56:15.660
but was made with our concern
for their children,

1151
00:56:16.740 --> 00:56:18.140
the children of Bristol County

1152
00:56:18.140 --> 00:56:19.630
and beyond, in mind.

1153
00:56:20.320 --> 00:56:21.360
Climate change

1154
00:56:21.360 --> 00:56:25.310
is one of the gravest crises
our planet has ever faced.

1155
00:56:26.370 --> 00:56:27.690
In my humble opinion,

1156
00:56:28.240 --> 00:56:31.870
the political leadership
on this issue has been gravely lacking.

1157
00:56:32.490 --> 00:56:36.280
I am heartened
that we were able to forge an agreement

1158
00:56:36.280 --> 00:56:41.410
that both parties were pleased with
and that appeared to satisfy the police

1159
00:56:41.410 --> 00:56:45.710
and those here in sympathy
with the individuals who were charged.

1160
00:56:45.710 --> 00:56:50.280
I am also extremely pleased
that we were able to reach an agreement

1161
00:56:50.800 --> 00:56:53.420
that symbolizes our commitment

1162
00:56:53.420 --> 00:56:56.180
at the Bristol County
District Attorney’s Office

1163
00:56:56.180 --> 00:56:59.440
to take a leadership role on this issue.

1164
00:56:59.440 --> 00:57:00.020
CROWD MEMBER: Amen!
DISTRICT ATTORNEY SAM SUTTER: Thank you.

1165
00:57:00.020 --> 00:57:03.060
... So that’s very inspiring to me,

1166
00:57:03.060 --> 00:57:05.140
and I will carry that with me
in my heart. Thank you.

1167
00:57:05.140 --> 00:57:08.720
REPORTER: Will you be a model
for across the country?

1168
00:57:08.720 --> 00:57:10.630
DISTRICT ATTORNEY SAM SUTTER: Well,
I certainly will be in New York

1169
00:57:10.630 --> 00:57:19.960
in two weeks, how’s that?

1170
00:57:19.960 --> 00:57:22.000
And I’m walking around
with Bill McKibben’s article

1171
00:57:22.000 --> 00:57:23.520
from Rolling Stone
a couple of months ago.

1172
00:57:23.520 --> 00:57:26.920
How do you like that?
So, you know where my heart is.

1173
00:57:26.920 --> 00:57:31.100
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Bristol County
District Attorney Sam Sutter.

1174
00:57:31.910 --> 00:57:35.690
As he spoke outside the courthouse,

1175
00:57:35.690 --> 00:57:38.690
the protesters also spoke.

1176
00:57:40.440 --> 00:57:41.960
KEN WARD: They’re still burning coal
over there.

1177
00:57:41.960 --> 00:57:43.650
In fact,
they’re burning twice as much coal

1178
00:57:43.650 --> 00:57:45.330
last year than they did the year before.

1179
00:57:45.330 --> 00:57:47.590
And this is a plant
that’s supposed to be phasing out.

1180
00:57:48.460 --> 00:57:51.160
That’s the problem.
I mean, we just found out this summer

1181
00:57:51.160 --> 00:57:54.720
that the West Antarctica ice shelf
is in collapse.

1182
00:57:54.720 --> 00:57:55.760
Nothing we can do about it.

1183
00:57:55.760 --> 00:57:57.010
Ten feet of sea-level rise.

1184
00:57:57.780 --> 00:57:59.010
In that context,

1185
00:57:59.010 --> 00:58:04.440
it seems to me the only thing
one can do is put yourself in the way.

1186
00:58:05.040 --> 00:58:07.500
AMY GOODMAN: That was climate
activist Ken Ward.

1187
00:58:07.500 --> 00:58:12.130
And we’ll be joined by both the Bristol
County district attorney, Sam Sutter,

1188
00:58:12.130 --> 00:58:13.510
as well as the activists,

1189
00:58:13.510 --> 00:58:15.550
tomorrow on Democracy Now!