On Plugged In…
Protesters across The United States…
calling for police reform...
prompting a national debate...
on the use of the U.S. military...
in domestic politics.
Plus..
symbols of the past coming down ...
in response to protesters demands.
And another police shooting of an African American man..
this time in the southern city of Atlanta..
leading to more protests..
and the immediate firing…
of a police officer…
and the resignation..
of the city’s police chief.
Plus, the coronavirus infection numbers ...
continue to climb ..
as experts say protesters should worry ..
they are out in huge numbers..
and don’t social distance.
On Plugged In:
Protests, Power and the Pandemic.
((Greta))
Hello and welcome to Plugged In.
I’m Greta Van Susteren reporting from my home in Washington DC.
It has been three weeks since the death of George Floyd at the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.
But the protests against police brutality show no sign of ending.
And now another U.S. city, Atlanta, Georgia, is grieving over another police shooting of a black man. This too, captured on video.
Rayshard Brooks was killed outside a fast food restaurant after he was questioned by police officers during a sobriety test.
Security video shows Brooks taking the officer’s taser gun and then aiming it at the officer. Brooks was shot twice in the back as he tried to flee.
The police officer has been fired and the city’s police chief has resigned.
More on what happened in Atlanta a bit later.
First - the role of the U.S. military is under intense scrutiny after military forces were used to push back peaceful protests outside the White House.
Critics claim the White House used unnecessary force to allow President Donald Trump and some cabinet members to pose for pictures outside St. John’s Episcopal Church, a short walking distance from the White House.
The church had been burned by some protesters the night before. Since then current and former military leaders have questioned the administration’s motives, citing the military tradition of staying removed from domestic politics to better serve and protect the American people.
VOA’s Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has more.
((Carla Babb report))
The use of force against peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square by federal law enforcement, backed by the U.S. military’s National Guard, sparked a nationwide debate about the role of the military in civil society.
((Gen. (Ret.) Joseph Votel, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School))
((mandatory courtesy: Skype))
“And it created an image, that I think again gets after this idea of eroding the trust and confidence of the military.”
((NARRATOR)) ((mandatory courtesy on two shot: Skype))
Gen. Joseph Votel, the former commander of U.S. Central Command who now serves on the executive board of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law at the University of Pennsylvania, tells VOA the military’s core value to stay out of domestic politics is among its greatest assets.
((Gen. (Ret.) Joseph Votel, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School))
((mandatory courtesy: Skype))
“An apolitical military serves the nation the best. It’s what the intentions were of the founders, and it is why, it is one of the very important reasons why, the American military remains the most respected institution in America.”
((NARRATOR))
Several retired top-ranking officers have spoken out after a presidential threat to deploy thousands of active-duty troops to U.S. cities -- a move intended for only the most extreme circumstances -- and this audio leak of Defense Secretary Mark Esper speaking to governors about the protests.
((Mark Esper, Secretary Defense – audio only))
”And so at my urging we need to dominate the battle space.”
((Adm. (Ret.) Mike Mullen, Former Chairman of the joint Chiefs of Staff))
“When we can focus on the potential conflict in terms of dominating our own cities and our own people, it scares me to death, quite frankly and if we don't do something about it, we'll look back and recognize this moment as this was the moment where really we need to do something.”
((NARRATOR))
Esper and the top U.S. military officer also walked in Lafayette Square with the president moments before he posed for photos outside a nearby church damaged during protests the night before.
Pentagon officials have stressed that neither Milley nor Defense Secretary Esper knew of the president’s plans and had only agreed to go to the square to thank National Guard members for their service.
Esper has said he regretted his “battlespace” comments, and Milley called his decision to accompany the president in the square a quote, “mistake” that he had learned from.
((Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff))
((Mandatory Courtesy: DOD))
“I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”
((NARRATOR))
The military’s apolitical nature is more than a tradition, it’s in the military oath of office taken by every service member.
((Bradley Bowman, Foundation for Defense of Democracies))
((Mandatory Courtesy: Skype))
“They're not swearing to support and defend the president -- any president, whether he or she be Republican or Democrat. They're swearing to support and defend the Constitution.”
((NARRATOR))
Former officials have raised concerns that the president oftentimes ignores or forgets this very point.
((William Cohen, Former Secretary of Defense))
“The president has been really accumulating a sense of ownership about the government, where he makes statements about ‘this is my military’ or ‘my generals’ or ‘my judges’ so that it becomes possessive.”
((NARRATOR))
And with a presidential election less than five months away, some worry that the current debate about the military’s role in domestic issues won’t be the last.
((Jeh Johnson, Former US Secretary of Homeland Security))
“The military is going to be really tested because this president will try to draw them into his political agenda.”
((CARLA BABB, VOA NEWS, WASHINGTON))
((Greta))
Part of that political agenda is the issue of police reform. It’s an issue further complicated by the shooting of another black suspect in Atlanta.
27-year old Rayshard Brooks was killed June 12th – that’s 18 days after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Like Floyd’s killing, Brooks killing was also captured on video.
VOA’s Kane Farabaugh recounts the moments leading up to the shooting.
((Fatal Police Shooting – by Kane Farabaugh))
Atlanta police officers approached 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks, who appeared to be asleep behind the wheel of his car, while waiting in line at a fast food restaurant drive-thru.
When officers tried to detain Brooks, he resisted arrest, leading to a scuffle. In the moments that followed, recorded in a series of police body cameras, restaurant surveillance footage, and bystander cell phone videos, Brooks appears to use one of the officers tasers as he flees.
The incident ends when one of the officers opens fire, leading to Brooks’s death.
((Keisha Lance Bottoms, Atlanta Mayor))
“While there may be debate as to whether this was an appropriate use of deadly force, I firmly believe that there is a clear distinction between what you can do and what you should do. I do not believe that this was a justified use of deadly force and have called for the immediate termination of the officer.”
((NARRATOR))
A day later, the officer who pulled the trigger was fired, the Atlanta police chief resigned, and the fast food restaurant where the incident occurred was engulfed in flames as anger over Brooks’s death led to unrest on the streets of Atlanta in a country already on edge in the wake of previous deadly police encounters.
((Stacey Abrams, Former Georgia State Representative))
((courtesy - ABC This Week))
“We need reformation of how police officers do their job. How law enforcement does its job. Because what happened yesterday to Rayshard Brooks was a function of excessive force and the decision that the fact that they were either embarrassed or panicked led them to murder a man who they knew only had a taser in his hand.”
((Keisha Lance Bottoms, Mayor, Atlanta Georgia))
“There has been a disconnect with what our expectations are and should be as it related with interactions with our officers and the communities with which they are entrusted to protect.”
((NARRATOR))
It is a disconnect lawmakers in Washington are increasingly under pressure to resolve with bipartisan legislation that addresses police reform, especially in the wake of the recent death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.
Republican Senator James Lankford from Oklahoma says he would support a ban on police use of chokeholds.
((Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma))
((courtesy - ABC This Week))
“There’s been a longstanding principle out there that that is not needed for that situation. There’s been a consensus document that was done in 2017 by law enforcement around the country to say that is not needed so I don’t think that is an issue for us.”
((NARRATOR))
Former New Jersey Governor and Republican candidate for President in 2016 Chris Christie points to successes in police reform in the city of Camden, New Jersey as an example for other communities to follow.
((Chris Christie, Former New Jersey Governor))
((courtesy - ABC This Week))
“We got police officers out of their cars on their bicycles on foot and embedded them in the community both from a law enforcement perspective and socially, George, working with the communities and working with young men and women in the communities to develop trust. Second was de-escalation training, and the watchword for de-escalation training is first do no harm, and that violence is a last resort.”
((NARRATOR))
While lawmakers in Washington seek to find common ground on legislation, some states have already passed sweeping police reforms in response to the protests that have dominated headlines across most American cities over the last several weeks. ((Kane Farabaugh, VOA News.))
((Greta))
Changing police culture to better serve communities is something our next guest feels strongly about.
Since 2016, Art Acevedo has been chief of police in the city of Houston, Texas.
While he has stood with protesters on the need to reform police practices he is firmly against defunding police services.
Plugged In’s Steve Redisch spoke with the chief.
((Steve Redisch interview – Chief Art Acevedo))
AA: On both extremes that people that say the cops can do no wrong and they're perfect, to the ones that say the cops can do no right and they, we need to abolish the police. It's time for Americans to lift up their voices in the middle and bring people together and speak truth to power.
If you compare police officers today to police officers 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago, we've come a long way, we are much better. For every time we get it wrong there's 10s of thousands of times that we get it right. We can't lose sight of that. On the other side of the token, or the other flip side of the coin is that we can't lose sight of the fact that we still have the Chauvins of the world. And somehow they're getting on our departments and somehow they're being protected in too many instances by onerous rights that go beyond pay and benefits and go beyond due process to, it almost protects them and affords them the ability to, to be able to not be held accountable. So we've got to, it's a balance. But this is a time, I think that this is a watershed moment.
SR: You've been applauded, lauded, singled out as a police chief who is in touch with his city. The first weekend after the George Floyd killing, the protests, you were out there on the streets, marching with protesters. What guided you to that?
AA: I can say that I was outraged -most reasonable people are outraged. And I've said that if a person looks at that video and they don’t have a problem with what happened to George Floyd, they're part of the problem. Because no human being should be killed in a situation that was that did not call for his death. They should have gotten up, and then even after he goes into cardiac arrest or, or stops breathing, it didn't seem like there was a sense of urgency in terms of rendering aid. So the more --every time I start thinking about it, I get angry all over again.
And what’s important to me is that look, I've been a police chief now at two major cities. I was in Austin Texas for nine and a half years. I've been in Houston now for three and a half years. I don't care who the chief is, I don't care how good your policies are. I don't care how good your training is when bad things happen, we have to hold the officers accountable. We cannot mitigate it, we cannot excuse it, we have to take action, it has to be immediate, it has to be comprehensive and we have to do everything we possibly can to prevent them in the first place. And so I was out there with my community because I wanted to feel them, I wanted to hear them, and I wanted them to be able to feel me and hear me and so we can build relationships of trust through that engagement. You can't build trust via the 16th floor of Houston PD headquarters behind a desk, and you can't change culture with your officers via memo from behind the desk. You've got to get out there in the field, with the community and the men and women you lead.
SR: What --are there impediments to doing that, and if so, what are they? and how can how can both working together the public and the police remove?
AA: Well I think one of things we have to look at is the bargaining agreements that politicians, because people think that's the police department that enters in these bargaining agreements, no it's the employing entity really is the corporation. We're all part of a corporation called a city. And we've got to take a close look at, you know, we don't want police officers not to have due process, we want them to have due process. We don't want police officers to have no protections. Because one of the reasons that we've given them protections over the last 30 years is that police departments historically since the advent of time have been used by unscruly (sic) politicians to actually, as an arm over those entities to, whether it was the civil rights movement, where the police were called by, you know, segregationists and racists and people that did not want to see a community, a society that was inclusive and equal. They used the police departments to order them to go with their German Shepherds against peaceful protesters like Martin Luther King, or they or they failed to protect, you know, individuals that would come from New York that were targeted or in other progressive places to the South during the civil rights movement to demand justice and equality from beatings and lynchings and everything else that was going on.
So we got to be careful that we balance those protections to not politicize police departments and let politicians use it as a tool, but at the same token, we've got to give police chiefs and police administrations the ability to weed out bad cops, to weed out cops that violate the oath of office to public trust. Because some of those contracts, quite frankly, give so many protections to the crooked cops, to the bad cops, that it not only hurts good cops – it devastates public trust when we see the same officer --you know I’ve read media reports that Officer Chauvin had 18 complaints, I don't know how many were sustained. but I always tell my officers, we're not cats here, you don't get nine lives.
And so, you know, there's mistakes of the mind and there’s mistake of the hearts. We, istakes of the minds, everybody makes them. The problem is-- if you keep making mistakes of the mind, then you don't have the intellectual capacity, the thought, the proper wiring of the police officer because it's a very complex profession. And there’s mistakes of the hearts. We cannot be tolerating mistakes of the hearts.
((Greta))
Debate over police reform is coming at a unique time in our history. Old norms are being challenged. That includes a new call to remove the symbols from the mid-1800’s US civil war and the symbols of racism.
White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has more.
((America’s Cultural Divide – Patsy Widakuswara))
Dozens of statues of Confederate figures have been removed or vandalized, while the race car body NASCAR has banned the Confederate flag on its racetracks.
These symbols have emerged as a flashpoint since the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis that triggered weeks of protests nationwide.
((Steve Phillips, Democracy in Color)) ((courtesy - Zoom))
“There's just something very visceral about having to look at the glorification of the people and the symbols that really wanted to have you, your people, people who look like you held in chattel slavery.”
((NARRATOR))
Another front in the battle, 10 Army bases that bear the names of Confederate officers, including Fort Bragg, Fort Hood and Fort Lee. With military leadership signaling support, a Republican-led Senate panel has approved a plan from a Democratic senator to remove these names from military installations.
((Mike Rounds, Republican Senator)) ((AP 4273545))
“This is the right time for it. And I think it sends the right message.”
((NARRATOR))
They’re set to clash with President Donald Trump, who has threatened a veto. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
((Kayleigh McEnany, Press Secretary))
“These monumental and very powerful bases have become part of a great American heritage in the history of winning, victory and freedom.”
((NARRATOR))
The 1776 U.S. Declaration of Independence states that all human beings are created equal. Yet while slavery was abolished in 1865, African Americans continue to endure the devastating effects of discrimination until now. Confederate symbols are emblematic of that paradox.
((James Davison Hunter, University of Virginia)) ((courtesy Zoom))
“Here is a symbol that represents the persistence of that ongoing contradiction between equality declared but equality denied.”
((NARRATOR))
Hunter said that while politics is about compromise, culture is about the things that are sacred that people do not want to compromise over. By taking sides in a culture war, Trump will likely deepen polarization, ahead of the November election.
((Patsy Widakuswara, VOA News, Washington.))
((Greta))
The cultural debates come at an anxious time for a world still coming to grips with a deadly pandemic.
Although initial efforts at social distancing appear to have slowed the spread of coronavirus, the virus is still spreading at an alarming rate in some countries and in parts of the United States.
Among the world’s worst hotspots: Brazil. It has more than 800-thousand cases.
And Brazil’s death toll is approaching 45 thousand, second only to the populous United States – and now surpassing the death toll in the United Kingdom.
According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, America’s top expert on infectious diseases, this is an alarming trend.
He spoke to VOA’s Russia Service about opening societies and the prospects for new treatments and vaccines.
((Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIAID))
“I am cautiously optimistic that we will have a vaccine within a reasonable period of time, not only from Moderna, but from other companies too. They're not the only company. We are involved in collaboration with several other companies. The reason I'm optimistic is that in the early trials in humans and in animals, the results have been favorable. In other words, it protects animals in the experimental stage and in the Phase 1 trial in humans. The vaccine was able to produce a response that was predictive that you might be protective against the virus, although you never can guarantee that you will have a safe and effective vaccine. That would be foolish to guarantee that because no one can guarantee that. But we are cautiously optimistic that we're going in the right direction.
I think each vaccine candidate would like to produce at least two to three hundred million doses. And some of the companies are aiming at being able ultimately not right away, but ultimately to produce about a billion doses.
It's impossible to predict with any degree of certainty what's going to happen. The one thing we do know will happen is that there will be infections in the fall and in the winter. We know that because this virus is so transmissible, it's not going to spontaneously disappear from the planet. We'll have it.
Whether or not we have a second wave in the fall, we're totally dependent upon our ability and our effectiveness to be able to identify, isolate and contact trace these new cases as they come up. If we do that effectively, we can prevent a second wave. It is not inevitable that we're going to have a second wave. We can prevent it if we do the right thing.”
((Greta))
Even with an easing of social distancing requirements, this pandemic has seriously damaged the global economy. Among the worst hit sectors:
travel and tourism.
About 90 percent of the world’s population is still under strict travel restrictions.
About 16 thousand large jet planes are sitting idle - the most in more than 20 years.
Travel and tourism accounts for 10 percent of the world’s gross domestic product.
And according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, that has a direct effect on roughly 330 million jobs or one in every ten workers.
The International Air Transport Association says some airlines may not survive.
It predicts air travel will not return to 2019 levels until at least 2023. And that is if governments and the travel industry succeed in convincing the public it is safe to travel.
((Greta))
Once off the plane, staying in hotels bed and breakfasts and even campgrounds will need to be kept clean and safe.
Chip Rogers is the president of the American Hotel and Lodging Association representing 27 thousand industry members in the United States.
I spoke to him about how hospitality workers are adjusting to the coronavirus challenge.
((Greta interview - Chip Rogers))
CR: The thing that really concerns us is that about 65% of the hotel industry revenue on an annual basis is made up of business travel. and the business travel has not started again at all, and if we don't see that by fall we find ourselves in a very, well it's already a serious situation but a much worse situation.
GVS: Alright, your organization is for hotels in the United States. Are you generally aware of what's going on with international hotels, hotels overseas?
CR: Yes, it’s a great question. So I just had a chance to speak with the CEO of Marriott Hotels earlier today. And he was telling me that in China their occupancy is up to about 40%. And just to put that in context -- at least from a US perspective, you need occupancy at about 55% to break even as an industry across the board. Historically over the last three decades we've had occupancy around 63-64% last few years have been a little bit better. Right now across the US it's it's right at 30%. So, we have a long way to go.
GVS: I’m trying to understand more of the business though- if you're a franchise let's say that there's a Trump hotel or I have a hotel and I franchise, my name if I'm so lucky, I imagine, I would still get paid to use my name, it's the people who have the, people actually own the hotel, they’re the ones in trouble, not the person who has licensed a name for marketing purposes.
CR: Well, yeah, but keep in mind the licensing agreement or what we would call in our industry the franchise fees are typically tied to your revenue. So if your revenue goes down your franchise fees, it's a percentage of revenue. Franchise fees are gonna go down significantly as well so the franchise or the big name hotel, organizations, they're being hit just as equally as bad, but they also have cash reserves. They're public companies in many cases, they've had access to, to capital, whereas the small owners some of these mom and pop who might have built their hotel business for 20 years and now they have two or three hotels, they're the ones that are in a lot of trouble because when they run out of money. They have no one to turn to.
GVS: Alright safety, what's being done about cleaning the hotels? because people are all worried about you know any place you go, whether it's an airplane or a shopping mall or anyplace else once played. Are there going to be additional efforts to keep hotels clean?
CR: What we were able to do is get the entire industry to rally around a set of baseline cleaning standards. And so whether it's a small limited service motel that you might find on a roadway somewhere, or luxurious resort. All of the brands, and most of the major donor groups, thousands of organizations have signed up to support this. 49 of the 50 state lodging associations have supported this. Even the hotel Association Canada has endorsed it. And so we have this baseline set of cleaning standards that we have now had reviewed by the CDC, I think we're the only industry that has had our cleaning standards reviewed by the CDC, they came back and suggested some changes and we're making those changes. But we think we're in a great position to really sell that message, but I remind people that even before this crisis, even before this particular virus, Greta, there were other viruses so the hotel industry has been cleaning against those other viruses for quite some time. We like to tell people that we're the cleanest place you can be outside of a hospital, and hopefully we don't have people that are sick in and around our buildings either, so if you want to go someplace and be safe and clean hotels about the best place you can be.
GVS: How about international travel because a lot of people come from overseas and stay in American hospitals? With all the clamping down on international travel in the United States, are you able to measure the impact?
CR: Well, it works both ways, international travel has been for years fantastic particularly travel from China, the average Chinese traveler spent over 7000 US dollars when they visit, because if you think about if you're coming from that far away you're going to make that trip a little bit longer, you're willing to spend a little bit more money to see the things that you really want to see. because you never know when you're going to go back. but the flip side of that is the American traveler who typically travels internationally, more than any other country in the world any other major economy in the world, will be staying home this year. And what we're seeing right now, as I indicated earlier, with some of the some of the areas where we have seen some uptick in occupancy is a lot of people who are willing to drive. And you know Greta you alluded to a moment ago with the airlines. We are not alone by ourselves, we are part of a travel ecosystem. so we need people to not only understand the hotels are safe, but they've got to have a lot of confidence in airlines as well, because we need people to get on planes to come to destinations.
GVS: Alright, suppose that I go to a hotel. I imagine that these hotels or maybe they are checking temperature at the door a lot of places are. If I come to the hotel and I get checked for a temperature and I have an elevated one of a fever, I guess my question is two part are, are hotels going to check for fevers and secondly what do you do if someone has traveled 1000 miles and expects to check into a hotel and now has a fever?
CR: Yes, it's a really good question. It's why we pushed back on that idea of checking guests but not only for that. If you think about a retail facility, or even a restaurant. you would typically walk into a restaurant in one door you walk out that same door. You would get your meal, and maybe you would come back to the restaurant a month later So, and same with the retail shopping when you're out the door. But if you think about hotel multiple doors. And when you typically check into a hotel, you're not going to stay in your room the entire time you could come in and out of a hotel. So we remind policy makers that is almost impossible for the industry to monitor every door and every guest that is coming out of it in and out of every door at all times. I'm not sure how we would even do that. And as you alluded to, in many cases they don't live nearby. So if they're checking into a hotel, and they have a temperature and we say we don't want you here. They have no place to go back to, they really can't go back and get on the plane and go home.
And so, what our industry is doing is finding ways to make sure that those guests are taken care of. Luckily this has not been a problem yet. But if a problem does exist, we can't put them in a position where they're going to be safe in perhaps a quarantine type situation, but they'll be taken care of. And I just remind people we’re a lot different than restaurants and retail in that respect.
((Greta))
Along with the pandemic and the protests - is the U.S. presidential election that will be held in November.
Former U.S. Senator from North Dakota, Heidi Heitkamp says this election is an important one for the country.
I spoke to her about her group’s efforts to foster bipartisan dialogue and bridge political divisions in America.
((Greta Interview - Heidi Heitkamp))
GVS: //I know that you're part of a nonprofit to sort of get the message the communication out to more rural areas which may not get quite the attention from politicians, as, as people deserve. What's your, what's your nonprofit effort?
HH: Well, we started something after I lost my Senate race.
We are a long way in our country from a unified idea of who we are as Americans, and I was, you and I were talking before-- I've been teaching at Brown and my whole theory of the seminar that I'm doing at Brown University is, who are we as Americans? What is the what are what are what are the uniting features? and when you look at each generation, and we love our parents because they were the greatest generation, united by the Great War -World War Two, where they came together we've got to come back to what it is to be an American. And what that means not only for us but for the rest of the world.
((Greta))
My thanks to our guests and thanks to all of you for watching this episode of Plugged In.
We will continue to follow the protests and the pandemic.
For the latest updates please visit our website at VOANews.com.
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Greta.
Thank you for being Plugged In.
((END))
Protesters across The United States…
calling for police reform...
prompting a national debate...
on the use of the U.S. military...
in domestic politics.
Plus..
symbols of the past coming down ...
in response to protesters demands.
And another police shooting of an African American man..
this time in the southern city of Atlanta..
leading to more protests..
and the immediate firing…
of a police officer…
and the resignation..
of the city’s police chief.
Plus, the coronavirus infection numbers ...
continue to climb ..
as experts say protesters should worry ..
they are out in huge numbers..
and don’t social distance.
On Plugged In:
Protests, Power and the Pandemic.
((Greta))
Hello and welcome to Plugged In.
I’m Greta Van Susteren reporting from my home in Washington DC.
It has been three weeks since the death of George Floyd at the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.
But the protests against police brutality show no sign of ending.
And now another U.S. city, Atlanta, Georgia, is grieving over another police shooting of a black man. This too, captured on video.
Rayshard Brooks was killed outside a fast food restaurant after he was questioned by police officers during a sobriety test.
Security video shows Brooks taking the officer’s taser gun and then aiming it at the officer. Brooks was shot twice in the back as he tried to flee.
The police officer has been fired and the city’s police chief has resigned.
More on what happened in Atlanta a bit later.
First - the role of the U.S. military is under intense scrutiny after military forces were used to push back peaceful protests outside the White House.
Critics claim the White House used unnecessary force to allow President Donald Trump and some cabinet members to pose for pictures outside St. John’s Episcopal Church, a short walking distance from the White House.
The church had been burned by some protesters the night before. Since then current and former military leaders have questioned the administration’s motives, citing the military tradition of staying removed from domestic politics to better serve and protect the American people.
VOA’s Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has more.
((Carla Babb report))
The use of force against peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square by federal law enforcement, backed by the U.S. military’s National Guard, sparked a nationwide debate about the role of the military in civil society.
((Gen. (Ret.) Joseph Votel, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School))
((mandatory courtesy: Skype))
“And it created an image, that I think again gets after this idea of eroding the trust and confidence of the military.”
((NARRATOR)) ((mandatory courtesy on two shot: Skype))
Gen. Joseph Votel, the former commander of U.S. Central Command who now serves on the executive board of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law at the University of Pennsylvania, tells VOA the military’s core value to stay out of domestic politics is among its greatest assets.
((Gen. (Ret.) Joseph Votel, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School))
((mandatory courtesy: Skype))
“An apolitical military serves the nation the best. It’s what the intentions were of the founders, and it is why, it is one of the very important reasons why, the American military remains the most respected institution in America.”
((NARRATOR))
Several retired top-ranking officers have spoken out after a presidential threat to deploy thousands of active-duty troops to U.S. cities -- a move intended for only the most extreme circumstances -- and this audio leak of Defense Secretary Mark Esper speaking to governors about the protests.
((Mark Esper, Secretary Defense – audio only))
”And so at my urging we need to dominate the battle space.”
((Adm. (Ret.) Mike Mullen, Former Chairman of the joint Chiefs of Staff))
“When we can focus on the potential conflict in terms of dominating our own cities and our own people, it scares me to death, quite frankly and if we don't do something about it, we'll look back and recognize this moment as this was the moment where really we need to do something.”
((NARRATOR))
Esper and the top U.S. military officer also walked in Lafayette Square with the president moments before he posed for photos outside a nearby church damaged during protests the night before.
Pentagon officials have stressed that neither Milley nor Defense Secretary Esper knew of the president’s plans and had only agreed to go to the square to thank National Guard members for their service.
Esper has said he regretted his “battlespace” comments, and Milley called his decision to accompany the president in the square a quote, “mistake” that he had learned from.
((Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff))
((Mandatory Courtesy: DOD))
“I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”
((NARRATOR))
The military’s apolitical nature is more than a tradition, it’s in the military oath of office taken by every service member.
((Bradley Bowman, Foundation for Defense of Democracies))
((Mandatory Courtesy: Skype))
“They're not swearing to support and defend the president -- any president, whether he or she be Republican or Democrat. They're swearing to support and defend the Constitution.”
((NARRATOR))
Former officials have raised concerns that the president oftentimes ignores or forgets this very point.
((William Cohen, Former Secretary of Defense))
“The president has been really accumulating a sense of ownership about the government, where he makes statements about ‘this is my military’ or ‘my generals’ or ‘my judges’ so that it becomes possessive.”
((NARRATOR))
And with a presidential election less than five months away, some worry that the current debate about the military’s role in domestic issues won’t be the last.
((Jeh Johnson, Former US Secretary of Homeland Security))
“The military is going to be really tested because this president will try to draw them into his political agenda.”
((CARLA BABB, VOA NEWS, WASHINGTON))
((Greta))
Part of that political agenda is the issue of police reform. It’s an issue further complicated by the shooting of another black suspect in Atlanta.
27-year old Rayshard Brooks was killed June 12th – that’s 18 days after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Like Floyd’s killing, Brooks killing was also captured on video.
VOA’s Kane Farabaugh recounts the moments leading up to the shooting.
((Fatal Police Shooting – by Kane Farabaugh))
Atlanta police officers approached 27-year-old Rayshard Brooks, who appeared to be asleep behind the wheel of his car, while waiting in line at a fast food restaurant drive-thru.
When officers tried to detain Brooks, he resisted arrest, leading to a scuffle. In the moments that followed, recorded in a series of police body cameras, restaurant surveillance footage, and bystander cell phone videos, Brooks appears to use one of the officers tasers as he flees.
The incident ends when one of the officers opens fire, leading to Brooks’s death.
((Keisha Lance Bottoms, Atlanta Mayor))
“While there may be debate as to whether this was an appropriate use of deadly force, I firmly believe that there is a clear distinction between what you can do and what you should do. I do not believe that this was a justified use of deadly force and have called for the immediate termination of the officer.”
((NARRATOR))
A day later, the officer who pulled the trigger was fired, the Atlanta police chief resigned, and the fast food restaurant where the incident occurred was engulfed in flames as anger over Brooks’s death led to unrest on the streets of Atlanta in a country already on edge in the wake of previous deadly police encounters.
((Stacey Abrams, Former Georgia State Representative))
((courtesy - ABC This Week))
“We need reformation of how police officers do their job. How law enforcement does its job. Because what happened yesterday to Rayshard Brooks was a function of excessive force and the decision that the fact that they were either embarrassed or panicked led them to murder a man who they knew only had a taser in his hand.”
((Keisha Lance Bottoms, Mayor, Atlanta Georgia))
“There has been a disconnect with what our expectations are and should be as it related with interactions with our officers and the communities with which they are entrusted to protect.”
((NARRATOR))
It is a disconnect lawmakers in Washington are increasingly under pressure to resolve with bipartisan legislation that addresses police reform, especially in the wake of the recent death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis.
Republican Senator James Lankford from Oklahoma says he would support a ban on police use of chokeholds.
((Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma))
((courtesy - ABC This Week))
“There’s been a longstanding principle out there that that is not needed for that situation. There’s been a consensus document that was done in 2017 by law enforcement around the country to say that is not needed so I don’t think that is an issue for us.”
((NARRATOR))
Former New Jersey Governor and Republican candidate for President in 2016 Chris Christie points to successes in police reform in the city of Camden, New Jersey as an example for other communities to follow.
((Chris Christie, Former New Jersey Governor))
((courtesy - ABC This Week))
“We got police officers out of their cars on their bicycles on foot and embedded them in the community both from a law enforcement perspective and socially, George, working with the communities and working with young men and women in the communities to develop trust. Second was de-escalation training, and the watchword for de-escalation training is first do no harm, and that violence is a last resort.”
((NARRATOR))
While lawmakers in Washington seek to find common ground on legislation, some states have already passed sweeping police reforms in response to the protests that have dominated headlines across most American cities over the last several weeks. ((Kane Farabaugh, VOA News.))
((Greta))
Changing police culture to better serve communities is something our next guest feels strongly about.
Since 2016, Art Acevedo has been chief of police in the city of Houston, Texas.
While he has stood with protesters on the need to reform police practices he is firmly against defunding police services.
Plugged In’s Steve Redisch spoke with the chief.
((Steve Redisch interview – Chief Art Acevedo))
AA: On both extremes that people that say the cops can do no wrong and they're perfect, to the ones that say the cops can do no right and they, we need to abolish the police. It's time for Americans to lift up their voices in the middle and bring people together and speak truth to power.
If you compare police officers today to police officers 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago, we've come a long way, we are much better. For every time we get it wrong there's 10s of thousands of times that we get it right. We can't lose sight of that. On the other side of the token, or the other flip side of the coin is that we can't lose sight of the fact that we still have the Chauvins of the world. And somehow they're getting on our departments and somehow they're being protected in too many instances by onerous rights that go beyond pay and benefits and go beyond due process to, it almost protects them and affords them the ability to, to be able to not be held accountable. So we've got to, it's a balance. But this is a time, I think that this is a watershed moment.
SR: You've been applauded, lauded, singled out as a police chief who is in touch with his city. The first weekend after the George Floyd killing, the protests, you were out there on the streets, marching with protesters. What guided you to that?
AA: I can say that I was outraged -most reasonable people are outraged. And I've said that if a person looks at that video and they don’t have a problem with what happened to George Floyd, they're part of the problem. Because no human being should be killed in a situation that was that did not call for his death. They should have gotten up, and then even after he goes into cardiac arrest or, or stops breathing, it didn't seem like there was a sense of urgency in terms of rendering aid. So the more --every time I start thinking about it, I get angry all over again.
And what’s important to me is that look, I've been a police chief now at two major cities. I was in Austin Texas for nine and a half years. I've been in Houston now for three and a half years. I don't care who the chief is, I don't care how good your policies are. I don't care how good your training is when bad things happen, we have to hold the officers accountable. We cannot mitigate it, we cannot excuse it, we have to take action, it has to be immediate, it has to be comprehensive and we have to do everything we possibly can to prevent them in the first place. And so I was out there with my community because I wanted to feel them, I wanted to hear them, and I wanted them to be able to feel me and hear me and so we can build relationships of trust through that engagement. You can't build trust via the 16th floor of Houston PD headquarters behind a desk, and you can't change culture with your officers via memo from behind the desk. You've got to get out there in the field, with the community and the men and women you lead.
SR: What --are there impediments to doing that, and if so, what are they? and how can how can both working together the public and the police remove?
AA: Well I think one of things we have to look at is the bargaining agreements that politicians, because people think that's the police department that enters in these bargaining agreements, no it's the employing entity really is the corporation. We're all part of a corporation called a city. And we've got to take a close look at, you know, we don't want police officers not to have due process, we want them to have due process. We don't want police officers to have no protections. Because one of the reasons that we've given them protections over the last 30 years is that police departments historically since the advent of time have been used by unscruly (sic) politicians to actually, as an arm over those entities to, whether it was the civil rights movement, where the police were called by, you know, segregationists and racists and people that did not want to see a community, a society that was inclusive and equal. They used the police departments to order them to go with their German Shepherds against peaceful protesters like Martin Luther King, or they or they failed to protect, you know, individuals that would come from New York that were targeted or in other progressive places to the South during the civil rights movement to demand justice and equality from beatings and lynchings and everything else that was going on.
So we got to be careful that we balance those protections to not politicize police departments and let politicians use it as a tool, but at the same token, we've got to give police chiefs and police administrations the ability to weed out bad cops, to weed out cops that violate the oath of office to public trust. Because some of those contracts, quite frankly, give so many protections to the crooked cops, to the bad cops, that it not only hurts good cops – it devastates public trust when we see the same officer --you know I’ve read media reports that Officer Chauvin had 18 complaints, I don't know how many were sustained. but I always tell my officers, we're not cats here, you don't get nine lives.
And so, you know, there's mistakes of the mind and there’s mistake of the hearts. We, istakes of the minds, everybody makes them. The problem is-- if you keep making mistakes of the mind, then you don't have the intellectual capacity, the thought, the proper wiring of the police officer because it's a very complex profession. And there’s mistakes of the hearts. We cannot be tolerating mistakes of the hearts.
((Greta))
Debate over police reform is coming at a unique time in our history. Old norms are being challenged. That includes a new call to remove the symbols from the mid-1800’s US civil war and the symbols of racism.
White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has more.
((America’s Cultural Divide – Patsy Widakuswara))
Dozens of statues of Confederate figures have been removed or vandalized, while the race car body NASCAR has banned the Confederate flag on its racetracks.
These symbols have emerged as a flashpoint since the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis that triggered weeks of protests nationwide.
((Steve Phillips, Democracy in Color)) ((courtesy - Zoom))
“There's just something very visceral about having to look at the glorification of the people and the symbols that really wanted to have you, your people, people who look like you held in chattel slavery.”
((NARRATOR))
Another front in the battle, 10 Army bases that bear the names of Confederate officers, including Fort Bragg, Fort Hood and Fort Lee. With military leadership signaling support, a Republican-led Senate panel has approved a plan from a Democratic senator to remove these names from military installations.
((Mike Rounds, Republican Senator)) ((AP 4273545))
“This is the right time for it. And I think it sends the right message.”
((NARRATOR))
They’re set to clash with President Donald Trump, who has threatened a veto. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
((Kayleigh McEnany, Press Secretary))
“These monumental and very powerful bases have become part of a great American heritage in the history of winning, victory and freedom.”
((NARRATOR))
The 1776 U.S. Declaration of Independence states that all human beings are created equal. Yet while slavery was abolished in 1865, African Americans continue to endure the devastating effects of discrimination until now. Confederate symbols are emblematic of that paradox.
((James Davison Hunter, University of Virginia)) ((courtesy Zoom))
“Here is a symbol that represents the persistence of that ongoing contradiction between equality declared but equality denied.”
((NARRATOR))
Hunter said that while politics is about compromise, culture is about the things that are sacred that people do not want to compromise over. By taking sides in a culture war, Trump will likely deepen polarization, ahead of the November election.
((Patsy Widakuswara, VOA News, Washington.))
((Greta))
The cultural debates come at an anxious time for a world still coming to grips with a deadly pandemic.
Although initial efforts at social distancing appear to have slowed the spread of coronavirus, the virus is still spreading at an alarming rate in some countries and in parts of the United States.
Among the world’s worst hotspots: Brazil. It has more than 800-thousand cases.
And Brazil’s death toll is approaching 45 thousand, second only to the populous United States – and now surpassing the death toll in the United Kingdom.
According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, America’s top expert on infectious diseases, this is an alarming trend.
He spoke to VOA’s Russia Service about opening societies and the prospects for new treatments and vaccines.
((Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIAID))
“I am cautiously optimistic that we will have a vaccine within a reasonable period of time, not only from Moderna, but from other companies too. They're not the only company. We are involved in collaboration with several other companies. The reason I'm optimistic is that in the early trials in humans and in animals, the results have been favorable. In other words, it protects animals in the experimental stage and in the Phase 1 trial in humans. The vaccine was able to produce a response that was predictive that you might be protective against the virus, although you never can guarantee that you will have a safe and effective vaccine. That would be foolish to guarantee that because no one can guarantee that. But we are cautiously optimistic that we're going in the right direction.
I think each vaccine candidate would like to produce at least two to three hundred million doses. And some of the companies are aiming at being able ultimately not right away, but ultimately to produce about a billion doses.
It's impossible to predict with any degree of certainty what's going to happen. The one thing we do know will happen is that there will be infections in the fall and in the winter. We know that because this virus is so transmissible, it's not going to spontaneously disappear from the planet. We'll have it.
Whether or not we have a second wave in the fall, we're totally dependent upon our ability and our effectiveness to be able to identify, isolate and contact trace these new cases as they come up. If we do that effectively, we can prevent a second wave. It is not inevitable that we're going to have a second wave. We can prevent it if we do the right thing.”
((Greta))
Even with an easing of social distancing requirements, this pandemic has seriously damaged the global economy. Among the worst hit sectors:
travel and tourism.
About 90 percent of the world’s population is still under strict travel restrictions.
About 16 thousand large jet planes are sitting idle - the most in more than 20 years.
Travel and tourism accounts for 10 percent of the world’s gross domestic product.
And according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, that has a direct effect on roughly 330 million jobs or one in every ten workers.
The International Air Transport Association says some airlines may not survive.
It predicts air travel will not return to 2019 levels until at least 2023. And that is if governments and the travel industry succeed in convincing the public it is safe to travel.
((Greta))
Once off the plane, staying in hotels bed and breakfasts and even campgrounds will need to be kept clean and safe.
Chip Rogers is the president of the American Hotel and Lodging Association representing 27 thousand industry members in the United States.
I spoke to him about how hospitality workers are adjusting to the coronavirus challenge.
((Greta interview - Chip Rogers))
CR: The thing that really concerns us is that about 65% of the hotel industry revenue on an annual basis is made up of business travel. and the business travel has not started again at all, and if we don't see that by fall we find ourselves in a very, well it's already a serious situation but a much worse situation.
GVS: Alright, your organization is for hotels in the United States. Are you generally aware of what's going on with international hotels, hotels overseas?
CR: Yes, it’s a great question. So I just had a chance to speak with the CEO of Marriott Hotels earlier today. And he was telling me that in China their occupancy is up to about 40%. And just to put that in context -- at least from a US perspective, you need occupancy at about 55% to break even as an industry across the board. Historically over the last three decades we've had occupancy around 63-64% last few years have been a little bit better. Right now across the US it's it's right at 30%. So, we have a long way to go.
GVS: I’m trying to understand more of the business though- if you're a franchise let's say that there's a Trump hotel or I have a hotel and I franchise, my name if I'm so lucky, I imagine, I would still get paid to use my name, it's the people who have the, people actually own the hotel, they’re the ones in trouble, not the person who has licensed a name for marketing purposes.
CR: Well, yeah, but keep in mind the licensing agreement or what we would call in our industry the franchise fees are typically tied to your revenue. So if your revenue goes down your franchise fees, it's a percentage of revenue. Franchise fees are gonna go down significantly as well so the franchise or the big name hotel, organizations, they're being hit just as equally as bad, but they also have cash reserves. They're public companies in many cases, they've had access to, to capital, whereas the small owners some of these mom and pop who might have built their hotel business for 20 years and now they have two or three hotels, they're the ones that are in a lot of trouble because when they run out of money. They have no one to turn to.
GVS: Alright safety, what's being done about cleaning the hotels? because people are all worried about you know any place you go, whether it's an airplane or a shopping mall or anyplace else once played. Are there going to be additional efforts to keep hotels clean?
CR: What we were able to do is get the entire industry to rally around a set of baseline cleaning standards. And so whether it's a small limited service motel that you might find on a roadway somewhere, or luxurious resort. All of the brands, and most of the major donor groups, thousands of organizations have signed up to support this. 49 of the 50 state lodging associations have supported this. Even the hotel Association Canada has endorsed it. And so we have this baseline set of cleaning standards that we have now had reviewed by the CDC, I think we're the only industry that has had our cleaning standards reviewed by the CDC, they came back and suggested some changes and we're making those changes. But we think we're in a great position to really sell that message, but I remind people that even before this crisis, even before this particular virus, Greta, there were other viruses so the hotel industry has been cleaning against those other viruses for quite some time. We like to tell people that we're the cleanest place you can be outside of a hospital, and hopefully we don't have people that are sick in and around our buildings either, so if you want to go someplace and be safe and clean hotels about the best place you can be.
GVS: How about international travel because a lot of people come from overseas and stay in American hospitals? With all the clamping down on international travel in the United States, are you able to measure the impact?
CR: Well, it works both ways, international travel has been for years fantastic particularly travel from China, the average Chinese traveler spent over 7000 US dollars when they visit, because if you think about if you're coming from that far away you're going to make that trip a little bit longer, you're willing to spend a little bit more money to see the things that you really want to see. because you never know when you're going to go back. but the flip side of that is the American traveler who typically travels internationally, more than any other country in the world any other major economy in the world, will be staying home this year. And what we're seeing right now, as I indicated earlier, with some of the some of the areas where we have seen some uptick in occupancy is a lot of people who are willing to drive. And you know Greta you alluded to a moment ago with the airlines. We are not alone by ourselves, we are part of a travel ecosystem. so we need people to not only understand the hotels are safe, but they've got to have a lot of confidence in airlines as well, because we need people to get on planes to come to destinations.
GVS: Alright, suppose that I go to a hotel. I imagine that these hotels or maybe they are checking temperature at the door a lot of places are. If I come to the hotel and I get checked for a temperature and I have an elevated one of a fever, I guess my question is two part are, are hotels going to check for fevers and secondly what do you do if someone has traveled 1000 miles and expects to check into a hotel and now has a fever?
CR: Yes, it's a really good question. It's why we pushed back on that idea of checking guests but not only for that. If you think about a retail facility, or even a restaurant. you would typically walk into a restaurant in one door you walk out that same door. You would get your meal, and maybe you would come back to the restaurant a month later So, and same with the retail shopping when you're out the door. But if you think about hotel multiple doors. And when you typically check into a hotel, you're not going to stay in your room the entire time you could come in and out of a hotel. So we remind policy makers that is almost impossible for the industry to monitor every door and every guest that is coming out of it in and out of every door at all times. I'm not sure how we would even do that. And as you alluded to, in many cases they don't live nearby. So if they're checking into a hotel, and they have a temperature and we say we don't want you here. They have no place to go back to, they really can't go back and get on the plane and go home.
And so, what our industry is doing is finding ways to make sure that those guests are taken care of. Luckily this has not been a problem yet. But if a problem does exist, we can't put them in a position where they're going to be safe in perhaps a quarantine type situation, but they'll be taken care of. And I just remind people we’re a lot different than restaurants and retail in that respect.
((Greta))
Along with the pandemic and the protests - is the U.S. presidential election that will be held in November.
Former U.S. Senator from North Dakota, Heidi Heitkamp says this election is an important one for the country.
I spoke to her about her group’s efforts to foster bipartisan dialogue and bridge political divisions in America.
((Greta Interview - Heidi Heitkamp))
GVS: //I know that you're part of a nonprofit to sort of get the message the communication out to more rural areas which may not get quite the attention from politicians, as, as people deserve. What's your, what's your nonprofit effort?
HH: Well, we started something after I lost my Senate race.
We are a long way in our country from a unified idea of who we are as Americans, and I was, you and I were talking before-- I've been teaching at Brown and my whole theory of the seminar that I'm doing at Brown University is, who are we as Americans? What is the what are what are what are the uniting features? and when you look at each generation, and we love our parents because they were the greatest generation, united by the Great War -World War Two, where they came together we've got to come back to what it is to be an American. And what that means not only for us but for the rest of the world.
((Greta))
My thanks to our guests and thanks to all of you for watching this episode of Plugged In.
We will continue to follow the protests and the pandemic.
For the latest updates please visit our website at VOANews.com.
And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @Greta.
Thank you for being Plugged In.
((END))
