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So let's look at the statistics.

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The United States is home to 5%
of the world's population...

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00:00:14,755 --> 00:00:17,424
but 25% of the world's prisoners.

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00:00:19,968 --> 00:00:21,593
Think about that.

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00:00:23,928 --> 00:00:26,596
A little country with 5%
of the world's population

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00:00:26,679 --> 00:00:30,181
having 25% of the
world's prisoners?

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One out of four?

8
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One out of four human beings with
their hands on bars, shackled,

9
00:00:33,451 --> 00:00:37,247
in the world are locked up
here, in the land of the free.

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We had a prison population
of 300,000 in 1972.

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Today, we have a prison
population of 2.3 million.

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The United States
now has the highest

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00:00:48,368 --> 00:00:50,051
rate of incarceration
in the world.

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So, you see, now suddenly
they're in an awakening that,

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"Oh, perhaps we need to
downsize our prison system.

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It's gotten too expensive.
It's gotten out of hand."

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But the very folks who often
express so much concern,

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about the cost and the
expanse of the system

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are often very unwilling
to talk in any serious way

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about remedying the harm
that has been done.

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History is not just stuff
that happens by accident.

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We are the products
of the history that

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our ancestors chose,
if we're white.

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If we are black, we are products
of the history that our ancestors

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most likely did not choose.

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Yet here we all are together, the
products of that set of choices.

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And we have to understand that
in order to escape from it.

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The 13th Amendment
to the Constitution

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makes it unconstitutional for
someone to be held as a slave.

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In other words, it
grants freedom...

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to all Americans.

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There are exceptions,
including criminals.

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There's a clause, a loophole.

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If you have that in the structure,

35
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in this constitutional language,

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then it's there to
be used as a tool

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for whichever purposes
one wants to use it.

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One of the things to
bear in mind is that

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when we think about slavery,
it was an economic system.

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And the demise of slavery
at the end of the Civil War

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left the Southern
economy in tatters.

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And so this presented
a big question.

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There are four million people
who were formerly property,

44
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and they were formerly
kind of the integral part

45
00:03:03,428 --> 00:03:06,264
of the economic production
system in the South.

46
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And now those people are free.

47
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And so what do you do
with these people?

48
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How do you rebuild your economy?

49
00:03:21,486 --> 00:03:26,074
The 13th Amendment loophole
was immediately exploited.

50
00:03:26,157 --> 00:03:30,579
After the Civil War, African
Americans were arrested en masse.

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00:03:30,662 --> 00:03:33,873
It was our nation's
first prison boom.

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00:03:36,751 --> 00:03:39,628
You were basically a slave again.
The 13th Amendment says that

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"Except for criminals,
everybody else is free."

54
00:03:41,630 --> 00:03:45,550
Well, now if you're criminalised,
that doesn't apply to you.

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00:03:45,633 --> 00:03:48,554
They were arrested for
extremely minor crimes,

56
00:03:48,637 --> 00:03:51,640
like loitering or vagrancy.

57
00:03:53,684 --> 00:03:56,811
And they had to provide labour

58
00:03:56,894 --> 00:04:00,523
to rebuild the economy of the
South after the Civil War.

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What you got after that
was a rapid transition

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00:04:10,157 --> 00:04:12,701
to a kind of mythology
of black criminality.

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Go back and, you know, read the
rhetoric that people used then.

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They would say that the
Negro was out of control,

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that there's a threat of
violence to white women.

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So the same sort of image
that we had of Uncle Remus

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00:04:28,343 --> 00:04:30,968
and these genial, kind
of, black figures

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was replaced by this rapacious,
menacing, Negro male evil

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that had to be banished.

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Birth of a Nation was

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just a profoundly
important cultural event.

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It's the first major
blockbuster film,

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hailed for both its
artistic achievement

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and for its political commentary.

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And when it was released, it
had this rapturous response.

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You know, there were lines

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00:05:02,386 --> 00:05:04,418
everywhere that it
was being shown.

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00:05:05,543 --> 00:05:08,462
Birth of a Nation
confirmed the story

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00:05:08,546 --> 00:05:10,979
that many whites
wanted to tell about

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00:05:10,980 --> 00:05:13,091
the Civil War and its aftermath.

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To erase defeat and to take out
of it sort of a martyrdom.

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00:05:20,724 --> 00:05:24,394
Woodrow Wilson, the sitting
President, had a private screening

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00:05:24,478 --> 00:05:26,149
of it in the White
House. He calls it,

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"History written with lightning."

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00:05:27,690 --> 00:05:29,857
And every image you
see of a black person

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00:05:29,941 --> 00:05:32,861
is a demeaned, animal-like image.

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00:05:33,779 --> 00:05:35,572
Cannibalistic, animalistic.

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00:05:36,864 --> 00:05:39,992
The image of the
African American male.

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There's a famous scene where a
woman throws herself off a cliff

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rather than be raped by
a black male criminal.

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00:05:49,544 --> 00:05:52,922
In the film, you see black people
being a threat to white women.

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All the myths of
black men as rapists

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00:05:55,614 --> 00:05:58,220
was ultimately stemmed
by the reality

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that the white political elite
and the business establishment

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00:06:01,472 --> 00:06:02,680
needed black bodies working.

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What we overlook about
Birth of a Nation

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00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:18,738
is that it was also a
tremendously accurate prediction

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00:06:18,821 --> 00:06:21,657
of the way in which race would
operate in the United States.

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Birth of a Nation was
almost directly responsible

98
00:06:37,963 --> 00:06:39,508
for the rebirth of
the Ku Klux Klan.

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00:06:41,217 --> 00:06:46,598
It had received this romantic,
glowing, heroic portrait.

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The Klan never had the
ritual of burning the cross.

101
00:06:51,769 --> 00:06:53,938
That was something that
D.W. Griffith came up with

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00:06:54,022 --> 00:06:56,316
because he thought that it
was a great cinematic image.

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00:06:58,109 --> 00:07:01,070
So it was literally an instance
of life imitating art.

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00:07:03,071 --> 00:07:04,739
The ripples emanate far out

105
00:07:04,822 --> 00:07:07,742
from just the simple
fact that it's a movie

106
00:07:07,825 --> 00:07:10,245
in the early motion picture age.

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With the tremendous
burst of popularity

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that the Ku Klux Klan had as a
result of Birth of a Nation

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00:07:19,379 --> 00:07:22,089
came another wave of terrorism.

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We had lynchings between
Reconstruction and World War II.

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Thousands of African
Americans murdered by mobs

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00:07:42,443 --> 00:07:45,486
under the idea that they had
done something criminal.

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00:07:45,570 --> 00:07:48,907
At the National Democratic
Convention in New York in 1924,

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00:07:48,990 --> 00:07:53,287
it is estimated that at least
350 delegates were Klansmen.

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The demographic geography of this
country was shaped by that era.

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Now we have African
Americans in Los Angeles,

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in Oakland, and Chicago, and

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00:08:01,234 --> 00:08:03,878
Cleveland, Detroit,
Boston, New York.

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00:08:03,962 --> 00:08:05,694
And very few people
appreciate that the

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00:08:05,695 --> 00:08:07,383
African Americans in
those communities

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00:08:07,466 --> 00:08:09,712
did not go there as
immigrants looking

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00:08:09,713 --> 00:08:11,554
for new economic opportunities.

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They went there as
refugees from terror.

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We didn't just land in
Oakland, in LA, in Compton,

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in Harlem, in Brownsville in 2015.

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This is generational...
generational trauma.

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The letters "KKK" were
carved with a penknife

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00:08:26,192 --> 00:08:29,069
on the chest and stomach of
this man in Houston, Texas,

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00:08:29,152 --> 00:08:31,721
after he had been hanged
by his knees from

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00:08:31,722 --> 00:08:33,991
an oak tree and
flogged with a chain.

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00:08:35,743 --> 00:08:38,953
The Chicago Negro boy,
Emmett Till, is alleged

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00:08:39,036 --> 00:08:41,786
to have paid unwelcome
attention to

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00:08:41,787 --> 00:08:44,460
Roy Bryant's most attractive wife.

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00:08:56,094 --> 00:08:58,640
And then when it
became unacceptable

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00:08:58,723 --> 00:09:01,225
to engage in that kind
of open terrorism,

136
00:09:01,308 --> 00:09:03,436
then it shifted to
something more legal.

137
00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:05,604
Segregation. Jim Crow.

138
00:09:07,231 --> 00:09:11,402
Laws were passed that
relegated African Americans

139
00:09:11,485 --> 00:09:14,363
to a permanent
second-class status.

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00:09:18,743 --> 00:09:21,161
These things really
begin to live out

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00:09:21,162 --> 00:09:23,579
the prophecy that
Griffith was making

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00:09:23,663 --> 00:09:25,540
about the way that race operates.

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00:09:25,623 --> 00:09:28,584
And this fear of crime is
central to all of this.

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00:09:28,668 --> 00:09:30,878
Every time you saw a sign that
said "white and coloured,"

145
00:09:30,961 --> 00:09:33,215
every time you had to
deal with the indignation

146
00:09:33,799 --> 00:09:35,801
of being told you can't go
through the front door.

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00:09:35,884 --> 00:09:37,635
Every day you weren't
allowed to vote,

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00:09:37,718 --> 00:09:39,096
weren't allowed to go to school,

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00:09:39,179 --> 00:09:42,056
you were bearing a burden
that was injurious.

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00:09:45,643 --> 00:09:48,020
Civil rights activists
began to see the necessity

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00:09:48,103 --> 00:09:50,482
of building not just a
civil rights movement,

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00:09:50,566 --> 00:09:51,940
but a human rights movement.

153
00:09:52,023 --> 00:09:54,901
And I think we should
start now preparing

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00:09:54,984 --> 00:09:56,277
for the inevitable.

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00:09:56,361 --> 00:09:57,446
Yeah.

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00:09:57,529 --> 00:10:00,907
And let us, when
that moment comes...

157
00:10:02,701 --> 00:10:05,870
go into the situations
that we confront

158
00:10:05,954 --> 00:10:11,876
with a great deal of dignity,
sanity and reasonableness.

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00:10:19,549 --> 00:10:22,427
They want to throw white
children and coloured children

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00:10:22,510 --> 00:10:25,638
into the melting pot
of integration,

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00:10:25,722 --> 00:10:28,475
through out of which will
come a conglomerated,

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00:10:28,558 --> 00:10:31,895
mulatto, mongrel class of people.

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00:10:31,979 --> 00:10:34,606
Both races will be destroyed
in such a movement.

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00:10:35,190 --> 00:10:38,359
We just got a report here on this
end that the students are in.

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00:10:39,276 --> 00:10:42,280
Negroes were trying to
integrate the bathing beaches.

166
00:10:42,364 --> 00:10:45,825
And the Florida Advisory Committee
to the US Civil Rights Commission

167
00:10:45,908 --> 00:10:48,431
warned that the
city was becoming a

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00:10:48,432 --> 00:10:50,954
racial superbomb
with a short fuse.

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00:10:52,789 --> 00:10:56,543
Civil rights activists began
to be portrayed in the media

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00:10:56,626 --> 00:10:59,963
and among, you know, many
politicians as criminals.

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00:11:00,046 --> 00:11:02,966
People who are deliberately
violating the law,

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00:11:03,049 --> 00:11:05,594
segregation laws that
existed in the South.

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00:11:08,096 --> 00:11:11,224
For years now, I have
heard the word "wait."

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It rings in the ear of every
Negro with piercing familiarity.

175
00:11:17,354 --> 00:11:21,691
This wait has almost
always meant never.

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00:11:23,235 --> 00:11:28,490
Justice too long delayed
is justice denied.

177
00:11:29,448 --> 00:11:31,033
I think that one of
the most brilliant

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00:11:31,034 --> 00:11:32,537
tactics of the civil
rights movement

179
00:11:32,620 --> 00:11:35,289
was its transformation of
the notion of criminality.

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00:11:35,998 --> 00:11:39,042
Because for the first time, being
arrested was a noble thing.

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00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:44,505
Being arrested by white people
was your worst nightmare.

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00:11:44,589 --> 00:11:47,382
Still is, for many
African Americans.

183
00:11:47,465 --> 00:11:48,465
So what'd they do?

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00:11:48,550 --> 00:11:52,346
They voluntarily defined a
movement around getting arrested.

185
00:11:52,430 --> 00:11:53,722
They turned it on its head.

186
00:11:57,727 --> 00:11:59,394
If you looked at the history

187
00:11:59,477 --> 00:12:02,397
of black people's various
struggles in this country,

188
00:12:02,480 --> 00:12:06,860
the connecting theme is the
attempt to be understood

189
00:12:06,945 --> 00:12:09,112
as full, complicated human beings.

190
00:12:11,740 --> 00:12:15,827
We are something other than this,
visceral image of criminality

191
00:12:15,910 --> 00:12:19,455
and menace and threat to which
people associate with us.

192
00:12:29,340 --> 00:12:31,967
We're willing to be
beaten for democracy,

193
00:12:31,968 --> 00:12:34,469
and you misuse democracy
in the street.

194
00:12:34,552 --> 00:12:37,889
Let us lay aside
irrelevant differences...

195
00:12:39,225 --> 00:12:40,851
and make our nation whole.

196
00:12:44,645 --> 00:12:47,064
The Civil Rights Act and the
Voting Rights Act said,

197
00:12:47,147 --> 00:12:48,859
"Finally, we admit it.

198
00:12:48,942 --> 00:12:51,443
Though slavery ended
in December 1865...

199
00:12:52,402 --> 00:12:54,619
we took away these
people's rights,

200
00:12:54,620 --> 00:12:56,405
and now we're gonna fix it."

201
00:12:58,575 --> 00:12:59,953
For the first time,

202
00:13:00,036 --> 00:13:04,248
you know, promise of equal justice
becomes at least a possibility.

203
00:13:04,331 --> 00:13:08,085
Their cause must
be our cause, too.

204
00:13:08,168 --> 00:13:10,045
Unfortunately, at
the very same time

205
00:13:10,129 --> 00:13:14,507
that the civil rights
movement was gaining steam,

206
00:13:14,590 --> 00:13:17,469
crime rates were beginning
to rise in this country.

207
00:13:17,552 --> 00:13:21,014
Crime was increasing in
the baby boom generation

208
00:13:21,097 --> 00:13:23,975
that had emerged immediately
after World War II.

209
00:13:24,058 --> 00:13:25,059
Now they were adults.

210
00:13:25,143 --> 00:13:28,083
So, just through sheer
demographic change,

211
00:13:28,084 --> 00:13:31,023
we had an increase in
the amount of crime.

212
00:13:31,106 --> 00:13:34,653
And became very easy for
politicians then to say,

213
00:13:34,736 --> 00:13:37,885
that the civil rights
movement itself

214
00:13:37,886 --> 00:13:41,199
was contributing to
rising crime rates,

215
00:13:41,283 --> 00:13:44,952
and that if we were to give
the Negroes their freedom,

216
00:13:45,036 --> 00:13:48,748
then we would be repaid,
as a nation, with crime.

217
00:13:50,583 --> 00:13:53,586
The prison population in the
United States was largely flat

218
00:13:53,671 --> 00:13:55,379
throughout most of
the 20th century.

219
00:13:55,462 --> 00:13:57,799
It didn't go up a lot. It
didn't come down a lot.

220
00:13:57,882 --> 00:14:00,509
But that changed in the 1970s.

221
00:14:00,592 --> 00:14:02,970
And in the 1970s, we began an era

222
00:14:03,054 --> 00:14:07,182
which has been defined by this
term, "mass incarceration."

223
00:14:07,265 --> 00:14:11,353
This is a nation of laws, and
as Abraham Lincoln has said,

224
00:14:11,437 --> 00:14:14,815
"No one is above the law.
No one is below the law."

225
00:14:14,898 --> 00:14:16,733
And we're going to enforce the law

226
00:14:16,817 --> 00:14:18,622
and Americans should
remember that,

227
00:14:18,623 --> 00:14:20,528
if we're going to
have law and order.

228
00:14:21,570 --> 00:14:25,702
♪ Breaking rocks out
here on the chain gang ♪

229
00:14:25,785 --> 00:14:29,620
♪ Breaking rocks and
serving my time ♪

230
00:14:29,705 --> 00:14:33,416
♪ Breaking rocks out
here on the chain gang ♪

231
00:14:33,499 --> 00:14:38,003
♪ Because I've been
convicted of crime ♪

232
00:14:38,087 --> 00:14:41,422
♪ Hold it steady right
there while I hit it ♪

233
00:14:41,505 --> 00:14:43,688
Each moment in history is a

234
00:14:43,689 --> 00:14:46,679
fleeting time,
precious and unique.

235
00:14:46,762 --> 00:14:49,807
But some stand out as
moments of beginning...

236
00:14:50,765 --> 00:14:56,813
in which courses are set that
shape decades or centuries.

237
00:14:56,896 --> 00:14:59,399
This can be such a moment.

238
00:15:00,984 --> 00:15:06,113
It's with the Nixon era, and
the law and order period

239
00:15:06,196 --> 00:15:09,701
when crime begins to
stand in for race.

240
00:15:09,784 --> 00:15:12,953
If there is one area where the
word "war" is appropriate,

241
00:15:13,036 --> 00:15:15,121
it is in the fight against crime.

242
00:15:15,204 --> 00:15:17,624
Part of what he talked
about was a war on crime.

243
00:15:17,708 --> 00:15:20,252
But that was one of
those code words,

244
00:15:20,335 --> 00:15:22,755
what we might call
"dog-whistle politics" now,

245
00:15:22,838 --> 00:15:24,507
which really was referring to

246
00:15:24,589 --> 00:15:26,307
the black political
movements of the

247
00:15:26,308 --> 00:15:27,885
day, Black Power, Black Panthers,

248
00:15:27,968 --> 00:15:29,219
the anti-war movement,

249
00:15:29,302 --> 00:15:31,846
the movements for women's and
gay liberation at that time,

250
00:15:31,929 --> 00:15:34,891
which Nixon felt compelled
to fight back against.

251
00:15:34,974 --> 00:15:37,335
Once the federal
government, through

252
00:15:37,336 --> 00:15:39,186
the FBI, moves into an area,

253
00:15:39,270 --> 00:15:42,023
this should be warning to those
who engage in these acts

254
00:15:42,106 --> 00:15:45,777
that they eventually are
going to be apprehended.

255
00:15:45,860 --> 00:15:48,445
There's this outcry
for law and order.

256
00:15:49,279 --> 00:15:52,616
And Nixon becomes the person who
articulates that perfectly.

257
00:15:52,699 --> 00:15:56,536
There can be no progress in
America without respect for law.

258
00:15:56,619 --> 00:15:59,580
Many people felt like,
we were losing control.

259
00:16:01,249 --> 00:16:04,877
We need total war in
the United States

260
00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:08,714
against the evils, that
we see in our cities.

261
00:16:10,425 --> 00:16:14,178
Federal spending for local
law enforcement will double.

262
00:16:14,261 --> 00:16:15,720
Time is running out
for the merchants

263
00:16:15,805 --> 00:16:18,432
of crime and corruption
in American society.

264
00:16:19,599 --> 00:16:22,977
The wave of crime is not going
to be the wave of the future

265
00:16:23,061 --> 00:16:25,355
in the United States of America.

266
00:16:25,439 --> 00:16:28,275
We must wage what I
have called "total war"

267
00:16:28,358 --> 00:16:31,820
against public enemy number
one in the United States,

268
00:16:31,903 --> 00:16:33,237
the problem of dangerous drugs.

269
00:16:33,321 --> 00:16:34,906
"A war on drugs."

270
00:16:34,989 --> 00:16:39,452
And that utterance gave
birth to this era,

271
00:16:39,535 --> 00:16:42,997
where we decided to deal with drug
addiction and drug dependency

272
00:16:43,081 --> 00:16:45,708
as a crime issue rather
than a health issue.

273
00:16:45,792 --> 00:16:47,961
Hundreds of thousands of people

274
00:16:48,044 --> 00:16:50,713
were sent to jails and prisons for
simple possession of marijuana,

275
00:16:50,797 --> 00:16:52,589
for low-level offences.

276
00:16:54,258 --> 00:16:56,971
America's public enemy number one

277
00:16:56,972 --> 00:17:00,013
in the United States
is drug abuse.

278
00:17:00,973 --> 00:17:03,058
In order to fight and
defeat this enemy,

279
00:17:03,141 --> 00:17:07,603
it is necessary to wage a
new, all-out offensive.

280
00:17:08,939 --> 00:17:11,012
This call for law
and order becomes

281
00:17:11,013 --> 00:17:12,566
integral to something that

282
00:17:12,649 --> 00:17:15,652
comes to be known as
the Southern strategy.

283
00:17:15,736 --> 00:17:17,729
Nixon begins to recruit Southern

284
00:17:17,730 --> 00:17:20,033
whites, formerly
staunch Democrats,

285
00:17:20,117 --> 00:17:22,494
into the Republican fold.

286
00:17:22,577 --> 00:17:24,578
Persuading poor and
working-class whites

287
00:17:24,661 --> 00:17:27,914
to join the Republican
Party in droves...

288
00:17:27,998 --> 00:17:32,002
By speaking to, in subtle
and non-racist terms...

289
00:17:32,085 --> 00:17:34,421
a thinly veiled racial appeal...

290
00:17:34,505 --> 00:17:35,796
talking about crime,

291
00:17:35,881 --> 00:17:40,010
by talking about law and order
or the chaos of our urban cities

292
00:17:40,093 --> 00:17:41,761
unleashed by the civil
rights movement.

293
00:17:41,845 --> 00:17:44,555
We have launched an all-out
offensive against crime,

294
00:17:44,639 --> 00:17:47,558
against narcotics, against
permissiveness in our country.

295
00:17:47,642 --> 00:17:50,311
The rhetoric of "get tough"
and "law and order,"

296
00:17:50,394 --> 00:17:53,147
was part and parcel
of the backlash

297
00:17:53,148 --> 00:17:55,441
of the civil rights movement.

298
00:17:56,608 --> 00:17:59,403
A Nixon administration official
admitted the war on drugs

299
00:17:59,486 --> 00:18:01,655
was all about throwing
black people in jail.

300
00:18:01,738 --> 00:18:02,738
He said, quote,

301
00:18:47,074 --> 00:18:50,160
♪ The end of the Reagan
era I'm like 11 or 12 ♪

302
00:18:50,243 --> 00:18:52,913
♪ Or old enough to understand
the shit'll change forever ♪

303
00:18:52,996 --> 00:18:55,581
♪ They declared the war on
drugs like a war on terror ♪

304
00:18:55,664 --> 00:18:58,666
♪ But what it really did was let
the police terrorise whoever ♪

305
00:18:58,749 --> 00:19:01,503
♪ But mostly black boys but
they would call us niggers ♪

306
00:19:01,587 --> 00:19:04,590
♪ And lay us on our belly while
they fingers on they triggers ♪

307
00:19:06,342 --> 00:19:08,970
Raise your right hand
and repeat after me.

308
00:19:09,053 --> 00:19:11,679
I, Ronald Reagan, do
solemnly swear...

309
00:19:11,763 --> 00:19:14,099
I, Ronald Reagan, do
solemnly swear...

310
00:19:14,182 --> 00:19:16,809
that I will faithfully
execute the Office...

311
00:19:16,892 --> 00:19:22,148
The election of Ronald Reagan was,
in many ways, transformative,

312
00:19:22,232 --> 00:19:24,109
in a negative sense.

313
00:19:24,192 --> 00:19:27,694
President Richard Nixon was
the first to coin the term

314
00:19:27,777 --> 00:19:29,113
"a war on drugs,"

315
00:19:29,196 --> 00:19:31,754
but President Ronald
Reagan turned that

316
00:19:31,755 --> 00:19:33,993
rhetorical war into a literal one.

317
00:19:34,076 --> 00:19:36,746
It's back to school time
for America's children.

318
00:19:36,829 --> 00:19:40,374
And while drug and alcohol abuse
cuts across all generations,

319
00:19:40,457 --> 00:19:42,792
it's especially damaging
to the young people

320
00:19:42,876 --> 00:19:44,587
on whom our future depends.

321
00:19:44,669 --> 00:19:49,673
The modern war on drugs was
declared by Ronald Reagan in 1982.

322
00:19:49,757 --> 00:19:52,385
As we mobilise for
this national crusade,

323
00:19:52,468 --> 00:19:55,846
I'm mindful that drugs are a
constant temptation for millions.

324
00:19:55,930 --> 00:19:58,140
Popular opinion polls of the day

325
00:19:58,224 --> 00:20:01,185
show that it wasn't an issue for
most people in the United States.

326
00:20:01,269 --> 00:20:03,104
But Reagan was determined

327
00:20:03,187 --> 00:20:05,898
to put this onto the agenda
to define it as a problem.

328
00:20:05,982 --> 00:20:09,067
A war against drugs is a
war of individual battles.

329
00:20:09,151 --> 00:20:12,863
Reagan used his wife, for example,
in this "Just Say No" campaign.

330
00:20:12,946 --> 00:20:17,701
She has helped so many of our
young people to say no to drugs.

331
00:20:17,785 --> 00:20:20,203
Nancy, much credit belongs to you.

332
00:20:20,287 --> 00:20:21,578
This is your brain.

333
00:20:22,538 --> 00:20:24,165
This is drugs.

334
00:20:29,712 --> 00:20:31,463
This is your brain on drugs.

335
00:20:31,548 --> 00:20:32,715
I joined it.

336
00:20:32,799 --> 00:20:35,634
And some people said,
"Well, how can you join

337
00:20:35,717 --> 00:20:39,555
a person declaring a war on drugs,
someone like Ronald Reagan?"

338
00:20:39,638 --> 00:20:44,227
I joined with Nancy Reagan
because she said, "Just say no."

339
00:20:44,311 --> 00:20:48,521
Just say no so loud that
everyone around you can hear it.

340
00:20:48,604 --> 00:20:50,088
We're talking about a General

341
00:20:50,089 --> 00:20:51,982
education that we're
talking about.

342
00:20:52,067 --> 00:20:54,069
We're not talking about
locking up people.

343
00:20:54,152 --> 00:20:56,552
We're talking about
educating people.

344
00:20:56,553 --> 00:20:58,573
We're talking about prevention.

345
00:20:58,656 --> 00:21:01,034
There was a crisis in the
US economy at that time.

346
00:21:01,118 --> 00:21:04,330
I regret to say that we're
in the worst economic mess

347
00:21:04,413 --> 00:21:05,996
since the Great Depression.

348
00:21:06,081 --> 00:21:08,249
There is a frontal assault

349
00:21:08,333 --> 00:21:12,461
on institutions that are
designed to assist human beings,

350
00:21:12,544 --> 00:21:17,215
on the education system,
welfare, on jobs, healthcare.

351
00:21:17,298 --> 00:21:21,095
Government programs that can't be
paid for out of a balanced budget

352
00:21:21,178 --> 00:21:23,597
must be paid for out
of your pocket.

353
00:21:23,680 --> 00:21:26,724
The rich are getting richer and
the poor are getting poorer.

354
00:21:26,807 --> 00:21:30,436
The idea of expanding, the
freedom of American business

355
00:21:30,519 --> 00:21:31,854
and the entrepreneurial class...

356
00:21:31,937 --> 00:21:36,484
We will save $1.8 billion
in fiscal year 1982.

357
00:21:36,568 --> 00:21:39,529
Luxury stores like Neiman
Marcus predicts record sales.

358
00:21:39,613 --> 00:21:42,491
The number of Americans dipping
under the poverty level

359
00:21:42,574 --> 00:21:44,949
has reached the highest
rate in two decades.

360
00:21:45,534 --> 00:21:49,162
Yes, there has been an
increase in poverty,

361
00:21:49,246 --> 00:21:50,944
but it is a lower rate of increase

362
00:21:50,945 --> 00:21:52,791
than it was in the
preceding years,

363
00:21:52,875 --> 00:21:54,041
before we got here.

364
00:21:54,126 --> 00:21:57,087
It has begun to decline,
but it is still going up.

365
00:21:57,170 --> 00:21:58,421
In the mid-1980s,

366
00:21:58,505 --> 00:22:01,758
we were already starting to
embark on a war on drugs

367
00:22:01,841 --> 00:22:03,381
and then all of a sudden, along

368
00:22:03,382 --> 00:22:05,220
comes this new drug,
crack cocaine.

369
00:22:05,303 --> 00:22:08,847
Steve Young reports on a new
kind of cocaine called crack.

370
00:22:08,930 --> 00:22:11,768
It's dangerous. It's
deadly. It will kill you.

371
00:22:11,851 --> 00:22:15,479
"The drug epidemic is as dangerous
as any terrorist that we face."

372
00:22:15,562 --> 00:22:16,980
That is just some of what was said

373
00:22:16,981 --> 00:22:18,565
today to House and
Senate committees

374
00:22:18,649 --> 00:22:20,441
holding hearings on
drug abuse in America.

375
00:22:20,525 --> 00:22:24,196
We have this drug that could be
marketed in very small doses,

376
00:22:24,280 --> 00:22:26,239
relatively inexpensively,

377
00:22:26,322 --> 00:22:28,700
this was going to just
take over communities,

378
00:22:28,784 --> 00:22:31,495
and particularly African
American communities.

379
00:22:31,578 --> 00:22:33,592
Crack was largely an
inner-city issue and

380
00:22:33,593 --> 00:22:35,415
cocaine was largely
a suburban issue.

381
00:22:35,498 --> 00:22:38,543
Smokable cocaine,
otherwise known as crack,

382
00:22:38,627 --> 00:22:40,836
it is an uncontrolled fire.

383
00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:43,463
Congress, in virtually
record time,

384
00:22:43,547 --> 00:22:47,300
established mandatory
sentencing penalties for crack

385
00:22:47,384 --> 00:22:50,846
that were far harsher than
those for powder cocaine.

386
00:22:50,930 --> 00:22:54,891
The same amount of time in prison
for one ounce of crack cocaine

387
00:22:54,974 --> 00:22:57,018
that you get for 100
ounces of powder cocaine.

388
00:22:57,102 --> 00:22:59,813
Police here are cracking
down on crack dealers.

389
00:22:59,896 --> 00:23:06,820
Usually black or Hispanic, Latino,
they were getting long sentences

390
00:23:06,903 --> 00:23:08,364
for possession of crack.

391
00:23:08,447 --> 00:23:09,698
You're black with crack cocaine,

392
00:23:09,781 --> 00:23:12,408
you going to prison for basically
the rest of your life.

393
00:23:12,491 --> 00:23:15,869
And if you're white, you're pretty
much getting slapped on the wrist.

394
00:23:15,953 --> 00:23:17,454
Cocaine...

395
00:23:17,538 --> 00:23:19,290
was more sophisticated.

396
00:23:19,373 --> 00:23:21,250
It was just a powder.

397
00:23:21,334 --> 00:23:24,962
By next year, our spending
for drug law enforcement

398
00:23:25,045 --> 00:23:27,756
will have more than tripled
from its 1981 levels.

399
00:23:30,467 --> 00:23:34,847
All of a sudden, a scythe went
through our black communities,

400
00:23:35,389 --> 00:23:39,226
literally cutting off men
from their families,

401
00:23:39,309 --> 00:23:43,270
literally huge chunks just
disappearing into our prisons,

402
00:23:43,354 --> 00:23:45,772
and for really long times.

403
00:23:45,856 --> 00:23:47,774
Millions of dollars
will be allocated

404
00:23:48,609 --> 00:23:50,611
for prison and jail facilities.

405
00:23:50,694 --> 00:23:52,779
These sorts of
disparities under Reagan

406
00:23:52,863 --> 00:23:57,118
quickly exploded into the
era of mass incarceration.

407
00:23:57,201 --> 00:23:59,704
What Reagan ultimately does is...

408
00:23:59,786 --> 00:24:04,251
takes the problem of
economic inequality,

409
00:24:04,334 --> 00:24:06,613
of hypersegregation in America's

410
00:24:06,614 --> 00:24:09,462
cities, and the problem
of drug abuse,

411
00:24:09,544 --> 00:24:14,467
and criminalises all of that in
the form of the war on drugs.

412
00:24:14,550 --> 00:24:17,470
We absolutely should have
treated crack and cocaine,

413
00:24:17,553 --> 00:24:19,472
as exactly the same thing.

414
00:24:19,555 --> 00:24:23,809
I think it was an enormous
burden on the black community,

415
00:24:23,893 --> 00:24:27,145
but it also fundamentally violated
a sense of core fairness.

416
00:24:27,228 --> 00:24:30,650
When crack cocaine hit
in the early '80s,

417
00:24:30,733 --> 00:24:32,376
there were a lot of
mayors who felt very

418
00:24:32,377 --> 00:24:33,819
strongly that this
is a real threat

419
00:24:33,903 --> 00:24:35,238
and they wanted to crack down.

420
00:24:35,321 --> 00:24:38,490
And Rangel was one of the guys
pushing for stronger sentencing.

421
00:24:38,573 --> 00:24:41,700
It may have seemed like a
good idea at the time,

422
00:24:41,784 --> 00:24:44,495
but it sure didn't work
out as being effective.

423
00:24:44,578 --> 00:24:47,791
Then, years later, there was
an effort to rewrite history,

424
00:24:47,874 --> 00:24:53,629
that it was a racial disparity
put in by mean white people.

425
00:24:54,213 --> 00:24:55,756
It's not where it came from.

426
00:24:55,839 --> 00:24:59,427
In many ways, the
so-called war on drugs

427
00:24:59,510 --> 00:25:02,347
was a war on
communities of colour,

428
00:25:02,431 --> 00:25:07,850
a war on black communities, a
war on Latino communities.

429
00:25:07,934 --> 00:25:11,854
And you see a rhetorical
war that was, you know,

430
00:25:11,938 --> 00:25:15,525
announced as part of a political
strategy by Richard Nixon

431
00:25:15,608 --> 00:25:19,488
and which morphed into a
literal war by Ronald Reagan,

432
00:25:19,572 --> 00:25:25,327
turning into something that
began to feel nearly genocidal

433
00:25:25,410 --> 00:25:27,954
in many poor
communities of colour.

434
00:25:28,037 --> 00:25:30,457
So Nixon's Southern strategy

435
00:25:30,540 --> 00:25:33,542
was implemented right after
the civil rights movement.

436
00:25:33,625 --> 00:25:34,959
He played on fear of crime,

437
00:25:35,042 --> 00:25:38,004
and law and order to win
the election easily.

438
00:25:39,590 --> 00:25:41,883
Reagan promised tax
cuts to the rich,

439
00:25:41,967 --> 00:25:44,552
and to throw all the
crack users in jail,

440
00:25:44,635 --> 00:25:47,221
both of which devastated
communities of colour

441
00:25:47,305 --> 00:25:49,724
but were effective in
getting the Southern vote.

442
00:25:52,352 --> 00:25:56,607
There's really no understanding
of our American political culture

443
00:25:56,690 --> 00:25:58,442
without race at the centre of it.

444
00:25:58,525 --> 00:26:02,152
And in 1981, just before
Reagan assumed the Presidency,

445
00:26:02,235 --> 00:26:04,738
his campaign strategist,
Lee Atwater,

446
00:26:04,821 --> 00:26:08,451
was caught on tape explaining
the Southern strategy.

447
00:26:08,534 --> 00:26:10,577
In other words, you start out...

448
00:26:55,788 --> 00:26:57,747
♪ They claiming I'm a criminal ♪

449
00:26:57,830 --> 00:27:00,791
♪ But now I wonder how
some people never know ♪

450
00:27:00,874 --> 00:27:02,960
♪ The enemy could be
their friend, guardian ♪

451
00:27:03,044 --> 00:27:05,296
♪ I'm not a hooligan I
rock the party and ♪

452
00:27:05,379 --> 00:27:08,758
♪ The minute they see me,
fear me I'm the epitome ♪

453
00:27:08,841 --> 00:27:09,841
♪ A public enemy ♪

454
00:27:09,925 --> 00:27:13,219
♪ Used, abused without clues
I refuse to blow a fuse ♪

455
00:27:13,303 --> 00:27:14,596
♪ They even had it on the news ♪

456
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:16,581
♪ Don't believe the hype, don't ♪

457
00:27:16,582 --> 00:27:18,141
♪ Don't, don't, don't
believe the hype ♪

458
00:27:23,856 --> 00:27:26,942
The war on drugs had become
part of our popular culture,

459
00:27:27,025 --> 00:27:28,610
in television programs like Cops.

460
00:27:31,403 --> 00:27:34,949
When you cut on your local news
at night, you see black men

461
00:27:35,032 --> 00:27:37,536
being paraded across the
screen in handcuffs.

462
00:27:38,994 --> 00:27:41,997
Black people, black men and
black people in general,

463
00:27:42,081 --> 00:27:47,002
are overrepresented
in news as criminals.

464
00:27:47,086 --> 00:27:49,922
When I say overrepresented, that
means they are shown as criminals

465
00:27:50,005 --> 00:27:51,548
more times than is accurate,

466
00:27:51,631 --> 00:27:55,386
that they are actually criminals,
right, based on FBI statistics.

467
00:27:56,302 --> 00:28:00,014
I mean, I'm a big believer
in the power of media

468
00:28:00,098 --> 00:28:03,016
full of these clichés
that basically present

469
00:28:03,100 --> 00:28:06,061
mostly black and brown folks who
seem like animals in cages,

470
00:28:06,144 --> 00:28:09,314
and then someone can turn
off the TV thinking...

471
00:28:09,397 --> 00:28:10,733
"It's a good thing for prisons,

472
00:28:10,816 --> 00:28:12,054
because, otherwise, those crazy

473
00:28:12,055 --> 00:28:13,612
people would be
walking on my block."

474
00:28:13,695 --> 00:28:16,865
Creating a context where
people are afraid.

475
00:28:16,948 --> 00:28:18,783
And when you make people afraid,

476
00:28:18,867 --> 00:28:21,870
you can always justify putting
people in the garbage can.

477
00:28:21,953 --> 00:28:24,121
Chances are you could
run into a kid

478
00:28:24,204 --> 00:28:26,873
waiting to relieve you
of your purse or wallet.

479
00:28:26,956 --> 00:28:29,584
Every media outlet in the country
thinks I'm less than human.

480
00:28:29,667 --> 00:28:34,421
I began to hear the word "super
predator" as if that was my name.

481
00:28:34,505 --> 00:28:35,756
Super predator.

482
00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:38,217
- Super predator.
- "Super predators," end quote.

483
00:28:38,300 --> 00:28:41,387
That's the word they used to
describe this generation,

484
00:28:41,471 --> 00:28:43,764
and it was very, very effective.

485
00:28:43,848 --> 00:28:45,600
Experts call them super predators.

486
00:28:45,683 --> 00:28:48,270
They are not just gangs
of kids anymore.

487
00:28:48,353 --> 00:28:52,064
They are often the kinds of kids
that are called super predators.

488
00:28:52,148 --> 00:28:53,899
No conscience, no empathy.

489
00:28:53,982 --> 00:28:55,734
A group of kids growing up

490
00:28:55,817 --> 00:28:58,444
essentially fatherless,
godless and jobless.

491
00:28:58,528 --> 00:28:59,653
For me, what's disturbing

492
00:28:59,738 --> 00:29:01,989
is the degree to which black
people bought into that.

493
00:29:02,072 --> 00:29:05,410
Animals, beasts that
needed to be controlled.

494
00:29:06,203 --> 00:29:08,580
When those grandmothers
say, "But he's a good boy.

495
00:29:09,665 --> 00:29:12,458
He never did anything,"
don't you believe it.

496
00:29:12,542 --> 00:29:14,084
Black communities began

497
00:29:14,168 --> 00:29:17,673
to actually support policies that
criminalised their own children.

498
00:29:17,756 --> 00:29:20,467
Last night, the eight teens
accused of the attack

499
00:29:20,552 --> 00:29:23,385
were arraigned on charges of
rape and attempted murder.

500
00:29:23,469 --> 00:29:25,727
In the Central Park
jogger case, they

501
00:29:25,728 --> 00:29:27,806
put five innocent teens in prison,

502
00:29:27,889 --> 00:29:29,140
because the public pressure

503
00:29:29,224 --> 00:29:32,018
to lock up these quote, unquote
animals was so strong.

504
00:29:32,101 --> 00:29:34,688
You better believe
that I hate the people

505
00:29:34,771 --> 00:29:37,607
that took this girl and
raped her brutally.

506
00:29:37,690 --> 00:29:40,068
- You better believe it.
- Donald Trump wanted to give

507
00:29:40,151 --> 00:29:41,612
these kids the death penalty,

508
00:29:41,696 --> 00:29:44,574
and he took out a full page
ad to put the pressure on.

509
00:29:45,323 --> 00:29:48,284
These children, four
of them under 18,

510
00:29:48,367 --> 00:29:51,537
all went to adult prisons
for six to eleven years,

511
00:29:51,620 --> 00:29:55,290
before DNA evidence proved
they were all innocent.

512
00:29:55,373 --> 00:29:57,793
We make them their crime.
That's how we introduced them.

513
00:29:57,876 --> 00:29:59,337
"That's a rapist.
That's a murderer.

514
00:29:59,420 --> 00:30:01,463
That's a robber.
That's a sex offender.

515
00:30:01,547 --> 00:30:03,799
That's a burglar.
That's a gang leader."

516
00:30:03,882 --> 00:30:07,134
And through that lens, it
becomes so much easier

517
00:30:07,218 --> 00:30:10,096
to accept that they're guilty and
that they should go to prison.

518
00:30:11,639 --> 00:30:17,229
The objective reality is... that
virtually no one who is white

519
00:30:17,896 --> 00:30:22,692
understands the challenge
of being black in America.

520
00:30:23,192 --> 00:30:26,314
So you have then
educated a public,

521
00:30:26,315 --> 00:30:29,782
deliberately, over
years, over decades,

522
00:30:29,866 --> 00:30:33,090
to believe that black
men in particular,

523
00:30:33,091 --> 00:30:35,371
and black people in general,

524
00:30:35,454 --> 00:30:36,997
are criminals.

525
00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:38,249
I want to be clear,

526
00:30:38,332 --> 00:30:40,917
because I'm not just saying that
white people believe this, right?

527
00:30:41,001 --> 00:30:46,716
Black people also believe this and
are terrified of our own selves.

528
00:30:47,300 --> 00:30:50,093
You want to go back to the
days of military weakness,

529
00:30:50,176 --> 00:30:52,345
caring more about
criminals than victims?

530
00:30:52,428 --> 00:30:55,348
We can't risk that. I'd
like your vote on Tuesday.

531
00:30:55,431 --> 00:30:58,809
Leadership that's on your side.
Michael Dukakis for President.

532
00:30:58,893 --> 00:31:01,186
In the midst of the,
presidential campaign,

533
00:31:01,270 --> 00:31:06,191
an ad was released about a person
by the name of Willie Horton.

534
00:31:06,275 --> 00:31:08,986
Bush and Dukakis on crime.

535
00:31:09,069 --> 00:31:11,446
Dukakis not only opposes
the death penalty,

536
00:31:11,530 --> 00:31:13,181
he allowed first degree murderers

537
00:31:13,182 --> 00:31:15,033
to have weekend
passes from prison.

538
00:31:15,116 --> 00:31:16,409
One was Willie Horton.

539
00:31:16,492 --> 00:31:21,540
This became a focal point of an
entire presidential campaign.

540
00:31:21,624 --> 00:31:23,750
Horton fled, kidnapped
a young couple,

541
00:31:23,833 --> 00:31:26,460
stabbing the man and repeatedly
raping his girlfriend.

542
00:31:26,544 --> 00:31:30,088
Weekend prison passes.
Dukakis on crime.

543
00:31:30,172 --> 00:31:34,010
Dukakis had protected the program,
vetoed an effort to repeal it,

544
00:31:34,093 --> 00:31:37,220
in that he favoured letting
murderers out on the weekend.

545
00:31:37,304 --> 00:31:39,974
That Dukakis had a
double-digit lead over Bush

546
00:31:40,058 --> 00:31:43,687
before the campaign
focused on Willie Horton,

547
00:31:43,770 --> 00:31:47,313
and after that, Bush overtook
Dukakis and won the election.

548
00:31:47,396 --> 00:31:51,317
Which candidate for President can
you count on to be tough on crime?

549
00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:52,902
George Bush.

550
00:31:52,985 --> 00:31:57,783
Bush won the election by creating
fear around black men as criminal,

551
00:31:57,866 --> 00:32:00,327
without saying that's
what he was doing.

552
00:32:00,410 --> 00:32:03,579
A very racially...

553
00:32:03,663 --> 00:32:06,999
you know, divisive moment.

554
00:32:07,083 --> 00:32:09,711
Depicting an African American
criminal, I think, was deliberate

555
00:32:09,794 --> 00:32:11,544
on the part of that campaign.

556
00:32:11,627 --> 00:32:13,339
There's no one who can
tell me otherwise.

557
00:32:13,421 --> 00:32:15,322
Liberals call him
Willie Horton to make

558
00:32:15,323 --> 00:32:17,175
it sound like you're
being dismissive.

559
00:32:17,677 --> 00:32:19,527
Original article was Reader's

560
00:32:19,528 --> 00:32:21,888
Digest. William
Horton, no picture.

561
00:32:21,971 --> 00:32:23,932
The Democrats want you
to know he's black.

562
00:32:24,891 --> 00:32:26,058
Thanks, Grover.

563
00:32:28,393 --> 00:32:30,313
It was not his name,

564
00:32:30,396 --> 00:32:33,942
it was his image that
was sensationalised.

565
00:32:34,025 --> 00:32:35,803
Liberals that
announced that it was

566
00:32:35,804 --> 00:32:37,778
mean to pick on a
murderer and a rapist

567
00:32:37,862 --> 00:32:41,031
lose all credibility on this
discussion. They just lose it.

568
00:32:41,115 --> 00:32:42,199
And people go,

569
00:32:42,282 --> 00:32:44,868
"We don't want to hear anything
else you have to say about crime."

570
00:32:44,951 --> 00:32:47,371
No matter what anybody
says or what anybody does,

571
00:32:47,454 --> 00:32:52,458
they know exactly what button they
were trying to hit with that ad.

572
00:32:52,542 --> 00:32:54,794
Stabbing the man and
raping his girlfriend.

573
00:32:54,878 --> 00:33:01,092
It went to a kind of primitive
fear, a primitive American fear,

574
00:33:01,175 --> 00:33:03,244
because Willie Horton was

575
00:33:03,245 --> 00:33:06,390
metaphorically the
black male rapist

576
00:33:06,473 --> 00:33:09,350
that had been a staple
of the white imagination

577
00:33:09,433 --> 00:33:11,476
since the time just after slavery.

578
00:33:14,104 --> 00:33:17,482
Here was a black man
convicted of rape.

579
00:33:18,275 --> 00:33:20,528
"I will be the saviour
and protector

580
00:33:20,529 --> 00:33:22,112
of the white population."

581
00:33:22,195 --> 00:33:25,488
Never minding the
fact that the history

582
00:33:25,489 --> 00:33:28,534
of interracial rape
in this country,

583
00:33:28,618 --> 00:33:31,685
that that record
is far more marked

584
00:33:31,686 --> 00:33:34,582
by white rape against black women

585
00:33:34,666 --> 00:33:37,001
than of black men
against white women.

586
00:33:48,303 --> 00:33:49,388
Patsey.

587
00:33:53,558 --> 00:33:58,355
This idea that had such
great artistic utility

588
00:33:58,439 --> 00:34:00,857
in 1915 in Birth of a Nation

589
00:34:00,941 --> 00:34:03,443
still had a great deal
of political utility

590
00:34:03,526 --> 00:34:05,070
almost at the end of that century.

591
00:34:05,153 --> 00:34:08,489
The way that we appeal
to voters' sense

592
00:34:08,490 --> 00:34:11,325
of fear and anxiety in our nation

593
00:34:11,408 --> 00:34:13,578
runs through black bodies.

594
00:34:30,971 --> 00:34:33,097
♪ Yo, Lil' Kadeija
pops is locked ♪

595
00:34:33,180 --> 00:34:34,389
♪ He wanna pop the lock ♪

596
00:34:34,473 --> 00:34:36,557
♪ But prison ain't nothing
but a private stock ♪

597
00:34:36,641 --> 00:34:38,392
♪ She be dreaming about
his date of release ♪

598
00:34:38,476 --> 00:34:39,643
♪ She hate the police ♪

599
00:34:39,727 --> 00:34:41,937
♪ But loved by her grandma
who hugs and kisses her ♪

600
00:34:42,020 --> 00:34:44,439
♪ Her father's a political
prisoner free Fred ♪

601
00:34:44,522 --> 00:34:46,900
♪ Son of a panther that the
government shot dead ♪

602
00:34:46,984 --> 00:34:49,403
♪ Behind enemy lines my
niggas is cellmates ♪

603
00:34:49,487 --> 00:34:51,906
♪ Most of the youths never
escape the jail fates ♪

604
00:34:51,990 --> 00:34:54,658
♪ Super maximum camps will
advance they game plan ♪

605
00:34:54,742 --> 00:34:57,077
♪ To keep us in the hands
of the man locked up ♪

606
00:34:57,160 --> 00:35:00,456
A new generation of Democrats,
Bill Clinton and Al Gore.

607
00:35:00,540 --> 00:35:02,666
They don't think the way the
old Democratic party did.

608
00:35:02,749 --> 00:35:04,781
They've sent a strong
signal to criminals

609
00:35:04,782 --> 00:35:06,378
by supporting the death penalty.

610
00:35:06,461 --> 00:35:11,798
Looking at the way in which
Democrats were defeated in 1988,

611
00:35:11,883 --> 00:35:15,220
or they were defeated in 1984,
or they were defeated in 1980,

612
00:35:15,303 --> 00:35:17,721
there comes to be a sentiment
among the Democrats

613
00:35:17,804 --> 00:35:19,884
that they have to adopt a position

614
00:35:19,885 --> 00:35:22,269
that is much more,
kind of, centrist.

615
00:35:22,352 --> 00:35:24,104
It became virtually impossible

616
00:35:24,187 --> 00:35:27,773
for a politician to run
and appear soft on crime.

617
00:35:27,857 --> 00:35:30,567
I was not for the bill
that he was talking about

618
00:35:30,651 --> 00:35:32,778
because it was not tough
enough on the criminal.

619
00:35:32,862 --> 00:35:35,655
In an environment where
everybody's doing the same thing,

620
00:35:35,738 --> 00:35:37,656
everybody's competing
to be tough on crime,

621
00:35:37,739 --> 00:35:39,951
you quickly all end
up in the same space,

622
00:35:40,035 --> 00:35:41,297
so it doesn't become a political

623
00:35:41,298 --> 00:35:42,913
advantage unless you
do something more.

624
00:35:42,996 --> 00:35:45,248
We need more police on the street.

625
00:35:45,331 --> 00:35:47,834
There is a crime bill which would
put more police on the street,

626
00:35:47,917 --> 00:35:50,670
which was killed for this session
by a filibuster in the Senate,

627
00:35:50,753 --> 00:35:53,047
mostly by Republican senators.

628
00:35:53,130 --> 00:35:56,801
We'd consistently had, "Squishy,
soft liberal won't protect you.

629
00:35:56,885 --> 00:35:58,600
Tough, conservative
will protect you."

630
00:35:58,601 --> 00:36:00,096
And we won that fight every time.

631
00:36:00,180 --> 00:36:03,098
And by the late '80s, early
'90s, people like Bill Clinton

632
00:36:03,182 --> 00:36:06,143
had begun to figure out they
had to be able to match us.

633
00:36:06,226 --> 00:36:08,648
I will faithfully
execute the Office

634
00:36:08,649 --> 00:36:10,939
of President of the United States.

635
00:36:11,022 --> 00:36:14,193
Bill Clinton is
trying to figure out

636
00:36:14,276 --> 00:36:16,609
how he can deal with
a country that's

637
00:36:16,610 --> 00:36:18,696
still basically Reagan's country,

638
00:36:18,779 --> 00:36:21,407
but he's trying to
govern as a Democrat.

639
00:36:21,490 --> 00:36:23,616
Violent crime and the fear it

640
00:36:23,617 --> 00:36:26,329
provokes are crippling
our society.

641
00:36:26,412 --> 00:36:30,872
Then some high-profile, very
horrendous crimes take place.

642
00:36:30,958 --> 00:36:32,732
Residents pull together in the

643
00:36:32,733 --> 00:36:34,921
search for 12-year-old
Polly Klaas.

644
00:36:35,004 --> 00:36:36,607
They are now coping
with the discovery

645
00:36:36,608 --> 00:36:37,840
of her body over the weekend.

646
00:36:37,924 --> 00:36:40,944
Polly Klaas, abducted
from her bedroom

647
00:36:40,945 --> 00:36:43,344
at home and ultimately killed,

648
00:36:43,427 --> 00:36:47,057
which led to the California "three
strikes and you're out" law.

649
00:36:47,140 --> 00:36:49,309
When you commit a
third violent crime,

650
00:36:49,392 --> 00:36:52,187
you will be put away
and put away for good.

651
00:36:52,270 --> 00:36:54,772
Three strikes and you are out.

652
00:36:54,856 --> 00:36:56,899
A person's convicted
of their third felony,

653
00:36:56,984 --> 00:36:58,913
essentially that
person is mandated to

654
00:36:58,914 --> 00:37:00,693
prison for the rest
of their lives.

655
00:37:00,776 --> 00:37:03,571
So many third-strike
defendants awaiting trial,

656
00:37:03,654 --> 00:37:05,281
the Los Angeles
Sheriff's Department

657
00:37:05,366 --> 00:37:09,578
is forced to release 4,200
misdemeanour inmates every month

658
00:37:09,660 --> 00:37:12,788
to make room for incoming
three-strike prisoners.

659
00:37:12,872 --> 00:37:15,041
It's in line with many other
policies we've created,

660
00:37:15,125 --> 00:37:16,835
particularly mandatory minimums.

661
00:37:16,917 --> 00:37:20,671
"Mandatory sentencing." We said we
were no longer going to let judges

662
00:37:20,755 --> 00:37:23,050
consider the circumstances
around a crime.

663
00:37:23,134 --> 00:37:25,469
We're just going to impose
a mandatory sentence.

664
00:37:25,552 --> 00:37:27,053
And that's a difficult
thing for judges

665
00:37:27,137 --> 00:37:30,974
because they are trying to
dispense justice on a daily basis

666
00:37:31,057 --> 00:37:32,932
and are unable to do so.

667
00:37:33,017 --> 00:37:35,345
In many California
communities, all

668
00:37:35,346 --> 00:37:37,479
civil trials have been cancelled

669
00:37:37,562 --> 00:37:39,438
to catch up with the
criminal case workload.

670
00:37:39,522 --> 00:37:42,401
We've taken discretion
away from judges,

671
00:37:42,484 --> 00:37:44,611
arguably the most neutral
party in the court,

672
00:37:44,694 --> 00:37:47,114
and given it over to prosecutors.

673
00:37:47,197 --> 00:37:50,697
Ninety-five percent of
elected prosecutors

674
00:37:50,698 --> 00:37:53,953
throughout the United
States are white.

675
00:37:54,037 --> 00:37:58,167
Serious, violent criminals serve
at least 85% of their sentence.

676
00:37:58,249 --> 00:38:01,002
We passed Truth in Sentencing
that kept people imprisoned

677
00:38:01,085 --> 00:38:02,420
for 85% of their sentence.

678
00:38:02,503 --> 00:38:05,880
Truth in Sentencing. You're
sentenced to an amount of time.

679
00:38:05,963 --> 00:38:07,341
The public wants to be confident

680
00:38:07,425 --> 00:38:10,303
that you're gonna do just
about every bit of that time.

681
00:38:10,385 --> 00:38:12,221
We've done away with parole.

682
00:38:12,305 --> 00:38:14,941
So, in the federal
system, when you get 20

683
00:38:14,942 --> 00:38:17,393
years or 30 years,
that's what you got.

684
00:38:17,476 --> 00:38:19,145
We had parole in this country

685
00:38:19,228 --> 00:38:22,273
as a mechanism for getting
people out of jails and prisons

686
00:38:22,356 --> 00:38:23,750
when it was clear
that they were no

687
00:38:23,751 --> 00:38:25,066
longer a threat to public safety.

688
00:38:25,149 --> 00:38:27,044
Sharanda has spent
the last 16 years

689
00:38:27,045 --> 00:38:28,735
in prison, and she'll die there,

690
00:38:28,819 --> 00:38:31,113
because she was sentenced
to life without parole.

691
00:38:31,197 --> 00:38:33,200
Her only crime?
Transporting cocaine.

692
00:38:33,283 --> 00:38:36,119
And when I say "only
crime," I mean only crime.

693
00:38:36,203 --> 00:38:37,953
She had no other arrests. None.

694
00:38:38,037 --> 00:38:43,917
The judge was required... required
to send Sharanda away for life.

695
00:38:44,001 --> 00:38:47,045
Longer sentences, three
strikes and you're out,

696
00:38:47,545 --> 00:38:51,634
almost 60 new capital
punishment offences...

697
00:38:51,717 --> 00:38:53,802
And then comes the Congress

698
00:38:53,885 --> 00:38:59,557
with a proposal for a $30 billion
federal crime bill of 1994

699
00:38:59,640 --> 00:39:03,728
that was heavily loaded towards
law enforcement incarceration.

700
00:39:03,811 --> 00:39:07,148
I propose a 21st
century crime bill

701
00:39:07,231 --> 00:39:09,567
to deploy the latest
technologies and tactics

702
00:39:09,650 --> 00:39:12,403
to make our communities
even safer.

703
00:39:12,487 --> 00:39:14,489
That omnibus crime
bill was responsible

704
00:39:14,572 --> 00:39:17,992
for a massive expansion
of the prison system.

705
00:39:18,076 --> 00:39:20,560
And beyond that, it
provided all kinds

706
00:39:20,561 --> 00:39:22,661
of money and perverse incentives

707
00:39:22,745 --> 00:39:25,165
for law enforcement to
do a lot of the things

708
00:39:25,249 --> 00:39:27,376
that we nowadays
consider to be abusive.

709
00:39:27,459 --> 00:39:29,829
It will be used to
build prisons to keep

710
00:39:29,830 --> 00:39:32,256
100,000 violent criminals
off the street.

711
00:39:32,339 --> 00:39:35,924
Not only does he increase funding
to states to build prisons

712
00:39:36,008 --> 00:39:39,512
to lock up as many people
involved in drug crimes,

713
00:39:39,595 --> 00:39:43,015
but also to put 100,000 police
officers on the street.

714
00:39:43,099 --> 00:39:48,937
Crime has been a hot political
issue used too often to divide us.

715
00:39:49,021 --> 00:39:51,648
What President Clinton did in 1994

716
00:39:51,731 --> 00:39:55,526
is actually far more harmful
than his predecessors

717
00:39:55,610 --> 00:39:58,321
because he actually built that
infrastructure that we see today,

718
00:39:58,405 --> 00:40:01,324
the militarisation
all the way down

719
00:40:01,325 --> 00:40:04,161
to small, rural police departments

720
00:40:04,244 --> 00:40:06,288
that have SWAT teams.

721
00:40:06,371 --> 00:40:08,373
And again we see this
kind of notching up

722
00:40:08,456 --> 00:40:11,626
of the number of people who were
being arrested at every level

723
00:40:11,709 --> 00:40:15,922
and this kind of exploding
prison population.

724
00:40:17,882 --> 00:40:20,091
We are a nation that
professes freedom,

725
00:40:20,176 --> 00:40:22,664
yet we have this
mass incarceration,

726
00:40:22,665 --> 00:40:24,345
this hyperincarceration,

727
00:40:24,429 --> 00:40:28,225
that is trawling into
it, grinding into it,

728
00:40:28,309 --> 00:40:30,310
our most vulnerable citizenry,

729
00:40:30,393 --> 00:40:33,480
and is overwhelmingly biased
towards people of colour.

730
00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:47,285
But I want to say a
few words about it.

731
00:40:50,163 --> 00:40:53,331
Because I signed a bill that
made the problem worse.

732
00:40:53,832 --> 00:40:55,626
And I want to admit it.

733
00:40:55,709 --> 00:40:58,084
His 1994 crime bill,
something that

734
00:40:58,085 --> 00:41:00,129
he now admits was a mistake...

735
00:41:00,214 --> 00:41:02,006
There were longer sentences.

736
00:41:04,050 --> 00:41:08,347
And most of these people are
in prison under state law,

737
00:41:08,430 --> 00:41:11,433
but the federal law set a trend.

738
00:41:13,560 --> 00:41:15,854
And that was overdone. We
were wrong about that.

739
00:41:15,937 --> 00:41:21,107
Well, I think it's important that
President Clinton, acknowledges

740
00:41:21,191 --> 00:41:24,503
that things didn't
turn out exactly

741
00:41:24,504 --> 00:41:27,906
as he and all of us
would've wished.

742
00:41:27,990 --> 00:41:31,785
I'm happy that he realises
the error of his ways.

743
00:41:31,869 --> 00:41:33,343
I think he knew back then that it

744
00:41:33,344 --> 00:41:34,996
wasn't good policy,
I'll be honest.

745
00:41:35,079 --> 00:41:39,210
Back then, there was an outcry
over the rising crime rate.

746
00:41:39,293 --> 00:41:43,297
And people from all communities
were asking that action be taken.

747
00:41:43,381 --> 00:41:47,299
Now, my husband said at
the NAACP last summer

748
00:41:47,383 --> 00:41:51,137
that it solved some problems,
but it created other problems,

749
00:41:51,221 --> 00:41:52,304
and I agree.

750
00:41:52,388 --> 00:41:55,557
I'm glad to see that
he is apologetic,

751
00:41:55,641 --> 00:41:57,763
but I think he has to
take responsibility

752
00:41:57,764 --> 00:41:59,228
and accountability for that,

753
00:41:59,311 --> 00:42:00,522
and so does Hillary,

754
00:42:00,605 --> 00:42:03,650
because she supported it,
then and up until recently.

755
00:42:03,732 --> 00:42:06,149
Bill Clinton faced
off against a group

756
00:42:06,150 --> 00:42:08,194
of Black Lives Matter protestors

757
00:42:08,279 --> 00:42:10,781
protesting a 1994 crime bill

758
00:42:10,864 --> 00:42:14,449
that they say led to a surge in
the imprisonment of black people.

759
00:42:14,533 --> 00:42:17,286
I don't know how you
would characterise

760
00:42:17,370 --> 00:42:20,279
the gang leaders who
got 13-year-old

761
00:42:20,280 --> 00:42:22,166
kids hopped up on crack

762
00:42:22,250 --> 00:42:24,719
and sent 'em out
onto the street to

763
00:42:24,720 --> 00:42:27,463
murder other African
American children.

764
00:42:27,547 --> 00:42:31,090
Maybe you thought they were
good citizens. She didn't.

765
00:42:31,174 --> 00:42:32,803
She didn't.

766
00:42:32,885 --> 00:42:37,640
You are defending the people who
kill the lives you say matter.

767
00:42:37,722 --> 00:42:39,058
Tell the truth.

768
00:42:39,559 --> 00:42:42,060
We can't ignore the
reality of force here.

769
00:42:42,143 --> 00:42:45,313
The policies that Bill
Clinton put forward,

770
00:42:45,396 --> 00:42:47,940
you know, mandatory
minimums, three strikes...

771
00:42:48,023 --> 00:42:50,444
Those were a use of
political force.

772
00:42:50,527 --> 00:42:52,361
They forced millions of people,

773
00:42:52,445 --> 00:42:55,614
who would not otherwise be in
prison today, into prison.

774
00:42:55,698 --> 00:42:57,575
They forced families to be broken.

775
00:42:57,658 --> 00:43:00,035
They forced children to
live without their parents.

776
00:43:00,118 --> 00:43:01,161
That's what happened.

777
00:43:08,503 --> 00:43:09,586
Why?

778
00:43:11,630 --> 00:43:14,966
We shouldn't ask, "Why is
Bill Clinton so strong?"

779
00:43:15,049 --> 00:43:17,594
We should ask, "Why is the
black community so weak

780
00:43:17,677 --> 00:43:19,721
in our inability to
defend ourselves?"

781
00:43:19,804 --> 00:43:22,247
Let's not forget how
many martyrs we put

782
00:43:22,248 --> 00:43:24,392
in the ground in
the '60s and '70s.

783
00:43:24,476 --> 00:43:26,715
Let's not forget how
many of our leaders

784
00:43:26,716 --> 00:43:29,063
had to leave the country
or are in prison.

785
00:43:29,146 --> 00:43:33,234
You stripped out a whole
generation of leadership.

786
00:43:33,318 --> 00:43:36,028
You ran them out the country,
you put them in prison,

787
00:43:36,111 --> 00:43:38,739
you put them in... in cemeteries.

788
00:43:38,822 --> 00:43:41,281
And then you unleash
this blitzkrieg,

789
00:43:41,366 --> 00:43:43,952
and we don't have the ability
to defend ourselves.

790
00:43:44,035 --> 00:43:50,083
You can tell the story of
white leadership in America

791
00:43:50,166 --> 00:43:52,210
and never mention
the FBI one time.

792
00:43:52,294 --> 00:43:56,255
You can't tell the story of
black leadership, not one,

793
00:43:56,631 --> 00:43:59,760
without having to deal
with the full weight

794
00:43:59,843 --> 00:44:02,887
of the criminal justice system
weaponising its black dissent.

795
00:44:02,970 --> 00:44:06,682
I'm tired of living every day
under the threat of death.

796
00:44:06,767 --> 00:44:08,767
I have no martyr complex.

797
00:44:08,850 --> 00:44:12,603
I want to live as long as anybody
in this building tonight.

798
00:44:12,687 --> 00:44:17,151
Dr. King, people forget, was
not this beloved figure

799
00:44:17,234 --> 00:44:19,194
that everybody wants
to put on a pedestal.

800
00:44:19,278 --> 00:44:22,614
He was considered one of the
most dangerous people in America

801
00:44:22,697 --> 00:44:25,659
by the head of the Federal
Bureau of Investigations.

802
00:44:27,368 --> 00:44:29,828
Don't tell me that Dr.
King has no relevance

803
00:44:29,912 --> 00:44:31,206
to young brothers in the street.

804
00:44:31,289 --> 00:44:33,918
They dealing with little cops.
He was dealing with the top cop.

805
00:44:34,001 --> 00:44:36,960
We were brought here
against our will.

806
00:44:37,044 --> 00:44:40,130
We were not brought here
to be made citizens.

807
00:44:40,213 --> 00:44:45,678
We were not brought here to
enjoy the, constitutional gifts

808
00:44:45,761 --> 00:44:47,762
that they speak so
beautifully about.

809
00:44:47,845 --> 00:44:51,934
Malcolm's whole entourage was
infiltrated with police.

810
00:44:52,017 --> 00:44:53,769
He may have had as many police

811
00:44:53,851 --> 00:44:56,688
as he had regular folk in
his entourage, under cover.

812
00:44:56,771 --> 00:44:58,441
So afraid of black dissent.

813
00:44:58,524 --> 00:45:01,484
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover today
asserted that the Black Panthers

814
00:45:01,568 --> 00:45:03,945
represent the greatest
internal threat to the nation.

815
00:45:04,487 --> 00:45:05,987
J. Edgar Hoover said

816
00:45:06,071 --> 00:45:10,242
these Panthers represent
the greatest threat

817
00:45:10,326 --> 00:45:12,662
to American democracy at the time.

818
00:45:14,079 --> 00:45:17,040
The Panthers never were that big.

819
00:45:17,123 --> 00:45:19,960
I mean, no one in their right
mind could ever believe

820
00:45:20,043 --> 00:45:22,754
that the Black Panthers
were gonna bring down

821
00:45:22,838 --> 00:45:26,843
the greatest military force
in the history of the world.

822
00:45:26,926 --> 00:45:29,177
The whole movement
was criminalised

823
00:45:29,260 --> 00:45:32,431
and destroyed systematically
by the government.

824
00:45:32,515 --> 00:45:35,181
People haven't thought about what
it means to lose a Fred Hampton,

825
00:45:35,264 --> 00:45:38,769
who somehow was able to pull
together blacks and whites

826
00:45:38,853 --> 00:45:41,313
and Puerto Ricans and
Native Americans

827
00:45:41,396 --> 00:45:44,024
to fight for justice at 21.

828
00:45:44,108 --> 00:45:46,694
We're going to say it after
this and after I'm locked up

829
00:45:46,777 --> 00:45:48,278
and after everybody's locked up,

830
00:45:48,362 --> 00:45:51,991
that you can jail revolutionaries,
but you can't jail a revolution.

831
00:45:52,074 --> 00:45:53,534
He had to go.

832
00:45:53,618 --> 00:45:56,329
The head of the Black
Panthers in Illinois

833
00:45:56,330 --> 00:45:58,788
was killed today by
police in Chicago.

834
00:45:58,872 --> 00:46:01,834
Illinois Panther Chairman Fred
Hampton and another Panther leader

835
00:46:01,915 --> 00:46:04,292
from Peoria, Illinois,
were killed.

836
00:46:04,376 --> 00:46:07,171
This is where our chairman
had his brains blown out

837
00:46:07,254 --> 00:46:11,092
as he lay in his bed sleeping
at 4:30 in the morning.

838
00:46:11,175 --> 00:46:14,762
They literally went and
shot his whole house up,

839
00:46:14,845 --> 00:46:17,724
with his pregnant wife
next to him in the bed.

840
00:46:18,600 --> 00:46:23,062
So afraid of a leader
that could unite people.

841
00:46:23,146 --> 00:46:25,063
We know the history of folks

842
00:46:25,147 --> 00:46:28,025
who've done this kind of
standing up to these systems,

843
00:46:28,108 --> 00:46:30,735
and we know how the system has
murdered them, assassinated them,

844
00:46:30,818 --> 00:46:35,198
exiled them, excluded them, or
found ways to discredit them.

845
00:46:36,741 --> 00:46:38,140
Assata Shakur was one of the great

846
00:46:38,141 --> 00:46:39,744
leaders of the Black
Liberation Army.

847
00:46:39,827 --> 00:46:43,831
That, order given
by J. Edgar Hoover

848
00:46:43,915 --> 00:46:50,046
was essentially to destroy
any black, progressive...

849
00:46:51,380 --> 00:46:53,758
Third World movement
in this country.

850
00:46:53,841 --> 00:46:55,260
They put her in prison,

851
00:46:55,342 --> 00:46:58,470
and her allies said, "We're not
gonna leave her in prison."

852
00:46:58,554 --> 00:47:00,930
Her white allies said, "We're
not gonna leave her in prison."

853
00:47:01,013 --> 00:47:02,433
And pulled her out
of prison and got

854
00:47:02,434 --> 00:47:03,891
her to Cuba. She's
in Cuba right now.

855
00:47:03,974 --> 00:47:06,936
And within the next five years,

856
00:47:07,020 --> 00:47:12,650
something like, 300 prisons
are in the planning stages.

857
00:47:12,733 --> 00:47:14,110
This government has the intentions

858
00:47:14,194 --> 00:47:17,197
of throwing more and
more people in prison.

859
00:47:18,363 --> 00:47:21,158
Criminalisation of Assata Shakur,

860
00:47:21,241 --> 00:47:27,164
the use of the media to represent
her as a dangerous criminal.

861
00:47:27,247 --> 00:47:29,791
And of course, in my own case,

862
00:47:29,874 --> 00:47:35,296
where I was represented by the FBI
as being armed and dangerous.

863
00:47:35,379 --> 00:47:38,132
The FBI has put black
militant Angela Davis

864
00:47:38,216 --> 00:47:40,635
on its list of the Ten
Most Wanted Fugitives.

865
00:47:40,719 --> 00:47:44,639
Then with Angela Davis, the
power of the black intellect...

866
00:47:44,722 --> 00:47:46,641
One thing that we
have to talk about,

867
00:47:46,725 --> 00:47:49,894
coming to grips with, is this
whole question of crime.

868
00:47:49,978 --> 00:47:53,397
What does it mean to be a
criminal in this society?

869
00:47:53,481 --> 00:47:54,858
That had to be broken up.

870
00:47:54,941 --> 00:47:58,651
And in my case, Ronald Reagan
was the Governor of California,

871
00:47:58,735 --> 00:48:00,988
Richard Nixon was the
President of the US.

872
00:48:01,071 --> 00:48:05,659
The whole apparatus of the
state was set up against me,

873
00:48:05,743 --> 00:48:09,830
and they really meant to
send me to the death chamber

874
00:48:09,913 --> 00:48:11,580
in order to make a point.

875
00:48:11,664 --> 00:48:14,834
The actions of the FBI in
apprehending Angela Davis,

876
00:48:14,918 --> 00:48:18,505
a rather remarkable,
story again...

877
00:48:18,588 --> 00:48:21,258
The system tried to put
the sister on trial,

878
00:48:21,341 --> 00:48:24,094
and the sister said, "No,
we putting you on trial."

879
00:48:27,429 --> 00:48:29,849
Comes in, the big Afro, she
didn't go press her hair.

880
00:48:29,932 --> 00:48:31,725
She was facing major time.

881
00:48:31,808 --> 00:48:34,270
You know, most people, they'd
have got a nice little press.

882
00:48:34,353 --> 00:48:35,924
You know? They'd
have been in there

883
00:48:35,925 --> 00:48:37,189
with little white gloves on,

884
00:48:37,273 --> 00:48:39,108
praying to Jesus. She
came in like this.

885
00:48:40,025 --> 00:48:44,445
And she devastated the prosecution
and walked out of there free.

886
00:48:47,156 --> 00:48:49,242
But the question is
how do you get there?

887
00:48:49,325 --> 00:48:51,954
Do you get there by
confrontation, violence?

888
00:48:52,037 --> 00:48:53,747
Oh, was that the question
you were asking?

889
00:48:53,830 --> 00:48:54,997
Yeah.

890
00:48:55,080 --> 00:48:57,332
So, I grew up in
Birmingham, Alabama.

891
00:48:59,334 --> 00:49:04,213
After the four young girls who
were... who lived very...

892
00:49:04,297 --> 00:49:07,300
who lived... One of them
lived next door to me.

893
00:49:07,383 --> 00:49:10,470
I was very good friends with
the sister of another one.

894
00:49:10,554 --> 00:49:12,556
My sister was good friends
with all three of them.

895
00:49:12,639 --> 00:49:15,309
My mother taught one of them in
her class. And they went down.

896
00:49:15,392 --> 00:49:17,596
And what did they find?
They found limbs

897
00:49:17,597 --> 00:49:19,854
and heads just strewn
all over the place.

898
00:49:20,355 --> 00:49:23,066
I remember, from the
time I was very small,

899
00:49:23,149 --> 00:49:26,945
I remember the sounds of bombs
exploding across the street.

900
00:49:27,028 --> 00:49:28,486
Our house shaking.

901
00:49:28,570 --> 00:49:30,887
I remember my father
having to have

902
00:49:30,888 --> 00:49:33,076
guns at his disposal at all times

903
00:49:33,159 --> 00:49:36,526
because of the fact
that at any moment

904
00:49:36,527 --> 00:49:39,289
we might expect to be attacked.

905
00:49:39,372 --> 00:49:43,586
I mean, that's why, when someone
asks me about violence...

906
00:49:44,628 --> 00:49:47,173
I just... I just
find it incredible.

907
00:49:47,256 --> 00:49:50,591
Because what it means is that the
person who's asking that question

908
00:49:50,674 --> 00:49:54,345
has absolutely no idea what
black people have gone through,

909
00:49:54,428 --> 00:49:56,723
what black people have
experienced in this country

910
00:49:56,806 --> 00:49:59,201
since the time the
first black person was

911
00:49:59,202 --> 00:50:01,311
kidnapped from the
shores of Africa.

912
00:50:02,229 --> 00:50:04,897
And when you strip out a whole
generation of leadership,

913
00:50:04,981 --> 00:50:07,984
running folk out the country,
killing folk, framing folk,

914
00:50:08,067 --> 00:50:11,278
you will be vulnerable to
Bill Clinton or anybody else.

915
00:50:11,362 --> 00:50:13,322
They'll do to you what they will.

916
00:50:31,256 --> 00:50:35,802
♪ There's a man going around ♪

917
00:50:35,886 --> 00:50:40,556
♪ Taking names ♪

918
00:50:41,556 --> 00:50:46,812
♪ He has taken my father's name ♪

919
00:50:46,896 --> 00:50:53,360
♪ And it's left my heart in pain ♪

920
00:50:54,360 --> 00:50:58,823
♪ There's a man going around ♪

921
00:50:58,907 --> 00:51:02,660
♪ Taking names ♪

922
00:51:02,743 --> 00:51:06,289
♪ Going around ♪

923
00:51:07,165 --> 00:51:11,460
♪ Going around ♪

924
00:51:16,256 --> 00:51:18,049
An armed neighbourhood
watch leader

925
00:51:18,133 --> 00:51:21,428
saw Martin walking inside a
gated subdivision near Orlando.

926
00:51:21,511 --> 00:51:24,014
He thought the 17-year-old
looked suspicious.

927
00:51:24,639 --> 00:51:27,476
He's got his hand
in his waistband.

928
00:51:29,602 --> 00:51:31,146
And he's a black male.

929
00:51:33,440 --> 00:51:35,691
These assholes, they
always get away.

930
00:51:36,860 --> 00:51:39,362
- Are you following him?
- Yep.

931
00:51:39,446 --> 00:51:42,239
We don't need you to.

932
00:51:42,948 --> 00:51:44,992
Do you think he's yelling "help?"

933
00:51:45,326 --> 00:51:47,035
- Yes.
- All right, what is your...

934
00:51:49,330 --> 00:51:51,081
A deadly shooting in Sanford.

935
00:51:51,165 --> 00:51:53,876
Police have the gun,
they've got the shooter,

936
00:51:53,960 --> 00:51:55,626
but they have not arrested him.

937
00:51:56,504 --> 00:51:58,254
Zimmerman, armed with a gun,

938
00:51:58,338 --> 00:52:01,175
followed this quote,
unquote suspicious kid

939
00:52:01,258 --> 00:52:03,469
after the dispatcher
told him not to.

940
00:52:04,594 --> 00:52:06,679
They ended up on the
ground in a fight,

941
00:52:06,762 --> 00:52:09,933
and George Zimmerman shot
and killed Trayvon Martin.

942
00:52:12,227 --> 00:52:14,436
The police could not
arrest Zimmerman

943
00:52:14,519 --> 00:52:17,439
because of this Florida law
called Stand Your Ground,

944
00:52:17,523 --> 00:52:20,193
which says that you can kill
someone if you feel threatened.

945
00:52:20,610 --> 00:52:22,194
Even though it was Zimmerman

946
00:52:22,277 --> 00:52:25,530
who had pursued Martin throughout
the neighbourhood with a gun.

947
00:52:25,614 --> 00:52:31,202
Mr. Zimmerman felt that he,
in self-defence, needed to...

948
00:52:31,285 --> 00:52:32,662
to fire his weapon.

949
00:52:32,746 --> 00:52:34,957
Not only was he not arrested,

950
00:52:35,040 --> 00:52:38,210
but in court, Zimmerman
actually pleaded self-defence

951
00:52:38,293 --> 00:52:41,046
and got off under the
Stand Your Ground law.

952
00:52:41,130 --> 00:52:44,298
We, the jury, find George
Zimmerman not guilty.

953
00:52:45,258 --> 00:52:47,593
That Stand Your Ground law
that was passed in Florida

954
00:52:47,676 --> 00:52:50,428
played a huge role in the
Trayvon Martin tragedy

955
00:52:50,512 --> 00:52:53,849
and this really ignited the
movement that we see today.

956
00:52:55,643 --> 00:52:57,561
In the wake of Trayvon
Martin's death,

957
00:52:57,644 --> 00:53:00,355
Florida's Stand Your Ground
law came into the spotlight.

958
00:53:00,438 --> 00:53:02,455
How did this law not
only get in place

959
00:53:02,456 --> 00:53:04,317
in Florida, but
around the country?

960
00:53:04,401 --> 00:53:06,945
And all the fingers kept
pointing back to ALEC.

961
00:53:10,032 --> 00:53:12,866
ALEC sounds like the name of a
high school lacrosse player

962
00:53:12,950 --> 00:53:15,119
who just got baked and
wrecked his dad's Saab.

963
00:53:15,202 --> 00:53:19,206
But incredibly, it's
actually even worse.

964
00:53:19,291 --> 00:53:21,418
ALEC is a political
lobbying group.

965
00:53:21,419 --> 00:53:23,544
ALEC is a political
lobbying group.

966
00:53:23,627 --> 00:53:26,130
- They write laws...
- They write laws...

967
00:53:26,213 --> 00:53:29,633
- and give them to Republicans.
- And give them to Republicans.

968
00:53:29,716 --> 00:53:31,802
- Stand Your Ground...
- Stand Your Ground...

969
00:53:31,886 --> 00:53:34,513
- was written by ALEC.
- Was written by ALEC.

970
00:53:35,222 --> 00:53:37,016
ALEC is this private club,

971
00:53:37,099 --> 00:53:40,685
and its members are
politicians and corporations.

972
00:53:40,768 --> 00:53:42,102
But the real question is,

973
00:53:42,186 --> 00:53:44,427
should politicians
and corporations

974
00:53:44,428 --> 00:53:46,232
be in the same private club?

975
00:53:46,316 --> 00:53:48,276
Under the umbrella of ALEC

976
00:53:48,359 --> 00:53:50,405
corporate members, get to propose

977
00:53:50,406 --> 00:53:52,822
laws to their political
counterparts,

978
00:53:52,905 --> 00:53:54,740
most of whom are Republicans.

979
00:53:55,575 --> 00:53:59,078
So, through ALEC, corporations
have a huge say in our lawmaking.

980
00:53:59,161 --> 00:54:00,829
And at ALEC task force meetings,

981
00:54:00,912 --> 00:54:04,875
corporate lobbyists secretly
vote as equals with lawmakers

982
00:54:04,960 --> 00:54:07,170
on bills that those
lawmakers then introduce

983
00:54:07,253 --> 00:54:09,671
to become laws in our states.

984
00:54:09,754 --> 00:54:11,214
ALEC is everywhere.

985
00:54:11,297 --> 00:54:14,258
Roughly one in four state
legislators are members.

986
00:54:14,342 --> 00:54:17,220
And I'm proud to stand
with ALEC today.

987
00:54:17,303 --> 00:54:21,182
And it's not hard to see why. ALEC
makes their jobs troublingly easy.

988
00:54:21,265 --> 00:54:23,601
Here's their model
Electricity Freedom bill,

989
00:54:23,684 --> 00:54:26,520
which at one point says,
"Be it therefore enacted,

990
00:54:26,604 --> 00:54:28,791
that the State of "insert state"

991
00:54:28,792 --> 00:54:31,525
repeals the renewable
energy mandate."

992
00:54:31,609 --> 00:54:35,862
So, as long as you can remember
and spell the name of your state,

993
00:54:35,945 --> 00:54:37,864
you can introduce legislation.

994
00:54:37,947 --> 00:54:40,158
We've also seen ALEC
bills introduced

995
00:54:40,241 --> 00:54:43,703
where a lawmaker forgot to take
the ALEC letterhead off the bill.

996
00:54:43,953 --> 00:54:46,123
Without remembering to take
off the ALEC letterhead

997
00:54:46,206 --> 00:54:48,464
to try to distance the
real role of ALEC

998
00:54:48,465 --> 00:54:50,667
and ALEC corporations
from those bills.

999
00:54:50,751 --> 00:54:52,044
I'm just curious. Does it have...

1000
00:54:52,127 --> 00:54:55,006
Does the legislation have
some connection to ALEC?

1001
00:54:55,090 --> 00:54:57,160
Representative Atkins,
I'm not sure why

1002
00:54:57,161 --> 00:54:59,385
we're pursuing this
course of questioning.

1003
00:54:59,468 --> 00:55:01,887
This bill is my bill.
It's not ALEC's bill.

1004
00:55:01,970 --> 00:55:05,682
The reason I ask is because
earlier you passed out a handout

1005
00:55:05,766 --> 00:55:09,602
that says "Gottwalt" at the top,
and it says "Health Care Compact,"

1006
00:55:09,685 --> 00:55:12,564
and there's a logo right in
the middle of that page.

1007
00:55:12,648 --> 00:55:15,067
And I went to the ALEC website,

1008
00:55:15,151 --> 00:55:20,614
and there's exactly the same font,
the same size and the same logo.

1009
00:55:20,697 --> 00:55:22,657
I mean, literally, it's verbatim.

1010
00:55:22,740 --> 00:55:23,992
It's shocking to know

1011
00:55:24,075 --> 00:55:27,078
that ALEC has been around for
more than four decades now.

1012
00:55:27,746 --> 00:55:31,041
And it's even more startling
to see how it began.

1013
00:55:31,124 --> 00:55:33,375
ALEC has forged a
unique partnership

1014
00:55:33,458 --> 00:55:35,783
between state legislators
and leaders from

1015
00:55:35,784 --> 00:55:37,837
the corporate and
business community.

1016
00:55:37,920 --> 00:55:40,923
Corporations have influenced
laws for decades, through ALEC.

1017
00:55:41,007 --> 00:55:43,300
They want everybody to vote.

1018
00:55:43,842 --> 00:55:45,845
I don't want everybody to vote.

1019
00:55:45,929 --> 00:55:47,723
As a matter of fact,
our leverage in

1020
00:55:47,724 --> 00:55:49,516
the elections quite
candidly goes up

1021
00:55:49,599 --> 00:55:51,351
as the voting populace goes down.

1022
00:55:52,311 --> 00:55:55,438
Nearly every ALEC bill benefits
one of its corporate funders.

1023
00:55:57,856 --> 00:56:01,277
And the corporation Wal-Mart was
a long-standing member of ALEC

1024
00:56:01,360 --> 00:56:05,073
at the time that it adopted the
so-called Stand Your Ground law.

1025
00:56:05,156 --> 00:56:09,701
It's a law that created an
atmosphere where gun sales boomed.

1026
00:56:09,784 --> 00:56:13,121
Wal-Mart is the biggest seller
of long guns in the US,

1027
00:56:13,205 --> 00:56:16,291
has been the largest retailer
of bullets in the world.

1028
00:56:17,625 --> 00:56:19,795
So it's reasonable to think
that Wal-Mart benefited

1029
00:56:19,878 --> 00:56:22,297
from these Stand Your Ground
laws that ALEC pushed

1030
00:56:22,380 --> 00:56:24,491
that initially
prevented the arrest

1031
00:56:24,492 --> 00:56:26,427
of the killer of Trayvon Martin,

1032
00:56:26,509 --> 00:56:29,887
and was designed to prevent the
arrest, prosecution and conviction

1033
00:56:29,971 --> 00:56:31,633
of the killer of Trayvon
Martin, including

1034
00:56:31,634 --> 00:56:33,140
through changing the
jury instructions

1035
00:56:33,224 --> 00:56:34,850
to require that a jury be told

1036
00:56:34,933 --> 00:56:37,604
that someone like George Zimmerman
has a right to stand his ground,

1037
00:56:37,687 --> 00:56:39,045
but not that someone like Trayvon

1038
00:56:39,046 --> 00:56:40,690
Martin has a right
to stand his ground

1039
00:56:40,773 --> 00:56:42,409
against someone like George

1040
00:56:42,410 --> 00:56:44,651
Zimmerman with a
gun assailing him.

1041
00:56:50,241 --> 00:56:52,315
After the outcry over
Stand Your Ground

1042
00:56:52,316 --> 00:56:54,077
and the Trayvon Martin tragedy...

1043
00:56:54,161 --> 00:56:57,581
Wal-Mart stepped out of ALEC.
It left ALEC, abandoned ALEC.

1044
00:56:57,664 --> 00:57:00,124
But the Wal-Mart family
continues to fund ALEC.

1045
00:57:00,208 --> 00:57:03,377
Other corporations followed suit
and stepped away from ALEC,

1046
00:57:03,460 --> 00:57:06,756
but many corporations are
still members, including...

1047
00:57:06,839 --> 00:57:09,299
Koch Industries, State
Farm Insurance,

1048
00:57:09,383 --> 00:57:12,428
PhRMA, which is the lobbying group
for the pharmaceutical industry.

1049
00:57:12,512 --> 00:57:15,014
ALEC has been supported
by the tobacco industry

1050
00:57:15,097 --> 00:57:16,932
as well as AT&T and Verizon.

1051
00:57:17,016 --> 00:57:18,851
And for nearly two decades,

1052
00:57:18,935 --> 00:57:21,353
one corporation was Corrections
Corporation of America.

1053
00:57:21,937 --> 00:57:24,690
Every day, we serve
our communities.

1054
00:57:24,774 --> 00:57:26,483
From small towns to large cities,

1055
00:57:26,566 --> 00:57:29,652
at more than 60 locations
across our country.

1056
00:57:29,735 --> 00:57:32,405
As the nation's fifth largest
correctional system,

1057
00:57:32,488 --> 00:57:36,950
we build, own and manage secure
correctional facilities.

1058
00:57:37,034 --> 00:57:39,537
CCA was the first private
prison corporation in the US.

1059
00:57:39,620 --> 00:57:42,498
It started as a small company,
in Tennessee, in 1983.

1060
00:57:43,582 --> 00:57:45,794
These folks started making
contracts with states.

1061
00:57:45,877 --> 00:57:47,711
And they had to protect
their investments,

1062
00:57:47,795 --> 00:57:51,383
so the states were required
to keep these prisons filled

1063
00:57:51,466 --> 00:57:52,966
even if nobody was
committing a crime.

1064
00:57:53,551 --> 00:57:55,531
And in the late '80s
and early '90s,

1065
00:57:55,532 --> 00:57:57,137
this became a growth industry

1066
00:57:57,220 --> 00:58:00,473
unlike very few growth
industries in America's history.

1067
00:58:00,557 --> 00:58:05,353
It was absolutely a model
guaranteed to succeed.

1068
00:58:06,854 --> 00:58:09,271
And one of the ways we see that is

1069
00:58:09,272 --> 00:58:11,901
through the role
of CCA within ALEC

1070
00:58:11,984 --> 00:58:13,860
to advance a series of bills.

1071
00:58:13,944 --> 00:58:15,946
All the legislation
you could think of

1072
00:58:16,029 --> 00:58:19,783
that we fight so hard against,
"three strikes, you're out..."

1073
00:58:19,867 --> 00:58:22,119
Three strikes and you are out.

1074
00:58:22,204 --> 00:58:23,871
Mandatory minimum
sentencing laws...

1075
00:58:23,955 --> 00:58:26,456
serve at least 85%
of their sentence.

1076
00:58:26,540 --> 00:58:28,708
Were the ones they
were putting out there

1077
00:58:28,791 --> 00:58:32,754
like on a premiere
pre-fixed dinner menu,

1078
00:58:32,837 --> 00:58:37,384
a steady influx of bodies
to generate the profit

1079
00:58:37,468 --> 00:58:39,636
that would go to the shareholders.

1080
00:58:40,845 --> 00:58:44,391
Through ALEC, CCA became the
leader in private prisons.

1081
00:58:45,099 --> 00:58:47,423
It's a multibillion-dollar
business

1082
00:58:47,424 --> 00:58:49,812
today that gets rich
off punishment.

1083
00:58:49,894 --> 00:58:52,814
We are America's leader in
partnership corrections.

1084
00:58:52,897 --> 00:58:54,233
We are CCA.

1085
00:58:54,317 --> 00:58:55,775
And so, through ALEC,

1086
00:58:55,859 --> 00:58:59,447
CCA had a hand in shaping crime
policy across the country,

1087
00:58:59,530 --> 00:59:01,900
including, not just
prison privatisation,

1088
00:59:01,901 --> 00:59:04,326
but the rapid increase
in criminalisation.

1089
00:59:04,910 --> 00:59:09,080
I think this accusation, you know,
quite frankly, is just false.

1090
00:59:09,163 --> 00:59:14,794
That somehow ALEC was in favour
of imprisoning a bunch of people,

1091
00:59:14,878 --> 00:59:16,587
because of private prisons...

1092
00:59:16,670 --> 00:59:18,923
I think that's just,
unfortunately,

1093
00:59:18,924 --> 00:59:21,301
one of these tactics
they do on ALEC.

1094
00:59:21,385 --> 00:59:23,297
ALEC pushed forward a
number of policies

1095
00:59:23,298 --> 00:59:25,303
to increase the number
of people in prison

1096
00:59:25,387 --> 00:59:28,265
and to increase the sentences
of people who are in prison.

1097
00:59:28,348 --> 00:59:30,338
I'm trying to think
how you address it.

1098
00:59:30,339 --> 00:59:32,478
It's hard to address
something that's like

1099
00:59:32,561 --> 00:59:34,437
almost like folklore
at this point.

1100
00:59:34,522 --> 00:59:37,566
They are not doing anything
to really clean up that past

1101
00:59:37,650 --> 00:59:40,318
or to address the real
consequences for real people

1102
00:59:40,403 --> 00:59:42,069
of the extreme policies
they've pushed.

1103
00:59:42,153 --> 00:59:44,155
In fact, it doesn't talk
about its past history.

1104
00:59:44,239 --> 00:59:48,160
I mean, it's hard for
me to even understand,

1105
00:59:48,243 --> 00:59:50,619
what they're even talking
about. A lot of it.

1106
00:59:50,702 --> 00:59:53,955
CCA directly benefited, directly
profited from its investment

1107
00:59:54,039 --> 00:59:56,207
in ALEC, the American
Legislative Exchange Council.

1108
00:59:56,292 --> 00:59:57,859
And the American people, in many

1109
00:59:57,860 --> 00:59:59,670
ways, were harmed
by these policies

1110
00:59:59,753 --> 01:00:01,273
due to the mass incarceration of

1111
01:00:01,274 --> 01:00:03,172
people, particularly
people of colour.

1112
01:00:03,257 --> 01:00:05,729
Look, right now our position is

1113
01:00:05,730 --> 01:00:08,679
that we want less
people in prison.

1114
01:00:08,762 --> 01:00:10,484
I don't think that
helps the private

1115
01:00:10,485 --> 01:00:11,973
prison industry, quite frankly.

1116
01:00:12,057 --> 01:00:13,517
I think myself and the lawmakers,

1117
01:00:13,600 --> 01:00:15,358
we're just always
looking for better,

1118
01:00:15,359 --> 01:00:16,978
innovative ways to run government.

1119
01:00:17,062 --> 01:00:18,104
I think that's one thing

1120
01:00:18,187 --> 01:00:19,604
as conservatives,
who believe in the

1121
01:00:19,605 --> 01:00:20,982
free market and
limited government,

1122
01:00:21,065 --> 01:00:22,065
we pride ourselves on.

1123
01:00:22,067 --> 01:00:24,360
We're supposed to be the
party of innovation.

1124
01:00:25,194 --> 01:00:29,573
Another bill that ALEC
innovated was SB 1070.

1125
01:00:29,656 --> 01:00:32,451
CCA was on the ALEC task
force that pushed that law

1126
01:00:32,534 --> 01:00:34,911
that gave police the
right to stop anyone

1127
01:00:34,994 --> 01:00:36,955
they thought looked
like an immigrant.

1128
01:00:38,791 --> 01:00:41,126
This law filled immigration
detention facilities,

1129
01:00:41,210 --> 01:00:44,296
and it directly benefited
an ALEC member, CCA.

1130
01:00:46,256 --> 01:00:49,842
CCA could potentially reap huge
financial benefits from SB 1070,

1131
01:00:49,925 --> 01:00:54,388
since 1070 was designed to lock
up a lot more people in Arizona

1132
01:00:54,472 --> 01:00:56,724
on federal immigration
charges. Cha-Ching.

1133
01:00:56,807 --> 01:00:58,946
An influx of
undocumented immigrants,

1134
01:00:58,947 --> 01:01:00,354
many of them children...

1135
01:01:00,437 --> 01:01:04,607
In Arizona, Corrections
Corporation of America, or CCA,

1136
01:01:04,690 --> 01:01:07,860
holds the federal contract to
house detained immigrants.

1137
01:01:07,943 --> 01:01:12,030
It's worth more than $11
million every month.

1138
01:01:13,741 --> 01:01:16,534
Our, immigration
facilities are a disgrace.

1139
01:01:16,618 --> 01:01:21,205
There are families kept there,
in horrible conditions.

1140
01:01:22,164 --> 01:01:23,849
They're called "detention
facilities," but

1141
01:01:23,850 --> 01:01:25,377
they're really prisons
for immigrants.

1142
01:01:25,459 --> 01:01:28,045
Calling them "detention facility"
doesn't make them not a prison.

1143
01:01:28,128 --> 01:01:30,090
They're a prison. They just
have a different name.

1144
01:01:30,173 --> 01:01:32,635
We're having what some
people are saying

1145
01:01:32,636 --> 01:01:35,218
is a creation of a
"crimmigration" system.

1146
01:01:35,301 --> 01:01:38,848
That there's the merger of
our immigration enforcement

1147
01:01:38,931 --> 01:01:41,099
and our law enforcement system.

1148
01:01:41,182 --> 01:01:42,983
And so, that's some
of the same things

1149
01:01:42,984 --> 01:01:44,646
that were used in
the war on drugs,

1150
01:01:44,728 --> 01:01:46,938
are now migrating to
other populations.

1151
01:01:47,022 --> 01:01:49,594
You heard it, with
Donald Trump, not

1152
01:01:49,595 --> 01:01:51,818
about blacks but with Mexicans.

1153
01:01:51,902 --> 01:01:54,612
You know, "Oh, well, they're
rapists, murderers.

1154
01:01:54,695 --> 01:01:57,281
Oh, and by the way, some of
'em may be good people."

1155
01:01:58,741 --> 01:02:01,369
Oh, boy. You know, where do you
start on something like that?

1156
01:02:02,745 --> 01:02:07,041
In late 2010, CCA left ALEC
after a big NPR story came out

1157
01:02:07,124 --> 01:02:10,252
accusing ALEC of pushing SB 1070.

1158
01:02:10,586 --> 01:02:13,297
ALEC doesn't do anything
on immigration.

1159
01:02:13,380 --> 01:02:17,467
No. No which way. Not to the
right, not to the left. Nothing.

1160
01:02:17,551 --> 01:02:20,303
So, I don't really have anything
for you on that one. Sorry.

1161
01:02:20,387 --> 01:02:23,641
ALEC has recently made what I
would describe as a PR move

1162
01:02:23,723 --> 01:02:25,767
to say that it's gonna
be right on crime.

1163
01:02:25,851 --> 01:02:27,475
That it's gonna be
on the right side

1164
01:02:27,476 --> 01:02:29,187
of criminal justice
policy and reform.

1165
01:02:29,270 --> 01:02:32,043
That move comes in
the wake of its loss

1166
01:02:32,044 --> 01:02:34,608
of a massive number
of corporations.

1167
01:02:35,984 --> 01:02:38,312
What ultimately
happened is our board

1168
01:02:38,313 --> 01:02:40,824
looked at the issues
that ALEC worked on

1169
01:02:40,907 --> 01:02:43,324
and decided that we
don't do social issues,

1170
01:02:43,408 --> 01:02:45,494
we're focused on economic issues.

1171
01:02:45,578 --> 01:02:48,313
We jettisoned basically
almost all of

1172
01:02:48,314 --> 01:02:50,832
our legislation that was pre-2007.

1173
01:02:50,915 --> 01:02:53,835
So we basically... Fresh
slate going forward.

1174
01:02:53,918 --> 01:02:55,712
A fresh start going forward.

1175
01:02:56,296 --> 01:02:58,632
This industry knows
that it's dying...

1176
01:02:59,758 --> 01:03:03,761
and is actually preparing
for the next thing.

1177
01:03:03,845 --> 01:03:05,810
And the animating
factors that have

1178
01:03:05,811 --> 01:03:07,557
led to such a system like bail.

1179
01:03:07,640 --> 01:03:12,518
We're always gonna see new
permutations of a cancer. Right?

1180
01:03:12,602 --> 01:03:13,730
And that's what this is.

1181
01:03:13,813 --> 01:03:16,691
And over the last couple
years, since 2008,

1182
01:03:16,774 --> 01:03:20,777
we've been involved really in
a wholesale reform effort,

1183
01:03:20,861 --> 01:03:25,699
where 31 states have now adopted
positive changes on sentencing,

1184
01:03:25,782 --> 01:03:27,868
on parole and probation reforms.

1185
01:03:27,951 --> 01:03:29,977
ALEC has a concerted
effort to privatise

1186
01:03:29,978 --> 01:03:31,706
almost every aspect of government,

1187
01:03:31,788 --> 01:03:33,916
but we had no idea that
they were also aiming

1188
01:03:34,000 --> 01:03:36,501
to try to privatise
probation and parole.

1189
01:03:36,793 --> 01:03:40,212
ALEC is no longer concerned
about CCA and CCA's interest.

1190
01:03:40,295 --> 01:03:42,757
CCA no longer has a seat
at the table with ALEC,

1191
01:03:42,840 --> 01:03:45,885
so it doesn't have a financial
interest in advancing policies

1192
01:03:45,968 --> 01:03:48,303
that increase the profits of CCA.

1193
01:03:48,387 --> 01:03:50,848
But the American Bail Coalition
is still part of ALEC.

1194
01:03:50,931 --> 01:03:53,642
Today, our state penitentiaries

1195
01:03:53,725 --> 01:03:58,147
are filled to the brim and
overflowing with inmates.

1196
01:03:58,230 --> 01:04:01,024
When I think of systems
of oppression,

1197
01:04:01,107 --> 01:04:05,112
historically, in this country
and elsewhere, they're durable.

1198
01:04:05,195 --> 01:04:06,821
And they tend to
reinvent themselves,

1199
01:04:06,822 --> 01:04:08,446
and they do it right
under your nose.

1200
01:04:08,531 --> 01:04:11,199
One of the things they want
to do is GPS monitoring.

1201
01:04:11,283 --> 01:04:12,889
Having a home
confinement system for

1202
01:04:12,890 --> 01:04:14,495
juveniles, I think,
is a great thing

1203
01:04:14,578 --> 01:04:17,455
because it forces the parents to
take responsibility and step up.

1204
01:04:17,540 --> 01:04:20,958
Prisons would be more
embedded in our homes.

1205
01:04:21,043 --> 01:04:23,378
Some of them would be monitored
on GPS and things like that.

1206
01:04:23,461 --> 01:04:25,666
So folks won't be
locked up in a cage,

1207
01:04:25,667 --> 01:04:27,758
in a cell, inside
of an institution,

1208
01:04:27,841 --> 01:04:29,318
but they will have ankle bracelets

1209
01:04:29,319 --> 01:04:30,969
on. They'll have
wrist bracelets on.

1210
01:04:31,053 --> 01:04:34,097
Would that help to solve the
prison overcrowding problem?

1211
01:04:34,181 --> 01:04:35,347
Absolutely.

1212
01:04:35,431 --> 01:04:37,324
And what I worry about is that we

1213
01:04:37,325 --> 01:04:39,562
fall asleep at the
wheel and wake up,

1214
01:04:39,645 --> 01:04:42,438
and realise that we may not
have people in prisons

1215
01:04:42,522 --> 01:04:44,440
in rural communities
all over America,

1216
01:04:44,524 --> 01:04:47,317
but that we're incarcerating
people right in their communities.

1217
01:04:47,400 --> 01:04:50,988
That is what I see, what a
lot of the focus is on,

1218
01:04:51,072 --> 01:04:52,405
is taking people from prison,

1219
01:04:52,488 --> 01:04:54,825
putting them in community
corrections parole and probation,

1220
01:04:54,908 --> 01:04:57,411
and really investing
in those programs.

1221
01:04:57,494 --> 01:04:58,955
How much progress is it really,

1222
01:04:59,038 --> 01:05:01,570
if communities of
colour are still under

1223
01:05:01,571 --> 01:05:03,793
perpetual surveillance
and control,

1224
01:05:03,876 --> 01:05:08,797
but now there's a private company
making money off the GPS monitor,

1225
01:05:08,880 --> 01:05:11,757
rather than the person being
locked in a literal cage?

1226
01:05:11,841 --> 01:05:14,886
If we can help you...

1227
01:05:16,387 --> 01:05:19,598
save crime victims in your
legislative district...

1228
01:05:21,141 --> 01:05:23,060
you don't mind me making a dollar.

1229
01:05:24,353 --> 01:05:28,107
And so, ALEC continues
to be a body that,

1230
01:05:28,190 --> 01:05:30,317
while it may have some
really strong rhetoric

1231
01:05:30,400 --> 01:05:34,278
on why it supports crime
reform now, suddenly,

1232
01:05:34,362 --> 01:05:35,905
sort of out of the blue,

1233
01:05:35,989 --> 01:05:38,575
it actually has real
financial interests.

1234
01:05:38,658 --> 01:05:40,326
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

1235
01:05:41,911 --> 01:05:46,164
If you're in the prison business,
you don't want reform.

1236
01:05:46,248 --> 01:05:47,584
You may say you do, but you don't.

1237
01:05:47,668 --> 01:05:49,291
And there are a
bunch of people out

1238
01:05:49,292 --> 01:05:51,004
there desperately
trying to make sure

1239
01:05:51,087 --> 01:05:54,007
that that prison population
does not drop one person,

1240
01:05:54,090 --> 01:05:56,968
because their economic
model needs that.

1241
01:05:57,051 --> 01:06:00,010
Prison industrial
complex refers to

1242
01:06:00,011 --> 01:06:02,722
the system of mass incarceration

1243
01:06:02,805 --> 01:06:05,558
and companies that profit
from mass incarceration.

1244
01:06:05,643 --> 01:06:07,895
That includes both operators
of private prisons,

1245
01:06:07,978 --> 01:06:13,316
which get a lot of attention, as
well as a vast sea of vendors.

1246
01:06:13,400 --> 01:06:17,528
From SECURUS Technologies, that
supplies telephone services,

1247
01:06:17,612 --> 01:06:20,948
that made $114 million
in profits last year...

1248
01:06:21,032 --> 01:06:23,139
Those calls to family
and friends are

1249
01:06:23,140 --> 01:06:25,412
costing a pretty penny
in state prisons.

1250
01:06:25,495 --> 01:06:27,536
They inflate the price
that they charge

1251
01:06:27,537 --> 01:06:29,373
the inmate and the
inmate's family.

1252
01:06:29,456 --> 01:06:32,167
For example, in Maryland,
if you earn minimum wage,

1253
01:06:32,250 --> 01:06:34,161
you'd have to work
an hour and a half

1254
01:06:34,162 --> 01:06:35,921
to afford a ten minute phone call.

1255
01:06:39,298 --> 01:06:43,470
There's also Aramark, one of the
big food service providers.

1256
01:06:44,054 --> 01:06:46,140
In more than one state,
they have been accused

1257
01:06:46,222 --> 01:06:49,017
of having maggots in the
food that they've served.

1258
01:06:52,145 --> 01:06:54,516
Corizon Healthcare
provides healthcare

1259
01:06:54,517 --> 01:06:56,523
services in 28 different states.

1260
01:06:56,607 --> 01:06:58,985
Multimillion-dollar
contracts for this service.

1261
01:06:59,068 --> 01:07:02,229
Huge incentives given
to contractors

1262
01:07:02,230 --> 01:07:04,364
for very long contracts,

1263
01:07:04,448 --> 01:07:06,951
so it's actually a disincentive
to provide the service,

1264
01:07:07,034 --> 01:07:08,785
because you're going
to be paid anyway.

1265
01:07:15,584 --> 01:07:17,461
One of the reasons
it's so difficult

1266
01:07:17,544 --> 01:07:19,238
to talk about mass
incarceration in

1267
01:07:19,239 --> 01:07:20,838
this country, and to question it,

1268
01:07:20,922 --> 01:07:24,677
is because it has become
so heavily monetised.

1269
01:07:24,760 --> 01:07:26,803
A little company called UNICOR,

1270
01:07:26,886 --> 01:07:29,805
that does $900 million
in business annually.

1271
01:07:29,888 --> 01:07:31,599
How do they do it?

1272
01:07:31,683 --> 01:07:33,392
Volume.

1273
01:07:33,476 --> 01:07:35,560
Also, prison labour.

1274
01:07:35,644 --> 01:07:38,397
Partnerships between
correctional industries

1275
01:07:38,480 --> 01:07:39,649
and private business

1276
01:07:39,732 --> 01:07:41,504
are a rapidly growing segment of a

1277
01:07:41,505 --> 01:07:43,694
multibillion dollar
industry in America.

1278
01:07:43,777 --> 01:07:46,780
We talk about sweatshops and we,

1279
01:07:46,864 --> 01:07:49,329
you know, we beat
our fists at people

1280
01:07:49,330 --> 01:07:52,119
overseas for exploiting
poor, free labour,

1281
01:07:52,202 --> 01:07:53,717
but we don't look
that it's happening

1282
01:07:53,718 --> 01:07:54,913
right here at home every day.

1283
01:07:54,997 --> 01:07:56,662
You have corporations

1284
01:07:56,748 --> 01:07:59,665
who are now invested
in this free labour.

1285
01:07:59,751 --> 01:08:01,835
It's all over.

1286
01:08:01,918 --> 01:08:07,216
It's from sports, uniform,
hats, Microsoft, Boeing.

1287
01:08:07,299 --> 01:08:09,260
Federal inmates are making
the guidance systems

1288
01:08:09,343 --> 01:08:10,552
for the Patriot missile system.

1289
01:08:10,636 --> 01:08:12,889
JCPenney jeans are
made in Tennessee.

1290
01:08:12,972 --> 01:08:14,849
Victoria's Secret.

1291
01:08:15,349 --> 01:08:17,727
Anderson flooring wood
products are made in Georgia.

1292
01:08:17,810 --> 01:08:19,895
It's always been Idaho potatoes.

1293
01:08:19,978 --> 01:08:24,858
They're planted, grown, harvested,
packed and shipped by inmates.

1294
01:08:24,941 --> 01:08:28,485
Victoria's Secret and
JCPenney switched suppliers

1295
01:08:28,569 --> 01:08:30,946
once their ties came to light.

1296
01:08:31,238 --> 01:08:35,201
Simply put, corporations
are operating in prisons

1297
01:08:35,285 --> 01:08:37,161
and profiting from punishment.

1298
01:08:38,788 --> 01:08:42,375
Prison industries
have gotten so big

1299
01:08:42,458 --> 01:08:45,419
that it's very difficult now
to try and do away with them.

1300
01:08:45,502 --> 01:08:46,670
Too much money out there,

1301
01:08:46,754 --> 01:08:50,465
too many lawmakers that support
it because they're being lobbied.

1302
01:08:50,549 --> 01:08:53,384
So, the public's got to
stand up and take it back.

1303
01:08:53,467 --> 01:08:54,886
It'll never get
done if they don't.

1304
01:08:55,635 --> 01:08:58,139
♪ And I can see it's
all about cash ♪

1305
01:08:58,222 --> 01:09:01,017
♪ And they got the nerve
to Hunt down my ass ♪

1306
01:09:01,100 --> 01:09:02,811
♪ And treat me like a criminal ♪

1307
01:09:02,894 --> 01:09:05,563
♪ Yeah, it is what it is
and that's how it go ♪

1308
01:09:05,646 --> 01:09:08,107
♪ Get treated like a criminal
if crime is all you know ♪

1309
01:09:08,191 --> 01:09:10,777
♪ Get greeted like a nigga
if a nigga's all you show ♪

1310
01:09:10,860 --> 01:09:13,195
♪ A public enemy that's
in the eye of the scope ♪

1311
01:09:15,364 --> 01:09:16,825
The night of his arrest,

1312
01:09:16,908 --> 01:09:18,577
Kalief Browder was
walking home from a

1313
01:09:18,578 --> 01:09:20,161
party with his friends
in the Bronx,

1314
01:09:20,244 --> 01:09:21,869
when he was stopped by police.

1315
01:09:23,914 --> 01:09:29,210
Kalief was, charged with a
crime, a really petty crime,

1316
01:09:29,293 --> 01:09:31,421
that it turns out
he didn't commit.

1317
01:09:31,503 --> 01:09:33,799
Then they said, "We're gonna
take you to the precinct,

1318
01:09:33,881 --> 01:09:35,634
and most likely, we'll
let you go home."

1319
01:09:35,717 --> 01:09:38,303
But then, I never went home.

1320
01:09:38,386 --> 01:09:40,919
They told you that
you could post bail.

1321
01:09:40,920 --> 01:09:42,306
Yes, that's correct.

1322
01:09:42,389 --> 01:09:43,765
- $10,000.
- Yes.

1323
01:09:43,850 --> 01:09:46,393
- And, of course...
- I couldn't make that.

1324
01:09:46,477 --> 01:09:48,062
My family couldn't pay it.

1325
01:09:48,145 --> 01:09:51,481
There are thousands of people
in jails right this moment

1326
01:09:51,564 --> 01:09:53,900
that are sitting there
for no other reason

1327
01:09:53,984 --> 01:09:56,402
than because they're
too poor to get out.

1328
01:09:56,486 --> 01:09:58,696
We have a criminal justice
system that treats you better

1329
01:09:58,779 --> 01:10:01,491
if you're rich and guilty than
if you're poor and innocent.

1330
01:10:01,574 --> 01:10:04,077
Wealth, not culpability,
shapes outcomes.

1331
01:10:04,160 --> 01:10:05,619
I think what most
Americans think of,

1332
01:10:05,702 --> 01:10:07,196
because they've watched so many

1333
01:10:07,197 --> 01:10:09,124
courtroom dramas and
things like that,

1334
01:10:09,207 --> 01:10:10,772
they think that the
criminal justice

1335
01:10:10,773 --> 01:10:12,252
system is about judges and juries.

1336
01:10:12,335 --> 01:10:14,504
Well, that's really
stopped being the case.

1337
01:10:14,587 --> 01:10:20,091
This system simply cannot exist if
everyone decides to go to trial.

1338
01:10:20,174 --> 01:10:21,801
If everybody insisted on a trial,

1339
01:10:21,886 --> 01:10:23,345
the whole system would shut down.

1340
01:10:23,428 --> 01:10:25,722
What typically happens
is the prosecutor says,

1341
01:10:25,805 --> 01:10:28,600
"You know, you can make a deal
and we'll give you three years,

1342
01:10:28,683 --> 01:10:31,145
or you can go to trial
and we'll get you 30.

1343
01:10:31,228 --> 01:10:33,187
So, you want to take
that chance, feel free."

1344
01:10:33,730 --> 01:10:35,773
Nobody in the hood goes to trial.

1345
01:10:35,857 --> 01:10:39,193
97% of those people
who were locked up

1346
01:10:39,278 --> 01:10:40,487
have plea bargain.

1347
01:10:41,655 --> 01:10:46,868
And that is one of the worst
violations of human rights

1348
01:10:46,951 --> 01:10:49,244
that you can imagine
in the United States.

1349
01:10:49,327 --> 01:10:51,497
We have, in this country,
people pleading guilty

1350
01:10:51,580 --> 01:10:52,998
to crimes they didn't commit,

1351
01:10:53,081 --> 01:10:54,921
just because the
thought of going to

1352
01:10:54,922 --> 01:10:56,960
jail for what the
mandatory minimums are

1353
01:10:57,044 --> 01:10:58,337
is so excruciating.

1354
01:10:58,880 --> 01:11:01,798
Kalief Browder decided, "I'm
not gonna take the plea."

1355
01:11:01,882 --> 01:11:04,007
So, you had to
choose between being

1356
01:11:04,008 --> 01:11:05,718
in prison for up to 15 years

1357
01:11:05,802 --> 01:11:07,498
and going home right
then by admitting

1358
01:11:07,499 --> 01:11:08,846
you did a crime you didn't do.

1359
01:11:08,931 --> 01:11:10,140
I felt like I was done wrong.

1360
01:11:10,223 --> 01:11:11,933
I felt like something
needed to be done.

1361
01:11:11,934 --> 01:11:13,601
I felt like something
needs to be said.

1362
01:11:13,684 --> 01:11:15,392
If I just cop out
and say that I did

1363
01:11:15,393 --> 01:11:17,146
it, nothing's gonna
be done about it.

1364
01:11:17,229 --> 01:11:19,190
I didn't do it. No
justice is served.

1365
01:11:19,273 --> 01:11:21,574
What you're not taught is that if

1366
01:11:21,575 --> 01:11:24,153
you exercise that
right to a trial,

1367
01:11:24,236 --> 01:11:27,406
and you are convicted,
we will punish you more.

1368
01:11:27,489 --> 01:11:29,741
The courts basically punished him

1369
01:11:29,825 --> 01:11:33,370
for having the audacity
to not take a plea deal

1370
01:11:33,454 --> 01:11:34,997
and to want to take it to trial.

1371
01:11:35,080 --> 01:11:36,373
In that time, those three years

1372
01:11:36,457 --> 01:11:39,501
that he was sitting there and
not being charged for anything,

1373
01:11:39,585 --> 01:11:43,254
that's when, the mental health
issue started to deteriorate

1374
01:11:43,338 --> 01:11:45,214
and he started to get into fights.

1375
01:11:48,175 --> 01:11:50,345
After a while, I kept
hearing the same thing

1376
01:11:50,428 --> 01:11:52,013
from the whole three years,

1377
01:11:52,097 --> 01:11:55,557
and I just learned to cope
with just being in there,

1378
01:11:55,640 --> 01:11:58,310
and that was rough.
I already knew...

1379
01:11:59,062 --> 01:12:01,188
After a while, I
just gave up hope.

1380
01:12:08,613 --> 01:12:12,532
Three years on Rikers Island, two
of that in solitary confinement,

1381
01:12:12,616 --> 01:12:14,367
and he was a child, a baby.

1382
01:12:14,450 --> 01:12:16,535
You miss everything.
Everything about being home.

1383
01:12:16,619 --> 01:12:18,767
The fresh air, your
family, certain

1384
01:12:18,768 --> 01:12:20,498
events. You want to be home.

1385
01:12:20,581 --> 01:12:23,042
When they give you an offer to
go home right then and there,

1386
01:12:23,126 --> 01:12:24,517
it's like, "I want
to go home," but

1387
01:12:24,518 --> 01:12:25,754
then you know you didn't do it,

1388
01:12:25,837 --> 01:12:27,171
so you don't wanna plea,

1389
01:12:27,255 --> 01:12:29,465
take the plea and say that
you do it, it's not right.

1390
01:12:35,388 --> 01:12:37,225
I was scared all day
because I didn't

1391
01:12:37,226 --> 01:12:38,723
know where it would come from.

1392
01:12:38,806 --> 01:12:41,269
I don't know where
any harm would come.

1393
01:12:41,352 --> 01:12:43,312
Kalief suffered through
so many beatings,

1394
01:12:43,396 --> 01:12:46,439
both by the people he was
locked up with and the guards,

1395
01:12:46,523 --> 01:12:49,776
he ended up attempting suicide
on several occasions.

1396
01:12:51,318 --> 01:12:54,446
After almost three years in
jail, waiting his trial,

1397
01:12:54,530 --> 01:12:57,283
they dropped all the charges,
and he was set free.

1398
01:13:00,452 --> 01:13:03,205
He spent two years in
an environment that

1399
01:13:03,289 --> 01:13:06,125
people have argued is designed
to break you within 30 days.

1400
01:13:06,667 --> 01:13:09,795
I mean, I can't really tell
you what's next, but...

1401
01:13:11,671 --> 01:13:13,381
This happens every day.

1402
01:13:14,715 --> 01:13:16,885
Two years after his
release from jail,

1403
01:13:16,968 --> 01:13:20,930
Kalief Browder hanged himself
at his home in the Bronx.

1404
01:13:26,394 --> 01:13:28,479
He was 22 years old.

1405
01:13:43,202 --> 01:13:45,300
If I would've just
plead guilty, then

1406
01:13:45,301 --> 01:13:47,288
my story would've
never been heard.

1407
01:13:47,371 --> 01:13:49,623
Nobody would've took the
time to listen to me.

1408
01:13:49,707 --> 01:13:52,461
I'd have been just
another criminal.

1409
01:13:54,879 --> 01:13:57,966
Prison industrial complex,
the system, the industry,

1410
01:13:58,050 --> 01:14:01,136
it is a beast.

1411
01:14:01,219 --> 01:14:05,056
It eats black and Latino people

1412
01:14:05,139 --> 01:14:07,641
for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

1413
01:14:09,893 --> 01:14:12,646
We didn't even think
about who gets the jobs

1414
01:14:12,730 --> 01:14:14,439
of spending time with these folks.

1415
01:14:15,691 --> 01:14:18,069
Otherwise, we'd want social
workers and teachers.

1416
01:14:18,152 --> 01:14:21,821
We'd want people with
understanding of human behaviour.

1417
01:14:23,948 --> 01:14:25,493
And we do the opposite.

1418
01:14:34,667 --> 01:14:36,210
You become numb.

1419
01:14:36,293 --> 01:14:39,255
I think that's what
jail does to humans.

1420
01:14:39,338 --> 01:14:42,674
That immediate dehumanisation
and sensory deprivation

1421
01:14:42,758 --> 01:14:45,886
that nobody can really understand
unless they live through it.

1422
01:14:48,597 --> 01:14:52,725
So the last 14 years, my son
has not had any human contact,

1423
01:14:52,808 --> 01:14:56,146
other than to be
handcuffed by an officer.

1424
01:14:56,229 --> 01:14:58,439
He doesn't even have a
window in his cell,

1425
01:14:58,523 --> 01:15:00,942
and that's one thing
that really disturbs me.

1426
01:15:01,026 --> 01:15:02,152
It troubles me.

1427
01:15:04,445 --> 01:15:05,738
I just couldn't believe it.

1428
01:15:05,821 --> 01:15:07,697
I couldn't believe

1429
01:15:07,781 --> 01:15:09,617
that we would even have such an

1430
01:15:09,618 --> 01:15:11,868
architectural design
in our country.

1431
01:15:11,951 --> 01:15:14,829
I never realised that there was
prison cells built like that.

1432
01:15:14,913 --> 01:15:19,584
Human beings are not born to
be locked up and encaged.

1433
01:15:19,668 --> 01:15:23,173
Most people wouldn't keep their
pets in the kind of conditions

1434
01:15:23,256 --> 01:15:24,756
that we keep people in.

1435
01:15:24,839 --> 01:15:28,218
Prisons and jails have become
warehouses, in the sense that,

1436
01:15:28,302 --> 01:15:30,304
where we've moved as
a society is that

1437
01:15:30,387 --> 01:15:34,348
it's not enough to just
deprive you of your liberty.

1438
01:15:34,432 --> 01:15:36,975
But we want to punish you, too.

1439
01:15:37,059 --> 01:15:40,313
Most of the society,

1440
01:15:40,396 --> 01:15:43,982
don't understand what it means
to be behind those big gates

1441
01:15:44,066 --> 01:15:45,359
and those barb wires.

1442
01:15:48,986 --> 01:15:52,241
Once somebody is arrested and
convicted, they're gone.

1443
01:15:52,324 --> 01:15:54,410
Nobody particularly
cares about them.

1444
01:15:55,328 --> 01:15:58,539
In many ways, the prison systems
are sort of in the dark.

1445
01:15:58,622 --> 01:16:02,083
So it makes it a lot easier, you
know, cognitively and emotionally.

1446
01:16:02,167 --> 01:16:04,544
It makes it a lot easier to
say, "Send people there."

1447
01:16:06,170 --> 01:16:08,965
If you look at the whole problem,
you say, "What are we doing?"

1448
01:16:09,048 --> 01:16:10,562
We have too many laws locking too

1449
01:16:10,563 --> 01:16:12,260
many people up for
too many things,

1450
01:16:12,344 --> 01:16:16,055
giving them sentences that are too
harsh, putting them in prison,

1451
01:16:16,139 --> 01:16:17,347
and while they're in prison,

1452
01:16:17,431 --> 01:16:19,933
doing very little, if anything,
to rehabilitate them

1453
01:16:20,016 --> 01:16:22,603
so that they can re-enter civil
society when they get out.

1454
01:16:22,686 --> 01:16:25,106
And then when they get
out, we shun them.

1455
01:16:25,190 --> 01:16:28,610
Over 40,000 collateral
consequences

1456
01:16:28,693 --> 01:16:31,320
for people that come through
our criminal justice system.

1457
01:16:31,403 --> 01:16:33,822
It's that question, "Have you
been convicted of a felony?"

1458
01:16:33,905 --> 01:16:35,990
that appears on the
job application.

1459
01:16:36,073 --> 01:16:38,743
In some cases, it can affect
your access to student loans.

1460
01:16:38,826 --> 01:16:40,499
They can't get many
business licenses,

1461
01:16:40,500 --> 01:16:41,828
food stamps if they're hungry.

1462
01:16:41,911 --> 01:16:43,957
Private rentals in
regards to housing.

1463
01:16:44,039 --> 01:16:47,210
It's that question that
appears on life insurance.

1464
01:16:47,293 --> 01:16:49,382
The scarlet letter
follows you for the

1465
01:16:49,383 --> 01:16:51,256
rest of your life in this country.

1466
01:16:52,340 --> 01:16:53,758
In March of 2015,

1467
01:16:53,840 --> 01:16:56,718
we had tens of thousands
of people come to Selma

1468
01:16:56,801 --> 01:16:58,263
to celebrate the 50th anniversary

1469
01:16:58,346 --> 01:17:00,515
of the crossing of the
Edmund Pettus Bridge.

1470
01:17:00,598 --> 01:17:02,682
And very few of those
people realised

1471
01:17:02,766 --> 01:17:06,353
that nearly 30% of the black
male population of Alabama today

1472
01:17:06,436 --> 01:17:08,549
has permanently lost
the right to vote

1473
01:17:08,550 --> 01:17:10,607
as a result of a
criminal conviction.

1474
01:17:12,359 --> 01:17:15,237
If you do something wrong,
you should pay it back,

1475
01:17:15,320 --> 01:17:16,946
and then move forward
with your life.

1476
01:17:17,030 --> 01:17:20,409
But yet, in America, there's
absolutely zero closure.

1477
01:17:20,492 --> 01:17:23,297
We actually tell
American citizens, when

1478
01:17:23,298 --> 01:17:25,829
they pay back their
debt to society,

1479
01:17:25,913 --> 01:17:28,623
their citizenship will
still be denied from them.

1480
01:17:28,706 --> 01:17:32,960
So many aspects of the old Jim
Crow are suddenly legal again

1481
01:17:33,044 --> 01:17:36,006
once you've been branded a felon.

1482
01:17:36,089 --> 01:17:38,383
And so it seems
that in America, we

1483
01:17:38,384 --> 01:17:40,677
haven't so much
ended racial caste,

1484
01:17:40,760 --> 01:17:42,637
but simply redesigned it.

1485
01:17:43,596 --> 01:17:45,222
♪ You act like the change ♪

1486
01:17:45,307 --> 01:17:47,099
♪ Tryna put me in chains ♪

1487
01:17:47,183 --> 01:17:48,851
♪ Don't act like you saving us ♪

1488
01:17:48,935 --> 01:17:50,352
♪ It's still the same ♪

1489
01:17:50,436 --> 01:17:54,358
♪ Man don't act like I made
it up you blaming us ♪

1490
01:17:54,442 --> 01:17:57,776
♪ Let's keep it one hundred
you gave the name to us ♪

1491
01:17:57,859 --> 01:18:01,363
♪ We still in chains
we still in chains ♪

1492
01:18:01,447 --> 01:18:03,073
♪ You put the shame on us ♪

1493
01:18:03,156 --> 01:18:04,532
We are now in an era

1494
01:18:04,615 --> 01:18:07,702
where Democrats and Republicans
alike have decided

1495
01:18:07,785 --> 01:18:10,726
that it's not in their
interest anymore

1496
01:18:10,727 --> 01:18:13,667
to maintain the prison
system as it is.

1497
01:18:13,750 --> 01:18:14,835
Now, all of a sudden,

1498
01:18:14,918 --> 01:18:17,504
Hillary Clinton is meeting with
Black Lives Matter activists,

1499
01:18:17,588 --> 01:18:18,589
and talking about it.

1500
01:18:18,672 --> 01:18:21,950
It's time to change
our approach and

1501
01:18:21,951 --> 01:18:25,051
end the era of mass incarceration.

1502
01:18:25,134 --> 01:18:26,929
She's made a major address on it.

1503
01:18:27,012 --> 01:18:32,142
We will reform our criminal
justice system from end to end

1504
01:18:32,226 --> 01:18:35,777
and rebuild trust
between law enforcement

1505
01:18:35,778 --> 01:18:38,482
and the communities they serve.

1506
01:18:38,565 --> 01:18:40,233
President Obama going
to prison, you

1507
01:18:40,234 --> 01:18:41,901
know, as the first
sitting President

1508
01:18:41,985 --> 01:18:43,194
to ever visit a prison.

1509
01:18:43,277 --> 01:18:45,947
We've got an opportunity to make
a difference at a time when

1510
01:18:46,030 --> 01:18:48,867
overall violent crime
rates have been dropping

1511
01:18:48,950 --> 01:18:50,910
at the same time as
incarcerations last year

1512
01:18:50,994 --> 01:18:53,037
dropped for the first
time in 40 years.

1513
01:18:53,121 --> 01:18:55,367
And conservatives,
who were always seen

1514
01:18:55,368 --> 01:18:57,333
or understood within the narrative

1515
01:18:57,416 --> 01:19:00,836
as being the tough-on-crime ones,

1516
01:19:00,919 --> 01:19:03,839
have now embraced justice reform.

1517
01:19:03,922 --> 01:19:06,174
It's very, man bites dog.

1518
01:19:06,258 --> 01:19:08,761
You see, Texas used
to spend billions

1519
01:19:08,762 --> 01:19:11,263
locking people up
for minor offences.

1520
01:19:11,847 --> 01:19:14,932
We shifted our focus to
diversionary programs,

1521
01:19:15,016 --> 01:19:16,769
like community supervision.

1522
01:19:16,852 --> 01:19:18,103
We got to ask ourselves,

1523
01:19:18,186 --> 01:19:20,194
"Do we feel comfortable
with people

1524
01:19:20,195 --> 01:19:22,147
taking the lead of a conversation,

1525
01:19:22,231 --> 01:19:24,608
in a moment where it feels
right politically?"

1526
01:19:24,691 --> 01:19:31,198
Historically, when one looks
at efforts to create reforms,

1527
01:19:31,282 --> 01:19:36,538
they inevitably lead
to more repression.

1528
01:19:36,620 --> 01:19:38,623
So, if we leave it up to
them, what they're gonna do

1529
01:19:38,706 --> 01:19:40,375
is they're gonna tinker
with the system.

1530
01:19:40,458 --> 01:19:42,626
They're not gonna do the
change that we need to see

1531
01:19:42,709 --> 01:19:44,628
as a country to get
us out of this mess.

1532
01:19:44,711 --> 01:19:46,880
And they're certainly
not gonna go backwards

1533
01:19:46,963 --> 01:19:48,549
and fix the mess
that they have made,

1534
01:19:48,632 --> 01:19:50,591
because they're not ready
to make that admission.

1535
01:19:50,675 --> 01:19:52,615
But as a country, I
don't think we've

1536
01:19:52,616 --> 01:19:54,554
ever been ready to
make the admission

1537
01:19:54,637 --> 01:19:57,683
that we have steam-rolled
through entire communities

1538
01:19:57,766 --> 01:19:59,559
and multiple generations

1539
01:19:59,642 --> 01:20:02,144
when you think about things
like slavery and Jim Crow,

1540
01:20:02,228 --> 01:20:04,271
and all the other
systems of oppression

1541
01:20:04,272 --> 01:20:06,314
that have led us to
where we are today.

1542
01:20:07,608 --> 01:20:09,820
So much fun. I love it, I love it.

1543
01:20:09,903 --> 01:20:12,154
We having a good time?

1544
01:20:12,237 --> 01:20:14,073
USA. USA.

1545
01:20:14,156 --> 01:20:18,242
USA. USA. USA. USA.

1546
01:20:18,327 --> 01:20:20,619
USA. USA. USA. USA.

1547
01:20:20,703 --> 01:20:23,622
- Fuck you. Fuck you.
- Fuck you. Fuck you.

1548
01:20:23,705 --> 01:20:26,584
Don't you dare do that.
Don't you dare do that.

1549
01:20:26,668 --> 01:20:29,337
Knock the crap out of 'em,
would you? Seriously.

1550
01:20:29,421 --> 01:20:32,048
Get him out. Get him out of here.

1551
01:20:36,886 --> 01:20:39,180
In the good old days,
this doesn't happen,

1552
01:20:39,263 --> 01:20:42,390
because they used to treat
them very, very rough.

1553
01:20:42,475 --> 01:20:44,685
And when they protested once,

1554
01:20:44,768 --> 01:20:46,896
you know, they would not
do it again so easily.

1555
01:20:46,980 --> 01:20:50,440
I'd like to punch him in
the face, I'll tell you.

1556
01:20:55,111 --> 01:20:56,571
I love the old days.

1557
01:20:56,654 --> 01:20:58,237
You know what they used to do to

1558
01:20:58,238 --> 01:21:00,116
guys like that in a
place like this?

1559
01:21:01,201 --> 01:21:04,079
They'd be carried out
on a stretcher, folks.

1560
01:21:06,289 --> 01:21:07,582
Yeah, it's true.

1561
01:21:07,665 --> 01:21:09,041
Knock the hell out of that mouth.

1562
01:21:09,125 --> 01:21:11,627
The next time we see him,
we might have to kill him.

1563
01:21:12,629 --> 01:21:14,797
In the good old days,

1564
01:21:14,881 --> 01:21:18,050
they'd rip him out of
that seat so fast...

1565
01:21:21,595 --> 01:21:23,764
- Shut up. Shut the hell up.
- No, fuck no.

1566
01:21:23,847 --> 01:21:25,181
No, I will not shut the hell up.

1567
01:21:25,265 --> 01:21:26,558
Why are you even here?

1568
01:21:27,225 --> 01:21:28,809
Get the fuck out of here, man.

1569
01:21:29,185 --> 01:21:30,479
Get out of here.

1570
01:21:32,272 --> 01:21:34,857
- Be respectful.
- I care about my son's future.

1571
01:21:37,694 --> 01:21:39,195
In the good old days...

1572
01:21:40,238 --> 01:21:44,075
law enforcement acted a
lot quicker than this.

1573
01:21:45,784 --> 01:21:46,826
A lot quicker.

1574
01:21:47,994 --> 01:21:49,704
And we are going to
enforce the law,

1575
01:21:49,788 --> 01:21:51,310
and Americans should
remember that,

1576
01:21:51,311 --> 01:21:52,917
if we're going to
have law and order.

1577
01:21:54,293 --> 01:22:00,006
I am... the law and
order candidate.

1578
01:22:02,926 --> 01:22:06,846
We thought... I mean, they called
the end of slavery "jubilee."

1579
01:22:06,930 --> 01:22:08,681
We thought we were done then.

1580
01:22:08,890 --> 01:22:12,226
And then you had 100 years of
Jim Crow, terror and lynching.

1581
01:22:13,435 --> 01:22:15,446
Dr. King, these guys
come on the scene,

1582
01:22:15,447 --> 01:22:17,105
Ella Jo Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer,

1583
01:22:17,189 --> 01:22:19,274
we get the bills passed to vote,

1584
01:22:19,357 --> 01:22:21,109
and then they break
out the handcuffs.

1585
01:22:21,193 --> 01:22:24,445
Label you felon, you
can't vote or get a job.

1586
01:22:24,529 --> 01:22:28,618
So, we don't know what the next
iteration of this will be,

1587
01:22:28,701 --> 01:22:31,119
but it will be. It will be.

1588
01:22:31,203 --> 01:22:32,871
And we will have to be vigilant.

1589
01:22:32,955 --> 01:22:35,373
♪ I'mma prison cell six by nine ♪

1590
01:22:35,457 --> 01:22:38,669
♪ Living hell, stone wall metal
bars for the gods in jail ♪

1591
01:22:38,752 --> 01:22:41,462
♪ My nickname, the can the
slammer, the big house ♪

1592
01:22:41,546 --> 01:22:44,381
♪ I'm the place many fear
because there's no way out ♪

1593
01:22:56,727 --> 01:22:59,421
The Bureau of Justice
reported That

1594
01:22:59,422 --> 01:23:01,816
one in three young, black males

1595
01:23:01,899 --> 01:23:04,443
is expected to go to jail or
prison during his lifetime,

1596
01:23:04,526 --> 01:23:07,446
which is an unbelievably
shocking statistic.

1597
01:23:15,368 --> 01:23:19,332
Black men account for roughly
6.5% of the US population.

1598
01:23:19,415 --> 01:23:23,293
They make up 40.2% of
the prison population.

1599
01:23:27,339 --> 01:23:30,843
We now have more African Americans
under criminal supervision

1600
01:23:30,926 --> 01:23:32,969
than all the slaves
back in the 1850s.

1601
01:23:33,052 --> 01:23:35,890
The prison industrial complex...

1602
01:23:35,973 --> 01:23:40,559
relies historically on the
inheritances of slavery.

1603
01:23:43,271 --> 01:23:44,938
The 13th Amendment says,

1604
01:23:45,022 --> 01:23:46,942
"No involuntary servitude
except for those

1605
01:23:46,943 --> 01:23:48,818
who have been duly
convicted of a crime."

1606
01:23:48,902 --> 01:23:50,865
So once you've been
convicted of a crime,

1607
01:23:50,866 --> 01:23:52,781
you are in essence a
slave of the state.

1608
01:23:54,282 --> 01:23:56,909
The stroke of a pen is
not self-enforcing.

1609
01:23:56,993 --> 01:23:58,652
And so, while the 13th
Amendment is hailed

1610
01:23:58,653 --> 01:24:00,079
as this great milestone
for freedom,

1611
01:24:00,163 --> 01:24:01,897
and abolitionists celebrate, and

1612
01:24:01,898 --> 01:24:03,957
this is the end of
a lifelong quest,

1613
01:24:04,041 --> 01:24:05,751
the reality is much
more problematic.

1614
01:24:05,835 --> 01:24:09,128
Well, once that clause is inserted
in there, it becomes a tool.

1615
01:24:09,211 --> 01:24:11,297
It's there. It's embedded
in the structure.

1616
01:24:11,380 --> 01:24:15,886
And for those who seek to use this
criminality clause as a tool,

1617
01:24:15,969 --> 01:24:18,679
it can become a pretty powerful
one, because it's privileged.

1618
01:24:18,763 --> 01:24:21,432
It's in the constitution, it's
the supreme law of the land.

1619
01:24:23,976 --> 01:24:26,186
Throughout American history,

1620
01:24:26,269 --> 01:24:29,065
African Americans have
repeatedly been controlled

1621
01:24:29,148 --> 01:24:32,986
through systems of racial and
social control that appear to die,

1622
01:24:33,070 --> 01:24:35,405
but then are reborn in new form,

1623
01:24:35,488 --> 01:24:38,072
tailored to the needs and
constraints of the time.

1624
01:24:38,155 --> 01:24:40,075
You know, after the
collapse of slavery,

1625
01:24:40,158 --> 01:24:43,327
a new system was born,
convict leasing,

1626
01:24:43,410 --> 01:24:46,707
which was a new form of slavery.

1627
01:24:47,958 --> 01:24:52,337
And once convict leasing faded
away, a new system was born,

1628
01:24:52,420 --> 01:24:53,880
a Jim Crow system,

1629
01:24:53,964 --> 01:24:56,771
that relegated
African Americans to

1630
01:24:56,772 --> 01:24:59,344
a permanent second-class status.

1631
01:25:00,761 --> 01:25:01,888
And here we are,

1632
01:25:01,973 --> 01:25:05,474
decades after the collapse
of the old Jim Crow,

1633
01:25:05,557 --> 01:25:08,769
and a new system has been
born again in America.

1634
01:25:08,853 --> 01:25:12,271
A system of mass incarceration
that, once again,

1635
01:25:12,355 --> 01:25:14,899
strips millions of poor people,

1636
01:25:14,983 --> 01:25:17,235
overwhelmingly poor
people of colour,

1637
01:25:17,318 --> 01:25:20,990
of the very rights supposedly won
in the civil rights movement.

1638
01:25:21,073 --> 01:25:23,492
And so instead of
talking about it,

1639
01:25:23,575 --> 01:25:25,159
we just tried to move on.

1640
01:25:25,243 --> 01:25:26,738
After the Civil
Rights Act was passed

1641
01:25:26,739 --> 01:25:28,037
and after the civil rights laws,

1642
01:25:28,121 --> 01:25:29,497
we tried to play it off.

1643
01:25:29,580 --> 01:25:30,790
Because we didn't deal with it,

1644
01:25:30,874 --> 01:25:33,458
that narrative of racial
difference continued.

1645
01:25:33,541 --> 01:25:35,663
And it turned into
this presumption

1646
01:25:35,664 --> 01:25:37,254
of dangerousness and guilt

1647
01:25:37,337 --> 01:25:40,340
that follows every black and
brown person wherever they are.

1648
01:25:44,136 --> 01:25:46,972
You need to get out of
the street immediately.

1649
01:25:47,055 --> 01:25:48,430
Get out of the way.

1650
01:25:51,267 --> 01:25:53,061
This is St. Louis County Police.

1651
01:25:53,145 --> 01:25:54,521
Stay off the roadway.

1652
01:25:55,022 --> 01:25:58,316
Ferguson was not simply
about Mike Brown.

1653
01:25:58,400 --> 01:26:00,959
It was also this pattern of mass

1654
01:26:00,960 --> 01:26:04,238
criminalisation and
mass incarceration.

1655
01:26:05,239 --> 01:26:07,616
Back off. Back off.

1656
01:26:08,241 --> 01:26:09,781
There was an average of three

1657
01:26:09,782 --> 01:26:11,746
warrants per household
in Ferguson.

1658
01:26:12,872 --> 01:26:15,749
And so people rose up
because they understood

1659
01:26:15,833 --> 01:26:18,077
that they were also enemies of the

1660
01:26:18,078 --> 01:26:20,586
state, seen as enemies
of the state.

1661
01:26:22,588 --> 01:26:24,875
The communities in
which black people

1662
01:26:24,876 --> 01:26:27,342
live really become
occupied territories,

1663
01:26:27,426 --> 01:26:33,182
and black people have become seen
as, enemy combatants, right,

1664
01:26:33,265 --> 01:26:35,142
who don't have any rights,

1665
01:26:35,225 --> 01:26:38,728
and who can be stopped and frisked

1666
01:26:38,813 --> 01:26:42,065
and, you know, arrested and
detained and questioned

1667
01:26:42,148 --> 01:26:43,776
and killed with impunity.

1668
01:26:50,074 --> 01:26:52,159
If we were to look at

1669
01:26:52,242 --> 01:26:54,463
the larger-scale
riots that we know

1670
01:26:54,464 --> 01:26:56,745
of in, you know, our
recent history,

1671
01:26:56,830 --> 01:26:58,373
from Rodney King,

1672
01:26:58,457 --> 01:27:00,834
to the Detroit riot in 1967,

1673
01:27:00,917 --> 01:27:02,835
the Newark riot in 1967,

1674
01:27:02,919 --> 01:27:06,506
Harlem riot in 1964,
Watts in 1965.

1675
01:27:06,589 --> 01:27:10,009
Every single one of those riots
was a result of police brutality.

1676
01:27:10,093 --> 01:27:11,093
That is the common thread.

1677
01:27:11,176 --> 01:27:14,805
- Fight back. Fight back.
- Fist up. Fist up.

1678
01:27:14,888 --> 01:27:18,975
It would be a mistake to say, as
many do in the current context,

1679
01:27:19,059 --> 01:27:21,896
that if you're against the police,
then you're against law and order.

1680
01:27:21,979 --> 01:27:23,545
These are hard-working
civil servants

1681
01:27:23,546 --> 01:27:25,316
putting their lives on
the line every day.

1682
01:27:25,399 --> 01:27:26,399
And that's true.

1683
01:27:26,483 --> 01:27:28,697
People who join the
police do so, you

1684
01:27:28,698 --> 01:27:30,736
know, to do these sorts of things.

1685
01:27:31,737 --> 01:27:34,886
But if you dismiss
black complaints

1686
01:27:34,887 --> 01:27:37,160
of mistreatment by police

1687
01:27:37,244 --> 01:27:39,412
as being completely rooted
in our modern context,

1688
01:27:39,496 --> 01:27:41,122
then you're missing
the point completely.

1689
01:27:41,205 --> 01:27:43,415
There has never been a
period in our history

1690
01:27:43,499 --> 01:27:49,296
where the law and order branch of
the state has not operated against

1691
01:27:49,380 --> 01:27:52,883
the freedoms, the liberties,
the options, the choices

1692
01:27:52,966 --> 01:27:54,339
that have been available for the

1693
01:27:54,340 --> 01:27:55,970
black community,
generally speaking.

1694
01:27:56,053 --> 01:27:58,506
And to ignore that
racial heritage,

1695
01:27:58,507 --> 01:28:00,891
to ignore that historical context,

1696
01:28:00,974 --> 01:28:02,934
means that you can't
have an informed debate

1697
01:28:03,018 --> 01:28:06,354
about the current state of blacks
and police relationship today,

1698
01:28:06,437 --> 01:28:08,314
because this didn't just
appear out of nothing.

1699
01:28:08,398 --> 01:28:11,443
This is the product of a
centuries-long historical process.

1700
01:28:11,527 --> 01:28:15,113
And to not reckon with that
is to shut off solutions.

1701
01:28:15,196 --> 01:28:18,741
We may have lost the sheets
of the Ku Klux Klan,

1702
01:28:18,824 --> 01:28:21,952
but, clearly, when you see
black kids being shot down...

1703
01:28:22,536 --> 01:28:25,873
then, obviously, we didn't
cut out this cancer.

1704
01:28:27,916 --> 01:28:29,293
For many of us, you know,

1705
01:28:29,376 --> 01:28:32,212
whose families lived through this,

1706
01:28:32,296 --> 01:28:34,756
who are extensions of
this kind of oppression,

1707
01:28:34,839 --> 01:28:37,717
we don't need to see pictures
to understand what's going on.

1708
01:28:37,801 --> 01:28:40,930
It's really to kind of,
like, speak to the masses

1709
01:28:41,012 --> 01:28:43,389
who have been ignoring this for
the majority of their life.

1710
01:28:43,471 --> 01:28:46,475
But I also think there's
trouble of just showing,

1711
01:28:46,560 --> 01:28:49,479
you know, black bodies
as dead bodies, too.

1712
01:28:49,563 --> 01:28:52,816
Too much of anything becomes
unhealthy, unuseful.

1713
01:28:54,024 --> 01:28:58,361
I think they need to be seen,
if the family is okay with it.

1714
01:28:58,904 --> 01:29:00,696
It wasn't until things were made

1715
01:29:00,697 --> 01:29:02,825
visual in the civil
rights movement,

1716
01:29:02,908 --> 01:29:05,618
that we really saw,

1717
01:29:05,702 --> 01:29:09,581
folks come out and being
shocked into movement.

1718
01:29:09,664 --> 01:29:12,708
You have to shock people
into paying attention.

1719
01:29:12,791 --> 01:29:16,629
But there's a kind of historical
trajectory that we can trace here,

1720
01:29:16,713 --> 01:29:18,880
through media and technology.

1721
01:29:18,965 --> 01:29:22,219
We went back to, the slavery era,

1722
01:29:22,301 --> 01:29:23,544
when people were writing

1723
01:29:23,545 --> 01:29:25,512
autobiographies or
slave narratives.

1724
01:29:27,263 --> 01:29:28,890
Later in the 19th century,

1725
01:29:28,975 --> 01:29:30,516
when people began
to use photographs

1726
01:29:30,600 --> 01:29:32,435
and they showed images.

1727
01:29:33,561 --> 01:29:36,481
There's a famous image of
slave Gordon and his back,

1728
01:29:36,564 --> 01:29:39,901
and you can see just this kind
of lattice of scar tissue

1729
01:29:39,986 --> 01:29:43,614
that is evidence of the
whippings that he received.

1730
01:29:43,697 --> 01:29:47,742
Or the images of lynchings,
which white people produced.

1731
01:29:49,660 --> 01:29:52,537
The murder of Emmett Till was
really thought of as being

1732
01:29:52,621 --> 01:29:55,959
one of the primary catalysts
for the civil rights movement.

1733
01:29:57,084 --> 01:29:59,169
The willingness of his mother

1734
01:29:59,253 --> 01:30:02,672
to have an open-casket funeral.

1735
01:30:05,425 --> 01:30:09,053
Hundreds and hundreds of
black folks filed past

1736
01:30:09,137 --> 01:30:11,264
and see this young boy

1737
01:30:11,347 --> 01:30:14,518
who had been killed by white
supremacists in the South.

1738
01:30:16,436 --> 01:30:20,023
To publish those photographs
in black publications

1739
01:30:20,106 --> 01:30:22,483
so the entire black
world, like our

1740
01:30:22,484 --> 01:30:24,860
Facebook or our
Twitter now, right?

1741
01:30:24,943 --> 01:30:28,780
So that the whole black world
could see what had happened.

1742
01:30:28,863 --> 01:30:32,993
In the 1950s, Dr. King and
the civil rights movement

1743
01:30:33,077 --> 01:30:34,328
used television in this way.

1744
01:30:34,412 --> 01:30:36,539
"Look, this is what
segregation looks like.

1745
01:30:36,622 --> 01:30:38,499
These are dogs attacking children.

1746
01:30:38,500 --> 01:30:40,542
These are people
being fire hosed."

1747
01:30:42,461 --> 01:30:45,077
Searching for the
medium of technology,

1748
01:30:45,078 --> 01:30:47,300
that will confirm your experience

1749
01:30:47,382 --> 01:30:50,176
such that your basic
humanity can be recognised.

1750
01:30:50,259 --> 01:30:53,387
The difference now is somebody
can hold up one of these,

1751
01:30:53,470 --> 01:30:54,805
get what's going on.

1752
01:30:54,888 --> 01:30:57,238
They can put it on
YouTube, and the

1753
01:30:57,239 --> 01:30:59,393
whole world has to deal with it.

1754
01:30:59,477 --> 01:31:00,686
That's what's new.

1755
01:31:00,769 --> 01:31:03,064
It's not the protest.
It's not the brutality.

1756
01:31:03,147 --> 01:31:05,567
It's the fact that we can force
a conversation about it.

1757
01:31:05,650 --> 01:31:07,814
We have been consistently
been murdered

1758
01:31:07,815 --> 01:31:09,653
as a result of police aggression.

1759
01:31:09,736 --> 01:31:13,657
They generally would excuse
it by calling us criminals.

1760
01:31:14,325 --> 01:31:16,326
When they was killing
Oscar Grant...

1761
01:31:23,500 --> 01:31:25,335
When they got to Eric Garner...

1762
01:31:25,918 --> 01:31:27,587
I can't breathe.

1763
01:31:27,670 --> 01:31:28,920
I can't breathe.

1764
01:31:29,004 --> 01:31:31,673
I can't breathe. I can't breathe.

1765
01:31:31,756 --> 01:31:33,134
I can't breathe.

1766
01:31:33,218 --> 01:31:35,595
I can't breathe. I can't breathe.

1767
01:31:35,678 --> 01:31:37,637
Everyone pointed out
that he was saying,

1768
01:31:37,721 --> 01:31:39,474
"I can't breathe.
I can't breathe."

1769
01:31:39,557 --> 01:31:41,267
But the sentences
before that were,

1770
01:31:41,351 --> 01:31:43,560
"Why are you always stopping me?

1771
01:31:43,643 --> 01:31:46,017
Why is it, day in
and day out, week

1772
01:31:46,018 --> 01:31:48,522
in and week out,
you're stopping me?"

1773
01:31:48,606 --> 01:31:51,984
And that, I think,
is hugely important.

1774
01:31:52,067 --> 01:31:53,996
When we think about
the children who

1775
01:31:53,997 --> 01:31:56,030
were killed at the
hands of the state,

1776
01:31:56,115 --> 01:31:59,368
I think about Tamir
Rice at 12 years old,

1777
01:31:59,451 --> 01:32:02,995
and the way that he was killed,
you know, it hits my heart.

1778
01:32:03,954 --> 01:32:07,208
Go ahead and take your
seat belt off. Stop. Stop.

1779
01:32:16,048 --> 01:32:17,218
You good?

1780
01:32:23,181 --> 01:32:25,725
- Roll on your stomach. Now.
- Stop fighting.

1781
01:32:28,270 --> 01:32:31,399
- I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
- Oh, shit.

1782
01:32:31,482 --> 01:32:34,359
He shot me, man. I was shot.

1783
01:32:34,442 --> 01:32:36,069
He didn't do shit. You didn't.

1784
01:32:36,152 --> 01:32:38,738
- I'm losing breath.
- Fuck your breath.

1785
01:32:38,821 --> 01:32:40,490
Stay with me.

1786
01:32:40,573 --> 01:32:43,825
We got pulled over for a
busted tail-light in the back.

1787
01:33:10,393 --> 01:33:12,018
Police violence,

1788
01:33:12,101 --> 01:33:14,938
that isn't the problem
in and of itself.

1789
01:33:15,021 --> 01:33:19,067
It's reflection of a much
larger, brutal system

1790
01:33:19,150 --> 01:33:22,655
of racial and social control
known as mass incarceration,

1791
01:33:22,738 --> 01:33:26,658
which authorises this
kind of police violence.

1792
01:33:26,741 --> 01:33:29,703
That's why, for me, the brilliance
of Black Lives Matter...

1793
01:33:29,786 --> 01:33:32,071
They have a distributed leadership

1794
01:33:32,072 --> 01:33:34,624
model. You can't
find their address.

1795
01:33:34,708 --> 01:33:37,710
I mean, Black Lives Matter is
not a stoppable phenomenon,

1796
01:33:37,793 --> 01:33:39,504
by a bullet or anything else.

1797
01:33:39,588 --> 01:33:41,464
And so, there's hope
there because of that.

1798
01:33:42,131 --> 01:33:44,592
Having people truly understand

1799
01:33:44,675 --> 01:33:47,427
that when black lives matter,

1800
01:33:48,095 --> 01:33:50,054
everybody's life matters,

1801
01:33:50,137 --> 01:33:52,494
including every single person that

1802
01:33:52,495 --> 01:33:55,059
enters this criminal
justice system

1803
01:33:55,142 --> 01:33:57,145
and this prison
industrial complex.

1804
01:33:57,230 --> 01:34:00,107
It's not just even about
only black lives, right?

1805
01:34:00,190 --> 01:34:04,694
It's about changing the way this
country understands human dignity.

1806
01:34:17,999 --> 01:34:21,627
That's what, really, this Black
Lives Matter moment is about.

1807
01:34:21,710 --> 01:34:26,171
This question of whose life
do we recognise as valuable?

1808
01:34:38,559 --> 01:34:41,604
The opposite of criminalisation
is humanisation.

1809
01:34:41,687 --> 01:34:44,523
That's the one thing I hope
that people will understand.

1810
01:34:46,065 --> 01:34:49,654
It's about rehumanising
us, as a people,

1811
01:34:49,737 --> 01:34:52,698
and us, right, as a
people, all of us.

1812
01:35:01,290 --> 01:35:04,460
The system of mass
incarceration has grown,

1813
01:35:04,544 --> 01:35:07,461
and sprawled and
developed an appetite

1814
01:35:07,545 --> 01:35:12,133
that is gobbling up people in
communities of all colours.

1815
01:35:12,216 --> 01:35:13,802
But if it hadn't been for the fact

1816
01:35:13,885 --> 01:35:18,597
that it began with a group
of people defined by race,

1817
01:35:18,681 --> 01:35:21,893
that we as a nation have
learned not to care about,

1818
01:35:21,976 --> 01:35:26,648
we wouldn't be talking about two
million people behind bars today.

1819
01:35:26,731 --> 01:35:27,773
People say all the time,

1820
01:35:27,856 --> 01:35:30,192
"I don't understand how people
could've tolerated slavery.

1821
01:35:30,275 --> 01:35:32,403
How could they have
made peace with that?

1822
01:35:32,486 --> 01:35:36,323
How could people have gone to a
lynching and participated in that?

1823
01:35:36,406 --> 01:35:40,118
How did people make sense
of the segregation,

1824
01:35:40,202 --> 01:35:43,330
this white and coloured-only
drinking... That's so crazy.

1825
01:35:43,414 --> 01:35:45,315
If I was living at
that time, I would

1826
01:35:45,316 --> 01:35:47,417
have never tolerated
anything like that."

1827
01:35:47,500 --> 01:35:49,056
And the truth is, we are living at

1828
01:35:49,057 --> 01:35:50,795
this time, and we
are tolerating it.

1829
01:35:57,708 --> 01:36:00,128
♪ Southern leaves southern
trees we hung from ♪

1830
01:36:00,211 --> 01:36:02,797
♪ Barren souls heroic
songs unsung ♪

1831
01:36:02,881 --> 01:36:05,216
♪ Forgive them, father they
know this knot is undone ♪

1832
01:36:05,299 --> 01:36:07,718
♪ Tied with the rope that
my grandmother dyed ♪

1833
01:36:07,802 --> 01:36:10,471
♪ Pride of the pilgrims
affect lives of millions ♪

1834
01:36:10,554 --> 01:36:13,057
♪ Since slave day separating
fathers from children ♪

1835
01:36:13,141 --> 01:36:16,352
♪ Institution ain't just a
building but a method ♪

1836
01:36:16,435 --> 01:36:18,229
♪ Of having black and
brown bodies fill them ♪

1837
01:36:18,312 --> 01:36:20,857
♪ We ain't seen as human
beings with feelings ♪

1838
01:36:20,940 --> 01:36:23,359
♪ Will the us ever be
us, lord willing? ♪

1839
01:36:23,442 --> 01:36:25,904
♪ For now we know
the new Jim Crow ♪

1840
01:36:25,987 --> 01:36:28,572
♪ The stop search and
arrest our souls ♪

1841
01:36:28,656 --> 01:36:32,160
♪ Police and policies patrol
philosophies of control ♪

1842
01:36:32,243 --> 01:36:33,912
♪ A cruel hand taking hold ♪

1843
01:36:33,995 --> 01:36:36,497
♪ We let go to free them
so we can free us ♪

1844
01:36:36,580 --> 01:36:39,167
♪ America's moment
to come to Jesus ♪

1845
01:36:39,250 --> 01:36:41,627
♪ Freedom freedom ♪

1846
01:36:41,710 --> 01:36:44,213
♪ Freedom come ♪

1847
01:36:44,297 --> 01:36:46,800
♪ Hold on ♪

1848
01:36:46,883 --> 01:36:49,468
♪ Won't be long won't be long ♪

1849
01:36:49,552 --> 01:36:52,013
♪ Freedom freedom ♪

1850
01:36:52,096 --> 01:36:54,640
♪ Freedom come freedom come ♪

1851
01:36:54,723 --> 01:36:57,268
♪ Hold on hold on ♪

1852
01:36:57,351 --> 01:37:00,063
♪ Won't be long won't be long ♪

1853
01:37:00,146 --> 01:37:02,565
♪ The cage bird sings for
freedom in the ring ♪

1854
01:37:02,648 --> 01:37:05,193
♪ Black bodies being lost
in the American dream ♪

1855
01:37:05,276 --> 01:37:07,736
♪ Blood of black being
a pastoral scene ♪

1856
01:37:07,821 --> 01:37:10,448
♪ Slavery's still alive
check amendment 13 ♪

1857
01:37:10,531 --> 01:37:13,034
♪ Now whips and chains
are subliminal ♪

1858
01:37:13,117 --> 01:37:15,661
♪ Instead of nigga they
use the word criminal ♪

1859
01:37:15,744 --> 01:37:18,289
♪ Sweet land of liberty
incarcerated country ♪

1860
01:37:18,372 --> 01:37:20,791
♪ Shot me with your Reagan
and now you wanna Trump me ♪

1861
01:37:20,875 --> 01:37:23,377
♪ Prison is a business
America's the company ♪

1862
01:37:23,461 --> 01:37:26,047
♪ Investing in injustice,
fear and long suffering ♪

1863
01:37:26,130 --> 01:37:28,632
♪ We're staring in the
face of hate again ♪

1864
01:37:28,716 --> 01:37:31,177
♪ The same hate they say will
make America great again ♪

1865
01:37:31,260 --> 01:37:33,804
♪ No consolation prize
for the dehumanised ♪

1866
01:37:33,888 --> 01:37:36,432
♪ For America to rise is a
matter of black lives ♪

1867
01:37:36,515 --> 01:37:39,060
♪ And we gonna free them
so we can free us ♪

1868
01:37:39,143 --> 01:37:41,729
♪ America's moment
to come to Jesus ♪

1869
01:37:41,812 --> 01:37:44,315
♪ Freedom freedom ♪

1870
01:37:44,398 --> 01:37:46,943
♪ Freedom come yeah ♪

1871
01:37:47,026 --> 01:37:49,528
♪ Hold on ♪

1872
01:37:49,612 --> 01:37:52,115
♪ Won't be long won't be long ♪

1873
01:37:52,198 --> 01:37:54,783
♪ Freedom freedom ♪

1874
01:37:54,868 --> 01:37:57,286
♪ Freedom come freedom come ♪

1875
01:37:57,370 --> 01:37:59,873
♪ Hold on hold on ♪

1876
01:37:59,956 --> 01:38:02,583
♪ Won't be long won't be long ♪

1877
01:38:02,666 --> 01:38:05,211
♪ Freedom won't be long ♪

1878
01:38:05,294 --> 01:38:07,838
♪ Freedom come freedom ♪

1879
01:38:07,922 --> 01:38:10,424
♪ Hold on hold on ♪

1880
01:38:10,508 --> 01:38:13,052
♪ Won't be long won't be long ♪

1881
01:38:13,136 --> 01:38:15,638
♪ Freedom freedom ♪

1882
01:38:15,721 --> 01:38:18,099
♪ Freedom come freedom come ♪

1883
01:38:18,182 --> 01:38:20,851
♪ Hold on ♪

1884
01:38:20,935 --> 01:38:23,437
♪ Won't be long won't be long ♪

1885
01:38:23,521 --> 01:38:26,107
♪ Freedom won't be long ♪

1886
01:38:26,190 --> 01:38:28,692
♪ Freedom come ♪

1887
01:38:28,776 --> 01:38:31,279
♪ Hold on hold on ♪

1888
01:38:31,362 --> 01:38:33,990
♪ Won't be long won't be long ♪

1889
01:38:34,073 --> 01:38:36,492
♪ Freedom won't be long ♪

1890
01:38:36,575 --> 01:38:39,037
♪ Freedom come freedom come ♪

1891
01:38:39,120 --> 01:38:41,622
♪ Hold on ♪

1892
01:38:41,705 --> 01:38:44,375
♪ Won't be long won't be long ♪

1893
01:38:44,458 --> 01:38:46,794
♪ Freedom won't be long ♪

1894
01:38:46,877 --> 01:38:49,505
♪ Freedom come freedom come ♪

1895
01:38:49,588 --> 01:38:52,008
♪ Hold on hold on ♪

1896
01:38:52,091 --> 01:38:54,593
♪ Won't be long hold on ♪

1897
01:38:54,677 --> 01:38:57,180
♪ Freedom won't be long ♪

1898
01:38:57,263 --> 01:38:59,848
♪ Freedom come freedom come ♪

1899
01:38:59,933 --> 01:39:02,601
♪ Hold on ♪

1900
01:39:02,685 --> 01:39:05,188
♪ Won't be long freedom come ♪

1901
01:39:05,271 --> 01:39:07,731
♪ Freedom ♪

1902
01:39:07,815 --> 01:39:10,401
♪ Freedom come freedom come ♪

1903
01:39:10,484 --> 01:39:12,987
♪ Hold on hold on ♪

1904
01:39:13,071 --> 01:39:18,701
♪ Won't be long won't be long ♪

1905
01:39:22,496 --> 01:39:24,999
♪ Won't be long ♪

1906
01:39:25,083 --> 01:39:31,630
♪ Oh, freedom ♪

1907
01:39:32,840 --> 01:39:34,968
♪ Won't be long ♪