Not indicted in the death of eric garner. This needs to end. We deserve better. This is how many military bases dispose of waste. This is our generations agent orange. Barack obama in the white house. Washington would change on its own by his mere presence. Syrian families made it through their final steps through a war that nearly killed them. If we fight atrocities, as some point you have to make a good. We begin with a large protest across the country and calls for Police Reform following the grand jury decision not to charge a new York City Police officer in the death of eric garner. You joining us now is the reverend jesse jackson, civil rights activist and reverend, always good to see you. There is, of course, an incredible amount of outrage in the grand jury decision of the eric garner case. What do you hope will come from it and the efforts that i know you and others are having all over the country . Well, its a tremendous amount the way the department of justice stop this reign of terror on black men. The jurors set the killers key as rodney kings was set free. Michael ferguso brown in ferguson. There has been injustice. Has it really gotten that much worse. This comes from someone who has personally seen africanameric africanamericans mistreated by police. But if you look at statistics it seems that it was epidemic in the 1990s. Weve had 30 years where things have not changed much. Were seeing these terrible recent cases, but has it gotten worse. Well, you have the visuals of social media. You saw eric garner begging for breath and being choked to death and the Police Walked free. You saw rodney king being beaten, and the Police Walked free. But we put so much focusthe police are just gatekeepers. Behind the gates arewe should put cameras on the backs of bangers. Bangsers arbankers, bankers are the ones who robbed our people. Thats another story. What are they facing. You have the most unemployment. We need targeted jobs and healthcare and jobs and training because they should be lifted up to an even Playing Field. We have an analysis also a budget looking at those who are in the hole of the uneven Playing Field. What about the possible unintended consequences in dealing with police, and changing the way policing is done. As you know the crime rate in new york city has gotten infinitely lower over the past couple of decades to a great extent possibly because of aggressive policing, and some would argue that the biggest beneficiaries have been people in minority opportunities. The question need do people knees more policing or more jobs, more access to healthcare, more education, more jobs, more training. We dont need to the policed, we need to be educated and inspired to do better with greater opportunity. We do very well on the athletic field. Were the best at it because the Playing Field is even and the rules are public and the referees are fair and the scores transparent. We need justice, not just police. Weve heard on that broader scale, weve heard attorney general eric holder, we heard the president talk about how all people need to have confidence in police. And going back did you think you would live long enough to see a black attorney general and black president . Give that have then made advancement. This has ban backlash against them and against the rest of us, after all Domestic Violence is one thing when police hold badge and gun and shoot unarmed people and walk away, thats a pill thats hard to swallow. We need to give people confidence again in the jury system, and maybe there should be lights not just on the jury system but on the police. Many would say that those who saw the garner video and heard him say he cant breathe repeatedly, its hard not to be outraged by this, and i dont think congressman peter king of new york isnt outraged himself. He said it wouldnt have been the same if garner had been white because in this case garner had all these health issues, and the police would have gone after a white person who resisted arrest in the same way. s being hypothetical. The reality is that you have this wave of blacks who are unarmed killed by white police. If you had this wave of black Police Killing whites it would not be the same. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Thank you, sir. Joining us here in new york is congressman elizabeth holtzman. Great to have you with us. Thank you. Nice to be here. Youre the perfect person to talk about this because youve dealt with grand juries and the new York City Police. We only got limited release of information about what the grand jury actually saw. Do you think this process has played out fairly . Well, of course its troubling, and most americans are bothered by secrecy because were encouraged by and accustomed to openness. A grand jury process that is secret is something that americans are not comfortable with. Its secret for a lot of reasons. Its always been secret historically. It was there basically to protect the public against the prosecutor. It was supposed to be a check against the prosecutor. People say that a prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich. In new york state that is not true. I dont know what the story is in missouri, in the federal government the prosecutor can recommend indictment but in new york state the prosecutor cannot make a recommendation. The prosecutor can crossexamine, but it cannot make an outcome. When you have a grand jury come back with no document. It makes people think there is some inherent problem and there is bias. It does create these questions. There perhaps could be a release of minutes. In missouri, cant just release it, you have to get permission from the judge, and thats rarely granted. But to give people confidence, they should release the minutes. We dont agree with it, but we didnt see someone putting their thumb on the scale. People have to have confidence in the system. I also think there are other checks on a system that have to come in to play. In new york city, for example, until very recently we had a civilian Complaint Review board board that was not a very effective tool either to respond to public complaints or to identify systemic problems like the chokehold. When you were in the brooklyn d. A. You dealt with complaints against police, which does not exist any more. Thats one of the questions here. You worked closely with Police Officers as a prosecutor. This Staten Island prosecutor, im sure s the same. Thats the question, about whether the process can possibly be fair if youve got people going after people that they work with all the time. Right, well, i was in the Civil Rights Movement in the early 60s and i saw horrors of jim crow and i saw what the police were doing in georgia and alabama and so forth. When i came to the d. A. In brooklyn blacks could be moved from the jury just because of race. I fought that all the way to the Supreme Court. These were practices that were definitely affecting the outcome. I understood that there was a perception issue when you had issues. Here i am d. A. Working closely with the police shah solved a murder case and then i have to prosecute the police in an issue involving misuse of force. Who is going to believe the outcome . I did create a special unit that never worked with the police on solving cases but was just dealing with those issues. Is that something that we should have all the time. Thats something that were thinking about. I knew this was the right thing to do because i knew it was not only important to be fair but to be perceived to be fair. Thats one of the things that people are concerned about. Thats one of the problems with secrecy. Were talking about police picketing you, some have said, including peter king, that police have been thrown under the bus in this case. Even mayor de blasios comments could be read as antipolice. I want to Say Something about commissioner brattan and mayor de blasio, i think they have handled this very well. We are a city of 8 million people. We didnt have one house burned down. We didnt have one building burned down. We had few arrests. People could express whatever their views were in a peaceful way top to compare what happened in new york city to ferguson, this is an example of allowing people to have their First Amendment rights without violence. What about the role of police. Weve seen the broken window, the stop and frisk, going after smaller crimes, and how this has contributed to the lower crime rate. Whether its responsible for it or not is a matter of debate. Are police in general doing a good job in the city . In new york city i think a lot of things have changed over time. A more diverse police force. That helped to generate public respect for the police and public willingness to work with the police. Diversification is important. Bringing in africanamericans, hispanics, asianamericans, women, diversifying the police force is important. Theyre making a lot of strides. Theyre trying to do something at the police Complaint Review board. Thats something that has to happen nationwide. Absolutely. In this case the Police Officer had a couple of complaints against them. And then we had this horrible case in cleveland where a 12yearold boy had a toy gun that didnt look like a toy gun, and in this case the police came out aggressively. Should there not be, again, more reviewed to make sure that especially the Police Officers who might be too aggressive are not going to be put in situation where is they could create Serious Problems and even death. Well, there is no question being a Police Officer is a tough job. I have enormous respect for people who put themselves in harms way to protect the public. That doesnt mean that they cant make bad judgments, and it doesnt mean that they dont need the good training, retraining, constant support and help. If you look at ferguson, there was no diversity in the police force, in city government. It was very easy for the city to write off the minority population. You cant do that. Weve learned the hard way in park city that you got to reach out. You have to have Community Policing and diverse police force. Without the publics sport and help you cant even do a good job of policing because who is going to report the crimes. Who is going to report to the police when crime takes place. We have to make many strides and we have to make many more strides. I believe we need to review what happened, and we need oh 20 take a good look at policing around the country. One small ray of hope. In South Carolina a white Police Officer was indicted for shooting a black unarmed man. It shows that america is not an oneway street here. Consider this will be right back. Im ali velshi, the news has become this thing where you talk to experts about people, and al jazeera has really tried to talk to people, about their stories. We are not meant to be your first choice for entertainment. We are ment to be your first choice for the news. More than 52,000 american soldiers have been wounded in iraq and afghanistan. Veterans have filed close a million disability claims with the Veterans Administration. Now the Supreme Court is considering whether a case should proceed, involving claims that as many as 100,000 veterans and civilian contractors have suffered Health Problems from inhaling fumes from tonnes of military trash, burnt in the open pits on bases in iraq and afghanistan. Sheila macvicar has more. Everything didnt go to crash, it went to be burnt. It was every day black smoke came over us. Reporter this is how many u. S. Military bases across iraq and afghanistan disposed of waste. In massive openair burn pits, which unleashed clouds of thick black and some veterans say toxic smoke. During the day time it was solid black. You could smell it. Staff sergeant Antony Thornton spent two years as a prison camp guard in iraq. He was constantly exposed to poisonous fumes, he says, that lingered around his living erts. Worked. The burn pit youd see anything in it, anything from tyres to paints to medical waste. Stuff. There he goes. And they would use j p8 jet fuel to set it on fire. Reporter specialist rodney miese worked in the mechanic area. It had a big burn pit, 10 acres of smouldering trash. At the height of wars, more than 250,000 bases across iraq and afghanistan burnt their waste. Large bases burnt up to 300 tonnes of garbage a year. There was always a yellow haze over the base. Everybody that you talked to had some type of respiratory issue with it. It was operational 24 7. The toxics released batteries, tyres, human waste it made them sick. All the burning was done wrong. And everybody nose that. Reporter more than two years an anthony came home from iraq. He was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer, at 33. He underwent three surgeries. During his last surgery part of his brain was removed. The left temperal lobe and part of the hippocampus, playing a role in short and long term memory and affected his speech. I cannot tell you my wife or my daughters middle names. I dont remember everybodys name. As soon as it happened, he said it was the burn bit. Thorntons wife says her military. Hearing these people go, and they risk so much and forego so much for our country, that the country doesnt stand. Thornton says he doesnt have a history of cancer in the family, and has a letter from his oncologist saying, in part lip the Veterans Administration awarded thornton 70 disability, but does not acknowledge links to burn pits and says his cancer may be linked to radiation from a previous job. We know people were sick. We are trying our best to determine where the burn pits are responsible. The Top Health Official says theres no proven link between exposure to burn pits and longterm health damage. We looked at several thousand individuals, members, assigned to locations, versus location. We looked at the data and were unable to identify a definite Difficult Health risk asposhted with those at burn pits. Leaving veterans like miese fighting for compensation they believe they are owed. He can no longer work, hes been granted a 10 disability. He planned for a long military career. Where he was stationed he lived pit. While i was there, it felt like you were trying to breath. I have narcotics. After leaving iraq it took doctors 7 years to diagnose them with bronning ill itis. He has to carry an oxygen tank with him, erp he goes. We see a population of patients with unexplained short possess of breath following service in iraq and afghanistan. This doctor is a paul monologist pull monologist. Is this something you expect to find for someone fit for employment. Its a diagnosis in an otherwise healthy individual. This is linked to some inhalation and exposure during service in the middle east. You can go through a list of potential exposures. Dust storms, particulate matter exposure. Burn pits. Dr miller began to see returning soldiers with mysterious breathing problems. He was the first to do lung biopsies. He began linking the conditions to war time exposures. When he presented the findings, he said he was shut out by the dod. After that conference, the department of defense decided not to send any more patients. The department told dr miller they deal with the issues internally. We sent the soldiers to the middle east physically fit. They had toxic inhalation, coming back with problems making them nondeployable and were not willing to compensate them. Dods said the evidence linking soldiers to damage from byrne there. Its highly plausible, probable that some individuals have Health Conditions acquired as a result of exposures in theatre. Being able to identify which exporms and individuals is difficult because we dont have the individual exposure information helping us to establish that link. Miese left the military. His doctors told him he was not fit to work as a file clerk. With his fiancee he moved to the mississippi coast. The humid air helps with the future. As for the future. Future. Jamie and antony were married shortly after he came back from iraq. They have a 3yearold daughter. I mean this, is not what i thought our life would be. You know, at 33, 34, 35. It affected us tremendously. A lot of people say this is our generations. Thorntons say they want the military to acknowledge harm done to soldiers. My plan was to keep working, and get a good job working. She doesnt have to do anything and be a good man. But ive erased that now. Youre still a good man. Its hard to accept that. Reporter for thousands of returning veterans, this is their reality, a reality shaped by exposure to the burn pits, and someone, they say, needs to step up and take responsibility for more im joined from baltimore by susan burke, a lead attorney in a class action group, filing against a Group Contracted to get rid of rubbish from bases in iran and iraq. Good to have you on the show. After vietnam there was agent orange, soldiers that suffered cancer from exposure to toxic herbicides. After the gulf war, soldiers suffered Health Problems, possibly due to fumes. And now these reports and lawsuits. The defense defendants response is the same sass in prior cases. Thats true. Sadly the commander in chief president obama said its not becoming the next agent orange. In truth, it has. There has been delay, study, no progress. Your lawsuit has 250 plaintiffs. Are they suffering terrible Health Problems we witnessed in the story we just played . Yes. And, in fact, the size of the class is much brighter than that. We filed 250 claims. There are many others that signed on as well. What we see are respiratory problems. We have cancers. Up to 12 deaths. How many potential victims do you think are out there . Its difficult to get a hard number. We thing its in the thousands based on the number of people deployed, and the proximity to the burn pits. What about the claim that air pollut