amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> hunter biden thought that his legal jeopardy was going to be over. he went to the courthouse to proceed -- to plead guilty. instead, the trump appointed judge rejected it, giving lawyers about 30 days to come back and explain why she should rubberstamp this deal. amy: hunter biden's legal problems continue to mount

after a judge suspends a plea deal in a stunning move. we will talk to the intercept's ryan grim. then we look at how attack dogs are terrorizing and mauling prisoners inside the united states. we will speak to a reporter from insider and a man in -- and a man who was mauled by a dog inside a virginia prison. >> they took me out. while i was handcuffed, it bit my right leg. amy: a police officer is fired in ohio for letting a dog attack and unarmed black man, whose hands were up during a traffic stop. we will speak with a professor who has closely studied the use of police dogs. >> my article demonstrates a history of settler

colonialism and slave hunting in the united states, as a precursor to the use of police canines, and argues that we do not recognize the level of force that police can nine's inflict -- canines inflict. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in niger, military officers announced they overthrew wednesday president mohamed bazoum, imposing a curfew and shutting down borders in the west african nation. colonel-major amadou abdramane addressed the country on national television late wednesday, flanked by other members of the military. >> the secretary-general of the ministry will take care of day-to-day business. the defense and security

forces are managing the situation. all external partners are asked not to interfere. amy: the president vowed on social media to fight his ouster. meanwhile, protesters took to the streets of the capital niamey. ,>> we are here to defend my chrissy -- defendant democracy. we are here to ensure commitment to the rule of law. democracy must prevail. the president has been elected for five years. amy: the u.s. immediately called for bazoum's release as the u.n. and other powers condemned the coup. niger is a key ally for europe and the u.s., which has 2 drone bases and some 800 troops in the country, where it has been engaged in counter-terrorism training since 2002. violence by armed groups has since surged throughout the region, killing civilians

and displacing millions. it's not clear if those behind the coup were trained by the u.s. military, which has trained officers behind recent coups in neighboring burkina faso and mali, and other west african nations. earlier this year, secretary of state antony blinken met with president bazoum and positioned the u.s. as a better security partner to niger over the russian mercenary group wagner, which has expanded in the region in recent years. this all comes as niger and the greater sahel region is in the throes of a humanitarian disaster due to the ongoing conflict and the effects of the climate crisis. in neighboring mali, human rights watch has released a new report detailing atrocities committed against civilians by the u.s.-backed malian army and wagner group russian mercenaries. the report describes extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, rapes and looting that have taken place since december 2022. mali has suffered ongoing insecurity and deadly attacks by armed groups, which foreign powers have failed to stem. two back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021 have further

destabilized the country. earlier this year mali expelled thousands of french troops and you and peace keepers. -- and u.n. peacekeepers. in afghanistan, the taliban government says it has closed down all women's beauty salons nationwide. the ministry for the propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice had given salons one month to comply with an order to cease operations, shuttering some of the last remaining spaces where afghan women and girls could congregate. this comes as the biden administration says it's sending a diplomatic delegation to qatar for a rare meeting with taliban representatives. state department spokesperson vedant patel said the talks will focus on security, humanitarian aid, afghanistan's economy, drug trafficking, and women's rights. >> this is not intended to mean any kind of indication of recognition or any kind of indication of normalization or legitimacy of the taliban. amy: israeli forces fatally

shot a 14-year-old palestinian boy in the head during an overnight raid on the city of qalqilya in the occupied west bank. witnesses said israeli soldiers responded with live rounds after palestinian youths threw rocks at them. faris abu samra is at least the 37th palestinian child killed by israeli forces so far this year. ghana's parliament has voted to outlaw capital punishment, with a narrow exception for cases of high treason, making ghana the 124th country in the world to abolish the death penalty. the west african nation hasn't carried out an execution since 1993, but the change in law will see death sentences for nearly 180 prisoners commuted to life in prison. in chile, teachers walked off the job wednesday for a 24-hour nationwide strike, demanding the government make good on promises to reimburse teachers for a "historical debt" incurred when the former dictatorship of augusto pinochet slashed their salaries and pensions. this is union leader paulina cartagena vidal, speaking

from a march of teachers in chile's capital, santiago. >> we are demanding payment of historical debt. we are also demanding a retirement incentive bonus. amy: the u.s. federal reserve voted wednesday to raise interest rates by another quarter percent, taking the cost of borrowing to its highest level in over 20 years. it's the 11th such rate increase in less than a year and a half. in a letter to fed chair jerome powell, democratic senator elizabeth warren of massachusetts called the fed's moves "needless rate increases that threaten the economy" and noted the unemployment rate among black workers rose sharply last month, to 6%. senator warren added, quote, "extensive research shows that black workers are usually among the first to lose their jobs when the labor market falters. accordingly, sharp increases in black unemployment can be

a strong predictor of an impending recession." senate majority leader mitch mcconnell sparked concerns over his health wednesday after he suddenly stopped speaking during a news conference and had to be led away by his republican colleagues. >> this week, there has been good bipartisan cooperation. amy: the 81-year-old republican leader had just begun speaking to reporters about the senate's record-breaking $886 billion military budget, when he froze and stared off into space. after a 20 second pause, republican conference chair john barrasso led mcconnell away. mcconnell returned to the podium a short time later, insisting he felt fine. senator mcconnell suffered several falls this year including an incident in march that sidelined him from the senate for six

weeks with a concussion and broken ribs. a trump-appointed federal judge in delaware has suspended a plea deal between hunter biden and federal prosecutors. the president's son had agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges as part of a deal that would have allowed him to avoid prosecution on a separate gun charge. but on wednesday, u.s. district judge mary ellen noreika ruled the agreement lacked legal precedent, and questioned the broad scope of the immunity deal which biden's lawyers say would have protected him against other charges. by the end of the day, hunter biden pleaded not guilty to three tax and gun charges. we'll have more on this story after headlines. here in new york, former columbia university ob-gyn robert hadden was sentenced tuesday to 20 years in a federal prison for sexually assaulting patients during examinations over 20 years. u.s. disctrict judge richard berman handed down the maximum prison sentence allowed in the case, noting that that federal prosecutors believe hadden

abused at least 245 women. lawyers representing survivors say colombia has a history of ignoring hadden's behavior and protecting its reputation instead of acting in the victims' best interests. so far, the university and hospital have paid out 230 $6 million to settle claims by over 200 former patient. one of the survivors, evelyn yang, recently wrote, quote, "to this day, i'm still waiting for columbia university to notify former patients that a now twice-convicted sex offender worked at columbia for 20-plus years. they've been saying that that's not their responsibility, but how does that make sense?" yang wrote. yang is the wife of the former provincial candidate, andrew yang. an ohio police officer filmed unleashing a police dog on an unarmed black truck driver during a july 4th traffic stop has been fired. the circleville police department said actions taken by officer ryan speakman, quote "did not

meet the standards and expectations we hold for our police officers." unquote. video of the incident shows the 23-year-old truck driver, jadarrius rose had his hands in the air when speakman directed the dog to attack him. rose was hospitalized with significant bleeding on his arms, then released and jailed on felony charges of failure to comply. we will have more on the use of k-9 units by police and prison guards later in the broadcast. and sinead o'connor, remembered as much for her haunting vocals as for her fearless and outspoken protests, has died at the age of 56. sinead o'connor rose to stardom in 1990 when she released her version of the prince song "nothing compares 2 u". in 1992, she performed bob marley's "war" on saturday night live, then proceeded to rip up a photo of pope john paul ii on live tv, declaring quote "fight the enemy."

-- "fight the real enemy." the move, a protest against systemic child abuse in the catholic church, of which she was a survivor, provoked widespread uproar. she addressed her snl performance days later during an interview with entertainment tonight. >> i find his presence in ireland hilarious. the people who are responsible for telling lies in the first place. the destruction and murder of an entire race of people, and subsequent overtaking of the educational systems lead to distortions of historical fact. amy: a decade later in 2002, an investigation by the boston globe shined a spotlight on sexual abuse and its cover-up in the church. sinead o'connor was also an ally to lgbtq communities and marched for abortion rights decades before it was legalized in ireland.

she converted to islam and started using the name shuhada sadaqat in 2018, she spoke out for palestinian rights, respecting the palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against israel and once saying, quote "on a human level, nobody with any sanity, including myself, would have anything but sympathy for the palestinian plight. there's not a sane person on earth who in any way sanctions what the israeli authorities are doing." sinead o'connor had 4 children. her cause of death has not been revealed. her son took his own life a year and a half ago. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. hunter biden's legal problems continue to mount after a judge suspends a plea deal in a stunning move.

the judge put the plea deal on hold, reached between hunter biden and federal prosecutors. the president's son had agreed in june to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges as part of a deal that would have allowed him to avoid facing prosecution on a separate gun charge. but on wednesday a trump appointed federal judge questioned the constitutionality of the agreement, saying the deal lacked legal precedent and was possibly quote "not worth the paper it is printed on." during a stunning court session, the judge, maryellen noreika, also questioned the broad scope of the immunity deal which biden's lawyers say would have protected him from facing charges on other unrelated issues. by the end of the day, hunter biden pleaded not guilty to three tax and gun charges. he is expected to withdraw the plea if a new deal can be reached. ahead of next year's election, republicans have been intensifying their attacks on hunter biden from his personal life to his multimillion-dollar overseas business deals related to ukraine and china. last week the republican-led oversight committee held a

hearing where two former irs officials alleged hunter biden had received preferential treatment. during the hearing, republican congressmember marjorie taylor greene of georgia displayed nude pictures of hunter biden engaged in sex acts. hunter biden's lawyer has since filed an ethics complaint against greene for displaying the photos during a televised hearing. coverage of hunter biden continues to dominate right-wing news outlets. as of this morning, fox news had 12 separate articles about hunter biden on its homepage. on breitbart.com, hunter's name appears 15 times on the site's homepage. we are joined now by ryan grim, washington, d.c. bureau chief for the intercept. he recently cowrote the article, "what does the fbi have on hunter and joe biden?" let's begin with what happened in court yesterday. all the news in the morning was a deal was about to be sealed, and then this hours

long hearing that ended up with the deal being stayed for 30 days. what happened? ryan: judge noreika have the signoff of democratic senators and you could say for from all sides considered the judge to a did not. dashwood and if i problems with the deal that did need to be resolved or worked out. the most obvious one was they didn't agree on what the interpretation of the deal was. hunter biden's side said the deal meant any problem prosecutors remotely looked into, meant that no future prosecutors could ever bring a case against him for those things. that was hunter biden's interpretation and the judge drew that out of his legal

team. they asked the prosecutors, is that your interpretation of this deal agreement and the prosecutors said no, that is not our interpretation of the agreement, that if we can find violations, particular representing this chinese energy company for instance, or perhaps marie's mom -- burisma, that we can bring that. she ordered the sides to work that part out. the other part is the unprecedented and potentially unconstitutional part. they had come to an agreement that rather than the department of justice monitoring whether or not hunter biden complied with this kind of two years of nonprosecution for his gun charge, that they wanted the judge to oversee it because their argument was, if trump comes back into office, trump would be reckless and biased, and bring cases

against hunter biden in an unfair way and it would be better to have the judge overseeing this. the judge said you might have -- you might have legit of concerns here, but that is not my fault. you think back to the case of the attorney who took on chevron, there were a lot of problems on a judge starts acting as a prosecutor. the judge seen to not want to take that. she told them to go back and figure out the part that they did sort out in the courtroom, and hunter biden agreed he could be prosecuted in the future. he needs to go and figure out who is going to oversee this. it is a pretty narrow question. if hunter biden agrees to let the justice department monitor his prerelease situation, then unless something major happens in the next 30 days, it seems like the judge is going to sign off on this. amy: let's go to the charges that he pleaded not guilty to yesterday, but was going to plead guilty to when the

deal was going to be sealed. can you explain what the tax charges are and what the gun charge is? ryan: not paying his taxes. let's say everybody is innocent until proven guilty but we know he had huge amounts of income and did not pay any taxes. amy: and this was in 2017 and 2018? ryan: right. this is a time that he had written about in his own memoir as being on a long drug fueled vendor. not in a situation where he has been keeping diligent books. money is coming in and going right back out. the right has argued that the charge, more than $100,000, is way too small, that there is enough evidence in the public of the amount of money he was bringing in was over $10 million which would lead to a prison sentence. there is plenty of precedent and plenty of people who have gone to prison for that amount of unpaid taxes.

the gun charge is pretty straightforward. i wonder if most people on the right would find it actually unconstitutional or a violation of the second amendment but basically he bought a gun and there was a form he had to fill out that said are you a current drug user and he checked no. we know from his memoir, from videos he took of himself constantly, that that was not true. aaron isn't -- innocent until proven guilty, but we know he did those things. i would not find it surprising if you had republican saying actually, your second moment rights are not abridged if you are a drug user. that, and the plea deal, it could be a felony but as long as he is on good behavior for two years, he wouldn't get a conviction. amy: this is the white house

press secretary, karine jean-pierre speaking on wednesday. >> hunter biden is a private citizen and this was a personal matter for him. as we have said, the president, the first lady, they love their son and they support him as he continues to rebuild his life. this case was handled independently by the justice department under the leadership of a prosecutor appointed by the former president. amy: this is the first time for a president's son. obviously now, this is a major -- this is of major political interest. so much so, there was a hearing last week, the house oversight committee. can you talk about the significance of that hearing? many people like jim jordan are saying that this proves that it was a successful hearing because that is what weighed in on the judge's

decision. ryan: i don't think that is necessarily the case, because they still have the fundamental problem that kjp mentioned. the prosecutor was appointed by trump. even if you have irs agents who come forward and say we don't think -- we think there was political interference, the fact that biden left in place the trump prosecutor really undermines the case. that hearing did come up and the republican congressional investigations did come up in this long sentencing hearing, because you had this bizarre situation where the prosecutors accused hunter biden's defense team of having somebody on their staff call and say they were from a law firm representing the republicans and ask to have a letter from the ways and means chairman taking --

taken off of the docket. the staffer swears up and down that she did not do that and that she accurately said she was from this particular firm and only wanted publicly identifying information, private information of hunter biden that was in the document to be taken off of the public docket, not the entire thing. the right has kind of gone nuts with this and is calling for the attorneys to be disbarred and is making a huge deal of this. the judge may do some type of independent investigation. in that sense, it did get caught up in this but the fact that the prosecutor is a trump prosecutor and is still on the case and is still standing behind this plea agreement to spite all the pressure from the right, i think it suggests that they haven't quite penetrated yet. but they are not done. they are saying they will

bring former hunter biden business partner devon archer to congress, who the new york post is reporting is going to testify that he knows that joe biden, not president at the time, spoke to a number of hunter biden clients, which would undermine the biden's claim that joe biden was never involved in business dealings. they are trying very much to move beyond hunter biden. they realize they have beaten that issue to death and they are trying to move to joe biden and link him to some of the deals because they think maybe that is the thing that could get this to break out of the right wing cul-de-sac. amy: last question. the headline of the piece you cowrote, "what does the fbi have on hunter and joe biden?" ryan: that was about this 1023 document that was all the rage on the right and that chuck grassley has since released publicly.

this is a document that the fbi produces when somebody comes to them with information. you could produce a 1023 later today if you call the fbi and said you had information. it doesn't mean the information is verified, and it doesn't include any analysis. what it was, was a confidential human source saying they had met with a senior official, and that senior official said that hunter biden was basically shaking them down for extra money, claiming that he was splitting his fee with joe biden. the problem, even if you believe the confidential human source, which the fbi has said was a credible source in the past, you also have to believe the ukrainian oligarch and a lot of republicans including ron johnson have said, we are not sure that this oligarch is telling the true -- telling the truth. then you also have to

believe hunter biden was telling the truth to that oligarch, because hunter biden could also just be telling them that, to use his father's name to get more money. it is a very interesting detail, as part of this whole mosaic. the fbi ultimately found it, not a credible tip that they could prosecute on. amy: ryan graham, thank you for being with us, washington, d.c. bureau chief for the intercept. he writes the newsletter bad , news on substack. we will link to your piece for the intercept. this is democracy now. coming up, a police officer has been fired in ohio for siccing and attack dog on unarmed black man during a traffic stop where the man had his hands up in the air. we will look at the use of attack dogs by police and prison guards. stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪ [music break]

amy: sinead o'connor has died at the age of 56.

this is democracynow, moxie now.org, the war and peace report -- -- -- has been fired. the searchable police departments at taken by officer ryan speakman did not meet the standards and expectations held for a police officer. video of the incident shows a 23-year-old truck driver, jadarrius rose had his hands in the air when the officer directed the dog to mall him -- maul him. he released the dog even though state police officers repeatedly warned him not to. >> do not release the dog with his hands up. do not release the dog with his hands up. did not -- do not release the dogs. get the dog! get the dog off him!

amy: after being attacked by the dog, jadarrius rose was hospitalized with significant bleeding on his arms and booked on felony charges of failure to comply. prior to being pulled over and attacked by the dog, rose had called 911 from his truck, saying he feared the police who were suing him were trying to kill him -- who were pursuing him were trying to kill him. >> they are trying to kill me. >> they are not trying to kill you. >> they are trying to run me off the road. >> so you will stop. >> they are trying to kill me. >> no they are not. >> yes they are. i don't know why they are going so far to keep me in an accident. amy: we are joined by madalyn wasilczuk, assistant professor at the university of south carolina school of law. her in-depth piece for the georgetown law review is headlined "the racialized violence of police canine force." first, if you could start

off by talking about this horrific case and for people who can't see it, you have this police officer releasing a dog on a man who has been instructed to put his arms in the air, and they were. you see a woman officer putting her hands over her face, running from the attack. you see the state troopers warning the police officer, do not release that dog, but he does. how typical is this? not only today but as a history of the use of dogs, especially on people of color in this country? prof. wasilczuk: i think one thing that is so disturbing is we don't know exactly how common it is because no one keeps any statistics at all, or at least not made public nationally, of how many dogs bite people every year, the

races of those people, the reason that the dog was sent on them. this isn't the only time where i have seen people, hands in surrender, have dogs sent on them. i have seen videos of people holding their hands up and having dogs sent on them. having the dogs sent, lifted through a window to be sent on them. sometimes police use dogs on people they don't even know who the target is. joseph pet away in alabama was killed by a police dog when he was repairing a home, working as a handyman, and the police sent a dog inside, and it killed him. this is an example of what is called racism stays the same. dogs were used by military first. this is -- this is another

example of militarism. when colonists came to the united states, dogs were used to terror denies -- to terrorize the indigenous people. they were employed in hunting enslaved people. of course many of us, almost all of us are familiar with the images of dogs attacking students during the civil rights movement, but we may be less familiar with the fact that police dogs were used that way across the country, including by whites premises groups in illinois -- white supremacist groups in illinois. amy: can you talk about the use of the language, the k-9 units referring to them as canines as opposed to dogs? prof. wasilczuk: i think when we talk about canines, there is this euphemism, there is this belief that the dogs are specialized,

almost like a tool that can't be misused. dogs are set to track people. dogs are set to quote, apprehend people, which is what something like that mauling would be called. that removal of both the animalistic and very violent nature of these types of attacks, and sort of trying to place it into sanitized terms, i think is where that canine term comes from. k-9 is changed from canine, with this idea that it is technology. amy: why do you feel that this use of police attack

dogs. in a moment we will hear the story of present attack dogs. it is not very much a part of the police reform discussion. prof. wasilczuk: i think, except for some videos that highlight this, it is not a well -- it is not as well-known as it should be. when i started representing children in courts in baton rouge, we had kids coming in every three weeks or so with these terrible bites and injuries. that reporting was also followed up i the marshall's project. it was largely unknown to the public, outside of the communities that are most affected, the kids that this happened to come a and their families. i think -- happened to, and their families. i think their use in prisons is also widely unknown.

videos like this really highlight the problem and there has been some outstanding reporting in the last couple of years across the country in places like indianapolis and the bay area, highlighting these problems. we don't know enough about it. i think canines can be used as a fuzzy mascot. they are brought onto morning shows. they get trotted out as a public relations tool. so there is this warm feeling that many of us have for dogs. that has racial components as well. but they are used in that way, and we don't focus on what they are truly trained to do. even in law schools, we focus on dog tracking, rescue operations. they are seen as these valorized k-9 cop heroes, and we don't focus so much on the real violence that they do when they are used

for quote, apprehension. amy: finally, is there a call for police to stop using dogs around the country? you said in a recent study, conducted at the university of utah in clemson, it was found that the sudden suspension of police canine units in salt lake city did not lead to an increase or officer or suspect injury or suspect resistance during felony arrests. prof. wasilczuk: there was a bill that was passed in california to ban the use of canines for apprehension. i have not seen that trend across the country. it would be helpful to know if there is any benefit to these dogs. police believe there is, but i don't see evidence that has won that out. if you are going to use a tool that causes this much harm, and the harm is

well-known and documented, then it is on the police to show why this is actually contributing to public safety and if they can't show that, then we should really reconsider this and stop using police as a weapon in this way. amy: thank you so much, professor. we will link to your peace in georgetown while review, headlined "the racialized violence of police canine force." coming up, we look at how attack dogs are terrorizing and mauling prisoners. stay with us. ♪ ♪ [music break]

amy: "my darling child" by sinead o'connor. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i am amy goodman. a warning to our viewers and

listeners. this next segment includes graphic details. "patrol dogs are terrorizing and mauling prisoners inside the united states." that's the headline to a shocking new investigation by insider. the report reveals prison patrol dogs have attacked at least 295 u.s. prisoners since 2017, and virginia is -- 2017. many men were face down or in leg irons when the dogs attacked. several men said officers shouted racial slurs as dogs bit into their flesh. the insider report is accompanied by videos of men who describe how they were attacked. this is linwood mathias. a patrol dog bit him at red onion state prison in 2017, in virginia. >> it was just an altercation that took place. an incident that happened. when they ordered everyone to get on the ground,, the dogs came in. i'm the only one that got attacked by the dog. i was already down.

i was in compliance with every direction that was given to me. i still got bit. the dog was on my leg, for a long time, with my leg in the air, just chewing on it. amy: linwood mathias is featured in the new report by hannah beckler, investigations editor for insider. on wednesday, i spoke with hannah and we were joined by another man, who was formerly car serrated -- formerly incarcerated in virginia and was attacked by a dog at red onion state prison in 2015. i began by asking hannah to lay out her findings and to talk about the connection between the use of prison dogs in u.s. prisons and abu ghraib. the notorious prison in iraq where prisoners were tortured. hannah: thank you for having me. in abu ghraib, dogs were

introduced in 2003. the roots of this program really go back to the united states, both in guantanamo bay and other correctional facilities. eight private contractors were hired by the u.s. government to select a site and build abu ghraib and train staff. all eight of these men were former high-level administrators in state systems and all eight men were responsible for launching, administering or expanding programs in the u.s. that used attack trained dogs in the 1980's and 1990's to attack or terrify people who were incarcerated. amy: explain who these corrections, if you could even refer to it as that, commissioners are. these were the top guys from

utah, arizona, connecticut. tell us. hannah: sure. they were correctional administrators from arizona, utah, connecticut and massachusetts. one of the major figures started the patrolled -- patrol dog program first in new mexico in 1998 and then moved on to a similar program in utah. -- was also director of the utah system. he started a special operations team in the late 1980's that used attack trained dogs for the forcible removal of a man in their cell by sending a trained attack dog to attack them. amy: to be clear, all of these men who ran these prison systems were forced out by lawsuits or political controversy, like women who were raped in prisons or a

person who died as a result of torture. hannah: yes. in fact there was a 2005 office of the investigator general report that scrutinize the background of these private contractors because of these human rights abuses that followed them from the 1980's and 1990's before they were ever sent to iraq to administer these programs at abu ghraib . it is shocking that the federal government even contacted these men. amy: talk about what happened back in the united states. your report goes right through to now. hannah: many of these programs, utah has continued it but connecticut and massachusetts, arizona, among five other states now continue to use attack trained dogs either as a show of force, meaning they use the dogs to bark, growl, terrify people who are incarcerated into compliance, for to attack them.

in virginia, 271 men have been attacked by these patrol dogs since 2017. amy: give us examples of what happened in prisons and the use of these patrol dogs to terrorize. hannah: in virginia, the dogs are deployed as a routine use of force. they might be used when there is a fight that happens in one of these prisons, and the dogs are called into the cellblock to bark, terrify and attack the men who are involved in those altercations. in other instances, there is a planned use of force like a cell extraction. i have records of many men who were asleep in their cells and the correction officer sent one or sometimes even two dogs into the cell to attack the man where they had nowhere to run. amy: and talk about what happens afterwards. hannah: these attacks are severe. as you said, they are

sometimes permanently disfiguring or disabling. 18 men identified had to be hospitalized for the sheer force and brutality of these attacks. they had puncture wounds, crush injuries, sometimes infections which were life-threatening. what i have been told many times is the psychological impact is also incredibly severe. many experience panic attacks, nightmares, intrusive thoughts and other symptoms consistent with posttraumatic stress disorder, months or even years after the attack. even folks who witnessed the attack say it is devastating. they also suffer nightmares afterward. i spoke to corrections officers who similarly say, the blood, the screaming, the sheer sense of terror primal, as what they told me, and incredibly traumatizing. something they have to live with for years. amy: can you talk about the

dogs being attacked while the guard is spewing racial slurs at the prisoner and talk about the historical use of attack dogs. hannah: i focus on historians who told me that the use of dogs as a weaponization of dogs has a long and racist history in the united states, whether they were deployed against indigenous people for acts of genocide, whether they were employed on plantations to brutally enforced slavery, all the way through birmingham where those iconic photographs of german shepherds being sic'd against teenagers. now we are seeing them being deployed in prisons and seeing the same kind of racist connotations happening. i spoke to several men who alleged that they were subjected to racist abuse, racial slurs, threats, during or immediately after

the attacks. this could be racial epithets, or threats, such as my dog loves dark meat. amy: we are talking to hannah beckler, who just did this chilling investigation for insider called "patrol dogs are terrorizing and mauling prisoners inside the united states." we are also joined by -- also featured in the investigation. he filed a complaint that a prison guard at the red onion state prison held him down and repeatedly -- as a dog was attacking him. i am so horrified that this happened to you. thank you for joining us from richmond. can you lay out what happened to you? >> good morning. it was an altercation.

i busted another inmate in the head, and it just went up between the inmates. when the staff was called, they came in, and they just came in hot. i was one of the last on my feet. i was in a prone position -- prone position and complying. the officer came in and sprayed me while i was already down. everything was going into mayhem. it was twisting my leg, my arm. i had shockers on me. while i was down, he picked the canine up and placed him on my back. after that, i was taken out

of the vestibule. momentum picked up as they walked, one on each side and he rammed my head into the steel frame of the door and held my head up against the door. amy: so the dog came at you, and what did he do to your right leg? >> he bit it. he bit it. several times. amy: and when did he stop? when did they pull the dog away? >> this is the second time they engaged this dog on me. i was already handcuffed and shocked when they had it on my right leg. 10 seconds, something like that. he had me for about 10

seconds, he bit me twice in 10 seconds. amy: just to be clear, did you say at the beginning that they put a dog on your back? >> yes ma'am, they put it on my back. you can see the video. it is in the video they showed in court. amy: when you were laying down, on your stomach, they put the dog on your back? >> they lifted him up and put him on my back, literally. like grabbed him under his belly and put him on my back, like telling him what to do, making him do it. amy: what did the dog do? >> he didn't bite me, but he snipped at my face. i had already been sprayed. amy: so you mean like pepper spray? >> yeah. it was pepper spray.

amy: it was even too much for the dog. >> absolutely. amy: that was the beginning, then putting the dog on your back, and then they slammed you against the bars, your head against the bars. was it the same dog they brought out who then bit your leg? >> that part is unclear. they never gave me the video from the vestibule. they edited. right when the camera starts rolling is when we were in the vestibule. amy: have you tried to sue? >> absolutely. absolutely. i appealed too. my case was ruled in favor of the defendant. the thing they don't understand is that during trial, i repeatedly -- i got

things on transcript that they were saying. the judge was talking and he said, there is no doubt in my mind that they violated policy. he said i'm trying to find out if they violated your constitutional rights as well. if they violate one, they violate both. amy: so you are upset that the virginia attorney general didn't defend you, but defended those who sic'd the dog on you. >> absolutely. it's on the transcript. i told them in court. when you see it, on tape.

absolutely. amy: hannah beckler, when you heard his description of what happened to him, could you fit this into the context of what you've heard from other prisoners? how typical is this horror? hannah: i think it is very typical. frankly, he describes being compliant, being on the floor. many of the men i spoke with described this as what they had done. they were flat on the ground, face down, arms out because they are so terrified of these dogs, they don't want to be attacked. even after they attempted to demonstrate full compliance, the animal is still commanded to attack them. the idea that the dog was lifted and placed onto his back, bit his left leg and then they removed the dog and he was bit again on his right leg, it is shocking, but i don't think it is

necessarily an outlier or something that is uncommon. amy: you, i'm sure have seen video of police attacking civil rights activists, with dogs, like in birmingham, the children in 1963. your thoughts? >> the same thing is still going today. in a different way. you understand what i'm saying? i was looking at cnn and saw something similar yesterday. the dude was complying and they still released a dog on him. amy: that is really important, what you raised. you're talking about the story of the video that was just released, about a truck driver. he was black, right in ohio? >> absolutely. amy: when he got out of the truck, they said you have to have your hands behind your head.

he had them high above his head. he was in a very vulnerable position. no one thought he was a threat. and you see behind him, a policeman unleash a dog, even as other police, troopers saying do not release that dog. a woman police officer who looks horrified and is walking away, as he is being attacked, mauled by this dog. >> absolutely. amy: as we begin to wrap up, hannah beckler, what have you found? what states forbid the use of these dogs and what is happening in states where they are used so aggressively? so many people, hundreds of people have been purposefully bitten. hannah: what is most startling about the use of dogs in correctional settings is there is no academic study that assesses the efficacy of using these dogs. it is all over the place, in terms of policies and how

they are employed in these different systems. you have a system like massachusetts for example, where we documented three dog attacks in 2020. their policy is that the actual corrections commissioner is supposed to grant permission every time an attack trained dog is entering the facility. that kind of direct accountability chain. in contrast to virginia for example, where 271 people were attacked by dogs as a routine use of force and then in new jersey for example, they have not used dogs to attack anyone, but they are still weaponizing tahrir by using the dogs, to terrify -- weaponizing terror, by using the dogs to terrify folks into compliance. utah for example has stopped using these dogs for force.

that does happen. massachusetts and arizona both independently at one point decided to stop using dogs. they have since reintroduced using dogs. it is a very interesting occurrence. most of the corrections officers, and corrections administrators i have spoken to argue that using dogs makes facilities safer for both staffers and prisoners alike. because these dogs are indiscriminately aggressive, we are seeing attacks on correction officers and other prison staff. amy: finally, xavier, what message do you have to share with people around the country and around the world? >> it is still going on. absolutely. it is still going on up there. amy: xavier goodwin was attacked by a dog in 2015 at red onion state prison, in

virginia. thanks also to hannah beckler, and visit -- investigations editor for insider. we willing to her new investigation, "patrol dogs are terrorizing and mauling prisoners inside the united states -- we will link to her new investigation, "patrol dogs are terrorizing and mauling prisoners inside the united states." that does it for our show. democracy now! is currently accepting applications for paid internships in our archive and development departments. learn more and apply at democracynow.org. at our website, you can also sign-up for our daily news digest email, or you can text the word democracynow, that's one word, no space, to 66866 today. you can watch and listen to democracynow where you want by subscribing to our podcast. sign up anywhere you get your podcasts today.

visit our website to see our extended interview on the new film, oppenheimer as well as our interviews in english and spanish, with the great novelist -- about her new book. i am amy goodman.

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