happened. we're going to identify the lessons that can be learned. >> we can make sure that nothing like this ever happens again. >> plus washington's funniest night. >> i usually start these with a few self-deprecating jokes. >> i must be so hard to write jokes about a town that already is one. >> i may bring up obama. >> i'm the best president in the game! >> and jindal doubles down. >> louisiana governor bobby jindal has been pressing ahead with a religious freedom bill. >> i'm always in favor of defending religious liberty. >> we begin tonight with breaking news from baltimore. just minutes ago, baltimore police held a news conference about the investigation into the death of 25-year-old freddie gray. >> we have ramped up a task force of more than 30-plus investigators from various disciplines in this agency. dozens of interviews have been conducted. many more remain. a step by step meticulous investigation has taken place. >> gray was critically injured after his arrest on april 12th. protesters want answers. two men were arrested during protests on thursday. the mainly peaceful demonstrations are expected to continue tonight. demonstrators say they are demanding justice and change. >> black men are dying at the hands of white officers. period. and it's becoming so daily and repetitious that it's becoming alarming. >> my heart is broken at how the system is just horrible. it's a racist system. seems to me. we need to do something. i have no idea what else to do. so i'm here. >> it's now very public. so it's an opportunity for us to do something publicly to say no more. >> governor larry hogan has ordered state troopers to the city to help with the swelling crowd of demonstrators. earlier today, baltimore mayor stephanie rawlings blake spoke for the residents of her city. >> our community is very clear. they demand answers and so do i. i still want to know why the policies and the procedures for transport were not followed. i still want to know why none of the officers called for immediate medical assistance. despite mr. gray's apparent pleas. the one thing we all know is that because of this incident a mother has to bury her child. >> there's still no answers about how exactly freddie gray suffered the fray tall spinal cord injury while in police custody. six officer have been suspended. that includes the three initial officers on bicycles the driver of the transport van and two other officers. nbc's kirk gregory has more. >> reporter: they gather in churches. >> we come to call on him who is in charge of this whole universe. and ask him that he would bless the city of baltimore in a very critical hour. >> reporter: and city hall in boil pressing for answers. following the death of freddie gray. the 25-year-old died sunday. one week after suffering a severe spinal injury while in police custody. as protests continue the governor of maryland is sending a team of 32 state troopers to help with crowd control. promising to push for legislation for police body cameras. >> i think having all the -- having the real evidence of exactly what happened and having everything videotaped is a step in the right direction. >> reporter: the department of justice has launched an investigation into what happened. while the baltimore police department continues its own. >> our officers our task force are interviewing witnesses to the event, and when they're finding out things they're going back and re-interviewing witnesses at the same time. and that just takes time. >> reporter: peace and resolution that may only come when the investigations are complete. >> governor hogan has asked the medical examiner's office to expedite gray's autopsy report. both the justice department and separately the police department are still investigating the incident. the cause for legislation for police body cameras are increasing. a prayer vigil for the city of baltimore, the state of maryland, and the family of freddie gray was held on thursday. >> we will be here to speak truth to the powers of this city that have the resources, but lack the will to move baltimore from two cities separate and unequal, to one city in which all have the opportunity to grow and flourish. >> gray will be laid to rest on monday. joining me now is paul henderson, veteran prosecutor and legal analyst. also the professor of african-american studies at tufts university. and dr. james peterson msnbc contributor and director of africana studies at lehigh university. mr. henderson, let me turn to you first. the one thing baltimore police have not addressed is why they chased freddie gray to begin with. how will this impact the investigation? >> we heard from the attorney from the police union, which talked about citing case law that allows them to engage a suspect. really here's the problem. it's united states v. jones, which talks about being able to engage an unprovoked suspect in a high crime area. but here's the problem with that. one, that speaks to reasonable suspicion to detain and not probable cause to arrest. and in this case we have an arrest. so it's going to be very important to understand that if they did have a knife, when they did have a knife, that that was enough to arrest him, because knives aren't necessarily enough to arrest an individual per se. people are demanding for justice, people are demanding change. but they can't ask for any of those things until we get more information. and the other thing that i just want to point out very quickly is who defines a high-crime area? because in a densely populated city like baltimore, or chicago, or new york or los angeles, the entire city is considering a high crime area, if you're just basing it on police reports where crimes have been committed. so really what we need is more information and that's one of the reasons that people are so frustrated in this situation, because we're just not getting information, from police reports, from autopsies, from any of the officials that are engaged in the investigation to the public. >> all critical matters to be sure. dr. joseph the guardian is reporting one arresting officer's alleged pattern of violence. we contacted the officer for a response. representatives have not returned our call. does this story matter in this case? does it make a difference? does it shade it in any way? >> absolutely. i think one of the biggest things we're seeing here is mass surveillance leads to mass arrest leads to mass incarceration leads to mass violence and brutality and all these strings of killings that we're seeing of black women and men all throughout the country. the fact that this officer has a history, potentially, of physical brutality against citizens should be noted. but i think the larger framework right here why so many people are protesting and we've seen these black lives matter protests all across the country, is the fact that we have a criminal justice system that is not working for african-americans. the president, the white house task force had 66 recommendations. those were all well and good and i've read that report. but they don't go far enough in terms of to stop surveillance of these so-called high crime areas. which is really becoming -- there's a police tourism industry right here turning our neighborhoods into hunting grounds, where on the notion of high crime, they're able to arrest incarcerate, brutalize and at times execute african-americans. >> that's pretty dismal and distressing to be sure. dr. peterson the baltimore police union says they are concerned about the protests' tone. is this the right consideration to have in the midst of the extraordinary catastrophe and chaos we see going on there? >> absolutely not. all baltimore municipal officials should be focused on figuring out the ways in which to get their police forces to conduct themselves in a way that doesn't end up in the ending or the murder of black people. in fact, police departments across this nation need to be taking that serious account. i take issue with folks who talk about protesters being peaceful when the issue for protesters is that law enforcement is murdering people. if we're concerned about violence in our communities, we've got to direct it at the source of some of that violence. as my colleagues on the panel just talked about, unfortunately this is too widespread right now. one of the things that's interesting to think about here, doc, the law enforcement in baltimore is trying to say that maybe something happened in the vehicle. but joy reid on this network and other folks are starting to talk about the possibility of the actual fatal injury occurring prior to him being placed in the vehicle. and what we have to think about is what happened the actual takedown? was there some sort of cervical vertebra fracture that led to the paralysis? i've been speaking to people on the ground there and medical professionals who say that sometimes when a law enforcement person puts a knee in the back or a knee on the neck like we saw in the eric harris video, that can cause a cervical vertebra fracture where if you throw someone in the vehicle after that the bone fragments with then sever the spine. so we may need to learn more about how they took the person down. and what force was used there to figure out what's going on here. and we have to keep our eyes on the prize in a sense, because the reality is we've seen way too many of these and figuring out exactly what happened here will help us to better adjust these things going forward. >> no question about it. attorney henderson, is it an irony involved here? this is the last day of service for the exiting attorney general eric holder who gave his goodbye speech today. is there some great irony? we're still dealing with this even as eric holder is exiting and loretta lynch is coming in. >> i don't look at it as irony because the foundation that mr. holder has laid for us by trying to establish an example, a model for local law enforcement to follow with his 21st century policing, is exactly being addressed in this situation here. and one of the things that the attorney general has done was tour the country and talk with local jurisdictions about what models they should be following. those that addressed reducing racial profiling and eliminating bias in local policing. and so i don't think that loretta lynch, and i'm grateful that she has finally been confirmed, when she comes in is going to change that agenda. what i think is going to happen is that we will see a continuation of that model being spread around the rest of the country, specifically in baltimore as these independent investigations are going on, because again and again, we're seeing local law enforcement be challenged with outside, independent review from state agencies and federal agencies and it's very clear, at least from the federal level, what they expect of local law enforcement to address the situations that keep coming up again and again and involve interactions that end up in homicide with african-american men and law enforcement. that just has to stop. and hopefully this is the conversation that moves this nation in that direction again with many of the other incidents that we've seen over the past few months and years. >> no question about that. dr. joseph what's your reaction to the fact that there are more calls for the governor to get further involved? >> i think that the governor can get further involved. it's a republican governor there in maryland. i think one of the biggest things we need is policy right here. there's too many interactions between the police and community members. that has to do with the fact that police are incentivized through the war on drugs. through burn doj grants and other mechanisms to have this kind of interaction, to pump up their own stats. and the trail of violence that they're leaving behind it really specifically targets poor african-american communities. those of us who are middle upper middle class have access. we get targeted via racial profiling when we're in predominantly white settings usually. but predominantly african-american communities, these communities and neighborhoods have become hunting grounds. and in african-americans right now, 28 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes than they were in 1982 the second year of the reagan administration. latinos, 22 times more likely and whites eight times more likely. so the war on drugs has become a gateway to mass racial oppression. so freddie gray, eric harris walter scott, all these victims are examples of a criminal justice system run amuck. the president of the united states, people have been calling on him before his term ends to sign an executive order ordering criminal justice review of the byrne grant that goes to all these state and local governments and it incentivizes black and brown women and men getting arrested instead of rehabilitation, instead of getting people back in the jail and back in the community, so we can have thriving neighborhoods and a thriving country with taxpayers, good citizens fathers, mothers, husbands and wives. instead of that we're incentivizing local police to use excessive force and brutality and at times it's leading to the death of african-american men and women. >> how about that doctor. peterson, in light of what dr. joseph just indicated here. he used twice the phrase "hunting ground," which means that these people are vulnerable targets of state authority run amuck. do you think that the six officers who have been suspended should receive a harsher punishment? >> we have to figure out exactly what happened. i'm less a fan of trying to persecute the individual officers and more interested in the systemic changes that are required here. dr. joseph is right. when you look at the conflation that we have, and the fact that it's biassing the communities that are poor, the consequences of which are devastating in those communities. con some of it is about understanding that it's broader than the individual cases. not enough of us are talking about raqia boyd. not enough of us are talking about natasha mckinney, who died under awful circumstances under police custody. we have to capture all the things that are actually going on to get the day to to understand how to best address it going forward. >> that's right. if all black lives don't matter, no black lives matter so we have to take into account issues of gender and certainly issues of community and class as they figure out who we think our worthy victims whose plights and predicaments are to be addressed. thank you so much for your time tonight. coming up adam sandler's new movie sparks outrage over its cultural insensitivity towards native americans. we'll have the details ahead. and later, louisiana's religious freedom law gets a big boost of support from its governor. the rapid response panel takes on the latest attack on gay rights. stay tuned. >>who... is this?! >>hi, i am heinz new mustard. hi na na na na >>she's just jealous because you have better taste. whatever. >>hey. keep your chin up. for years, heinz ketchup has been with the wrong mustard. well, not anymore. introducing heinz new better tasting yellow mustard. mmm! we come by almost every day to deliver your mail so if you have any packages you want to return you should just give them to us since we're going to be here anyway it's kind of a no brainer i want my foyer to smell more like a foyer. i want his bedroom to smell like he's away at boarding school. surround yourself with up to 6 hours of luxurious, long-lasting scents... ...introducing new unstopables air refresher. hey, boys! look what i got here! >> hey, where are the white women at? >> that memorable scene was from the 1974 classic "blazing saddles." it has racism with provocative language and twists on stereotypes. mel brooks says he couldn't make the same film today. this is the argument netflix would like to use for adam sandler's new controversial film. a group of native american actors walked off the set of "the ridiculous six" on wednesday. they call it the portrayal of native american people insulting. >> you have one female character who was also one of the main characters goes by the name of beaver's breath. and another character by wears no bra. >> we need to take issue when they degrade our elders our people. >> there's a lot of traditions we hold sacred. a lot of traditions we don't want put out there in hollywood. >> netflix responded by underscoring the film's use of irony. a spokesperson says it's a broad satire of western movies and the stereotypes they popularize. joining me now is the author wok the show. what's your response to this controversy? do you think this is something that hey, it's a matter of satire or is this something serious that people should take into consideration and not simply political correctness? >> thank you, professor. before even addressing the idiot whisperer adam sandler or his latest silly movie "the ridiculous six" i think it's very important as a native person to command and thank and show some gratitude and love to those brave actors and actresses who said that we are going to put principle above racial ridicule for native people. that's not easy. natives in hollywood seem to encounter a certain level of antipathy historically. it's particularly ugly against native women. so for these actors to say we're willing to put principle over profit, and not take this role that's a huge step. and on behalf of my 8-year-old son, my 18-year-old nephew who i raise, native people across the country, i thank those very much. regarding whether or not there's a place for satire, there's absolutely an appropriate place for satire. but "blazing saddles" is an amazing example. there has to be some substance under that. i don't want to run on too long but "blazing saddles" talked about a black sheriff who came into town and all the white people left. it kind of predicted and informed us about white flight. with this particular adam sandler movie, there's no substance underneath it. all it is is racial insult. >> right. so you think that the context has to be put in place. that people have to understand the substance of engagement with an idea you have to lampoon and parry the idea. you have to be clear about what it is, and clear that you're distant from it so that we are in on the joke as opposed to an object of the joke. >> absolutely, professor. it's so important, not only that we question and critique the subject matter because we have to be very careful about that. but we also have to question the people who are making the subject matter the people who are the directors, and the people who are financing these particular deals. if it's a well-moneyed and privileged white man that's lampooning and making fun of a woman, particularly a woman of color, i think that's something that in legal terms would merit strict scrutiny. with this, i can't see of any effective or critical use of a lady smoking a peace pipe while urinating. i can't see what the political or artistic merit of that particular image is. >> sure. you think netflix is handling the issue correctly? are they sensitive enough to the background issues and are they responding in an appropriate fashion? >> no, not at all. netflix, they're interested with content. they want to make more content. it's a money game. and i understand that very well. and the only way that we can speak as native people and for people -- whether it be african-americans or native americans who have this relationship with the film industry that only allows us to be the subject of material and not -- excuse me, the on the of the material and not the subject, where we can't create our own content, the only way we can speak like wise is with our pocketbooks because netflix does not seem to be responding to our indignation, or the statement of so many people across