A federal judge says the city of new york had been deliberately indifferent to Police Officers illegally detaining black and latino residents on the streets over many years. We was beaten one of the plaintiffs and his attorneys. And then we talk to the owner of lavabit, Edward Snowdens email provider. Last week, the owner of lavabit is seriously shut down the company and said he did not want to become complicit in crimes against the american people. We will also speak to nick merrill, who is under a gag order for six years after receiving a National Security letter. Technician orhone systems provider, you have a lot of information that paints a picture of peoples private lives and communications. I believe that comes with a great degree of responsibility. You are a steward of peoples private matters. It seemed to me, it was a moral obligation i had to protect. All that and more coming up. Democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Federalstoric move, a judge has ruled the stop and frisk rules used by new york city are unconstitutional. Shira scheindlin wrote that police have a policy of racial profiling, leading them to stop blacks and latinos who would not have been otherwise stop if they were white. Attorney general eric holder has officially unveiled a major policy shift to help certain lowlevel drug offenders avoid harsh mandatory minimum prison sentences. In an address to the american bar association, he address the issue of mass incarceration, noting that it houses a quarter of the worlds prisoners. Among other changes, he touted an expansion of the Compassionate Release Program for some elderly prisoners and announced a review of racial sentencing disparities, citing a recent study that cited black men received senses 20 longer than white men convicted of the same crimes. Vicious cycle of poverty, criminality, and incarceration weakens to many communities. Many aspects of our criminal Justice System exacerbates these problems rather than alleviate them. It is clear that as we come together, too Many Americans go into too many prisons for for too long, and for no good reason. A u. S. Drone strike has killed at least two people in yemens shabab province. It was the latest in a surge of strikes that have killed dozens in recent weeks. N. C. Pat gov. Pat mccrory has signed a Voting Rights act that many consider the harshest in the nation. It requires voters to show a governmentissued id at the polls. It also eliminates pre registration for teenagers who will turn 18 by election day. It allows any voter to challenge another voters eligibility, something that could promote vigilantes and at the polls. Ism at the polls. Groups including the naacp and aclu have filed legal challenges, saying the law would this portion of the impact people of color. John kerry has kicked off his first trip to south america as secretary of state. In colombia on monday he faced questions about National Security agency spying following reports from Edward Snowden that the surveillance extends to let america. Glenn greenwald has reported that after brazil, colombia appeared to be the second biggest target of spying. He defended the practice is at a News Conference in bogota. I am confident i was able to explain burley and precisely how we have received the support of all three branches of government, has been conducted under our constitution and the law, and how we have respected countries,s of other and will continue to. Visits brazil today. Meanwhile, the administration tactics. Ing won malis ta has president ial election after his opponent Soumalia Cisse conceded victory. He plans to restore order. The turmoil prompted french troops and a small number of u. S. Forces to deploy to launched a peacekeeping message there. The defense team for Bradley Manning has opened its case in the sentencing phase of his Court Martial after prosecutors completed their case on friday. Defense lawyers began by questioning the decision by his superiors to maintain mannings topsecret clearance it does but despite signs of mental distress, including one instance where he flipped over a table. He faces up to 90 years in prison for giving documents to wikileaks. Officialse committee confirmed on monday they received a petition signed by 100,000 people who support giving Bradley Manning the nobel peace prize. Activist Norman Solomon hand delivered the petitions in norway. Mexicos president has proposed an historic shift in the countrys staterun oil industry, potentially paving the way for foreign multinationals to gain a share. In an address on monday, president and reach a pen name enrique penad proposed plans to introduce privatization. With this reform, Mexican Federation andhe categoricallyare not for sale or for privatization. This reform looks to be strengthening and modernization to allow them to become a leading companies and fulfill their mission to benefit society. California governor jerry brown has signed legislation protecting the rights of transgender students in the state public schools. The new law allows students to play on sports teams, use bathroom facilities, and participate in other activities based on their selfidentified gender. A federal jury in boston has convicted the notorious south boston mobster James Whitey Bulger of a host of crimes including 11 murders. He will likely face the rest of his life in prison. He served as an fbi agent informant. He fled from public view in the mid 1990s following a tip from an fbi agent about an upcoming indictment. Authorities found him in santa monica county, california where he had more than 8,000 of cash stashed in the walls of his apartment. A group who need Organ Transplants are calling on hospitals to stop denying transplants to undocumented people and those who lack health insurance. The group held a mock funeral session and vigil in the honor of his 25yearold woman who was reportedly denied a kidney transplant who died on friday. Her relatives were part of a group of patients and family members who launched a recent Hunger Strike to demand access to Organ Transplants to undocumented and uninsured. The group has been negotiating with chicago hospitals to change the policy. A number ofy found organ donors lacked health insurance. Those who gets Organ Transplants is also the policy for Organ Transplants is also affecting a 15yearold boy in georgia. He has been barred from receiving a heart transplant due to a history of noncompliance. Family friends say they believe the designation stems from his low grades and run in with the law. His mother, melencia hamilton, says she thinks the lack of Venture Resources also played a role. She told an atlanta station that the transplant is the only way to fix her sons enlarged heart. They say they do not have any idence that he would take his medicine. I know it is wrong. If they get to know him, they would love him. Isa tennessee mother appealing a judges ruling to change her infant sons first name from messiah to martin. The babys parents ended up in court when they could not agree on his last name, but the Child Support magistrate said that they had to change his first name, replacing it with martin, his mothers surname. Televisionold station wbir she said the name could put him at odds with a lot of people in a heavily christian county. Interestingly, we have our own messiah here, a videographer here at democracy now a i was raised by conservative christian household and there was no hostility because of my name. It is interesting this is happening in tennessee, a state history of racial bigotry. It is silly, it is just a name. This is what happens when there is no separation of church and state. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Listeners andour viewers from around the country and world. We begin with a ruling that the stop and frisk policy is unconstitutional. U. S. District court judge Shira Scheindlin said that police had relied on a policy which he called indirect racial profiling that led officers to routinely stop black and hispanics who would not have been stopped if they were white. Since 2002, the Police Department has conducted more than 5 million stops and frisks. Nine out of 10 new yorkers have been stopped and frisked and have been innocent. In her 200page order, judge scheindlin wrote to the ruling came after several months of testimony, much of it from 8 plaintiffs who were all African American or latino. Together they described a total 19 incidents in which they were stopped and in some cases searched and frisked unlawfully. Shortly after the decision was announced, the plaintiffs in the case held a News Conference alongside their lawyers. Call thisgot a morning, the first thing i did was cry. It was not because i was said or necessarily happy, but because everything put it is important to know that it is hardgnized to explain. I think it is a really good picture of what is going on in society. It is a big thing for new york, but america as a whole, it shows the polarization of people of color in this country, as how we are reviewed. Just needs to be recognized. Our voices count to something greater. This has been a long time coming, this case, all the time that has been put into its, the sacrifices made, coming over here, giving our testimony on a big issue that has transcended beyond the community of black and brown people. Issue that affects they in tribeca, sanford, have an accurate understanding of this. I am grateful for that. The attention that it has think, it is clear, the psychological consequences of stop and frisk, being a rite of passage for so many black and brown boys, being criminalize and how that carries on into their adult years. We are taking some tremendous steps forward. I am definitely grateful for that. I am so glad that my lawyers i commend them and the judge for doing an outstanding job on my behalf and other plaintiffs. It is just the beginning of reparations. I could have been like trayvon martin. It was just too unbearable. My heart goes out to his family. It is just very hard to get through this, but with the help of my parents and friends, and lawyers, they have done all that they can for me. I love them so very much. It, the reasonut i joined on to this case was because many of us, including myself, feel like stop and frisk is police abuse, and that is the lowest allowable of police abuse. Once that comes out but would stop and frisk, they can do it in terms of falsely arresting people, planting evidence. In the most extreme cases, they could do it in terms of killing people. For many of us, including myself, this is important. If we can find remedies for stopping officers and violating our constitutional rights, then maybe other forms of police abuse as a relates to people in my community, maybe some of that begins to stop. Thatankful for the people believed in us. We were not making up these stories, we did not fabricate anything. We came to the table and said these are our experiences. We are speaking for millions in the city. I know it is premature, but i am that we can really have some teeth in the legislation and make changes to stop stop and frisk. The policies can actually change. Not just talk about change, but really change, make those adjustments so that people can stand on the street or on the sidewalk with their cell phone without having to worry about being seen as a drug dealer. Those were the voices of plaintiffs in the lawsuit. In the ruling, judge scheindlin found she also appointed a federal monitor to oversee reforms with input from Community Members and police. The york city mayor Michael Bloomberg accuse the judge of denying the city a fair trial. This is a very dangerous decision made by a judge at i think does not understand how policing works and what is complying with the u. S. Constitution as determined by the Supreme Court. We believe we have done exactly what the courts allow and the constitution allowed us to do, and we will continue to do everything we can to keep this city safe. Throughout the case, we did not believe we were getting a fair trial. This decision confirms the decision and we will be presenting evidence of that on fairness to the appeals court. That was mayor bloomberg of new york city. For more we are joined by sunita patel, cocounsel on the case. Your response to judge scheindlins ruling . It is an astounding victory for everyone in new york city. She has very correctly and barley decided that the city is engaging in racial profiling. It is a victory for so many hundreds of thousands of people who have been illegally stopped and frisked over the past decade. To those who say that this is the reason crime is down and that the number of lives that whatbeen same saved did i hear one pundit say today year. 0 murders a that this is a result of racial profiling. Thing, there is no empirical evidence linking stop and frisk to Crime Reduction generally. Secondly, this is a tactic that this murder rate reduction in the news is a little bit blurry. That is a statistic that spans the course of 15 years. It is not within the time period we are talking about. When mayor bloomberg came into office, the murder rate was already down to a very small number. They are taking credit for something that happened way before them, and they are blurring the math on the issue. Crime rates have been going down nationally for the last two decades. There just is not a link between the two. Can you explain what judge scheindlin ruled in terms of violating the 14th and fifth amendment, and talk about the remedies she has ordered. In the Fourth Amendment claim, she said that the city has a practice, a widespread practice of going out and stopping people without individualized suspicion that there is crime at the foot, which is what is required by the Supreme Court law in terry versus ohio. In the 14th amendment claim, she says many of these stocks are not only based lack reasonable suspicion, but they are based on race. The city and new york Police Department is using race as a proxy for crime, rather than looking at what this person is doing specifically that would allow the police to stop them. They say because they are black or brown in this area, we are going to stop them to try to prevent crime, which is not constitutional, it is illegal. In terms of remedies, she has said she would appoint a federal court monitor, which is common in policing system reform cases, to oversee the daytoday activities. She also was a second phase of reform were Community Members have a stake in what reforms will happen. She is calling for a joint reform process that will have a facilitator that will also allow the new york city Police Department to have a seat of the table to say what they think would work. This should be seen as an opportunity by the Police Department. Who will be the Court Appointed monitor . He is a partner at arnold and porter. We did not have anything to do with this selection of the monitor, but we do know it sounds like he will be very fairminded, a former court council, attorney, a former district attorney. In my mind, i would think this is something the Police Department and city should embrace working with and we hope they will do that and decide not to appeal the judges well reasoned decision. Commissioner ray kelly blasted the decision and insisted Police Officers do not engage in racial profiling. Disturbingind most and offensive about this decision is the notion that the nypd engages in racial profiling. Recklesslyply untrue. We do not be engaging in racial profiling. Is prohibited by law, it is prohibited by our own regulations. We train our officers that they need reasonable suspicion to make a stop, and i can assure you, race is never a reason to conduct a stop. Most raciallye and ethnically diverse Police Department in the world. Contrast with some societies, new york city and its Police Department have focused their crimefighting efforts to protect the poorest members of our community. Who are disproportionately the victims of murder and other violent crime. Disturbingly so. , 97 ofpoint, last year all shooting victims were black or hispanic and reside in low income neighborhoods. Of thehousing, with 5 citys population, experiences 20 of the shootings. There were more stops of suspicious activity in neighborhoods with higher crime because that is where the crime is. That is Police Commissioner ray kelly speaking on monday. President obama said he may consider appointing him the new secretary of the Homeland Security, to which a law professor at Georgetown University and former Justice Department prosecutors said, ray kelly needs to be the Homeland Security secretary like paula deen needs to run the United Nations food program. He says that he is the poster policeor the most racial policy in the United States. Kelly is saying that they are doing this in high crime communities and saving lives in those communities. Washis is something th