The isis fight. A grave warning from americas top commanders as the parents of james foley describe their sons courage and add their plea for the safe return of stephen sotloff. Ill speak with a congresswoman. The lessons of ferguson. More peace on the streets but ha questions about the work of the grnl and the best way to police our streets. Our are cameras on cops the answer . From mug shot to manchester. It hasnt stopped rick perrys trip to New Hampshire. Will the president ial hopes for him live free or die . Well frame that debate on friday, the 22nd of august. Good morning, im jose diazbalart. The first focus on the growing threat from isis. The islamist terrorists who
murdered american journalist james foley. Chuck hagel said its beyond anything weve ever seen. Were learning more details this morning about the Ruthless Group that beheaded james foley before foley was executed isis sent his parents this chilling email full of rage saying james would pay the price for u. S. Air strikes against a group in iraq. I was excited to see an email despite the conclusions they would execute jim. I underestimated that point. I didnt realize how real they were. I hope we can engage in negotiations with them. The foleys say they took huge comfort in the phone call they received from pope francis yesterday who offered his support and prayers. At the pentagon chuck hagel and joint chiefs chairman general Martin Dempsey offered a sobering assessment of isis. This is beyond anything that weve seen. So we must prepare for everything. And the only way you do that is take a cold, steely hard look at it and get ready. They are imin the end threat to every interest we have whether its in iraq or anywhere else. Isis has the sophisticated pr machine aimed at instilling fear and taunting the president. Top u. S. Military officials wiping out isis could probably require going into syria. Can they be defeated without addressing that part of their organization which resides in syria . The answer is no. That will have to be addressed on both sides of what is essentially, that the point, a nonexistent border. Nbc news chief war correspondent Richard Engel joins us live. Good morning to you. Its scary to consider. Joint chiefs chairman Martin Dempsey saying defeating isis will require some kind of operation in syria. What is the challenge in doing that . Well, it would be major challenge. Right now isis controls a lot of territory, it controls territory in syria where it is established its own Islamic State and isis calls itself the Islamic State. It calls this area under the control the caliphate. But its not just in syria, it extends over what general dempsey called a nonexistent border into iraq. Right now the u. S. Is carrying out air strikes, several dozen every couple of days against isis targets in iraq. But is it crossing the border. That means the militants effectively have a safe haven in syria. Who is going to attack isis in the safe haven . Is it going to be bashar al
assad . U. S. . The actions taken now arent limiting the group. Richard, im wondering because theres so much chaos there. Weve heard of more than 170,000 dead in syria in the last couple of years. You know, literally hundreds of thousands of people having to leave their villages and their towns in syria and iraq going through the problems were seeing. Is there any way that countries can attack isis and maybe not affect civilians that are in these areas . No, i dont think so. I think were well beyond any kind of surgical intervention to destroy isis and not upset the civilian population. Were talking about millions of refugees who have displaced by the threeyear conflict. The u. N. Said today that nearly 200,000 people have been killed, and many people here believe that is a very conservative estimate. You have a group that is entrenched itself in syria. Out of the chaos there that is disrupted millions of lives. And is now created a state. How do you roll back that state . Doing attacks in iraq, according to top members of the president s defense team, isnt going to be enough. Is it going to have to be the United States that carries out strikes in syria . Many americans dont want that. They see this as mission creep. United states spent more than a decade fighting wars, general unpopular war, in the muslim world. But ignoring it isnt making it any better. Its a problem that has been going on for three years, and without any kind of clear policy, its continuing to metastasize. Yeah. And this morning, a fresh reminder of the security challenges in iraq. Dozens killed at the mosque. Who is behind this . What can you tell us about attack today . Yeah. Theres not two conflictings anymore. Theres not a conflict in iraq and one in syria. Theres one conflict that extends into lebanon. Its a multinational conflict between sunnis and shiite. And both sides are very extreme. The sun eyes represented by isis. Isis is an extremist sunni group. In iraq there are many shias. And as many u. S. Know the war between sunni and shy eye is an old war and can be brutal. What we saw today in iraq was shiite malicious men, armed going into a sunni mosque with sub machine guns and opening fire killing between 30 and close to 70 people. The death toll is unclear. And its this kind of reciprocal violence. Sunnis killing shiites. Maliciotias attacking malitias t
is tearing the region apart. Not just iraq, not just syria, lebanon. Richard i think gel, thank you for that live report. Isis threatening to kill another american journalist being held hostage Steven Sotloff. His mother spoke briefly about it yesterday. Hes alive so theres nothing to say. On morning joe james foleys parents urged the International Community to come together to secure the release of other isis hostages. We feel that the negotiation process was very uneven and we pray at this moment that Steven Sotloff is spared and the other american hostages. Im joined by congresswoman ileana ross, a republican from florida and chair of the House Foreign Affairs committee on the
middle east and north africa. The sotloff families lives in her district and so you spoke to them. Richard was talking about the situation. And we have americans caught in the cross fire literally like the sotloff. What can we do . This bring it is home, and as you mentioned, the sotloff parents live in my congressional district. We live in a suburb of miami. They reached out to us last year, august, around this time saying their son had disappeared. Hes a freelance journalist, and then i met with them in washington and been in contact with the department of state, with everyone. Ambassador of syria to see what could be done. Amnesty international. Its difficult. We pray and like the mom said. Hes still alive. Theres still hope. Theres a lot that we can do. They have a petition at change. Org. They want folks to sign the petition. Theyre a private family. They have not made any public statements except just that brief statement. So theyre asking everyone from their family and friends to not give statements to the press because its so delicate these negotiations. You know very well what isis would do with a signed petition. What they would do a signed petition . To get the white house more involved. I cant say the white house is involved. Weve been in touch with them, and this has gone to the highest level. Here is my question. Theyre going to try to work to get him home. What to do to try to get him. And some european countries, including some people that were with foley held by isis that were released. Europeans, apparently their governments are paying multimillion dollar ransoms and isis is letting the people go. So the question is should we be at least talking to isis and other terrorist organizations
like them who have americans as hostage . Ill give you an answer as member of congress and as a mother and grandmother. As a member of congress, i would say no. Because that only puts a price on the future. Every american a target. They depend on outside money. Theyre very rich themselves. As a mother and as grandmother i would say please do Everything Possible to save my son or grandson. So it depends on if i were the parents and i do not speak to them in any way, shape, or form. I dont speak for them. I would say do everything. And maybe all options are on the table. I dont know. I pray for stephen and and thankful our government is doing everything they can. Hes one of 20 journalists. Its a tough call. There has to be governments acting and individuals and parents want to do anything and everything for our children. Here is the question, and some say, look, for, you know, the
american government negotiated with the taliban releasing five taliban members to get i think that was wrong and the gao report just came out saying the white house violated u. S. Law because they did not give congress 30 days. Theres a part of something that worked. The guy, the gentleman is out. The american is out and five taliban were released. Work in quotes and question mark. You know what happened. What happened is we released five taliban killers. Thats something. To the battle field once again. So theres still questions about that. They were asking for 830 million. You dont think isis could do with 130 million. They have little understanding of the u. S. Society to ask for such a astronomical amount and think the family can come up with it. Governments in europe are paying. Im not going to get into that. I dont wish to get involved
with the delicate negotiation for stevens life. Like i said, as a mother i would say do everything to help my son. As a lawmaker, i would say those never turn out when we give money to terrorist organizations. Its a tough situation. I pray for the family. Debby waszer man schultz has been helping as well. It. Thank you for. Thank you for being with us. Coming up another night of peace in ferguson. But the debate over policing is way far from over. Should Police Officers wear body cameras . The men who did one of the only studies on body cameras is here with us next. Wondering what that is . That, my friends, is everything. And with the quicksilver card from capital one, you earn unlimited 1. 5 cash back on everything you purchase. Not just everything at the hardware store. Not everything, until you hit your cash back limit. Quicksilver can earn you unlimited 1. 5 cash back on everything you could possibly imagine. Say it with me everything. One more time, everything and with that in mind. Whats in your wallet . And with that in mind. Losing your chex mix too easily . Deploy the boring potato chip decoy bag. With a variety of tastes and textures, only chex mix has twenty bags of interesting. Pick your mix. Female narrator the mattress price wars are on the mattress price wars are on at sleep train. We challenged the manufacturers to offer even lower prices. Now its posturepedic versus beautyrest with big savings of up to 400 off. Serta icomfort and tempurpedic go headtohead with three years interestfree financing. Plus, free sameday delivery, setup,
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a city once on edge is trying to get back to normal. Weve seen three nights of relative calm with only seven arrests overnight compared to 47 on tuesday. Once again ferguson saw a night with no molotov cocktails, no shootings, no tear gas, no fires. The National Guard headed home and the focus is now on getting ferguson kids back to school on monday. We can all agree. We want our children to be safe and get a good education. Lets do what it takes to get the schools open again in this community. Joining me now from ferguson National Reporter for msnbc. Com zachary roth. Thank you for being with us. Good morning. Were seeing a return to normalcy, is that what were seeing in ferguson . Well, you know, jose, i cant stress enough how focus and the story has shifted in the last
day or two from the chaos and violence we have seen earlier in the week to not just getting back to normalcy, as you said. The school is reopening and so on. But also a real move toward more political engagement. Especially among the black community here. Weve seen Voter Registration tables outside the mcdonaldcdon. We see people organizing the youth. Trying to create something positive out of this by conveying the message that we need to get involved in the political system if were going to change stuff. So key, zach, because if you dont see yourself reflected in your elected officials, you need to do something about it and you can do so at the ballot box. So do you actually see a change in people realizing thats a way to themselves reflected in the
future . Yeah. You absolutely do. Olderman antonin began french got data and information about how many black people are registered. He tweeted hes going to try to register every black person in ferguson. He signed a lease on a store front to serve as a headquarters for the operation. Theres a lot of people getting involved in that. There is a sense that in addition to marching and in addition to making our demands, we need to engage in the political process and change the fact that right now ferguson is run twothirds black, five out of Six City Council members are white, the mayor is white. Theres a feeling if were going to change that we need to get engaged and registered to vote. Zack roth, thank you so much. The shooting death of Michael Brown by officer Darren Wilson has reopened the debate
about police tactics. Specifically about the use of police body mounted cameras. On thursday new york citys public advocate introduced a Pilot Program to put cameras on officers in highcrime areas. Theyre using them in one California City where the police force saw listen to this a 60 drop in use of force incidents along with a close to 90 decline in citizens complaints against police. But the cost of about 400 each. My colleague, craig melvin, talked about the issue with the ferguson state representative counter any court ties. When youre working under fire some things have been i dont think anybody wants to be in the situation, but on the other side that have with the citizens if it provides transparency, you know, initial context to see what took place, it would be a good thing. Michael is a professor of
criminology at Arizona State university and as the sole author of the justice departments report on police and bodymounted cameras. Im happy to welcome him into the show. Before we get started. I want to invite our viewers to weigh in on this. Were hearing from a lot of you. Its clear the opinion is split. Please waeigh in on facebook an twitter pages. You could not recommend body cameras after your study. Tell me why well, there were two things i wanted to accomplish with the study. The first was just to get a lay of the land that is assess the claims made about the technology both pro and against by critics and to see what the evidence says about each of the claims. And the short version of the story is not much. There are only five studies i was able to find that empirically look at the impact
of the technology on Police Practices and on Police Citizens encounters. The evidence is fairly weak. That said the few studies are important. I talk about those in the report. Michael, i have to tell you my eyes almost popped when i saw the numbers out of rialto, california. A huge drop. A huge drop in both use of force and citizens complaints against police. Wouldnt we see that kind of situation possibly repeated in every police force that had cameras . Well, certainly the numbers from riato are stunning. Weve seen similar findings in a couple other studies in phoenix and in mesa, arizona. Both Police Departments have conducted are finishing up their studies and in both cases theyre seeing similar reductions in complaints against officers and officer use of
force. Very few studies but so far those are promising findings were seeing. Michael, i wonder the difference between using those cameras and dash cams. The Ferguson Police department doesnt have on their cars either. What is the difference between the two . You know, its interesting. Dash board cameras became popular in the mid 90s. A lot of concerns that have been raised were raised in the 90s with the dash board cameras. I think the big difference between the two is that so much of what a Police Officer does happens away from the police car. Dash board cameras capture the majority of what police do on the interstates, the highways. But in urban policing, in particular, a lot of what police do especially with interacting with citizens happens far away from the police car. And im wondering as far as privacy issues are concerned. A lot of folks are opposed to
what london has done and other british cities. They put cameras all over the streets. I know, places in new york have considered that. Do you think that if you oppose that you should also oppose cops having a camera when they stop you for no reason. I think there are two dimensions to the privacy issue that a police chief needs to deal with before adopting the cameras. The first is citizens privacy. Some of the issues can be addressed with administrative policy to get their thoughts and perspectives. The other side of the privacy issue is with the officers themselves. And Police Unions and line officers have not universally embraced this technology. They have their own concerns that need to be dealt with as well. Yeah. Michael, i appreciate your time this morning. Thank you for being with us. I want to remind you that youre part of the program. E want to hear from you. We are already hearing from a lot of you. A lot of support for cameras but
also a lot of issues to consider as well. Go ahead and log on and tell us what you think. Coming up former Virginia Governor is on the stand affiliaafter his problems at home. An indictment doesnt seem to be slowing down the hope f