Very good evening to you thanks for joining us for the weekly here on r. T. International. Another black man has died at the hands of police sparking violent unrest in the u. S. City of atlanta the citys police chief resigned after an officer fatally shot the africanamerican while he was being arrested on saturday night coming up for you now is body camera footage of that incident i must warn you you may find these images disturbing. Yeah. Im not sure. I think you know too much the trying to be drivers point 4. Late on friday Police Received a call that a black man was sleeping in his car which was waiting in the queue at a burger drive through brooks was breath tested and failed and then resisted arrest during the struggle that ensued he appears to grab an officer is taser and later points it while fleeing he was at this moment that he was shot and died later in hospital. Protestors later set on fire the restaurant where the killing took place following the incident atlantas mayor said that the officer who pulled the trigger had been sacked you know the one involved was suspended while the citys police chief had to quit. While new b. L. M. Protests have erupted in another parts of america hundreds of demonstrators have come to the streets of portland to protest against racism and Police Brutality activists from the movement which chased by the police who deployed tear gas its been almost 3 weeks since george floyd was killed at the hands of Law Enforcement in minneapolis tuesday the man whose death sparked nationwide riots was buried in a small private funeral in his hometown of Houston Texas earlier that day thousands paid their respects. On tuesday around 6000. 00 mourners filed past the coffin in houston the final stop in a series of memorials held employees on or around 30000. 00 was spent on the gold casket with the money taken from a record breaking Fundraising Campaign the mast nearly 13000000. 00 the fallout from floyds death has provoked claims that politicians are trying to use it to score political points democrats were criticized by some for kneeling for an 8 minute silence in congress the length of time prosecutors say floyd was pinned under a White Police Officers name before he died. Every american should try to stand in silence for 8 minutes and 46 seconds to acknowledge the pain of george floyd and the pain of racism enough to grieve but its much harder to do it in public its much harder with the whole world watching your incredible family his little daughter was there i want to say daddys going to change the world and i think her dad is going to change the world hopefully george is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing thats happening for our country this is a great great day. In terms of equality i just want to finish by saying to save the economy we passed several pieces of critical legislation before this. Was meant. To take care of that. Well the democrats have proposed a justice in policing act which would make it easier to prosecute misconduct and require local police to report data on the use of force officers would also be obliged to undergo biased training and chokeholds and other dangerous practices would be prohibited offices would also have to wear body cameras to school commentator jeff chiles believes that theres a clear political motivation behind the moves you know what they say right i mean never let a good crisis go to waste there will definitely be people from both sides who are going to capitalize on what happened in georgia. To bolster their political careers it is an Election Year so its hard to tell whether or not the people really pushing for this are really wanting to affect change or if theyre posturing for november the true test of whether people really want to affect change will will occur after the election is over if this is still going to be an issue that were going to be pushing in our in our media and also at it in at a political level as well then it is possible for d more positive change to come. Ok police speak now to Joe Gregg Susan attorney and who is the Vice President of atlantas chapter of the and a and a c. P. A. Thanks so much for coming on gerald 1st of all your reaction to the shooting of rush hour books. My heart is heavy for his family i got yes me his family yesterday and of course all that lanny is mourning and grieving the loss of our dear brother mr brooks. What did you make of the video that emerged because initially it seems to start off you know and a very common of the way the police the daily with mr brooks and then it escalates so quickly. Youre my mind issue impression was that it was an ordinary star and in mr brooks did not understand why he was being stopped he tried to question the police a struggle ensued and he was in the process of scraping the arrest when he was shot unnecessarily in unjustified leading members of Law Enforcement with the Atlanta Police department so people can argue this is a much more complicated case than perhaps it was seen with george floyd in the sense that it seems from the video that richelle brooks resisted arrest and maybe got hold of a taser. How do you assess the use of force by the police which is going to be once again the big issue. I mean i think people are going to try to argue on both sides but georgia law is quite clear you cannot use lethal force in response to nonlethal force d so i think that both officers will be charged with murder and weve had conversations with the district d attorney in this case and hes opened an independent investigation separate and apart from the Georgia Bureau of investigation and people need to understand that Law Enforcement is not the law in georgia the law in georgia happens in courtrooms and you cannot use. You cannot use lethal force to match a non lethal force there is a case of tennessee versus gardner United StatesSupreme Court cases stands for their proposition so i think that this case is going to end up in a superior court of phone johnny with murder charges against both officers i mean obviously one would expect Police Officers to behave in the same manner regardless of who the person is and what all regardless of what the situation is but isnt it that little bit more shocking coming off the back of what happened with george floyd and coming off a made to this this extremely emotional atmosphere in the region at the moment. Yeah it is absolutely infuriating that as atlanta was in the midst of 15 days of straight protesting for our dear brother georgia for mob area for Briana Taylor and the countless number of other cases in atlanta like jimmy x. And oscar cheney that Atlanta Police will respond in this d fashion weve had 2 other similar incidents of Police Brutality during the protest to 4 houses spellman students and then a young lady who was piled driving broker clavicle so theres a history of police abuse in atlanta and its just infuriating that on the 15th day protest they shot and killed our dear brother mr brooks just coming back into the video as i said it seemed like the interaction between the police and the victim. Was fairly. Whelm aning it seemed to be the approach from the Police Nearly exchanges than it escalates very quickly is there evidence do you think that there was any kind of racial element to this shooting at this point i dont know again its a continuing investigation we are also conducting independent investigation as in double a c. P. And will assist the family i dont know if theres racial animus in this case yet we have to do like i said a thorough sifting lest a geisha but as far as the law is concerned and what weve seen from the facts so far it does not fit within a justifiable shooting so i think that these 2 officers need to have more than just one terminations in one mistreated lee they need to be completely to be fired and they need to be charged and we need to determine what happened in a court of law under georgia law i think once we do that you will see murder charges against these officers and you said that you had some interaction with the family they have the same thought as you what are they looking to to to get Going Forward now from the legal system. Yes i spoke briefly with the brother and the cousin there and shot they want justice i plan on making contact with their lawyers later on today to get a full understanding of what theyre calling for but i know theyre calling for justice d and theyre calling for and investigation into what happened to their dear brother mr brooks and so we will assist in that manner and we will continue to elevate their voices for change and justice and we are calling on a full and thorough investigation by an independent agency to get to the bottom of this case and make sure theres justice thant what as he said one officer has been immediately fired another one suspended the citys police chief has resigned after 20 is a service theres been a lot of action in a very short space of time. Does that satisfy you in the short term and also do you think it would have even happened if it hadnt been for the previous case of george floyd. Yeah i dont think it would happen without george floyd you know and lanas had a complicated history of trying to cover up these cases a saying that the city is too busy to hate and we dont have this problem now is absolutely false atlanta has a serious Police Brutality problem going back to corrie war and Catherine Johnson culminating in jimmy accent and bill tavi is greased and auster cain indiana griffin and now eddie sharp hooks to the list is a long list so i believe that without George Floyds attention with our brianna taylors attention without him on oprahs attention they would try to sweep this one on the road but we have video and we have outrage from the community and the community will not respond to this justice in all cases so thanks so much for taking the time to come on our t. V. Appreciate it carol griggs is my guest attorney and Vice President of atlantas an ac captain thank you thank you. At the beginning of the week black lines massive protests to seize control and barricaded themselves into 6 blocks of central seattle theyre calling the area the capitol hill autonomous of came after police had retreated from the neighborhood hundreds of demonstrators low by the local council also occupied city hall. I. I think. The protesters inside called for the city to quit they accuse jenny durkan of not being strict enough in implementing reforms they also claim the community and not politicians should be in the Decision Making activist does he read the loach told us that the key demand of all the demonstrators is for the police to be defunded. Meena means or i would say that i could see right now is that people are really calling for the defunding of police you know nationwide if you were to take out funding from the police and put it into communities that really needed you know for the escalation for the medical Services Hospitals education and you know the list goes on in iran there really is no need for a police. Now the zone is a self to glow commune no police or cars are allowed into the area report suggests that some inside are armed the citys mayor later defended the protesters saying that they are simply patriots as in the trump though demanded law and order in seattle he also called out those he felt responsible saying all this had happened in a radical left democrats that threatened to send in the army if the local authorities didnt deal with the situation but the issue of law and order its nothing new in fact its been on the lips of both republican and democrat president s for more than 5 decades. Law annoyed a small familia as the popular t. V. Show you running for 3 decades already law and order. But also exactly whats triggered nationwide protests across the United States. Thats the. Law and order is the 1st responsibility of government dont send people up there that come home and talk tough on law and order and crime and then go back and vote some other way around us all who merely a symbol of law and order a policeman on the campus and that was the moment when the ringleaders should have been taken by the scruff of the neck intro and out of the university one. By law and order i mean one order for everybody weve got to reestablish respect for law respect for order law and order a concept thats existed since the Founding Fathers the catchphrase that helped take Richard Nixon to the white house during mass civil unrest and race riots. Around 200 people died back then in clashes Martin Luther king was assassinated so waving in a new era for society nixon proposed an agenda in which Police Powers were a bouncer increase in 1968 the green light was given for the use of stop and search and powers have expanded since. In new york it became infamous stops dramatically increasing under mayor Michael Bloomberg in the 2 thousands but it raised a key issue racial prejudice during the peak of the program more than half of the people stopped were black but the black community made up just over one quarter of new yorks population 1st started new york philadelphia. California 7. First. As new ways to keep order were introduced laws became tougher since 1928 states have adopted some form of whats known as the 3 strike practice it meant lengthy sentences for repeat offenders even life behind bars the policy came in as the war on drugs peaked which raised further questions of racial targeting at the turn of the century more than half of all inmates serving time for drug offenses in state prisons were black 3 years ago it was still around 30 percent despite only being 13 percent of the population as a whole with both Police Powers and sentencing increased prison numbers skyrocketed there are more black people than any other racial Group Behind Bars in america something that has not changed under bill Clinton George bush or barack obama for every 100000 people in the u. S. Sentences for black people a 5 times higher than whites. So law and order it was a response to rioting like the unrest ravaging the United States from coast to coast in 2020 provoked by Police Actions it happened in los angeles in 92. 00 after the beating of rodney king by the authorities it happened after the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in ferguson a year later in baltimore with the death of freddie gray. In the last 5 years on record the number of those fatally shot by the police per 1000000 people is higher among blacks than any other ethnicity and now history is repeating itself yet another Police Related death has provoked unrest and again triggered discussion on black rights so as we look back on whats unfolded since nixon and his slogan in the sixtys donald trump has reassured the nation now saying i am your president to have law and order trumps demands for law and order come at a time when police in america are becoming increasingly militarized and the forces now boast the kind of hardware previously only seen in front line combat a broad scale of more than explains. Predator drones are a staple of u. S. Foreign policy they have been used in afghanistan pakistan bosnia serbia yemen iraq syria somalia and now minneapolis though the protesters didnt see it it was flying over their heads in order to help federal officials gain situation awareness and go reports indicate it was on armed people are angry and afraid the deployment of drones and offices to surveil protests is a gross abuse of authority and its particularly issuing when they used against americans who are protesting Law Enforcement brutality it appears that the war on terror has come home the mine resistant ambush protected vehicles built by the u. S. Military to a stand attacks in iraq have been rolling down american streets as well the 1033 Program Allows the u. S. Military to provide local Police Departments with weapons local police can order weapons like remade launchers automatic rifles and bayonets as well as body armor robots aircraft watercraft and survey one strongs these are Defense Department products deemed to be excessive old or surplus 7400000000. 00 worth of Defense Department property has been provided to over 8000. 00 different Law Enforcement agencies by the 1033 program ex new york city mayor Michael Bloomberg once referred to the new york city Police Department saying i have my own army and the n. Y. P. D. The 7th largest army in the world well with lots of military equipment the n. Y. P. D. Certainly does seem like an army of iraq obama rolled back the program after the ferguson protests and National Outrage about the militarization of police who. 7 c are. Now back. However trump has ruled by the program now many are asking the question why does the department of defense have so much excess gear that it needs to unload anyway the u. S. Has been involved in so many words that they become occupations and the military is has developed techniques were operating as an Occupying Army and theyve brought these home they brought the war home after they they buy these things and the military you know uses some of them they become surplus or if they dont buy of them all you know the military orders a certain number and then they back out of buying some of it a lot of the stuff sitting in military warehouses and so they want to get rid of them and they and basically Congress Passed a law saying that these things are to be given to Police Departments so we have the ridiculous situation where small towns are being given em wraps theyre totally impractical they dont make any sense theyre terribly intimidating. And thats part of the purpose i guess for years americans have been told that the military budget is necessary to keep them safe and protect them from bad actors around the world but its starting to look like the bad guys these weapons are intended to be used against our a lot closer to home the very people whose tax dollars pay for them it will mop and artsy new york. To get more reaction now to the shooting of books and atlanta can speak to investigate journalist and boom bust cohost on out say ben swan thanks for joining us but just give us a bit more of a sense of the situation right now and atlanta we saw what happened to that wendys being burned down is that is the still more protests more violence on the streets. Well right now things are pretty quiet but the question is whether or not were going to see more tonight thats what a lot of people are looking at look we have 2 major issues that have come up here one is as you mentioned the burning of the windies in particular and then secondly is the resignation of the police chief here in atlanta chief shields stepping down just about 24 hours ago from her post to run that apartment the mayor of the city bottoms said that it was entirely the decision of the push if she did not call for her resignation and yet that reg resignation is there and i think thats a significant point as well simply because as were watching what is happening with these protests one of the demands of protesters obviously has been and has been for several years to get control of the way Police Respond to citizens and in light of all the protests that are going on nationwide its pretty stunning to think that we would see this happen so quickly in a city like atlanta i mean its impossible to understand what was going through the mind of brooks when he decided to resist the rest and to run and strong grab the taser equally impossible to understand what was going through the minds of the the Police Officers does it all come down to is the key thing here the amount of force that is used on the play some people were saying why didnt they shoot him in the leg why the need to use the gun in the 1st place what is it about the amount of force i think in almost every case where were seeing black lives matter protests it comes down to use of force and it really seems to be the overwhelming theme that we see over and over and again so the point youre making here its critically important that some people will say yes why that you should unlike others will say you came across a man who was asleep in a drive through and he wasnt moving his car and that when the drive through you gave him a sobriety test he resisted being handcuffed so at what point is it incumbent upon an officer to finish that arrest and to get this person behind bars how important is it to lock him up and thats where some process protesters feel. The use of force comes down to a common sense issue of this person did not seem to be a danger to the public he wasnt harming anyone at the time so why did you feel the need as officers and im this not necessarily my criticism but certainly the criticism of some protestors why is there a need by officers to escalate whats happening with that person especially if the person may be under some kind of influence and doesnt know what theyre doing so theyre going to be questioned about use of force but also about the practicality of this why is it so necessary in this case that this person must be cuffed and put into a police car and that things continue to escalate at what point do police in their training deescalate the situation we saw the protests the fall of the death of philip floyd spread across the country any indication is it likely were going to see similar situations here. We certainly might and part of the reason for that is because again youre going to see in such a short span of time to have this happen again its its tragic its tragic in alone in this situation in and of itself but its also tragic in terms of the timing how quickly after the death of george floyd after these calls for reform or in some cases the calls for defunding Police Departments the calls for you know abolishing in some cases Police Departments so shortly after that to have another since lets death of a man who again we dont know the situation we dont know all the facts here but one thing thats important to know is whether or not this was a chemical issue. In the issue of drugs or alcohol being used and or and we dont know a Mental Health issue and if that is the case again where is the preparation by police to deescalate things and i think well probably see now more protests ramping up around the country because a lot of protesters are going to feel like police are just not getting the message. I mean if you look back through u. S. History even just over the last 5060 years i mean the been several council of very high profile incidents of the killing of black people this resulted in very big protests but i mean this is really quite something extreme is now if you come across Something Like this before because it seems from a distance from another country like americas or some far of the moment. America is on fire i think at the moment i think thats an accurate description of it look i was in ferguson when when Michael Brown then the protests over Michael Brown stuff happened i was in baltimore the protests over a young man incredibly brave guy there the protest in new york over eric garner it is happen time and time again here in atlanta weve seen protests as well but at this moment it is like nothing weve seen before because there is definitely a tide turning in terms of of most americans a vast majority of americans who say policing as it stands now is not working and i you know would point out too its not just a racial issue that is a huge component of it but there is a policing issue in the United States across the board where people of all colors and all genders and all identities feel that they have been wronged in many cases by an overwhelming force by police and that package you had as we went into this the talk about the militarization of police its not just the militarization of equipment its the militarization of tactics that are used on the streets and the majority of americans i think are fed up with it and thats why were seeing such a visceral response at this time. And finally as you said weve had several incidents over the last few decades it feels as if theyve kind of done then flowed to the end shes been lost the momentum has been lost in life going back to something you know similar to what was always the case is this going to be different do you think theres there is more Energy Behind the forces the calling for change this time. I think there is certainly more energy but the question is are there Actual Solutions that will come from this many times politicians will get on board and theyll say yes were with you and youll see has groundswell of support people saying yes were all together and you even hear people saying black lives matter but what does that mean tangibly what does that actually mean in terms of policy change who are the leaders who are coming forward with policies that say heres how we can substantially change behavior and i dont see a lot of that there is some of that right now theres talk of ending no knock warrants in the u. S. That would be a huge step in qualified immunity for Police Officers so that they can be sued civilly thats a huge step forward so there are some ideas that are being put forward for Actual Solutions and the momentum to make those changes is here the question is will we actually get substantial changes or will we just have this groundswell of support and this kind of idea of black lives matter without the actual changes needed to make those lives matter great appreciate you coming on but joining us from Atlanta Georgia investigative journalist a boom bust cohost ben swan thanks ben thank you. Thanks as always to you guys over to begin i hope youll join me and often ill be back with updates on our top stories. So what weve got to do is identify the threats that we have its crazy it isnt foundation let it be an arms race is on often this very Dramatic Development only personally im going to resist i dont see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk. Its hard to take some from somebody if you know have some to replace. We want to do this interview today dont use market move and then they take me. Off the area. So im going to tell you start selling drugs if well hire somebody put the money in it back. Then just me all the way to life its almost been basically mccullers peaceful for us all or. Do you know what sickened me security positions over the last year that. David jacked me again. You see people get all their cars and ill see you coming in the herd and it seems like theyll hurry up and run into the house like they dont want to they dont want to talk see her get your mail or anything like that. I just want to go. And do this. Just try reading. Some give me