On Plugged In…
Protests in America.
Violent clashes …
across the country
following the death
in the state of Minnesota
of a handcuffed black man
in police custody.
Across the country..
Stores looted…
And more than 4,000 arrested …
as American cities …
impose curfews.
President Donald Trump
Taking a hard line
Against those he calls
Terrorists and instigators.
(President Donald Trump)
“I am taking immediate presidential action to stop the violence and restore security and safety in America.”
Peaceful protests and violent riots.
On Plugged In…
Protests in America
((Greta))
Hello and welcome to Plugged In.
I’m Greta Van Susteren reporting from my home in Washington DC.
Like many across the world, most Americans in the past few months have been staying inside their homes to avoid the deadly coronavirus. This changed in recent days with the killing of a handcuffed black man in police custody. Many across America in anger, left their homes and took to the streets.
The videotaped death of 46-year old George Floyd is disturbing.
The more than 6-minute video showing a white police officer pressing his knee on the neck of Mr. Floyd as he over and over and over again said “I can’t breathe.”
While there have been many peaceful protests across the country violence and looting has broken out in several US cities.
President Trump ordered active US military troops to enforce a curfew
here in Washington DC after protestors across from the White House
threw rocks at police barricades prompting the Secret Service to move President Trump for a short time to an underground bunker.
((George Floyd: Timeline))
It started Monday May 25th, around 8pm central time.
Police responded to a call that two men were trying to pay for groceries with a counterfeit 20-dollar bill.
Surveillance videos and those from bystanders shot from various angles show George Floyd lying on the ground, handcuffed behind his back with a police officer’s knee pressing down on his neck, pleading to officers that he could not breathe.
Floyd was unresponsive when an ambulance arrived, and he was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Minneapolis police originally called Floyd’s death a “medical incident.”
By Tuesday morning, the video had circulated through social media. The mayor of Minneapolis said George Floyd should not have died:
((Jacob Frey, Minneapolis Mayor))
“What we saw was horrible. Completely and utterly messed up.”
((NARRATOR))
That morning, amid the memorials to George Floyd, people gathered to protest at the site of his arrest and death.
By mid-afternoon, the four police officers involved were fired.
Hours later, protestors marched to a nearby police precinct, throwing objects at police cars and damaging the building. Police responded with tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets as businesses were damaged and some looting occurred.
By Thursday, Minnesota’s governor activated the state’s national guard to try to keep the peace in the streets after a night of vandalism and fires.
((Tim Walz, Minnesota Governor))
“We cannot have the looting and the recklessness that went on, we cannot have it because we can’t function as a society, and I refuse to have it take away the attention of the stain that we need to be working on is what happened with those fundamental institutional racism that allows a man to be held down in broad daylight and thank god a young person had a camera to video it. Because there’s not a person here or listening today that wonders how many times that camera’s not there.”
((NARRATOR))
On Friday, the police officer seen kneeling on George Floyd’s neck was arrested and charged with murder in the third degree and manslaughter. Court documents said he kneeled on George Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes.
Friday night and throughout the weekend, protestors and rioters took to the streets across the country. Some were peaceful. Others were not. At least six people were killed as several American cities were put under a curfew, including Washington, DC. National Guard soldiers were deployed in more than a dozen U.S. States.
((Greta))
This week the president scolded state governors calling them weak
and urged them to use state national guards to quell the protests.
From the White House President Trump announcing he would use active military troops to put down violent protests.
((President Trump))
“All Americans were rightly sickened and revolted by the brutal death of George Floyd. My administration is fully committed that for George and his family, justice will be served. He will not have died in vain, but we cannot allow the righteous cries and peaceful protestors to be drowned out by an angry mob. The biggest victims of the rioting are peace loving citizens in our poorest communities and as their president, I will fight to keep them safe. I will fight to protect you. I am your president of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protesters. But in recent days, our nation has been gripped by professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters, Antifa and others.
A number of state and local governments have failed to take necessary action to safeguard their residents.
That is why I am taking immediate presidential action to stop the violence and restore security and safety in America. I am mobilizing all available, federal resources, civilian and military, to stop the rioting and looting to end the destruction and arson and to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans, including your second amendment rights. Therefore, the following measures are going into effect immediately. First, we are ending the riots and lawlessness that has spread throughout our country. We will end it now. Today I have strongly recommended to every governor to deploy the national guard in sufficient numbers that we dominate the streets, mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled.
If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them. I am also taking swift and decisive action to protect our great Capitol Washington DC.
((Greta))
President Trump’s remarks came as the nation is reeling economically
from the coronavirus pandemic.
And it is all happening during a presidential election year.
I spoke to VOA White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman about how the president is dealing with this crisis.
((Greta interview with Steve Herman))
SH: The President keeps talking about law and order, accusing the governors of being too weak and telling them that if they don't use strong force, they're fools. And they're going to be run over by these protesters who he is claiming that the violent elements are under the control of what he calls Antifa, this loose coalition of anti -fascist groups. So it's a very worrying situation right now, and one wonders, just how far the President is willing to go and just how far the violent elements and these demonstrations which have turned into mini riots are willing to go.
GVS: Now you mentioned Antifa. The President has said this sort of loose coalition of people that some have said, are part of this protest or behind the protest, I mean there's still the jury's out in terms of you know who's really behind all these protests, it's probably multiple groups but the President said that he is going to, if they want to designate them as a terrorist organization, what is the practical impact of that?
SH: Well, there's a huge legal controversy about whether the President can designate any domestic organization as a terrorist group. Of course the worry is, if you're out on the streets, that somebody could grab you and say that you're, you know, Antifa--this is not a card carrying organization so how do you determine who is who? So there are very worrying civil liberties concerns about the President's language and his threatened action. But, as the President does quite often, he can issue executive orders, and then those executive orders can be legally challenged.
GVS: Right. This all started, this round when a police officer killed--- a white police officer killed a black man who was handcuffed in Minneapolis, which is about 1200 miles away from Washington and it has spawned protests all around the United States. What has been sort of the, what has been the sort of the discussion inside the White House as this as this protest slash Riot has grown around the country?
WH: Right. they are watching this in quite a nervous fashion as you might imagine, and really is. Normally we have the president as the consoler in chief. And the President when he was in Florida on Saturday did make remarks about the death of George Floyd, but they didn't get a lot of coverage I think because he was there to make a really a speech about astronauts in the space program, and then shortly thereafter, the President was back on Twitter with a law and order message and blaming Democrats blaming mayors, blaming the extreme left, that that sort of rhetoric. And there are those who would like the president to take on a more consoling role, including his supporters outside and inside the White House. The question is whether it could really be sustained and what impact would it have: Does the President, really have any credibility with the more violent elements who are out on the streets? There there's quite a large degree of skepticism about that as you might imagine.
GVS: Here the country is so divided and people are picking sides on these riots that I don't know if anyone could be a consoler in chief because they're predating, this is a deeply divided country.
SH: Right and what you have coming from some of the Democrats is of course there's, they're saying that there's really, that that they don't do not condone the violent acts that are happening. But - some of them are saying they understand where this anger is coming from. Okay. But that creates, in a sense, a more polarized political element and we do have to understand that we are in a presidential election year, and everything the president says is going to be viewed through that prism, and anything that Joe Biden is going to say or his potential running mates is going to be viewed through that political prism as well.
GVS: How does it impact the press corps, the rioting? and is it just an another story to cover or is there a serious concern for their safety as they go in and out?
SH: The number of reporters who are physically at the White House the pool and other reporters that are there, that number has been significantly drawn down because of social distancing. So we have to rely more on our colleagues. VOA we’re a part of that pool and my colleague Patsy Widakuswara and I are taking some of the pooling duties for the President and the Vice President, you know, on average, I would say once or twice a week so we're not out of there totally. But, and a lot of news organizations, I would say have had layoffs right? So they're doing much more with much fewer people so there are tremendous strains that are occurring on the American media as well as a result of all of this. Also what's changing though in the cities is you have curfews being declared. So if you're out on the streets, even though you're standing there not even moving, just standing in front of the police officers, if the curfew has passed, you don’t any longer have a right to assemble according to those local ordinances and declarations. And that's where things start to get very interesting because law enforcement officers and the mayors, you know are hesitant to take into custody and have these scenes being broadcast around the world of people who weren’t doing anything violent being arrested. But that's sort of the situation that we're confronting right now and Greta, this could turn out to be the most contentious summer in the United States since 1968.
((Greta))
Sadly, the violent images of protesters clashing with police dominates the news coverage.
But it is important to note that most of the protests are peaceful and most of the protestors are not taking part in the destruction.
VOA’s Jesse Oni shows us ways Americans are making themselves heard
without resorting to violence.
((Americans Protest – by Jesusemen Oni))
An emotional visit to the site where it all began.
((NAT POP – “say his name” “George Floyd”))
The brother of George Floyd at a makeshift memorial where a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his brother’s neck, calling for calm and peace in the wake of widespread unrest that has unfolded since Floyd’s death.
((Terrence Floyd, the brother of George Floyd))
“Let's switch it up y'all. Let's switch it up. Do this peacefully, please.”
((NARRATOR))
With U.S. cities in flames following the most widespread protests over police brutality and racism in decades, demonstrators worry their calls for justice are being drowned out by the violence.
((Diedre O'Brien, Protester))
“George Floyd was killed like an animal. And we're tired. This is the norm. This is not something that's new. It's actually something that's been going on. It's been happening. And we're here just to say that we're tired of this.”
((NARRATOR))
The rallies are made up mainly of peaceful demonstrators, who greatly outnumber those who want to instigate violence.
Yet, a number of protests have descended into chaos – usually after sunset – with looting and vandalism.
But most demonstrations across the nation have been peaceful, diverse and unifying.
((Maria, Protester))
“Black people in this country have never had equal protection under the law. Never. When my adult children go out in the streets wearing a hoodie, I don't have any fear for them. But every mother here fears for her children. If they’re black children, if they're black men in particular. It is wrong. It is unjust.”
((NARRATOR))
Instead of resorting to violence, many protesters are instead finding ways to advance the cause of racial justice.
Like Matt Manning, a Texas attorney, who is offering pro bono services to arrested protesters. He wants his sons to see how he has used his skills to support the movement.
((Matt Manning, Attorney/Protester))
“If you look at the civil rights movement, people did for the movement, what they had the best capacity to do. Some people were feeding everybody as they were planning the movement because their contribution was being able to cook for the movement. Other people, you know preached. Other people did a number of things. And the capacity I serve in as an attorney I want to make sure that, you know, when my days are done, I know I did everything I could to help people.”
((NARRATOR))
Others are leaning on their faith.
Writer Christiana Mpkosowa is calling on her multicultural church congregation to action.
((Christiana Mpkosowa, Freelance Writer))
“As a believer, what really grieves me the most is that in a nation that claims to be Christian, that these things really misrepresent God's character. And I have two black boys. And one of the very first things that I taught them about who God is, is that he is just.”
((NARRATOR))
But as non-violent protesters struggle to reclaim the message these rallies, many say decades of oppression and frustration has led to this violent moment in American history.
((Matt Manning, Attorney/Protester))
“A lot of the issues we see are systemic. These are these are compounded issues, educational system, the housing system, justice, the disparate outcomes for black and brown people in this country that have existed since the inception of this country.”
((NARRATOR))
Systemic issues that will take time to be resolved. Meanwhile, critics say the image of law enforcement breaking up a peaceful rally outside the White House so that Trump could walk to a church will do nothing to help a community seeking justice and healing.
Jesusemen Oni, VOA News, Washington.
((Greta))
With about 40 million Americans out of work and the coronavirus pandemic
still on the rise and amid protests in the streets of dozens of U.S. cities
my next guest says history will remember this point in time as a pivotal moment for activism.
Peniel Joseph is a professor of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.
He has been a frequent commentator on issues of race democracy and civil rights.
((Greta interviews Professor Peniel Joseph))
PJ: I think what we're seeing happening in the aftermath of George Floyd's killing is about more than the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system is a gateway to multiple systems of racial inequity in the United States, and that's connected to housing, it's connected to employment, it's connected to public schools we often talk about public school to prison pipeline. So it's not just about sentencing or bad policing or police cameras. There's so many people out in the streets because something is fundamentally wrong and broken in the system for millions of Americans, not for all Americans but for millions of Americans.
GVS: Do you think that this is from a sort of more systemic, or as bad cops with evil in their heart?
PJ: Yeah, I think it's more systemic. I think the police are the tip of the spear. We have, I think we have too many police in the United States, I think we, we need to defund the criminal justice system, so that we can redistribute that, those resources back into segregated communities that need those resources.
So we've got a lot of problems, in addition to this pandemic and the racial disparities that we've all seen come up in the pandemic. Black people have died disproportionately. The pandemic amplified vulnerability to people who are both unemployed already, but also public facing workers. People who work for Amazon, people who work at restaurants. So we've got 40 million people who are out of work. We've got Americans demonstrating in the streets, and these are, this is not just an African American problem we've got white allies who are demonstrating, Latinx, indigenous people demonstrating. So this is a national problem and we need national leadership, but I'm, I'm happy to see in Austin, the city that I'm in, local leadership, really coming together to think about how we can bend the curve and instill and institutionalize anti-racist policies.
GVS: The problem though isn't just now isn't just this president. i mean with this has been going on forever. You've got Ferguson and Baltimore which were under a former president, President Obama, you can go back to Rodney King in 1992 and another president. You go back to even back in about 1965 when President Johnson created the War on Poverty. I mean this has gone through many presidents Republicans and Democrats, and we're still, we're still having this, this discussion. It hasn't gotten, gotten appreciably better.
PJ: Yeah, you're right, this is a bipartisan problem, both Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals felt that the Great Society didn't work. And you saw a criminalization of the African American community as a result so we went from a war on poverty, to really a war on crime, that has incarcerated disproportionately black and brown people. but some poor whites have gotten caught up in that net as well. But those who suffer from opioid addiction, they've been medicalized and not incarcerated.
So this is a major problem and part of this is, we don't have enough empathy for black communities in the United States. There are high points where we do have empathy, and certainly people like Barack and Michelle Obama are great signs of a kind of racial progress, but they're not national racial progress. We we have black celebrities and black talented people, we all feel very special and the whole country embraces sports figures. But when we think about just the average ordinary black person like a George Floyd, George Floyd was 46, and he's somebody who had allegedly a fake $20 bill, there's no mercy applied to George Floyd, in the same way that there might have been if he was somebody we considered special and somebody of worth.
So both Democrats, Republicans whether you're on the conservative or the liberal side of the equation. We have a whole lot of work to do in terms of finding empathy and institutionalizing that empathy in our policies.
GVS: Alright, I used to be a public defender it's been many moons. almost all my clients were African Americans, but almost all the crimes are committed on African Americans. I mean we've been, you know, we've got to reform in the criminal justice system. but we've got to protect people you know we've got to protect the African Americans who are likewise victims. A lot of this crime is local. and a lot of the crime tends to be in neighborhoods that may have a concentration of something. when you have that, how do how do we protect the people, the victims?
PJ: Oh Absolutely, it's investment, it's investment. and I think we made a mistake along the way in the 1970s 80s and 90s. As crime started to ratchet up, and even as crime started to go down in the 1990s, we started to disinvest in black communities and black and brown communities.
So you don't see a lot of crime in wealthy areas. You don't see a lot of crime in neighborhoods that work with tight networks that have good childcare, where everybody's employed -- I live in one of those neighborhoods I'm really fortunate. You don't see a lot of crime you don't really see a lot of division in those neighborhoods. So if we have investment-- and gentrification, I think gentrification can actually be a way to do that investment. If we have gentrification, where we allow people who've been in neighborhoods that were once blighted to remain, while we gentrify, that's a way that we can actually have racial integration in places like Washington DC and Brooklyn and Austin, Texas where I live in. So there are actual ways where instead of trying to punish and constrain and contain people, Greta, we invest in them and say hey you can have the kind of family, the kind of educational opportunities, the kind of professional opportunities that we all want for our own families, but we can have this together. so I think investment and not punishment is the answer.
And I think the most frustrating aspect of what's going on right now is that we're spending billions of dollars, National Guard military deployment, criminal justice deployment, because of these uprisings. there's there's destruction happening when we don't invest in these same cities while people are slowly dying. We only invest, and that's through criminal justice, when we have these kind of uprisings or we see these public executions like what happened to George Floyd.
GVS: I went back and listened to as I frequently do when I think when we have these big events, to speeches by Martin Luther King, and what and there are so many things to take away for speeches, but one thing that he said that it keeps sticking with me and stuck with me for a number of years is, you can't legislate decency. You can't - there's no law out there that could tell, you know, the officer on the street, you know to, he's begging for his life, you know be decent get up he's handcuffed. And that's, you know, so deeply frustrating when there's so many good people, so many good police officers out there, day in and day out, black, white, other ethnic groups, and then you have something like this, which exposes the ugly belly.
PJ: Yeah, you can't legislate decency. but you can change hearts and minds if we have a political culture, and a community where we value each other, and I think Dr. King said that -- I mean I write about Dr. King my new books on King and Malcolm X, and what Dr. King talked about was this beloved community and for him, the beloved community was multiracial it was multicultural it was multi-generational, but we took care of each other. and we have to have legislation and anti-racist policies, but we have to see each other as human beings, and that's what he talks about at the March on Washington. That's what he talks about in the Selma speech in 1965. That's what he talks about right before his tragic assassination April 3rd 1968 the last speech he made, he talks about empathy and us seeing each other and valuing each other as human beings. And if institutions start to do that, we will too. We all know how values and morals change over time, women are not treated the same way they are, they were in 1920, right? because we understand that systems and institutions start to treat them better as citizens, and even though it's not perfect, We have much more access for women now than we did 100 years ago. So we can we can bend the curve and change how we value each other, and how police value black, and Latin-x and people who are not white, if we have the will. and so like I said before it's this is a generational opportunity to really transform the status quo, and not just in terms of race. but in terms of just economic justice access to the American dream for all people.
((Greta))
Before we go we want to leave you with an uplifting story. This one
more than 400 kilometers above the earth.
The US – is officially back in the space race following the successful launch
on US soil of the first American astronauts into space orbit in nearly a decade. Both of them aboard a privately owned rocket ship - not owned by NASA.
((SpaceX/NASA’s First Crewed Commercial Launch))
SpaceX Makes History
((Greta))
The public/private partnership of NASA and SpaceX claimed victory Sunday as American astronauts docked with the International Space Station.
Roughly 19 hours after launching from Cape Canaveral in Florida…
the Falcon-9 rocket carrying the Dragon capsule made history.
It was the first US rocket launch into space orbit in 9 years.
and the first time a private company… SpaceX - carried astronauts into space.
((Shaneequa Vereen, NASA’s Johnson Space Center))
“We have entered into a new era of spaceflight. Getting these commercial partners up and getting them ready to be able to regularly take our astronauts to the International Space Station makes us less dependent on our Russian counterparts.”
((NARRATOR))
Since 2011, American astronauts had been using Russian rockets to get them to the International Space Station.
Vereen says the successful launch will not mean the end of the US partnership with Russia. But she says it does mark a new beginning.
((Shaneequa Vereen, NASA’s Johnson Space Center))
“We are basically trying to reinvigorate America, as well as the rest of the world’s, interest in the space program. We have Orion that’s coming up, and that’s going to launch the first woman and the next man on the moon… and after that, on to Mars.”
(NARRATOR))
The initial launch of the Falcon-9 rocket was delayed for a few days until Saturday because of bad weather.
The mission for NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken is scheduled to last 110 days.
((Greta))
My thanks to our guests this week and thank you to all of you for watching.
We will continue to follow the protests and the pandemic
But for the latest updates on these stories and more please visit our website: VOANews.com.
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Greta.
Thanks for being Plugged In.
We hope to see you again next week!
Protests in America.
Violent clashes …
across the country
following the death
in the state of Minnesota
of a handcuffed black man
in police custody.
Across the country..
Stores looted…
And more than 4,000 arrested …
as American cities …
impose curfews.
President Donald Trump
Taking a hard line
Against those he calls
Terrorists and instigators.
(President Donald Trump)
“I am taking immediate presidential action to stop the violence and restore security and safety in America.”
Peaceful protests and violent riots.
On Plugged In…
Protests in America
((Greta))
Hello and welcome to Plugged In.
I’m Greta Van Susteren reporting from my home in Washington DC.
Like many across the world, most Americans in the past few months have been staying inside their homes to avoid the deadly coronavirus. This changed in recent days with the killing of a handcuffed black man in police custody. Many across America in anger, left their homes and took to the streets.
The videotaped death of 46-year old George Floyd is disturbing.
The more than 6-minute video showing a white police officer pressing his knee on the neck of Mr. Floyd as he over and over and over again said “I can’t breathe.”
While there have been many peaceful protests across the country violence and looting has broken out in several US cities.
President Trump ordered active US military troops to enforce a curfew
here in Washington DC after protestors across from the White House
threw rocks at police barricades prompting the Secret Service to move President Trump for a short time to an underground bunker.
((George Floyd: Timeline))
It started Monday May 25th, around 8pm central time.
Police responded to a call that two men were trying to pay for groceries with a counterfeit 20-dollar bill.
Surveillance videos and those from bystanders shot from various angles show George Floyd lying on the ground, handcuffed behind his back with a police officer’s knee pressing down on his neck, pleading to officers that he could not breathe.
Floyd was unresponsive when an ambulance arrived, and he was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Minneapolis police originally called Floyd’s death a “medical incident.”
By Tuesday morning, the video had circulated through social media. The mayor of Minneapolis said George Floyd should not have died:
((Jacob Frey, Minneapolis Mayor))
“What we saw was horrible. Completely and utterly messed up.”
((NARRATOR))
That morning, amid the memorials to George Floyd, people gathered to protest at the site of his arrest and death.
By mid-afternoon, the four police officers involved were fired.
Hours later, protestors marched to a nearby police precinct, throwing objects at police cars and damaging the building. Police responded with tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets as businesses were damaged and some looting occurred.
By Thursday, Minnesota’s governor activated the state’s national guard to try to keep the peace in the streets after a night of vandalism and fires.
((Tim Walz, Minnesota Governor))
“We cannot have the looting and the recklessness that went on, we cannot have it because we can’t function as a society, and I refuse to have it take away the attention of the stain that we need to be working on is what happened with those fundamental institutional racism that allows a man to be held down in broad daylight and thank god a young person had a camera to video it. Because there’s not a person here or listening today that wonders how many times that camera’s not there.”
((NARRATOR))
On Friday, the police officer seen kneeling on George Floyd’s neck was arrested and charged with murder in the third degree and manslaughter. Court documents said he kneeled on George Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes.
Friday night and throughout the weekend, protestors and rioters took to the streets across the country. Some were peaceful. Others were not. At least six people were killed as several American cities were put under a curfew, including Washington, DC. National Guard soldiers were deployed in more than a dozen U.S. States.
((Greta))
This week the president scolded state governors calling them weak
and urged them to use state national guards to quell the protests.
From the White House President Trump announcing he would use active military troops to put down violent protests.
((President Trump))
“All Americans were rightly sickened and revolted by the brutal death of George Floyd. My administration is fully committed that for George and his family, justice will be served. He will not have died in vain, but we cannot allow the righteous cries and peaceful protestors to be drowned out by an angry mob. The biggest victims of the rioting are peace loving citizens in our poorest communities and as their president, I will fight to keep them safe. I will fight to protect you. I am your president of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protesters. But in recent days, our nation has been gripped by professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters, Antifa and others.
A number of state and local governments have failed to take necessary action to safeguard their residents.
That is why I am taking immediate presidential action to stop the violence and restore security and safety in America. I am mobilizing all available, federal resources, civilian and military, to stop the rioting and looting to end the destruction and arson and to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans, including your second amendment rights. Therefore, the following measures are going into effect immediately. First, we are ending the riots and lawlessness that has spread throughout our country. We will end it now. Today I have strongly recommended to every governor to deploy the national guard in sufficient numbers that we dominate the streets, mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled.
If a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them. I am also taking swift and decisive action to protect our great Capitol Washington DC.
((Greta))
President Trump’s remarks came as the nation is reeling economically
from the coronavirus pandemic.
And it is all happening during a presidential election year.
I spoke to VOA White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman about how the president is dealing with this crisis.
((Greta interview with Steve Herman))
SH: The President keeps talking about law and order, accusing the governors of being too weak and telling them that if they don't use strong force, they're fools. And they're going to be run over by these protesters who he is claiming that the violent elements are under the control of what he calls Antifa, this loose coalition of anti -fascist groups. So it's a very worrying situation right now, and one wonders, just how far the President is willing to go and just how far the violent elements and these demonstrations which have turned into mini riots are willing to go.
GVS: Now you mentioned Antifa. The President has said this sort of loose coalition of people that some have said, are part of this protest or behind the protest, I mean there's still the jury's out in terms of you know who's really behind all these protests, it's probably multiple groups but the President said that he is going to, if they want to designate them as a terrorist organization, what is the practical impact of that?
SH: Well, there's a huge legal controversy about whether the President can designate any domestic organization as a terrorist group. Of course the worry is, if you're out on the streets, that somebody could grab you and say that you're, you know, Antifa--this is not a card carrying organization so how do you determine who is who? So there are very worrying civil liberties concerns about the President's language and his threatened action. But, as the President does quite often, he can issue executive orders, and then those executive orders can be legally challenged.
GVS: Right. This all started, this round when a police officer killed--- a white police officer killed a black man who was handcuffed in Minneapolis, which is about 1200 miles away from Washington and it has spawned protests all around the United States. What has been sort of the, what has been the sort of the discussion inside the White House as this as this protest slash Riot has grown around the country?
WH: Right. they are watching this in quite a nervous fashion as you might imagine, and really is. Normally we have the president as the consoler in chief. And the President when he was in Florida on Saturday did make remarks about the death of George Floyd, but they didn't get a lot of coverage I think because he was there to make a really a speech about astronauts in the space program, and then shortly thereafter, the President was back on Twitter with a law and order message and blaming Democrats blaming mayors, blaming the extreme left, that that sort of rhetoric. And there are those who would like the president to take on a more consoling role, including his supporters outside and inside the White House. The question is whether it could really be sustained and what impact would it have: Does the President, really have any credibility with the more violent elements who are out on the streets? There there's quite a large degree of skepticism about that as you might imagine.
GVS: Here the country is so divided and people are picking sides on these riots that I don't know if anyone could be a consoler in chief because they're predating, this is a deeply divided country.
SH: Right and what you have coming from some of the Democrats is of course there's, they're saying that there's really, that that they don't do not condone the violent acts that are happening. But - some of them are saying they understand where this anger is coming from. Okay. But that creates, in a sense, a more polarized political element and we do have to understand that we are in a presidential election year, and everything the president says is going to be viewed through that prism, and anything that Joe Biden is going to say or his potential running mates is going to be viewed through that political prism as well.
GVS: How does it impact the press corps, the rioting? and is it just an another story to cover or is there a serious concern for their safety as they go in and out?
SH: The number of reporters who are physically at the White House the pool and other reporters that are there, that number has been significantly drawn down because of social distancing. So we have to rely more on our colleagues. VOA we’re a part of that pool and my colleague Patsy Widakuswara and I are taking some of the pooling duties for the President and the Vice President, you know, on average, I would say once or twice a week so we're not out of there totally. But, and a lot of news organizations, I would say have had layoffs right? So they're doing much more with much fewer people so there are tremendous strains that are occurring on the American media as well as a result of all of this. Also what's changing though in the cities is you have curfews being declared. So if you're out on the streets, even though you're standing there not even moving, just standing in front of the police officers, if the curfew has passed, you don’t any longer have a right to assemble according to those local ordinances and declarations. And that's where things start to get very interesting because law enforcement officers and the mayors, you know are hesitant to take into custody and have these scenes being broadcast around the world of people who weren’t doing anything violent being arrested. But that's sort of the situation that we're confronting right now and Greta, this could turn out to be the most contentious summer in the United States since 1968.
((Greta))
Sadly, the violent images of protesters clashing with police dominates the news coverage.
But it is important to note that most of the protests are peaceful and most of the protestors are not taking part in the destruction.
VOA’s Jesse Oni shows us ways Americans are making themselves heard
without resorting to violence.
((Americans Protest – by Jesusemen Oni))
An emotional visit to the site where it all began.
((NAT POP – “say his name” “George Floyd”))
The brother of George Floyd at a makeshift memorial where a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his brother’s neck, calling for calm and peace in the wake of widespread unrest that has unfolded since Floyd’s death.
((Terrence Floyd, the brother of George Floyd))
“Let's switch it up y'all. Let's switch it up. Do this peacefully, please.”
((NARRATOR))
With U.S. cities in flames following the most widespread protests over police brutality and racism in decades, demonstrators worry their calls for justice are being drowned out by the violence.
((Diedre O'Brien, Protester))
“George Floyd was killed like an animal. And we're tired. This is the norm. This is not something that's new. It's actually something that's been going on. It's been happening. And we're here just to say that we're tired of this.”
((NARRATOR))
The rallies are made up mainly of peaceful demonstrators, who greatly outnumber those who want to instigate violence.
Yet, a number of protests have descended into chaos – usually after sunset – with looting and vandalism.
But most demonstrations across the nation have been peaceful, diverse and unifying.
((Maria, Protester))
“Black people in this country have never had equal protection under the law. Never. When my adult children go out in the streets wearing a hoodie, I don't have any fear for them. But every mother here fears for her children. If they’re black children, if they're black men in particular. It is wrong. It is unjust.”
((NARRATOR))
Instead of resorting to violence, many protesters are instead finding ways to advance the cause of racial justice.
Like Matt Manning, a Texas attorney, who is offering pro bono services to arrested protesters. He wants his sons to see how he has used his skills to support the movement.
((Matt Manning, Attorney/Protester))
“If you look at the civil rights movement, people did for the movement, what they had the best capacity to do. Some people were feeding everybody as they were planning the movement because their contribution was being able to cook for the movement. Other people, you know preached. Other people did a number of things. And the capacity I serve in as an attorney I want to make sure that, you know, when my days are done, I know I did everything I could to help people.”
((NARRATOR))
Others are leaning on their faith.
Writer Christiana Mpkosowa is calling on her multicultural church congregation to action.
((Christiana Mpkosowa, Freelance Writer))
“As a believer, what really grieves me the most is that in a nation that claims to be Christian, that these things really misrepresent God's character. And I have two black boys. And one of the very first things that I taught them about who God is, is that he is just.”
((NARRATOR))
But as non-violent protesters struggle to reclaim the message these rallies, many say decades of oppression and frustration has led to this violent moment in American history.
((Matt Manning, Attorney/Protester))
“A lot of the issues we see are systemic. These are these are compounded issues, educational system, the housing system, justice, the disparate outcomes for black and brown people in this country that have existed since the inception of this country.”
((NARRATOR))
Systemic issues that will take time to be resolved. Meanwhile, critics say the image of law enforcement breaking up a peaceful rally outside the White House so that Trump could walk to a church will do nothing to help a community seeking justice and healing.
Jesusemen Oni, VOA News, Washington.
((Greta))
With about 40 million Americans out of work and the coronavirus pandemic
still on the rise and amid protests in the streets of dozens of U.S. cities
my next guest says history will remember this point in time as a pivotal moment for activism.
Peniel Joseph is a professor of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.
He has been a frequent commentator on issues of race democracy and civil rights.
((Greta interviews Professor Peniel Joseph))
PJ: I think what we're seeing happening in the aftermath of George Floyd's killing is about more than the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system is a gateway to multiple systems of racial inequity in the United States, and that's connected to housing, it's connected to employment, it's connected to public schools we often talk about public school to prison pipeline. So it's not just about sentencing or bad policing or police cameras. There's so many people out in the streets because something is fundamentally wrong and broken in the system for millions of Americans, not for all Americans but for millions of Americans.
GVS: Do you think that this is from a sort of more systemic, or as bad cops with evil in their heart?
PJ: Yeah, I think it's more systemic. I think the police are the tip of the spear. We have, I think we have too many police in the United States, I think we, we need to defund the criminal justice system, so that we can redistribute that, those resources back into segregated communities that need those resources.
So we've got a lot of problems, in addition to this pandemic and the racial disparities that we've all seen come up in the pandemic. Black people have died disproportionately. The pandemic amplified vulnerability to people who are both unemployed already, but also public facing workers. People who work for Amazon, people who work at restaurants. So we've got 40 million people who are out of work. We've got Americans demonstrating in the streets, and these are, this is not just an African American problem we've got white allies who are demonstrating, Latinx, indigenous people demonstrating. So this is a national problem and we need national leadership, but I'm, I'm happy to see in Austin, the city that I'm in, local leadership, really coming together to think about how we can bend the curve and instill and institutionalize anti-racist policies.
GVS: The problem though isn't just now isn't just this president. i mean with this has been going on forever. You've got Ferguson and Baltimore which were under a former president, President Obama, you can go back to Rodney King in 1992 and another president. You go back to even back in about 1965 when President Johnson created the War on Poverty. I mean this has gone through many presidents Republicans and Democrats, and we're still, we're still having this, this discussion. It hasn't gotten, gotten appreciably better.
PJ: Yeah, you're right, this is a bipartisan problem, both Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals felt that the Great Society didn't work. And you saw a criminalization of the African American community as a result so we went from a war on poverty, to really a war on crime, that has incarcerated disproportionately black and brown people. but some poor whites have gotten caught up in that net as well. But those who suffer from opioid addiction, they've been medicalized and not incarcerated.
So this is a major problem and part of this is, we don't have enough empathy for black communities in the United States. There are high points where we do have empathy, and certainly people like Barack and Michelle Obama are great signs of a kind of racial progress, but they're not national racial progress. We we have black celebrities and black talented people, we all feel very special and the whole country embraces sports figures. But when we think about just the average ordinary black person like a George Floyd, George Floyd was 46, and he's somebody who had allegedly a fake $20 bill, there's no mercy applied to George Floyd, in the same way that there might have been if he was somebody we considered special and somebody of worth.
So both Democrats, Republicans whether you're on the conservative or the liberal side of the equation. We have a whole lot of work to do in terms of finding empathy and institutionalizing that empathy in our policies.
GVS: Alright, I used to be a public defender it's been many moons. almost all my clients were African Americans, but almost all the crimes are committed on African Americans. I mean we've been, you know, we've got to reform in the criminal justice system. but we've got to protect people you know we've got to protect the African Americans who are likewise victims. A lot of this crime is local. and a lot of the crime tends to be in neighborhoods that may have a concentration of something. when you have that, how do how do we protect the people, the victims?
PJ: Oh Absolutely, it's investment, it's investment. and I think we made a mistake along the way in the 1970s 80s and 90s. As crime started to ratchet up, and even as crime started to go down in the 1990s, we started to disinvest in black communities and black and brown communities.
So you don't see a lot of crime in wealthy areas. You don't see a lot of crime in neighborhoods that work with tight networks that have good childcare, where everybody's employed -- I live in one of those neighborhoods I'm really fortunate. You don't see a lot of crime you don't really see a lot of division in those neighborhoods. So if we have investment-- and gentrification, I think gentrification can actually be a way to do that investment. If we have gentrification, where we allow people who've been in neighborhoods that were once blighted to remain, while we gentrify, that's a way that we can actually have racial integration in places like Washington DC and Brooklyn and Austin, Texas where I live in. So there are actual ways where instead of trying to punish and constrain and contain people, Greta, we invest in them and say hey you can have the kind of family, the kind of educational opportunities, the kind of professional opportunities that we all want for our own families, but we can have this together. so I think investment and not punishment is the answer.
And I think the most frustrating aspect of what's going on right now is that we're spending billions of dollars, National Guard military deployment, criminal justice deployment, because of these uprisings. there's there's destruction happening when we don't invest in these same cities while people are slowly dying. We only invest, and that's through criminal justice, when we have these kind of uprisings or we see these public executions like what happened to George Floyd.
GVS: I went back and listened to as I frequently do when I think when we have these big events, to speeches by Martin Luther King, and what and there are so many things to take away for speeches, but one thing that he said that it keeps sticking with me and stuck with me for a number of years is, you can't legislate decency. You can't - there's no law out there that could tell, you know, the officer on the street, you know to, he's begging for his life, you know be decent get up he's handcuffed. And that's, you know, so deeply frustrating when there's so many good people, so many good police officers out there, day in and day out, black, white, other ethnic groups, and then you have something like this, which exposes the ugly belly.
PJ: Yeah, you can't legislate decency. but you can change hearts and minds if we have a political culture, and a community where we value each other, and I think Dr. King said that -- I mean I write about Dr. King my new books on King and Malcolm X, and what Dr. King talked about was this beloved community and for him, the beloved community was multiracial it was multicultural it was multi-generational, but we took care of each other. and we have to have legislation and anti-racist policies, but we have to see each other as human beings, and that's what he talks about at the March on Washington. That's what he talks about in the Selma speech in 1965. That's what he talks about right before his tragic assassination April 3rd 1968 the last speech he made, he talks about empathy and us seeing each other and valuing each other as human beings. And if institutions start to do that, we will too. We all know how values and morals change over time, women are not treated the same way they are, they were in 1920, right? because we understand that systems and institutions start to treat them better as citizens, and even though it's not perfect, We have much more access for women now than we did 100 years ago. So we can we can bend the curve and change how we value each other, and how police value black, and Latin-x and people who are not white, if we have the will. and so like I said before it's this is a generational opportunity to really transform the status quo, and not just in terms of race. but in terms of just economic justice access to the American dream for all people.
((Greta))
Before we go we want to leave you with an uplifting story. This one
more than 400 kilometers above the earth.
The US – is officially back in the space race following the successful launch
on US soil of the first American astronauts into space orbit in nearly a decade. Both of them aboard a privately owned rocket ship - not owned by NASA.
((SpaceX/NASA’s First Crewed Commercial Launch))
SpaceX Makes History
((Greta))
The public/private partnership of NASA and SpaceX claimed victory Sunday as American astronauts docked with the International Space Station.
Roughly 19 hours after launching from Cape Canaveral in Florida…
the Falcon-9 rocket carrying the Dragon capsule made history.
It was the first US rocket launch into space orbit in 9 years.
and the first time a private company… SpaceX - carried astronauts into space.
((Shaneequa Vereen, NASA’s Johnson Space Center))
“We have entered into a new era of spaceflight. Getting these commercial partners up and getting them ready to be able to regularly take our astronauts to the International Space Station makes us less dependent on our Russian counterparts.”
((NARRATOR))
Since 2011, American astronauts had been using Russian rockets to get them to the International Space Station.
Vereen says the successful launch will not mean the end of the US partnership with Russia. But she says it does mark a new beginning.
((Shaneequa Vereen, NASA’s Johnson Space Center))
“We are basically trying to reinvigorate America, as well as the rest of the world’s, interest in the space program. We have Orion that’s coming up, and that’s going to launch the first woman and the next man on the moon… and after that, on to Mars.”
(NARRATOR))
The initial launch of the Falcon-9 rocket was delayed for a few days until Saturday because of bad weather.
The mission for NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken is scheduled to last 110 days.
((Greta))
My thanks to our guests this week and thank you to all of you for watching.
We will continue to follow the protests and the pandemic
But for the latest updates on these stories and more please visit our website: VOANews.com.
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Greta.
Thanks for being Plugged In.
We hope to see you again next week!
