Cenk, it wouldn't be another week
in this country without the killing
of another black man.
32-year-old Winston Smith was
killed by Federal Marshals in
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
And you would recognize the name of
the city because that city has
been reeling in the wake of
the George Floyd murder over a year
ago, the Derek Chauvin trial,
the Dante Wright murder that took
place during the Chauvin trial and
now the murder of Winston Smith.
I want to read this one quote
saying that 32-year-old Winston
Smith killed by Federal Marshals in
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Original reports Winston was
wanted on murder charges, but
authorities later said the task
force members were looking for
a man wanted on a warrant for being
a felon in possession of a gun.
So in other words, the original
report that came out stated that
he was wanted for murder and
that was the cover under which
the authorities were going to,
that was the warrant that they were
seeking to execute.
But as information came out it says
that Winston Smith was not actually
wanted for murder.
He was wanted for
missing trial and for the possible
possession of a firearm.
Two totally different reasons to be
going after someone and
two totally different ways of
looking at the case.
There was a woman who was in
the car with him, and
this is what she said or
rather this is a quote about her.
A woman who says she was with
Winston Smith when he was killed by
police said Thursday through her
attorneys that she never saw a gun
on Smith and never saw one in his
vehicle, contradicting the initial
law enforcement reports.
State investigators say Smith, 32,
fired a gun from his vehicle as
deputies closed in, although
there's no body camera or a squad
dashcam footage of the shooting.
And, Cenk and Lance, this is the,
I don't want to say the odd thing
because we're starting to get used
to whether or not there's, body
cams are optional at this point,
right?
We spend all kinds
of money when we talk about reform.
We're always talk about spending
more money for more training and
more technology, but
we see now more than ever what they
do is they have training to cut
off the technology.
So they haven't made it clear
whether or not there's any footage
at all, Cenk, but they are making
it clear that there's no body cam
or dashcam footage and so
it's kind of murky at this point.
But yet again, in the same city
where so many things have been
happening over the last year, yet
another murder of a black
man by authorities,
this time Federal Marshals.
>> All right,
so first let me jump in and
clarify three things that I can
tell you that we know well enough.
All right, so number one,
the Minnesota Justice Coalition
President Johnson B Collins
questioned why law enforcement,
according to The Minneapolis Post,
why law enforcement would not want
to release footage if they believe
their actions were justified?
Okay, so it appears that there
probably is footage and
they are not releasing it because
their actions were not justified.
Okay, number two,
the United States Marshals right
now don't wear body cameras.
I would never believe law
enforcement that choose not to wear
body cameras if they tell me,
just take my word for
what happened in that shooting.
Just trust me on it.
No, the answer is a hard no.
That is, overwhelming evidence
shows that when police don't show
you the video and they tell you
something happened and
then they show you the video later,
they're almost always lying.
We did a story just a couple of
weeks ago, where the police said
that a guy that they had chased had
run into a tree and
hit the tree and died.
And then they released the video
and it turns out, no,
he had not hit a tree.
They dragged him out of the car,
handcuffed him,
dragged him by his feet face first,
and pummeled him and
beat him to death.
So now in the case of the Marshals,
first they say,
he was wanted for murder.
Then they say, well,
maybe not wanted for murder.
Then they say he had a weapon and
then discharged the weapon.
But wait, let's break it down.
So that gets me to conclusion
number three.
The member's task force said that
the person at hand here,
Winston Smith, had, quote, made
contact or, I'm sorry, the Marshals
had made contact with him, Smith.
Made contact with him, okay, that's
a curious way of phrasing it.
Then they said it was, quote, in an
attempt to take him into custody.
So these are weird vague
descriptions, okay, but
it gets way weirder.
According to them, at one point
a Hennepin County Sheriff's Deputy
and Ramsey County Sheriff's Deputy
serving on the task force
discharged their weapons,
striking the man.
No, when somebody's a danger to
the cops in any way shape or form,
and we've covered this
a thousand times,
they were driving in my vicinity.
They call that, attempted murder.
The guy was coming to get me.
It was the worst thing that
ever happened.
Me and everyone I knew in town was
in danger and I had to kill him on
the spot, right?
This is not that.
This is the task force discharged
their weapon,
happening to strike the man.
That doesn't sound like you were in
imminent danger, but it gets worse.
I'm reading from
the Minnesota Post again.
Early stages of BCA investigation
found evidence Smith fired his
weapon from inside the vehicle.
The BCA reported crime scene
personnel, quote,
recovered a handgun as well as
spent cartridge cases from inside
the driver's compartment.
It's still unclear whether the gun
was fired during this
encounter or not.
No, there is no way that he fired
at the cops and
they didn't say it, okay?
There's loose talk about there
was a gun and
it was discharged at some time.
No, if they killed him and
he fired at them,
they would definitely tell you that
he fired at them.
So I'm telling you right now,
I guarantee you that they're lying,
Lance.
>> I just want to say two quick
things.
One, yes, the US Marshals don't
have to wear body cameras.
But what's more intriguing is that
local law enforcement
apparently they can be told by
US Marshals that they have to turn
their body cameras off,
which is also super messed up.
But speaking to Ben's points,
I find right wing conservatives
like to say after the fact, whether
it's Derek Chauvin or whoever gets
murdered by the police,
that he was bad because he actually
was taking drugs or he was high on
fentanyl or whatever it was.
Or in this case, he had priors,
did all that.
That doesn't really matter to me.
I don't think that gives cops
the ability to be able to act as
judge dread in these cases, right?
It just seems time and time again,
when the cops are acting as
the executioners in this case and
we don't even know what really
happened because we
don't have the body cam footage.
On top of everything else,
do we have to justify it after
the fact because he was actually
a danger to society?
That's not the way any of this is
supposed to work.
>> Yeah, can I, sorry, Ben,
go ahead.
>> No, I was going to say
it shouldn't work like that.
But you just outlined the way,
the method that they use
every single time.
It's like not only are these
families are having to grieve
the loss of their loved ones, but
they're also having to go into full
PR mode to protect the reputation
and the legacy of that
person before they've even had
a chance to have a funeral.
Because these are massive
PR machines, Cenk,
as you were pointing out.
The language that they use there,
it's massively passive and
insidious.
I mean, they're saying just enough
to cause confusion in the plausible
deniability in the minds of people
reading it and
to protect their police officers.
So you're not only having a fight
on the reality these families have
lost loved ones, but
now they're also having to go
into full PR professional mode in
order to protect the reputations of
their loved ones.
>> So it's not that you don't need
US Marshals or policing,
of course you do, right?
There's serious crimes afoot.
And Winston Smith did something he
clearly should not have done.
It was four years ago,
it was assault and robbery.
It was ex-girlfriend, he was
sentenced to two years in prison.
But apparently, for
whatever reason,
the sentence was stayed for
three years.
I don't know if it was his first
offense or something.
So he never even actually
went to prison.
That's the decision that the court
system made.
So you get the sense of
the severity of the crime,
he did not even go to prison, okay?
Now, does that mean they shouldn't
have gone to, by the way,
the reason they were going to get
him is because then apparently he
had a firearm which is
a violation of the term, so
he had to go to prison.
So should they have gone
to pick him up?
Yes, yes,
it's not to minimize those crimes.
Those crimes are serious, okay?
But should someone be executed?
I mean, and right wing be
really careful in your answer here.
Should someone be executed for
having a firearm when they
shouldn't?
because they went to go pick
him up for
having a firearm when he shouldn't.
Okay, no, of course,
it doesn't matter if you're left or
right wing.
If you're a decent person and
an American citizen you know that
they should not be executed for
that, they should be apprehended.
So when the US Marshals say
somebody happened to discharge
a weapon and the guy happened to
get hit and he happened to die and
he had a weapon in his car and
it was discharged at some point you
know that he did not fire at them.
There is no way in the world the
US Marshals, who are desperately
trying to hide the criminal in
their ranks, who shot and
killed Winston Smith, is not
going to tell you they were fired
at if they were fired at, okay?
So I would bet any amount of money.
So if you're still one of those
folks who grew up on mainstream
media and you watch local news and
they told you all the cops
are great and you watch the movies
and the TV shows and NYPD Blue, and
they're just the world's
greatest human beings and
they never ever lie.
Okay, look,
man, there's a lot of bridges to
sell you and COVID vaccine causes
people to be magnetic and
even though Trump lost 60 court
cases there were millions of votes
that none of the courts could find.
I know you'll believe anything, but
for the rest of us, no.
Every action by the US Marshals in
this case indicates that they did
something deeply wrong and they're
trying very hard to hide it.
And that goes to my last point,
which is thin blue line is just
the code for I'm going to protect
everybody in my gang no matter what
they did wrong, including killing
people like Winston Smith.