What A Day - Curfew Enthusiasm

Episode Date: June 2, 2020

Protests against racial violence continued in well over 100 cities, leading local officials to continue to take drastic measures like curfews and calling up the National Guard. Police in Washington, DC charged a group of peaceful protestors so that Trump could take a bad photo in front of a church. The organization Campaign Zero gathers data on policies aimed at ending police violence. We discuss the policy changes they’ve found to be successful and unsuccessful. And in headlines: the United States sends a dubious COVID-19 drug to Brazil, seven states hold their primaries today, and Trump brings big bridezilla energy to planning the RNC.Gideon & Akilah's recommendations:Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor twitter.com/KeeangaYamahttaEthel's Club instagram.com/ethelsclubRachel Cargle instagram.com/rachel.cargleWatchman (HBO)

It's Tuesday, June 2nd. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day, wishing you a very happy Pride Month. Yeah, I am so sorry that this is the situation for Pride, but you know what? The first Pride was a riot, so there you go. On today's show, a look at what works and what doesn't when it comes to reducing police brutality, then some headlines. But first, the latest. Educate yourself. Don't wait for somebody else to tell you who's who. Educate yourself and know who you're voting for.

And that's how we're going to hit them. Because it's a lot of us. It's a lot of us. It's a lot of us. It's a lot of us. That was Terrence Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, speaking yesterday in Minneapolis. He and others have called for demonstrators and their message not to get sidetracked by destruction. But anyway, let's get into the protests.

We are now over a week since Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, and marches and rallies are continuing across the nation. The National Guard has been activated in over 20 states as we record, and protesters in well over 100 cities have come out to make their voices heard. We've also seen more policing. So Gideon, give us an update. Yeah, that's right. So last night, New York City joined many other cities in imposing a curfew as well. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo also announced that he was going to double the number of police officers on duty to 8,000. And that is despite the recent documented incidents of escalation and brutality that we've seen from the NYPD. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's daughter was among those

arrested on Sunday night during a protest that she attended. And a police union disclosed her arrest and talks to her on Twitter. Yeah. And in Kentucky, the actions by the police are under even more scrutiny following yet another death at the hands of the police. According to local reporting there, law enforcement shot and killed David McAtee in Louisville early on Monday morning, and yet another horrific act as the nation mourns. He was a 53-year-old African-American man who owned a local restaurant, and according to his family, he was regarded as a community pillar who was known to give out free meals. The Louisville police chief said that local police and the National Guard were attempting

to break up a large group when someone allegedly fired at them, though there was reporting that no protesting was actually taking place and they were there to enforce a curfew. When the police fired at the group of people, McAtee was shot and killed. That police chief was fired on Monday after Louisville Mayor Greg Fisher said that officers on the scene had not activated body cameras during this process. The officers who fired the shots were also put on leave, and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear ordered an investigation. We will continue to follow this as we learn more about this senseless and horrific killing. Meanwhile, President Trump, who was reportedly so nervous and cowardly about protests approaching

his front door over the weekend that he literally hid in a bunker and turned the lights off, a common move for presidents who are really popular. Well, he lashed out at governors on a call yesterday. So let's go on a journey through what he had to say. Yeah, this was a doozy. So in this conference call, he labeled these governors as, quote, weak for not more aggressively enforcing protests in their respective states. Does that mean more people should have been shot at with either tear gas or rubber bullets or actual ones? Who's to say there? And in one line in this call, he said, quote, you have to dominate.

If you don't dominate, you're wasting your time. They're going to run over you. You're going to look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate. Well, a number of governors quickly pushed back on this and said that Trump's inflammatory statements are extremely unhelpful, including Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who said on the call to him that, quote, the rhetoric coming out of the White House is making it worse. Trump did not seem to take that hint. Yeah. And instead, he decided to give an address at the White House later in the day to

the same effect. What did he have to say? We've seen a lot of surreal stuff over the past few years, but this was truly something else. He threatened to deploy the military to stop protests if governors did not in this kind of dystopian and fascistic speech that was almost drowned out by the sounds of flashbangs and tear gas being deployed against peaceful protesters nearby. It seemed like law enforcement were also clearing out those protesters just in order for Trump to walk from the White House to St. John's Church after his address so he could stand in front and hold a Bible in the air, all for some bizarre photo op. Yeah, and like no idea if it's his Bible. Also, for several of those pictures, the Bible was upside down. So what, what the fuck? Yeah. Um, but here's a clip to give you

an idea of what he said during the speech. One law and order. And that is what it is. One law. We have one beautiful law. And once that is restored and fully restored, we will help you, we will help your business, and we will help your family. Yeah, I guess the one law is standing strangely and holding a Bible upside down. He had one line in this entire thing about seeking justice for George Floyd's family, but made no mention of addressing the systemic issues of police brutality at the center of these protests. Of course not. All right. Well, yesterday, we got some important updates out of Minnesota regarding George Floyd and the cases around the police officers there, including a new autopsy

report showing that Floyd's death was indeed a homicide. So what does this new report mean for the case? We're going to find out soon. But George Floyd's family, as they seek justice, ordered this independent autopsy after former officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck, killing him. And as you said, this autopsy determined that this was a homicide and that Floyd died of, quote, asphyxiation from sustained pressure. And that runs counter to what the Hennepin County medical examiner initially said on Friday, when they put out this perplexing statement that kind of pointed to underlying health issues that Floyd may or may not have had and possible intoxicants. Hours after the determination from this independent autopsy, the county examiner's office updated its findings saying that Floyd was a victim of homicide. But these two disagreed as to whether there were additional contributing

factors. Yeah, well, you know, I guess it's good to know that everything that we saw happened and we know what we saw. So we didn't have to hear, you know, this guy ate chips once and that's why he's dead. Just to reiterate, you know, the initial autopsy that claimed Floyd's lifestyle is why he died after an officer had his knee on his neck has been refuted. So again, we saw what we saw. Right. Now, lawyers for the Floyd family called for first-degree murder charges against Chauvin as a result of the new autopsy determination. We'll see how that plays out in the coming days. But the prosecution in this case has actually moved on to a new phase.

Yesterday, Minnesota's Attorney General Keith Ellison, who's been appointed to handle prosecutions in the case, said that he plans to charge all four officers at the scene to, quote, the highest degree of accountability that the law and the facts will support. Now, to remind folks, the three officers who stood and did not intervene have not yet been charged. Ellison emphasized that he wanted to move deliberately, even if there is frustration at the pace, in order to get it right. Now he certainly will face pressure as his work continues. Yeah, as he should. More broadly, we can only hope that these events will lead to real lasting policy change that is so obviously and desperately needed. Our colleagues at Pod Save the People, Brittany Packnett, Sam Sinyongwe, and DeRay

McKesson are also the co-founders of an organization called Campaign Zero that gathers data on policies aimed at ending police violence. So let's go over a few takeaways from their research. All right, so they've pulled together policy ideas and data on those policies to help better understand what actually makes an impact and what really doesn't. So let's start with a few things that have not been shown to reduce police violence. The first thing, and this might surprise you, is body cameras. There was a big movement around outfitting forces with cameras to improve interactions and accountability. Researchers at Harvard published a study last year of thousands of officers in D.C. over the course of several months

and found that body cams did not meaningfully affect police behavior or judicial outcomes. As you mentioned, the police officers involved in that Louisville shooting didn't have theirs turned on. The second is bias training. According to research compiled by Campaign Zero, the trainings vary in quality and rarely, if ever, result in accountability or changes in decision making. Right. So then what actually has been shown to be effective here? Okay, a few things, which I think is good news because literally anything that changes the behavior of the police for the better is good news. So one is demilitarization.

Studies show that police departments that get more military weapons and vehicles from the federal government kill more people. It's like if you see a weapon in the first act of a play. By the end of the play, someone's going to use it. It's not just there. Currently, there's a program at the Department of Defense that allows them to transfer excess equipment to local law enforcement. Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat from Hawaii, has long been pushing to limit these transfers. And yesterday he said he's going to try to pass legislation to shut it down. Another effective policy is non-police alternatives for 911 calls.

For example, one in five of the 911 calls in Eugene, Oregon, go to mental health first responders instead of the police. The program has been a huge success and is now being scaled up and implemented in Portland. There is more that we'll hope to get into in the coming days and weeks. But in the meantime, it is so worth checking out Campaign Zero to learn about their full list of data-backed resources. And for now, that's the latest. It's Tuesday WOD Squad. It's temp check time. The news is definitely overwhelming right now, and we're trying to be a resource for you through it. So thank you for riding with us. But Giddy, is there anyone that you're following right now or books that you're reading or media that you'd recommend to just, you know, help us? Yeah, I mean, I've never seen more broadly just on my feed,

videos and accounting of police. It's sort of the largest kind of day by day accounting that I personally have ever witnessed. And that has been an invaluable resource. So for everybody that is on the ground, either just walking with folks protesting with folks or are actual employed journalists. That has been amazing. And then, you know, broadly, just other people that have devoted so much time over the years to actually thinking about these things and are now getting a platform to discuss it more like Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, who has talked about, you know, defunding police and what that actually means. Some of those things have been helpful, as I think about, you know, practical things that people could do and vote for in the future.

Yeah, absolutely. I think that that's a great place to start. What about you, though? Any any recs for people? All right. So I know we're all on our phones all the time. And I think it's important to have a feed that is diverse and interesting. I think that it makes empathy a little bit easier. So I would say follow any black people on Instagram if you don't at all. But there are two accounts that I think are really excellent. Ethel's Club, which is sort of like the wing, which was, you know, like the women's social club, but it was specifically for black women.

It was a black space to sort of, you know, just process the traumas that we go through as a community. And it's a really great asset. Rachel Cargill, Cargill spelled C-A-R-G-L-E is an amazing Instagram account. She basically just, you know, takes the responses she gets to her posts that are just calling for equality from, you know, maybe very tense or nervous white people and will like highlight and circle and like, you know, notate what they had, the way they responded and then give notes on how they can be a little bit better about, you know, the defensiveness. And then I think it's just, it feels very of the moment, but right now we're in the,

I think 99th year anniversary of the, you know, the assault on black wall street uh the massacre in tulsa oklahoma and it i mean literally today yesterday tomorrow and i started re-watching watchmen because it's such a great show but i think that it feels so different to watch it now so if you already watched it i would give it a re-watch if you uh't watched it, you're really missing out. Yeah, I remember when we were talking about that a long time ago before things were as day-by-day horrifying as they are now, and it was really resonant then. So, yeah, I might return to it.

That's a good rec. Yeah, for sure. All right, everybody, we checked our temperatures, and we will check back in with you all tomorrow. Keep your head up. Sorry that this is the world we live in. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines.

For the first time ever, police in Hong Kong denied an annual vigil to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Now every June 4th, tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong light candles to remember the protesters killed by the Chinese military during a pro-democracy demonstration. Officials cited public health concerns for the reason behind their decision, but critics point out that Hong Kong has pretty much contained the coronavirus and a lot of other day-to-day functions have returned to normal. The anniversary comes at a time when pro-democracy protests in the territory have ramped back up after China said that it would impose a new controversial national security law. Police have already put out a statement saying that any violators of their order could be subject to imprisonment and fines.

It's pretty familiar everywhere. All right. Well, seven states are holding their primaries today. Indiana, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota and D.C. have encouraged their residents to vote by mail. These primaries could be an early test of how vote by mail will play out on a massive scale if the pandemic continues to be a threat in November. So you just know that the GOP is looking at this like market research on how to do voter suppression. Democrats in the House are pushing for an additional $3.6 billion to expand vote by mail before November, even though Trump and conservatives are actively trying to limit this option for voters. In Republicans' ideal world, the only thing people would use the mail for is receiving InfoWars brain pills and shipments from MyPillow.com. You can get them in a two-for-one deal with them. Okay, the United States and Brazil, whose far-right leaders have let them become the world's first and second most COVID-19-affected

countries, are now working together to fight coronavirus worse. That's according to a joint statement they issued on Sunday, which announced America's delivery of 2 million doses of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to Brazil. Now, as you probably recall, hydroxychloroquine has been shown to be useless or even harmful in treating coronavirus by a large number of scientists. But that doesn't really matter to Trump or Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who only likes scientists in the fields of monster truck physics and climate change denial. Brazil plans to give the drug prophylactically to health care workers and to do further research into its safety and

efficacy. The U.S. also sent Brazil 1,000 ventilators, which do work. Globally, coronavirus has now sickened more than 6 million people. Outrageous. Donald Trump continues to bring big bridezilla energy to planning the Republican National Convention, telling Democratic North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper he wants no face coverings or social distancing at the event. God bless. Honestly, go for it, Republicans. Maybe, you know, do a kissing contest, too, or pass around a ceremonial tuba

for everybody to just put their mouth on. You know, just don't come near me or anybody else after the convention's over. Trump also doesn't want the event to be scaled back. He wants it to be packed, which makes sense given the president's well-documented crowd-size anxiety. Per the RNC, Governor Cooper has until Wednesday to decide if he'll let Trump's unprotected convention take place. North Carolina's top health official signaled on Monday that she'll push back. She wants the RNC to send a plan with more options. Maybe one of them could be,

maybe just don't do it. Yeah. Honestly, let Trump blow on a tuba if he wants to, whatever. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review. Don't invite us to your unproductive convention, please, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just scathing reviews of the chunky, uneven MyPillow like me, Whataday is also a nightly newsletter.

Check it out and subscribe at cricket.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And please disable the Wi-Fi in the president's bunker. Like what's the point of him being underground if we literally still have to hear from him? It shouldn't work there anyway. What is Spectrum doing? How strong is the bunker if the Wi-Fi signals are coming through?

I'm just saying. What a day is a product of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tunn is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein, and our senior producer is Katie Long. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.