Jeh Johnson on the Unrest in Wisconsin

JEH JOHNSON, FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Christiane, thanks for having me on. I think that there are numerous elements of what is happening in Wisconsin. One, you have people who are rightly upset at what seems to be the endless stream of use of excessive force by our nation’s law enforcement against members of the African-American community who are on the streets protesting peacefully as I did in June, after George Floyd was killed here in Montclair, New Jersey. I guess that makes me a protester. I was on the streets, I marched peaceably. There were a number of people on the streets doing exactly that. You have another category of people, frankly, who are concerned, who are upset and can be provoked into something by an unnecessarily antagonistic law enforcement presence in the situation. There is opportunistic looting by people who don’t even know the name Jacob Blake or George Floyd, and then you have — and this is what troubles me about Wisconsin. Now, apparently the presence of groups or individuals of some type of self- proclaimed militia, which cannot be there for any good purpose, certainly not at the request of local authorities who are adding to the danger of this situation, as your broadcast just a second ago indicates.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, let’s just remind everybody what happened on Sunday night. There is video. It didn’t go as viral as what happened to George Floyd. Jacob Blake is still alive but his parents, his family is saying, you know, he’s fighting for his life. It will take a miracle if he’s not permanently paralyzed. Let us show the video of what happened on Sunday where it’s clear that there is some kind of altercation around the back of a car, allegedly some of his young children are in the car, and then he’s seen to be walking around again to the door of the car trying to get into the car. And there are policemen behind him, and you hear these shots, and then we know what happened. So, this is the video that I’m talking about. I want to know — I guess I want to know from you — first of all, there’s been no, you know, reaction from the police, we don’t know what’s happened or what will happen to the policemen in question, and we don’t know, certainly — the family says they haven’t had a full explanation of everything. So, how, especially now, does this keep happening, I guess, is what I want to ask you?

JOHNSON: Christiane, I believe that the cry, the grievance that we hear so much in this country and beyond this country, Black Lives Matter, is legitimate.