The War on Drugs isn’t a war on drugs; it’s a war on people, and this weekend it claimed its latest victim.

On Sunday morning, exactly one week after an encounter with police left him with 80 percent of his spine severed at his neck, Baltimore resident Freddie Gray died at a local hospital. He was just 27 years old.

At this time, we still don’t know exactly how Gray suffered his “catastrophic” injuries, but video from the moment of his arrest shows him screaming out in pain, and according to family lawyer William Murphy, he was detained at a nearby police station for over an hour before medics were finally called.

Something bad happened, and it’s hopefully only a matter of time before we find out what.

To make matters worse, Baltimore police officials admitted today that the reasons for Gray’s arrest are still “vague” and that cops probably just thought that he was “immediately involved or had been recently involved in criminal activity.”

In other words, Freddie Gray was probably just guilty of being black in a neighborhood known for its drug problems.

Thanks to Nixon and Reagan’s War on Drugs, this is the reality that millions of people of color live with everyday all across America. They live in fear of law enforcement because law enforcement, instead of trying to protect them, acts like an occupying force. And, like all occupying forces throughout history, it treats everyday civilians, criminal or not, like they’re the enemy.

In this type of situation, collateral damage casualties aren’t just likely, they’re inevitable.

Read more here.

-Thom

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... March 2015...The Hottest Month Ever! (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Be sure to check out our newest video: RESTORATION - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners / Visit GreenWorldRising.org to check out all the videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio & Thom Hartmann, directed by Leila Conners

Need to Know: How The Deep Horizon Oil Spill is Still Harming Us
- America's Lawyer Mike Papantonio, Ring of Fire Radio

Screwed: TPP - Let's Not Get Fooled Again
- Kevin L. Kearns, United States Business & Industry Council (USBIC).

Best of the Rest: Look What Happens When Scott Walker Attends Gay Wedding
- Tommy Christopher, The Daily Banter

Plus, Everything You Know Is Wrong: ...about 4/20
- Aaron Houston, Pro-pot lobbyist

Green report: March 2015...The Hottest Month Ever!
- Dr. Michael Mann, Earth System Science Center - Penn State University / The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars

Monday's Daily Stack

Article: "How '420' Became the Big Day for Weed Smokers Across America" by Ryan Grim.

Article: "Denver Police Tweet Supportive Marijuana Message For 4/20 Rally" by Matt Ferner.

Article: "Death of Baltimore man Freddie Gray in custody sparks call for independent inquiry" by Jon Swaine.

Article: "Almost the entire police force of small Missouri town resigns citing 'safety concerns' after first black mayor is elected" by Wills Robinson.

Article: "Until We Tackle Segregation, White Cops Will Keep Shooting Black People" by Lawrence Brown.

Article: "Private Company Conspired With Police To Hold Poor People For Ransom, Lawsuit Charges" by Aviva Shen.

Article: "North Miami Beach police use mugshot of black teenager Woody Deant as target practice" by Michael Winter.

Article: "Henry Louis Gates arrest controversy" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Ohio Officer Shows ‘Great Restraint’ Not Shooting Charging Suspect: Police Chief" by CNN.

Book: "The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America--and What We Can Do to Stop It" by Thom Hartmann.

Book: "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn.

Bible: "Genesis 1: The Story of Creation".

Bible: "Genesis 2: The Garden of Eden".

Hour Two: Behind the chaos in Yemen
- Janine di Giovanni, Newsweek

Book: Ghosts By Daylight: A Memoir of War and Love by Janine di Giovanni.

Article: "The Complex Politics Behind the Chaos in Yemen" by Janine di Giovanni.

Article: "Houthis" by Wikipedia.

Article: "The Deepwater Horizon Disaster Was Five Years Ago Today. Here’s What We Still Don’t Know." by Katie Valentine & Emily Atkin.

Article: "16th Street Baptist Church bombing" by Wikipedia.

Site: Progress in the World with Walter Davis.

Book: "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Revised and Updated: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It's Too Late" by Thom Hartmann.

Book: "Threshold: The Progressive Plan to Pull America Back from the Brink" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "How Processed Foods Can Be a Disaster for Your Health" by Ari LeVaux.

Article: "What Is Debt Peonage?" by Fraser Sherman.

Article: "Social Identity Theory" by Saul McLeod.

Law: "Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990".

Site: ADAPT.

Talk Radio News Segment:
- Victoria Jones

Article: "President Obama Plans on Visiting the Florida Everglades on Earth Day" by NBC.

Article: "President Obama shines spotlight on parks for Earth Day week" by Timothy Cama.

Article: "Email: Tell Us, What Would You Fight to Protect?" by the White House.

Article: "Two more migrant boats issue distress calls in Mediterranean" by Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Ian Traynor and Patrick Kingsley.

Article: "‘Callous’ EU Politics to Blame for Migrant Deaths in Mediterranean" by Luke Vargas.

Article: "Mediterranean migrant deaths: EU has 'moral duty' to act" by BBC.

Article: "Washington Post Reporter Charged With Espionage In Iran" by Nicholas Salazar.

Article: "TRNS News Notes- 4/20" by Victoria Jones.

Article: "Pic Of The Moment: Congratulations Tea Party! Behold The Fruits Of Your Labors" by EarlG.

Petition: "Tell President Obama: End tax giveaways to the 1%" by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Article: "The Super Rich Have a New Way to Buy Elections" by Robert Faturechi and Jonathan Stray.

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976.

Article: "How Jeb Bush's Pension Deals Enriched His Brother's Donors" by Andrew Perez.

Article: "Serfdom" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Sale of U.S. Arms Fuels the Wars of Arab States" by Mark Mazzetti and Helene Cooper.

Book: "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand.

Article: "What Paul Ryan Learned From Ayn Rand" by Anne C. Heller.

Article: "On Ayn Rand – “Cultural Amnesia”" by Clive James.

Book: "Man's Rise to Civilization: The Cultural Ascent of the Indians of North America" by Peter Farb.

Song: "Jesus Was A Capricorn" by Kris Kristofferson.

Article: "Message to Congress on Curbing Monopolies" by Franklin D. Roosevelt, April 29, 1938. "The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism—ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power."

Book: Iceman Inheritance : Prehistoric Sources of Western Man's Racism, Sexism and Aggression by Michael Bradley.

Article: "Fight 4/15: On Tax Day, U.S. Workers to Wage Largest-Ever Mobilization" by Fight for $15.

Article: "Fight for $15: On Worldwide Day of Action, Workers Demand Livable Wages" by Nadia Prupis.

Article: "Low Wages Cost U.S. Taxpayers $153 Billion A Year" by Emily Cohn.

Article: "Report: US Taxpayers Bear 'Hidden Cost' of Poverty Wages" by Lauren McCauley.

Article: "European Union Targets Google with Antitrust Probe" by Jon Queally.

Article: "The Numbers Are Staggering: U.S. Is 'World Leader' in Child Poverty " by Paul Buchheit.

Article: "Thanks To Obamacare, Nearly 9 In 10 American Adults Now Have Insurance" by Tara Culp-Ressler.

Article: "Montana Republicans And Democrats Unite To Ban Dark Money" by Paul Blumenthal.

Tuesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET

Dahr Jamail will be here to update us on the Gulf Disaster...5 years later

Plus I'll debate Neil McCabe on issues of the day.

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

Please support the Hunter School, a unique therapeutic boarding school for young children diagnosed with ADHD, Anxiety, Sensory, Mood and related conditions...

Should the federal government end the prohibition on marijuana?

Vote here!

Full Show 4/17/15: Congress Gives Major Tax Break to the Koch Brothers

Tonight’s Big Picture Rumble discusses why Loretta Lynch hasn’t been confirmed, why Congress has given Obama fast-track authority on the TPP, and how Congress quietly passed a bill to give tax breaks to mega-donors like the Koch Brothers. Tonight’s Bigger Picture discussion looks at the crisis in Yemen with the Institute for Gulf Affair’s Ali al-Ahmed and Oxfam America’s Scott Paul.

Outsourcing Racism to the Black Community...

Caller: Can Police Body cams be Manipulated?

Is Integration the Solution to Police Killings?

Thom Hartmann on Economic & Labor news: April 20, 2015

Caller: My Mixed-Race Great Granddaughter is Discriminated Against...

The Kiss Up, Kick Down Personality...

Sen. Sanders: TPP All About Corporate Profits!

Caller: Time to Return Public Service to our Media...

House Republicans pass bill to Protect Kochs' Secret Donations...

Bernie Sanders: I'll Announce Soon on Running for President...

Caller: This Country is too Misogynistic to Elect a Woman President...