All language subtitles for America Divided s01e01.eng

[atmospheric music]

[lively piano notes]

[low thrumming music]

- There is breaking news
from Chicago's southwest side.

A 17-year-old boy is shot
and killed by police,

and an investigation
is now underway.

- They say that the teen
closed in on them,

weapon in hand,

so they shot in self-defense.

- He is a very serious threat
to the officers,

and he leaves them no choice

at that point
but to defend themselves.

- But more questions are being
raised about the events

surrounding the moment
in the police shooting

that has sparked
days of protest in Chicago.

- Chicago.

No matter how far
work takes me,

I will always be
a son of this city.

Chicago is the truth.

I grew up not far from here,

but it might as well
be a different planet.

The South Side is
invisible from downtown

until something punches through
the lights on Michigan Avenue

and can no longer be ignored.

[crowd chattering indistinctly,
camera shutter clicks]

- Of course, we're in Chicago,
and Common is Chicago.

- Yeah.
- What is it about you

keeping that connection to home?

- Well, I mean,
home has shaped me so much.

Chicago provided me

with a wonderful foundation
of knowing who I am.

Here inside the downtown loop,
everything seems fine,

but you can already hear
the rumor of a police scandal

that will shake my city
to its core.

- Right now it's critical that

we got all the voices
talking about what's happening,

and your voice added to this
is important so thank you.

- You know I want to be part
of, you know, the solution.

I wanted to be able to help.

- Absolutely and it really
takes solutions

coming from people outside.

[police siren wailing]

- Anyone who grew up in Chicago
knows that Laquan McDonald

is not the first 17-year-old
boy to be killed by the police,

but actually seeing the video

after a year of police denials

suddenly changes everything.

[mysterious music]

??? ???

16 shots in 15 seconds.

The initial police reports

made the shooting
sound like self-defense,

but Officer Van Dyke
emptied his clip into the boy

while he lay dying
on the ground.

16 shots.

- Right now
I'm technically homeless.

I used to live here.

I'm staying
with a friend of mine.

We were pushed
out of this building,

increasing rent rates,

and the landlord just decided

that he was not
renewing leases.

Get out in 30 days.

She kept saying,
"Why can't we go back home?

What's going on?"

But I just explained to her
that home is family.

As long as we are together,
you're home.

- These days I'm hearing

there are more homeless people
in New York City

than at any time
since the Great Depression.

A record 60,000
in the city's shelter system,

including 23,000 children.

I can't fucking believe it.

The homeless are a city
within a city.

Many got that way
simply because

they can't afford to live here.

Today there isn't
a single neighborhood

in the five boroughs

where someone working full-time
on the state's minimum wage

can afford
the average rent.

- The problem is our income.

It's too low
for private development.

It's too high for city housing.

- Why don't you
take a cut in wages

and move into the slums?

[laughter]

- Back in the '70s,

I tried using humor
to call attention

to some things
that were plaguing America.

New York was my canvas.

Now I'm back here,

on a mission to find out
what's changed,

how tough the struggle
for a home can still be,

and what we can do about it.

[wheels squeaking]

- Okay, stand her up.

- One at a time.

- If you can't get
no clean water,

then you're in trouble.

We're all in trouble.

Just about there.

Start pumping it.

I mean, it works.

You can take a shower
just like anybody else.

- I hate taking showers
with that.

- We just have to do
what we have to do.

It's not so fun but, you know.

- It's probably the worst thing
about the water crisis.

[water splashing]

- And it's going to take a while
for them to fix the pipes.

- Yeah, I think they said
10, 15 years.

I'm going to be about 27.

[somber music]

??? ???

- It's the summer of 2016
in Flint, Michigan,

two years
after the water crisis began.

The news crews
have largely moved on,

but the people are still here,

and little has changed.

[determined music]

??? ???

- It's a system
that effectively

sweeps millions of poor people

into second-class status.

Did we invest
in those communities?

No, instead we declared war.

[determined music continues]

??? ???

- What we have today
is a wealth gap that is huge.

- We are dying
with undrinkable water.

We are dying
with undrinkable water.

- The working class
have been hammered.

- These are human beings.
These are people.

What can we do
to get that point across?

??? ???

[siren wails,
police radio chatter]

??? ???

- The constant telling us
that we're not doing enough

is causing us to explode.

- It is not, sir,
a matter of opinion anymore.

It is clearly exposed.

- What do we do?
- Stand up, fight back!

??? ???

- They can only win
by dividing America.

- We know that
the way things are working

aren't working at all.

- That's right.

- If you just keep pushing,

if you just keep trying,

if you refuse to let the
nightmares have the last say,

eventually,
the dawn will break,

the Sun will come out,

and you will be
in a brand-new day.

??? ???

- If there is no struggle,
there can be no progress.

[percussive music]

- Mic check!
All: Mic check!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5,

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,

13, 14, 15, 16.

16 shots!

16 shots!

- In the long history
of the Chicago Police,

no officer
has ever been charged

with first-degree murder

for shooting someone
while on duty,

but fearing riots,
the city has done just that.

- The officer who pulled
the trigger on Laquan McDonald,

he's charged
with first-degree murder.

- The protests continued,

demanding deeper reforms

and the resignation
of Chicago's police

superintendent, Garry McCarthy.

What is happening in my city?

I've seen Chicago
weather scandals before,

but something
feels different now.

I decide to meet
with an organizer

at the forefront
of the protests,

Janae Bonsu,
from BYP100.

Laquan McDonald,
God bless his soul,

is not the first situation

where we've seen
a young black teen

shot down by a police officer.

Why do you feel like
that particular case

really sparked something
different in the city?

- I think when that video
was released,

it was just, like,
enough was enough.

- Yeah.

- The city was sitting
on this tape for a year.

That was just confirmation
that black lives

don't actually matter
in practice in this country.

It's, like, when will this stop?

Not just the killing,

but the impunity
that goes along with it.

- You all are part
of the solution, for real,

but you're up against

some powerful institutions
in Chicago,

some history of really
strong politics

and even corruption
in this city.

Why do you think
that you can win?

- [sighs]

I believe that we can win

because what we're fighting
for is so much bigger,

and we, I think,
all have this just, like,

"we ain't got no choice,"
mentality.

Like, we got to do this.

I feel like if your heart
is in the right place,

and if you really have the faith

that what you're fighting
for will manifest

and will come to fruition,
then it will.

[cheers and applause]

all: We ready.
We coming.

We ready.
We coming.

We ready.
We coming.

We ready. We coming.
[inaudible]

We must love each other
and protect each other.

??? I believe ???

??? That we will win ???

??? I believe that we... ???

- Momentum keeps building
for Janae and BYP100.

One short week after
Van Dyke's murder charge,

superintendent Garry McCarthy
is fired.

- Top Cop Garry McCarthy
is forced to resign.

- The former superintendent
says

he believes Mayor Rahm Emanuel

made him the fall guy for
the Laquan McDonald shooting.

- Hey.
- Thanks for coming through.

How you doing today?

- I'm doing good today.
- Yeah.

- But it's a day-by-day
existence, right?

- Yes, sir.

So, man, I mean,
obviously, you know,

we here to talk about a lot
of stuff going on in Chicago.

I really want to hear
your perspective.

At the core of it,
what is the issue?

- I don't want
to sound defensive,

you know what I'm saying?

Course, you got to realize
where I'm coming from

and what just happened to me.

I just got held accountable
for something that

I didn't have any ability
to do anything about.

You know, the Laquan McDonald
video is a terrible video.

Police can do better.
That's obvious, right?

We know that.

But I think that we have to do

a better job of diagnosing
what's going on.

You know, last year in Chicago
there were 3,000 people shot.

3,000 people were shot.

- Wow.

- There were 19
police-related shootings.

0.0063% of the people shot
in Chicago last year

were shot by police officers.

- For real.

- But what's the biggest
problem in Chicago?

It's the police.

I don't think so.

- Yeah, but the communities
don't feel safe,

that the police are going
to keep them safe.

- You're describing something
called legal cynicism.

It has to do with the fact that
they don't trust that bad guy,

but they know that the police
can't do anything about it,

and there's no reason
to trust the police.

You know,
you have to look at this

through the prism of history,

and if you go back
300, 400 years,

it starts with slavery,

which was written
into the Constitution

of the United States,

and you move from slavery
to black codes

to segregation to Jim Crow.

Now, who was it who was
doing the enforcement

of all of those racist policies?

It was the white policemen.

- Right.

- So there's a narrative

that's well-deserved.

The anger that exists

in some of the
disenfranchised communities

comes from a number of places,

and the police are definitely
part of that component.

Don't get me wrong.

But poverty,
lack of opportunity,

right, lack of education,

rampant narcotics,
families getting broken up,

all contribute to a community

that doesn't trust
the system, right?

And the most visible component
of that system is the police.

Right? You don't see
a prosecutor every day.

You don't see a judge.
You don't see a sheriff.

You see a police officer
on the street,

but we're missing
the iceberg, right,

because only the tip
of the iceberg is showing.

- It's hard to believe.

Chicago's former police
superintendent just told me

that the police
don't have a race problem.

America has a race problem.

The police are only
the face of it.

I was looking for answers

about Laquan McDonald's
killing,

but McCarthy is right.

It's the tip of the iceberg.

Police violence
and street violence,

they're often posed
as separate problems,

but McCarthy tells me
they're both symptoms

of a broken
criminal justice system.

[mysterious music]

[together] Three, two, one.

??? ???

- In April 2014,
the city of Flint, Michigan,

was drowning in debt.

In an attempt
to save $5 million,

it switched its water supply
from the Detroit system

to the Flint River.

- Here's to Flint.
- Here's to Flint.

- Hear, hear.

- I've been acting
ever since I was a teenager,

but when I'm not on set,

my life is dedicated
to activism.

[cheers and applause]

- Rosario Dawson in the house!

[cheers and applause]

- In fact,
I come from an activist family.

We have evolved on the issue.

My mom was one
and so was my grandmother.

- She's a global citizen,

she's an American citizen,

and she's my daughter,

and I love her,
and she's awesome.

- I was raised to believe
that the people united

will never be defeated.

[cheers and applause]

[somber music]

And I can't fathom the idea

of an entire city

having its water system
poisoned.

How can that be possible

in the United States
of America?

I've come to Flint
to find some answers,

to connect with people
on the ground

who are fighting
for their rights,

because in my book,

there's no right more basic

than the right
to safe drinking water.

I'm starting with Ken McCloud

and Tammy Loren
and their children.

They're among
the thousands of families

who have been living
with the crisis

for the past two years.

Software engineer
demolition expert.

Oh, my goodness!

So cute.

When was the moment that
you started to see an effect

or that there might be
something wrong with the water?

- Ken was walking with the boys,

and all the fire hydrants
were running,

but the water
was brown coming out,

so he knew something was wrong.

- Right.

- So we immediately, right then,

we stopped drinking
the water right then,

but we had already
consumed so much.

- And then I heard something
happened with your dog?

- He had gone mad.
- Literally.

- He had just gone mad.

So I'm changing water bowls,
like...

- Every ten minutes,

- Every ten minutes,
and it's turning into Jell-O.

- Yeah.
- Yes.

After that, they had checked
him for lead,

and his lead levels
were extremely high.

- He was at a level 32.
- Yes.

- 32.

If it were a human,

that would be six times
the EPA's safety threshold.

This was alarming enough,

but then the kids
started to change.

- We have completely
different kids.

They went from straight-A
students to failing.

Jeremiah, he's been to school
44 days this year

because he's so sick.

- Yes.

- Elijah has been fighting

a bacterial infection
from the water

for two years.

He has days he can't even
get out of bed.

Sorry, I'm getting all teary.

- It's okay.

- You know,

it's devastating knowing

we're going
through this as well,

But to have to see
our kids go through it,

it's heartbreaking.

If a neighbor poisoned
and killed his wife,

he'd be in prison.
- Yep.

- And we have an entire city
that's been poisoned.

- But how did lead get into
the water

in the first place?

I need to find out.

- Hi, Jenny. How are you?
- Hello. How are you?

- I'm thrilled to introduce you
to Norman Lear. Jenny Lenz.

- Hi, so nice to meet you.
- Good to meet you also.

This is the place.

- $23 million.

You'll see why in a second.

- It was all redone.

It's all beautiful
marble floors,

gold leaf on the ceiling.

We have four bedrooms
and a library.

You see
the George Washington Bridge.

You see the palisades.

The views here
are fairly protected.

Under current zoning, they can
never be changed and the Plaza,

which is better to look down
on then be in.

- This is Dolly Lenz
and her daughter Jenny.

Dolly grew up poor
in the Bronx.

Her dad was a factory worker,

and now
she's one of Manhattan's

top real estate brokers.

- When I started 30 years ago,

my clients were mostly
doctors and lawyers.

Today my clients are
centimillionaires,

billionaires.

It changed dramatically 'cause
the complexion of the city

in that period
changed dramatically.

- I was reading about some
extremely expensive apartments

that stay empty.

We're gonna see a hell
of a view here, I suspect.

- In this building,

it's almost exclusively
foreigners.

So they're buying
a $90 million apartment,

literally,
$100 million apartment,

a $53 million apartment.

They're from China.

They're from every part
of the world,

and they're looking at it
as a safety deposit box.

How can I get money
out of my country

into a safety
deposit box here?

- They're sold.
- Yes.

- They're occupied.
- Yes. Well, they're sold.

- And they stay empty
90% of the time?

- Yes.

- This situation is
depriving people of places

to live where average people
used to live.

- I think it's a disaster,

and I think it's gonna get worse

before it gets better.

How do you save the money
for the down payment?

You know, when the average
price of a one-bedroom is

in excess of $1 million,
that's a one-bedroom.

That's not a family.

See, I felt 30 years ago,
I had a chance, right?

I don't feel that young people

have the feeling
they have that chance.

- But this is America,
equal opportunity.

What do you mean,
there isn't a chance?

- There isn't a chance
for upward mobility

the way there was
for my generation.

We can talk about it,
but it doesn't exist.

[upbeat hip-hop music]

- If it don't say Foxx,
it ain't the right box.

[inaudible]
Kim Foxx.

- Superintendent McCarthy
has been fired

in the wake
of massive protests,

but the fallout
hasn't stopped there.

With rising murder rates

and building anger
over police abuse and impunity,

Chicago's top prosecutor faces

a challenge
from a newcomer, Kim Foxx.

Kim Foxx is
an insurgent candidate

who grew up in Chicago's
public housing projects.

If she wins, she'll face
another daunting challenge,

to oversee every prosecution
in the city

while staying true
to where she came from.

??? ???

- This is Black T.
- I'm Black, yeah.

- Black T.
- Yeah. All right, Black T.

- Clemenza.
- Clemenza.

- Yeah, the Clemenza,
the most loyal.

- A'ight.
From "Godfather?"

- Yeah. You see?
See, see? She into it.

- No, no.

- You know I'm running
for state's attorney,

and I can't fix
the state's attorney's office

without the public helping me.

How do I convince you
to work with me,

and to work with the police?

'Cause they're part
of the problem.

They're part of the solution.

- The trust is down
for the police, though.

Don't nobody trust them
and politicians.

They just let you down.

- So we got to
do something, right?

I mean, we got people
getting locked up.

We got people getting killed.

- Yeah, the violence
in the city is real crazy.

- How many people do y'all know

who've been shot or killed
in the last year or so?

- Oh, man, that count over 30.

- Me personally, I know, like,

13 people done been shot,

like, four that been killed.

One of them was a family member
just came home.

- Facebook is becoming
a big obituary for Chicago.

- It's true, though.

- This city just
full of haters, man.

- Big graveyard.

Like, you stay here,
it's like you waiting to die,

because it's messed up here.

- You can't even raise
your kids here.

They can't go on the front
and ride a bike or jump rope.

- Not like you used to.
- The ice cream truck

don't even
come down the block no more.

- It's messed up, man,

and the police
ain't doing nothing about it,

so you got to protect yourself.

- It's sad to say
that people in Chicago,

they'd rather get caught
with they gun than without it.

I mean, I can't really
blame them

due to all the violence
that's going on around them.

- The police ain't
gonna protect you.

- What keeps you safer
than using the police?

- I mean, I don't feel safe
around them

'cause it's too much
bad history.

- I have never in my life
called the police on anybody,

and I've been in so many jams.

I mean, jams.

- Why?

- I don't trust them.

- If you know a group of
people, right,

and all they do is harass you,

and you need help 'cause
there's a situation going on,

you gonna call them
same group of people?

- As I embark on my research,

I learn an important
and basic piece of information.

Much of Flint's water
travels through lead pipes.

No one knows exactly how much,

and I discover
that there's a local

who's an expert in metals

and can explain how the pipes
connect to the crisis.

She agrees to meet

and has some things
she wants to show me.

Wow.

Rusted, corroded pipes...
- [laughs]

- In your trunk.

- It's lead.

You can tell it's lead

because you can just
make a fingernail mark in it.

It's just really soft.

- The problem with lead pipes,
she tells me,

is that they can corrode
on the inside,

with toxic lead
leaching into the water,

but lead pipes can be
made relatively safe,

as long as the water
is treated.

- So phosphates
are added to water,

and phosphates bind to the lead
at the surface

and form a protective coating
on the inside,

a hard protective coating,

and once it's there,
no more lead

will leave the inside
and go into the water.

In order to add the phosphates,

you had to have
a piece of equipment

that would put the phosphates
in the water.

- And since the Flint River
is especially corrosive,

after the switch,
it was crucial

that the Flint
water treatment plant use

this specialized equipment
to treat the river water.

- That piece of equipment
was never purchased.

It wasn't even there.

They couldn't add any phosphate.

If you look on the inside here,

you can see that the coating
is not complete.

Can you see?
It's kind of disrupted.

- The damaged pipes
tell the story.

After the switch
to the Flint River,

the city simply failed
to treat the water,

and as a result,
the water was poisoned.

[sighs]

So, wow, like,

basically,
this is crime scene evidence?

- Crime one, destruction
of our infrastructure.

Crime two, in the process
of destroying

the infrastructure,
poisoning people.

Two crimes.
- Right.

Dr. Sullivan wants me
to see the river itself.

- Well,
this is our Flint River,

and it goes all the way
around Flint, wraps around.

It's got a rich

but also very sad history
of being polluted.

There was a perception
that there was no way

it could be safe,
from the get-go.

I was working
with a lot of activists,

and there starts to be
this creeping worry

about the quality of the water

'cause it was coming
from the Flint River,

and I'm the college, you know,

professor in the group,
and so I'm the one

that's saying,
"No, you know what?

It's being treated,

and water treatment
makes water safe to drink."

- And that's what you
were being told.

- That's what I was being told,

and that's what I believed,
because theoretically,

that would be true, right?

- Right.
- People are starting to,

you know, have hair loss,

they're starting to have rashes,

and everybody in Flint
gets a notice,

and the notice says,

"We've reached an unsafe level
of disinfectant byproduct,

and, oh, by the way,
it's a carcinogen,

and you probably want
to talk to your physician about

whether or not you
should drink bottled water."

- What happens
after that moment for you?

- The person who was in charge

of the public works
department said,

"Well, you know,

we're gonna have
to send another notice out."

He and others just rolled
their eyes and said,

"And the residents are
gonna have rashes again."

And I said to him,

"You're in charge
of more than just water."

I mean, if you're
gonna roll your eyes,

that tells me everything
I need to know

about how much you think
about the people

you're supposed to be serving.

- You know, that this is what,
you know, to that a degree,

like, this is what
evil can look like.

It's not always, like,
some guy in the corner, like,

swishing his mustache, going,
"Ha ha, I'm gonna get you guys,"

but more like,

"You're inconveniencing me,

or this bureaucracy
takes so long, so I have time,"

and, you know,
just prioritizing,

and even being a part
of the community

with which you're serving,

so that that actually becomes
a priority for you,

because it's not
an us-versus-them

and-other kind of situation,

but it's a "we" situation
which you were a part of

because this is your community
that you're talking about.

- It was really about
"How can we calm them down?"

Rather than "Oh, my gosh,
what might be causing this?

What could we do
to make it go away?"

So we had asked friends
to have their water tested,

but when they got their
results, to share them with us.

So we return two weeks later,
and they said, "You're wrong.

There's lead in the water,
but it's not to the level

that you think."

And I said,

"Do you think that maybe

"if the entity that's in charge

"of collecting
these specimens, the city,

"and the entity that's in charge
of testing these specimens,

"the Department of
Environmental Quality,

"if they both benefit
from good data,

"if they both benefit
from something that says

"there's no problem,

maybe there's something
wrong with that?"

I still kick myself
for not saying,

you know, "Listen to me.

This is not possible."

Right?
It's not possible.

Sorry.

- No, don't be.
Don't be sorry.

I can't believe
that Dr. Sullivan

and others undertook a kind of
people's investigation

and were still shut down.

It went way beyond

the officials in power
not listening.

It really seems like they tried
to cover up the truth.

- Since the middle class is
being forced out of Manhattan,

landlords in the outer boroughs

have plans to capitalize.

- The noise can be unsettling.
As you can hear,

I have to raise
my voice even louder.

[tea kettle whistling]

[jackhammer rumbling]

Oh, Jesus.

I don't want to stay
out here too long.

Okay.

[jackhammer rumbling]

- [indistinct speech]
- Yeah.

You should ask them
to secure your door

and when the children come home.

- Yeah, because they're
coughing a lot now.

- Yeah, I know.

- You see I have a little baby.
- Yeah, I know.

I hear them coughing.

Don't let them come out.

If you don't like it,
you can move.

If it's too much noise,
you can move.

This dust didn't cause it,
we are not working that long,

so whatever you're going through

is not because of us.

They care nothing about my life.

The only thing they want to do

is get three times as much money

for this apartment
than I'm paying now.

They care about
their construction.

I care about my life.

[somber music]

??? ???

- This is one of the buildings

that's on my
worst landlord list.

He, unfortunately,

is engaging in tactics

which amount to harassment
of tenants.

He claims that he's
renovating the building,

but he's renovating
the buildings

in violation of the law.

He's doing the work
without permits.

There's dust. There's debris.
There's rodents.

- Why is he doing that?
- Because he wants them out.

He wants to raise the rents.

- But these people wish
to stay where they are,

and they have leases.
- That's right.

And he's creating
hostile conditions,

so that some of them
just give up and move out.

And he is displacing
those residents

who happen to be black.

You will be replacing them
with individuals

who can pay the rent
who in all likelihood,

in all likelihood, are white.

- Yeah. I guess I am not
old enough to understand

how a man can be
breaking the law

so thoroughly

and not be arrested
or not stopped from doing it.

- Most landlords
just pay the fines.

It's the cost of doing business.

- So is the next stop for some
of these people homelessness?

- Some of them will
wind up in our shelters.

Some of them will wind up
with their families,

doubled and tripled up.

- Oh, my goodness.
- And I know landlords

are going to say,

"You know, it's just not fair.

You purchase a piece
of real estate."

- In a free enterprise system,

you have every right
to do what you're doing.

- Exactly.
The question is process.

Are you engaging
in illegal activity,

and are you doing it in a way

that disproportionately
affects people of color?

- I've lived here
for 38 years, me and my mom.

- My name is Gertrude
[inaudible].

I moved here in the '60s.

I don't remember,
you know, the exact year.

- My name is Judy Lewis.

We've lived here since 1973.

- My name is Prenella Rathwaite,

and I'm living here
38 years now.

- My name is Norman Lear,
and I've been in this building,

oh, about 20 minutes.

[laughter]

- In 2014, that cold winter,

they renovated the apartment
next door to me,

and the one above me.

No walls, no ceilings,
no floors, no windows,

and it was 10 degrees outside,

and we had no heat
and hot water.

Those are the tactics
they use to displace you.

- A lot of people are here
who are sick.

All this dust and everything,

I have to keep the windows down,

and the noise is mind-boggling.

It makes you want to scream.

- I brought it all to the
attention of the landlord

and his agent,
and nothing has been done.

He looks at me and asks me,
"Do I want to move?"

So that's bullying
and harassment.

He not only asked me once,
but he's asked me three times,

and I told him,
"Do not ask me anymore."

- There's no respect.

"I want you out
because your rent is low.

"You pay a $1,000.

"I can get $2,500 dollars
for that apartment.

I'm going to make
your life miserable."

- My concern is not only
for myself,

but it's for the seniors
in here.

It's for the people
who are sick in here,

people who are on pensions
and social security in here.

We were here
during the crack epidemic.

We were here
when the Crown Heights riots.

We looked out for this building.

But who's gonna look out
for us now?

- 3,000 shootings in a year,
70% of the victims are black.

Over 90% of their cases
go unsolved.

If you shoot
a black man in Chicago,

the odds are
that you'll go free.

And everyone I talk to
tells me the same thing.

No matter what happens,

they will never
call the police.

How could things
possibly be this bad?

Investigative journalist
Jamie Kalven

had to sue the city

to try to answer that question.

He tells me
to come by his office

to look at what he found.

- This is the city's data.

This isn't anything
that we created,

and it's pretty extraordinary.

It's gotten a lot of attention.

These officers feel like
they can act with impunity,

like nobody is going
to identify them,

discipline them, punish them.

- Kalven fought the city
for a decade

to win the release this data,

15 years of civilian complaints

against the Chicago police,

56,000 records.

I'm shocked by the numbers.

99% of complaints
by blacks are dismissed.

Some officers racked up 40, 50,

and even 60 complaints

without so much as a reprimand.

- That's a heat map of the city,

and the most concentrated colors

are the areas of the city

from which most complaints
come of police abuse.

It won't surprise you that
it's the black South Side,

the black West Side,
overwhelmingly.

- The pattern is clear,

but there is something else
about the map.

It looks almost exactly like
the map of Chicago homicides.

- It's also the areas where
there's the most violent crime.

It's the areas where there are

the lowest clearance rates
of the police,

you know, closing cases.

Imagine if you had
sort of layers of the map,

and you had
socioeconomic information,

school outcomes,
public health information,

vacant lots, boarded-up
buildings, foreclosures.

It's all gonna line up.

- Yeah.
- We have abandoned whole parts

of the city

and the folks who live in them.

- The street violence
that's happening

amongst the communities
and the police violence,

is there any connection?

- When people can't trust
the police to protect them,

to seek justice when
something's happened,

they create their own
public safety system

because you want justice,

and you want to be safe.
Everyone wants to be safe.

- Everybody wants to feel safe.
- Everybody wants to be safe,

so it's, like, this thing
that keeps snowballing.

- Individual stories
of police abuse

are easy to dismiss,

but here are 56,000 data points

from the city's own files,

confirming what everyone

growing up
on the South Side knows.

There is an epidemic of police
misconduct in Chicago,

and it directly correlates

to the neighborhoods
worst hit by street violence.

- First, I want to thank
everyone for coming tonight

on the actual birth date
of Dr. King.

I got to believe that
he would be both outraged,

and he would be in tears
about the violence

that runs rampant
in America today.

- Yes.
- And that is violence

whether it is done
by a corrupt cop

or whether it's done
by somebody in the neighborhood.

Nobody has a right to have
our communities under siege

and have people live in fear,

and so we're here
tonight to say,

one, we condemn the violence.

- Yes.
- We condemn the violence.

- Yes.
- Whether it's by cops,

or it's by somebody
on the street,

we condemn the violence.

- Yes.
- It is not acceptable.

We're going to have
a silent march tonight.

There's some things you can't
even talk about anymore

you just have to pray about
while you're walking.

- I've seen the numbers
and the maps and the graphs,

but nothing
is clearer than this,

the people of Englewood
taking to the streets

on a frozen January night

to break the cycles of police
and street violence

that feed off each other.

- We end up here because this is

a wall of those
who have lost their lives.

Annette's son is on this wall.

Pam's son is on this wall.

My son is on this wall.

I'm going to ask Pam
to close us out.

All: ??? Amazing grace ???

??? How sweet ???

??? The sound ???

??? That saved a wretch ???

??? Like me ???

- Last year, 500 people
were murdered in Chicago.

The papers only count the dead.

Out here, we are far
from the lights of downtown,

but this is also Chicago,

and these lives also matter.

- Most holy and gracious God,
source of compassion,

source of justice,

we invoke Your holy presence
here this morning

on behalf
of all those struggling

to obtain truly
affordable housing.

- What do we want?
[together] Affordable housing!

- When do we want it?
[together] Now!

- What do we want?
[together] Affordable housing!

- When do we want it?
[together] Now!

Get up!
Get down!

There's a housing crisis
in this town!

Get up!
Get down!

There's a housing crisis
in this town!

- I have a sense
of gentrification,

but if I were asked
to explain it, I couldn't.

How do you explain it?

- I think everyone can agree
on a definition

of what gentrification is.

What people can't agree on

is whether or not the changes
that occur in a neighborhood

that's gentrified
are good or bad

and what is causing them.

To us, we believe
that gentrification

is caused by landlords

and bankers
and real estate speculators,

working together to drive up
the cost of housing.

- Today I'm hanging out
with Cea Weaver,

one of a new breed

of housing activists

who are contending
with the new,

faceless breed of landlords.

- We see private
equity companies

who are buying rent stabilized
buildings in Crown Heights.

- They're not thinking
about the people

who want to live
in New York City.

They're thinking
about parking money here.

- Yes, yes.

I mean, landlords are buying
buildings for profit

and profit alone.

The private equity landlord
is backed by investors.

They want huge returns
in a short period of time.

You know, you think
of a landlord as somebody

who you can call
to get your ceiling fixed

or who's gonna help you
get your apartment painted

or help you get a new apartment

if you're trying
to move, you know.

Landlords like that are rarer
and rarer in New York City.

- Cea wants to show me
what all of this looks like

from a tenant's perspective,

and she takes me out
to Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

Hi.
How are you?

- Hi. I'm Natasha.
- Hi.

I'm Norman.
It's good to meet you.

- Good to meet you.
- Hey, everybody.

- Hi. How are you?
- What's your name?

- I'm Aliya.
- Hi, Aliya. And you?

- My name is Radell.
- I am Norman.

All of these guys
were born here.

- Yes all of them has b... yes.

It was like,
200 or something dollars

when we started
to pay rent here,

and now I pay 992.

- And now he wants to do what?

- Now he want to
raise it to 2,139.

- He wants to go from 900
to 2,100 in one leap?

- Mm-hmm.
- And his reason?

- He said Crown Heights
is the new Manhattan.

- Can you just afford
the $2,100?

- No, I cannot afford
the $2,100.

I have a 19-year-old
in college.

I'm self-employed.

- My head goes immediately

to your little one there,
you know,

a world that treats her fairly.

- If I sit back and allow him
to do what he do to me,

well, what's going to happen
to them when they get older,

where are they going to live?
- Mm-hmm.

Cea tells me none of this
would be happening

if big corporations
weren't taking over

so many residential

buildings in poor neighborhoods

and expecting
such high returns.

I need to talk to someone
who's on the inside of that.

??? ???

- I started out by
looking at a police killing

and a movement bent on changing
the city of Chicago,

but Garry McCarthy is right.

The police are just
the tip of the iceberg,

and real change means a lot

more than appointing
a new superintendent.

Police shootings are only
the most visible symptoms

of a violence
that runs much deeper,

infecting the entire criminal
justice system,

and so I've come here
to the network of tunnels

beneath America's largest

single jail,
Cook County.

- We move 1,000 people
per day to their court hearings

and back
through this tunnel system.

It connects the entire compound,

so we're below
Cook County Jail right now.

- Wait. You said sometimes

it's thousands of people.
- Per day.

- Per day?
- Per day, yeah.

- Coming through these tunnels?
- Coming through these tunnels.

[indistinct chatter]

So what we're walking into now
is morning intake.

Everyone you see around you,
they're not inmates yet.

They've all been arrested last
night in the city of Chicago,

so the next stop
for these guys is bond court.

That's the moment of truth,

where could be
walking out the door,

could be here for two, three,
four years with a bond

that they simply can't
afford to pay.

- Damn. You could be here just
because you can't pay the bond,

for that amount of years?

- We have a couple hundred
people in our jail right now

who could walk out
if they had $500.

People are here
because they're poor,

and it's a perpetual cycle.

Even a day,

a week of incarceration
can destroy everything

if you have a fragile job.

- Yeah, if you had a job.
But even mentally,

that, mentally,
it still mess with you.

- Exactly.

- 9,000 people, numbered,

organized, and warehoused.

They haven't been convicted
of a crime yet,

but they can spend years here
waiting for a trial.

Ben introduces me to their
jailer, Sheriff Tom Dart.

- Thanks for coming out here.
I appreciate it.

- Thank you.
- This is, you know,

unlike any other place
you'd ever not want to be at.

It's just a really tough place.
- Yeah.

Sheriff Dart tells me
that nationwide,

2.2 million Americans
are behind bars,

more prisoners than China,

more than all
of Europe combined.

Somehow American democracy

has produced
the largest prison system

in the history of the world.

- Do you see cases,
and you're like,

"Why is this person
even here?"

- Mm-hmm, all the time,
all the time.

On any given day we'll have 150
or so people being held here

with their most serious
charge... most serious charge

is retail theft.

They stole some food and no
violence in their background,

and yet, on average,

that person would sit
in this jail

for 100 days, for 100 days.

- Wow, for stealing some food.
- For stealing food.

They don't belong in here,

certainly for
crazy amounts of time.

It doesn't make any sense,
but you sit in a jail

because you're poor.

And then when you look
at just the hard numbers,

the disproportionate impact
of people of color,

it's off the charts.

I mean, our numbers
virtually never change here.

It's almost always 75%

of the population
is African-American,

15% is Latino,

and then you have about 10%
that's white.

I mean, it doesn't change.

It's been that way for as long
as I... definitely

as long as I've been Sheriff
and well beyond that.

- So what's it like for you

to be the jailer
of all of these people?

- Oh, it's horrible.

I mean,
it's absolutely horrible.

You have a real human,
a real person,

and, by and large,
a good person,

and I talk to these guys
all the time.

If you were to have
lived the life

that they live,
strongest possibility

you'd be sitting
right next to him.

But as a Sheriff,

I was only supposed to
get a sheet of paper

from a judge
saying hold this guy,

then I get a sheet of paper
saying release him,

and in between, I feed him.

I take him back
and forth to court; that's it.

I'm really not supposed
to care why he's here.

I'm not supposed to care
how many times he's been here.

I'm certainly not supposed
to care what he's gonna do

when he leaves here.

- For many
with a criminal background,

there aren't a lot of options.

So today we're visiting

St. Leonard's house
on the West Side.

It's one of the few
halfway houses in Chicago

that helps
returning inmates find jobs

and re-enter society.

- How are you doing?
- I'm doing great.

How about yourself?
- I'm fine.

Well, welcome
to St. Leonard's House.

So what we're going to do today

is best find out
how to help you.

- Coming out from prison,
do you face, like,

not being able to get a job
because you have a record?

- As soon as they check
that box saying

that they have
been incarcerated,

most of those applications
find its way in the garbage.

- How many times
have you been incarcerated?

- I've been to prison
eight different occasions.

Out of the last
36 years of my life,

I have did 25 years
inside of someone's prison.

- You're in room 24.

So here's your key, Rice.

- Thank you.

- All right,
welcome to St. Leonard's House.

- Thank you.

- What does it mean
for the neighborhood

to have so many people
in and out of the system?

- Of the 15,000
to 20,000 people

that are released every year,

about 70% of them

go to six zip codes.

If you drive through
these neighborhoods,

down one block,

you'll see empty houses
boarded up, vacant lots.

And these are the neighborhoods

where you have
the highest crime rates,

the highest drug usage,
the worst schools, no jobs.

With no money in the community,
nothing's gonna get better.

[somber music]

??? ???

- While I'm in Flint,

I'm trying to connect with
as many people

as I can,

and today I'm going
to see Gina Luster.

She told me on the phone
that she

and her daughter Kennedy
moved here in early 2014,

just before the switch.

- Initially moving here,
it was exciting,

a new job, new place.

You know, I felt so good,

and then everything changed
within 30 days.

- Wow.
- And I heard people

starting to complain
about rashes early on.

My daughter was complaining
about her bones aching.

Her asthma was getting worse.

Her behavior
was starting to change.

She was starting to have
these panic attacks.

What's going on
with my daughter, you know?

- Partly to get away from Flint
for an evening, Gina tells me,

she took Kennedy
to a Detroit Tigers game,

where she got into
a conversation with a stranger.

- I'm sitting there
next to this guy,

and he's like,
"Oh you're from Flint.

Oh, I heard you guys
are having some water issues."

He's like "Well,
I work for General Motors,

and we don't use the water."

I'm like, "What?"

And he's like, "Well, yeah.

"There was a letter sent out
from General Motors

"to your governor

"saying that after
the initial switch,

the water was rusting
out the parts."

The whole time, they've been
telling us nothing is wrong,

and we've been drinking this
water now for almost a year.

- Yeah, so if it's messing up
their parts,

than you can imagine
what's going on in your bodies.

- This is huge.
I'm doing like 100 back home.

I can't wait to get
on the phone and get on Facebook

and tell people
what I just heard from this guy

who works at GM.

And everybody
is scrambling trying

to figure out
what's in the water.

How did it start?

How did our infrastructure
get ruined?

- Englewood, 60620, one of
the handful of zip codes

that are home to most of
the state's prisoners,

and where Father Pfleger's
St. Sabina church

has been an anchor
for the community

for as long as I can remember.

- These are young brothers
who have dreams,

who have things they want to do,

things they want to achieve,
things they want to accomplish,

and we've got to give them
the opportunities.

Secondly, you keep
saying to people,

"Well, value yourself,"

but every day you look around
your neighborhood,

underfunded schools,
highest unemployment,

boarded up buildings,
most foreclosures,

most coming back from jail.

How do you value yourself
if everything around you

tells you you ain't
worth nothing?

[buzzer sounds]

- I did my research on you, bro,

so I already know where you from

and what environment
you come from,

and you know Chicago
always been,

like, a real segregated city,
you know.

- Yeah, yeah. This city
is beautiful in itself,

but it is two cities.

Like, so you see that.

Any human being will see that.

Like, where
the solutions come in,

like, in an ideal way
to change Chicago?

- It's not going to change.
It's not.

- We hope, but, I mean,
you see what's going on.

Yeah, 'cause what you
gonna do as a man

when you can't get no job?
You got kids.

"Daddy, I'm hungry."
What you gonna do?

You gonna feed your baby,
any means necessary,

any means,

even if it end up
putting you back in that can,

and you stuck in this trap.
You feel me?

So, I mean, like, if they
gave us more things to do,

more leaders, stop targeting us,
treating us like animals,

I mean, man, like,
we'd be able to...

Chicago would be able
to be beautiful.

[graceful hip-hop music]

??? ???

- Show me what's going on.

- Brooklyn is crazy hot.

There's a huge wave
of new people

coming here, Bushwick,

East Williamsburg,
Crown Heights,

those areas definitely
are full of people

who are young, creators,
et cetera, et cetera.

Brooklyn was
a blue-collar borough.

There's no doubt about it.
It's no longer the case.

Brooklyn is a brand.
It's the new Manhattan.

Hello. How are you?
Nice to meet you.

- Nice meeting you too.
- Likewise.

Here we have some
of our projects.

We have 47 projects in Brooklyn.

We build over...
- 47 projects?

- 47 projects, over 1,000 units.

I have German pension funds

speaking with us
about investments,

and I'm originally from Israel.

Israeli funds are investing
in Brooklyn.

- Your foreign investors.

What return do you have
to promise them?

- Oh, "promise" is a difficult
word to use in economics,

but we're looking at
20% and north

annual return to the investors.

- Now, that's a figure
that I've heard

in a couple of other situations

where the landlords
are working as hard

as they can to evict.

- Yes. Yeah.

I mean, I know that world
because I'm in real estate.

The economical pressure
on the system

and the lack
of housing available

in New York City in general

causes people to be aggressive
about vacancies

and do illegal things.

We don't do that.

Listen, there's many ways
to make money,

and you have to put your head
on the pillow

at the end of the day

and see if you feel comfortable
with what you did.

I'm not trying to protect
that industry,

people who do it not by law,
okay,

but when you have
international money,

when you have a lot
of big corporations

investing in those areas,

they could care less about what
you do to get those returns.

They want as high
a return as possible.

- I think of it in
the most simplistic terms.

Those people who are
working hard for a living,

who were never going to make
more than a modest living wage,

you know, they're good people.
They're raising kids.

They know how to get their kids
educated and so forth.

Why can't there be enough
affordable housing

for those people
who are going to work here

and service those who can more
than afford to live here?

- The reality of life

is that financial forces
think short-term.

They want to make money.

If I'm selling an apartment
for $800,000, okay,

which is the kind of prices
I'm selling,

between $500,000
to $800,000 apartment,

and I'm now selling it
or $150,000, to be affordable,

someone has to pay for the gap.

Someone has to pay for the cost
of my construction,

for the cost of my land,

so if I don't have
a financial incentive

to sell the apartment
for $150,000,

why would I do that, you know?

Just from, you know,
the kindness of my heart, yes,

we could do it once or twice
but not as a business plan.

- So if it's not
a business plan,

who's going to offer developers

and landlords the incentive
to build affordable housing?

??? ???

- It's clear now that
the criminal justice system

is failing the black
and brown people of Chicago.

It doesn't keep them safe,

and it doesn't
get them justice.

Even the former police
superintendent

acknowledges that.

It locks them up when they
don't belong behind bars,

and it marks them
with convictions

that can derail
their lives forever.

Even the sheriff of Cook County
acknowledges that.

And it's not just Chicago.

Across the country,

racial bias in the criminal
justice system is stark,

and it's undeniable.

Blacks are more than twice
as likely to be killed

by a police as whites.

We are ten times
more likely to be arrested

for a drug offense,

and when we are arrested,
we are 30%

more likely to be imprisoned
for the same crime.

Everything I read refers me
back to the same book,

"The New Jim Crow"
by Michelle Alexander.

She says that more black men
are under the control

of the criminal
justice system today

than were enslaved on
the eve of the Civil War.

I'm staggered by these numbers,

but at first, her conclusions
are hard to accept.

- The first time I encountered
the phrase "the new Jim Crow,"

I remember just thinking
to myself, "Yeah, you know,

the criminal justice system
is racist in a lot of ways,

but it doesn't help to make

such absurd comparisons
to Jim Crow."

People just think you're crazy.

And for the next few years,

I just had a series
of experiences

that led to a real
awakening for me,

and I came to see that
our criminal justice system

now functions much more

like a system of racial control

than a system
of crime prevention.

- This situation
of mass incarceration,

what's the stem of it?

What's the beginning of it?

Where does it start, really?

- Its most, kind of,
recent history can be traced

to the law and order movement.

- I say segregation now,
segregation tomorrow,

and segregation forever!

- When segregationists found

they could no longer
say segregation forever,

they began calling
for law and order

and portraying
civil rights protestors

as having no regard
for the law.

The law and order
movement evolved

into the get tough movement

and a war on drugs
in the 1980s.

- I raise the priority
of drug abuse by declaring

it a threat
to our national security.

- That drug war has been
absolutely devastating.

It's a system that effectively
sweeps millions of poor people

of color off the streets,

primarily for non-violent,
drug-related offenses.

It is a war that helped
to set into motion

this whole system
of mass incarceration.

You know, we have created,

in a period of just
a few short decades,

a prison system unlike anything
the world has ever seen.

- From the violence
to mass incar...

A lot of people
being jailed here,

why is Chicago
such a central point?

- Here in Chicago,
you have a city

that's suffered as much
as any city did

from deindustrialization
and the disappearance of work.

In 1970, about 70%
of African-Americans

had blue-collar
factory jobs.

By 1987, that figure
had plummeted to 28%.

Work vanished.

Jobs were shipped overseas,

deindustrialization,
the collapse,

literal economic collapse
of black communities.

Now, did we invest in those
communities, in those kids?

No, instead, we declared war.

This wasn't inevitable.

We had a choice
about how to respond,

and when you look
at what neighborhoods

have been most affected
by the drug war

and mass incarceration
in Chicago,

and you look at who is now
actually committing,

you know, acts of violence

and where young people
are acting out

with enormous fear,
rage, despair,

broken-heartedness, right,

these are kids
whose family members

have been cycling in
and out of the prison system.

These are kids who've
grown up believing

that no matter what they do,
one way or another,

they're going to jail.

These are young folks
who grew up

in the age
of mass incarceration,

and, you know, we want
to just blame them and say,

"We got to get tough on them."

Tough on them like you got tough

on their daddy
or their granddaddy?

Tough on them like that?
How did that turn out?

- The state's prisons
are filled with the sons

and grandsons of America's
war on crime,

and for every one of them,
there is a family,

a workplace,

a community that is changing
because they are gone.

- At first he told me
he was out of town.

- I kept on
asking my stepsister,

so she got irritated,
and she told me.

She said he was in prison.

I was sad, angry.

He left me

without saying no good-bye.

??? ???

A prison is where you have
to stay away from your family

for a long time,

and the cops have to tell you
when to wash up,

when to eat,
when to go to sleep,

when to wake up,
and do everything.

He has to stay in there,

and I'm not able
to see him on my birthday,

but he might come back one day.

??? ???

- In Flint, Michigan,

the entire community
was soon consumed

with trying to figure out
what had happened to the water,

but without any
official warning,

the people continued to drink
and bathe in it,

with children at greatest risk.

??? ???

I want to understand
the dangers to children,

so I'm meeting
Dr. Lawrence Reynolds,

a pediatrician who's president

of the local
children's hospital.

He's also a longtime
Flint resident...

So much beautiful
greenery and life,

that's what kids
should be experiencing.

- Oh, yes.

- And remembers
how he and his colleagues

scrambled to figure out
what was happening.

- An associate of mine
worked at Hurley Hospital,

and the Hurley Hospital
lab did about 60%

of the blood lead levels
in the city of Flint,

and she compared 2014,
before the change,

to 2015 and on,
after the change,

and showed that there
was at least a doubling

or a tripling of elevated
blood lead levels.

Lead is a neurotoxin,
and it can cause damage.

- When you had
all those findings,

and you presented them
to the state, what happened?

- They implied that her
analysis was flawed,

her data was insufficient,

and they basically
discounted it.

The mayor went out of town
to see the pope

and then to a hockey game

that night, but we told him,

"You have 48 hours
to declare an emergency,

or as the health community,

we will do it,"

and so that's what we did.

- This was already
September 2015,

a year and a half
after the water switch.

- So all during the time,

the leadership
of the Michigan Department

of Health and Human Services,

who were supposed to protect
the public health,

did very little.

- Right, stalling,
stalling, stalling.

- That's right.

The problem is compounded,
because as pediatricians,

we tell parents if
you're not going to breastfeed,

use formula,

and most parents use
the powdered formula

that you mix with tap water.

- Yeah.

- So for the first six months,

we have exposed
a group of children

to lead-poisoned water,

while our city, state,

and county government has said,

"Oh, don't worry,
everything's all right."

- And Dr. Reynolds says
that the damage

lead can do to small children
is horrific.

It can impair learning,
attentiveness,

basic problem-solving,

and the capacity
to control aggression.

Later in life, lead poisoning
can make it difficult

to hold down a job
or stay out of prison.

You were chosen for
the governor's task force

to write a comprehensive
report on the crisis,

so these are supposed
to be the, you know,

most qualified
experts in the state.

So what conclusion
did you come to?

- For the first two months,
every time we met,

the question was,

"Why are we even here
discussing this?

This should not
have happened."

Then, three months
into the process,

we had a lull
in our conversation,

and one of my counterparts
said... excuse me...

"How many of you guys
are waking up in the middle

of the night
thinking about this?"

It was so egregious,

so outrageous that
our government would do this,

and everybody raised their hand.

It didn't matter what their
political affiliation was.

It didn't matter what part
of the state they were from.

It did not matter what their
professional experience was.

It's just unconscionable.

- Yeah.

- Brothers and sisters!

[cheers and applause]

Hermanos y hermanas!

[cheers and applause]

We did it!

[cheers and applause]

We now have a law,

a law that says
real estate developers

can do their work
and build their buildings,

but whenever they
come to the city,

you have to guarantee us
affordable housing.

- Bill de Blasio's plan
to allow new building

but require affordable housing

sounds reasonable to me,

but I hear it's
very controversial.

So before I go
interview the mayor,

I'm sitting down
with a few housing activists

to see what they think.

- We have a saying
in the tenant movement.

Real estate in New York
is like oil in Texas.

Anyone who loves this city
has to see

that the experience
of gentrification

is changing what it means
to be a New Yorker,

changing what New York is,

and a lot of us are
very committed to stopping that

and to instituting
a different vision

of what we could be
doing in this city.

- That's Sam Stein,
an activist and academic

who researches housing issues

at the City University
of New York.

Oh, hi, Michelle.
How are you?

Michelle Neugebauer
runs a housing nonprofit

in one of Brooklyn's
poorest neighborhoods.

They try to buy properties
to devote to

affordable housing
before the private equity firms

can get them.

Guess what the subject was.

- Gentrification.
- Yeah.

- How about ethnic cleansing?

Is that too strong
of a statement?

- Ethnic cleansing?
- It's a little powerful,

and people often will tie it
to killing and murder.

In a way, it is.
You're killing off people.

- It's long-term killing.
- Exactly.

Displacement has an effect,

a long-term effect that people
don't often think about.

- That's Rob Robinson.

His ideas may sound extreme,

but he says they're based
on lived experience.

Years ago, he tells us,
he was living in Florida,

had a long-term desk job
when he was suddenly let go.

He ended up
on the streets for years.

You ever guess as to
how many there are like you?

- In New York City alone,
probably about 20,000 people

who have a work history,
capable of working,

but the economic situation
makes it difficult.

- We have a self-professed
progressive mayor

who has been able to accomplish
a lot of things,

and yet when it comes
to housing,

we haven't had a fresh approach

that really takes
the fundamental right

to housing seriously.

Mayor De Blasio's housing plan

is not exactly
what it sounds like.

- But more good than bad.
- I don't know.

More the same than different.

- We talked a long time.

They threw around
a bunch of numbers.

In a nutshell,
they say the affordable

housing in the mayor's plan

is simply not affordable

to most people living
in the poor neighborhoods

where the plan
is being launched.

- We think the housing should
match the incomes of the people

that live
in the neighborhood now.

- The mayor sees what you see.

Would he, if he were
sitting here,

just tell you
he does not agree with you?

- I think he thinks
that by building

more affordable housing,

regardless of who
it's affordable for,

that's going to solve
gentrification.

- And you're saying
in response to that?

- You're wrong.
You're wrong.

It's gonna increase
gentrification.

- Sometimes we have
to look in the mirror...

I don't care
who we are... and reflect

about what we're doing,
how we live.

Are we living by principles
and values, right,

that values community

and other people and all people?

- We should all be working on
changing people's values

and people's minds,
but policy is often

where it starts
and what drives it.

- So part of our problem,
Norman, is political will.

- You met my wife Chirlane
back in Los Angeles.

- Hi. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Hi.
It's good to see you again.

- Good to see you again.
- Oh, we can do that.

- Yes, it's a free country.
- So good to see you again.

How are you, sir?
- So good to see you.

When an American icon
is at city hall,

we stop everything,
so you qualify.

[laughter]

- Okay.
- You qualify.

- So my interest
is discussing housing.

- Yes.

- The homeless.
- Yeah.

- I mean, I understand there are
some 60,0000 people homeless.

- Almost.

- And 23,000 of them
are children.

- Yeah. Even as late as 2002,
folks in our homeless shelters

were primarily
single individuals.

Today the typical
shelter resident

is a member of a family

with something very specific
to do each day.

It's a child who goes to
school or it's someone

who goes off to work... sadly,

typically to a low-wage
job... but

they cannot afford
better than a shelter,

and what's happened one part

because of the recession,
you know,

knocking so many people

out economically but also
because of gentrification.

- You don't want that?

- It's not that I don't want it.

Gentrification is
a double-edged sword.

With it comes a lot
of investment in communities

and in many ways improvements
in a lot of the things

that are in those communities
but at the same time,

way too much displacement

and upsetting of
the opportunities for folks

who have been in the community
for a long time.

- Right. So and what do you do?
What have you done about that?

- We have passed
a law requiring developers

to create affordable housing.

If they don't create
affordable housing,

they do not get
a permit to build.

- But there's also
an organization,

or perhaps a couple
of organizations,

that feel the rezoning,

that your administration

is responsible for is resulting
in gentrification.

- If you've got a supply
of housing that,

because of the free market,

is becoming less
and less accessible,

you can subsidize some to
keep it affordable for people,

but you've got to build
new housing too.

- But is your plan really gonna

open up the door to speculation?

That's the bottom line.

- Speculation is going to
happen one way or another.

I fundamentally believe that.

Anyone who thinks
there are neighborhoods

that will be untouched by
change is kidding themselves.

So there are some who almost,

I think, suggest better to leave

a neighborhood in tough shape

than to take
the risk of development.

I argue that's not fair
to the residents

of those neighborhoods.

We can put stronger rules
into the process.

We can put more requirements

for affordable
housing into the process.

We can put government investment

and subsidies into the process.

That's how we create

some balance and fairness
in the equation.

It's the best shot we've got.

- What hope is there for
neighborhoods like Englewood,

where thousands of men are
missing from their families,

from the economy,
from their community?

I'm on my way to find them,

two hours outside of the city
in Sheridan prison.

It feels like
a different world out here,

but most
of Sheridan's population

comes from the same handful
of zip codes

in south and west Chicago.

- Good morning, brothers.
- Good morning.

- Morning.
- All right, for those of you

that don't know me,
my name's Benny Lee.

It's an honor this morning
to be accompanied

by our brother Common here.

- I Just wanted to say peace
to each and every one of y'all,

and I'm just here to listen
and check things out.

- By a show of hands, how many
of y'all been to prison before?

This is not your first time
in prison.

You know, it's been proven
that over 70%

of the people
in Illinois prisons

are repeated offenders.

These are people that's going
in and out of prison,

and what I found
with my own experience

is that I was ill-prepared
to go back into society

and break the cycle.

How many of y'all
tired of hustling?

See, I was tired of hustling.

I came out the time before
the last time tired of hustling.

Because I ran into some
of these barriers, I figured,

well, I got more confidence
in my hustling skills

than I do in working.

I was trained
as a street hustler.

Also, because I've been
to prison so many times,

I was a trained convict.

I had a very strong
prison culture value system

that I was functioning
with for so many years.

How many of y'all know
that there is a part of you

that you've been trained,

and you normally respond
like that guy?

- What I am training
is my change.

You know, I was so used to
doing negative all my life,

my gangbanging,
and my drug dealing,

and everything would come out,
my hustling side.

It's vicious out there,
so I am changing within myself,

what I need to prepare
for the danger

that's waiting for me.

- I go back to when I first
started my reentry process,

and they told me,

"Okay, you got to
go job searching,"

and they gave me
a piece of paper and said,

"Put a r??sum?? together."

The only thing I could put on
the r??sum?? was my name

'cause I had never
worked in my life,

didn't complete school,
never had a driver's license,

never had a social
security card,

so the message
I got from that is,

nobody's gonna hire me.

Right? I've been
out of prison 32 years,

and there are still licenses
I can't apply for

because of my prior convictions.

Feeling so inferior,
giving myself the message.

"Quit.
You don't belong here."

But where can I go?

Back in my box.

You know, it was
Frederick Douglass that said,

"If there is no struggle,
there can be no progress."

I mean, let me
hear you say that.

If there is no struggle,
there can be no progress.

See, and it's going
to be a struggle.

Making your transition from
prison back into the community,

it's going to be a struggle.

- After the group meeting,

I sit down
with Anthony Hawkins.

Like many
of his fellow inmates,

he's here
on a nonviolent drug charge.

How long you been in?

- I'm 30 months now.

- So you about to go back home.

How long?
- Two weeks, man.

May 6th, man, I'll be back home,

day before my boy birthday.

Son will be 9.

- That's a beautiful thing,
the day before your boy...

- It's great, man.
It's all he talk about.

- He's like, "Yeah,
you gonna be there?"

- Yeah, "You gonna be home
for my birthday, Dad?"

Oh, yeah, I'm going
to be there, man.

- That's excellent.
When you're going back,

like, when you're getting out,

what's your plans?
What you thinking about?

- I got probably
a notebook of things, man,

that I want to do, man.

Short-term goals,
long-term goals, you know,

but my main focus now
is just stay alive, man,

stay out of trouble.

Then early, man, you know,

I just want to at least
have me enough money

to take care of my family,
take care of myself.

I ain't got to revert back
to selling drugs

and nothing like that, you know.

??? ???

- If I got a duty
and a responsibility,

when I have one,

I like to do it well,
so I'm gonna...

- I'm learning
that the history of Flint

is a history of people fighting
to take back their city,

and a key figure in all this

is a city councilman
named Eric Mays,

a former union organizer
for the United Auto Workers.

Today I'm going to meet him.

- So this is
city council chambers.

It's where we hold
our meetings at.

Over here is the wall
where all of the past mayors.

- You have a woman mayor
now though, right?

- Yeah, her picture will go.

- She hasn't come on here yet.
- Right.

That's a nice picture.

Before my time, in 1855.

- I heard that
there were residents

that started congregating
in your house

to talk about this issue.

- People was complaining
of rashes, hair falling out.

The water was discolored
and brown.

I kind of just listened
to people and listened.

We started thinking the only
solution was to switch back

to Detroit,

a source that had been
proven and tested.

- You're hearing that
your constituents

that are complaining about it.

You're believing it.
What is your next step?

What do you do then?

- I invited the head
of Detroit Water and Sewers

to a council meeting,

and she let them know

that Detroit was ready
to do business with Flint

if need be in an emergency,

and then we passed a vote

that passed City Council
unanimously.

- But Councilman Mays says
switching back

to Detroit was easier
said than done.

The move
would need the approval

of Flint's emergency manager.

- Well, even though the council

voted unanimously to switch back

at that period of time,

the emergency manager
didn't listen to the people.

He didn't listen
to the elected officials.

He said no,

and so that kept us
with Flint River water,

even though it was not
a good source.

- Okay, I'm confused, though,
so take me back a couple years

and explain
what an emergency manager is

and how this even came to be.

- The law say when there is
a financially-distressed city,

then the governor can appoint
an emergency manager to deal

with correcting the finances.

- Okay.
- From what we understood,

we was against emergency
managers coming in.

We believe democracy is

you vote for people,
and they represent you.

We don't believe
one man or woman

should be sent into a city
by a governor

and take over the duties

and the responsibilities
of elected officials,

both councils, mayors.

It's like a dictatorship.

As a matter of fact,
he put a order on me.

An emergency manager
can issue an order,

and the order
on Councilman Eric Mays

tried to tell me when to speak,

who I could speak to,

how our meetings was conducted.

- You're saying that
a non-elected official can say

that an elected official
can be silenced

for doing what you're
supposed to be doing,

what the people of Flint
have voted for you

to be doing,
and that's all legal.

That's crazy.

- Well, what I'm telling you
is factual,

and it's not made up.

And, you know,
we want America to know,

because it has divided
our community,

and we don't think it's right.

[somber music]

??? ???

- What is happening in my city?

I began this journey

looking at the killing
of a 17-year-old boy

and at violence that seems
as natural in Chicago

as August thunderstorms.

Let me do one more freestyle
over that beat.

But all around me,
I see the city change.

??? Land of the free,
it's the home of the brave ???

??? I wonder [inaudible]
like a slave ???

[cheers and applause]

A girl from the projects
grows up

to a defeat
a tough-on-crime prosecutor.

- The work is just beginning.

- Real accountability!

[together]
Real accountability!

- A movement
led by young women of color

brings down
a police superintendent

and rewrites the city's script

around race
and criminal justice.

??? This is what I'm telling you,
I'm not obliged ???

??? I'm here for the South Side
and the West Side ???

And even in Sheridan prison,

a father faces
the long odds of reentry.

- Hi. Your name, please.
- Anthony Hawkins.

- I.D. number.

- Holding on to the hope

that he and his family
can escape a future

that seemed like it
had already been written.

[engine roars, rumbles]

- What's up, man?

- Daddy.

- Oh, my God.

Where did you just come from?

Where you just come from?

Where you just come from?
Where you just come from?

Why you sneak up on me
like that, huh?

What's up, boo?

- Nothing.
- Don't stop, baby.

- I'm still mad at my daddy.

- What you say?

- I'm still mad at you.
- Why are you mad at your dad?

- 'Cause you lied at me.
You lied to me.

- About what?

- You said you was out of town.
- Two years ago.

- I'm still mad at you.

- Can't possibly be mad
that long.

What's up, boo?
- Hi, Rasha.

- You want to come have
a race with us?

- They're too little for me.

- Mm-mm.
- Yeah.

Boy, my head too big.
Check it out.

- Mm-mm, it can fit you.
- I look cool now?

- Mm-hmm.
- I love you, man, okay?

Don't be mad at me no more.

- I'm the king of the world!

I'm the king of the world!

Hi!

[hopeful music]

??? ???

female narrator: On the next
"America Divided"...

- Hi. Are you the landlord?
- Yeah.

- The way this housing provider
does business

is to discriminate
against African-Americans.

- Does Flint have a water crisis

because of emergency managers?

[crowd boos]

- What makes Pinellas
so particularly egregious?

- The lowest achieving
elementary schools.

Pinellas has five.

- There's no school you can
just go to that's not a D

or an F school.
- It hurts my heart.

We're talking about schools
that are now F

and failing schools
that were A schools.

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