We spoke with Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, about the massive police corruption trial underway in Baltimore and why the national media’s not talking about it. Full interview here.
Democracy Now! is an independent, daily global news hour anchored by award-winning journalists Amy Goodman and Juan González. We air live weekdays 8-9AM ET and rebroadcast throughout the day on nearly 1,400 TV & radio stations in 43 countries. Here we post excerpts from our interviews and key moments from our daily show.
The danger of these mis-histories, the danger of this fable, is the ways then it’s used to shut down sort of conversation and protest… You know, Mike Huckabee saying to Ferguson protesters that he wished they would be more like MLK. And in my head, I’m thinking, ‘You know, be careful what you wish for, because they are, and you don’t like it, right?; It is disruptive. It is uncomfortable. It is relentless. It’s not just injustice exposed, and injustice changed. That’s not how the civil rights movement actually proceeded. It was injustice exposed and exposed and exposed and exposed, and you move the needle slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly.
Historian Jeanne Theoharis on the way Black Lives Matter’s critics white-wash civil rights history to serve nationalistic interests.
Read the full interview: A More Beautiful & Terrible History: The Whitewashing & Distortion of Rosa Parks and MLK’s Legacies
Interview with Shaun King: For Erica Garner, Justice Delayed Was Justice Denied
Shaun King spoke with Democracy Now! about his friend, 27-year-old activist Erica Garner, who died Saturday:
“A lot of people failed Erica and failed the Garner family. And I’m a rather new New Yorker. When I moved to New York, there was this view that I had of the city that it was a progressive haven. And I think that irritated Erica that people saw this city as incredibly progressive, and yet she couldn’t get the most basic form of justice for her family.
And so, they never fired Officer Daniel Pantaleo, which, you know, I even confronted the chief of police myself about this. And they talk about rules and regulations that make it difficult. But here we are, over three years later, and he clearly violated NYPD policy. They didn’t fire him. The city, including the mayor, fought the family, over and over and over again, for the release of his disciplinary records, which was just ridiculous. I think that Mayor de Blasio will look back on this with deep regret. It was a missed opportunity to do right by a family. And now, I really don’t even think it’s something he can make right. Erica was the most fierce defender of her father. And I don’t think there’s really a way that the mayor could fix this at this point.
And so, even the Obama administration and the Justice Department really seemed to make a commitment to Erica—even Donald Trump made a commitment to the Garner family—that they would do something about this. And people continued to just kick the can or, you know, just continued to put it off. And here we are now with Erica’s loss. And it just shows justice delayed is justice denied, in so many ways. And I’m pissed, and Erica was furious. And I think I’m angrier now than I’ve ever been to see a family denied justice like this.”
Erica Garner, Anti-Police Brutality Activist, In Coma & Declared Brain-Dead After Heart Attack
Erica Garner, a nationally recognized anti-police brutality activist, is in a coma after suffering a heart attack, and doctors have now declared her brain-dead with no chance of recovery. She is just 27 years old. Erica helped lead the struggle for justice for her father, Eric Garner, who was killed when police officers in Staten Island wrestled him to the ground, pinned him down and applied a fatal chokehold in 2014. His final words were “I can’t breathe,” which he repeated 11 times. Erica’s mother says her daughter was hospitalized on Saturday after an asthma-induced heart attack.
Erica in her own words on Democracy Now! last year:
I’ve protested. I’ve spoke on panels. I traveled across this nation. I exhaust all avenues. I even endorsed Bernie Sanders to get my message out. And it’s like we keep having a conversation I exhausted for two years. And, you know, how much talking do we need to have? The Black Lives Matter movement been very compassionate, patient, and basically begging the nation. You know, we are under attack as black people. We are being gunned down every day. And these officers are not being held accountable.
[Colin Kaepernick]’s one of the brightest, most articulate and committed people that I have ever come across. I knew Muhammad Ali. I most certainly worked with [John] Carlos and [Tommie] Smith. Bill Russell, Jim Brown, some of these people from the 1960s, Arthur Ashe—I put him in that class… I personally am pushing him for a Nobel Peace Prize nomination, even if he doesn’t get it, because I think he’s going to have that impact as we look back 20 years from now, 30 years from now. And I think it should be recognized.
Dr. Harry Edwards on why he thinks football player Colin Kaepernick should be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Read the full interview here.
I think when people think of NFL athletes, they forget that they are citizens of this country, that they are bothered by the problems that we all face. And so, Colin [Kaepernick] is enormously courageous. And he’s sparked a movement.
Black Lives Matter activist and New York Daily News senior justice writer Shaun King on NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s protest against racial oppression and police brutality by kneeling during the pre-game national anthem. Read the full interview: Shaun King on Colin Kaepernick: He is Enormously Courageous and Has Sparked a Movement Among Athletes.
I won’t be surprised if not one officer is convicted of one count, because it’s not illegal to kill black people in America. And that’s what we’re trying to change, and that’s what people are advocating and fighting for.
Baltimore activist Kwame Rose on the acquittal of a Lt. Brian Rice, a third police officer just acquitted in the 2015 death of Freddie Gray in police custody. Watch the full interview: Third Officer Acquitted in Freddie Gray Death, But Activists Convicted for Protesting Killing
There will never, ever be peace without justice. There will never be calmness without accountability. There will never be order without fairness. So when I hear the authorities call for peace and call for calmness and call for order, I say, yes, but it’s not the absence of tension… I don’t want the police killing on behalf of me. I want the police to be treated with respect and fairly, and I want black youth and brown youth, black men and black women to be treated fairly.
Dr. Cornel West, a professor at Union Theological Seminary. See the rest of the interview: Cornel West: Justice and Accountability are Necessary to End Tension over Killings by Police
We’re living in a time where blackness almost seems to be a death sentence. It almost seems to mean that your life is somehow lesser than others. The world is constantly telling us to not love our blackness. I want to somehow make it known that to be black is to be OK, that you can love your blackness, that you should be proud of your blackness, that it’s not simply just a death sentence.
Langston Glaude, Brown University undergraduate student. See the full interview: Black Father in Letter to His Son: “I Thought of You When I Saw the Son of Alton Sterling Weeping”
In Dallas, Texas, five police officers have been shot dead and six others wounded while patrolling a demonstration against the recent police shootings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. Democracy Now! spoke with Marc Lamont Hill about the movement against police brutality after the Dallas shooting.
Watch the rest of the interview: Marc Lamont Hill: Dallas Shootings Can’t Deter Us From Continuing Movement Against State Violence